Simpson, eh? Referee
Thursday, 12th Sep 2019 09:24 by Clive Whittingham

Jeremy Simpson from Lancashire is the referee trusted with this weekend’s clash at Loftus Road between QPR and Luton.

Referee >>> Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire), sent two QPR players off at Preston in 2017/18.

Assistants >>> Michael George (Norfolk) and Nigel Lugg (Surrey), both ran the line for Simpson on his last visit to Loftus Road — a 3-2 win for Hull at the start of last December.

Fourth Official >>> Josh Smith

Previously

QPR 2 Hull City 3, Saturday December 1, 2018, Championship

And then there was referee Jeremy Simpson. Few agree but I happen to think the standard of Championship refereeing is actually pretty good. We give sixes, sevens and eights to the officials most weeks and the vast majority of the decisions are correct, including almost all of the big ones, on the days when Andy Woolmer’s not involved. That said, this bloke really boils my piss.

He’s one of those officials that I not only wonder how he’s been able to move up the ladder this far, but why he’s even really in the job at all. Like somebody that was bullied at school by the boys who were good at football and has now made it his life’s work to ruin the sport for them in adulthood, he has absolutely no feel for the games he’s in charge of which frequently spiral into the sort of farcical nonsense we saw in the second half here. There was the bizarre incident straight after half time where Leistner went through the back of Frazier Campbell ten yards away from Simpson who initially played on only to then bring play back and award a free kick, and then belatedly book Leistner, after consultation with the fourth official, who was 40 yards further away and looking through the bloody referee to see the incident. What’s he fucking seen from over there that you haven’t from ten bloody yards away? Two minutes later when he did see Elphick cut through the back of Eze in a much more dangerous position on the field, he awarded a free kick but no yellow card.

He awarded fouls that weren’t fouls, including the one in stoppage time on Luongo for the Freeman free kick wide. Then he didn’t blow for much more obvious offences, such as when Wells was obviously chopped down from behind in the same position five minutes earlier, and when Matt Smith shoved a defender in the area to create a late chance. At one point he stopped the game for a “serious injury” to Campbell that was, pretty balatantly to anybody with half a brain in their head, cramp, and having done that he then attempted to restart it by asking QPR (who were in possession at the time) to return the ball to Hull via a drop ball. Leistner, rightly, told him exactly where he could stick that idea and just played on.

And then there was the time wasting. My god, the time wasting. All of the time wasting. Over every throw in, every goal kick, every free kick, and a laughable moment when Grosicki was replaced by Mazuch midway through the second half and was allowed to pigeon step Paul Pogba penalty style all the way from the centre spot to the dugout in a voyage that seemed to take him 80 years to complete. Simpson’s reaction to this was to issue warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning, after warning. Everybody got a bloody warning in the end, and nobody got a card. On more than one occasion he stopped Marshall in the process of taking a goal kick, or Batty in the process of taking a throw in, to warn them to get on with it. Well that’s just wasting more time still isn’t it you fucking penis?

The second half had four substitutions, including the Grosicki farce; two goals, including the Bowen one where the celebrations lasted longer than the 100 years war; and three Hull injuries, all of which involved ridiculously overblown medical attention followed by a long, slow, drawn out walk to the furthest touchline away after which they were immediately waved back on and came sprinting back into the action. Having spent the whole second half allowing the Hull players to take the absolute piss out of him if he honestly believes that four minutes of stoppage time was adequate at the end of all that then he’s even more of a festering knobcheese than even I’d initially given him credit for.
Batty was eventually booked for kicking the ball away, which was fairly blatant, but nowhere near as obvious as Bowen lobbing the onrushing Lumley long, long, long after he’d been flagged and whistled offside — no card for that. Honest to God the bloke couldn’t find his own arse with both hands. He’s in desperate need of something else to do with his Saturday’s because this sport certainly isn’t for him.

But he wasn’t the reason we lost. Both teams got exactly what they deserved — three points to Hull for an excellent performance, full of attacking intent and clever tactical ideas and set ups; no points to QPR, who were peculiarly lethargic, tactically found out, and horribly complacent.

