Eltringham in charge at Stoke - Referee Friday, 2nd Aug 2019 08:54 by Clive Whittingham QPR kick off the Championship season at Stoke City on Saturday, with Geoff Eltringham first referee up on the block. Referee >>> Geoff Eltringham (County Durham), having refereed Stoke’s final game of last season, Eltringham is straight back to the Potteries for the first one of the new campaign. Assistants >>> Matthew McGrath (East Yorkshire) and Mark Jones (Nottinghamshire), ran the line together for our 2-2 draw at Rotherham last season. Fourth Official >>> Graham Salisbury (Lancashire) HistoryQPR 1 Bolton 2, Saturday March 30, 2019, Championship QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 5 (Smith 62, 5), Hall 3 (Leistner 49, 4), Lynch 3, Bidwell 4; Scowen 5, Luongo 5; Wszolek 5, Freeman 5, Osayi-Samuel 6; Hemed 3 (Wells 70, 6) Subs not used: Ingram, Furlong, Cousins, Eze Goals: Wells 81 (unassisted) Bolton: Matthews 6; Olkowski 6, Wheater 6, Beavers 6, Taylor 6; Williams 7, Connolly 7; Ameobi 8 (Donaldson 89, -), Buckley 7 (Noone 80, -), O’Neil 7; Magennis 6 Subs not used: Alnwick, Little, Oztumer, Wilson, Connell Goals: Buckley 35 (assisted Magennis), Connolly 71 (assisted Ameobi) Bookings: Connolly 75 (foul) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Durham) 8 Continuing his excellent run of performances in QPR games with another calm, unfussy, unobtrusive display. QPR 2 Leeds 1, Sunday January 6, 2019, FA Cup Third Round Ebere Eze had already been taken out on the edge of the area for a free kick he struck into the wall when Bidwell then found himself turning beyond Davis in the area. He youngster, naively, hung out a leg, tripping Bidwell and conceding an obvious penalty. Rangers have only had one of these this season, scored by Tomer Hemed at Ipswich, and with the Israeli out injured there was some debate over who might take the responsibility. Eze had calmly put one in the top corner during a pre-season friendly with Union Berlin but it was Oteh, as striker, who insisted on being given the chance. He took four steps and gave it a good belt to make it 1-0. Lovely stuff — the confidence to take it, and then the complete lack of histrionics, posing, over-thinking or too-clever-for-your-own-good run up and taking technique that we see way too often these days. Just put the ball down and give it a smack. Wallop. Good lad. The first of Ingram’s big saves came off a Grant Hall mistake. The odd slip was to be expected in Hall’s first 90 minutes since Princess Diana was still in leopard-print swim suits, and when it came it Roberts through on goal but Ingram came out, stayed big, slid under his man and took the ball. Referee Geoff Eltringham rightly siding with the keeper. Alert defending from the other centre half, Darnell Furlong moved infield for this one, averted disaster at the subsequent quickly taken corner - he looks an absolute natural in that position. His second was better, 13 minutes from time as a corner to the back post fell the way of Harrison who struck goalwards only for Ingram to deny him. By then, the former Wycombe keeper was protecting a lead. Bidwell had been threatening from corners all afternoon with referee and Leeds pre-occupied with whatever Grant Hall was up to under Freeman’s deliveries. This time a firm header sailed into the bottom corner with nobody stationed on the back post. The substitutions felt a little later than they could have been as usual — Ilias Chair, Pawel Wszolek and Matt Smith all brought on to run the clock down, Eze, Osayi-Samuel and Oteh given deserved ovations on the way off. But it was Rangers, and Freeman’s super-human levels of energy, that were posing the threats as time ran down — Eltringham returning to book Baker after he’d tried, and failed, to stop him bowling across halfway with pace and purpose once more. Four minutes of injury time sailed on by without incident. QPR: Ingram 5; Kakay 6, Furlong 7, Hall 6, Bidwell 8; Scowen 7, Cousins 7; Osayi-Samuel 7 (Wszolek 86, -), Eze 6 (Smith 90, -), Freeman 8; Oteh 7 (Chair 83, -) Subs not used: