Clattenburg in the middle of the 5-0 derby
Tuesday, 21st Aug 2012 23:25 by Clive Whittingham

Mark Clattenburg - regular face, and usually lucky omen, at QPR games in recent years - is the referee for this weekend's trip to Norwich.

Referee >>> Mark Clattenburg (County Durham) sacked in 2007 over debts accrued by his business and threatening e-mails sent to associates but successfully appealed and was reinstated, after serving an eight month ban. Refereed our promotion game at Hillsborough in 2004, home play off semi final against Oldham in 2003, and the final game of 2010/11 when we were presented with the Championship trophy.

Assistants >>> Stephen Child ( Kent ), and Simon Beck (Bedfordshire) – the same pair of assistants that ran the line for Clattenburg's last QPR appointment against Spurs at Loftus Road last season.

Fourth Official >>> David Webb ( County Durham )

Previously

QPR 1 Tottenham 0, Saturday April 21, 2012, Premiership

Bobby Zamora was the first player yellow carded by referee Mark Clatttenburg when he cynically hauled back Sandro after initially winning a free kick for QPR that they made rather a mess of. Two minutes later, they got things absolutely right from a dead ball situation.

Spurs were furious when Sandro was penalised for fouling Adel Taarabt 30 yards away from goal as he appeared to win the ball in a one footed sliding tackle, but replays suggested he’d handled the ball while on the ground and indeed Clattenburg was at pains to point out that’s why the kick had been awarded. With the early evening sunlight streaming down the field into Brad Friedel’s eyes the task of keeping Rangers at bay was perhaps more difficult than it might otherwise have been but there can still be few excuses for the American goalkeeper with what happened next.

Five minutes before half time a foul by Taarabt on Walker right on the cusp of the penalty box brought a yellow card that would prove crucial later, but this interesting phenomenon where players like Scott Parker and Paul Scholes are let off without cards for equally bad challenges simply because they make more tackles than everybody else soon reared its ugly head when the England captain chopped Diakite in the middle of the park and escaped with a ticking off from Mark Clattenburg.

Then, controversy. Rarely do we get through a game involving QPR without it anymore and having refereed reasonably for the previous 72 minutes Mark Clattenburg duly obliged by losing the plot in a bizarre five minutes that could have cost him his job as a top flight official in this week where he was confirmed as the British representative for the summer Olympic Games.

Clattenburg presumably agreed that Parker had played for the free kick in the hope of getting not only an attractive set piece for his team but also a fellow professional player sent off into the bargain because he awarded nothing and told the Spurs man to get to his feet. Why, therefore, was a yellow card not produced? What is this hold Parker has over referees that allows him to get away with so much more than anybody else?

With the furore over that incident barely settled Tottenham attacked down the right and won a legitimate free kick when Clint Hill stupidly kicked Aaron Lennon into the air despite the Spurs man having his back to goal and passing options numbering zero. Clattenburg rightly booked Hill, but also flashed a yellow card in Adel Taarabt’s direction after the Moroccan toed the ball away from the scene in the aftermath. Those who’ve been paying rather more attention than the referee at this point will know that this was in fact Taarabt’s second yellow card and had Spurs taken a quick free kick and play gone on then Clattenburg would have gone the way of Rob Harris and Andy D’Urso, the two other English referees who allowed sent off players to remain on the field of play and subsequently never refereed in the top flight again. A frantic word down the ear piece from somewhere alerted the County Durham official and he saved his job with a belated red card amidst scenes of high farce. I’m firmly of the opinion that had Clattenburg realised he’d previously booked Taarabt, he’d never have shown him a second yellow card for this.

QPR: Kenny 8, Onuoha 7, Ferdinand 8, Hill 8, Taiwo 8, Mackie 7, Barton 7, Derry 7, Diakite 7 (Buzsaky 69, 6), Taarabt 7, Zamora 8

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Gabbidon, Traore, Helguson, Cisse, Wright-Phillips

Sent Off: Taarabt 78 (two bookings)

Booked: Zamora (foul), Taarabt (foul), Onuoha (foul), Hill (foul), Taarabt (kicking ball away)

Goals: Taarabt 24 (free kick, won Taarabt)

