Three games, three defeats, and plenty of controversy for QPR with referee Scott Duncan this season — he’s back for a fourth crack on Saturday as the R’s host Nottingham Forest.

Referee >>> Scott Duncan (Northumberland), awarded a controversial match winning penalty to Sheff Utd at Loftus Road in August then denied Rangers a blatant one of their own in injury time at Wigan.

Assistants >>> Adam Crysell (Northants) and Matt Foley (Hertfordshire)

Fourth Official >>> Gavin Ward (Surrey)

Previously

Norwich 4 QPR 0, Saturday April 6, 2019, Championship

Lynch’s other main contribution to the half was to wait for Pukki to finally be in a non-threatening position — back to goal, few options for a pass, no chance of a shot, quite a few defenders around him — and needlessly, deliberately, smash straight through the back of him so they could have another effort on goal from a free kick 20 yards out and he could have another yellow card. Stiepermann missed the free kick but it’s not the point. Five bookings, each more brain-dead than the last, in ten appearances for Lynch now moving him out to a chunky 11 for the season. Four away from a three-game ban with six games remaining. If I didn’t know better I’d wonder whether the early May flight to Dubai was already in the system at Flight Centre.

Later we’d see an even stupider tackle still from Buendia on QPR sub Josh Scowen which referee Scott Duncan had little choice but to issue a red card for. Mad, given the situation in the game, and Norwich’s season, even allowing for him being on the end of some agricultural chops just before that. But even with ten men, Norwich were able to add a fourth when one long punt down the field was somehow enough to dissect the entire QPR team, with Lynch slow on the turn and running in treacle to try and catch up with Pukki who helped himself to a fourth. Honestly, I swear to God, if this club dares renew Lynch’s contract this summer I am going the full Jan Palach in the centre circle at the first home game next season.

Norwich: Krul 6; Aarons 7, Zimmermann 7, Godfrey 7, Lewis 7; Trybull 7 (Rhodes 90, -), McLean 7; Buendia 8, Stiepermann 8 (Cantwell 80,-), Hernandez 8; Pukki 8 (Leitner 88,-)

Subs not used: McGovern, Vrancic, Leitner, Rhodes, Klose, Hanley, Cantwell

Goals: Buendia 6, Stiepermann 10, Pukki 38, 85

Red Cards: Buendia 71 (serious foul play)

QPR: Lumley 3; Rangel 3, Furlong 3, Lynch 2, Bidwell 2 (Leistner 34,, 3); Cameron 2 (Scowen 58, 5), Cousins 2; Wszolek 3 (Osayi-Samuel 74, 5), Eze 3, Freeman 3; Wells 3

Subs not used: Ingram, Manning, Hemed, Smith

Bookings: Lynch 43 (being a dick)

Referee — Scott Duncan 6 Not a referee we’ve done particularly well out of this season but bar the odd throw in, goal kick or corner given the wrong way when unsighted you couldn’t really fault him to much here in a fixture where one of the teams refused to compete. Red card looked right, stupid challenge to make. As usual, needlessly pedantic over the placing of corners late in games that are already over.

Wigan 2 QPR 1, Saturday February 2, 2019, Championship

With Aramide Oteh loaned out, even the vague suggestion of another option than just lumping it up to Matt Smith for the closing stages of a game we’ve fucked up has been removed. Not that McClaren ever used that other option anyway, but it was nice to have it there and dream for a while. Smith was summoned after 63 minutes, replacing Eze who had a worse pass completion record than most of the crowd. The big striker charged into the penalty area to meet a Furlong long throw, and was immediately penalised for pushing by referee Scott Duncan — taking brief timeout from making sure all the corners were taken from exactly the right blade of grass.

A point could have been salvaged two minutes from time when a cross from Wells had Jones flapping around all over the place but Smith headed over when it seemed easier to score. And should have been salvaged in four minutes of stoppage time when a Furlong long throw wrought havoc in the area and Jacobs clearly and obviously blocked Manning’s shot with two outstretched arms in a desperate bid to preserve the point. A save Peter Schmeichel would have been proud of. Duncan, looking right at it from five yards away, gave nothing. Maybe just as well, we’d probably still be there now waiting for that silly old fart to pissball about making sure the ball was on the penalty spot properly.

