Fresh from the stresses and strains of the Manchester derby on Monday night, Andre Marriner takes QPR’s home game against Stoke this Sunday.

Referee >>> Andre Marriner (West Midlands), rewarded for an excellent season so far with the massive Manchester derby on Monday night, which he handled very well indeed.

Assistants >>> Scott Ledger (Yorkshire) and Adam Watts (Worcestershire)

Fourth Official >>> Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire), sent Joey Barton off in controversial circumstances against Norwich earlier this season.

History

It’s said that just before the final crucial load of Indians turned up at Little Bighorn in 1876 General Custer was heard to remark that things could only get better. He was wrong then, and everybody that’s ever uttered that line has been wrong since. Things can always, always, always get worse. While Sunderland cooled their celebrations and returned to their own half it became apparent that referee Andre Marriner, absolutely excellent to this point, was no longer able to continue and would be replaced by the fourth official. The fourth official was Stuart Attwell.

QPR: Kenny 7, Young 6, Gabbidon 4, Connolly 5 (Bothroyd 90, -), Traore 7 (Hall 80, -), Barton 5, Faurlin 6, Derry 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (Taarabt 46, 7), Mackie 6, Helguson 7

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hill, Campbell, Smith

Booked: Faurlin (foul), Young (foul)

Goals: Helguson 63 (assisted Faurlin), Mackie 67 (assisted Helguson)

Sunderland: Westwood 6, O'Shea 6, Bramble 6, Brown 7, Bardsley 6, Larsson 7 (Gardner 75, 7), Cattermole 6, Vaughan 5 (Colback 71, 6), Richardson 7, Sessegnon 8, Bendtner 8

Subs Not Used: Carson, Kilgallon, Ji, McClean, Elmohamady

Booked: Sessegnon (foul), Cattermole (repetitive fouling)

Goals: Bendtner 19 (assisted Richardson), Sessegnon 53 (unassisted), Brown 89 (assisted Richardson)

Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) 8 (Stuart Attwell 53, (Warwick) 3) If ever you needed evidence of just what a truly awful referee Stuart Attwell is, here you have it. For 53 minutes this game was calmly controlled and managed by Andre Marriner who hardly put a foot wrong. Play flowed, the crowd was absorbed totally in the game, I can hardly recall hearing the whistle. Within minutes of coming on Attwell had awarded a blatant corner as a goal kick and then changed his mind when people moaned at him – things got teadily more farcical from there. Suddenly everything was a free kick. Every little bit of contact was a foul. Suddenly decisions were wrong - clearly and repeatedly wrong. Suddenly the crowd was up and on the referee’s back. I joke about his random draw mechanism of making decisions, which you can tell from his positioning and body language are often complete guesses, but to be honest I would actually prefer a random tombola machine on the halfway line with one of the cast of The Only Way is Essex drawing decisions out every 45 seconds to this silly little prick. You couldn’t get any more decisions wrong doing it that way. The difference between a good referee and a bad one laid bare in the same match.

Fulham 6 QPR 0, Sunday October 2, 2011

The stragglers in the noisy away end were still finding their seats when Fulham went 1-0 up. Wright-Phillips had already got a shot away for QPR but Schwarzer distributed the ball quickly, the knife sliced through the butter for the first time as Fulham broke away. Dembele shot, Kenny saved but Johnson followed up to score - 78 seconds on the clock and we were 1-0 down with Johnson behaving like a complete tool by goading the away support. I’ve no idea why he did this given that it was far too early in the game for any of the Fulham players to have received the wisdom of the QPR faithful on their shortcomings, but he felt the need to stand in front of the away end gesturing for some time in the aftermath of the goal. Much has been said about referees in recent weeks and I always think it’s a complete nonsense when a player gets booked for over-celebrating a goal with his own fans but this is just the sort of behaviour that could have incited a nasty reaction and if I had been the ref I would have booked the bugger for it.

Anyway, a bad start but no need to fret as yet as we had barely got going and there was plenty of time. QPR tried knocking the ball about and their only early reward was to see Sidwell scythe Taarabt down as he turned. He was, quite rightly, booked. As the minutes ticked by the pattern of the game became established – QPR huffing and puffing trying to create an opening, Fulham sitting tight, harrying the QPR players and seeking to break with pace. The latter they did on more than one occasion and the hot knife was in evidence several times. Dempsey should have scored in the ninth minute, but was blocked by Orr, and Johnson was close in the seventeenth minute. During this time QPR had forced a corner or two but little had come of them.

