The R;s haven't won an away game since the 3-2 success at Stoke in November. Perhaps the first QPR appointment since that day for referee Mike Jones can inspire them to success this weekend at Sunderland.
Referee >>> Mike Jones (Cheshire), second appointment with QPR and Sunderland this season, both won away from home with him previously at Stoke and Bolton respectively.
Assistants >>> Dave Bryan ( Lincolnshire ) and William Smallwood ( Cheshire )
Fourth Official >>> Anthony Taylor ( Cheshire ), refereed last weekend's game between Wolves and Manchester United.
Stoke City 2 QPR 3, Sunday November 19, 2011, Premiership
The appointment of Cheshire official Mike Jones to referee this game was the source of some conjecture prior to the kick off. Jones is not kind to away teams, producing 12 of his last 14 red cards for players on visiting teams and upsetting QPR by allowing a winning goal for Chelsea in 2009 League Cup tie between the teams despite a clear foul on Wayne Routledge in the build up. He’s not terribly popular in Stoke either – this was his first visit to this ground since his officiating allowed an FA Cup quarter final here against West Ham last season to descend into a farce of ignored handballs and soft penalty awards.
He didn’t have to wait long for his first incident of note. In the opening two minutes the first Stoke corner of the afternoon dropped to Jermaine Pennant on the edge of the penalty area and he crashed to earth claiming a trip from Joey Barton. The replays showed that Barton, despite doing his best to avoid the collision, had indeed caught Pennant’s trailing leg but on this occasion I can see, given the theatrical way the player went to ground, why Jones ignored the extensive appeals from home players and fans. Stoke would have another much more blatant penalty appeal waved away in the second half.
Fuller’s first action was to execute a horror tackle on Armand Traore over by the dug outs. Fuller’s disciplinary record is chequered to say the least and this looked like a red card from the moment both his feet left the floor – however a split second before he did so referee Jones had actually blown in his favour which resulted in the ridiculous situation where a QPR player was writhing in agony on the ground after a dreadful tackle on him, but Rangers were left to defend a free kick with ten men. Thankfully Traore was fit to continue.
Stoke should have been handed a chance to equalise from the penalty spot in the eighty second minute. Another long throw was allowed to drop in the heart of the QPR penalty box and, rashly,Joey Barton went to ground and hacked through the back of Robert Huth as he attempted to control the ball. It looked a stone wall penalty from the moment it happened but Mike Jones, for the second time in the game, waved the appeals away and QPR had survived. Huth responded by wrestling Barton to the floor as the ball was worked clear – an incident that was seen by World Cup final linesman Darren cann and signalled for but there was an agonising moment as the referee came across to speak to him where QPR wondered whether in fact he was going to draw Jones’ attention to the original offence.
A poor decision from the referee who was perfectly placed to see what was a clear and obvious foul but then given that Pulis, his players and the Stoke fans appeal long, loud and bitterly over every single decision in every single game maybe there’s an element of boy crying wolf about all of this. A member of the Stoke coaching staff was sent from the touchline in the immediate aftermath.
The incident only served to increase Stoke’s persecution complex. Manager Tony Pulis criticised referee Mike Jones afterwards, saying referees arrive at the Britannia Stadium with a pre-conceived idea of what to expect from the home side. Pulis, and Stoke’s players and fans, also rail against criticism of their style of play but the facts were pretty stark on Saturday – Stoke completed just 118 successful passes in 97 minutes of football. That’s a Premiership team managing little more than one successful pass per minute. The criticism of them is wholly valid – they were awful to watch here and well beaten.
The sense of injustice manifested itself in the central midfield area where Barton won the ball with a firm but fair tackle and was then immediately hacked down by Rory Delap who was rightly carded.Heidar Helguson also blotted his copy book slightly with a yellow card for a foul on Wiilkinson. The bad feeling escalated when Barton went across to take a late QPR corner and was pelted with coins from the home end – it wouldn’t be a QPR game in Stoke without a lashing of bad feeling and poor behaviour in the stands.
