Tony Bates, a Staffordshire official with 14 QPR appointments to his name so far, is the man in the middle for the Tuesday night trip to Barnsley.
Referee >>> Tony Bates (Staffordshire), veteran Football League official with 14 previous QPR appointments to his name
Assistants >>> Billy Khatib (Sunderland) and Seb Stocksbridge (Tyne and Wear)
Fourth Official >>> Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1, Saturday March 13, 2010
While Taarabt was causing United no end of difficulties at one end of the field, QPR’s task at the other was being made ridiculously easy by Henri Camara’s laughable inability to stay onside. He seems quite quick, so the need to go so early shouldn’t exist, but he was flagged so routinely throughout the match it actually became quite amusing, particularly as he looked stunned and shocked every single time.
On one of the few occasions the former Wigan striker did manage to stay the right side of the last man he really should have scored – with Rangers appealing for a foul in back play but referee Tony Bates waving play on United were able to burst into the penalty box with Quinn who pulled the perfect ball back behind the backtracking QPR defenders to Camara who had hung back in space well and seemed ideally placed to slam the ball home from fifteen yards out but instead blasted high and wide to the delight of the QPR fans behind that goal. Kaspars Gorkss led a deputation of four QPR players surrounding the match official before Ikeme returned the ball into play from the goal kick.
Taarabt had been impressive in the first half, but he was on a whole different level at the start of the second, tormenting Chris Morgan like a cat with a mouse and drawing a foul from United paid thug on the edge of the penalty box which brought the only yellow card of the game two minutes after drawing the R’s level. Referee Bates had a good game I thought, and Morgan certainly couldn’t complain at his yellow card, however if I had to criticise I thought further cards could and should have been produced as Morgan, Seip and others systematically kicked Taarabt up in the air every time he got the ball under control. When James Harper was then allowed to cynically hack down Faurlin after he’d made him look a fool in the centre of the field without a card being produced the referee was taking his leniency too far. As it turned out a card for Harper may have gone down well with the home fans who cheered his withdrawal in the sixty seventh minute louder than they did their goal. Morgan, typically, was allowed to stand over Taarabt pointing the finger and grunting like a lobotomised gibbon after he’d been fouled yet again but Morgan knew he couldn’t deal with the youngster, and Taarabt knew it too, calmly picking himself up and walking away.
Sheff Utd: Bunn 8, Nosworthy 6, Morgan 6, Seip 5, Stewart 6, Yeates 6 (Little 84, -), Montgomery 5, Harper 5 (Henderson 67, 7), Quinn 6, Camara 4, Cresswell 6
Subs Not Used: Bennett, Taylor, Fortune, Lowton
Booked: Morgan (foul)
Goals: Cresswell 44 (assisted Yeates)
QPR: Ikeme 7, Connolly 5, Stewart 6, Gorkss 6, Hill 6, Faurlin 7, Leigertwood 6, Priskin 5, Taarabt 8 (Buzsaky 87, -), Ephraim 7 (Cook 90, -),Simpson 6
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Ramage, Vine, Balanta, Borrowdale
Goals: Taarabt 49 (assisted Simpson)
Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire) 7 Refereed well with very few decisions, if any, I could actually remember thinking were outrageously wrong. Points deducted for the performance of the linesman in front of us who gave some very perplexing stuff against QPR and for not producing more yellow cards, particularly for Harper and Seip, when they cynically fouled more talented QPR players who’d out foxed them and were running clear into the United half.
Doncaster 2 QPR 0, Saturday November 21, 2009 Our referee Mr Bates then came to the fore with two or three questionable decisions inside two minutes just after the half hour. First Billy Sharp crude hacked down Matt Connolly from behind as he crossed the halfway line – play was allowed to continue as Rangers kept the ball but the referee failed to return and book Sharp for what was the absolute definition of a yellow card offence. As Connolly picked himself up Rangers were denied what looked from our vantage point to be a very decent shout for a penalty as Reid was up ended in the box and to rub salt into those wounds Doncaster were then awarded a very soft free kick for an offence barely half as bad as the one committed on Reid in the penalty box.
