Rob Green look away now - Referee
Thursday, 21st Apr 2016 18:52 by Clive Whittingham

A second QPR appointment of the season for Hertfordshire official Keith Hill this weekend. Let's hope for no repeat of the first eh?

Referee >>> Keith Hill (Hertfordshire)

Assistants >>> Lee Venamore (Kent) and Anthony Serrano (Hertfordshire)

Fourth Official >>> Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire), kill it with fire.

History

QPR 1 Nottingham Forest 2, Saturday September 12, 2015, Championship

Debutant centre half Gabrielle Angella beat me too it. One of the few players to make a bright start to the game, he suffered a horrific cut to the head after nine minutes and although he tried to play on, the bleeding couldn’t be stemmed and he was replaced by Grant Hall. Angella angrily protested to referee Keith Hill that an elbow had been used illegally against him, and the physical evidence was certainly strong, but the officials were unmoved.

Hill did, however, rush quickly onto the scene and issue a yellow card to James Perch for the best tackle of the game on 20 minutes. Crunching into Ryan Mendes, Perch took the ball cleanly and roused the crowd from their slumber. It was exactly what the game needed to spark into life and it was clamped down on and punished immediately. Less of that sort of thing please, back in your box.

But QPR were to come bearing gifts. There was just 18 minutes left for play when Onuoha first allowed a ball down the left touchline to bounce when he could have dealt with it in the air, and then sent the latest in a long line of overly-casual, lazy pass backs to Green — this one airborne and bouncing. Green dallied and panicked and pisballed about with it just long enough for O’Grady to take it from him and hit the deck under the resulting challenge. The poor quality of the goalkeeper’s play was compounded by his stupid professional foul costing his team not only an equaliser but a player for the remainder of the game — O’Grady had actually toed the ball a fair distance past Green so had he let him get on with it the very worst that would have happened was a goal, and it might not even have been that.

This all plunged Alex Smithies into a difficult league debut for the club — first facing a rasping penalty from Lansbury that nearly lifted the net off the back of the posts as it flew in, and then having to play for the final quarter of an hour with all those opening night nerves, behind a side that had been lacklustre with 11 men and seemed to completely give up with ten.

QPR: Green 3; Perch 5, Onuoha 6, Angella 7 (Hall 32, 6), Konchesky 5; Tozser 6 (Gladwin 86, -), Henry 4; Chery 5, Luongo 6 (Smithies 73, 4), Phillips 5; Austin 5

Subs not used: Hill, Emmanuel-Thomas, Doughty, Hoilett

Goals: Austin 65 (unassisted)

Red Cards: Green 71 (Idiocy)

Bookings: Perch 20 (“foul”)

Forest: De Vries 4; Lichaj 6, Mills 6, Wilson 6, Pinillos 6; Mancienne 5 (Ebecilio 52 4 (Oliveira 69, 7)) Vaughan 7, Lansbury 7, Mendes 6; Walker 6 (Ward 45, 6), O’Grady 5

Subs not used: Blackstock, Hobbs, Evtimov, Burke

Goals: Lansbury 73 (penalty won O’Grady), Oliveira 81 (assisted Mendes)

Bookings: Lansbury 87 (kicking ball away), O’Grady 90 (repetitive fouling)

Referee — Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 6 One big decision in a tepid game and he got that right. Thought he got a bit picky near the end, doing Forest’s time wasting for them not that they really needed to be wasting time given QPR’s lack of threat. Generous to let Hall off without a yellow at the start of the second half, and Lansbury on 71 for a bad foul on Chery. The Perch booking is a joke, but that’s more a problem with the rules and the way the sport has developed than the referee himself.

Middlesbrough 1 QPR 3, Saturday March 22, 2014, Championship

There was certainly more shape and purpose to Rangers after the break. Suk-Young grew into the game as an attacking force down the left while Kranjcar, Benayoun and Morrison actually assembled into some semblance of pattern behind Keane. Kranjcar dragged an early shot wide, Hughes whipped a cross into the near post that Keane was an inch away from converting, Carroll went over in the penalty area as he attempted to twist away from two would-be tacklers but referee Keith Hill (probably correctly) said no penalty.

But at times it was a niggly, frustrating period of football. Kei Kamara conceded a foul on Morrison deep in the QPR half a quarter of an hour from time and, not wanting to be caught out by a quick free kick, picked up the ball on his hands. Morrison tried to retrieve it only to become embroiled in an argument that quickly turned into a push and shove match with all the usual suspects wading in for a say. Hill showed yellow cards to Kamara, Morrison and Barton.