Lumley, Manning, Baptiste, Smyth Goals: Oteh 23 (penalty, won Bidwell), Bidwell 75 (assisted Freeman) Bookings: Furlong 72 (foul), Kakay 90+3 (dissent) Leeds: Peacock-Farrell 7; Shackleton 6, Ayling 6, Halme 5 (Pearce 45, 5 (Temenuzhkovat 79, 5)) Davis 5 (Odour 87, -); Forshaw 7, Clarke 6; Baker 6, Roberts 7, Alioski 6; Harrison 6 Goals: Halme 25 (assisted Baker) Subs not used: Huffer, Diaz, Stevens, Gotts Bookings: Halme 20 (foul), Alioski 84 (repetitive fouling), Baker 88 (foul) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Durham) 8 Made an absolute howler in his last Leeds appointment against Forest before Christmas, allowing Roofe to punch in the equaliser, but he’s always seemed like a very good, calm, unfussy referee when we’ve had him and that was the case again here. The Alioski booking seemed a little harsh but I think was a culmination of fouls, dissent and twattery over a few minutes before hand. Penalty was the correct decision and it’s hard to think of much he got wrong. Ipswich 0 QPR 2, Saturday October 20, 2018, Championship QPR crawled all over Town in the first quarter of an hour and eventually, predictably, deservedly, forced their way into an inevitable lead. Hemed had already headed one corner over, and Wszolek drawn a save from home keeper Dean Gerken at a narrow angle after a bad back header, when Luke Freeman’s inswinging corner into a crowded six-yard box was inexplicably palmed into his own net by the goalkeeper. Few, if any, appeals for a foul by Eze who’d simply stood his ground — referee Geoff Eltringham didn’t strike me as a man who’d stand for such obvious nonsense even if there had been. Paul Hurst’s decision to cut the popular Polish keeper Bartosz BiaÅ‚kowski in favour of Gerken fast changing from a bold move into a coffin nail. The only concern was that it was only 1-0 and Ipswich surely couldn’t be as bad again second half. As it turned out, they got worse still, but Rangers had already futureproofed their afternoon with a second goal in first half injury time. Again a Freeman corner caused the damage, this time falling to Eze whose feet were too quick for Nsiala (to be honest it’s hard to think of a land mammal whose movements wouldn’t be too quick for Nsiala) and he drew a clear and obvious foul in the area for a blatant penalty. Nice of referee Eltringham to check if an advantage would occur first at an end of the ground where one of the best QPR goals of the modern era was disallowed in favour of a spot kick being awarded instead back in 2010, but there were no complaints when he did eventually point to the spot. Hemed never looked like he was going to miss, the half time whistle sounded as the ball hit the net. Ipswich: Gerken 4; Pennington 5, Nsiala 2, Chambers 4, Donacien 5; Edwards 6 (Lankester 66, 5), Skuse 5, Chalobah 5, Ward 4 (Jackson 66, 5); Dozzell 5, Sears 4 Subs not used: Knudsen, Nolan, Graham, Downes, Bialkowski QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 7, Leistner 7, Lynch 7, Bidwell 7; Luongo 7, Cameron 7; Wszolek 7, Eze 6 (Scowen 90, -), Freeman 7; Hemed 7 (Wells 72, 6) Subs not used: Ingram, Hall, Cousins, Smith, Osayi-Samuel Goals: Gerken 13 (own goal, assisted Freeman), Hemed 45+2 (penalty, won Eze) Bookings: Lynch 53 (foul) Hull City 4 QPR 0, Saturday April 7, 2018, Championship The final indignity came in added time when our contract-stalling captain completely lost the plot. Scowen committed a foul near the halfway line and a Hull player retaliated, giving Scowen a gentle shove. Onuoha then charged across the field and rammed into the Hull playing sending him flying. As straight forward case of violent contact as you will ever see and the red card was rightly shown. We were 4-0 down in added for crying out loud. Did Onuoha think he was Joel Lynch on Christmas Eve? Three match ban. QPR: Smithies 5; Furlong 5, Lynch 6 (Robinson 15, 5), Onuoha 5, Bidwell 5; Scowen 5, Freeman 6, Luongo 5; Wsolek 3 (Osayi-Samuel 67, 5), Manning 4 (Sylla 45, 5); Eze 5. Subs not used: Ingram, Cousins, Baptiste, Smyth Red Card: Onuoha 90+1 (violent conduct) Bookings: Bidwell 30 (unsporting), Scowen 90+1 (foul) Hull: McGregor, Aina, Dawson, Hector, Clark, Henriksen, Larrson, Bowen (Grosicki 52), Toral (Irvine 59), Wilson, Hernandez (Campbell 71) Subs not used: Meyler, Marshall, Tomori, McDonald Goals: Wilson 42 (assisted Hernandez), Smithies own goal 45 (assisted Hernandez), Grosicki 62 (assisted Wilson), Hernandez 69 (assisted Henriksen) Bookings: Bowen 30 (unsporting), Irvine 81 (foul), Henriksen 90+1 (unsporting) Referee G.Eltringham 8 No complaints at all. Another solid display from a reliable official. Didn't let home fans and players intimidate him, getting all major calls right. Although a special mention to assistant nearest us, who gave a foul to Hull when Sylla was pushed in the back- a truly remarkable decision. Wolves 2 QPR 1, Saturday February 10, 2018, Championship The second half brought another important change with Smith coming on to replace the hapless Cousins. What have we done to this promising player? Injuries and an obvious lack of confidence have resulted in Cousins being a shadow of the man that had looked so good for Charlton. His only impact in the first half had been to flatten an opponent and receive a caution. Lynch was also shown yellow for a typical Lynch challenge. The referee only gave us two minutes of added time to find an equaliser, when do you ever see less than three? But one final chance was created. From another corner the ball broke to Scowen on the edge of the box and he nailed a low drive which fizzed the wrong side of the post. How wide? We couldn’t tell but there would’ve been carnage in the away end if it had been the other side of the upright. Wolves: Ruddy 5, Bennett 6, Coady 7, Boly 7,Doherty 7, N’Diaye 6, Neves 6,Douglas 7,Costa 7 (Gibbs-White), Jota 7 Cavaleiro 7( Afobe) Subs not used: Batth, Vicente, Miranda, Vinagre, Norris Goals: N’Diaye 12 (assisted Cavaleiro), Costa 21 (assisted Cavaleiro) QPR: Smithies 6, Perch 2 (Eze 7), Onuoha 6, Lynch 6, Robinson 7, Cousins 3 (Smith 6), Robinson 7, Scowen 7, Bidwell 5, Freeman 5, Washington 6 Subs not used: Ingram, Baptiste, Chair, Osayi-Samuel, Oteh Goals: Washington 51 (assisted Smith) Bookings: Lynch 40 (foul), Cousins 45+2 (foul), Freeman 61 (foul) Referee: Geoff Eltringham 8 Another good one. He looked a little eager to give easy fouls early on every time a Wolves player started rolling around but he grew into the game, allowing it to flow. In fact he was hardly noticeable for most of the match; always a good sign. Barnsley 1 QPR 1, Tuesday September 26, 2017, Championship Wszolek was presented with a gilt edge chance as time began to ebb away but his strike from 8 yards out, with the whole goal to aim at, was laughable; but we weren’t smiling. We also had claims for a penalty which didn’t interest the officials. I thought at the time it would‘ve been a harsh award and certainly wouldn’t want given against us for that kind of challenge, but it did fall under “you’ve seen them given” category. We were clutching at straws by this time. Smith came on to replace Caulker and Mackie was then replaced by the infuriating Lua Lua whose only notable contribution was to throw himself flamboyantly, forward to the ground after having his shirt tugged backwards. Think Ashley Young and Shaun Derry and you’ll get the picture. I’m glad the referee waved him away even though it was a foul. Can’t shoot, can’t cross and can’t beat a man- what is he doing taking a spot in our squad? I would pick Wheeler every time ahead of this theatrical, non-entity. Rangers had been awful in the final third, Mackie was really isolated and easily handled. One up front against a bang ordinary side was a mistake. We needed bodies in the box to support and good delivery of the ball; we had neither. Osayi-Samuel was frustrating on the ball and subsequently replaced at half time, and on the other side Wszolek had one of his regular annoying performances where he loses possession far too easily. Caulker was booked for a cynical but necessary foul after being caught on the wrong side of