Stoke: Sorensen 6, Wilkinson 5, Shawcross 6, Huth 6, Higginbotham 6, Pennant 5 (Fuller 68, 6), Whitehead 5 (Whelan 85, -), Delap 5, Etherington 6, Walters 7, Crouch 6 (Jones 65, 6)
Subs Not Used: Begovic, Wilson, Upson, Palacios
Booked: Wilkinson (foul), Shawcross (foul), Delap (foul), Fuller (foul)
Goals: Walters 8 (assisted Crouch), Shawcross 64 (assisted Crouch)
QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7 (Orr 77, 6), Ferdinand 6, Gabbidon 7, Hill 7, Wright-Phillips 7, Barton 7, Faurlin 8, Traore 8, Mackie 7, Helguson 9
Subs Not Used: Derry , Buzsaky, Smith, Hewitt
Booked: Barton (handball), Helguson (foul)
Goals: Helguson 22 (assisted Traore), 54 (assisted Barton), Young 44 (assisted Mackie)
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 6 Stoke will point to two penalty decisions – both of which could easily have been given, the second on Robert Huth should definitely have been awarded. It’s mpossible to mark a referee highly with two such big decisions made incorrectly, although I sympathise with him on the first one because Pennant looked like he’d dived at normal speed. Should have taken action against Fuller for a dire tackle on Traore on the second half even though he’d already awarded a free kick to Stoke. Seemed to struggle to keep a handle on the game throughout.
Burnley 0 QPR 0, Saturday January 15, 2011, Championship
Premiership referee Chris Foy had been due to take charge of this game but was sadly replaced at late notice by the much fussier and less talented Mike Jones who had an absolutely nightmare on this ground last season in a Premiership match between the Clarets and Hull City. The Cheshire official’s first involvement in a game that would go on to produce 27 free kicks and seven yellow cards saw him buy a theatrical fall from Chris Eagles on the edge of the area and award a set piece which Tyrone Mears whipped over the wall and into the away end.
Eagles was substituted at Loftus Road earlier this season after being booked for a dive in the penalty area and subsequently losing his rag – as this game went on Eagles and Adel Taarabtproduced a portfolio of falls so extravagant Tom Daly would have been on his feet applauding had he been in attendance. A shame, because they are both outstanding players who showed flashes of true quality in this game.
Eagles was on the floor again in the twenty first minute, arms outstretched and face turned towards the referee before he’d even hit the ground in the traditional style, but even the whistle happy Mr Jones wasn’t going to award him a penalty for that and nor should he have done as Clint Hill cleanly took the ball as the Burnley man entered the penalty area. A minute later, more time spent rolling around on the grass brought the first yellow card of the game for Faurlin who had given Eagles something to dive about close to the touchline.
This free kick sparked the first prolonged period of Burnley pressure with Matt Connolly forced to head it behind for a corner which Graham Alexander dropped plum onto the back post forcing Kaspars Gorkss into another clearance behind. The third set piece was taken by Fox and although it was initially cleared he re-gathered and delivered deep into the heart of the penalty area where Carlisle met it powerfully but headed wide. Carlisle has made a habit of playing well against QPR since leaving, but looked nervous and heavy legged in this game when asked to do anything other than win ball in the air.
Burnley continued to come into the game as the half hour approached. Bradley Orr followed Faurlin into the referee’s book for a rough shoulder charge on Jay Rodriguez and Kenny needed two attempts to save a low shot from the Burnley youngster down in the bottom right hand corner – although that was the only serious save he had to make all afternoon. At the other end Adel Taarabt tried his luck from similar range and having set off early Grant was lucky that a small deflection carried the ball into his midriff rather than beyond him into the net.
The game had been niggly to this point, not helped by the overbearing and over fussy refereeing style, but it escalated into out and out nastiness five minutes after the break. Hulse was involved again to begin with, collapsing to the ground on the corner of the penalty box clutching his face. This was right in front of the away end, and Hulse clearly felt he had been elbowed by Clarke Carlisle off the ball, but nobody around me saw anything, and neither did the referee.