But his luck was in here. Not only did Friend’s shot miss the target, but Rangers then concocted a farcical winner in the second minute of added time. Boro, disappointed not to have won but still with time to search for that crucial second goal, looked set to attack again when Ken Omeruo rolled the ball back to his keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos to, in theory, launch another aerial assault on the penalty box at the other end. Bobby Zamora, on as a second half substitute and departing from his usual lazy carthorse MO, decided to run the ball own ad hurry the keeper’s kick. The big Greek was suitably worried by this to stride out of his area and try to take the ball first time but as he did so it hit an invisible divot on an otherwise pristine playing surface, leapt a couple of inches off the ground and left the keeper to swing at fresh air and fall to the floor. Zamora calmly walked the ball into the empty net and then stopped. Up in the corner of the stand, 600 bemused QPR fans also stopped. Everybody looked at the referee, looked at the linesman, looked at the goalkeeper, looked at the linesman again… and then a comically huge smile spread across Zamora’s lips. QPR had won.

Earlier Friend and Nathaniel Chalobah had been carded for fouls, and Niko Kranjcar had to be replaced by substitute Junior Hoilett when, after picking up a yellow card after half an hour, he set off on a one man fouling mission for the early bath water which included a dive that sparked arguments between the two benches, and a deliberate handball that would almost always bring a booking in the modern game.

There was a booking too for Friend for a foul in back play in a QPR move that ended with Junior Hoilett’s weekly injury scare and, much to the chagrin of the home fans and half the Middlesbrough team, Boro kicking the ball out of play so he could be treated.

Middlesbrough: Konstantopoulos 5; Varga 6, Omeruo 5, Gibson 6, Friend 7; Whitehead 5, Chalobah 7; Butterfield 6 (Tomlin 63, 6), Kamara 6 (Ledesma 88, -), Adomah 6; Graham 4

Subs not used: Steele, Williams, Main, Morris, Atkinson

Goals: Friend 19 (unassisted)

Bookings: Chalobah 65 (foul), Friend 71 (foul), Kamara 75 (unsporting conduct)

QPR: Green 6; Hughes 5, Onuoha 6, Hill 6, Suk-Young 7; Carroll 6, Barton 5; Benayoun 5 (O’Neil 76, 6), Morrison 7, Kranjcar 6 (Hoilett 61, 6); Keane 5 (Zamora 64, 7)

Subs not used: Simpson, Murphy, Donaldson, Petrasso

Goals: Benayoun 44 (assisted Kranjcar), Zamora 90+2 (unassisted), Morrison 90+5 (assisted Zamora)

Bookings: Carroll 22 (foul), Kranjcar 31 (foul), Morrison 75 (unsporting conduct), Barton 75 (unsporting conduct), O’Neil 90+1 (foul)

Referee — Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 7 A hell of a lot of cards for a game that didn’t have a lot of needle to it, but looking bac on them all it’s hard to disagree with any of the decisions. In fact given that Niko Kranjcar committed a foul, a dive and a deliberate handball after his yellow, Tom Carroll also went down theatrically in the penalty area after he’d been booked, and Joey Barton got away with a bad foul while on a yellow, you could knock points off for him being too lenient.

Hull City 0 QPR 0, Saturday January 29, 2011, Championship

Hull’s tactics were very clear right from the first minute. When QPR were in possession Hull players immediately hassled them high up the pitch preventing them from settling and playing their football. Whenever Routledge and particularly Taarabt got the ball to their feet two, or even three, Hull players were always in attendance. With referee Keith Hill happy to let the players get on with it and indulge themselves with some physical challenges the game suffocated under a blanket of tackles and misplaced hurried passes. Three times Liam Rosenior shanked clearances down the line into the side stand under no pressure at all and that rather summed up a game high on endeavour but painfully low on quality.

There was no hint of what was to come from the Moroccan at this point although he had already been warned by the referee for dissent after losing his temper over a throw in decision that went Hull’s way when even we could see that it was obviously a QPR ball from 200 yards away at the back of the stand. It was a combination of Hull’s defensive style, that Ian Holloway once referred to as “bad rashing”, and frustration with the officials that I think eventually made Taarabt snap.

