Durham official Nigel Miller is in charge for the final game of the season at Loftus Road on Saturday as Rangers take on Plymouth Argyle.

QPR v Plymouth Argyle
Referee: Nigel Miller (Durham)
Assistants – Holderness (Essex) and Yeo (Essex)
Fourth Official – Bentley (Kent)

Respect
• noun - a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements.



Nigel Miller from County Durham takes charge of QPR for the second time this season on Saturday against Plymouth. He’s a former LFW referee of the year you may remember but he has been very hit and miss (mostly miss) with us since that game against Wolves.

So far this season he has shown 71 yellows (2.218 a match) and three reds in 32 games. His busiest afternoons have included six yellows and a red in a game between Oldham and Millwall in August and seven yellows at the Hartlepool v Leicester League Two fixture in February. Last season he showed 67 (1.861 a match) yellows and eight reds in 36 matches and these aren’t bad averages at all when compared to some other referees.



At Hillsborough in December he awarded QPR a penalty, that we missed, and was marked as five out of ten – good enough for joint 25th position on this season’s referee league.



Referee: Nigel Miller (Durham) 5 Good to see the cards kept in his pocket apart from Grant who deserved his. The penalty was a good decision as well put apart from that he seemed to make a number of perplexing decisions – allowing Clarke to consistently foul opponents without punishment, giving hand ball decisions when they were fired at a player from a yard away and then allowing play to go on when players deliberately controlled the ball with their arms. It was a strange performance really, very frustrating and inconsistent at times. LFW Sheff Wed Match Report




In 2005/06 he refereed QPR’s 3-1 defeat at Wolves live on Sky and got the top mark of any referee that season, a nine good enough to put him top of the referee league. Ref: N Miller (Co Durham) – 9 The Wolves fans were going a bit mad with him but they do that with every ref! Miller could have been awarded a penalty but it was a fifty fifty call and in letting the game flow and keeping the cards in his pocket this guy is a good bet to top our referee league come May. One point deducted for an appalling effort at a moustache. LFW Wolves Match Report

Sadly since then he hasn’t been quite as good, he got a three for his diabolical showing in a 2-1 defeat at Hull City the following season, a game where Rangers were denied a penalty and had Lee Cook sent off for dissent – that saw him down near the bottom of the referee league that season and he didn’t improve much at Sheffield United last year where Rangers again lost 2-1 and he was awarded a five and a midtable position on that year’s table. That was the game where Rangers were denied a last minute penalty when Matthew Kilgallon appeared to fist a shot from Akos Buzsaky off the line. I still personally can’t make my mind up whether it was hand or head even now looking back at the replays so it’s hard to be too critical of Miller who had one split second to see and judge.

Ref: N Miller (Co Durham) 3 QPR Rivals Referee of the Year? If we'd given him a medal I'd like to choke him to death with it tonight. Shambolic display from start to finish. Gave some ridiculous decisions in QPR's favour for the first hour and then after failing to card Kanyuka for the worst challenge of the season so far on Forster set about awarding everything to Hull. Failed to award a blatant penalty when Cook was tripped and then sent him off for complaining. Allowed time wasting, stopped play for one head injury and played on for another, carded for something and then didn't even award a free kick for the same thing moments later. Lost it big time, a horrific performance. LFW Hull Match Report

Referee: Nigel Miller (Durham) 5 Very hard mark to give here because looking at the replays I don’t think it’s possible to decide definitively if Kilgallon handled the ball on the line or not. I’ve spoken to QPR fans who swear blind he did, and others who say he didn’t. The players seemed certain he did, although one thing I did notice on the highlights was the immediate reaction of the QPR fans directly behind the goal wasn’t to appeal for handball. Over the course of the game he seemed to get a number of decisions wrong, and the bald linesman going towards the away end was absolutely useless. Absolutely bloody useless. He looked at the referee before giving even the most simple of throw in decisions – you have a mind of your own you stupid little man use it. Wrongly disallowed Sharp’s goal in the first half but kept the flag down and allowed Hulse to race through on goal when he was clearly offside. Poor referee, terrible linesman, lethal combination. LFW Sheff Utd Match Report

His last Plymouth match was their 1-0 win at Coventry in November when an 87th minute strike was good enough to win the game for Paul Sturrock’s men.






Elsewhere pity Sheff Utd and Swansea who have Rob Styles in charge of their match – Styles is still less than popular at Bramall Lane over a penalty decision in a Premiership game with Liverpool where he awarded a spot kick to Steven Gerrard because somebody thought about kicking him, rather than actually doing it. Kevin Friend has Barnsley v Wolves, Stuart Attwell has Colchester v Peterborough, Andy Hall has Bradford v Rotherham and is then back in action again on Tuesday with Scunthorpe v Cheltenham.

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls