Michael Salisbury, fast tracked onto the Premier League list for this season, is back in the Championship this weekend as QPR head to Barnsley.

Referee >>> Michael Salisbury (Lancashire), was originally down to referee our cup tie with Rotherham but was switched onto Newcastle v Cambridge.

Assistants >>> James Mainwaring (Lancashire) and Matthew Wilkes (West Midlands)

Fourth Official >>> Sebastien Stocksbridge (Tyne and Wear)

History

QPR 2 Birmingham 0, Tuesdsay October 28, 2021, Championship

And, initially, trouble at mill. QPR looked nervous and tentative. Passes, simple passes, went astray and askew. They found the front row of the Ellerslie Road stand a hell of a lot for a professional football team. Dom Ball had a mad half hour, passing the ball to Birmingham players more than most of the Birmingham players did themselves. Any attempts to spark rhythm and tempo in their play, or passion and noise from the crowd, disrupted by Troy Deeney convening a refereeing committee to discuss each decision made in turn, and any Birmingham throw in awarded this side of the Westway putting the match on hold so Roberts could walk forward from centre back, direct the nine other outfield players to the precise position he wanted them in, select a football inflated to a pressure of his liking, find the only dry towel left in the W12 postcode through a biblical deluge, perform the frankly impossible task of getting the ball bone dry amidst an apocalyptic monsoon, fashion a run up through this stadium’s close quarters, and then finally heave the ball off into the night sky. What you don’t need in these circumstances is a referee being particularly pedantic about the placement of everything, and what we got was Michael Salisbury. Already slowed to a crawl, had Birmingham taken the lead this game would have been tumour inducing.

QPR: Dieng 6; Odubajo 6, Dickie 7, Dunne 7, Barbet 6, Willock 7; Ball 6, Dozzell 6 (Amos 63, 7), Chair 8; Austin 6 (Gray 72, 5), Dykes 6 (Adomah 72, 7)

Subs not used: Kakay, De Wijs, Thomas, Walsh

Goals: Chair 34 (assisted Odubajo), 64 (assisted Dykes)

Bookings: Dozzell 54 (foul)

Birmingham: Sarkic 5; Colin 6, Roberts 6 (McGree 71, 6), Dean 6, Sanderson 6, Bela 7; Woods 6, Sunjic 5, Chong 5; Hogan 6 (Aneke 71, 5), Deeney 4 (Jutkiewicz 56, 6)

Subs not used: Friend, Graham, Trueman, Chang

Bookings: Sunjic 86 (foul)

Referee — Troy Deeney (Birmingham) 6 I felt Michael Salisbury allowed himself to be worked over. Prior to QPR taking the lead the amount of time the game was stopped so Scott Hogan and Troy Deeney could engage him in a prolonged conference became a bit of a farce — but on almost every occasion a soft appeasement decision for some nondescript pushing offence or non-existent handball followed, rewarding them for the action. Andre Dozzell was rightly booked for a cynical, tactical foul but when Chris Willock managed to ride through two deliberate hacked attempts to bring him down there wasn’t so much as a word on the run for either player once the move had played out. The rules around time wasting were completely suspended for Marc Roberts’ long throw routine — one to bear in mind when Sam McCallum is back in the team and we’re defending a lead in the future, apparently you’re allowed to spend up to a minute fannying around cleaning the ball and marking a run up out as long as the resulting throw is impressively long enough. Allowing the game to be stopped for another ridiculous length of time so a Birmingham player could have his thumb put back into place, not ten feet away from a touchline, was another example of how a weak referee allowed himself to be played. The only thing he was really hot on was the maddening insistence on everything being taken from exactly the right blade of grass. If Birmingham had taken the lead when they should have done, this game would have descended into the father of all ball aches, and this mark would undoubtedly have gone lower still. It’s only as high as it is because he was very good at spotting and ignoring a number of obvious dives — Chong and Austin particularly guilty, potentially Moses as well although I felt that was a slip.

