Wigan’s Lewis Smith, recently promoted to the Premier League, is the referee in charge of Saturday’s trip to Bristol City.
Referee >>> Lewis Smith (Wigan), went from National League to Premier League inside ten months on the fast track programme.
Assistants >>> Matthew Jones (Staffordshire) and Conor Brown (Manchester)
Fourth Official >>> Ben Toner (Lancashire)
QPR 2 Millwall 0, Saturday January 20, 2024, Championship
Then he curled a long ranger wide himself as part of a successful high press advocated by Marti Cifuentes – booked by rookie referee Lewis Smith early on for waving an imaginary card around after a bad tackle on Chris Willock and dressed like somebody with a spot on Pards Pardew’s regular Saturday night table at Tiger Tiger. London Fire Brigade will have to cut him out of those jeans.
Probably an escape for Colback in there too. With Cannon down feigning injury to get the play stopped and relieve the pressure, the now traditional ceremonial hail of coins, lighters and other sundries tumbled down from the away end towards the home players. Colback picked one of them up, and heaved it back from whence it came into the crowd of Millwall fans. Nooooooooo Ben. If the referee had seen him do it he’d surely have been dismissed.
Second half, more of the same. Good build up, Dykes heads wide. Effective high press, Dykes shoots at the keeper. Keeping the ball from a throw in (fuck me dead), and what looks like a pretty clear penalty for Wes Harding handling in the area. Second goal. Second goal please. Why can’t we just have a nice time?
QPR: Begovic 5; Cannon 5, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 6; Field 7, Colback 8; Willock 5 (Adomah 84, -), Dykes 7, Chair 7 (Larkeche 90+4, -); Armstrong 7 (Dixon-Bonner 89, -)
Subs not used: Dunne, Fox, Drewe, Walsh, Pedder, Talla
Goals: Chair 27 (assisted Willock), Armstrong 87 (assisted Colback)
Millwall: Sarkic 4; McNamara 5, Harding 5, Cooper 6; Norton-Cuffy 5 (Tanganga 67, 6), Honeyman 6, Mitchell 5, Bryan 5 (Wallace 67, 5); Watmore 4, Flemming 4, Nisbet 4 (Longman 56, 6)
Subs not used: Campbell, Saville, De Norre, Esse, Bialkowski, Grant
Yellow Cards: Mitchell 32 (foul), Flemming 85 (foul)
Referee – Lewis Smith (Wigan) 6 Premier League referee, and Huddersfield Town fan, Bobby Madley was meant to be down for this game. Instead we ended up with the far less experienced Lewis Smith doing just his sixth Championship match. A really big ask – London derby, big Millwall following, QPR desperate for points – and initially I thought he looked a little out of his depth and the game would prove too much for him. He grew from there, and I think this was a pretty impressive display from a young official in a game like this, but that looks a penalty to me in the second half.
There’s fast track, and then there’s going from National League to Premier League in ten months. Wigan Athletic season ticket holder Lewis Smith completed that feat earlier this year when he took charge of Fulham v Aston Villa in the top flight in February. Aged just 30, he’s the youngest referee at that level since Michael Oliver in 2010.
The PGMOL have been working him hard, with 44 appointments last season and 168 yellows (3.81) with eight reds. Twenty four games already this season as well and it’s an eclectic mix which includes three games in Japan’s J-League to begin the campaign as part of an ongoing refereeing exchange programme between the two divisions. He’s been as low as League Two with Walsall 2-1 Bradford and has done three Premier League games including Villa 3-1 Brentford at the weekend. He’s shown 82 yellows (3.41) and three reds to this point.
Bristol City won their only previous game with this official, 1-0 at home to Sheff Wed last year with Barry Bannan sent off after 32 minutes for being Barry Bannan.
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