QPR: Lumley 5; Rangel 5 (Smith 73, 5), Leistner 5, Lynch 4, Bidwell 5; Cameron 5 (Hemed 63, 5), Luongo 5; Wszolek 5 (Osayi-Samuel 86, -), Eze 5, Freeman 5; Wells 5

Subs not used: Ingram, Furlong, Cousins, Scowen

Goals: Wszolek 24 (assisted Rangel), Freeman 90+1 (assisted Smith)

Bookings: Bidwell 78 (foul), Lynch 87 (nearly Christmas)

Hull: Marshall 7; Kane 6, Elphick 7, Burke 6 (de Wijs 46, 6), Lichaj 6 (McKenzie 46, 6); Henriksen 7, Batty 6; Bowen 9, Irvine 8, Grosicki 8 (Mazuch 74, 6); Campbell 7

Subs not used: Stewart, Long, Keane, Martin

Goals: Bowen 5 (unassisted), 69 (assisted Grosicki), Henriksen 20 (assisted Bowen)

Bookings: Batty 73 (time wasting)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 2 Uncle knobhead.

Birmingham 0 QPR 0, Saturday September 1, 2018, Championship

For your authentic, thick Championship sludge simply take two poor teams and boil them through a traumatic August until all the confidence has evaporated and they’re labouring under the misapprehension that a draw from a game against each other is a good result. Add one referee who grew up loathing football and is now dedicating his life to ruining it for the rest of us and serve over 90 stupefying minutes until your guests have started to weep.

The game started with a free kick into the wall from Jake Bidwell tormenter in chief Jota. At the other end, Wells went over in the area and enquired about a penalty from referee Jeremy Simpson. Given that Simpson deemed the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper belting Ayoze Perez in the back of the head wasn’t a penalty at the end of the Reds’ cup tie with Newcastle during the week, this one was never likely to be awarded. Strange though, because absolutely every other single little tiny insignificant thing that happened outside the area was a foul apparently. That’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul, that’s a foul. There were 41 free kicks awarded in this game, not far off one every 120 seconds. Honestly, it felt like three times that. If you told me the ball was in play for 15 minutes across the 90 I’d call you a liar. That’s a foul. That’s a foul.
That’s a foul.
And that.
Rangers did almost win it at the death regardless. A corner to the far post was returned to the heart of the goal mouth sparking a panic and Matt Smith, who has five goals in eight appearances against Birmingham across his career, hit the inside of the post with a close range header he should have scored. Some debate as to whether it would have counted because, of course, naturally, referee Jeremy Simpson had awarded the ten billionth free kick of the game, but that may have been for something that happened after Smith’s effort rather than before. By the time he put his whistle to his lips again and brought the game to a close, it was more of a mercy killing than a full time whistle.

Birmingham: Camp 6; Colin 5 (Harding 59, 6), Morrison 6, Dean 5, Pedersen 6; Maghoma 6, G Gardner 6, Kieftenbeld 6, Jota 6; Adams 6 (Solomon-Otabor 68, 6), Jutkiewicz 6 (Bogle 86, -)

Subs not used: Roberts, Mahoney, C Gardner, Trueman

Bookings: Maghoma 30 (foul), Pedersen 53 (foul)

QPR: Lumley 6; Rangel 6, Leistner 6, Lynch 6, Bidwell 6; Eze 6, Cousins 6, Luongo 5, Freeman 6; Wells 6 (Smith 85, -), Hemed 6 (Cameron 89, -)

Subs not used: Ingram, Baptiste, Osayi-Samuel, Wszolek, Smyth

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 5 A pernickety, pedantic, suffocating presence in a match that was already plenty shit enough without him stopping the bloody thing every minute and a half.

Preston 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 2, 2017, Championship

One early talking point was the Preston goalkeeper’s kit; he wore our green socks and shorts with a black top. All he was missing was the green hoops! Ridiculous, no amateur referee would allow such an obvious clash. In fact in the second half we looked certain to score from a corner but instead of heading it in, the bloke in green and black caught it comfortably.

The good start came to nothing and unravelled significantly when Mackie received his straight red in the twenty third minute. It may or may not have been the correct call, we couldn’t tell from our distant view point, but the referee didn’t hang about in flashing the card. The Preston players certainly helped him with his decision, as one lay poleaxed as if shot, and the assistant refs in white surrounded Mr Simpson. When Mackie finally departed and the “dead” Preston player recovered, we all knew the game was up and the new sequence of defeats was off and running. But why did it have to take until the final two minutes for the winner to arrive? It’s always the hope that does for you. Even with ten men, the home side hardly laid a glove on us in the first half. We continued to look composed in possession but of course didn’t threaten their goal either.