his man and Luongo was booked for something, but no-one around me had a clue what for. It looked like a non-league game (bar the goal) but at £30 a ticket, a very over-priced one. Barnsley: Davies; McCarthy, Jackson, Lindsay, Freyers; Williams, Hammill, Moncur (McGeehan 71), Potts (Hedges 80); Barnes (Bradshaw 45), Ugbo Subs not used: MacDonald, Townsend, Pearson, Thiam Goals: Barnes 20 (unassisted) Bookings: Williams 49 (foul) QPR: Smithies 7; Baptiste 7, Caulker 6 (Smith 74, 5), Robinson 7, Bidwell 7; Luongo 6, Scowen 7, Freeman 7; Wszolek 4, Mackie 5 (Lua Lua 74, 5), Osayi-Samuel 4 (Washington 46, 5) Subs not used: Lynch, Manning, Lumley, Wheeler Goals: Freeman 86 (unassisted) Bookings: Caulker 23 (foul), Luongo 39 (foul) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Co Durham) 8 This guy has good ratings on LFW and I can see why. Unfussy, good positioning and lets the game flow. Even when he gave decisions against the hosts the home fans seemed to accept his calls- very unusual. Loved the way he treated Lua Lua and happy to accept the non-award of the penalty. A good official, happy to see him in the middle again. Derby County 1 QPR 0, Friday March 31, 2017, Championship A tough night for Furlong should have been capped with a booking for an off the ball shove on Russell with a quarter of an hour to go. Shortly afterwards he was put out of his misery, replaced by Idrissa Sylla leading to a sort of lopsided 4-4-2 as Rangers went in search of an equaliser. Geoff Eltringham did go to his pocket after a rash challenge from Freeman on Bradley Johnson. As great as Freeman has been to watch recently he is developing a bit of a propensity for poor challenges. Then again, if he had to chop anyone down… Derby: Carson 6; Baird 7, Keogh 6, Pearce 6, Olsson 7; Ince 7 (Hughes 80, -), Johnson 6, Bryson 6, Russell 7, Vydra 7 (Anya 79, -); Nugent 6 (Bent 86, -) Subs not used: Christie, Butterfield, Camara, Mitchell Goals: Vydra 70 (unassisted) QPR: Smithies 4; Furlong 4 (Sylla 76, -), Onuoha 6, Perch 5, Bidwell 5; Manning 5, Hall 6, Freeman 4; Wszolek 4 (Goss 59, 5), Smith 5 Washington 5 (Ngbakoto 69, -) Subs not used: Mackie, Ingram, Robinson, Petrasso Yellow Cards: Freeman 78 (foul) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Wearside) 7 Like all good Victorian schoolchildren he was seen and not heard. A fairly easy game to referee, he was probably a bit too shy to get his cards out - Furlong should definitely have gone into the book. No complaints overall. QPR 1 Burton Albion 2, Saturday January 28, 2017, Championship QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 5, Onuoha 4, Lynch 4, Bidwell 4 (Mackie 87, -); Doughty 4 (Manning 74, 6), Hall 6 (Washington 45, 6), Luongo 3; Wszolek 6, Lua Lua 5, Sylla 4 Subs not used: Ingram, Perch, Eze, Shodipo Goals: Washington 63 (assisted Lua Lua) Bookings: Luongo 86 (foul) Burton: McLaughlin 6; Flanagan 6, Brayford — (Mousinho 3, 6), Turner 7; McCrory 6, Chirstensen 7 (Akins 74, 6), Irvine 8, Murphy 7, Palmer 6, Dyer 8; Sordell 6 (Woodrow 87, -) Subs not used: Williamson, Bywater, Miller, Barker Goals: Murphy 11 (assisted Dyer), Dyer 52 (assisted Christensen) Bookings: Christensen 47 (foul), Irvine 79 (kicking ball away) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (County Durham) 8 As against Villa earlier in the season proved himself to be a friend of the time waster, but overall well refereed. Obvious caveat being QPR were about as strong and intense as church hall orange squash so it wasn’t exactly a tough one to keep hold of. QPR 0 Aston Villa 1, Sunday December 18, 2016, Championship Holloway was full of praise for his beaten side at full time. It could have been different had the recalled Pawel Wzsolek connected to a good through ball from Grant Hall, again pressed higher up the field into midfield, early in the first half. Later Wzsolek's cross that seemed destined to be headed in by Conor Washington in the six yard box was diverted away from him at the last minute. Washington had a penalty appeal given as a corner instead, referee Geoff