 Wednesday, 8th Feb 2012 23:14 by Clive Whittingham For the second time in as many away games the league has chosen to return match officials recently involved in QPR controversy immediately to a Rangers game. Referee >>> Mike Dean (Wirral), hadn’t taken charge of a QPR game since 2008 prior to his recent appointment at our FA Cup tie with Chelsea but having caused huge controversy there with an incorrect second half penalty award the league has seen fit to re-appoint him to Rangers immediately. Assistants >>> Stuart Burt (Northants) and Dave Richardson (West Yorkshire), Richardson was the linesman involved in the contentious Joey Barton sending off v Norwich in January, initially happy for play to go on but later colluding with referee Neil Swarbrick to send the QPR man off. Fourth Official >>> Anthony Taylor (Manchester), Premiership referee who took control of the midweek cup replay between Middlesbrough and Sunderland. PreviouslyQPR 0 Chelsea 1, Saturday January 28, 2012, FA Cup Chelsea played with nine men for a good portion of the last meeting between these sides and decided to start with just the ten here, selecting Fernando Torres as a lone striker. Because of that they rarely looked like scoring themselves in a pretty dismal encounter that would have ended 0-0 without the intervention of referee Mike Dean who will be embarrassed when he sees just how much he was conned by Daniel Sturridge, who despite his flagrant cheating really should be the man Villas Boas is building his attack around rather than his giant Spanish white elephant. There was little time to reflect on the miss because Chelsea flew downfield and took the lead on contentious circumstances. A deep cross to the far post from Juan Matta was above and beyond Sturridge when he felt the slightest of contacts from Clint Hill at the far post. The resulting dive was laughably bad, and Hill let the Chelsea man know it as he laid on the floor appealing to the referee. Sadly for Hill and QPR Mike Dean had been taken in and awarded the penalty, peering through a crowd of players to see the incident and getting his decision badly wrong as a result. After the usual committee meeting between the referee and three or four wronged players failed to overturn the decision Mata confidently dispatched the ball beyond Paddy Kenny and into the corner of the net. Chelsea celebrated while Mike Dean retreated to the halfway line where he found Mark Hughes waiting for him shaking his finger to signal his opinion on the matter. Dean simply shrugged, I think he knew deep down he was wrong. QPR got the benefit of the doubt on several decision in the league game, and didn’t get it here. They say things even themselves up in football and maybe they did a bit here. It was never a penalty in a month of Sundays, anybody with half decent eyesight could tell you that. But I have to say that Clint Hill does give players the chance to do this to him. He will always put in a little needless shove, a little niggle, a little bit of contact that isn’t required. It’s part of his game, part of his wind up technique, a way to put players off their game – it’s needless but it’s the way he goes about his work. On three or four previous occasions in the game Hill had done something similar to Sturridge, absolutely nothing really and not worthy of a free kick but Sturridge had exaggerated the contact and complained to the officials about it every single time. The seed of doubt had been planted in the referee’s mind and he was watching the pair of them closer than he would have been had Hill just left him alone. On this occasion Dean was wrong, the decision was dreadful, but Hill had allowed this situation to brew prior to this incident and then he made contact (very meagre contact) with him under a cross that neither of them were ever going to reach. He gave the referee a decision to make, or rather he gave Sturridge a chance to give the referee a decision to make, and he does this quite often. Dean is a hard referee to like given the arrogant manner he conducts himself with around the pitch, and he was in no mood for avoiding the limelight after this error. A few moments later a QPR fan in the front row threw the ball back into play in the direction of Ashley Cole, catching him flush in the back. Cole didn’t even turn around but Dean saw fit to stop the ball, call a steward out of the stand and lecture him. The steward, hilariously, then sat back down next to the supporter who’d done it and patted him on the back. Hopefully we won’t hear any more about that non-event.
QPR: Kenny 7, Hill 6, Ferdinand 7, Hall 7, Young 7, Mackie 6, Buzsaky 6 (Hulse 79, 7), Barton 6, Wright-Phillips 5, Helguson 7 (Macheda 46, 4), Smith 6 Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Derry, Ephraim, Onuoha Booked: Wright-Phillips, Hall Chelsea: Cech 7, Ivanovic 6, Luiz 6, Terry 7, Cole 7, Meireles 6, Ramires 7 (Romeu 79, 6), Sturridge 7, Malouda 6, Mata 8 (Essien 90, -), Torres 3 Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Lukaku, Cahill, Bertrand Booked: Cole, Romeu Goals: Mata 62 (penalty, won Sturridge) Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 Will have been glad to find the game passing off as quietly as it did, with many including myself expecting a nasty bloodbath. Refereed perfectly well for the most part, but had one big decision to make in the game and got it obviously wrong. Players will continue to dive while referees are able to be conned this easily.
