Webster takes charge of East Monday clash
Sunday, 24th Apr 2011 19:17 by Clive Whittingham

The referee for Monday’s clash against Hull is from Tyne and Wear. The two linesman, with Norwich hovering in second place, are from Norfolk.

Referee >>> Colin Webster (Tyne and Wear), ten years on the league list, last refereed QPR a year ago almost to the day in Easter draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Assistants >>> Stephen Artis (Norfolk) and Mike George (Norfolk)

Fourth Official >>> John Magill (Essex)

Previously

QPR 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Saturday, April 3, 2010

Rather frustratingly there seems to be a black hole in the LoftforWords story archive running from April 2 through to April 8 last year into which has been swallowed our Sheffield Wednesday match report. So we have no details of refereeing misdemeanours or a performance mark out of ten to call upon for Mr Webster’s last game with us I’m afraid, please accept my apologies. QPR took a first half lead with Alejandro Faurlin’s first goal for the club, but conceded a late equaliser to Tom Soares.

After the game Warnock was none too pleased with the referee, saying: “"Adel Taarabt had his shirt tugged earlier on and nothing happened. You know when that happens, it's one of those days when you can get away with just about anything including manslaughter."

QPR: Ikeme, Ramage, Stewart, Gorkss, Hill, Ephraim (Cook 81), Leigertwood, Faurlin, Taarabt, Priskin (Vine 89), Simpson (German 73).

Subs not used: Oastler, Balanta, Buzsaky, Cerny

Goals: Faurlin 23

Bookings: Taarabt

Sheff Wed: Grant, Purse, Buxton, Beevers, Spurr, Potter (Clarke 72), Varney (Johnson 69), Soares, Nolan, O’Connor, Tudgay

Subs not used: Hinds, Gray, Jeffers, O’Donnell, Simek

Goals: Soares 77

Doncaster 2 QPR 0, Tuesday March 10, 2009

The quest for the equaliser began immediately but Di Carmine’s path to goal was blocked by a crude lunge from Mills who knew he had been skinned and was in trouble - the defender’s foul was of the professional and deliberate variety and brought the first yellow card of the evening from referee Colin Webster. Di Carmine dusted himself down to take the free kick and cracked a low shot straight at the wall . Again I was forced to wonder why players moan about the distance of a wall for two minutes and then touch a free kick to the side before hitting it - thereby allowing the wall to race eight yards closer to the ball before the strike.

Doncaster though never looked unduly troubled and after stringing a nice passing move together on the edge of the area had a great chance to add a third goal with twenty minutes left to play. Richie Wellens, a dominant force against QPR’s tissue-paper-like-midfield, ran in behind Connolly and received a good ball to feet but saw his shot from an angle brilliantly tipped away by Cerny at full stretch. Rangers were just about able to muscle up and smuggle away the rebound. Leigertwood was booked for fouling Wellens on the hour mark, although the card seemed to be for the repetitiveness of Leigertwood’s offences rather than the viciousness of that particular one.

Doncaster: Sullivan 7, Lockwood 6, Mills 7, Hird 6, Chambers 7, Wellens 7, Wilson 6, Woods 7, Roberts 7, Heffernan 7 (Hayter 86, -), Coppinger 7 (Shiels 89 , -)

Subs Not Used: Spicer, Price, Fairhurst

Booked: Mills (foul)

Goals: Stewart 23 (own goal), Heffernan 30 (assisted Woods)

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 7, Gorkss 4 (Lopez 52, 4), Stewart 3, Connolly 6, Routledge 3, Mahon 5 Leigertwood 5 (Miller 79, 5), Alberti 3 (Rose 52, 4), Blackstock 3, Di Carmine 3

Subs Not Used: Hall, Balanta

Booked: Leigertwood (repetitive fouling)

Referee: Colin Webster (Tyne & Wear) 8 Very good performance I thought. Right up with the play and never more than a few yards away from any incident. Unfussy and happy to let the game flow.

Burnley 2 QPR 1, FA Cup Third Round replay, Tuesday January 13, 2009

Referee Webster added one minute to the end of a pretty turgid half during which time Damien Delaney was quite rightly booked for a ridiculously stupid piece of play. With Eagles tight to the touchline and going nowhere Delaney made his mind up for him by committing early and obviously to a tackle so all Eagles had to do was nudge the ball down the line and brace himself. Some of the things Delaney does at times are worthy of a pub footballer and he did not improve greatly in the second half, continuously looking wholly uncomfortable with the tactic of playing the ball out from the back.

At the other end another flowing counter attack involving Leigertwood, Rowlands and Di Carmine broke down when the Italian was cynically hauled back off the ball by Caldwell who, once the ball had gone out of play, was booked by referee Webster – a card that he misses the League Cup semi final with Tottenham through suspension. He was banned from the game at White Hart Lane as well.