Then in the nineteenth minute another Fulham attack had appeared to break down as Kenny and Hall converged on the ball in the area, but as they seemed to dither Johnson nipped in, Kenny bundled him over and the ref pointed to the spot. The juxtaposition of foul and goal was such that the ref did not even bother to yellow card anybody such was the lameness of the foul and the lack of risk to the goal at the point of contact. Murphy despatched the penalty with ease and then indulged in his own bit of fan goading, albeit limited to a minor ‘ear-cupping’.

Hall’s reputation with the QPR support is about as damaged as his hamstrings and he did it further damage here today, largely just by being out there on the field. He certainly seemed culpable with Kenny regarding the penalty. To be fair, though, I would have to watch the highlights to determine precisely who was responsible for the constant gaps in the defence, and sadly I haven’t the time to do that and get this finished before another week’s grafting starts again.

With a good fifteen minutes to go there were fears in the away end of an even more serious rout but Fulham had clearly decided enough was enough and that allowed QPR a little purple patch where, urged on by the enthusiastic Mackie, they had shots from Barton, Wright-Phillips, Mackie and DJ Campbell, with the latter also heading over. This gave a rather surprising degree of balance to the ‘attempts’ count in the match stats. Despite taking their collective foot of the gas, Fulham still managed shots by Ruiz and Dempsey. It’s also worth reporting that in the latter part of the game Faurlin (foul) and Wright-Philips (dissent – suggesting the linesman needed spectacles) received yellow cards to add to one awarded to Hall in the second half – I honestly can’t remember why Hall got one but maybe the ref responded to the collective telepathic ire of the QPR fans.

The midfield looked all at sea for most of the game, whether playing the conventional 4-4-2 or the 4-2-3-1 that we seem to play, with the three in that formation ‘floating’. After an earlier match report I was castigated by someone who was at pains to point out that I could not possibly know what I was talking about, so I’ll try to avoid a repeat of that by saying that whatever I think about team shape, in general teams play well in spite of their formations rather than because of them. In terms of decision-making and execution QPR were poor today and the various changes of personnel and shape did little to change that. We also fell over far too easily and seldom looked like getting the fouls for which the players appealed whilst sprawled on the floor. Oh, and while I am about it, please practice keeping the ball and moving it about, rather than simply hoofing it forward. Three touches and hoof was not really good enough in the Championship – it’s hopeless in the Prem.

QPR: Kenny 5, Ferdinand 5, Hall 4, Young 5, Orr 5, Faurlin 5, Derry 4 (Smith 45, 5), Wright-Phillips 5, Taarabt 4 (Campbell 45, 6), Barton 5, Bothroyd 4 (Mackie 72, 7)

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Perone, Buzsaky, Helguson

Booked: Hall (foul), Faurlin (foul), Wright-Phillips (dissent)

Fulham: Schwarzer 7, JA Riise 6, Hangeland 6, Baird 6, Grygera 7, Sidwell 8, Murphy 7 (Etuhu 83 6), Dempsey 6, Johnson 8 (Ruiz 75 6), Zamora 7, Dembele 7 (Sa 87, -)

Subs Not Used: Etheridge, Kelly, Senderos, Duff

Booked: Sidwell (foul), Hangeland (foul)

Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands) 7 Largely unfussy and just got on with things really. Can’t really recall him getting anything wrong but needs to make sure a wall starts and finishes ten yards from a free kick otherwise there seems little point to him being there to say where it should go.

QPR 0 Plymouth 2, Tuesday September 18, 2007

The first action of the game came in the fourth minute when Damion Stewart was adjudged to have fouled Hayles and Plymouth were awarded a free kick 25 yards out from goal. Peter Halmosi stepped up to take it and beat the wall and Camp all ends up but the ball flew wide of the post. From where I was sitting it looked in all the way so that was a lucky escape.

In between these two chances Cullip stayed deep and played everybody onside allowing a cross from Ebanks Blake to flash right across the six yard box in front of the QPR goal with nobody able to get a killer touch. Buzsaky was off target with two more tempting free kicks before half time as Barry Hayles continued to hit the deck with embarrassing ease for such a strong man. The first was narrowly wide of Lee Camp's goal, the second flew high into the Upper Loft.

Martin Rowlands was unlucky not to draw the R's level ten minutes into the second half. Rangers' most impressive player on the night Danny Nardiello was cynically hauled back by Seip after tricking his way through and from the free kick Rowlands bent a lovely shot over the wall, past the beaten McCormick and off the angle of post and cross bar.

QPR: Camp 6, Rehman 5 (Bignot 59, 4), Cullip 6, Stewart 5, Barker 4, Rowlands 5, Nardiello 7 (Sahar 81, 6), Bolder 4, Leigertwood 4, Moore 4 (Ephraim 59, 6), Blackstock 5.

Subs Not Used: Cole, Curtis.