Eltringham deeming the Villa man won the ball. After quiet beginnings the visitors burst into the game on the half hour when Wzsolek got the wrong side of Kodija in the area and attempted to recover with a clumsy tackle that led to what looked at the time like an obvious penalty. Spot kick duly awarded but no need for panic as Smithies has saved 18 PKs (c Bob Bradley) in his career so far, including five for QPR while a sixth hit the post. Bananaman made light work of Kodija's needlessly poncey run up, diving left to save with relative ease. Perhaps with the former Huddersfield man keeping goal one defensive technique might be to start deliberately giving penalties away. The final ten minutes were dominated by visiting goalkeeper Mark Bunn reaching new levels of cuntishness — allowing balls returned to him to roll past so he had to go and fetch them again, changing the side of every goal kick, pretending to be injured and basically engaging in clock running the likes of which I haven't seen since Paul Gerrard was keeping goal. There's an obvious rule change that could help here — goal kicks must be taken from the side the ball goes out, same as corners, so keepers can't do this irritating walk to the opposite side of the six yard box. The rules as they are written should have seen Eltringham take action far, far sooner than a token yellow card for Bunn in injury time. But the most effective solution to this ball ache would have been a shot or two for Bunn to save. Equalise, and he'd have no advantage to protect. Bunn behaved like an absolute prick, but he didn't have a save to make in the whole game. The easiest clean sheet of his career. In fact, it's getting hard to remember the last serious save made by a visiting keeper at Loftus Road. Eltringham added five minutes to the end of the game, Bunn's antics mean there should have been more, but QPR hadn't had a shot on target in the previous 95 minutes while Villa had tested Smithies seven times so it's a bit rich of them to be arguing the toss over not getting another 60 or 120 seconds. QPR: Smithies 8; Perch 6, Onuoha 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Hall 6, Luongo 5, Chery 5 (Mackie 78, 6); Wzsolek 5 (Shodipo 62, 6), Washington 5 (Sylla 46, 6), Ngbakoto 5 Subs not used: Sandro, Borysiuk, Ingram, Polter Bookings: Luongo 81 (foul) Villa: Bunn 5; Hutton 6, Chester 6, Baker 6, Amavi 7; Adoma 6, Jedinak 7, Gardner 6 (Westwood 89, -), Bacuna 6; McCormack 5 (Agbonlahor 71, 5), Kodija 8 (Gestede 82, -) Subs not used: Gollini, Elphick, Ayew, Grealish Goals: Kodija 75 (assisted Hutton) Bookings: Jedinak 43 (foul), Chester 63 (foul), Bunn 90+3 (time wasting) Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Co Durham) 7 Odd one this, I came away thinking he'd got most of the stuff right. Villa's penalty was a penalty at first viewing, Washington's didn't look like one to me albeit from the other end of the ground. Should have clamped down on Bunn's antics a lot sooner, and Mackie did seem to be pushed in the back in that late incident, but that was about it. Lots, including those watching on TV, have said he was terrible and QPR should have had at least one pen. StatsEltringham finished last season with 125 yellows (3.37) and five reds in 37 games. This was topped out by six yellows and a red at Brentford 2-2 Reading, and seven yellows at Ipswich 1-2 Reading, so clearly he’s about as big a fan of the Royals as we are. He was a regular at Stoke games, with five refereed in total — Sheff Wed 2-2 Stoke, one yellow; Stoke 2-0 Ipswich, two yellows; Stoke 2-3 Shrewsbury, FA Cup, four yellows; Blackburn 0-1 Stoke, one yellow; and Stoke 2-2 Sheff Utd, two yellows. It was pretty much a parred course for him the previous season with 129 yellows (3.68) across 35 games and just the three reds. Some big totals towards the end, with nine yellows and a red at Preston v Bristol City and then eight yellows at Preston v Norwich in the final half dozen games (we don’t like Ben Pearson much either mate). 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