The game seemed set for extra time a long time before it actually got there. The final 20 minutes or so became very stop start with the referee getting more pedantic as the evening went on and both teams making two substitutions each. Sousa sent on Helguson for the tiring Di Carmine in attack and youth teamer Ramone Rose for Gavin Mahon in midfield.

Two minutes before the water break QPR got the ball into the net only to be left exasperated by a farcical piece of officiating. Hogan Ephraim, proving to be a real threat to the tired Burnley legs with a number of forceful forward runs, slipped a good ball through for Helguson who suddenly found himself all alone and facing the Burnley goal. He ran onto the ball but assumed he was offside so slowed down and actually looked at the linesman. The official stood with his flag by his side and even ran along with Helguson as if intimating play on. The Icelandic international seemed somewhat surprised but hammered the ball past the keeper anyway and commenced the celebrations. Some hour or so later the dipstick running the line actually decided that he probably was offside after all and stuck the flag up.

Now I am all for the new idea where officials are encouraged to wait and hang fire with a flag until they are absolutely sure the player that is offside is going to get involved with the play but come on, purlease, when there is only one attacker and one football in fifty square yards of space what did the bloody linesman think was going to happen? Was Les Ferdinand suddenly going to parachute in from an onside position and hammer in a glorious winner clutching a signed FA Cup registration document in one hand and a bottle of 1997 Chateuaneuf du Pape in the other? It made him look absolutely ridiculous, drew laughter from the crowd and exasperation from both benches. Yet another example of somebody who could recite the rule book to you in his sleep, but lacks the first idea of what it actually feels like to play football. Embarrassing.

Burnley: Jensen 8, Alexander 7, Carlisle 7, Caldwell 6, Jordan 7, Elliott 6, McCann 6 (Mahon 20, 5), Gudjonsson 6 (MacDonald 84, 6), Eagles 8, Blake 6 (Rodriguez 69, 6), Thompson 7

Subs Not Used: Penny, Kalvenes, Akinbiyi, Kay

Booked: Caldwell (foul), Mahon (foul)

Goals: Thompson 60 (assisted Gudjohnson), Rodriguez 120 (assisted Carlisle)

QPR: Cerny 4, Hall 5, Stewart 6, Gorkss 7, Delaney 5, Alberti 5, Leigertwood 8, Mahon 6 (Rose 79, 7), Rowlands 5, Ledesma 5 (Ephraim 55, 7), Di Carmine 7 (Helguson 85, 6)

Subs Not Used: Borrowdale, Crowther, Connolly, Ramage

Booked: Delaney (foul), Alberti (foul)

Goals: Di Carmine 54 (assisted Leigertwood)

Referee: Colin Webster (Tyne & Wear) 6 It takes a special kind of man to still be pedantic enough to insist that a free kick is taken from exactly the right place, and even have a crucial one on half way retaken twice, after 110 minutes of football but Mr Webster is that man. He wasn’t too bad really in fairness, hard to argue with any of the four cards and the main complaints from both sides seemed to be more around the assistant referees who can at best be described as eccentric.

Leicester 1 QPR 2, Saturday September 24, 2005

His new partner in attack did better with just twelve minutes played. Richard Langley had shown nice touches and a good work rate early on and won a free kick wide on the right after tricking former Blackburn man Johansson into a needless foul. Lee Cook came over from the left and swung a glorious dead ball into the box where Nygaard used all of his six foot seven frame to divert the ball into the corner of the net.

An important goal for Rangers who started to play with some real confidence after this, and for Nygaard whose confidence must have been shot after a poor one on one miss against Luton and stick received from the crowd.

A small band of travelling support high in the corner of the soulless Walkers' Stadium rejoiced at their unexpected good fortune, and things were to get even better. On nineteen minutes Furlong flew into a challenge on Maybury on halfway. The Scottish full back took exception to this and after Furs emerged with the ball Maybury clattered into him with a sickening high challenge that caught the Rangers man square in the gut.

Ian Holloway went ballistic on the touchline and a melee ensued during which Marc Bircham seemed to throw a punch, and Danny Shittu certainly did! Both players were lucky the referee missed this. The man in the middle, Colin Webster, reached for his back pocket almost as soon as the tackle was made but with the fight taking over he replaced the red card and tried to calm things down. It appeared he would bottle the decision in front of the home crowd but to his credit the red card was produced.

Furlong also found himself booked, possibly for the challenge that angered Maybury although it made little contact with the man and took the ball, possibly for his involvement in the ruck. Either way the card would turn out to be crucial later on.

Leicester kept two strikers up top despite a numerical disadvantage and tried to play their way back into things. Sylla and De Vries had efforts on goal which tested Royce. Iain Hume was giving Santos a torrid time and Shittu had to be on typically good form to repel the home side's advances. Big Georges was booked before the break for hacking own the Canadian as he threatened to run past him again. Rangers were wary of a loose cannon of a referee who seemed determined to even things up after the sending off with the home fans on his case.

