Durham-based referee Andrew Kitchen has QPR and Cardiff on New Year’s Day as his first season as a Championship official continues.
Referee >>> Andrew Kitchen (Durham), had his first ever Championship game at Loftus Road earlier this season when we drew with Swansea.
Assistants >>> Sam Lewis (Buckinghamshire) and Alex James (Dorset)
Fourth Official >>> James Linington (Isle of Wight)
QPR 1 Swansea 1, Tuesday September 19, 2023, Championship
For the first time this year, QPR were expected to win. And my don’t we know from experience how problematic that can be. Frequently it looks exactly like the first five or six minutes did here, with Swansea fast out of the traps in a high press, and QPR rather caught in the headlights while lackadaisically rolling the ball backwards and forwards between each other waiting for the inevitable goals and glory to present themselves. Without the suspended Jack Colback there was a Hammersmith Flyover of space between QPR’s defence and midfield, into which Jamie Paterson settled into an early revel. They should have scored after four minutes when Paterson shot wide after Josh Key had reached the byline and cut back – a good chance – and then did so on six minutes when Morgan Fox losing a header in the left channel was enough to spark a complete meltdown of the defence and Begovic’s attempt to parry away a low cross was then batter back into the empty net by Josh Ginnelly with his hand.
Not the decision debutant Championship referee Andrew Kitchen needed this early into his second tier bow, and not the night to team him with linesman Bhupinder Gil who could scarcely have done a worse job running the Ellerslie Road side of the ground had he stuffed the flag up his arse and waddled about like a duck for the duration. Both of them, somehow, missed this most basic of calls and allowed the goal to stand. Staggeringly inept.
QPR: Begovic 5; Kakay 5, Cook 5, Fox 4; Smyth 6 (Kolli 87, -), Dozzell 5, Field 6, Paal 6; Willock 4 (Kelman 73, 5), Armstrong 5 (Dykes 61, 6), Chair 6
Subs not used: Clarke-Salter, Dixon-Bonner, Larkeche, Duke-McKenna, Walsh, Adomah
Goals: Dykes 90+2 (assisted Chair)
Yellow Cards: Kakay 67 (foul)
Swansea: Rushworth 5; Cabango 5, Wood 5, Humphreys 5; Key 6, (Tymon 34, 5), Fulton 6, Grimes 6, Lowe 5 (Kukharevych 73, 5), Ginnelly 5 (Cooper 73, 3); Cullen 4 (Yates 58, 4), Paterson 6
Subs not used: Fisher, Pedersen, Darling, Patino, Ashby
Goals: Ginnelly 7 (unassisted)
Red Cards: Cooper 90+8 (two bookings)
Yellow Cards: Wood 5 (foul), Cooper 90+7 (foul), Cooper 90+8 (foul)
Referee – Andrew Kitchen (Durham) 5 I actually feel a little bit sorry for him. The Swansea goal, five minutes into his Championship debut, is a blatant handball. How he hasn’t seen it, I don’t know, but you can only give what you see and if, for whatever reason, he’s unsighted or missed it or whatever, then an experienced linesman on the far side has to help out. You would think his assistants and fourth would have been picked to help get him through this first night unscathed, and unfortunately Bhupinder Gill on the far side was an absolute hindrance to him all night. Between them they botched that relatively simple decision. He actually refereed most of the rest of it quite well, but you can’t be giving a high mark when they’ve allowed a goal that a geezer has batted in with his hand.
Durham-based official Andrew Kitchen was promoted onto the EFL list for the 2021/22 season. He showed 69 yellows and two reds in 29 games split almost entirely across League One and League Two with the odd cup game thrown in there for good measure. Another pretty lenient season in the lower two divisions in 2022/23 as well – 80 yellows and three reds in 33 games, topped up substantially by a season-high total of ten bookings at Fleetwood 0-0 Cheltenham in League One. He finished the campaign with the Barnsley 1-1 Bolton play-off semi-final. So far this term it’s 47 yellows and one red in 18 matches – 11 of which have been in this league since he made his second tier debut at Loftus Road. He’s had Cardiff twice – for a 5-2 League Cup defeat at Blackburn, and 1-0 home win against Millwall.
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Pictures — Action Images