Tottenham: Friedel 5, Walker 7, Gallas 5, King 5, Assou-Ekotto 4 (Rose 66, 6), Sandro 5 (Lennon 46, 6), Modric 7, Parker 6 (Giovani 84, -), Bale 6, Van der Vaart 6, Defoe 5

Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Livermore, Khumalo, Smith

Referee: Mark Clattenburg ( Tyne & Wear) 6 One problem I do find with Clattenburg is that if he has been involved in a controversial incident his performance can quickly deteriorate. With a quarter of an hour to go here I felt, apart from giving Parker license to kick pretty much whoever he wanted and also letting Gareth Bale off with more than he should have done, Clattenburg had controlled the game reasonably well. But the failure to book Parker for an obvious dive quickly saw the whole thing degenerate into a farce which almost cost him his job and that seemed to kill him for the rest of the game. During five minutes of stoppage time there was a blatant foul on Zamora not given as well which could have resulted in Spurs equalising on the counter attack.

QPR 1 Wolves 2, Saturday February 4, 2012, Premiership

And then the prosecuting barrister in the test case to determine whether most footballers are actually thick as pig shit got to his feet. Roger Johnson, probably scared of Cisse’s pace and the influence he was having on the game, launched into a wild tackle on the French striker as he threatened to turn and set off towards the Wolves goal once more. A poor challenge and definite yellow card from a defender who has been sent off at Loftus Road previously in his Cardiff days for a similar challenge in a similar area of the pitch.

Referee Mark Clattenburg was quickly on the scene to meter out the appropriate punishment, but that wasn’t good enough for Cisse who got immediately to his feet, walked over to Johnson and took the Wolves man by the throat. Club captain Joey Barton was nearby and looked horrified - he knew what was coming. Clattenburg had no choice in the matter at all and Cisse, after prolonged and exaggerated protestations, eventually had to walk.

But it turns out Wolves aren’t exactly packed with Mastermind contestants either. Mark Clattenburg, who’d refereed faultlessly to this point and actually looked pretty disappointed to have to change the direction of the game in the way he did, was given every opportunity to even the body count in the eight minutes that remained before half time. First Bassong, giving every indication that QPR have dodged a bullet by not signing him, miscontrolled a simple ball and then hacked into Shaun Wright-Phillips trying to retrieve the situation – a yellow card was the least he deserved.

Then Fletcher was booked for fouling the same player and, unbelievably, within a minute Jamie O’Hara had lunged in over the ball on Joey Barton. Clattenburg could have sent him off for that but settled for a lengthy lecture. Mick McCarthy must have been tearing out what’s left of his hair. Here they were in a terrific position against ten men in a relegation six pointer and they were doing everything possible to make it ten a side. Clearly the straight talking Wolves boss had words with his collection of morons at half time because they barely committed another foul in the game.

QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7 (Hall 65, 7), Onuoha 6, Ferdinand 6, Taiwo 6, Taarabt 8, Derry 5 (Traore 64, 6), Barton 6, Wright-Phillips 6, Cisse 6, Zamora 7 (Hulse 74, 5)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hill, Mackie, Smith

Sent Off: Cisse 34 (violent conduct)

Goals: Zamora 16 (assisted Wright-Phillips)

Wolves: Hennessey 7, Stearman 5 (Doyle 46, 7), Johnson 6, Bassong 5, Ward 6, Foley 6, Frimpong 6 (Ebanks-Blake 24, 7), Edwards 6, O'Hara 6 (Milijas 87, -), Jarvis 8, Fletcher 7

Subs Not Used: De Vries, Elokobi, Hunt, Berra

Booked: Johnson (foul), Fletcher (foul), Bassong (foul)

Goals: Jarvis 46 (assisted Doyle), Doyle 71 (assisted O’Hara/Ebanks-Blake)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg ( Tyne & Wear) 8 Absolutely no choice with the red card which was entirely Cisse’s fault. I felt he could have sent Jamie O’Hara off on half time for a bad tackle on Barton but he settled for a lecture and other than that refereed the game calmly, competently and without fuss.