Plymouth: McCormick 7, Connolly 7, Seip 6, Timar 7, Sawyer 7, Norris 8, Buzsaky 8, Nalis 7, Halmosi 8, Hayles 8 (Hodges 90, -), Ebanks-Blake 7

Subs Not Used: Larrieu, Chadwick, Doumbe, Fallon

Booked: Seip (foul), Timar (foul)

Goals: Halmosi 50, Norris 62.

Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) 5 - Seemed to give every fifty fifty decision Plymouth's way and bought every dive Barry Hayles offered to sell him but overall fairly standard Championship refereeing and in no way can we blame or offer him as an excuse for another woeful home performance and defeat.

Blackburn 3 QPR 0, Saturday January 7, 2006

On the hour mark a crude foul by Matteo on Baidoo gave Rangers a free kick twenty five yards from goal. Baidoo had been baring down on the penalty area with support to his left from Cook and just two Rovers defenders in front of him. Matteo's cynical hack at the youngster was a blatant yellow card, but Mr Marriner, wary of his lack of Premiership matches so far this season no doubt, patted his mate Dom on the bum and let him off with it. Shittu fired the resulting set piece off target.

Mauro Milanese picked up the first card of the game a short time later for a foul on Thompson. With Matteo and Peter repeatedly committing fouls that ranged from niggly to dangerous through the second half it was irritating to find a QPR player entering the book first but nothing more than you'd expect of Mr Marriner.

Ainsworth's next action of the game finally, finally brought a yellow card for Matteo. After numerous offences and two crude assaults on QPR players a mistimed sliding tackle on Ainsworth finally had Mr Marriner reaching for a card.

Blackburn: Friedel 7, Neill 8, Khivanishvili 7, Todd 8, Matteo 6, Thompson 7, Tugay 8, Savage 7 (Pedersen 77, 7), Peter 9, Bellamy 9*, Dickov 7 (Kuqi 77, 6).

Subs not used: Enckelman, Nelson, Emerton.

Scorers: Todd 17, Bellamy 36, Bellamy 86

Bookings: Matteo 70, Neill 87

QPR: Royce 6, Bignot 5, Shittu 6, Rose 7, Milanese 6, Rowlands 7, Langley 6, Santos 5 (Ainsworth 55, 8), Cook 5 (Donnelly 75, 7), Baidoo 6, Furlong 6 (Moore 75).

Subs: Cole, Evatt.

Bookings: Milanese 67

Referee - Andre Marriner - 4 - A referee on the "elite" list with only 1 Premier division match to his name doesn't want any controversy against high profile Premiership personalities like Bellamy and Mark Hughes damaging his future prospects - so most of the 50/50 calls went Rovers way he only booked Matteo when he absolutely had to after numerous fouls. You only have to look at similar performances this weekend from Peter Walton at Fulham and Howard Webb at Burton Albion to realise that more often than not, these weak individuals realise what side their bread is buttered on and let the off dodgy decision slip through when it suits.

Stoke 1 QPR 2, Saturday December 3, 2005

It's often been said that the 2005/06 season at Loftus Road will make a great film one day, some of the scenes at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday wouldn't have looked out of place in Black Hawk Down. Some questionable refereeing decisions and spoiling tactics from QPR riled the fifteen thousand home fans so much the atmosphere became more poisonous than anywhere I've travelled with QPR since the last time we played in Stoke.

Nevertheless the players threw off the shackles of another difficult week at Loftus Road to take the lead inside two minutes. Carl Hoefkens was harshly adjudged to have felled Paul Furlong twenty five yards out from goal by everybody's favourite perma tanned referee Andre (with an acute accent) Marriner.

With the ball slightly right of centre it seemed ideally placed for one of Paul Furlong's trademark left foot master blasters. Richard Langley rolled the ball to Shittu instead and he hit an embarrassing low drive straight at Gareth Ainsworth on the edge of the box. Ainsworth got the ball caught under his feet but still managed to scramble it into the penalty area where Paul Furlong was waiting to pounce and force home the opening goal.

Right on half time QPR forced a rare corner, but only succeeded in picking up a booking from the resulting set piece. Gareth Ainsworth tussled with Halls at the back post and seemed to raise an arm to the Stoke man, luckily after consulting his linesman referee Marriner produced only a yellow card for the QPR player.

The turning point in the game came just seven minutes into the second half. Against the run of play Rangers launched a counter attack. Martin Rowlands hit a low shot from the edge of the box that Simonsen parried down into the ground rather than away from his goal. This allowed Paul Furlong to nip in for what would have been a simple tap in, had Halls not wrapped both arms round the striker and dragged him to the ground.

