It's been a while, but Essex referee Fred Graham — who's previously taken leniency to strange new places at Loftus Road — is back in the Bush for the derby with Brentford.

Referee >>> Fred Graham (Essex), joined the league list in 2004, has four previous QPR appointments to his name

Assistants >>> Neil Hair (Cambridgeshire) and Guy Stretton (Leicestershire)

Fourth Official >>> Lee Swabey (Devon)

Previously

QPR 2 Bristol City 2, Monday January 3, 2011, Championship

City were trying to counter again and Campbell- Ryce beat Bradley Orr for pace which resulted in the first booking of the game. The free kick into the box was cleared by Hill.

With four minutes left the lively Campbell- Ryce worked a chance and tested Paddy Kenny from the edge of the box which the Rangers keeper saved low to his right.
We then saw the introduction of new Norwegian signing Petter Vaagan Moen, on for Adel Taarabt. Then City made their last change which saw a first return to W12 for big Damion Stewart, replacing Lee Johnson who had been booked a few minutes earlier. Stewpeas was put up front in an attempt to salvage something for the Robins

QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 7, Hill 6, Derry 7, Taarabt 8, (Vaagan Moen 87, -) Mackie 7, Gorkks 6, Faurlin 7, Walker 7, Hulse 6, Smith 7

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Clarke, Rowlands, Agyemang, Borrowdale, German

Booked: Orr (foul)

Goals: Faurlin 53 (assisted Taarabt), Taarabt 85 (penalty, won Hulse)

Bristol City: James 7, Skuse 6, Caulker 7, Cisse 7, Nyatanga 6, Adomah 6, (Haynes 6) Johnson 6, (Stewart) Elliott 6, Campbell Ryce 6, Stead 5,(Clarkson 6) Pitman 6

Subs Not Used: Gerken, Sproule, Ribeiro, Edwards

Booked: Johnson (foul), Elliott (foul), Caulker (over celebrating)

Goals: Pitman 50 (unassisted), Caulker 90 (assisted Campbell-Ryce)

Referee: Fred Graham 7 Thought he let the game flow very well when we have seen needless stoppages time and time again. The only big decision I think he got wrong was our penalty. At the time of writing this I have only seen it once again quickly, I would have been thoroughly disgusted if that had have gone against us. His job was made easier by the game not getting niggly but he also has to take credit for that.

QPR 1 Ipswich 2, Tuesday February 9, 2010

Ipswich cannot be too high on confidence themselves bearing in mind their league position and recent results. The goal seemed to make them a little nervous and they started to engage in some pretty cynical time wasting tactics, particularly Lee-Barrett in goal. They also picked up two quick bookings — Norris and Walters both saw yellow for cynical fouls on Adel Taarabt who, while clearly still pagging weight, was much more like his old self in the second half here.

QPR: Ikeme 6, Connolly 4, Stewart 3, Gorkss 4, Hill 2, Ephraim 4 (Buzsaky 46, 6), Quashie 2 (Taarabt 46, 6), Faurlin 4, Cook 6, Bent - (Vine 10, 4), Simpson 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Balanta, Borrowdale, German

Booked: Connolly (foul)

Goals: Simpson 66 (assisted Cook)

Ipswich: Lee-Barrett 6, Peters 7, Delaney 7, McAuley 7, Colback 7, Walters 6, Leadbitter 8, Norris 8, Garvan 7 (Rosenior 65, 6), Counago 6 (Healy 65, 6), Daryl Murphy 7 (Stead 85, -)

Subs Not Used: Brian Murphy, Balkestein, Edwards, Quinn

Booked: Norris (foul), Walters (foul)

Goals Norris 8 (assisted Walters), Daryl Murphy 38 (assisted Colback)

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 8 Apart from one 30 second period late in the second half when he got caught up with some play acting from Taarabt and Rosenior I thought he controlled the game brilliantly only producing cards when necessary, allowing play to flow, not being too fussy and generally showing a lot of common sense. Allowed some physical contact which is a good thing, and ignored most of the diving and cheating that went on with a smile on his face which quickly saw it come to a stop.

QPR 2 Forest 0, Saturday October 18, 2008

Blackstock then picked up the first booking of the game from referee Fred Graham in confusing circumstances — Nottingham Forest broke down the field on the counter attack and Blackstock wrestled with one of the runners in back play. The attack ended when Cerny flicked the ball away from Tyson with his finger tips after good build up by Anderson and Cohen. The ball stayed in play and didn’t go dead for several minutes until a foul by Bennett on Buzsaky. The referee then returned to book Blackstock for his previous indiscretion, a good decision but one that mystified most people in the ground at the time because most hadn’t seen the offence and those that had had long since forgotten about it.

I personally thought the wall could have done more, certainly two or three of them in there didn’t even jump, and Damien Delaney let Blackstock know in no uncertain terms what he thought of his efforts, shoving his team mate in the chest at one stage. As Forest returned to the halfway line Lee Cook was shown a yellow card, presumably for telling the referee exactly what he thought of the original decision — bloody stupid booking that one.

QPR: Cerny 8, Ramage 6, Stewart 7, Hall 7 (Connolly 65, 7), Delaney 6, Buzsaky 8 (Mahon 90, -), Leigertwood 6, Rowlands 6, Cook 6, Balanta 7 (Di Carmine 76, 6), Blackstock 6

Subs Not Used: Camp, Ledesma

Booked: Blackstock (foul), Cook (dissent)

Goals: Balanta 48 (assisted Delaney), Buzsaky 60 (assisted Hall)

Forest: Smith 5, Wilson 6, Bennett 6 (Lynch 46, 5), Chambers 6, Morgan 6, Fletcher 7 (McGugan 73, 7), Anderson 7 (Davies 73, 6), Cohen 6, Cole 6, McCleary 6, Tyson 7

Subs Not Used: Martin, Thornhill

Booked: McCleary (foul), Tyson (repetitive fouling)

Goals: McGugan 84 (assisted Cohen)

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 8 Very decent overall I thought. Hard to argue with any of the bookings, the game was allowed to flow and he played lots of advantage. An unfussy official who doesn’t want to be the centre of attention — rarely spends a lot of time speaking the players and allows a bit of physical contact which is a good thing.

QPR 0 Wolves 0, Saturday December 15, 2007

In between the attempts from Rowlands Blackstock should have given QPR the lead when Ainsworth toasted Gray for the umpteenth time in the half, got to the byline and hammered the ball low into the six yard box. Somehow Blackstock contrived to fire wide from a matter of yards out at the near post. Not since Watford's Jermaine Darlington played at Loftus Road for the Hornets has a full back been given quite such a torrid time by Gareth Ainsworth. He absolutely slaughtered him in the first half with the ball, and thanks to some very lenient refereeing he beat him up a few times as well.

Then the big controversial moment of the game. Just before the hour Nygaard won back possession from Kevin Foley right in the corner of the penalty area by the byline. The Dane turned on the ball and then looked set to hammer it across the face of goal but Foley clamped his arm tightly and wouldn't release, eventually wrestling the QPR player to the ground. Graham was a matter of feet away, looking right at it, but was unmoved. I still can't believe a penalty wasn't given now looking back, what on earth was the moron looking at? Why would Nygaard go down? He'd turned his man, he was away and heading for goal. A scandalous, pathetic piece of refereeing from an official who was incompetent to the point of endangering the players' safety all afternoon. Nygaard, Barker and several others protested long and hard for more than a minute afterwards.

QPR Camp 7, Malcolm 7, Rehman 8, Stewart 7, Barker 7, Ainsworth 8, Leigertwood 7, Buzsaky 7, Rowlands 7, Blackstock 6 (Sinclair 83, -), Nygaard 6

Subs Not Used: Cole, Moore, Walton, Balanta

Wolves Hennessey 8, Foley 6, Darren Ward 7, Collins 5, Gray 5, Gibson 6, Olofinjana 7, Henry 7, Stephen Ward 7, Elliott 6, Bothroyd 6 (Keogh 88, -)

Subs Not Used: Ikeme, Edwards, Jarvis, Eastwood

Referee: Fred Graham (Essex) 4 - Regular readers will know that I like a referee who keeps his cards in his pockets an allows a game to flow, but there is a limit to that and Mr Graham was so far past that limit at times it became farcical. Twice in the first half Wolves players were the victims of poor challenges from QPR players over by the South Africa Road stand and nothing was given, Buzsaky was chopped down on the edge of the area and nothing was given, Nygaard was blatantly wrestled to the floor in the penalty area and no penalty was given. He just gave nothing all afternoon, and that's great to a point, but as the players realised they could get away with things some really dangerous tackles went in and Graham is lucky nobody got hurt as a result of his slack performance. At one point I actually thought he'd left his whistle in the bogs, Dermott Gallagher stoned off his face would have given more free kicks than this guy. Poor to the point of being dangerous.

Stats

Graham has shown a fairly hefty 94 yellows in his 24 appointments this season, and a typically lenient one red. He has shown seven yellows in a single game on three separate occasions. Six of those appointments have been in the Championship but he hasn't been in charge of Brentford since their 2-2 home draw with Millwall in March last season, when a late penalty award helped the Bees fight back to draw from two goals down with five minutes to play.

He showed 46 yellow cards and no reds in his 16 appointments in 2014/15 and has actually only shown six red cards in his last four seasons on the league list. Famous last words.

Other Listings

Championship >>> I'm not sure, given his rather odd handling of MK Dons v QPR last week, that Keith Stroud would have been my first pick for Blackburn v Leeds.

League One >>> Neil Swarbrick, ostensibly a Premier League referee, continues his descent down the divisions with Bradford v Doncaster this weekend. Given his performance in W12 on Tuesday he's lucky to get that.

League Two >>> Clueless young whippersnapper Gavin Ward has Aldershot v Hereford.

Photo: Action Images

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