Norwich 2 QPR 1, Saturday November 26, 2011, Premiership

Ferdinand’s afternoon wasn’t about to get a lot better. Within four minutes of that let off Rangers fell behind in amateurish circumstances. Morrison won what I felt was a pretty generous free kick from Clint Hill wide on the QPR left which Rangers scrambled out only as far as former Chelsea trainee Andrew Crofts whose well drilled low shot deflected an inch or two wide of the post with Cerny at full stretch but seemingly well beaten. QPR had escaped again, but had good reason to feel hard done to when the subsequent corner dropped at the back post and was pretty blatantly handled by Russell Martin. Referee Mark Clattenburg waved the appeals away and when the Canaries then won a second corner kick in quick succession a loose ball in the penalty area bounced off Ferdinand straight to Martin who hammered in his second goal of the season. Martin, a full back and recent makeshift centre half, could hardly be termed prolific with seven goals in a year and a half but he’s managed two against QPR now in as many meetings. His goal crowned an excellent all round display here.

QPR probably feared the worst at this point but they recovered from a single goal deficit to record a memorable win at Stoke seven days prior to this match and could have drawn level within two minutes of going behind when Shaun Wright Phillips ran onto a Helguson flick on in the area and seemed to be taken out by goalkeeper John Ruddy as he reached the loose ball first but no penalty was awarded by referee Mark Clattenburg.

Within two minutes of their introduction the newbies combined to restore Norwich ’s advantage. Like the two previous goals in the game Holt’s close range shot from Hoolahan’s cross was preceded by a near miss that probably had the defending team thinking they’d survived the worst of the threat. In the seconds leading up to the match clinching moment Morrison had dragged three players towards him and the byline before dropping a cross plum onto Holt’s head at the back post but Shaun Derry was back on the line and able to block. QPR failed to clear their lines though, and possibly had a claim for a foul on Shaun Wright Phillips as the ball reached him on the edge of the area, but with Clattenburg waving play on Hoolahan swung his boot and Holt could hardly miss from six inches out.

Norwich: Ruddy 7, Martin 8, Barnett 5, De Laet 6 (Naughton 58, 6), Tierney 5, Pilkington 7 (Hoolahan 70, 7), Johnson 6, Crofts 6, Surman 7, Morison 8, Jackson 7 (Holt 70, 7)

Subs Not Used: Rudd, Fox, Bennett, Wilbraham

Booked: Naughton (foul)

Goals: Martin 15 (unassisted), Holt 73 (assisted Hoolahan)

QPR: Cerny 6, Young 8, Gabbidon 5, Ferdinand 5, Hill 6 (Bothroyd 57, 7), Wright-Phillips 6 (Smith 79, 6), Derry 5 (Buzsaky 77, 6), Faurlin 8, Traore 7, Mackie 7, Helguson 6

Subs Not Used: Putnins, Orr, Hall, Puncheon

Goals: Young 59 (assisted Mackie)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg ( Tyne & Wear) 7 A decent and sensible performance overall as we have come to expect from this referee. As ever though points come off for key decisions wrong and I felt there was a clear handball worthy of a free kick in the run up to the first Norwich goal. Clattenburg wasn’t ideally placed to see that to be fair to him, the linesman on the away end side of the ground was but given his decision making throughout the afternoon it’s no surprise he failed to flag for it. A more inept performance from an assistant referee I think we’ll struggle to find this season. Appeals for a foul on Wright Phillips prior to the second goal looked less clear cut.

QPR 1 Blackburn 1, Saturday October 15, 2011, Premiership

Mark Clattenburg has been something of a lucky omen for QPR during his refereeing career, taking charge of two fixtures where the R’s celebrated promotion and a successful play off semi final. The R’s were grateful to the County Durham official for his leniency in the ninth minute on Saturday asFitz Hall crunched Jason Roberts with a very late tackle but escaped a yellow card even when the advantage broke down thanks to some fine defensive work by Shaun Wright Phillips. Hall was later booked for a similar hack at Martin Olsson.

Strangely Rangers crafted a chance on the half hour at the other end by beating Samba in the air. Helguson was the man who intelligently flicked Paddy Kenny’s kick on into the path of Wright Phillips and the diminutive winger drilled a low shot about a foot wide of the post from range with Paul Robinson well beaten. Within a minute Rangers were going forward again with Luke Younglaunching a free kick into the penalty area that was knocked down towards Hall and he appeared to take a boot in the face as he attempted to attack the ball. I don’t think this was a penalty and Clattenburg was right to wave it away but it was one of those decisions that probably would have been given as a foul elsewhere on the pitch – Rangers would suffer another of those in the second half.