Warnock prepared Hogan Ephraim for an introduction but as he did so QPR were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area for a foul on Wayne Routlede. Taarabt would usually be in line to take such a set piece, and indeed he decided to end his self imposed non-involvement in the match and tee the ball up. Several QPR players came across towards the ball presumably to either try and calm their team mate down or to tell him he was in no frame of mind to take the free kick. This merely served to inflame the situation further with Taarabt appearing to push both Wayne Routledge and Shaun Derry in an untidy melee that the Hull players stood and watched with stunned expressions. Taarabt’s conduct had now descended to such a level that referee Keith Hill was forced to get involved and remind him that such behaviour remains a yellow card offence, even if it is directed at your own players. Predictably the free kick was awful, smacked tamely wide to further cheers from the home fans.

James Harper picked up the one and only yellow card of the game for leaving a boot in on Gorkss as he cleared downfield, and QPR were left cursing their luck as for the third time in two away matches and the second time on the day a great chance fell the way of their right full back. Bradley Orr was impressive defensively in this game, but his finishing once again left a lot to be desired as he arrived bang on time at the back post to meet Taarabt’s well flighted free kick on the volley but lifted the ball high over the bar from a yard out.

Hull: Guzan 6, Rosenior 6, Chester 7, Gerrard 6, Dawson 6, Koren 6, Evans 6, Harper 7, Stewart 7 (Devitt 73, 6), Fryatt 5, Mclean 5 (Barmby 65, 6)

Subs Not Used: Duke, McShane, Cairney, Simpson, Belaid

Booked: Harper (foul)

QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 7, Gorkss 6, Connolly 6, Hill 6, Derry 7, Faurlin 5 (Moen 67, 6), Routledge 6, Taarabt 5, Smith 7 (Hulse 72, 5), Miller 7 (Ephraim 85, -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hall, Chimbonda, Shittu

Referee: Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 7 Clearly wanted to let the players get on with it and stay out of the action as much as possible which is to be welcomed, but there was a tackle on Shaun Derry in the first half by Harper that could have done some serious damage and went unpunished, and another one on Clint Hill that similarly brought nothing.

Swansea 2 QPR 0, Saturday October 3, 2009

The entire game swung on two incidents between the fifty second and fifty third minutes. Firstly another super move ended with Routledge and Simpson outnumbering the Swans defence 12 yards out from goal. Routledge did all the hard work by beating Tate and opening up an a chance that was effectively a penalty in open play — on the spot, only the keeper to beat, no defenders left to challenge him. A goal looked certain but Routledge put his shot at a nice height for De Vries who saved well off to his right. Swansea passed the ball out of the area looking for Dyer, the ball was short and invited Rowlands in for a tackle that he mistimed badly. Dyer had not even hit the deck by the time referee Hill arrived on the scene with a second yellow and inevitable red. From wondering just how we were not in the lead the QPR fans were now left to contemplate more than half an hour of football without our influential captain and midfield general.

Part two of the worst possible scenario began 20 minutes from time. Ben Watson received a yellow card for sliding through Pratley as Swansea launched a counter attack — Hill rightly allowed the Welsh side to continue playing before pulling Watson aside when the ball went dead. Within seven minutes Watson was passing the soap to Rowlands in the early bath after Borrowdale played him a poor pass, Dyer tried to nip the interception around him and Watson flung out an arm to whip the ball off his tow. It was deliberate handball, silly and an obvious second yellow. Watson knew what he’d done and what was about to come immediately and had his head in his hands as the red card was shown.

In between those two cards, that mean QPR will be without their two most influential players when Preston visit in a fortnight, Swansea had taken the lead as well. Rangel crossed from the right and Gower stole in unmarked at the back post to hammer in on the half volley — Buzsaky looked to be the most culpable for not tracking his man.

Swansea: De Vries 8, Williams 7, Tate 7, Monk 7, Rangel 7, Britton 8,Pratley 8 (Lopez 86, -), Dyer 8, Gower 7, Butler 7 (Trundle 60, 7),Dobbie 6 (Beattie 72, 6)

Subs Not Used: Cornell, Richards, Orlandi, Van der Gun

Booked: Gower (foul)

Goals: Gower 74 (assisted Rangel), Trundle 85 (assisted Dyer)

QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 7, Gorkss 6, Stewart 7, Borrowdale 5, Rowlands 6,Watson 6, Routledge 7, Buzsaky 6 (Taarabt 76, 6), Vine 6 (Faurlin 60, 6),Simpson 6 (Pellicori 77, 5)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Mahon, Ephraim