While Hulse was being treated an argument was taking place on the halfway line between Adel Taarabt, Bradley Orr, Michael Duff and Graham Alexander who, as usual, was never more than ten yards away from the referee offering advice throughout the game. Taarabt was clearly annoyed at the suggestion that he should return the ball to Burnley upon the resumption as QPR had possession when the game was stopped. Referee Jones arrived on the scene, told Taarabt he would indeed be expected to return the ball to Burnley and the Moroccan promptly thumped it out for a Burnley throw down by the corner flag and ordered his team mates to hem the home side in. The Burnley fans reacted with fury, as you would expect, and Neil Warnock actually took their side and lambasted Taarabt for his conduct before ordering Vaagan Moen to receive the throw in and play it back to Lee Grant which he did.
The bad mood was set though and for the next ten minutes Burnley players formed an orderly queue awaiting their turn to have a go at kicking QPR’s captain out of the game. Taarabt produced a couple of dives worse than anything even Eagles had managed that were rightly laughed off by the referee, but also gifted spectators the moment of the match with a sublime piece of control on the turn on halfway that brought a high clearance under his spell and took three Burnley players out of the equation with one fluid movement. It was worth the entrance fee alone.
Having dominated for such long periods of the game it would have been devastating to lose the game in injury time. Paddy Kenny was lucky to escape fumbling a late corner without being punished, and the R’s were indebted to Shaun Derry for a superb covering tackle on Eagles as the Burnley man raced towards the penalty box with men up in support. Going the other way Jack Cork fouled Derry to collect the seventh yellow card of a feisty, but over refereed, encounter.
Burnley: Grant 7, Mears 6, Carlisle 6, Duff 6, Fox 6, Elliott 6, Alexander 7 (Edgar 86, -), Cork 7, Rodriguez 6, Iwelumo 6 (Thompson 68, 5), Eagles 7
Subs Not Used: Jensen, McDonald, Bikey, Wallace, Easton
Booked: Duff (foul), Alexander (foul), Fox (foul), Thompson (foul), Cork (foul)
QPR: Kenny 6, Orr 6, Connolly 7, Gorkss 7, Hill 6, Faurlin 7 (Clarke 81, -), Derry 8, Smith 6, Vaagan Moen 7, Taarabt 8 (Hall 90, -), Hulse 6 (Helguson 81, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Cook, Borrowdale, German
Booked: Faurlin (foul), Orr (foul)
Referee: Mike Jones ( Cheshire ) 5 Whistle, whistle, whistle, card, card, card. Usually for a match with seven yellows I find myself writing that it was never a seven card match – I think this one was, and I can’t argue with any of the cards given, but Jones referees like a fussy old woman. He just whistled for absolutely everything and disrupted the match at every opportunity. Having not seen the penalty incident again since I thought it was in the area at normal speed. Allowed Graham Alexander to get into his face after every decision, and let him get away with several bookable offences before he did actually receive a card.
QPR 2 Coventry 2, Saturday November 28, 2009, Championship
Coventry are the fifth side to come to W12 this season and escape with a draw, and with them probably more than anybody else ‘escape’ was the operative word. Chris Coleman, such a classy and attractive central defender in his playing days, is now reduced to scraping points from barrel bottom performances based around cynical tactics of the absolute worst kind. City wasted time from the first minute even when not in front, hurrying their clearances only during the brief period QPR actually led the game, violently scythed down any QPR player they could get near, hassled the referee, hoofed the ball down the field whenever they had it and threatened exclusively from set pieces.
Leigertwood drilled a shot just wide of Westwood’s post and then on the hour Taarabt beat the keeper all ends up with a magnificent 20 yard lob that agonisingly bounced back into play off the cross bar. That was Cantona like in its execution and would have been just rewards for Taarabt and QPR whose play when in possession was a joy to behold at times. Taarabt had another shot wide and Routledge was denied a clear run on goal after more expansive passing from Faurlin by van Aarnholt who appeared to pass the ball back to Westwood as he won it but the keeper picked the ball up without action from referee Mike Jones. Jones was forced to produce a yellow card for first van Aarnholt and then Cork who both hacked down the insatiable Taarabt.
