Orr beware, it's Tanner v Millwall
Monday, 7th Mar 2011 19:56 by Clive Whittingham

Former Premiership referee Steve Tanner is the man in the middle as QPR travel to Millwall for a potentially feisty London derby.

Referee Steve Tanner (Somerset), eight seasons on the list, dropped from Premiership in 2008, once showed ten yellow cards in a match between Plymouth and QPR and sent Bradley Orr off against Reading earlier this season.

Assistants M George and M Scholes

Fourth official T Robinson (Oxfordshire)

Previously

QPR 3 Reading 1, Saturday November 6, 2010

The game could have begun with an ugly injury, in exactly the same way our match at Palace last season did when Damion Stewart fractured his skull. The kick off was lofted forward by Rangers towards Hulse who flew towards the ball and smashed heads with Matt Mills. Luckily neither player was seriously hurt and play restarted with a Reading free kick.

There was more of the same to come within three minutes as Reading striker Shane Long hit the deck after a clash with Gorkss on the edge of the QPR penalty box. The Irishman complained bitterly to the referee Steve Tanner about the use of an elbow as a shining black eye started to show and so began an afternoon of refereeing decisions by committee – whenever a foul was committed Brian Howard, Shane Long and Jem Karacan immediately joined the referee for a discussion over what should be done. This lamentable tactic is a feature of Reading’s play under Brian McDermott and should have been brought to a halt by Mr Tanner straight away – instead he allowed it to continue and fester like a bed sore throughout the game undermining his own position.

At the Loft end Reading did have half chances, but lacked a sufficient cutting edge to test Kenny. A harsh decision from Mr Tanner to penalise Connolly for a non-existent foul on Tabb led to a Reading free kick and subsequent corner but Faurlin was on hand to snuff out the danger and set Rangers on the attack again. Another run at the heart of the QPR defence from Tabb called Gorkss into action and for a five minute period midway through the half the play was switching from one end of the field to the other at a breathless pace.

The lead that QPR’s approach play richly deserved arrived just before the half hour mark. Alejandro Faurlin, back to his very best and dictating the play, fed the ball wide to Adel Taarabt on the left side of the penalty area and from that point on it was pure Moroccan magic. Karacan and Griffin were both in attendance and quickly humiliated as Taarabt skipped into the area and when Brian Howard came across and executed a wild two footed lunge on the QPR man it was such an obvious penalty that even the three man Reading refereeing council didn’t bother to sit in judgement. Taarabt took the sot kick, chipping the ball delicately over Federici who committed himself left leaving the rest of the goal gaping. Seven penalties for QPR already this season, three of them scored by Taarabt and four by Helguson.

The drama didn’t end with the miss though. As soon as the ball went out of play Mills was booked for his clash with Taarabt and then having received that card charged off down the field to confront the Moroccan. Shaun Derry went with him and almost certainly saved him from a red card by restraining him and preventing him getting to Taarabt. This started a handbag swinging session with players from both sides involved, all under the watchful eye of the Howard, Karacan and Long refereeing sub-committee of course. The upshot of it all, despite Taarabt being fouled and stamped on in the build up and then Mills racing 40 yards to confront him and start the whole thing off again, was a yellow card for QPR’s Shaun Derry which was a ridiculous result that the referee seemed to pluck from thin air. How Mills stayed on the pitch I don’t know.

The main flashpoint of the half was still to come though. Just before half time Hal Robson Kanu ran at Bradley Orr at pace and was unceremoniously bundled to the ground by a poor tackle. Executing a challenge when facing the opponent head on was always going to be difficult, but I expected a yellow card and nothing else. Initially Tanner didn’t even seem as if he was going to give a free kick but having belatedly blown his whistle Howard, Karacan and Long quickly arrived on the scene with their usual advice for the official and Orr was sent off. Three times in three games against Reading QPR have had a man sent off now and as with Damion Stewart at the Madejski Stadium last season I felt the Reading players talked the official into it. Like I say, I thought a yellow card would suffice but I can see why he was sent off as it was an ugly tackle so I’ve no real complaints.

Five minutes were added on at the end of the game as despite there being no injuries Mr Tanner had warned Paddy Kenny for time wasting on several occasions even though it seemed to be the Reading fans keeping hold of the ball causing some of the problems. By this stage though it was clear that QPR were home and dry and the game could have gone on for as long as the referee liked.

In fact it was QPR who looked like extending their lead when first Leon Clarke burst into the area only to be denied by a fine tackle from Griffin, then Tommy Smith headed weakly at the keeper. Rangers fans thought the final whistle had been blown when the referee held up a throw in to allowHogan Ephraim to come on but there was barely enough time to restart before the game was brought to a close – Ephraim did get a single touch of the ball though.

QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 6, Connolly 7, Gorkss 7, Walker 7, Derry 8, Faurlin 9, Mackie 8, Taarabt 9 (Clarke 80, 7), Smith 8 (Ephraim 90, -), Hulse 6 (Agyemang 81, 7)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Leigertwood, Rowlands, Parker

Sent Off: Orr (serious foul play)

Booked: Derry (ungentlemanly conduct), Clarke (handball)

Goals: Taarabt 27 (penalty won by Taarabt), Faurlin 61 (assisted Mackie), Smith 71 (assisted Taarabt)

Reading: Federici 7, Griffin 6, Khizanishvili 6, Mills 6, Harte 6, McAnuff 5, Tabb 6 (Antonio 81, 6), Karacan 6 (Church 62, 5), Howard 6, Robson-Kanu 7 (Hunt 72, 6), Long 7

Subs Not Used: McCarthy, Cummings, Pearce, Armstrong.

Booked: Mills (foul), Karacan (foul), Antonio (foul)

Goals: Long 68 (unassisted)

Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset) 5 A curate’s egg of a performance really. The Orr sending off was a judgement call and having seen six replays of it since I cannot decide whether he was right or wrong – he gets one look at it, at normal speed, so it’s hard to hold anything against him if several slow motion replays don’t make it any clearer. In general I felt he allowed Reading to influence his decisions, and his failure to stop the Howard/Long/Karacan axis of dissent early on ruined his own credibility because every time he made a decision there were those three Reading players with him telling him what he should do. Matthew Mills should have been sent off without a shadow of a doubt.

Ipswich 3 QPR 0, Monday, December 28, 2009

The game started at a frightening pace. Stead was lucky to escape a booking for a crude lunge on Ramage inside the first ten seconds, referee Steve Tanner employing the non-existent “it’s a bit early for cards” rule to let the striker off with nothing more than a free kick against.

Ipswich: Lee-Barrett 6, Rosenior 6, McAuley 7, Delaney 7, Peters 7, Edwards 6 (Garvan 54, 6), Norris 6 (Colback 55, 6), Leadbitter 8, Walters 7, John 5 (Wickham 75, 7), Stead 8

Subs Not Used: McLoughlin, Bruce, Counago, Brown

Goals: Walters 4 (assisted John), Stead 63 (assisted Garvan), 78 (assisted Colback)

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Stewart 5, Gorkss 6, Williams 5, Buzsaky 4 (Agyemang 66, 5), Watson 4, Leigertwood 5, Taarabt 6 (Balanta 78, 7), Routledge 6, Simpson 5

Subs Not Used: Taylor, Hall, Connolly, Faurlin, Borrowdale

Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset) 7 Let a couple of players off without a card when their fouls really warranted one, a cynical tug back by Leadbitter on Taarabt springs to mind, and also got in the way a lot – three times QPR played a corner to the back post only to have to dodge him to get a shot away, surely you would think about moving? Otherwise though did little wrong and was hardly noticeable.

QPR 2 Hull City 0, Saturday, November 3, 2007

After an hour of almost completely anonymous refereeing Steve Tanner suddenly reared his head with a succession of yellow cards. Chris Barker and Damion Stewart both got one within a minute of each other for fouls on Dean Marney and Hull sub Stephen McPhee respectively. Later in the game Rowan Vine was very harshly booked for time wasting - that's four cards for him now this season including two for dissent and one for kicking the ball away.

QPR: Camp 7, Mancienne 7, Cranie 8, Stewart 7, Barker 7, Rowlands 7, Ephraim 8, Leigertwood 8, Buzsaky 7 (Ainsworth 86, -),Vine 7 (Nardiello 90, -), Nygaard 7 (Bolder 81, -)

Subs Not Used: Cole, Timoska

Booked: Mancienne (foul), Barker (foul), Stewart (foul), Vine (wasting time)

Goals: Ephraim 26 (assisted Rowlands) Leigertwood 56 (assisted Ephraim)

Hull: Myhill 5, Ricketts 5, Turner 6, Brown 7, Delaney 4, Garcia 5 (McPhee 58, 6), Ashbee 4, Marney 7, Okocha 4 (Featherstone 71, 6), Windass 7, Campbell 6

Subs Not Used: Duke, Dawson, Livermore

Booked: Turner (foul), Delaney (foul)

Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset) - 6 Not a bad display at all but suddenly went a bit card mad in the second half when the game didn't really require it. Still, we've had a lot worse for sure.