Sent Off:> Rowlands 53 (two bookings), Watson 78 (two bookings)

Booked: Rowlands (foul), Rowlands (foul), Gorkss (foul), Watson (foul), Watson (handball)

Referee: Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 7 While it may be easy to rant and rave about us going down to nine men at a time when we were dominating and it all being the referee’s fault that we lost I have to say I don’t think Hill did very much wrong on the day. I agreed with all the cards handed out and Rowlands and Watson have only themselves to blame for the red cards. Perhaps put the pressure on himself by producing cards too early, and definitely missed a blatant penalty on Trundle at the end, but overall wasn’t too bad.

QPR 4 Carlisle 0, Tuesday August 26, 2008

QPR: Cerny, Ramage, Stewart, Connolly, Delaney (Gorkss, 68 ) , Ledesma, Rowlands, Mahon (Bolder, 68 ) , Cook, Di Carmine (Balanta, 70 ) , Parejo

Subs not used: Camp, Alberti, Ephraim, Ainsworth

Goals: Stewart 48, Ledesma, 56, 63, 85

Booked: Delaney

Carlisle: Williams, Raven, Livesey, Murphy, Horwood, Taylor, Bridge-Wilkinson, Thirlwell, Hackney ( Smith, 72 ) , Bridges ( Smith, 74 ) , Madine

Subs not used:Howarth, Graham, Carlton, Keogh, Campion

Referee - Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 7/10 Barely noticed him and he let the game flow as much as possible. Good showing and the majority of the decisions were sound and sensible.

QPR 3 Blackpool 2, Tuesday March 11, 2008

QPR: Camp 6, Mancienne 6, Connolly 8, Hall 7, Delaney 6, Buzsaky 8 (Lee 85, -), Leigertwood 6, Rowlands 8 (Rehman 90, -), Vine 7, Blackstock 6, Agyemang 6 (Mahon 66, 7)

Subs Not Used: Pickens, Balanta

Goals: Buzsaky 11 (assisted Agyemang), Vine 40 (unassisted), Rowlands 47 (assisted Agyemang)

Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Barker 5, Evatt 5, Gorkss 6, Crainey 6, Taylor-Fletcher 6 (Parker 71, 6) Southern 5 (Fox 53, 7), Flynn 6, Hoolahan 8, Morrell 6 (Burgess 54, 8), McPhee 7

Subs Not Used: Coid, Welsh

Booked: Taylor-Fletcher (foul), Hoolahan (foul)

Goals: Burgess 60, McPhee 73 (assisted Gorkss)

Referee: Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 9 - Hardly noticed him all night, bit of a dodgy free kick awarded to QPR on the edge of the box in the second half but otherwise hard to fault.

QPR 1 Watford 1, Saturday September 22, 2007

Watford replaced the ineffective Henderson with Nathan Ellington and slung McAnuff on for Smith as well but it only had an effect when the referee intervened and reduced the home side to ten men. Mikele Leigertwood, putting in his most impressive performance for QPR so far, stuck a foot out as Lloyd Doyley threatened to run past him over by the dug outs. A foul for sure but Doyley made a huge amount of it and Leigertwood was shown a second yellow card when surely a talking to and final warning would have been more appropriate.

The least Rangers deserved was a point and in the end it could easily have been all three. Twice in injury time the R's had chances to win the game. First a ball into the area from Ephraim sailed over the heads of Doyley and Blackstock who both turned and gave chase. Doyley then wrestled his opponent to the ground in the area with a crazy shirt tug but referee Hill waved the appeals away. It certainly looked a penalty to me. Then with the final kick of the match that man Moore appeared again on the right flank, jinking his way into the area past two opponents but blasting a deflected shot wide with the ink still wet on his Roy of the Rovers script.

