Martin in charge of Burton trip - Referee
Thursday, 11th Jan 2018 17:16 by Clive Whittingham

A third QPR appointment of the season for Steve Martin on Saturday as the R’s head north to Burton Albion.

Referee >>> Steve Martin (Staffordshire), starred as George Banks in the Charles Shyer-directed 1991 comedy Father of the Bride and its subsequent 1995 sequel.

Assistants >>> Mark Jones (Nottinghamshire) and Andrew Fox (Warwickshire), Fox ran the line for Martin in his last QPR appointment against Brentford.

Fourth official >>> Darren Handley (Lancashire)

History

QPR 2 Brentford 2, Monday November 27, 2017, Championship

Freeman’s deliberate foul on Mokotjo after losing the ball, committed despite plenty of cover behind him, betrayed QPR’s desperation and lack of trust in their rickety defence. No problem with that yellow card from referee Steve Martin (funny guy), but frustration grew when Ryan Woods was let off similar niggles with just a warning. Freeman is now suspended for Preston on Saturday.

At two nil up, they were still throwing forwards on. Romaine Sawyers and Neil Maupay, not exactly the most defensive players, coming on in search of a third goal when, however much you’ve dominated, you should probably be thinking about getting another midfielder on and seeing the game out. To do so isn’t betraying any kind of ethos, isn’t regressing to lowest common denominator football, and shouldn’t carry any stigma — it’s just sensible game management. Not to bother smacked of arrogance, and the Brentford fans were still sarcastically celebrating QPR’s first goal as the free kick for the second was taken. It was Sawyers who conceded that set piece, and Maupay responded to the loss of two points by belting Jack Robinson up in the air and then getting into a stand up argument with the referee over the subsequent yellow card.

QPR: Smithies 8; Cousins 5 (Wszolek 74, 5), Baptiste 5, Robinson 7, Bidwell 6; Freeman 6, Luongo 6, Scowen 6, Mackie 5 (LuaLua 74, 4); Washington 5, Sylla 6 (Smith 58, 8)

Subs not used: Chair, Lumley, Wheeler, Goss

Goals: Smith 90+2 (assisted Freeman/Bidwell), Freeman 90+4 (assisted Smith)

Bookings: Freeman 15 (foul), Mackie 27 (foul)

Brentford: Bentley 5; Clarke 6, Egan 5, Bjelland 5, Barbet 7; Mokotjo 7, Woods 7; Yennaris 7, Jozefzoon 6 (Watkins 29, 6), Canos 8 (Sawyers 73, 5); Vibe 8 (Maupay 82, 4)

Subs not used: MacLeod, McEachran, Daniels, Mepham

Goals: Vibe 52 (assisted Yennaris), 81 (assisted Sawyers)

Bookings: Vibe 63 (foul), Maupay 90+6 (foul/dissent)

Referee — Steve Martin (Staffordshire) 6 Bookings all correct, although having carded Freeman I felt he was then lenient on Brentford in similar situations, particularly Ryan Woods. I think it was a penalty for the handball in the second half, but after half a dozen looks my housemate still disagrees with me — referee gets one look at normal speed. I thought he did well not to be suckered into the constant awarding of free kicks by Canos’ play acting, but should have carded Brentford’s outstanding player for diving to stop it happening. Could have been hotter on the time wasting in the second half, although the stoppage time he did add proved more than adequate. Got next to no assistance from two poor linesmen.

Sunderland 1 QPR 1, Saturday October 14, 2017, Championship

The second period brought a change for the home side, who replaced the anonymous Vaughan with Grabban. Bidwell had completely dominated Vaughan in his usual Bidwell manner, which left the former Everton striker bleating to the referee and his assistant, about our defender’s rather rough handling. I thought this was Bidwell’s best performance for Rangers as he looked both composed and strong throughout.

Sunderland: Steele 5; Matthews 5, Jones 5, O’Shea 5, Oviedo 5; Honeyman 5 (Williams 58, 6), Ndong 5, Cattermole 5, McGeady 7; Vaughan 5 (Grabban 45, 5), Watmore 8 (McManaman 79, 6)

Subs not used: Love, Gibson, Ruiter, Gooch

Goals: McGeady 61 (unassisted)

QPR: Smithies 7; Baptiste 7, Lynch 7, Bidwell 7; Luongo 7, Scowen 8, Manning 6, Freeman 7, Wszolek 6 (Osayi-Samuel 76, 5); Mackie 5 (Washington 67, 5), Sylla 7

Subs not used: Lumley, Furlong, Smith, Ngbakoto, Wheeler

Goals: Sylla 37 (assisted Freeman)

Referee — Steve Martin 9 Another fantastic display from a Championship ref. I thought he was virtually faultless, allowing the game to flow and keeping his cards in his pocket. The closest I’ve ever coming to awarding a ten! Cattermole might have been booked for simply being Cattermole, and only adding 1 minute added time at the end of the first half when three would have more appropriate, are my only frivolous complaints.