QPR 0 Huddersfield 1, Saturday March 13, 2021, Championship

QPR’s threat, by comparison, began and ended with the Kane chance. They didn’t register a single serious effort on Schofield’s goal in the entire second half. While Huddersfield’s subs improved them and caused QPR new and different problems, unusually belated changes from the Rangers bench bore no affect whatsoever on a flatlining patient. They certainly weren’t helped by the tempo of the game, with the Terriers understandably happy to slow things to a snail’s pace at moments that suited them - if only referee Salisbury was half as hot on the time wasting as he was on making sure every single fucking throw in was taken from exactly the right fucking blade of grass every fucking time it went out of play. At one stage Duane Holmes, a player I’ve always rated and would have liked to see at Rangers since seeing him play a youth cup final on this ground for Huddersfield many years ago, literally sat down on the front row of the Ellerslie Road stand to perform an elaborate and prolonged cleaning of the football before eventually returning it into play. But Rangers had far bigger issues on Saturday than that.

QPR: Dieng 6; Kakay 5, Dickie 5, Barbet 5; Kane 4 (Adomah 76, 5), Field 5 (Thomas 88, -), Johansen 5, Chair 5 (Dykes 76, 4), Wallace 5; Willock 6, Austin 4 (Bonne 88, -)

Subs not used: Lumley, De Wijs, Ball, Cameron, Hämäläinen

Bookings: Johansen 86 (foul)

Huddersfield: Schofield 6; Edmonds Green 6, Keogh 6, Sarr 6; Pipa 7, Bacuna 7, O’Brien 7, Hogg 7, Rowe 5 (Duhaney 52, 6); Campbell 5 (Sonogo 67, 6), Mbenza 6 (Holmes 52, 7)

Subs not used: Minguez, Stearman, Ward, Brown, Pereira, High

Goals: Bacuna 55 (assisted Pipa)

Michael Salisbury (Lancashire) 5 When you have a team trying to slow the pace of the game and clock run halfway through the first half, it would help the situation if the referee did something about it other than issue a series of verbal warnings which themselves take up yet more time. It would also help if the referee himself didn’t have such a pedantic fucking obsession about where throw ins are to be taken from.

QPR 1 Watford 1, Saturday November 21, 2020, Championship

It quickly became a question of whether QPR would be able to make weight of pressure and possession pay with an equaliser, and there were unfortunately plenty of signs that it just wasn’t to be their day, not least through the refereeing of Michael Salisbury. Macauley Bonne was clearly caught in the box after reaching a loose ball first for a stick on penalty — Salisbury gave a goal kick. Twice Craig Cathcart cracked through the back of opponents on halfway to deliberately disrupt attacks — not so much as a word on the run as he jogged back into team shape, job done — meaning that when he later came in over the ball on Todd Kane’s ankle it was only his first yellow of the game when it really should have been a second. Chalobah not only had similar carte blanche with the repetitive fouling, but was also allowed a spray in the referee’s face without action. Dom Ball flicked one over his head on the edge of the box, stretched with a Watford player to reach it on the other side — Watford free kick. Yoann Barbet got a run on his man from a corner, was clearly and obviously pulled to ground to stop him meeting the cross for the most blatant penalty you’ll ever see — Watford free kick. Sadly out of his depth in only an eighth career Championship game, when Salisbury did finally produce a yellow for Ken Sema’s desperate pull back on the always impressive Bright Osayi-Samuel, Conor Masterson headed onto the top of the cross bar from the free kick. Not our day.

QPR: Dieng 7; Kane 7, Masterson 5, Barbet 6, Wallace 5 (Hämäläinen 46, 7); Carroll 7, Cameron 6; Osayi-Samuel 7 (Adomah 69, 6), Ball 6 (Willock 56, 7), Chair 7; Bonne 5 (Dykes 56, 6)

Subs not used: Kakay, Bettache, Kelman, Kelly, Alfa

Goals: Chair 77 (assisted Dykes)

Bookings: Dykes 90+1 (deliberate handball)

Watford: Foster 7; Wilmot 6, Troost-Ekong 6, Cathcart 6; Femenia 6, Sarr 6, Capoue 5, Chalobah 6, Sema 5; Pedro 5 (Quina 46, 6), Gray 5 (Deeney 46, 7)

Subs not used: Ngakia, Garner, Murray, Bachmann, Sierralta, Navarro, Crichlow

Goals: Wilmot 3 (assisted Sema)

Bookings: Sema 59 (foul), Cathcart 85 (foul)