The fans stayed with their team and we even managed to create a couple of opportunities. Robinson broke forward and hit a shot that was on target but well parried by Maxwell, of course the rebound went in between attackers rather than to one, and Smith hit a smart over-the —shoulder effort that went straight to the keeper. Holloway sent on Sylla for a pointless couple of minutes, where Preston successfully kept the ball safely away from their own half and managed to frustrate Bidwell and Baptiste into unnecessary bookings. Baptiste’s obviously proved far more important as he managed to make it two yellows and a red after the final whistle- cheers.

PNE: Maxwell; Fisher, Clarke (O’Connor 45), Huntingdon, Davies; Gallagher, Pearson, Barkhuizen, Browne (Harrop 45); Robinson, Hugill

Subs not used: Rudd, Boyle, Horgan, Pringle, Welsh

Goals: Hugill 88 (assisted Gallagher)

Yellow cards: Huntingdon 79 (foul), Pearson 79 (dissent)

QPR: Smthies 7; Wszolek 6, Baptiste 8, Robinson 8, Bidwell 7; Luongo 6, Scowen 6, Wheeler 5 (Smith 73, 6); Chair 6 (Sylla 90, -), Mackie 4, Washington 6

Subs not used: Lumley, Cousins, Smyth, Manning, Goss

Red Cards: Mackie 22 (serious foul play), Baptiste 90+6 (two yellows)

Yellow cards: Luongo 86 (foul), Bidwell 90 (foul), Baptiste 90+5 (dissent), Baptiste 90+6 (dissent)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 5 Just like our players, the performances of the men-in-the middle have faded recently. The last score I gave, to a Mr Martin at Sunderland, was as close to a ten as is possible, but here Mr Simpson has brought the average score down. Until the red card I thought he looked pretty solid. Mackie’s dismissal came as a shock to us, but we were a long way from the incident. If it was the right call, fair enough, you can make him a 6. But here we have another ref who seems to allow one set of players to berate him with no consequences. Smith could’ve /should’ve earned a penalty when forced to the ground late on. Instead the coward chose to award a free kick for an identical offence outside the box moments later. He also wimped out of sending off the violent Huntingdon, who was already on a yellow, when he flattened Smith again late on.

Bristol City 2 QPR 1, Saturday April 15, 2017, Championship

They’d had the ball in the net before half time as well when Smith nodded a Freeman corner in from half time only to be penalised for a foul on the goalkeeper. Bollocks. Fielding’s a decent shot stopper but he’s too small and doesn’t command his area at all. Flint had more to do with him ending up flat on his back here than Smith did — one of those where the referee, Jeremy Simpson, had decided he was giving a free kick almost before the corner was taken.

It’s a source of frustration that the clampdown on jostling in the penalty area announced last summer has, in the Championship at least, been interpreted almost exclusively as a crackdown on attacking players. While Premier League referees, Mike Dean in particular, have been penalising defenders and awarding penalties for holding, in the second tier all we’ve seen is a huge increase in the number of free kicks being awarded against strikers as soon as corners are delivered. With some referees, Tim Robinson in particular, it’s hardly worth having a bloody corner at all, so keen and quick are they to immediately award a free kick the other way. This one, from Smith, should have stood.

City: Fielding 6; Little 6, Flint 8, Wright 7, Bryan 7; Brownhill 6, Smith 6, Pack 7, Paterson 7 (Tomlin 88, -); Abraham 7 (Wilbraham 76, 6), Taylor 7 (O’Dowda 77, 6)

Subs not used: Magnusson, Hegeler, Cotterill, Giefer

Goals: Pack 14 (assisted Taylor), Paterson 40 (assisted Taylor)

Bookings: Pack 86 (time wasting)

QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 6 (Washington 45, 6), Onuoha 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Manning 6, Freeman 6, Luongo 5; Ngbakoto 4 (Mackie 71, 5), Wszolek 4, Smith 4 (Sylla 69, 6)

Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Perch, Lua Lua

Goals: Sylla 90+6 (assisted Washington)

Bookings: Manning 35 (foul), Luongo 45+1 (foul), Freeman 53 (foul), Mackie 90+3 (foul)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Bit slow to punish the time wasting — Pack eventually booked in the 86th — and I thought Smith’s goal from the corner in the first half was fine. All of QPR’s bookings more than fair. Not helped by a linesman on the main stand side whose concept of the touchline and where it figures in the rules of the game left a lot to be desired.

