Laws referees Sheff Utd v QPR
Thursday, 14th Aug 2008 16:07

Graham Laws is the man in the middle for QPR's trip to Sheffield on Saturday - Rangers fans will be hoping for another generous decision on the opponent's goal line as happened in his last QPR match.

Sheffield United v Queens Park Rangers
Referee: Graham Laws (Tyne and Wear)
Assistants – Cummins (Cheshire) and Law (Leicestershire)
Fourth Official – Rushton (Staffordshire)

Well we’re a week into the season and I’m struggling to recall one really bad refereeing display in a match I’ve seen so far. The standard certainly seems to be high up to this point - perhaps that’s why the league has introduced Andy Hall to its list of appointments for the first time this weekend. More on him later.

Meanwhile at Bramall Lane on Saturday we have Tyne and Wear official Graham Laws in charge. Laws refereed our 2-0 win at Wrexham in the promotion season and was stunningly bad booking eight and sending off Kevin McLeod, but then went several years without another QPR appointment until last season when we bagged him for the trip to promotion chasing Hull City. That game, you’ll recall, saw QPR take the lead with a very controversial Dexter Blackstock goal that didn’t appear to cross the line on the replays - oh how we laughed. Anyway Laws got a rating of six out of ten for that match which was good enough for joint 14th position in the referee league. In fairness to Laws we probably would have marked him higher had he been assisted by two qualified linesmen instead of incompetent blind people they roped in off the street ten minutes before kick off.

Referee: Graham Laws (Tyne & Wear) 6 The referee did alright for me but was let down throughout the game by his two assistants. Of course the controversy surrounding the QPR goal is already well documented and having messed that decision up the linesman on that side, Mr Atkins, spent the rest of the game desperately trying to even things up by flagging for one Hull free kick after another. The merry flag waver at the other end wasn’t much better, taking an absolute age to get his flag up for even the most basic of throw in and offside decisions. Laws certainly isn’t the best referee we’ll have this season, but he’s far from the worst and his performance was undermined by the incompetence of those supposedly there to help him. LFW Hull Match Report

Last season Laws booked 74 (2.31 a match) and sent three off in 32 matches across three divisions and two cup competitions. He only booked more than four in a game on one occasion - Doncaster v Bristol Rovers in League One. This Laws’ third match in seven days having started with Bristol City’s last minute win at Blackpool on day one (three booked) and then Preston’s 2-0 League Cup win against Chesterfield where one yellow card was shown. He was much more prolific in the 2006/07 season, booking 119 (3.216 a match) and sending nine off in 37 matches.

He refereed Sheff Utd twice last season - a 3-1 home win for the Blades against Ipswich in November and a 2-0 Charlton win at Bramall Lane in March. In the Charlton game he sent off United’s Stephen Quinn in injury time. Prior to the Hull and Wrexham fixtures Laws was in charge of QPR for a 4-0 win at Mansfield and a 3-0 defeat at Notts County in 2002/03, a 1-0 defeat at Oldham at the end of the 2001/02 campaign and finally a 2-1 defeat at Bolton and 3-1 win at Man City in 1999/00.

He’s a pretty steady official these days for my money, but when he has one he really has one.

Elsewhere this weekend it was strange to see Mark Halsey overlooked for a Premiership match on the opening weekend - he has Doncaster v Cardiff in our league. Uriah Rennie has the evening televised match between Bristol City and Derby at Ashton Gate. Lower down Trevor Kettle has Brighton v Bristol Rovers while our old friend Andy Hall has appearaed on the list for the first time this season - he has Stockport v Leicester.