Thereafter there was only one team in it. Coventry dropped very deep and started to employ cynical tactics that included to flagrant time wasting for which goalkeeper Westwood was eventually booked. In fairness to the keeper the rules do still stupidly allow keepers to pick the side they take their goal kicks from and that was what he did every single time. Why that is I do not know - you cannot take corners from whatever side you like and the only thing this achieves is giving keepers a chance to waste time.
With ten minutes to go Magilton reinforced our new ‘what we have we hold’ approach to the game by putting Steven Reid on for Taarabt. Again, this made no sense to me. Taarabt head caused Coventry problems all afternoon and as they pushed forwards looking for an equaliser he was sure to get more chances to do so. From not making sense initially the change was rendered a complete disaster as Coventry scored an equaliser immediately after it was made. Buzsaky stupidly left a leg in on Stephen Wright to the right of the QPR penalty area and the full back gratefully accepted the gift and hit the deck. Michael McIndoe whipped the free kick into the near post and with the defence nowhere to be seen and Cerny flapping wildly Richard Wood was able to steal in and equalise.
With Taarabt gone it may have made sense to introduce Patrick Agyemang especially as City were quickly reduced to ten men. Stephen Wright was the man to go, for the second consecutive season at Loftus Road , for yet another crude, cynical and totally deliberate foul on Akos Buzsaky. Wright, who saw fit to throw his captain’s armband at the referee on the way off, epitomised everything that was bad about City – quite happy to kick his way through a more talented opponent in the name of getting a draw. Clearly by his reaction, and from what Coleman said afterwards, they didn’t believe he should have been sent off. I’m forced to wonder just how often they feel Coventry players should be allowed to physically assault opponents without picking up cards? You could not wish to see a more blatant double yellow red card than this and apart from his fouls on Leigertwood and Buzsaky that drew cards he got away with numerous others. No amount of Morrison trying to hold the referee’s arms down by his side could change his mind and he was certainly lucky to get away with that himself.
QPR: Cerny 6, Leigertwood 6, Hall 5, Connolly 5, Borrowdale 7, Watson 8, Faurlin 9, Buzsaky 6, Taarabt 8 (Reid 80, -), Routledge 7, Simpson 7
Subs Not Used: McWeeney, Ramage, Agyemang, Pellicori, Gorkss, Williams
Goals: Simpson 35 (assisted Faurlin), Buzsaky 69 (unassisted)
Coventry: Westwood 7, Wright 6, Wood 6, Barnett 6, Van Aanholt 7 (Clarke 72, 6), Bell 6 (Eastwood 74, 6),Gunnarsson 5 (Madine 80, -), Cork 6, McIndoe 6, Morrison 6, Best 7
Subs Not Used: Ireland , McPake, Cranie, Grandison
Sent Off: Wright (two bookings)
Booked: Wood (foul), Van Aanholt (foul), Westwood (time wasting), Cork (foul), Wright (foul), Wright (foul)
Goals: Best 16 (assisted Van Aarnholt), Wood 81 (assisted McIndoe)
Referee: Mike Jones ( Cheshire ) 7 Could easily have sent more off here to be honest as Coventry were brutal at times. In the end impossible to argue with any of the cards he handed out. Few other mistakes made. The main problems were caused by the two linesmen – one who felt everybody was offside all the time, the other who didn’t seem very sure what offside was.