Rotherham 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 10, 2017, Championship

Rotherham: Price 7; Fisher 6, Wood 6, Belaid 6, Mattock 6; Forde 6, Adeyemi 6 (Vaulks 85, -), Frecklington 8, Newell 7 (Kelly 90+3, -); Ward 8, Brown 8 (Taylor 86, -)

Subs not used: Ball, Blackstock, Yates, Bilboe

Goals: Brown 24 (assisted Ward)

Bookings: Adeyemi 50 (foul), Frecklington 83 (foul), Forde 87 (foul)

QPR: Smithies 7; Onuoha 4, Hall 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 4; Sandro 4 (Gladwin 72, 5); Luongo 5, Cousins 5; Chery 5 (Wszolek 89, -); Ngbakoto 5 (Polter 59, 5), Washington 5

Subs not used: Ingram, Henry, El Khayati, Shodipo

Bookings: Ngbakoto 45+3 (repetitive fouling), Luongo 48 (foul), Polter 73 (foul)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 8 Very decent. Not a lot to referee but consistent, calm and not over-fussy. Blessed relief after the last couple of weeks.

QPR 1 Bristol City 0, Saturday May 7, 2016, Championship

The same can be said of Alejandro Faurlin, who may also now have played his last in Hoops. It looked for one glorious moment in the second half like he was going to sign off with a spectacular goal, tiptoeing through the tulips on the edge of the City penalty box before being tripped right on the line. Tjaronn Chery’s resulting free kick flicked off the wall on its way past the top corner, but referee Jeremy Simpson awarded a goal kick.

But the goal, a real sucker punch, seemed to knock the stuffing out of City for the final half hour of the game. Johnson responded with a triple substitution, and had good reason to believe his side should have had a penalty when Kodjia seemed to be impeded in the area by Hill — I’d have wanted a spot kick at the other end — but the contest petered out after Rangers had taken the lead and QPR could actually have ended up winning by more.

QPR: Ingram 7, Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Hill 7, Kpekawa 7; Henry 6, Faurlin 7; Gladwin 6 (Petrasso 67, 6), Chery 6 (Hoilett 59, 6), El Khayati 5; Washington 5 (Polter 74, 6)

Subs not used: Lumley, Perch, Prohouly, Grego-Cox

Goals: Henry 63 (unassisted)

Bristol City: O’Donnell 6; Ayling 6 (Vyner 68, 6), Pearce 6, Baker 6, Goldbourne 6; Reid 6, Pack 6, Bryan 7 (Freeman 68, 6); Tomlin 8; Kodjia 6, Wilbraham 6 (Dowling 67, 6)

Subs not used: Little, Williams, Agard, O’Leary

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Not much to referee, but I thought City were unlucky not to be awarded a second half penalty and Chery’s free kick was certainly deflected over when he awarded a goal kick erroneously.

Bolton 1 QPR 1, Saturday February 20, 2016, Championship

Bolton’s pitch, more mud than grass, looked to have another couple of hours left in it. Had this been an evening game, referee Jeremy Simpson may have had a call to make. One patch of bare earth stretching from the goal to the corner flag in front of the away end glistened under standing water, and the whole thing played like a skating rink — players struggling to keep their balance, the ball picking up pace and skidding off in random directions every time it landed.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink stiffened his midfield following the capitulation against Fulham a week ago by recalling Karl Henry. A shrewd move in the circumstances — despite a first half yellow card from referee Simpson for a tackle that looked to cleanly take the ball and was certainly no worse or different from three that had been made immediately before it, and Darren Pratley’s subsequent prolonged attempts to wind him up and extract a red card, Henry protected the defence well and closed that space in the ‘ten’ position from where Fulham had done so much damage.

Bolton: Amos 5; Vela 5, Dervite 6, Holding 6, Moxey 5; Spearing 5, Pratley 6, Davies 5, Clough 8 (Danns 84, -); Heskey 4 (Madine 53, 5), Feeney 5

Subs not used: Rachubka, Osede Prieto, Wellington, Dobbie, Woolery

Goals: Clough 68 (unassisted)

QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 5, Onuoha 5, Hall 6, Konchesky 4; Luongo 5, Henry 6 (Chery 80, -); Phillips 5, Hoilett 5 (El Khayati 62, 7), Mackie 5 (Polter 74, 6); Washington 6

Subs not used: Angella, Toszer, Ingram, Petrasso

Goals: Phillips 90+3 (Unassisted)

Bookings: Henry 21 (foul), Luongo 60 (foul)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 6 Booked Henry in the first half when I didn’t even think it was much of a foul, and was then pursued around the field by Darren Pratley and harangued from the touchline by Neil Lennon for the rest of the game as they attempted to Henry sent off. Having been weak in the first instance, he did well to stand up to that nonsense after half time.