Givet made the most of a foul by Shaun Wright Phillips on the hour but again a yellow card was probably the right decision, and Traore followed his team mate into Clattenburg’s little black book when he miscontrolled the ball, lost possession and then hauled down Hoilett who had run away with the ball. I cannot stand it when Alan Green, in what to me and many others is a dream job of commentating on football for a living, says that the game he is watching is boring but to be fair it’s hard to think of another word to describe this contest at this stage. Were it still taking place now, more than 24 hours later, I doubt there’d have been another goal. It was a day to make the most of the sunshine that bathed the South Africa Road Stand and regret the decision not to bring a good book.

Anyway the change almost brought immediate reward when, incredible, Shaun Wright Phillips won a header in the centre of the field and flicked the ball into the path of Adel Taarabt who brilliantly chested it into the space behind the Blackburn defence, taking Salgado totally out of the game in one brilliant move, but then he betrayed a rare lack of confidence with a hurried and scuffed finish that bobbled hopelessly wide. Armand Traore may have done better from an identical position two minutes later as he ran clear on goal but frustratingly referee Mark Clattenburg hauled QPR back to give them a free kick for a bad foul by Lowe on Faurlin for which he was booked. Clattenburg didn’t have a bad game but this, and another incident a moment or so later when Taarabt seemed to be felled on the corner of the six yard box but had his appeals waved away, didn’t do much for the home fans’ mood. Had N’Zonzi found the back of the net on the subsequent counter attack after Taarabt’s appeal rather than the back of the School End things may have turned ugly.

QPR: Kenny 7, Young 7, Ferdinand 6, Hall 5, Traore 6, Derry 5, Faurlin 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (Smith 83, -), Barton 6, Mackie 6 (Taarabt 64, 5), Helguson 7

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Orr, Bothroyd, Buzsaky, Puncheon

Booked: Hall (foul), Wright-Phillips (foul), Traore (foul)

Goals: Helguson 16 (unassisted)

Blackburn: Robinson 6, Salgado 6, Samba 8, Dann 6, Givet 6, Lowe 7, Petrovic 6, Nzonzi 7, Olsson 7, Hoilett 7, Roberts 5 (Goodwillie 67, 4)

Subs Not Used: Bunn, Formica, Rochina, Yakubu, Vukcevic, Hanley

Booked: Nzonzi (foul), Lowe (foul)

Goals: Samba 24 (assisted Lowe)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg ( Tyne & Wear) 7 A trio of controversial moments from a QPR point of view, two I thought he got right and one he clearly didn’t. The penalty appeal for a high boot on Fitz Hall in the first half would have been a harsh award, the one in the second half on Adel Taarabt was a bigger appeal but didn’t look a penalty to me at first sight. His big error on the day was hauling the play back for a QPR free kick when Traore had already been played through on goal.

QPR 1 Leeds 2, Saturday May 7, 2011

Neil Warnock then decided to play his first card from the bench, sending on Adel Taarabt instead of Akos Buzsaky. Taarabt’s firt action was to swing over a corner that Schmeichel made a right pig’s ear of under pressure from Smith who then reached the rebound, headed it toward goal and forced a fine save from the young goalkeeper. Now on such a day of celebration and against a team with such a meagre defence this could have been a fill your boots afternoon for Adel but either through lack of fitness or a questionable attitude he just didn’t look interested from the moment he came on.

Probably his worst half hour of the season culminated in a daft yellow card from mark Clattenburg. Kilkenny, tired of berating his own team mates, set about winding Taarabt up by kicking him when the ball was in play and sledging him when it wasn’t. After one such episode where the Leeds man thrust out his lower lip and plucked it backwards and forwards with his index finger ending in a handbag session while a throw in was being taken. The linesman on the far side of the field drew Clattenburg’s attention to it and he then tried to call both players together for a discussion. Taarabt refused to go and was rightly booked as a result.

To add to the mild frustration of going behind Clattenburg’s persecution of Heidar Helguson stepped up a gear thereafter. The giant Icelandic striker was penalised constantly, regardless of what had happened, and that came to a head after the hour mark when he went to meet a long ball down the field but was caught flush in the face by Richard Naylor’s elbow before he could reach it. The result? A Leeds free kick. You could hardly make this stuff up. Helguson was absolutely fuming, and had to be restrained from confronting the match official by physio Nigel Cox. Clattenburg was happy, rightly, to wave away Richard Naylor’s penalty appeal when he clashed with Kaspars Gorkss under a high cross and to be fair he had a very decent game in the middle once again.