Chelsea 1 QPR 0, Wednesday November 23, 2009, League Cup
On Wednesday we needed a referee to do his job. We needed Premiership referee Mike Jones to forget where he was, forget he was refereeing Chelsea , and do his job. To see that Wayne Routledge was fouled, or that Joe Cole had handled the ball, in the lead up to the deciding goal. He didn’t, Chelsea scored, QPR could not. It was not to be. Rangers fans were left to claim moral victories for the way they played, the way the fans sang, or the way Chelsea had to send on the big guns to see them through. No points, or cup progress, for moral victories I’m afraid guys - but plenty of reason to be proud of our players for having a go in the face of stiff opposition rather than sitting back and waiting for the inevitable.
Despite there being no injuries, no goals and no substitutions referee Jones added a minute onto the first half officially, and then played more to allow Chelsea to take first a free kick and then a corner. The free kick was a harsh call, given against Martin Rowlands for what looked like honest endeavour amongst a crowd of opponents. Belletti hit a trade mark thunder bolt over the wall and Heaton had to come across and bat the ball away for a corner. Time had long since expired but Chelsea were allowed to proceed anyway – Gorkss got the crucial clearance in to prevent heartbreak right on half time.
Rangers then had reason to feel aggrieved with the referee again as Jones ridiculously punished Simpson for a perfectly fair shoulder to shoulder challenge with Mikel short of halfway, and then immediately awarded another more clear cut one on the edge of the penalty box. As usual in these situations Frank Lampard stepped forward to take it and as usual he just pelted it hard into the wall at about waist height. Now I know full well that there examples of spectacular Frank Lampard free kicks knocking around but is it only me that thinks his technique of simply walking up and walking it seems to work once in a hundred attempts, if that? When the likes of Belletti are on the field should this agricultural method of taking free kicks even be given the time of day? Who cares is the answer to that, certainly not me on Wednesday night, but it is an irritation of mine when watching Chelsea as a neutral.
With their next attack Chelsea took the lead, and again Mike Jones was at the centre of things. Tearing into the Chelsea half with the ball at his feet Wayne Routledge was clearly tripped as he danced across the face of the penalty area. He stayed on his feet, possibly with a very harsh booking for diving at Scunthorpe still fresh in his mind, but lost the ball. Instead of bringing play back as he should Jones waved play on, Chelsea stormed down the other end and with suspicion of a handball from Cole in the build up and then offside when the pass was finally played Kalou was able to slot home the opening goal off the base of the far post past the helpless Heaton. QPR with very good reason to feel aggrieved.
Possibly in an attempt to make amends Jones then presided over a couple of soft QPR free kicks around the Chelsea penalty area and they in turn resulted in a series of corner kicks. However as with the open play opportunities to deliver in the first half the final ball was often found wanting with only a well flighted Buzaky corner that looked to be landing plum on the head of Kaspars Gorkss steaming in at the back post before it was cleared really troubling the hosts. When in advanced wide positions Chelsea still looked to pick out team mates, whereas QPR in similar circumstances were happy every time to play a percentage ball into the box with nobody in particular in mind. It was another one of those small differences that added up to a cup exit for Rangers.
Chelsea : Hilario 7, Ivanovic 7, Ferreira 6, Hutchinson 7 (Terry 77, 7), Belletti 7, Malouda 6 (Lampard 46, 8),Zhirkov 7( A Cole 69, 7), Mikel 8, J Cole 7, Borini 7, Kalou 7
Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Essien, Matic, Bruma
Goals: Kalou 52 (assisted Cole)
QPR: Heaton 8, Leigertwood 8, Stewart 8, Gorkss 8, Borrowdale 7, Routledge 7, Rowlands 9 (Ephraim 73, 7), Faurlin 8, Buzsaky 7, Vine 7 (Taarabt 66, 7), Simpson 7 (Pellicori 73, 6)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Ramage, Mahon , Agyemang
Referee: Mike Jones ( Cheshire ) 4 It is often a bitter accusation levelled at referees in defeat in these matches that a Premiership referee looks after Premiership players. Mike Jones did little to distance himself from that idea on Wednesday. The Chelsea goal could have been disallowed for three separate offences, some of the free kicks given to the host were soft in the extreme and some of the things QPR were left to suffer with no free kick, including a horrible tackle from behind on Jay Simpson just before he went off, were astonishing. Ably assisted on the line by Mike Cairns who turned in just about the worst performance I have ever seen from an assistant referee.