Exeter City 0 Queens Park Rangers 2, Tuesday August 6, 2013, League Cup

Set pieces are another staple of a cup upset that Exeter failed to make the most of. Centre half Danny Coles scored a thumping header from a corner against Bristol Rovers in the opening league game at the weekend but the delivery on Tuesday night was poor. When referee Jeremy Simpson adjudged Alejandro Faurlin to have fouled striker Alan Gow on the edge of the QPR box just after the half hour an enticing free kick offered the home side a route back into the game. Winger Liam Sercombe had earlier fed young Jamie Reid in open play and his shot forced a comfortable parry from QPR’s stand in goalkeeper Brian Murphy but on this occasion Sercombe hoisted a mishit shot high and wide of the goal and onto the terrace of QPR fans.

Harry Redknapp meanwhile removed Alejandro Faurlin from the midfield and replaced him with Shaun Derry. This turned out to be the footballing equivalent of a bad move in Jenga and suddenly a previously sturdy QPR tower was swaying alarmingly. Already lacking pace at the back with Richard Dunne preferred to Nedum Onuoha alongside Clint Hill, Rangers suddenly found themselves unable to either maintain possession or get their team high enough up the field. A mild panic set in as the back four got sucked deeper and deeper towards Murphy’s goal. Exeter’s Davies let fly from 20 yards and rattled the cross bar; then referee Simpson waved away loud penalty appeals for a clumsy challenge by Clint Hill on John O’Flynn; and Murphy did little to calm the nerves when he scrambled around a crowded penalty area chasing the ball while leaving his goal unguarded during a melee sparked by an Exeter corner.

Exeter: Krysiak 8, Woodman 6, Baldwin 6, Coles 6, Moore-Taylor 6, Bennett 5, Sercombe 6, Doherty 5 (Davies 46, 6), Wheeler 6 (Parkin 54, 7), Gow 5 (O’Flynn 54, 6), Reid 6

Subs not used: Pyn, Dawson, Gosling, Keohane

QPR: Murphy 6, Simpson 6, Hill 6, Dunne 5, Suk-Young 6, Barton 6, Jenas 6, Faurlin 6 (Derry 63, 6), Hoilett 7 (Wright-Phillips 74, 6), Austin 7, Zamora 5 (Johnson 46, 7)

Subs not used: Green, Onuoha, Ehmer, Henry

Goals: Austin 1 (assisted Jenas), Simpson 50 (assisted Johnson)

Bookings: Hill 85 (foul)

Referee — Jeremy Simpson (Lancashire) 7 Very little to referee really because, as previously said, Exeter stood off and did little to effect the game for the first hour at least. There were none of the biting challenges and frayed tempers you usually see in a fiery cup tie, even with Mad Dog Doherty prowling round the midfield for the first half. Waved away two penalty appeals in the second half, one completely and the other because he felt it was a foul on the edge of the box rather than inside. I’ve seen neither again, and the away terrace didn’t offer a great view of the far end of the ground, but by most accounts the first one should have been given.

Stats

Just two matches so far for Simpson this season which would suggest an injury somewhere along the line. He did Preston 3-0 Wigan on August 10 in the Championship, then Carlisle 1-3 Exeter on September 7 in League Two, booking five players in total across the 180 minutes.

Last season he showed 163 yellows (4.075) and seven reds in 40 games. That was bolstered substantially by eight yellows and a red at Wigan 1-0 West Brom and then ten bookings at Doncaster 0-1 Sunderland in three days in October.

In 2017/18 he finished with 167 yellows (3.55) and ten reds in 47 games. The sending off total was boosted significantly by a run of five reds in six games through April, including two at Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Sheff Utd at Griffin Park. His biggest single total was nine yellows at Villa v Cardiff towards the back end of the season.

You have to go all the way back to January 2015 in League Two for his last Luton match — a 3-2 home win against Cambridge with three yellow cards shown.

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