Magilton then played his final two substitutions with half an hour still to play. It was no surprise to see Buzsaky, out of sorts and isolated wide in midfield, replaced by Agyemang but the decision to also remove Simpson, our best goal threat, and replace him with Pellicori, a threat only to himself, made little sense. Apart from an infuriatingly high number of offsides the Italian’s sole contribution to this game was a quite ludicrous handball when defending a corner – forget Thierry Henry, this was as blatant as you’re ever likely to see. The Doncaster players were left flabbergasted as Pellicori got caught under a high ball at the back post, reached up and skilfully brought it down to his feet with his hand and played on with both referee and linesman presumably thinking about other things at the time.
Doncaster: Sullivan 6, Chambers 6, Hird 6, O'Connor 6, Roberts 7, Oster 6 (Spicer 87, -), Fortune 7 (Shackell 72, 6), Gillett 6, Shiels 8 (Mark Wilson 85, -), Coppinger 6, Sharp 7
Subs Not Used: Smith, Hayter, Guy, Heffernan
Goals: Sharp 53 (assisted Shiels), Shiels 65 (unassisted)
QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 6, Connolly 6, Gorkss 5, Williams 5, Routledge 6, Reid 5, Watson 5, Faurlin 7 (Taarabt 46, 6) Buzsaky 5 (Agyemang 63, 5), Simpson 6 (Pellicori 63, 4)
Subs Not Used: McWeeney, Stewart, Ramage, Ephraim
Booked: Leigertwood (foul)
Referee: A Bates (Staffordshire) 5 Well the positives are he tried to let the game flow and kept his card in his pocket. However it’s impossible to give too high a mark to a referee who missed what looked like a potential QPR penalty in the first half for a foul on Reid and then a ridiculously blatant handball from Pellicori that should have seen Rovers awarded a spot kick in the second.
QPR 0 Burnley 0, Saturday January 3, 2009
The game started as it meant to go on with neither team on song and possession difficult to come by. Damion Stewart was lucky to avoid a booking when he upended Chris Eagles in full flight but he did pull his leg away and referee Tony Bates gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Agyemang replaced Di Carmine with twenty minutes left to play, Blackstock can count himself lucky, but flattered to deceive after being introduced and QPR failed to threaten the goal again save for one cross into the six yard box from Agyemang that was cleared by the excellent Clarke Carlisle before it got to the QPR man at the back post. Referee Tony Bates, impressive throughout, rightly waved away a half hearted penalty appeal after a coming together between Duff and Agyemang on the left side of the penalty box.
QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Gorkss 7, Stewart 7, Delaney 6, Rowlands 7, Leigertwood 5, Cook 5 (Ledesma 46, 5), Mahon 4 (Ephraim 61, 6), Di Carmine 5 (Agyemang 72, 5), Blackstock 4
Subs Not Used: Cole, Connolly, Alberti, Oastler
Burnley: Jensen 6, Alexander 6, Duff 7, Carlisle 8, Kalvenes 6, Eagles 6, Gudjonsson 6, Elliott 7, Blake 5 (Mahon 72, 5), Paterson 7, Thompson 6 (Rodriguez 86, -)
Subs Not Used: Penny, Akinbiyi, Kay, MacDonald
Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire) 8 Should have booked Stewart for fouling Eagles in the first half but other than that it was hard to fault him and he was hardly noticeable save for one or two mistakes over throw ins and a corner. Not a lot to referee admittedly but excellent all the same.
Swansea 0 QPR 0, Tuesday October 21, 2008
The first flashpoint in what would become a tempestuous match came in the 20th minute when Delaney put in a typically robust tackle from behind on Jordi Gomez on halfway. Gomez’s pathetic antics whenever anybody so much as breathed near him often made it difficult to tell just how bad any foul on him was because he rolled around on the ground clutching his throat regardless but this one from Delaney was clearly late and a bit naughty and deserved a yellow card. After a lengthy chat referee Anthony Bates, living up to his lenient reputation, elected not to show a card and this understandably angered the home crowd and players and spiced up the atmosphere. Things were about to get a whole lot worse though, and the referee’s patience was really tried by the visitors.
Five minutes after the Delaney challenge a hopeful through ball, Rangers played nothing else all night, from Leigertwood seemed to be initially searching for Blackstock who was offside. In the end Martin Rowlands chased the ball through and foolishly launched himself into a lunging tackle on goalkeeper De Vries despite the Swansea stopper clearly getting there well before him. The challenge was late, violent and wholly unnecessary and left the goalkeeper knocked out on the ground – a more blatant red card offence you’d struggle to find and yet as the various bits of De Vries were collected and bagged up by the medical team Rowlands was allowed to get away with a caution.