Colchester 2 QPR 1, Saturday, September 16, 2006

Colchester: Gerken, Halford, Baldwin, Brown, Barker, Garcia (McLeod 67), Izzet, Watson, Duguid, Cureton, Iwelumo.

Subs Not Used: Cousins, White, Jackson, Guy.

Goals: Iwelumo 9, Garcia 18

QPR: Cole 5, Rose 4, Stewart 5, Rehman 5, Milanese 6, Baidoo 6 (Donnelly 79, 6), Ward 6, Bircham 6, Cook 7*, Nygaard 5, Ray Jones 5 (Czerkas 45, 5)

Subs Not Used: Bignot, Bailey, Kanyuka

Booked: Cook, Bircham, Milanese

Goals: Brown 76 og

Ref: Steve Tanner - 7 With Rangers putting in such a torrid performance we couldn't even look to blame the ref. Milanese was rightly booked for a poor challenge and so was Cook of all people for a late tackle. The game did flow though and Mr Wiley didn't do anything to ruin the game…..we only done that ourselves.

Plymouth 3 QPR 1, Saturday, November 19, 2005

Akos Buzsaky had passed his fitness test (shock horror) and his first contribution of the afternoon was a lovely pass in behind a static Rangers back line which David Norris raced onto. With Shittu and Evatt closing in from behind Norris tried to round Simon Royce and made a bit of a hash of it, poking the ball well wide of the goal. Royce though decided he was going to hack him down anyway and clattered into the midfielder with a crude lunge. Referee Steve Tanner had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, it was hardly a difficult decision.

Royce hurt himself in the collision and remained on the ground for several minutes while Prav tended to him. With our only other keeper Jake Cole just taking seat to my right in the away end it was a nervy few minutes while Royce was patched up. Tanner decided to book Royce, rightly, as Norris was heading well away from the goal when he was felled. Still a lucky escape on two counts for the visitors.

Unfortunately for Royce and QPR the coolest person in the ground was Plymouth's Paul Wotton. He'd had a good three minutes to think about his penalty while Royce was down and Langley did his best to delay the kick still further, which normally increases the chances of the player bottling it and missing. Wotton though probably could have stood there all day waiting to take the kick and still scored such was his confidence, he blasted a powerful spot kick to Royce's right and though the keeper got two hands on it he could only palm it into the roof of the net.

Rangers response was to almost concede a second but Tony Capaldi's header was saved. At the other end Georges Santos was pulled up twice in quick succession for offside and then booked for kicking the ball away in a show of dissent to the linesman and referee. Already QPR's prospects of taking anything from the game looked bleak.

To now Ian Holloway and his coaching staff had been motionless in the dug out, simply watching on as their team were destroyed by the second worst side in the league at the start of play, but they were infuriated in the twenty fourth minute by a call from the assistant referee.

Last time we visited these parts the football league had been kind enough to provide linesman from Devon and Cornwall for the game and while they hadn't been so stupid as to do the same again appointing a referee from, of all the places in England, Somerset stuck in the throat somewhat. Between them they made a bad error of judgement when Richard Langley threaded a ball through the home defence. Georges Santos was, once again, standing offside but never ventured near the ball which instead ran through to the blatantly onside Lee Cook.

Meanwhile Steve Tanner was sadly forced into dishing out more cards as Rangers' discipline fell apart once more. David Norris had obviously done or said something in the first half because after Cook's outburst and subsequent booking just before half time, Gareth Ainsworth decided to stick the boot in on the Plymouth man with all six studs showing. Again another referee may have seen fit to send Ainsworth off. Before the end of the game Danny Shittu also had a hack at Norris and received his fifth booking at the season and Martin Rowlands escaped without punishment when he referee missed his petulant David Beckham style kick out at the same player.

Paul Connolly objected to Baidoo's all action style and both players were carded after squaring up to each other though that seemed a little harsh.

Normally you'll find me picking on referees for being card happy but for me only Dyer and Baidoo had cases against theirs while Ainsworth and Gallen were lucky to stay on the pitch at all after challenges that were, at best, crude.

Plymouth: Larrieu 7, Connolly 7, Doumbe 8, Aljofree 7, Barness 5, Buzsaky 9 (Lasley 54, 7), Wotton 8, Norris 8, Capaldi 8, Evans 8 (Derbyshire 90, -), Chadwick 8 (Taylor 80, 7).

Subs Not Used: McCormick, Djordjic.

Booked: Norris, Chadwick, Connolly

Goals: Wotton 7 pen, Doumbe 37, Chadwick 51.

