Oxfordshire official John Busby is in charge of QPR’s trip to Millwall on Saturday, as he was when the teams met at Loftus Road in September
Referee >>> John Busby (Oxfordshire)
Assistants >>> Mark Russell (Somerset) and Graham Kane (Sussex)
Fourth official >>> Gavin Ward (Surrey)
QPR 1 Millwall 1, Saturday September 21, 2024, Championship
QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 5, Cook 6, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Madsen 5 (Varane 69, 6); Dembele 6 (Celar 90+3, -), Andersen 4 (Lloyd 69, 6), Saito 6 (Smyth 60, 5); Frey 7
Subs not used: Ashby, Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Morgan, Walsh
Goals: Frey 40 (assisted Dembele)
Yellow Cards: Paal 60 (foul), Varane 84 (foul)
Millwall: Jensen 6; Leonard 6, Cooper 7, Tanganga 7, Bryan 6; De Noore 7, Saville 7; Esse 7, Honeyman 6 (Wintle 90+3), Watmore 7 (Azeez 75, 6); Langstaff 6 (Ivanovic 75, 6)
Subs not used: Emakhu, Hutchinson, Kelly, McNamara, Wallace, Roberts
Goals: Watmore 34 (assisted Langstaff)
Yellow Cards: Saville 86 (foul)
Referee – John Busby (Oxfordshire) 5 Suspect we may get a few letters about that mark, but I’m always liable to mark referees up who try to give the game every chance, keep the cards in their pocket, and adopt a hands-off approach. The problem it can give as you, as we saw at times here, is players take liberties. George Honeyman’s tackle just before half time was a yellow card all day long, Steve Cook was rightly furious about it, and Joe Bryan wasn’t far behind him in the moments leading up to the break. I think, ordinarily, you’d expect two yellow cards there. Having let both off with a warning you’re then sort of duty bound to give others the same benefit of doubt and things can spiral out of control. Savile took it as carte blanche to pursue the official around screaming in his face. Sam Field and Jake Clarke-Salter two of several in the second half who can count himself fortunate not to be booked for fouls that would be yellow cards on any other Championship day with any other Championship referee. Still, I’d rather this approach than Gavin Ward’s attempt to be involved in absolutely every little thing that goes on.
QPR 1 Swansea 1, Saturday January 21, 2023, Championship
Ryan Manning was back in town, in the midst of another dispute about a soon-to-expire contract (shocked, shocked I tell thee), and doing a lot of that thing he does where he lies motionless on the ground having come under apparent sniper fire only to leap back up and sprint back into the action when his cheating has failed to get an opponent booked — thankfully, a rare competent Championship refereeing performance here from John Busby wasn’t falling for any of it, hold that call to the coroner I reckon he’ll be alright in a minute.
QPR: Dieng 6; Laird 6 (Kakay 38, 6), Dickie 5, Dunne 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Iroegbunam 5 (Dozzell 89, -); Chair 5, Lowe 6, Roberts 5 (Adomah 90, -), Dykes 6 (Willock 58, 5)
Subs not used: Clarke-Salter, Johansen, Archer
Goals: Lowe 27 (assisted Dykes)
Swansea: Benda 4 (Fisher 61, 5); Latibeaudiere 5, Cabango 6, Darling 5, Manning 6; Grimes 6, Allen 5 (Ntcham 59, 7); Cooper 6, Fulton 7, Cullen 6 (Cundle 58, 6); Piroe 6
Subs not used: Wood, Sorinola, Naughton, Congreave
Goals: Fulton 81 (assisted Cundle)
Referee — John Busby (Oxfordshire) 8 Very good indeed. Controlled the game in a calm, unfussy way and was right on top of every decision. Best player on the pitch.
Coventry 2 QPR 0, Saturday November 12, 2022, Championship
Coventry: Wilson 7; Doyle 7, McFadzean 8, Panzo 7; Eccles 6, Hamer 8, Sheaf 7, Bidwell 6; O’Hare 8, Allen 7; Gyokeres 9
Subs not used: Moore, Kelly, Walker, Kane, Tavares, Burroughs, Palmer
Goals: Gyokeres 11 (assisted Allen), 78 (assisted O’Hare)
Bookings: Doyle 27 (foul), McFadzean 86 (foul)
QPR: Dieng 6; Laird 5, Dunne 6, Dickie 6, Clarke-Salter 4 (Kakay 80, -); Field 6, Richards 5 (Adomah 87, -), Dozzell 4; Chair 5 (Armstrong 83, -), Willock 5 (Thomas 87, -), Dykes 5 (Shodipo 83, -)
Subs not used: Archer, Trävelmän
Bookings: Field 59 (foul), Chair 76 (foul)
Referee — John Busby (Oxfordshire) 6 Gave some bits and pieces of nonsense — Mide Shodipo looked to have been fouled on the corner of the box late on but somehow got penalised himself; earlier having bought a spurious head injury claim after a QPR corner and stopped the play he returned the ball to Coventry even though Rangers had it in their possession 40 yards out from goal at the time — but overall not too bad and a world away from the pillock who was meant to be in charge of this one.
This already Busby’s fifth Millwall game of the season, with four of his 20 appointments so far involving the Lions. As well as the draw at Loftus Road he did their opening day 3-2 loss at home to Watford, 1-0 win at Swansea and 1-1 at home to Sunderland. So far he’s booked 67 (3.35) and sent two off in those 20 games. That’s topped out by six yellows and a bizarre red card for goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski in Portsmouth 0-0 Luton at the start of the season.
Last season he finished with 125 yellows (3.9) and one red in 32 games topped out early on with ten yellows in Hull’s 1-0 home loss to champions Leicester. Millwall didn’t have a particularly happy time with him, losing 3-0 at home to Swansea and drawing 1-1 at The Den against PNE. The Lions have only won two of 11 fixtures with this referee, with a 2-5-4 record. QPR have drawn two and lost one of their three games with him.
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