Southampton 0 QPR 0, Saturday March 14, 2009, Championship
The only real incident of note in the whole half came five minutes before the break – a first yellow card of the season for Kaspars Gorkss. The foul on Euell looked fairly innocuous and to me it looked like Gorkss had been booked by referee Mike Jones, steady but a little fussy throughout, for kicking the ball away. A very harsh card indeed in my opinion – Gorkss can count himself very unfortunate.
Southampton started the second half with two quick fire bookings as Jones got a little bit whistle happy. James and McGoldrick for fouls on Ephraim and Lopez respectively. Whether it was these cards or the lack of threat from QPR but the home crowd started to stir on both sides of the away end which, combined with plenty of noise from the back of the away end, made for quite a decent atmosphere despite the swathes of empty seats around the ground.
Southampton responded with a couple of half chances – a spectacular diving headed clearance from Stewart denied Saganowski a sight of goal and then Euell was denied at the back post by a well timed block from Ramage who, as on Tuesday, played reasonably well. Stewart became the second QPR player to be booked just after the hour for pushing Kelvin Davis as he tried to get a quick clearance from a corner away down the field – the home crowd bayed for a red card initially and Stewart was clearly riled about something but Jones played safe with a yellow.
Jones had two penalty appeals to deal with in the second half. The first was for a foul on Blackstock by Saeijis that looked to me like it could easily have brought a spot kick but was waved away. Later in the day when Bradley Wright Phillips had been brought on he too hit the deck in the penalty area but brought little response from the match official – that one was too far away for me to judge. Sorry, turned into Arsene Wenger for a moment there.
Southampton: Davis 6, James 6, Saeijs 6, Perry 6, Skacel 7, Lallana 6 (Thomson 74, 6), Gillett 6, McGoldrick 7, Surman 6, Euell 5, Saganowski 5 (Wright-Phillips 77, 6)
Subs Not Used: Forecast, Wotton, Liptak
Booked: James (foul), McGoldrick (foul)
QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 7, Stewart 6, Gorkss 7, Connolly 6, Ephraim 6 (Taarabt 78, 7), Miller 5 (German 71, 6), Lopez 6 (Mahon 87, -), Leigertwood 6, Routledge 5, Blackstock 5
Subs Not Used: Hall, Alberti
Booked: Gorkss (kicking ball away), Stewart (obstructing goalkeeper)
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 6 Didn’t do too much wrong but got a little bit whistle happy in the second half to the point where he was blowing it every thirty seconds at one point which, in a game of already poor quality, became very irritating. I did not agree with Gorkss’ booking but the others were fair enough. Blackstock’s penalty appeal looked like a reasonable shout to me.
Sunderland 2 QPR 1, Saturday April 14, 2007, Championship
Moore collected possession and tried to thread a ball through to Blackstock. It looked to be too hard and off target but a deflection gave Dexter half a chance and after the striker bust a gut to make it to the ball first goalkeeper Gavin Ward tripped him up and referee Jones had no choice but to award a penalty. Only Blackstock running away from the goal saved Ward further punishment. Rowlands stepped up to take, incredibly, QPR's ninth penalty of the season so far and planted the ball to the keeper's right as he went left.
Sunderland: Ward 6, Simpson 6, Evans 7, Edwards 7, Whitehead 8, Murphy 6 (Stokes 77, -), Nosworthy 7, Collins 7, Connolly 8, Wallace 7 (John 46, 5), Yorke 6 (Leadbitter 61, 8)
Subs not used: Fulop, Elliott.
Scorers: Whitehead 7, Leadbitter 76
Bookings: Simpson 80 (foul)
QPR: Camp 6, Bignot 5, Cullip 5 (Kanyuka 43, 4), Stewart 6, Timoska 6, Rowlands 7, Bolder 6, Lomas 6 (Idiakez 83, -), Smith 6, Moore 5 (Furlong 69, 5), Blackstock 6
Subs: Cole, Nygaard.