QPR: Royce 5, Bignot 5, Evatt 7, Shittu 5, Dyer 5, Cook 6, Ainsworth 6, Doherty 4 (Rowlands 49, 6), Langley 4 (Baidoo 57, 8), Gallen 7, Santos 5 (Bean 57, 6).

Subs Not Used: Milanese, Moore.

Booked: Royce, Santos, Gallen, Dyer, Cook, Ainsworth, Baidoo, Shittu, Bean.

Goals: Baidoo 61

Ref: S Tanner (Somerset) 6 Missed the constant elbowing on anybody within striking distance by Evans and harshly carded Dyer, Baidoo and Connolly, but rarely for a game with twelve cards in it there isn't much criticism you can throw his way. Got the penalty decision right, most of the cards were the correct decision and he actually did very well to keep hold of a game that threatened to boil over on numerous occasions. Not helped by QPR's discipline which was, at times, deplorable.

QPR 2 Sheffield Utd 1, Saturday, August 13, 2005

The first half failed to inspire a disappointingly low crowd at Loftus Road. Tommy Doherty was denied a penalty by referee Steve Tanner after ten minutes, though in truth few ever thought a spot kick would be awarded.

Referee Steve Tanner was making few friends in the School End. A number of questionable decisions against Blades gave QPR excellent set piece opportunities throughout the first half, yet at the other end he appeared happy to allow Santos free reign to push, pull and bully Shipperley any way he wanted. To make matters worse he turned down an excellent penalty appeal after thirty five minutes.

Rangers: Royce 7, Bignot 6, Shittu 8, Doherty 7 (Moore 39, 8), Rose 5, Bircham 7, Gallen 7, Ainsworth 6 (Brown 69, 8), Rowlands, 8 (Bean 86, 7), Santos 8, Furlong 7

Subs: Cole, Shimmin

Scorers: Bircham 56, Moore 90

Bookings: Bircham

Sheffield: Kenny 6, Bromby 6, Harley 6 (Gillespie 73 6), Morgan 6, Jagielka 6, Ifill 7, Shipperley 5 (Kabba 77, 7), Webber 7, Nalis 6 (Short 73, 6), Kozluk 4, Montgomery 5

Subs: Quinn, Shaw

Scorers: Kabba

Bookings: Bromby, Shipperley, Morgan

Referee: S J Tanner - 6 Gave some questionable decisions in favour of QPR in the first half and was obviously told in no uncertain terms by lovely Mr McCall that such behaviour wouldn't be tolerated in the second half. Spent the second half awarding various set pieces to Sheff Utd. Strangely though at no point did he penalise Santos for the blatant shirt pulling on Shipperley. He penalised Georges for just about everything else though! Credit where it's due, Rangers' time wasting antics in the second half were right from the Paul Gerrard master class and deserved the lengthy stoppage time they got. Luckily Moore made the five minutes academic.

Prior to all of that he refereed a 3-0 League Cup win against Swansea at Loftus Road in 2004 when Rangers were awarded, and missed, a second half penalty and a 1-1 draw with Oldham in the Bush the season before where Latics striker Chris Killen was sent off.

Stats

Taner has certainly not been shy with the cards this season and perhaps it is this strong arm tactic that has attracted the authorities to him ahead of this game. So far he has shown 97 yellows and eight reds in 33 games this season – 2.939 bookings a match. In his last Championship game he booked five and sent one off as Scunthorpe won at home against Sheffield United, and he matched that haul at our match with Reading earlier in the season. His biggest single hauls all came earlier in the campaign with seven yellows and a red on day one at Preston v Doncaster and six yellows and two reds in an August clash between Swansea and Burnley. Last season he showed 111 yellows and nine reds in 34 games, but did not show a card when QPR lost 3-0 at Ipswich on Boxing Day. His busiest game was Watford v West Brom in April where eight yellows and a red were shown - eight of his nine yellow cards came in Championship matches last season.

His last Millwall game was their 1-0 defeat at Leyton Orient in League One in September 2009 – Andros Townsend scored the only goal of that game on loan at Orient from Spurs, he joined Millwall on loan yesterday and could make his debut in this game.

Other listings

Championship >>> Premiership referee Chris Foy drops down to take charge of Leicester v Norwich, and Lee Mason does likewise for Swansea v Watford.

League One >>> Gavin Ward has Dagenham v Colchester

Saturday >>> It’s top Premiership referee Martin Atkinson in charge of our home match with Crystal Palace. More on him on Thursday.

Photo: Action Images

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