Tony Harrington from Cleveland has his first QPR game of the season at home to Reading on Saturday.

Referee >>> Tony Harrington (Cleveland), awarded three penalties against QPR in two appointments in 2018/19, then two penalties for us at Hull last year.

Assistants >>> Daniel Leach (Oxfordshire) and Robert Hyde (Essex)

Fourth Official >>> Gavin Ward (Surrey)

History

Hull 2 QPR 3, Saturday October 19, 2019, Championship

Let me do this, first of all, by running you through all the chances we created and didn’t score. Hull goalkeeper George Long scuffed a first minute clearance straight at Nahki Wells in a manner that brought back memories of Kelvin Davis teeing up Paul Furlong at Portman Road a lifetime ago — Wells couldn’t get the ball under control as well as the great man had and the opportunity slid by. A minute later Ebere Eze was executing a dignity stealing nutmeg on Kevin Stewart and aiming for the top corner but Long saved with two hands. When Wells did, emphatically, find the back of the net with a one on one finish he was pulled back by referee Tony Harrington, with whom QPR have extensive history, for an incredibly generous foul on a beaten defender. Later Eze tried his luck with a free kick after Bright Osayi-Samuel drew a foul on the edge of the box but found Long in flying form in the other top corner this time.

There was so much more to come. With time ticking down towards 90, Hull’s frustration at their inability to lay a glove on the game’s star man had started to manifest itself in wild hacks at his shins. With each desperate, cynical lunge came another deft flick, another silky slalom, another show of strength, another drop of the shoulder, another twist of the dreds and another move off beyond the challenger and into space. One, two, three Hull men all had a go as he slipped and tricked his way from the far touchline down to the byline and along into the penalty area. Back he checked, round a fourth man, on he went, ball glued to his foot, like an adult playing in a kids match. It was mesmeric, and it was heading straight for the hapless Lichaj who couldn’t help but trip him again for a second penalty. My word. Eze took the kick himself, tried to sit Long down again, and then, when the goalkeeper didn’t buy it, simply sent the ball screaming into the other bottom corner like a shell. Outstanding. Print it out for Joan.

Hull: Long 7; Lichaj 3, Burke 5, Tafazolli 6, Elder 5; Stewart 5, Honeyman 4 (Toral 77, 6), Irvine 5; Grosicki 4 (Bowler 84, -), Eaves 5 (Magennis 62, 5), Bowen 7

Subs not used: Batty, Ingram, Pennington, Da Silva Lopes

Goals: Bowen 29 (assisted Eaves, pre-assist Long), Magennis 90+6 (assisted Toral)

Bookings: Bowler 90+10 (foul)

QPR: Kelly 6; Rangel 8, Leistner 7, Barbet 6, Manning 8; Scowen 7, Cameron 8; Chair 7 (Amos 83, -), Eze 9, Osayi-Samuel 7 (Pugh 62, 6); Wells 6 (Hugill 62, 6)

Subs not used: Lumley, Kane, Ball, Mlakar

Goals: Manning 44 (unassisted), Eze 75 (penalty, won Eze), 88 (penalty, won Eze)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 7 My heart sank when I saw we had this guy for another away game given his record with us, and for one horrible moment I thought he was going to wave away the first penalty appeal by Eze which was as blatant as they come. But he called that, and the second spot kick, exactly right. I did wonder why Lichaj didn’t see a card for the first one, given that it was a deliberate trip on a player streaking away on goal with no attempt at the ball, and I thought Wells’ disallowed goal in the first half was a very generous call, but overall not too bad.

Bristol City 2 QPR 1, Tuesday February 12, 2019, Championship

Cousins, much maligned, picked up where he’d left off against Birmingham with an energetic and physical protection of the defence behind him. Pawel Wszolek took to his task well, tracking back and making key interventions. Mass Luongo gave away a succession of cynical, tactical fouls without seeing a yellow card — when Marlon Pack was later booked for similar we thought we were getting a lot out of referee Tony Harrington. Oh how we’d laugh at that notion later. With the three of Furlong, Leistner and Hall looking relatively untroubled, bar one fumble from an increasingly nervous Joe Lumley for which he was awarded a generous free kick, it all seemed set for a stalemate.