Scorers: Rowlands 22 (pen)
Bookings: Cullip 41 (foul), Bolder 42 (foul), Furlong 76 (foul)
Referee: Mr M Jones 9 A very accomplished performance in my opinion. Hard to recall an error all day, got the crucial decisions and the bookings right and allowed play to flow where possibly. Hard to fault in any department.
Luton 1 QPR 0, Tuesday January 23, 2007, FA Cup
In a rare visit to the Oak Road end of the ground Bell had the ball in the net after beating Royce at his near post but the linesman's flag had long since been raised. You could forgive Bell for sticking the ball away anyway, both linesmen had seemed almost comatose when it came to making quick decisions and when they did finally stick the flag in the air the referee often saw fit to ignore them or in some cases award the decision the opposite way even when more than twice the distance away from the incident.
Other than that the only feature of Luton's play was Richard Langley who hacked down Lee Cookwith a crude challenge that didn't even earn a talking to from the referee in the first half. In the second period he stood over Stefan Bailey and accused him of faking injury as Prav Mathema ran onto the pitch to administer treatment. Quite frankly for somebody that spends as much time rolling around on the floor picking up injuries and free kicks Mr Langley would do well not to engage in such antics. His actions disappointed me because like I say I felt the booing before both cup games was uncalled for and I've stuck up for him on numerous occasions.
Nygaard's single handed miss of the season competition was brought to a close with twenty minutes left for play and Ray Jones was introduced to the game but two minutes later the game turned with an ugly incident just inside the QPR half. Stefan Bailey flung himself into a two footed tackle on Brkovic and a ruck ensued.
As Brkovic lay receiving treatment Coyne and the other Luton players steamed in and confronted Bailey which resulted in a mass session of handbag swinging. The referee, who'd completely ignored his assistants to this point, suddenly decided he fancied a word with them and after a brief consultation he produced a red card for Bailey. I thought at the time that it was deserved and, with the new rules as they are, there's nothing on the replay to suggest otherwise.
Bailey refused to go quietly, confronting the referee and apparently catching the him with his forehead. He then stormed off down the pitch waving his arms around wildly at both sets of fans and players. Ultimately Lee Cook was forced to coordinate a makeshift stewarding effort around the tunnel and Richard Hill ran across from the bench to get Bailey away down the tunnel. Coyne was booked for his part in the altercation.
The final ten minutes were played out with Luton understandably running the clock down and the referee constantly awarding perplexing decisions against QPR. Whether Bailey meant to catch him in the face on the way off or not it seemed to set Mr Jones against Rangers for the rest of the game. The worst of the incidents came when Luton were protecting the ball down in the corner, QPR won the ball back and the linesman signalled for a free kick to Rangers. The referee, more than twenty yards away from the incident, overruled his assistant who was feet away from it and awarded the free kick to Luton . The confusion caused by this lunacy ran another couple of minutes off the clock.
Luton: Brill 8, Foley 6, Davis 6, Coyne 6, Perrett 5, Bell 7, Robinson 6, Langley 7, Emanuel 6, Boyd 5, Brkovic 6 (Morgan 76, 7).
Subs Not Used: Barrett, O'Leary, Keane, Stevens.
Booked: Coyne, Morgan.
Goals: Rehman 80 og.
QPR: Royce 5, Rehman 6, Mancienne 8, Stewart 7, Milanese 7, Smith 6 (Ainsworth 84, -), Bailey 5, Lomas 6, Cook 7, Blackstock 7,Nygaard 5 (Ray Jones 72, 5).
Subs Not Used: Cole, Kanyuka, Furlong.
Sent Off: Bailey (74).
Ref: M Jones (Cheshire) 5 - A quite bizarre official at times, giving perplexing decisions often flying in the face of facts and advice from his assistants. The final ten minutes of the game were refereed unprofessionally in my opinion - clearly lost the plot after the Bailey incident. Not good at all.