Clattenburg played two minutes of added time, but didn’t advertise the fact on the board to give the players a fighting chance of making it off the field before the inevitable pitch invasion at the final whistle. Why? Who knows. Announcements had repeatedly told supporters that any pitch invasion would merely serve to delay the presentation of the Championship trophy and yet the selfish few went on anyway. To make matters worse still after the pitch had been cleared and the trophy presented the players’ lap of honour was interrupted by a second invasion that forced our wonderful squad of players, some of whom had very young children with them, to go running for the tunnel for a second time. If the first invasion was selfish, the second one was dangerous, and brought the lap of honour to an end before they had made it all the way around the pitch with the cup. Those involved should be ashamed.

QPR: Cerny 5, Orr 6, Connolly 6, Gorkss 6, Hill 6 (Ramage 65, 6), Derry 7, Faurlin 6, Routledge 6, Buzsaky 7 (Taarabt 55, 5), Smith 6, Helguson 6 (Shittu 72 6)

Subs Not Used: Putnins, Agyemang, Moen, Ephraim

Booked: Taarabt (dissent)

Goals: Helguson 1 (assisted Smith)

Leeds: Schmeichel 6, Connolly 6, Naylor 6 (Kisnorbo 79, 7), O'Brien 6, Lichaj 6, Gradel 7 (Watt 85, -), Kilkenny 6, Howson 6, Johnson 6, McCormack 7, Paynter 5 (Somma 65, 6)

Subs Not Used: Higgs, Bruce, Livermore , Bromby

Goals: Gradel 38 (assisted Naylor), McCormack 68 (unassisted)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) 7 Seemed to decide quite early that Heidar Helguson was always the sinner, and penalised him constantly thereafter including the ridiculous incident in the second half where he had a free kick given against him for being elbowed in the face. Other than that though he was very steady indeed, and while I’m sure I’ll moan like hell next season about the officiating favouring the bigger clubs I am looking forward to the improved standards of officiating we can look forward to.

QPR 1 Forest 1, Saturday February 13, 2011

Forest spent much of the pre-match lamenting the loss of their midfield enforcer Guy Moussi to a thigh injury which is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season. He was replaced by former Preston man Paul McKenna, a man with a history of good performances against QPR to his name and, following in the footsteps of Graham Alexander, Liam Lawrence, Jem Karacan, Matthew Milles, the latest player to come to Loftus Road with the intention of both playing and refereeing the match. Fortunately Premiership referee Mark Clattenburg, who has twice refereed crucial QPR promotion games with positive outcomes against Oldham and Sheff Wed, was on hand to ignore McKenna’s constant (and I mean constant) volleys of abuse and advice and keep a firm grip on the game.

Rangers would no doubt have been glad to see the names of Robert Earnshaw and Dele Adebola missing from the Forest line up – Earnshaw scored a hat trick on this ground in his Cardiff days while Adebola has goals against Rangers for four different clubs and presents the type of physical challenge that our centre halves have struggled with this season. As it was they had more than they could handle in the former of McGoldrick and Tudgay. That became apparent within the opening ten seconds as Forest kicked off, quickly lobbed the ball up to the edge of the box and won it, and then struck the inside of Paddy Kenny’s post with a low shot on the turn by Tudgay. The flag had been raised and the goal would not have counted had it gone in, although in all the confusion it appeared to be Matt Connolly rather than a Forest player who poked the ball into his path. This gave McKenna his first opportunity to scream in the referee’s face.

QPR have kept a league leading 17 clean sheets this season and have never lost from a winning position. They’re not the sort of team you want to fall behind against, particularly at Loftus Road , and Forest ’s situation worsened within seven minutes. Different teams have taken different approaches with Adel Taarabt this season and it was pretty clear from the first minute here that Forest believed the best way to combat the threat of the Moroccan was to kick him. Repeatedly. At the exact halfway point of the half though Radowslaw Majewski took the niggly tactic that had been well metered out by McKenna and the giant Wes Morgan to this point and went too far with it. Possibly seeking to make an impact so that QPR would remember him in future (the big screen had bizarrely listed him as Gary Majewski on the pre-match team sheet) the Pole left the ground and almost snapped Taarabt in half with a crude two footed, studs up hack that had Clattenburg producing a red card before the QPR man had even hit the ground. McKenna complained about it, but few others did – a nasty and wholly unnecessary lunge that brought the correct punishment.