Coventry 0 QPR 0, Wednesday March 5, 2008, Championship It took 18 minutes for QPR to actually get the ball down and keep it for more than five passes but just when you thought they were going to come into the game a little Coventry won a free kick from Damien Delaney and after a brief goal mouth scramble Best had a golden chance to open the scoring when Leigertwood’s wild clearance dropped at his feet eight yards out from goal – his finish into the ground sent the ball bouncing up and over the crossbar and smacked of a striker lacking confidence. His approach play was good all night, but he never once looked like hitting the back of the net even on the half hour when he raced through on goal after what looked like a foul sent Matt Connolly crashing to the floor on the edge of the centre circle. With Premiership referee Mike Dean waving play on Best strode into the area but his low shot was brilliantly saved at point blank range by Lee Camp who then led the protests to the referee with Martin Rowlands. The rare sight of QPR on the attack was quickly erased from the memory as Connolly became the first player into referee Mike Dean’s notebook. Mifsud got the better of Delaney again and as Connolly came across the Maltese mosquito did him for pace. The former Arsenal man was forced to upend his opponent in a scything and blatantly deliberate trip that Dean had no hesitation in producing a card for. The frustration of it was all too much for Buzsaky who, after miscontrolling the ball once again on half way, chased after Mifsud and launched into a crude lunging tackle on him right on the touchline. This incident took place in front of the only well populated area of the ground and all three Coventry fans jumped up and demanded action from Mike Dean. The referee showed Buzsaky a yellow card after taking some time out to calm the situation down – what a difference from D’Urso on Sunday who raced across red card in hand without hesitation and caused a problem for himself.
Coventry: Marshall N/A, Osbourne 6, Ward 6, Dann 6, Fox 6, Mifsud 8, Tabb 6 (Gray 75, 5), Stephen Hughes 5, Doyle 5, Thornton 8, Best 6 Subs Not Used: Konstantopoulos, Hall, Andrews, Simpson Booked: Best (handball) QPR: Camp 8, Mancienne 7, Hall 7, Connolly 7, Delaney 5, Buzsaky 5, Leigertwood 5, Rowlands 6 (Ainsworth 90, -), Ephraim 5, Agyemang 4 (Blackstock 85, -), Vine 5 Subs Not Used: Pickens, Barker, Stewart Booked: Connolly (foul), Buzsaky (foul) Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 - Seemed to miss a lot of fouls on QPR players, particularly the one on Connolly that allowed Best through on goal in the first half, but overall not too bad. No complaints over any of the bookings. Chelsea 1 QPR 0, Saturday January 5, 2008, FA Cup Chelsea had the first chance of the half when Mikel collapsed theatrically under minimal contact from the excellent Martin Rowlands and won a free kick – Mike Dean’s only poor decision of the game in my opinion. Alex stepped up from fully 40 yards and although he beat the wall the shot was never going to seriously trouble Camp and he gathered easily. Fitz Hall became the first and only player to enter the referee’s book for a crude lunge on Shaun Wright Phillips after indecision by Chris Barker had let the winger in behind him. Wright Phillips was replaced by Cole moments later but didn’t appear to be carrying any lasting damage from the tackle.
Chelsea: Hilario 7, Ferreira 8, Ben-Haim 7, Alex 7, Ashley Cole 6, Wright-Phillips 5 (Joe Cole 79, 6), Obi 6, Sidwell 8, Sinclair 5 (Drogba 60, 6), Kalou 6, Pizarro 7 (Ballack 71, 7) Subs Not Used: Taylor, Belletti Goals: Camp 28 og (assisted Pizarro) QPR: Camp 7, Hall 8, Stewart 8, Barker 7, Ainsworth 6 (Agyemang 46, 6), Connolly 8, Mahon 8, Rowlands 8, Ephraim 6 (Balanta 65, 6), Blackstock 6, Buzsaky 6 (Lee 50, 7) Subs Not Used: Bolder, Walton Booked: Hall (foul) Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 9 - An almost faultless display with just one free kick given for a foul on Mikel that I would question. Allowed the game to flow, only showed one card. Great stuff. Prior to that he refereed our 3-0 defeat at Palace in December 2006 booking Kevin Gallen and Zesh Rehman in the process, and then you have to go all the way back to the opening day of the 1999/00 season when we beat Huddersfield 3-1 at Loftus Road for his next QPR appointment. The previous season he’d sent off Paul Murray in a typically awful performance and 3-1 defeat at Swindon Town.
StatsUntil he booked seven at Arsenal v Man Utd Mike Dean had been on a bit of a lenient run with only five bookings in his previously four appointments. He’s only sent one player off this season too, Chelsea’s Fernando Torres against Swansea, 18 matches ago way back in September. Since I last updated this file he’s booked 11 in three games taking him to 87 in 27 games – 3.22 a match. His biggest haul in a single match was eight yellows in Bolton’s 3-1 win at Wigan in October.Last season he showed 147 yellows and seven reds in 43 games (3.41 a game) headlined by seven yellows as Aston Villa drew with Man Utd and six yellows and a red at Dortmund v Seville in the Europa League. Other ListingsPremiership >>> Manchester United + Patrice Evra + Liverpool + Luis Suarez + Phil Dowd = card carnage. Howard Webb, usually a shoo in for this fixture, has Bolton v Wigan. Michael Oliver is impressing somebody somewhere, it’s a big Sunday 4pm game for him again as Villa take on Man City. Championship >>> Mark Halsey drops down a division for Cardiff v Leicester, Jon Moss does likewise for Forest v Watford. Our old mate Trevor Kettle has Southampton v Burnley so expect deaths there. A midweek round of fixtures sees Mark Clattenburg drop down for Brighton v Millwall and Lee Probert taking the top two Southampton and West Ham. League One >>> Andy D’Urso has Yeovil v Scunthorpe. League Two >>> Port Vale v Crewe maybe a bit of a derby grudge match, but Peter Walton must have done something to somebody somewhere to pull that horror this weekend. Gavin Ward has Torquay v Shrewsbury Tweet @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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