While all this was going on we noticed that the Swansea substitute that was coming on had to change out of a white kit first and sure enough when the public address system announced the change it was in fact defender Alan Tate who was forced to come on and play in goal for more than an hour. Martinez’s policy of not having a keeper on the bench seemed to have blown up in his face but that reckoned without the sheer incompetence of the QPR team on the night. Ultimately Swansea would have been better throwing another striker on and going without a keeper altogether such was the lack of any sort of challenge posed of the makeshift stopper by the visiting team. Over the course of the next hour or so QPR failed to register a single serious shot on target. Not one. Against a makeshift centre-half-cum-goalkeeper.
Understandably the home fans were fairly irate at this point – robbed of a keeper and yet still playing against eleven men – and the atmosphere was white hot for a while before the break. Referee Bates responded by losing the plot somewhat; booking Delaney for another foul on Gomez that was nowhere near as bad as his first, carding Buzsaky for a nothing foul on Rangel and penalising Lee Cook for a great tackle on the edge of the area. Luckily for QPR Bodde’s subsequent free kick crashed into the end brick in the wall although such was the farcical exchange that took place between Mahon and Cerny setting the damn thing up in the first place it’s nothing short of a miracle that it managed to stop anything at all.
Before half time Gomez tried to get Cook booked by collapsing to the ground and claiming there had been an off the ball incident but his theatrics didn’t impress the referee and only served to increase the nasty element to the game.
Bodde had two further efforts wide of the post and was denied what would have been a simple headed goal at the back post when Hall just climbed high enough to flick a right wing cross away for another corner. The only person happier than QPR to hear the half time whistle was the referee who had started to lose the plot towards the end of the first half and would no doubt have been hoping for some calming words from the managers to their players at half time.
Bates would no doubt have been disappointed that within four minutes of the restart Gomez was down on the floor clutching his face yet again, this time claiming off the ball interference from Leigertwood. After a long consultation with the linesman Bates showed Leigertwood a yellow card and at that point Gomez stunned the world of medical science by making an immediate recovery and return to action. Watch out for this lad in the return fixture, clearly a talented player but a real piece of work with it.
The hapless Ramage was immediately replaced by Connolly. Now Dowie is puzzling me in many areas at the moment but none more so in the right back spot where Ramage keeps his place week after week despite playing very poorly ahead of Connolly who always looks confident and assured to me – Ramage has also left the field for Connolly in a straight defensive swap ten minutes from time twice now. Just what on earth is going on here? Connolly introduced himself to the game by immediately picking up a yellow card – after a free kick was conceded down the QPR right Connolly realised that a quick set piece could expose him too high up the field so he ran away with the ball to prevent that and was booked for his troubles.
Swansea: De Vries 6 (Tate 27, N/A), Williams 7, Painter 7, Monk 7, Rangel 7, Bodde 8, Britton 8, Pratley 7, Gower 8, Gomez 6 (Butler 90), Scotland 5.
Subs Not Used: Brandy, Tudur-Jones, Pintado
QPR: Cerny 7, Delaney 5, Stewart 6, Hall 7, Ramage 3 (Connolly 80, --), Mahon 5, Leigertwood 5, Rowlands 4 (Parejo 59, 6), Cook 4 (Ledesma 65, 4), Blackstock 4, Buzsaky 4. Subs Not Used: Balanta, Cole
Booked: Rowlands (foul), Delaney (foul), Buzsaky (foul), Leigertwood (off the ball incident), Stewart (foul), Connolly (kicking ball away/timewasting)
Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire) 4 Lost the plot somewhat in the first half. It all started when he let Delaney off without a booking for his tackle, had a card been shown there it might have calmed things a little bit but he didn’t, then he let Rowlands maim their goalkeeper without getting sent off and after that it descended into a farce as several QPR players were harshly booked – Ron Atkinson might have refereed to the decisions as “eveners”. Everything calmed down in the second half but the cards kept flying and QPR ended the night with six yellows.
QPR 1 Coventry 2, Tuesday November 2, 2007
City's chief threat was the much talked about Michael Mifsud. My God that lad is quick, and he gave Rangers all they wanted last night. He looks to be an outstanding player at this level but did let himself and his club down with some terrible play acting. Once in each half he produced a stop, drop and roll combo that would make Christiano Ronaldo wet. Both times the referee told him to get to his feet, but he should have been booked at least once. Other than that he was outstanding. The thought of Leon McKenzie still to come back into this side should be a worrying one for the other teams chasing the play offs - only Coventry's financial problems and subsequent transfer activity in January, when you would think some of these decent players may attract bids, will cause them problems.