That was the good of Taarabt, the bad came moments later as is so often the case. The QPR captain had been showing signs of descending into a sulk at the end of the first half, as he had done at Hull a few weeks ago, with frustration at the constant failure to find his feet with the ball by his team mates playing out from the back and the physical attention he was receiving from the Forest defenders etched across his face. After another clash with Morgan on halfway Taarabt foolishly aimed a kick at the impressive Forest centre half which would have resulted in a red card had it connected. Clattenburg settled for yellow and Taarabt can count himself very fortunate.

I had suggested in the pub before the match that I had a horrible feeling we may miss our first penalty of the season in this game. Lee Camp saved a spot kick on his first return to Derby in a Forest shirt and having converted all eight of our penalties this season successfully it feels like we’re due a miss. I thought we may get to find out 18 minutes from time when Wayne Routledgeaccelerated into space in the left channel and headed straight for the penalty area. A foul inside the area looked inevitable as Routledge outpaced Gunter and reached the ball before him, but the Welsh fullback had telegraphed his opponent’s intention and did well to make sure he made no contact whatsoever. Routledge hit the deck anyway and Mark Clattenburg, five yards away, should have booked him for diving as well as waving away the appeals.

Clattenburg added three minutes on to the end of a game that was rather petering out. Wayne Routledge crossed for Vaagan Moen to plant a header wide but a draw was a more than fair result on the overall balance of play and although Forest celebrated it like one of their European Cup successes while QPR looked quite downbeat at the final whistle it’s not a bad result for either team.

QPR: Kenny 6, Orr 6, Connolly 5, Gorkss 5 (Chimbonda 73, 6), Hill 7, Faurlin 8 (Moen 79, 6), Derry 7, Smith 8 (Miller 46, 7), Taarabt 6,Routledge 6, Hulse 5

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hall, Helguson, Shittu

Booked: Taarabt (unsporting conduct), Gorkss (foul), Derry (foul)

Goals: Smith 16 (assisted Faurlin)

Nottm Forest: Camp 6, Gunter 7, Chambers 8, Morgan 8, Konchesky 7, Cohen 6,Majewski 5, McGugan 6 (Anderson 68, 6), McKenna 7, McGoldrick 7 (Tyson 74, 7), Tudgay 7 (Lynch 46, 5)

Subs Not Used: Smith, Adebola, Earnshaw, Moloney

Sent Off: Majewski 23 (serious foul play)

Booked: Tyson (foul)

Goals: McGoldrick 26 (assisted McGugan)

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) 7 I could nit pick – Routledge should have been booked for diving, Morgan got away with plenty without being booked, Derry’s yellow card was a little harsh, McKenna shouldn’t have been allowed to scream in his face all afternoon – but overall he controlled the game very well and got the big decisions spot on. Ran the game with the calm authority and assuredness that the better Premiership referees have.

Burnley 2 QPR 0, Saturday August 5, 2006

The best chance of the half fell to QPR though, and to Ward who met Rowlands' outswinging corner firmly from eight yards but sent the ball straight into the arms of Jensen. Either side of the keeper and it was in, despite the men on the line. Ward took his frustration out on the ball two minutes later with a stinging twenty five yard effort that screamed towards the bottom corner until Jensen diverted it wide.

The Australian midfielder was QPR's main driving force and he drew two Burnley bookings in the final fifteen minutes of the half. Jon Harley and Michael Duff were both carded for upending Ward around the edge of the penalty area.

After half time the home side stepped things up a gear. The home fans in the side stand started to back their players with increasing volume and gusto and right from the kick off they looked more up for it and fitter than QPR. O'Connor flew into Ainsworth right from the restart and was booked and then after another decision against his team manager Steve Cotterill launched a ball into the away end in frustration. He was ticked off by the referee but these two incidents raised the tempo in Burnley 's play.

Burnley: Jensen 7, Thomas 7, Harley 7, Sinclair 6, Duff 7, J O'Connor 7 (Elliott 62, 6), Mahon 7 (G O'Connor 90, -), Jones 8, Gray 7, McCann 6, Lafferty 6 (Hyde 62).