You're never likely to see a more blatant penalty but Halls complained long and hard about the decision, and had to be dragged away from the referee by Luke Chadwick once the red card had been produced. Halls had to endure a humiliating walk to the tunnel right in front of those QPR fans he had mocked after the equaliser.

After a lengthy delay and a heated argument with Gareth Ainsworth Richard Langley stepped up to take the penalty. His dead straight six step run up was exactly the same one he used the last time he took a penalty for QPR. That was against Luton in an FA Cup replay at Loftus Road and he missed, this time though he calmly waited for Simonsen to guess the wrong way, and then tucked the ball in to the keeper's left.

The frustration was too much for Brammer who executed crude tackles on Marcus Bignot and then Richard Langley without punishment from Marriner. Brammer had been booked in the first half and, probably fearing for his safety at full time, Andre with an acute accent clearly didn't have the gumption to dismiss a second home player.

As the final whistle sounded two Stoke fans ran onto the pitch at the Boothen end of the ground. One wrestled Simon Royce into the back of the net and the pair grappled with each other until Luke Chadwick arrived to assist the Rangers keeper. Shabazz Baidoo and Ian Evatt both made it to the scene of the incident before a steward even entered the picture. When a couple of fat sods in yellow coats did arrive it was no surprise to see the Gold Range logo on their backs - as QPR know from personal experience they're a real standard bearer for crass incompetence in the stewarding of football matches.

  Stoke: Simonsen 6, Broomes 7, Duberry 5, Hoefkens 6, Halls 5, Sweeney 8(Sigurdsson 76, 7), Brammer 7, Henry 6, Chadwick 8, Bangoura 8, Sidibe 7.

Subs Not Used: de Goey, Kolar, Buxton, Junior.

Sent Off: Halls (51), professional foul.

Booked: Brammer, Sigurdsson.

Goals: Bangoura 26.

QPR: Royce 8, Bignot 7, Shittu 7, Milanese 8, Dyer 5 (Evatt 59, 6), Bean 6, Langley 6, Rowlands 7, Ainsworth 7 (Cook 88, -), Moore 5 (Baidoo 90, -), Furlong 7.

Subs Not Used: Cole, Donnelly.

Booked: Milanese, Ainsworth, Bean, Rowlands.

Goals: Furlong 2, Langley 52 pen.

Ref: A Marriner (W Midlands) - 5 - Had very little choice with the penalty and subsequent sending off but apart from this he made inconsistent decisions and got caught up in the atmosphere a little. Once he'd sent Halls off, correctly, he really turned against Rangers and tried to even things up. The free kick for Rangers first goal was a poor decision, as was the award in favour of Chadwick for the second. Marcus Bean was rightly booked for a late tackle, but Brammer was allowed to get away with two, because he'd already been booked - coward. At the end of the day the guy is a poor referee.

Prior to all of that he refereed a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff at the very end of the 2004/05 season, and earlier in that campaign a 3-2 home win against Plymouth that saved Ian Holloway’s job amidst the Ramon Diaz farce. He also refereed a 4-1 home win against Hartlepool in our 2003/04 promotion season.

Stats

Just five yellow cards in a keenly fought Manchester derby on Monday was in keeping with Marriner’s overall leniency this season. He has shown 88 yellows and five reds in 26 games – 3.3 bookings a game. His biggest haul in a single game is five yellows and a red which he has done on three separate occasions this term. The first, at Wigan v Blackburn, was also the game where he missed a phantom corner kick that led to Yakubu scoring in a 3-3 draw. He was also the referee for Bolton’s 5-0 home defeat by Man Utd where Kevin Davies’ challenge on Tom Cleverly, and the lack of a card for it, sparked controversy. Overall though he’s performed very well.

Last season he showed 131 yellows and five reds in 38 matches – 3.45 yellows a game. His biggest haul in a single game was six yellows and one red in Wigan’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland. His only Sunderland appointment since then was a 2-0 home defeat by Blackpool on December 28 last year.

Other Listings

Premiership >>> No surprise to see in form Howard Webb given the big Newcastle v Man City game this weekend. Martin Atkinson and Lee Mason have been less impressive so it’s equally unsurprising to see them given the dead rubbers between Fulham and Sunderland and Wolves and Everton respectively. Mark Clattenburg has the big Monday night relegation showdown between Blackburn and Wigan.

Championship >>> The play off appointments are usually a mixture of Premiership referees and Football League officials we can expect to see promoted. Two Prem refs drop down for the Championship first legs: Neil Swarbrick for Cardiff v West Ham and Mark Halsey for Blackpool v Birmingham.

League One >>> A nice big thick slice of Stuart Attwell for Leyton Orient and Rochdale to end already miserable seasons with. Michael Oliver must have offended somebody, he drops down from the Prem to take Tranmere v Scunthorpe.

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