Their fury was justified, but in the lead up to it Rangers had turned down three opportunities to clear the ball and then given away a dangerous free kick — albeit for an alleged foul by Freeman almost as soft as the penalty itself and then taken with a moving ball. Not the referee’s finest hour — just to put the tin hat on it he waved away a very presentable shout for a foul in the other box on Cousins in the remaining injury time — but equally not Rangers’ either. Braindead play all round.

City: Fielding 6; Pisano 6, Kalas 6, Webster 6, Kelly 5 (Dasilva 45, 7); Pack 6 (Taylor 66, 6), Brownhill 7; Paterson 7, Weimann — (Eliasson 18, 8), O’Dowda 6; Diedhiou 6

Subs not used: Wright, Baker, O’Leary, Palmer

Goals: Eliasson 73 (assisted Paterson), Diedhiou 90 (penalty, won Diedhiou)

Bookings: Pack 62 (foul), Pisano 69 (foul)

QPR: Lumley 5; Furlong 6 (Osayi-Samuel 90+4, -), Leistner 6, Hall 6; Wszolek 6, Bidwell 5; Luongo 6, Cousins 7, Freeman 6; Smith 7 (Hemed 72, 4), Wells 5 (Eze 78, 5)

Subs not used: Ingram, Scowen, Manning, Kakay

Goals: Smith 45 (assisted Bidwell/Wells)

Bookings: Furlong 90+2 (alleged foul), Leistner 90+2 (dissent), Hall 90+2 (dissent), Bidwell 90+7 (foul), Wszolek after final whistle (dissent), Lumley after final whistle (dissent)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Durham) 3 Third completely inept refereeing performance in a row in the league. He’d already been thoroughly odd all the way through the game: letting Luongo off with five fouls including a couple of really cynical trips and one into the groin of an opponent only to then book Pack for his first one; giving a foul against Matt Smith for standing still while an airborne defender smashed into the back of his neck; disallowing a Bristol City goal almost before the corner had even been taken for an offence far less than many he ignored before and after. And then there was the penalty, which much like the handball at Wigan and the failure to send of Maghoma at the weekend was not only plain wrong, it also wasn’t that hard to get right. Given that nothing happened to warrant its award, you can only conclude that the decision — made after an inordinate delay — was crowd influenced. To then flash around six yellow cards in stoppage time to players complaining about it smacked of jumped up small man syndrome. You know when you’ve made a mistake, we all know that horrible hot feeling, just suck it up, get the penalty taken, get full time blown and fuck off home you little scrote, don’t be booking six players for pointing it out to you.

West Brom 7 QPR 1, Saturday August 18, 2018, Championship

What happened next was a cataclysmic collapse and it started, as ever, with two more goals through that pleasure window immediately before and after half time which QPR love so dearly. First, in the 53rd minute, Barnes skipped round Scowen way too easily, stood Lynch up and unloaded a shot off the base of the far post. Left back Kieran Gibbs slammed in the rebound despite flailing attempts on the line from Osman Kakay and Matt Ingram. Then, two minutes later, Lynch was caught trying to be too clever for his own good in possession on halfway by Phillips who freed Gayle and Scowen deliberately and senselessly tripped him in the penalty box — Rodriguez stuck away the spot kick.

Three more goals followed, in increasingly embarrassing, humiliating and soul-destroying fashion. Leistner dallying over a loose ball in the penalty area hoping his goalkeeper might come and help, Ingram arriving late on the scene with a wild lunge that sent Rodriguez tumbling for a second penalty from referee Tony Harrington. One of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. Rodriguez converted and is now the league’s early pace setter with four goals — three of them penalties. Hal Robson Kanu, on from the bench, nodding down for Phillips to score a sixth untouched and unchallenged. Another sub, James Morrison, running off the back of a static Luke Freeman to square for Robson Kanu himself to add a seventh. The body language spoke volumes. To a man, they’d given up long before the end.