Referee — Michael Salisbury (Lancashire) 4 Only an eighth career Championship match and, frankly, felt out of his depth. The trip on Macauley Bonne is a penalty — gets to the ball first, defender treads on his foot, penalty. The hauling back of Yoann Barbet is even more blatant. To not only wave it away but award the free kick the other way is incredible. Allowed Craig Cathcart to commit several cynical, tactical fouls to disrupt attacks without so much as a word, which meant he wasn’t on a yellow card when he should have been for his late over the ball ankle snapper on Todd Kane. Allowed Chalobah a similar free reign of fouls, including one which he followed up by screaming in the referee’s face, to no sanction. Very, very poor. Big decisions wrong. Several very obvious, basic, not difficult to get right moments botched.

Sheff Wed 1 QPR 1, Saturday October 3, 2020, Championship

Those subs reinvigorated Rangers to a certain extent, but the second half was mostly rather scrappy and lifeless - a procession of misplaced passes, endless free kicks from a rather pernickety referee, and throw ins or all shapes and sizes. Paterson was booked for taking out Osayi-Samuel, and Luongo for cracking into Chair high and late, but both would probably point to an earlier foul by Chair himself as worthy of greater punishment. That was one of four free kicks QPR conceded in little more than 90 seconds, and it quickly descended into exactly that sort of game. A nil nil in all but name. Wednesday rarely troubled as long as Tom Lees was still in the middle of their back three — dominating Dykes and clearing strongly at his near post whenever Rangers did attempt to get dangerous service in from wide.

Sheff Wed: Dawson 6; Shaw — (Palmer 5, 5 (Odubajo 46, 6)), Lees 7, Van Aken 5; Harris 5, Luongo 6, Bannan 7, Reach 6, Dele-Bashiru 6 (Pelupessy 69, 5); Windass 5, Paterson 6

Subs not used: Rhodes, Wildsmith, Kachunga, Waldock

Goals: Barbet own goal 54 (assisted Reach)

Bookings: Paterson 52 (foul), Luongo 63 (foul)

QPR: Dieng 7; Kakay 6, Dickie 7, Barbet 5, Wallace 5; Cameron 6, Carroll 5 (Bonne 64, 7); Osayi-Samuel 6, Amos 5 (Ball 73, 6), Chair 5; Dykes 5

Subs not used: Kane, Bettache, Hamalainen, Kelly, Smyth

Goals: Bonne 90+6 (assisted Barbet)

Bookings: Barbet 77 (foul)

Referee — Michael Salisbury (Lancashire) 5 A poor game for the neutrals not helped by the difficult conditions and a pernickety, fussy, over-involved performance from the referee. Twenty four free kicks to go with a dozen corners — the ball was out of play more than it was in.

Stats

Salisbury stepped up from the National League list at the end of the 2015/16 season and made his Championship debut last year with two appointments in our league. Strangely they were both at Reading — a 3-0 victory over Derby in which Scott Malone was sent off after four minutes conceding a penalty, and ten players had been yellow carded by the end. He did Reading 1-1 Stoke in lockdown and finished the campaign with the League Two play-off final between Exeter and Northampton which finished with three yellows and a red. Overall his yellow card total was low — 79 in 29 — but ten reds, under one in three games, is high.

Last season his card count was extremely low — 60 yellows and a single red in 27 games. That featured six fixtures without a card at all. That single full year in the Championship was deemed enough to add him to the Premier League list for this season and he’s done Palace 1-2 Villa and Wolves 3-1 Southampton at that level so far. Injury through December has restricted him to 13 outings this season with 46 yellows and five reds. His last game was Forest’3-0 home win against Barnsley so, unusually, he has the Tykes twice in a row with this game.

The Twitter/Instagram @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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francisbowles added 09:41 - Feb 12 This should go well. With his softly, softly reaction to fouls, his unintentional slowing down of the game by allowing time wasting and long discussions with the players, combined with biblical weather conditions.
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francisbowles added 09:41 - Feb 12 This should go well. With his softly, softly reaction to fouls, his unintentional slowing down of the game by allowing time wasting and long discussions with the players, combined with biblical weather conditions.
0

francisbowles added 09:41 - Feb 12 This should go well. With his softly, softly reaction to fouls, his unintentional slowing down of the game by allowing time wasting and long discussions with the players, combined with biblical weather conditions.
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