QPR 1 Southampton 0, Saturday January 14, 2006, Championship
With just over 20 minutes gone a Lee Cook shot was blocked by Smith, a scramble occurred in the penalty box and Ainsworth was bundled over by Higginbotham and the ref immediately pointed to the spot. A penalty kick is a rare occurrence for the R's and recently we've been treated twice in less than two months. Richard Langley calmly stepped up and fired home past Smith for his third of the season.
Santos went to ground with around 15 minutes remaining and looked to be in a fair bit of pain as he was rolling around on the floor. A stretcher was called for and big Georges was taken from the field. Prav signalled to the bench that he could do with another minute to look at the big man off the pitch. Meanwhile, Southampton continued to pile more pressure on the already stretched 10 man Rangers. We continued to delay the sub and during this time the Saints earned themselves a penalty. A cross went into the box from the right and Quashie went to ground in a crowd of players following a clash with Lomas.
Quashie dusted himself down and took the penalty himself. He stepped up and hit the left hand post, much to the delight of the home crowd. He then followed up with a shot which was saved by Royce, a free-kick was then awarded as he'd been the first to touch the ball.
QPR: Royce 8, Bignot 7, Shittu 8, Santos 7 ( Taylor 78, 7), Rose 7, Ainsworth 7 (Donnelly 88, 7), Lomas 8*, Langley 7, Cook 7, Baidoo 7 ( Moore 84, 7), Furlong 7.
Subs Not Used: Milanese, Evatt.
Goals: Langley 21 pen.
Southampton : Smith, Lundekvam, Powell, Higginbotham, Dyer (Fuller 45), Quashie, Oakley, Belmadi, Prutton, Blackstock (Jones 68), Walcott.
Subs Not Used: Cranie, Bialkowski, Mills.
Booked: Powell.
Ref: M Jones ( W Yorkshire ). 7 - A steady performance from the ref. Again we didn't have a player booked, have our players turned over a new leaf?! He was assisted by two less than competent linesman who made some errors, especially during the second half. The man in black should have also booked Powell far earlier as that way he might have stopped fouling during the second half!
And prior to all of that he refereed our 0-0 draw at home to Wycombe in Division Two in 2003 and a 2-1 defeat at Bolton in Division One in 1999 where he awarded the R’s a second half penalty.
So far this season Jones has booked 93 and sent eight off in 24 games (3.875 bookings a game). He seems to struggle with Stoke City games - he made an absolute pig's ear of their FA Cup quarter final with West Ham last season, allowing a West Ham goal despite a clear handball and then awarding Stoke a ridiculous penalty to even things up – and things haven't improved between him and the Potters this season. His biggest card haul in a single game is eight yellows at Stoke v Swansea earlier this season, and more recently he ridiculously sent off Rory Delap in the FA Cup at Crawley for a clean ball winning tackle. His only Sunderland appointment this season was a 2-0 away win at Bolton where the Mackems scored twice in the last eight minutes.
Last season he showed 119 yellows (3.4 a game) and six reds in 35 matches.
Premiership >>> Much has been made of the decision to drop linesman Bob Pollock from the league list altogether following his blunder in our recent match at Bolton, but Martin Atkinson, the referee who oversaw that match and made numerous other errors besides the Clint Hill ghost goal, has suffered no such recourse and has a plum game this weekend between Spurs and Chelsea. Andre Marriner has the Lancashire relegation derby between Bolton and Blackburn.
Championship >>> Premiership referee Lee Probert has the volatile game between Millwall and Leeds while Peter Walton begins his wind down to an April retirement with Watford v Ipswich . Andy D'Urso has Birmingham v Cardiff on Sunday.
League One >>> Top flight official Jon Moss takes Preston v Bury.
League Two >>> We find our two problem children in the bottom division this weekend with Gavin Ward taking Crawley v Rotherham and Stuart Attwell Dagenham v Accrington.
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