West Brom: Johnston 6; Adarabioyo 6, Bartley 5, Hegazi 6, Gibbs 7; Livermore 7, Brunt 7 (Barry 73, 6); Phillips 8, Barnes 8 (Morrison 86, -), Rodriguez 8; Gayle 8 (Robson Kanu 83, -)

Subs not used: Myhill, Townsend, Burke, Field

Goals: Phillips 28 (assisted Barnes/Gayle), Gibbs 53 (assisted Barnes), Rodriquez 55 (penalty, won Gayle), 82 (penalty, won Rodriguez), Gayle 67 (assisted Gibbs), Phillips 88 (assisted Robson Kanu), Robson Kanu 90+1 (assisted Morrison)

Bookings: Brunt 18 (foul), Bartley 45+3 (foul)

QPR: Ingram 2; Kakay 3, Leistner 2, Lynch 3 (Baptiste 77, 4), Bidwell 3; Scowen 3, Cousins 2; Eze 4 (Washington 58, 3), Freeman 3, Luongo 3; Smith 3 (Wszolek 81, -)

Subs not used: Lumley, Chair, Smyth, Sylla

Goals: Lynch 35 (assisted Freeman/Smith)

Bookings: Scowen 54 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 8 Very decent, few errors, all major decisions correct, both penalties and all three bookings blatant.

QPR 1 Barnsley 0, Saturday February 3, 2018, Championship

The goal that sealed it was worthy of winning any match. Three minutes after half time Josh Scowen made the most of too much time and too much space 25 yards out from goal to get the ball out of his feet and whip a clean strike round goalkeeper Nick Townsend (making his first start of the season) and into the far bottom corner. Nice to see Scowen get some reward for his hours of thankless toil at the base of a poor side’s engine room, nice to get a still all-too-rare goal from central midfield (something we still desperately need to improve), nice to see a goal of such high quality in such a drab game, and nice for the old player scoring against his former club and player scoring his first goal in 53 appearances to go for us for a change rather than against us. But it was the one shining moment of quality in a game that, particularly in the first half, bordered on being fucking abysmal and even that was celebrated in quite a muted and odd manner because the crowd was still trying to fathom how Matt Smith being dragged to the floor by the throat by everybody’s favourite backseat referee Matt Mills wasn't worthy of a penalty seconds before.

It was at least watchable by the point, which is more than you could say for a turgid first half spent mostly waiting for referee Harrington to check whether the ball was placed precisely right for corners to be taken. Moncur hit a low shot that Smithies saved comfortably, giant Kieffer Moore did the same after ten minutes fresh from his move from Ipswich in January, and Gardner volleyed over from 15 yards. Adam Hammill drew a great clearance from Nedum Onuoha with one cross, and a splendid one-handed save up in the top corner from Smithies with a dipping volley. Harrington’s decision to book Jordan Cousins for the first foul of the game, then let a series of other poor tackles from both teams slide with just a word on the run, only darkened the mood among what looked like the lowest attendance at this ground for a Saturday league game in many a long year — the announced crowd in excess of 12,000 about as believable as a ‘Sky sources’ story on deadline day. Andy Yiadom, a summer transfer target for Rangers, smacked Jack Robinson with no comeback in one particularly inconsistent moment of refereeing before Gary Gardner was deservedly booked to huge applause for interrupting a counter attack. QPR had one blocked shot from Cousins amongst a twenty second minute goalmouth scramble to show for their ‘efforts’. It was, in all honesty, like watching paint dry. And not very good paint at that.

QPR: Smithies 7; Perch 6, Onuoha 6, Lynch 7; Wszolek 6, Robinson 6; Scowen 7, Freeman 6, Cousins 6 (Manning 67, -); Washington 5 (Bidwell 90, -), Smith 5 (Osayi-Samuel 79, 5)

Subs not used: Ingram, Baptiste, Eze, Oteh

Goals: Scowen 48 (unassisted), Robinson 90+4 (foul)

Red Card: Manning 71 (killing a man to death)

Bookings: Cousins 5 (foul)

Barnsley: Townsend 6; Yiadom 6, Mills 6, Lindsay 6, Pinillos 6 (Mahoney 80, 6); Gardner 6, Williams 6, Hammill 6 (Hedges 68, 5); Moncur 7; Bradshaw 6, Moore 6 (McBurnie 68, 5)

Subs not used: Davies, Mallan, Pearson, Thiam

Bookings: Gardner 31 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 5 Very decent in his recent appointments with us but a bit of a pain here. Absolutely no arguments with the Manning red card but his decision to issue a ridiculously harsh yellow card to Jordan Cousins so early placed him behind the eight ball for the rest of the half, and he was forced to let several players off with identical offences or risk turning a run-of-the-mill Championship game into an absolute card fest. There was no need to put himself under that pressure. Rangers haven’t had a penalty since the opening day of the season and Matt Smith has been particularly hard done to in that regard — having seen Matt Mills respond to getting the wrong side of his man by yanking him to the floor by the throat just before Scowen’s goal I’m now resigned to us never getting a spot kick ever again.

