Durham’s Adam Herczeg will be our referee at West Brom on Saturday – a sixth Championship game of his burgeoning career.

Referee >>> Adam Herczeg (Durham), second season on the Championship list, sixth appointment at this level.

Assistants >>> Andrew Dallison (Suffolk) and Nigel Lugg (Surrey)

Fourth Official >>> Dean Whitestone (Northants)

History

QPR 2 Oxford 0, Wednesday December 11, 2024, Championship

Oxford set up in an unusually defensive shape and system for them, presumably thinking QPR would try and impose themselves on the game as the home team and they’d be able to counter. Rangers wanted to play as they have been playing recently, without the ball and high on the press. The result was that clip of the rugby union game where the two teams just drop kick the ball back and forth down the field at each other for an interminable length of time. A glitch in the sporting matrix. The only reason it doesn’t happen is the players usually don’t want it to happen, but it’s a perfectly legitimate way of playing the sport within the confines of the laws of the game. The only thing the match officials can do is blow for half time as soon as feasibly possible, and Championship newbie Adam Herczeg went on 45.01 – for which we all thank him dearly.

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Cook 7, Morrison 6 (Chair 84, -), Ashby 4; Varane 6 (Morgan 76, 6), Field 7; Smyth 7 (Fox 76, 5), Madsen 5 (Andersen 67, 6), Saito 7; Kolli 6 (Lloyd 66, 5)

Subs not used: Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Bennie, Walsh

Goals: Field 53 (assisted Kolli), 68 (assisted Saito)

Yellow Cards: Fox 90+1 (foul), Lloyd 90+3 (kicking ball away)

Oxford: Cumming 5; Kioso 3 (Dale 88, -), Moore 5, Brown 5, Leigh 3; Brannagan 6; Phillips 4 (Rodrigues 58, 6), Goodrham 6, El Mizouni 5 (McEachran 70, 5), Placheta 4 (Edwards 58, 5); Harris 5 (Scarlett 70, 5)

Subs not used; Ingram, Thorniley, Vaulks, Avest

Yellow Cards: Brannagan 13 (foul), Moore 27 (foul)

Referee - Adam Herczeg (Durham) 6 Well there’s a thread on our message board about how terrible he was, detailing failures like QPR’s second half handball penalty appeal (never a penalty for me), the booking of Alfie Lloyd for kicking the ball away (don’t kick the ball away then) when Oxford didn’t get one for the same thing (they were losing 2-0, they want to waste their own time you lettum carry on), why there was nine minutes added to the end (significant injury stoppages with Madsen and Nardi). As you can probably tell, I thought he was fine. I came out thinking probably a seven. Bit perplexed why the Madsen incident in the penalty box was given as an Oxford free kick but I liked that he penalised for handball when Kioso fell on the ball trying to buy a free kick, and adding not a single second to the end of the first half was an act of pure mercy. Pretty fine by me.

Stats

Adam Herczeg finished his time in non-league in grand style at the end of the 2021/22 season, overseeing the remarkable Wrexham 4-5 Grimsby play-off game at The Racecourse Ground.

He’s since done two years in Leagues One and Two, showing 83 yellows and two reds in 26 games (3.19) in 2022/23, and 108 yellows (3.17) and three reds across 34 games in 2023/24.

Last season saw him take charge of Huddersfield 1-3 Coventry at the end of March as his first Championship fixture. The QPR Oxford game was his first Championship outing this season and second career game at this level. He’s since done three more as part of a season total of 27 games, 99 yellows (3.66) and three reds. He’s topped out at seven yellows in the local derby between Bolton and Wigan in League One. This is his first ever West Brom appointment.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

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