Subs: McGreal, Foster.

Goals: Jones 58, 69

Bookings: Duff 33, Harley 45, O'Connor 46

QPR: P Jones 6, Bignot 5, Stewart 6, Rose 5, Milanese 5, Ainsworth 6, Rowlands 7 (Donnelly 78, 6), Lomas 7 (R Jones 65, 5), Ward 7, Cook 6, Czerkas 7 (Bircham 71, 6).

Subs: Cole, Kanyuka.

Referee: M Clattenburg 8 - Excellent start to the season refereeing wise. Played a good advantage, only used the cards when necessary although I remember thinking one of Burnley 's was a bit harsh, and allowed some physical contact which was a blessed relief after the World Cup. Good job all in all.

Prior to that Clattenburg was the referee who awarded a late QPR goal from Georges Santos in a 2-1 win at Coventry in January 2005 when the home side believed the ball had not crossed the line. He was also the man in the middle the season before for one of the finest moments in QPR’s history – a 3-1 win at Hillsborough in front of 8,000 travelling fans to seal promotion into the Championship. A year earlier he was in the middle for our 3-0 win at Huddersfield on a Tuesday night with Paul Furlong scoring twice – he rather harshly booked Richard Langley in stoppage time for over celebrating a goal he didn’t even score, one of seven cards handed out on the night. Later that season he refereed another memorable QPR game as the R’s beat Oldham 1-0 in W12 in the play off semi final – the Latics’ Wayne Andrews was sent off late in the game. His first ever QPR appointment was in January 2001 – a 1-0 defeat at Norwich on our way to relegation from the First Division.

Stats

Clattenburg posted big numbers last season – 115 yellows and eight reds in 36 games, 3.19 bookings a game. In one week in October he booked eight and sent one off in the Manchester derby, then showed seven yellows and a red in Swansea 's home win against Bolton meaning his two biggest hauls of the campaign came back to back. Towards the end of the campaign he attracted criticism during the Fulham v Chelsea match for correctly awarding the away team a penalty, but then giving the wrong reason for doing so. Danny Murphy clearly fouled Chelsea 's Solomon Kalou as he entered the area but when he protested his innocence Clattenburg told him he'd actually punished Stephen Kelly for the trip – replays showed no contact was made. At Loftus Road on his last visit he sent Adel Taarabt off for two yellow cards, although he appeared to show the second one while unaware of the first and then belatedly produced a red card after a reminder from elsewhere.

The season before he showed 123 yellows (3.075 a game) and eight reds in 40 matches – split between the Premiership, Europa League, Champions League, Championship and both cup competitions. He showed six yellows and a red in a single match on four occasions, including Arsenal v Huddersfield in the cup. His biggest haul in a single game was seven yellows and one red at Bolton v Blackburn in December.

It’s games between Spurs and Man Utd that he seems to have the biggest problem with – he was the referee for the infamous Pedro Mendes goal that never was at Old Trafford when Roy Carroll dropped the ball three feet over the line and got away with it, then in February 2008 he refereed the fixture between the two at White Hart Lane and showed ten yellow cards, then last season he allowed Nani to roll the ball in and counted the goal after failing to award Tottenham a free kick when the Portuguese picked the ball up with his hands in the build up.

Other Listings

Premier League >>> Kevin friend got some stick for his 'when is an advantage not an advantage' penalty decision at Reading v Stoke at the weekend, but I thought he was correct to award the spot kick there and so did the authorities as he's back on Premier League duty this weekend with Man Utd v Fulham. Martin Atkinson has the Saturday lunchtime TV game between Swansea and West Ham, Mike Dean the evening game between Chelsea and Newcastle . The big Liverpool v Man City clash on Sunday is in the hands of new flavour of the month Andre Marriner.

Championship >>> Premier League referees dropping down the divisions this week include Mike Jones for the always tasty Bristol City v Cardiff fixture, and Jon Moss who takes Wolves v Derby.

League One >>> Somewhat soul destroying to find that our old chum Trevor Kettle still hasn't retired, and returns for a new season at Doncaster v Crawley.

League Two >>> Another long server with a chequered record, Andy D'Urso, has Barnet v York . Sadly we've many years of Gavin Ward left yet, he's at Torquay v Rochdale this weekend.

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