QPR 1 Reading 1, Saturday October 15, 2016, Championship

QPR: Smithies 7; Perch 5, Onuoha 5, Hall 6 (Caulker 35,5) Lynch 5; Henry 5, Borysiuk 6; Shodipo 5 (Washington 53,6), Chery 5, Wzsolek 6 (Sylla 73, 5) ; Polter 6

Subs not used: Ingam, Gladwin, Hamalainen, Luongo

Goals: Wzsolek 11 (assisted Shodipo)

Bookings: Lynch 56 (foul)

Reading: Al-Habsi 6; Blackett 5 (Obita 66, 6), van den Berg 6, Moore 6, Gunter 6; Evans 7, Williams 8; McCleary 7 (Harriot 84, 6), Swift 7, Beerens 7, Kermogant 7

Subs not used: Samuel, Gravenberch, Watson, Jaakkola, Kelly

Goals: Williams 21 (assisted McCleary)

Bookings: van den Berg 49 (foul)

Referee — Steve Martin 6 A bit pedantic in truth, especially with the booking of van den Berg but didn't have a lot to referee.

Cardiff 0 QPR 0, Saturday April 16, 2016, Championship

So I’m well placed to tell those of you who weren’t there that Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers played out 45 minutes of Championship football in South Wales on Saturday during which two things happened. The first, after 13 minutes, saw Cardiff’s most advanced midfielder Anthony Pilkington dive in the penalty box attempting to con a penalty kick out of referee Stephen Martin. He was yellow carded for his troubles. Later, on the half hour, Pilkington ushered a chance wide of the post after Stuart O’Keefe had crossed and Lex Immers had flicked it on at the near post.

And it’s probably worth noting that Grant Hall, who’s had one or two issues of late, followed up a very fine ball and all tackle in his own penalty area with a mad five minutes during which he was first caught in possession in a dangerous area trying to bring a dropping ball down with a first touch when he should have just leathered it away, then tried a risky pass across his own box to Hill with similarly poor results, and finally tried to buy a free kick tight to the touchline with an obvious dive that Martin waved away again allowing Cardiff to launch an attack against a short-handed defence.

There were other scares in between — Nedum Onuoha flinging everything he owns in front of a powerful drive from Malone after Konchesky had been skinned showed tremendous commitment and desire to win the point in a largely meaningless match. Hall also stood his ground, and was subsequently wrestled over by Pilkington for an obvious yellow card, when Zohore sent Ralls’ back post cross all the way back through the goal mouth.

Cardiff: Marshall 6; Peltier 5, Morrison 6, Connolly 6, Malone 6; Noone 6, O’Keefe 6 (Ameobi 66, 7), Ralls 6, Whittingham 5 (Gunnarsson 81, -); Immers 5 (Zohore 80, -); Pilkington 5

Subs not used: Turner, Dikgacoi, Moore, Lawrence

Bookings: Pilkington 13 (diving), Peltier 49 (foul)

QPR: Ingram 7; Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Hill 6, Konchesky 4; Henry 6, Luongo 6, Faurlin 6, Phillips 6 (Washington 84, -); Chery 5 (El Khayati 72, 6); Polter 5 (Gladwin 66, 6)

Subs not used: Lumley, Hoilett, Petrasso, Kpekawa

Bookings: Konchesky 81 (foul)

Referee — Stephen Martin (Staffordshire) 8 Promising performance on his first ever QPR outing. Bookings spot on, early dive from Pilkington not bought, decent control of a pretty pedestrian game.

Stats

Martin had booked just 30 players and issued one red in 17 matches when last we had him for our home game with Brentford. He’s since added 22 yellows and a further sending off in eight fixtures. His highest total by far remains the seven yellows and one red issued in Wolves 3-2 home win against Preston. Worrying stat — his only Burton game this season was their 2-1 home win against Fulham, the last time they won at home ten matches ago.

Pretty lenient last year too with 78 yellows and three reds in 35 games, and two of those reds went to Newcastle players in the same crazy match at Nottingham Forest.