Wigan: Jones 6; James 8, Kipre 6, Fox 6 (Dunkley 79. 6), Byrne 6; Pilkington 8 (Gibson 77, 3), Evans 6, Jacobs 6, Naismith 6; Windass 7, Clarke 6 (Garner 76, 6)

Subs not used: Walton, Baningime, McManaman, Roberts

Goals: Windass 8 (assisted Clarke), Clarke 55 (assisted Windass)

Bookings: Evans 21 (foul), Kipre 83 (foul), Jacobs 90+1 (foul)

QPR: Lumley 5; Furlong 6, Leistner 4, Lynch 5, Bidwell 6; Scowen 4, Luongo 6 (Manning 88, -); Wszolek 5 (Osayi-Samuel 46, 6), Eze 4 (Smith 63, 6), Freeman 6; Wells 5

Subs not used: Ingram, Hall, Cousins, Kakay

Goals: Osayi-Samuel 75 (assisted Luongo)

Bookings: Luongo 13 (foul)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Durham) 5 Bog standard Championship referee — red hot on the little, insignificant stuff, completely clueless on the big decisions that actually matter. Blatant handball for a penalty not awarded at the end, but is that ball in the quadrant for the corner? Is it though? Is it? Is it? Is it in the right place? That ball? For the corner? Is it in the right place? Is it in the right place? Is it though? Have you put it in the right place? Have you? Have you though? Is it right? Is it? Is it? Is it? Fucking helmet.

QPR 1 Sheff Utd 2, Satueday August 11, 2018, Championship

Stevens hung a cross up for substitute David McGoldrick which was dealt with calamitously by Lynch and Bidwell. The former making no real attempt to get his head on the ball and the latter doing some sort of shove-cum-duck routine which he does so often to win a throw-in. I have seen since a number of fans say it wasn't a penalty, in the ground I thought it was. If you're stupid enough to shove a forward in the area then you have to expect it so I can't really complain too much. McGoldrick dusted himself down to put away the penalty despite only being on the pitch for a number of minutes.
Eze forced two good saves with long-range shots but in truth they ran out of ideas as Sheffield, much like Preston last week saw the game out from around the 70thminute. Both centre-halves, Fleck, McGoldrick and the Henderson both spent time on the floor with 'injuries' as they continued to disrupt the rhythm of the game until it had completely petered out. Five minutes of added time for three substitutions for both teams and numerous stoppages for injuries seemed slightly under what it should have been however it would prove to be irrelevant though. Despite winning silly freekicks off Eze, they then wanted to discuss the reasoning for every decision with the referee wasting more seconds and not a single home player making a comment about it.
Again QPR succumb to the magical dark arts of the Championship as they ultimately produced another naïve performance. They should have done more to hold what they had before half-time and then to give the referee a decision to make with the penalty was criminal after the break. I am sure this side will be different to the one that faces Birmingham in September but there's only so much they can bring in. Veteran Angel Rangel seems to be close to signing and no doubt a striker of some sort will be signed but will this make much of a difference? We don't seem to be nasty enough, strong enough or quick enough and this was a poor Sheffield United. If we can't get results popping teams off the pitch then you need to be able to get nasty and grind results out, hopefully that will come.

QPR: Ingram 5; Kakay 6, Leistner 8, Lynch 4, Bidwell 5; Scowen 6, Luongo 5, Freeman 6; Smyth 5 (Osayi Samuel 46, 6), Eze 7, Sylla 5 (Smith 69 , 5)

Subs not used: Lumley, Cousins, Manning, Baptiste.

Goals: Eze 29 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Lynch (foul)

Sheffield United: Henderson, Stevens, Egan, Stearman, O'Connell, Freeman, Duffy (Woodburn 70), Basham, Fleck, Clarke, Sharp (McGoldrick 64 (Leonard 83))

Subs not used: Lumstrum, Lafferty, Moore, Norrington-Davies.

Goals: Sharp 43, McGoldrick 68 (penalty)

Yellow Cards: Woodburn (kicked ball away)

Scott Duncan (Newcastle) 5: Not too bad, seemed to to place a lot of trust in his officials whom I'm sure he would think had a better view on things but there was definitely some questionable decisions regarding corners and throw-ins from them. With the penalty, I have watched it a few times and can see why it was given, but when Henderson began to time waste through the second-half it didn’t feel as though he was strong enough and then allowed them to refereeing the last few minutes how they pleased completely seeing the game out.