QPR: Camp 6, Mancienne 5, Stewart 7, Cranie 6 (Timoska 20, 6), Barker 6, Rowlands 5, Leigertwood 6 (Bolder 39, 6), Buzsaky 6, Sinclair 5, Vine 5, Nygaard 5 (Nardiello 44, 5)
Subs Not Used: Cole, Ainsworth
Goals: Buzsaky 50 (unassisted)
Coventry: Konstantopoulos 6, McNamee 6 (Stephen Hughes 90, -),De Zeeuw 7, Turner 7, Hall 7, Osbourne 7, Doyle 7, Tabb 7, Mifsud 8, Adebola 8,Best 7 (Kyle 75, 7)
Subs Not Used: Marshall, Ward, Cairo
Goals: Mifsud 61 (unassisted), Kyle 90 (assisted Hall)
Referee: Tony Bates (Staffordshire) 7 - No cards all night which I like to see, always rather see the players be allowed to have a proper man's match rather than being whistled at and booked all the time. Having said that there one or two naughty ones he missed, particularly the one by Best on Mancienne that rendered him half fit for the remainder of the half. Sadly let down by two abysmal linesman, particularly the one on the Ellerslie Road side. I'd like to take his flag and smack him round the head with it.
Leeds 0 QPR 0, Tuesday February 20, 2007
Referee Tony Bates littered the first half with some bizarre decisions - including a free kick every time QPR put a cross into the box. Maybe the 'hand of Baidoo' goal was playing on his mind and he was determined to stop it happening again by preventing the ball from entering the Leeds penalty area at any point. Gareth Ainsworth struck the foot of the post after Blackstock nodded down Cook's cross but the whistle had long since gone in one such incident.
During the last ten minutes of the half Rangers conceded a succession of free kicks around the penalty area and Sam Timoska was rightly booked for a crude challenge on Cresswell 25 yards from goal. Blake lofted one over the bar and clipped the outside of the post with another. The former Burnley man did get good connection on an inswinging crossed effort from the Leeds right aswell. Camp watched the ball all the way and saved well with his right hand. He also blocked a shot from Jonathan Douglas after Leeds passed a short corner out to the edge of the box.
It wasn't all good news for Camp though as he fell victim to a ball boy and some eccentric refereeing. Camp went to retrieve a ball from behind the goal and asked the ball boy to throw him one, something the ball boy had done every time until this point. Camp approached and asked again but the ball boy continued to just stand there and refuse. So Camp decided to stop as well, and just stood there letting the clock run down. Eventually the youngster dropped the ball at his feet. The home fans applauded and sounded their approval - yes very clever, wasting time at 0-0 in a game you need to win, good to see the schools in Leeds are doing their jobs.
The next goal kick arrived soon after and Camp was able to retrieve the ball without having to explain what a ball was to any of the local youths this time. He teed the ball up and got ready to clear it but the ball rolled out of the six yard box, Camp went to replace it and found himself confronted by Mr Bates who brandished a yellow card. Really poor decision from a referee desperate for an easy ride in front of a big crowd.
Other than Cook's effort, and Blackstock heading Bolder's cross over the bar, the remainder of the game played out with only the increasingly bizarre refereeing of Mr Bates to keep us entertained. He penalised Martin Rowlands for obstruction after he let a ball run out of play, awarded Rangers a free kick after an extravagant fall from Rowlands, and continued to award free kicks against the visitors every time they put a free kick or corner into the box - including an incredible decision awarded in favour of Leeds when two of their players challenged each other under no pressure from any QPR player.
Dexter Blackstock was also booked for challenging Alkergen for a high cross - the keeper got his own back the next time the ball came over, clattering Blackstock with a full blooded flying challenge. No foul given of course, and no treatment for Blackstock for a few minutes while the referee messed about trying to make his own medical diagnosis.
Danny Cullip was rightly carded for a crude body check on Healy which led to another free kick from the edge of the box but Blake fired over again.
Leeds: Ankergren 8, Armando Sa 8 (Foxe 76, 6), Rui Marques 7, Heath 6, Lewis 6, Blake 8 (Johnson 72, 6), Douglas 7, Thompson 6 (Howson 32, 6), Nicholls 6, Healy 6, Cresswell 6
Subs Not Used: Stack, Moore.