The most bizarre booking of the afternoon came the way of goal keeper Simon Royce with twenty five left to play. Royce had engaged in some cynical time wasting to this point but when he was finally punished for it the decision was wrong! Royce planted the ball for a goal kick but waited for Leicester to make a sub, pointing to the ref that the home side were trying to introduce Elvis Hammond. The referee booked Royce and then allowed the change to take place. I ask myself if Royce had ignored the sub and hoofed the ball away down field would he have been booked for kicking the ball away and wasting time? Probably.

The biggest cheer of the day came when rent a clown ref Webster was clonked on the back of the head with the ball kicked by Bircham. The whistle had already gone for an offside and the ref had his back turned to Birch who seized his moment. I'm pretty certain it was a deliberate shot, though cynics would suggest Birch is incapable of such an accurate pass, but by the time Webster turned round the QPR midfielder had long since scarpered from the scene of the crime!

There was more drama still to come though. Leicester forced a series of free kicks and corners as the referee added on five extra minutes. Douglas the keeper even made his way forward a few times to no avail. As the game petered out Paul Furlong was handed a second yellow card after an ill-advised clash with Gudjohnson on the edge of the penalty area. Leicester couldn't take advantage in the time they had left and as the travelling fans cheekily chanted "We've only got ten men," the ground emptied and the game was brought to a close.

Leicester Douglas 6, Maybury 5, McCarthy 6, Dublin 6, Johansson 6, Sylla 7, Gudjonsson 7, Kisnorbo 6 (Stearman 57 6), Hughes 6 (Tiatto 78, 6), Hume 7(Hammond 67, 8), de Vries 8.

Subs Not Used: Henderson, Williams.

Sent Off: Maybury (20).

Booked: McCarthy, Hughes, Hammond.

Goals: Hammond 73.

QPR Royce 8, Bignot 7, Shittu 8, Santos 6, Hislop 7 (Shimmin 70, 6), Cook 8 (Evatt 90, -), Lomas 6, Bircham 6, Langley 8 (Ainsworth 81, 6), Furlong 7, Nygaard 7.

Subs Not Used:Sturridge, Moore.

Sent Off: Furlong (90).

Booked: Furlong, Santos, Royce, Ainsworth.

Goals: Nygaard 12, Furlong 86.

Att: 20,148

Referee: Colin Webster (Tyne & Wear). 4 - Got all caught up in the controversy. Rightly sent Maybury off for a bad tackle but then set about trying to keep everybody happy. A dodgy decision to Leicester was met with howls of derision from QPR so he promptly awarded the next fifty fifty call against Leicester. Instead of just judging everything on its merits he was constantly trying to rectify an earlier poor decision and the result was disorganised chaos for long periods. The strangest decision came when Danny Shittu hammered the ball into the face of an opponent and received a free kick

Prior to all of that Mr Webster was the man in the middle for our freak 6-1 defeat at Elland Road against Leeds in 2004 where Marc Bircham was booked and Leeds were awarded a penalty which Chris Day saved. He also refereed a 1-1 draw at the Sixfields Stadium between Northampton and QPR when Paul Furlong equalised back in 2003. The season before that he sent off Danny Shittu late on but Rangers still beat Chesterfield 3-2 at Saltergate, and added an astonishing eight minutes of stoppage time (just after the new injury time rules, since relaxed, were introduced) when the R’s won 2-1 at Bury in their first away game in the third tier. Bury goalkeeper Paddy Kenny was the only booking that day.

Stats

This season Webster has shown 83 yellows and three reds in 29 games (2.862 bookings a game). Bizarrely 14 of those yellows and two of the reds came in two games at the end of October - perhaps he was having a bad time at home. On October 16 he showed eight yellow cards in Huddersfield’s 2-0 home win against Southampton and then in his next game a fortnight later he booked six and sent two off as Tranmere beat MK Dons 4-2 – he also awarded two penalties in that match. He booked two on Friday as Doncaster and Palace drew 0-0 and his last two matches have finished goalless. Last season he booked a lot less players, 66 in total in 29 games and four sendings off – an average of 2.2 yellows a game. His biggest haul last year was seven yellows in a game, which he achieved on two occasions including Derby’s 2-0 win against Cardiff at Pride Park.

Earlier this season in his last Hull City appointment he booked five as the Tigers won 2-0 at home to Bristol City with Jay Simpson scoring both goals.

Other listings

Championship >>> Premiership referee Mark Halsey is charged with keeping control of the South Yorkshire derby between Doncaster and Barnsley while our old (young) pal Gavin Ward has Middlesbrough v Coventry.

League Two >>> Elite official Kevin Friend drops three divisions to take charge of the match up between the top two sides Chesterfield and Bury.

Photo: Action Images

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