QPR 2 Bolton 0, Saturday January 17, 2018, Championship

The game changed very little to be honest with the sending off of Mark Little on 54 minutes. At first glance Little’s lunge on Luongo (at least from the Ellerslie Road…) didn’t appear to be too bad, however Scott Duncan wasted no time in pulling out a straight red for the former Bristol City right back. Subsequent replays showed that Little had both his feet off the floor, and chopped Luongo down late — the only thing that saved Luongo was that the lunge went through his legs, and he took Luongo down via his hip.

QPR: Smithies 7; Onuoha 7, Lynch 7, Robinson 6; Wzsolek 6, Bidwell 6 (Smyth 64, 7); Scowen 6, Luongo 6, Freeman 6; Washington 5 (Eze, 82 -), Smith 7

Subs not used: Ingram, Furlong, Baptiste, Chair, Osayi-Samuel

Goals: Lynch 72 (assisted Smith) Smith 90+1 (assisted Smyth)

Bolton: Alnwick, Burke, Wheater, Beevers, Little, Derik (Morais 81), Henry, Vela (Karacan 45) Robinson, Walker (Le Fondre 69), Ameobi

Subs not used: A Taylor, Dervite, Howard, Clough

Bookings: Henry 36 (foul)

Sending Off: Little 54 (serious foul play)

Referee: Scott Duncan 6 Got the one big decision correct, but seemed to buy a lot of whatever Bolton were selling in terms of soft free kicks, and poor old Matt Smith still can’t catch a break in the opposition penalty box. Didn’t think he was as bad as some on the message board did though…

QPR 2 Reading 0, Saturday August 5, 2017, Championship

The first, on 22 minutes, was a relatively simple header at the back post after he’d peeled away from his marker to nod in an inch perfect cross from Pawel Wszolek — impressing in a right wing-back role — after a neat interchange with Luke Freeman. The second, just before the hour, was from the penalty spot after Wszolek had been clotheslined by Reading’s Portuguese defender Tiago Ilori who was sent off by referee Scott Duncan for the professional foul. Reading were fuming that play had been allowed to continue with a player injured in back play, and Joel Lynch was booked for the foul that caused the problem once play stopped, but there was no head injury and therefore no obligation for QPR to put the ball out or Duncan to halt the game. The protests, booking and injury caused an inordinate delay before the kick was taken but Washington did well to remain calm and composed, even laughing as he replaced the ball on the spot, before finding the top corner with Mannone going the other way and not able to reach the ball with a butterfly net even if he had dived left instead. Less composure on show in the first half when clean through on goal however — he skied it embarrassingly over with time to pick his spot.

That save swiftly followed by the second goal and red card killed off what limited resistance Reading had been offering. French striker Yan Kermorgant was missing with a hip injury and after an 18-goal campaign in 2016/17 — his highest ever total in English football — he was always likely to be sorely missed. A proposed move for Huddersfield’s Nahki Wells has come to nought and Bodvarsson’s three goals in 48 appearances for Wolves last season isn’t going to put the frighteners on anybody. They had some cause to feel aggrieved with referee Scott Duncan who seemed much keener to let QPR, and Jamie Mackie in particular, away with a word on the run for fouls while Barrow and Budvarsson were both booked immediately in similar circumstances. Barrow had half a shout for a foul right on the edge of the QPR area waved away late in the day when it could have been a free kick or penalty. But it was their insistence on persisting with passing the ball around deep in their own half — even though QPR had planned for it and were destroying it — that seemed a bigger problem. They were just far too easy to play against.

