Paul Taylor from Hertfordshire is the man in the middle for QPR's visit to Charlton on Boxing Day, the third time he has refereed a match between the sides.

Charlton Athletic v Queens Park Rangers
Referee: Paul Taylor (Hertfordshire)
Assistants – Bushell (London) and Long (Suffolk)
Fourth Official – Atkin (West Sussex)

Respect
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I bet the authorities were rather hoping that the last game before Christmas would pass by without too many incidents to occupy them during the holiday period. Wrong! Although for once I thought referee Phil Dowd was entirely blameless for the glut of cards of both colours flashed in the Everton v Chelsea game on Monday night. Apropos of nothing it was mentioned during commentary that the top three fixtures for cards in the history of the Premiership all involve Everton – v Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea. John Terry’s first half dismissal at Goodison and bookings for dissent for Lampard, Cole and Ballack as the Londoners lost the plot have only added to that.

To be honest I did not think Dowd had much of a choice. Terry’s was a red card, Lampard and Cole were clearly screaming obscenities at him and with Ballack refusing to take a free kick until the wall was marched back even though it was ten yards away, a fact proven when Dowd made a point of pacing it out, what was Dowd supposed to do? I thought he was superb all night, a 9/10 performance.

I was pretty astonished therefore at the way Setanta Sports covered the game and post match. The studio guests seemed torn on the sending off, which was late, high and reckless, and made a big deal out of Dowd speaking to somebody in his earpiece. Now I always think it is a good thing for a referee to give himself some thinking time and take second and third opinions, although when a linesman is having a say from 50 yards away on an incident that the referee was standing next to I’m not sure it is a good thing. Dowd did not rush in like Mr Attwell does and brandish a red card before he has had time to think, he cleared the dissenting players, pulled Terry aside, gave himself plenty of time and then made the right decision. Why on earth it matters who he spoke to on his microphone I don’t know.

Then we were treated to Graham Poll back in the studio who first seemed to say it was the right decision, then thought it was a booking, then thought that Dowd playing with his earpiece was a nervous twitch, then thought he was just confirming with his officials that it was going to be a red card. Poll has a massive chip on his shoulder after his final season in the game – he came back from his three yellow card farce at the World Cup and made a number of high profile errors in his final season, most notably against our opponents this week Charlton in a match with Fulham where he awarded a free kick to the visitors from which they scored even though it was a Fulham player that handled the ball. Through this multitude of gaffs he complained that he was not being supported by the FA who kept overturning his decisions, he was particularly sore about the reaction to him sending off John Terry at Tottenham.

Consequently I always get the feeling, in both his television work and newspaper column, that Poll never actually expresses his true opinion, he just tries to twist it back round to this grievance he has over the way he was treated. After contradicting himself several times on the Terry incident he then started to spout off about what a big deal it is sending the England captain off and how that will have been going through Phil Dowd’s mind. All completely irrelevant. Anyway well done Phil Dowd, job very well done in difficult circumstances on Monday.

Turning to our game at Charlton and we have Paul Taylor who you will no doubt remember was the referee for our game against West Brom on the final day of last season – QPR lost 2-0 but only after Martin Rowlands was very harshly sent off for a tackle on Jonathan Greening. Taylor initially had a yellow card in his hand but upgraded it to a red after a chat with the linesman. This was a prime example of a linesman getting far too involved when he was more than twice as far away from the incident as the referee and Taylor was right to go with a yellow in the first place. The sending off cost QPR, who were playing very well against the champions elect, the match and Rowlands the first three games of this season suspended. A low mark of three meant he finished third bottom of the referee league last season.

Referee: Paul Taylor (Hertfordshire) 3 Really poor, and his two linesmen were an embarrassment. I don’t agree with the sending off but whether it was or it wasn’t after that he seemed to tie himself in knots trying to even things up. Missed three blatant hand balls in or around the West Brom penalty area and then punished QPR for one at the other end. West Brom removed both their players with bookings for fear that he might come after them again. Ruined a really good game. A pain in the arse throughout. LFW West Brom Match Report

Rowley’s red card against the Baggies took Taylor’s total last season to 104 yellows (2.54 a game) and ten reds in 41 matches. His biggest haul in a single match was six yellows and two reds in the Coventry v Norwich fixture. So far this season he has shown 57 yellows (3.8 a match) and five reds in 15 matches. He booked six last week and awarded a dodgy penalty in the Sheff Utd v Palace match and showed five yellows and a red a week before at Ipswich v Bristol City. He has refereed eight Championship games this season showing 30 yellows and three reds.

He refereed Charlton twice last season – a 4-2 defeat at West Brom and 2-2 draw at home to Watford either side of Christmas.

Taylor’s first QPR game was actually against Charlton in 1997 when the Addicks won 4-2 at Loftus Road. He also refereed the two teams in 1999 when the score was 0-0 and Chris Kiwomya was sent off. Prior to last season’s West Brom game QPR had won four on the spin with Taylor in charge without conceding a goal at Gillingham and at home to Blackpool, twice, and West Hame. His overall record with QPR is refereed nine, 12 QPR players booked, 16 opponents booked, one sending off each, four QPR wins, two defeats and two draws.

Elsewhere our old mate Andy Hall has Reading v Cardiff which looks like a recipe for disaster, Kevin Friend has Preston v Derby which is bad news for the away team as always and Phil Dowd has Forest v Doncaster down at the bottom although I suspect that is more to do with the six pointer nature of the game rather than as a punishment for his performance at Everton the other night. In League One Mark Halsey has the game of the day between Leeds and Leicester while Trevor Kettle will be systematically destroying Scunthorpe v Hartlepool.

Looking further ahead we have Clive Penton for Watford on Sunday, more about that whenever I get a chance to write it!

Photo: Action Images

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