QPR: Camp 8, Timoska 8, Stewart 7, Cullip 9, Barker 6, Ainsworth 7 (Moore 46, 8), Leigertwood 7, Bolder 7, Rowlands 7, Blackstock 6, Nardiello 6 (Ephraim 41, 7)

Subs Not Used: Cole, Bignot, Curtis

Sent Off: Leigertwood (81) (two bookings)

Booked: Bolder (foul), Leigertwood (foul), Cullip (foul)

Goals: Moore 59 (assisted Blackstock)

Watford: Poom 7, Doyley 7, Shittu 7, DeMerit 7 (Mariappa 46, 7), Stewart 7, Smith 8 (McAnuff 73, 7), Williamson 8, Mahon 7, Johnson 7, King 8, Darius Henderson 4 (Ellington 73, 7)

Subs Not Used: Lee, Priskin

Booked: Mahon (foul), McAnuff (foul)

Goals: Johnson 49 (assisted Smith)

Referee: Keith Hill (Hertfordshire) 5 - Missed what looked like a penalty to me right at the death and very harshly sent Leigertwood off. In a derby game as fiercely and fairly competitive as this one you expect a few tackles to fly in and Leigertwood's two offences were worth a yellow card and a ticking off at most.

Sheff Wed 3 QPR 2, Saturday October 21, 2006

Wednesday for their part abandoned their idea of collapsing altogether and fought back with terrific spirit. The pace and confidence came back for no apparent reason and two minutes after Rowlands left the field they were back in front. Ward gave the ball away three times in quick succession after coming on and on the third occasion Tudgay seized possession and threaded a pass through for MacLean to run clean through on goal.

MacLean never looked confident and hesitated in front of Paul Jones which enabled the Rangers keeper to get a boot to the ball and divert it away. MacLean hit the deck and referee Keith Hill awarded a penalty. I've seen the incident since on television and it looks like a penalty, so presumably the referee had a similar view, but I can assure you that Jones got a good foot to the ball, made minimal contact with MacLean and was unlucky. Strangely the referee only booked Jones when the rules surely dictated that a red card should have been shown although it was sad to see two Wednesday players running fifty yards to beg the referee to send the keeper off.

MacLean dusted himself down and sent Jones the wrong way from the spot.

Sheff Wed: Jones 5, Simek 7, Hills 8, Bougherra 7, Spurr 6, Lunt 6, Folly 7, Small 7, Brunt 7, Tudgay 8 (Talbot 90 -), Burton 6 (MacLean 40, 7).

Subs Not Used: Adamson, Bullen, Whelan.

Booked: Simek.

Scorers: Tudgay 13, 45, MacLean 70 pen.

QPR: Paul Jones 5, Bignot 6 (Gallen 85, -), Rehman 3, Stewart 3, Bircham 5 (Mancienne 45, 5), Rowlands 6 (Ward 67, 3), Lomas 4, Cook 7, Smith 5, Ray Jones 6, Blackstock 7.

Subs Not Used: Royce, Rose.

Booked: Bignot, Smith, Ray Jones, Paul Jones.

Goals: Blackstock 50, 54.

Referee: K Hill (Hertfordshire) 4 - Blew his whistle constantly. Pulled people up for the most minimal of fouls, insisted that every free kick was taken from the exact spot of the foul, even if that meant making a player retake a kick by his own corner flag twice. Got the penalty decision wrong and then, having given it, failed to send off Paul Jones when he should have done. Did nothing about the time wasting at the end of the second half. Basically he was very, very picky which is quite unlike him.

Prior to all of that Mr Hill was in charge of several of our League One games. In the promotion season he had us for a 1-1 draw at Brentford where Paul Furlong scored and two bookings were shown, and the 3-0 home win against Chesterfield which was followed by Ian Holloway’s famous taxi quote. The season before he awarded QPR a penalty which Andy Thomson scored, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 3-2 League Cup defeat Leyton Orient. In 2001/02 he was the man in the middle as Rangers battled back from 2-0 down to beat Notts County 3-2 at Loftus Road on Easter Monday — Dominic Foley got the late winner, quiz question potential written all over that one. In our relegation year 2000/01 Hill took charge of a rare win, 1-0 at home against Crewe, and in 2000 he had us for a 1-1 home draw with Stockport.

Stats

Hill, a vastly experienced official who has been on the league list since 1998/99, has shown 136 yellows and five reds in 33 appointments this season. He hasn't sent a player off for a dozen matches prior to this one but did book seven at Doncaster v Blackpool and Oxford v Northampton which are his biggest single hauls this season. He refereed Reading's 2-1 loss at home to Everton in the League Cup, and a 3-1 set back at Nottingham Forest when he sent off the home team's Jack Hobbs.

Last year he booked 128 and sent off four in 35 games — that included four yellows in Forest's 0-0 draw at Leeds. The previous season, which included QPR's game at Middlesbrough, he finished with 136 yellows and four reds in 35 games — 17 of those coming in two games in a single week, including our trip to the Riverside.