QPR: Smithies 7; Perch 7, Onuoha 8, Lynch 7; Wszolek 8, Bidwell 7 (Robinson 87, -); Scowen 8, Luongo 8, Freeman 8; Washington 7 (Sylla 81, -), Mackie 7 (Ngbakoto 83, -)

Subs not used: Furlong, Ingram, Borysiuk, Smith

Goals: Washington 22 (assisted Wszolek), 59 (penalty, won Wszolek)

Bookings: Lynch (foul)

Reading: Mannone 5; Gunter 5, Moore 6, Illori 5, Blackett 5; Kelly 6, Evans 5, Popa 5, Clement 5 (Barrow 52, 6); Swift 6 (Mendes 82, -); Bodvarsson 4 (Richards 59, 5)

Subs not used: Jaakkola, Rinomhota, Richards, Smith

Red Cards: Illori 56 (professional foul)

Bookings: Bodvarsson 28 (foul) Barrow 90+2 (foul)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Northumberland) 6 If I was writing the Reading version of this I’d probably give him a four and point to a couple of inconsistencies. Firstly, Jamie Mackie must have been getting close to half a dozen fouls by himself but didn’t get booked, while Barrow and Bodvarsson were booked pretty much straight away. Secondly, the penalty (which was an obvious decision) came while a Reading player was down injured and play wasn’t stopped, then moments later when a QPR man was down the referee did call it to check if it was a head injury or not. I thought he was fine, apart from the Mackie stuff he didn’t get much wrong, but I know if I’d been at the other end I’d have been unhappy.

QPR 2 Norwich 1, Saturday November 9, 2016, Championship

That should really have been 2-0. Caught out by the intensity, feel-good-factor, pace, power and fast start we’d all expected — plus a team selection we hadn’t — Norwich contrived to self-destruct and play their way out of the game in the opening minute. Robinson’s humungous long throw sparked panic in the penalty area, Nedum Onuoha’s presence unsettled John Ruddy, full back Marcus Olsson clawed the goal-bound ball back off the line with two hands, referee Scott Duncan pointed to the spot and issued a red card — the fastest ever on this ground.

Murphy’s glorious shot 18 minutes from time beat Smithies all ends up but came back into play off the bar. Dorrans saw another shot bravely blocked by Lynch on the edge of the area, Robbie Brady smacked a direct free kick high and wide after Sandro had taken one for the team and fouled his man after the ball bounced into a dodgy spot off the referee. The visitors were belying their numerical disadvantage, and the nerves in the QPR ranks only grew when Naismith cutely headed home Murphy’s square ball with ten minutes remaining for play.

QPR: Smithies 7; Onuoha 6, Hall 7, Lynch 8; Perch 7, Robinson 7 (Sandro 46, 6); Luongo 7 (Shodipo 66, 6), Cousins 6, Chery 6; Polter 7 (Sylla 82, -), Washington 8

Subs not used: Ingram, Borysiuk, El Khayati, Ngbakoto

Goals: Washington 21 (assisted Chery/Polter), Polter 27 (assisted Chery)

Bookings: Lynch 80 (foul)

Norwich: Ruddy 7; Martin 6, Bennett 6, Bassong 5, Olsson -, Tettey 6, Dorrans 5, Murphy 6, Brady 5; Naismith 7 (Murphy 88, -), Oliveira 4 (Jerome 75, 7)

Subs not used: Whittaker, Klose, Hoolahan, McGovern

Goals: Naismith 78 (assisted Murphy)

Red Cards: Olsson 1 (deliberate handball on the goal line)

Bookings: Tettey 2 (dissent), Naismith 37 (foul), Dorrans 45+3 (foul)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Northumberland) 8 Olsson’s attempt to claw the ball back off the line channel Steven Taylor’s Oscar-nominated performance a few years back and a penalty was clearly the right decision there. I’ll need talking through this double-jeopardy rule I thought we’d brought in this season though. Big decision correct, could perhaps have sent Naismith off as well for a wild challenge before half time but a yellow was about right.

Burton 1 QPR 1, Tuesday September 27, 2016, Championship

Ostensibly two Championship teams, Burton Albion and Queens Park Rangers had resorted to simply whacking the ball at each other as high, long and hard as they could long before the end. Rangers' approach to the final third of the game, in particular, would have made John Beck blush. I can't ever recall a match where the ball flew all the way from one goalkeeper right through to the one at the other end untouched quite so often.
Overseen by the most bog standard of bog standard referees, assisted by two linesmen who were as much use as a loose butt plug, an advert for the newly rebranded English Football League's main competition it most certainly was not. One beautiful sunset, and a home mascot that looked a bit like Gary Penrice, apart this was a game we would scarcely have remembered by the middle of next week regardless of today's Telegraph revelations.