QPR 2 Wolves 1, Saturday October 28, 2017, Championship

Yes, Wolves looked good at times, but only in fits and starts. They were hamstrung by first Ivan Cavaleiro and then later substitute striker Bright Enobakhare’s apparent total lack of knowledge of how the offside law works. When Cavaleiro did finally get through on goal with the flag down, he flung himself theatrically to ground in the penalty box under minimal contact from Jack Robinson. Referee Tony Harrington, excellent all afternoon, waved the half-hearted appeals away.

QPR: Smithies 7; Baptiste 6, Lynch 7, Robinson 8; Cousins 6 (Wszolek 66, 6), Bidwell 8; Scowen 8, Freeman 7 (Furlong 90+2, -), Luongo 8; Washington 7, Sylla 6 (Smith 66, 7)

Subs not used: Mackie, Ngbakoto, Lumley, Wheeler

Goals: Washington 41 (assisted Luongo), Smith 82 (assisted Lynch)

Bookings: Bidwell 45+1 (foul), Luongo 79 (foul), Lynch 90+6 (foul)

Wolves: Ruddy 6; Batth 5, Coady 5, Doherty 6, Douglas 7; Neves 6 (Marshall 84, -), Miranda 6, Saiss 6; Cavaleiro 4 (Costa 57, 6), Bonatini 6 (Enobakhareat 71, 4), Jota 7

Subs not used: N’Diaye, Bennett, Boly, Norris

Goals: Bonatini 43 (assisted Jota)

Bookings: Saiss 90+5 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 9 I continue to be disconcertingly impressed with the quality of Championship refereeing this season, and how there seems to be a concerted effort not to smother games with cards and endless whistle. I suspect the Wolves equivalent of this site would give him a five and say they should have had a penalty but I thought that would have been soft and he set his stall out early on that just because there’s contact, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a foul. By waving away a few early cheap ones he contributed to the flow and tempo of the game.

QPR 2 Barnsley 1, Tuesday March 7, 2017, Championship

It remained 1-0 until half time, although quite how, nobody could be sure. Ngbakoto struck a fresh air shot when well placed two minutes later, then did connect with a fierce volley from the edge of the area when a cross was cleared up in the air — Davies did well to save. James Perch, already yellow carded for his weekly attempt to kill a man to death with a wild hack which actually seemed to do more damage to him than anybody else, crashed a header off the underside of the bar having arrived at the back post all the way from right back.

The result was the Tykes drew a blank from 45 minutes of football when most sides would have scored at least twice. Watkins and Armstrong’s finishing, if not their movement which was too much for Onuoha and Hall at times, made one grateful Tom Bradshaw spent the first half on the bench. That was corrected at half time, but only after the fourth official and referee Tony Harrington had faffed about making sure he had the regulation socks on.

QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 6 (Furlong 48, 7), Onuoha 6, Hall 5, Bidwell 7; Luongo 7, Manning 7, Freeman 8; Wszolek 8 (Washington 70, 6), Sylla 7, Ngbakoto 6 (Morrison 87, -)

Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Doughty, Smith

Goals: Sylla 7, MacDonald og 66 (assisted Wszolek)

Bookings: Perch 14 (foul), Bidwell 83 (foul), Manning 86 (foul)

Barnsley: Davies 6; Yiadom 6, Roberts 6, MacDonald 6, Elder 5; Scowan 7, James 7, Mowatt 6 (Bradshaw 45, 7), Kent 6 (Hammill 77, 6); Watkins 6 (Hedges 73, 6), Armstrong 6

Subs not used: Moncur, Townsend, Jackson, Jones

Bookings: Hammill 85 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 6 Bit fussy, but not too bad overall. The Bradshaw nonsense at half time seemed pedantic in the extreme.

Blackburn 1 QPR 0, Saturday February 4, 2017, Championship

There’s something about Queens Park Rangers playing games in this part of the world against teams managed by Owen Coyle that turns assistant referees into incompetent, window-licking morons, incapable of finding their own arse with both hands or identifying the blatantly obvious when it occurs right in front of their face.

We can talk about goalline technology in the Championship all we like — not much of a discussion, it should absolutely be here and should have been here since it was introduced in the Premier League — but the simple fact is this one was blatantly fucking obvious. A one-eyed, drunk chimp could have told you it was a goal.

