Fred Graham is the referee for our Tuesday night match against Ipswich Town, the third time he has refereed a QPR game in his career.

Queens Park Rangers v Ipswich Town
Referee: Fred Graham (Essex)
Assistants – Foley (London) and Slaughter (Sussex)
Fourth Official – Daly (Middlesex)
Don’t expect a raft of cards and free kicks at Loftus Road on Tuesday night with Fred Graham in charge. This is a notoriously lenient referee who gives the game every possible chance to flow without his interference, probably more chance than some games often deserve, and doesn’t mind a bit of physical contact. If he stays true to form then he will basically be the exact opposite of Mr McDermid at Peterborough on Saturday who played everything exactly to the letter of the law to the point of making my head explode.

So far this season Graham has shown 43 yellows (2.388 a game) and five reds in 18 matches although seven yellows and two reds in a recent Gillingham v Brentford encounter is boosting that average considerably. Last season he showed 74 yellows (2.11 a match) and three reds in 35 games including three yellows in our 2-1 home win against Nottingham Forest in October. A rating of eight in that match saw him finish joint second on the referee league for last season.

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. LFW Forest Match Report

Prior to that his last QPR appointment was a 0-0 draw at home with Wolves in 2007/08 where he turned down a blatant QPR penalty and allowed things to get out of hand at times in his quest to blow the whistle as little as possible. Lenient to the point of being stupid - a low mark of four good enough for joint 30th position on the referee league for last season.

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. LFW Wolves Match Report

His last Ipswich game was a 2-1 home win for the Tractor Boys against Blackpool in 2008.

Elsewhere this Tuesday night Andy Hall has Carlisle v Leeds in the JP Trophy. Looking further ahead to Saturday and we have David Foster in charge of our trip to Coventry, more on him on Thursday.

Photo: Action Images

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