That rather summed Duncan and his rag tag team of officials up. An early booking for Jamie Ward, for what barely seemed like a foul, set the ball rolling. Then later Ben Turner, already on a card, was allowed to brutally cut through the back of Luongo without being spoken to. Nigel Clough rightly fumed when Nedum Onuoha dumped Turner on the gravel track in the second half — no free kick awarded. The linesman in front of the away end got a series of very obvious decisions wrong from only a short distance away — possibly distracted by the guy standing in front of us who enthusiastically abused him throughout the first half using an array of swearwords and a running theme of him being "bald" and "northern" despite him having a full head of hair and coming from Somerset.
There had been 24 separate free kicks awarded by full time, to go with 11 corners. A match of almost 100 minutes, and the ball was in play for no more than a third of it, and on the ground even less than that. It was that sort of night. Two teams playing poorly, overseen by three bad officials. Any neutrals present in a tiny crowd probably needed their shoe laces and sharp objects taking away by the end.

Burton: McLaughlin 6; Mousinho 6, McFadzean 6, Turner 6; Williamson 5 (Myers-Harness 45, 5), Naylor 5, Palmer 6, Irvine 5, Dyer 6; Akins 5, Ward 6

Subs not used: Beavon, Bywater, Miller, Choudhury, Fox, Barker

Goals: Ward 58

Bookings: Ward 25 (not much), Turner 38 (foul)

QPR: Smithies 6; Onuoha 5, Caulker 6, Hall 5, Bidwell 6 (Lynch 81, -); Henry 5; Luongo 6, Borysiuk 6 (Polter 64, 6), Chery 5, Wszolek 6; Washington 6

Subs not used: Ingram, El Khayati, Shodipo, Sandro, Kakay

Goals: Polter 70 (assisted Luongo)

Bookings: Washington 27 (foul), Bidwell 51 (foul in back play)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Northumberland) 4 Booked for things that weren't a booking, didn't book for things that were; ignored obvious fouls in certain instances, while penalising in others for hardly anything at all which eventually led players on both teams embarrassingly throwing themselves around trying to trick him; didn't stop play for Bidwell's serious injury, then did for Naylor's knock. Depressingly bad, ruined an already awful game further.

Queens Park Rangers 3 MK Dons 0, Saturday October 24, 2015, Championship

As on Tuesday night, and last Saturday, when Ramsey’s substitutions were pilloried it was hard to think of a change he could have made without the crowd reacting negatively. Removing Henry, obviously, but possibly also withdrawing Daniel Tozser. The Hungarian, however, remained on despite getting his own share of barracking for a sixty fifth minute free kick that flew over the bar from ambitious range after referee Scott Duncan had booked Kyle McFadzean for pulling back Emmanuel Thomas. Ramsey’s reward for that faith was a pass of exceptional vision and quality 13 minutes from time which freed Matt Phillips into enough space for him to cut inside and bury a second goal into the far corner. Tozser’s corners, too, were a breath of fresh air and made Rangers look threatening every time they were awarded one.

And more importantly - it worked. Until the failed cross on the hour, Henry had actually had his best game of the season, and was one of the better QPR players on the field - admittedly against severely limited opposition struggling to adapt to a higher level. By the time he was taken off, to ironic cheers, Rangers were 2-0 up and had the game won. His own performance waned after the failed cross, and a yellow card for a combination of a foul and kicking the ball away on the hour was mindless, but he’d played well to begin with in spite of the restless natives.

QPR: Green 6; Onuoha 6, Hall 7, Hill 6, Konchesky 6; Henry 6 (Faurlin 84, 6), Tozser 7; Phillips 6, Luongo 6 (Fer 57, 6), Chery 6 (Hoilett 80, 6); Emmanuel Thomas 7

Subs not used: Doughty, Perch, Smithies, Polter

Goals: Emmanuel Thomas 70 (assisted Onuoha), Phillips 77 (assisted Tozser), Hoilett 88 (assisted Tozser/Hall)

Bookings: Henry 58 (foul/kicking ball away)

MK Dons: Martin 6; Spence 6, McFadzean 5, Kay 6, Lewington 5; Poyet 6 (Maynard 79, 5), Forster Caskey 6, Hall 5 (Baker 67, 5), Reeves 5 (Carruthers 57, 5), Murphy 6; Chruch 5

Subs not used: Hodson, Potter, Powell, Burns

Bookings: McFadzean 65 (foul)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Northumberland) 8 Little to referee but kept control well and the two cards were fully justified.