Booked: Douglas (foul), Foxe (foul)
QPR: Camp 8, Mancienne 8, Cullip 7, Stewart 7, Ainsworth 6, Lomas 7, Bolder 7, Timoska 8, Rowlands 7, Blackstock 7, Cook 7.
Subs Not Used: Cole, Kanyuka, Furlong, Ray Jones, Smith.
Booked: Timoska (foul), Camp (time wasting), Blackstock (foul), Cullip (foul).
Ref: T Bates (Staffordshire) 4 - Does my head in this bloke. Six bookings he made in this game. SIX! There was barely a bad tackle in the match. Picky, constant whistling, desperately looking for an offence from every corner and free kick. Piss poor.
QPR 2 Luton 2, Saturday January 6, 2007
In the 17th minute Smith was in thick of things again on the edge of the area when he cracked a shot on goal from just inside the area. Coyne blocked the ball back to Smith who then had his legs hacked out from under him by Steve Robinson as he went to shoot for a second time. It looked a nailed on penalty but referee Mr Bates waved the protests away. They say what comes around goes around and by the end of the match it was Luton surrounding the referee.
After an excellent first thirty minutes from Rangers Luton had things all their own way but these changes put Rangers back on top. Lee Cook fired a warning shot on goal after cutting in from his wing on the very next attack and within minutes of the changes the R's drew level.
Once again Lee Cook was the provider with an excellent corner from the left side. Damion Stewart headed goalwards but saw his effort cleared off the line, Blackstock tried to force the ball home and eventually the ball flew into the roof of the net off Shabazz Baidoo's hands.
Every single Luton player surrounded the referee in protest and when Mr Bates spotted his linesman on the pitch and waiting to speak to him it seemed the goal would be chalked off. After a short discussion the goal was allowed to stand and the visitors fumed. Mike Newell raced out of his technical area to confront the linesman in front of the Paddocks.
Who would have thought that Mike eh? A linesman with a penis making a mistake. Maybe, as we suspected at the time, incompetence in match officials has bugger all to do with their gender. Still why let facts get in the way of a good rant.
QPR: Royce 5, Bignot 7, Mancienne 7, Stewart 7, Kanyuka 6, Cook 7, Smith 6, Lomas 4 (Bircham 71, 8), Ward 4 (Baidoo 71, 7), Blackstock 8, Jones 6 (Furlong 63, 6).
Subs not used: Cole, Rehman.
Scorers:Blackstock 31, Baidoo 75
Luton Town: Beresford 6, Davis 7, Coyne 7, Perrett 6, Robinson 6, Vine 8, Feeney 7, Morgan 7, Langley 7, Brkovic 7, Barnett 6.
Subs not used: Brill, O'Leary, Boyd, Keane, Holmes.
Scorers: Vine 44, Feeney 46
Bookings: Barnett 82, Langley 90
Referee: Mr A Bates 4 - Failed to produce cards for several fouls from both teams that really deserved them. Also got the game's two crucial decisions wrong - Rangers should have had a penalty in the first half and their second goal should never have stood. Ably assisted by a couple of poor linesmen - the one at the Loft End in the first half wouldn't know the offside law if it walked up and introduced itself to him.
We have had this referee a further seven times apart from this – including the game at Huddersfield where we were relegated from this division in 2001, and a 1-0 win at Blackpool where Chris Day made several miraculous saves to claim the points. His overall record with Rangers is four QPR wins and six draws from 13 games. He has shown yellow cards to 28 QPR players and 19 opponents, he has shown the red card just once in those 12 games, to Bournemouth’s Richard Hughes in 2002.
So far this season Mr Bates has shown 92 yellows (2.62 a game) and four reds in 35 games. His biggest card haul in a single game is six – all of them bookings when Leicester played Leeds at the Walkers Stadium on Boxing Day, and five yellows and a red in Aldershot’s 1-0 win at Oxford in League One before that.
Last season was a notable one as Bates showed only one red card in the entire 36 game campaign. That went to Bradford’s Simon Ramsden in a JP Trophy defeat at Carlisle in December. He did however muster 106 bookings (2.944 a game) including seven when Watford and Newcastle met in the Championship, and six in a single game on five other occasions.
League One >>> Andy D’Urso is in charge of Yeovil v Notts County.