Blackburn: Steele 6; Nyambe 6, Greer 6 (Akpan 70, 6), Lenihan 6, Lowe 6; Feeney 7, Mulgrew 6, Conway 6 (Mahoney 65, 6), Bennett 6; Gallagher 7, Graham 5 (Emnes 65, 7)

Subs not used: Joao, Guthrie, Brown, Raya

Goals: Gallagher 90+1 (assisted Emnes)

QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 6 (Lua Lua 90+4, -), Onuoha 6, Lynch 6, Bidwell 7; Luongo 6 (Morrison 78, 5), Perch 6, Manning 7; Mackie 6 (Smith 62, 6), Washington 6, Wszolek 6

Subs not used: Freeman, Hall, Goss, Ingram

Bookings: Perch 59 (foul), Manning 80 (foul), Furlong 90+1 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 6 Quite a decent referee actually from what we’ve seen of him this season. Good with the advantage, not too hot with the cards, tries to give games a good chance. Sadly, completely let down by an assistant referee here who should certainly be considering a change of career, or a full frontal lobotomy. Useless fucking prick.

QPR 2 Ipswich Town 1, Monday January 2, 2017, Championship

QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 6, Hall 8, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6; Manning 6 (El Khayati 68, 6), Cousins 6, Borysiuk 6 (Onuoha 58, 7); Mackie 7, Wzsolek 7, Sylla 7 (Washington 38, 5)

Subs not used: Ingram, Ngbakoto, Sandro, Shodipo

Goals: Sylla 30 (assisted Perch), Wszolek 83 (assisted Onuoha)

Ipswich: Bialkowski 6; Webster 6, Chambers 6, Berra 6, Kenlock 6 (Knudsen 77, 6); Emmanuel 5 (Ward 46, 6), Bru 6 (Douglas 69, 5), Skuse 6, Lawrence 7; Pitman 6, McGoldrick 7

Subs not used: Gerken, Varney, Sears, Dozzell

Goals: Lawrence 48 (unassisted)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 8 Right fussy plonker when we had him earlier this season for Swindon but this was a well controlled game, allowed to flow, with no cards, and no big decisions wrong.

QPR 2 Swindon 2, League Cup First Round, Wednesday August 10, 2016

Referee Tony Harrington exacerbated matters, stopping the play unnecessarily frequently - including the very generous award of a free kick on the halfway line to QPR who might have liked him not to bother and allow them to streak away in a three v one attack instead. Several yellow cards were awarded completely at random. On three separate occasions play was brought back because a restart was adjudged to have been executed with a moving ball. It was the very definition of ball ache.

The farce dragged on, with scant regard for local last orders regulations. Referee Harrington had a prolonged discussion with Swindon manager Williams before taking no action.

QPR: Ingram 7; Furlong 6, Onuoha 6, Lynch 5 (Polter 78, 7), Perch 5; Ngabakoto 6 (Kpekawa 71, 5), Henry 6, Cousins 6, Shodipo 6 (Chery 58, 7); El Khayati 5; Washington 5

Subs not used: Smithies, Hall, Gladwin, Kakay

Goals: Ngabakoto 58 (assisted El Khayati), Washington 93 (assisted Chery)

Bookings: Perch 57 (foul), Henry 90+2 (unsporting), Polter 103 (foul)

Swindon: Vigouroux 7; Jones 5, Thomas 6, Thompson 6 (Iandolo 61, 6), Sendles-White 6; Brophy 6, Rogers 6, Kasim 7 (Smith 65, 6), Barry 6; Hylton 6 (Stewart 65, 7), Norris 6

Subs not used: Goddard, Henry, Evans, Young

Goals: Stewart 72 (unassisted), Brophy 107 (unassisted)

Bookings; Barry 90+2 (unsporting), Stewart 112 (foul)

Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 5 A right pedantic arsehole.

Stats

Just the one red card in 13 appointments so far this season, with 38 yellows (2.92) into the bargain. Six yellows at Forest 0-1 Swansea is the biggest single haul so far. All his games bar one in the EFL Cup have been in the Championship. A flurry of four yellow cards in three games at the end of last season, including two in Wycombe’s 4-1 play-off win at Fleetwood, boosted his totals to 89 yellows (2.617) and seven reds in 34 games overall. He refereed Reading twice, a 2-0 away win at Huddersfield, and 2-1 home win against Millwall.

The Twitter @loftforwords

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