Leicester City 1 Queens Park Rangers 0, Monday April 21, 2014, Championship

Against the Foxes he embarked on a one man mission to get Easter Monday off. Eight minutes before half time he went over the ball on Rihad Mahrez and was lucky that referee Scott Duncan only saw that as a yellow card — Karl Henry did him a big favour, holding a crowd of Leicester players at bay and calming the situation so it didn’t appear as bad as it was. Rather than make the most of his let off, the Cameroon full back launched into another ridiculous tackle midway through the second half on Andy King and trooped straight off down the tunnel with a gormless smile on his face.

The closest they came to an equaliser was Suk-Young lobbing a through ball towards an empty goal as Kasper Schmiechel charged towards him. The ball bounced wide but referee Duncan, perhaps a little harshly given that the keep made an honest play for a loose ball, brought play back, booked Schmeichel and awarded a free kick that Kranjcar struck into the wall.

Leicester: Schmeichel 7; De Laet 6, Morgan 6, Wasilewski 7, Schlupp 6 (Moore 77, 6); Hammond 6 (James 67, 6), King 6, Drinkwater 7, Mahrez 7; Nugent 7, Knockaert 6 (Dyer 68, 6)

Subs not used: Taylor-Fletcher, Logan, Phillips, Wood

Goals: Nugent 67 (assisted Drinkwater)

Bookings: Schmeichel 72 (foul)

QPR: Green 6; Simpson 6, Onuoha 7, Hughes 6, Assou-Ekotto 4; Henry 6, O’Neil 5; Benayoun 6 (Wright-Phillips 46, 5), Kranjcar 7 (Morrison 82, -), Suk-Young 6; Maiga 4 (Zamora 72, 6)

Subs not used: Dunne, Keane, Murphy, Donaldson

Red Cards: Assou-Ekotto 77 (two yellows)

Bookings: Assou-Ekotto 38 (foul), Kranjcar 44 (foul), O’Neil 56 (foul), Assou-Ekotto 77 (foul)

Referee — Scott Duncan (Northumberland) 7 I liked him. QPR could certainly have no complaints about the Assou-Ekotto sending off, and in fact he was very generous with Niko Kranjcar who could also have been red carded so a point off for that. He was calm, not swayed by player reaction, gave himself time to think, got the big decisions right.

Stats

It’s not just QPR who have been on the end of Duncan’s weird and wonderful interpretation of the rules surrounding kicks from the penalty mark. Bristol City lost a crucial play-off chasing game at Aston Villa last week after having a ridiculously harsh spot kick awarded against them when Conor Hourihane appeared to just chuck himself to the ground and catch the ball.

The run of red cards he was on immediately prior to our meeting at Wigan had subsided prior to our Norwich game but he’s been back on form recently with two reds and 16 yellows in just three games, including eight bookings in that Villa game and a six and one haul (and another questionable penalty) at Leeds’ defeat to Wigan on Good Friday. Overall then his totals are 106 yellows (3.31) and nine reds in 32 games which is just about as bang average as you can get at this level.

Two controversial red cards in Birmingham’s 3-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday at the start of January lifted his totals last season to 113 yellows and eight reds from 38 games last year. He was rewarded for a very consistent season with a play-off semi-final between Rotherham and Scunthorpe at League One level to finish the campaign. Three Forest appointments this season saw them draw 1-1 with Bury in the League Cup (goalkeeper Jordan Smith sent off after 30 minutes), draw 0-0 at Swansea and beat Sheff Utd 1-0 at home.

In 2016/17 Duncan was the referee for Ian Holloway’s first game back in charge at Loftus Road, awarding QPR a penalty and sending off Martin Olsson in the very first minute. Duncan showed 113 yellows (2.973) and ten reds that year in 38 games. The Olsson red card at Loftus Road really gave him a taste for it and eight of his dismissals came in a ten game run starting there, including three the week after at Sheff Wed v Preston — though you may recall Preston’s Beckford and Doyle were both sent off for fighting among themselves.

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls