Martin Atkinson, arguably the Premiership’s top referee, has his third QPR appointment of the season this Saturday as Rangers host West Brom at Loftus Road.

Referee >>> Martin Atkinson ( West Yorkshire ), refereed QPR’s first match of the season against Bolton and the thriller at Loftus Road against Manchester City so far this season.

Assistants >>> Andy Newbold (Leicestershire) and Ceri Richards (Carmarthenshire), Richards ran the line in our 1-0 home win against Chelsea.

Fourth Official >>> Jon Moss (Yorkshire), first season on Premiership elite list.

Previously

QPR 2 Man City 3, Saturday November 5, 2011, Premiership

That awesome City starting 11 meant that despite playing at home QPR were as long as 9/1 to win with some bookmakers. Rather unsportingly the William Hill next to Goldhawk Road tube was promoting a “Manchester City to win 4-0, Sergio Aguero to score first” bet in its window – with a depressingly low return for your £10 stake on offer. Last time referee Martin Atkinson was at Loftus Road Rangers were beaten by that scoreline against a meagre Bolton side currently fighting relegation. All informed opinion pointed towards a repeat under the lights and West London fireworks that littered the night sky. Atkinson was the referee for City’s FA Cup final win in May – they’re first trophy for 35 years, in all likelihood the first of many.

Mancini slung on Mario Balotelli for Gareth Barry but the controversial Italian succeeded only in collecting a yellow card for diving in the penalty box – the correct decision, but less of a dive than Richards’ embarrassing effort earlier. Neil Warnock responded by sending on Jason Puncehon forJay Bothroyd – an odd change that brought no positive affect at all. Joey Barton was perhaps fortunate to only see yellow for a crude lunge on Silva – a further sign that perhaps the QPR lungs had gone.

QPR: Kenny 7, Young 6, Gabbidon 6, Ferdinand 7, Traore 7 (Hill 90, -), Mackie 7 (Smith 84, -), Barton 7, Faurlin 9, Wright-Phillips 7, Bothroyd 8 (Puncheon 76, 5), Helguson 9

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Orr, Derry, Andrade

Booked: Barton (foul)

Goals: Bothroyd 28 (assisted Barton), Helguson 69 (assisted Traore/Bothroyd)

Man City: Hart 8, Richards 7, Savic 5, Lescott 6, Kolarov 8, Barry 6 (Balotelli 75, 6), Y Toure 8, Milner 7, Silva 8, Aguero 6 (Johnson 68, 6), Dzeko 8 (Toure 88, -)

Subs Not Used: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Nasri, Clichy

Booked: Balotelli (diving)

Goals: Dzeko 43 (unassisted), Silva 52 (assisted Dzeko), Y Toure 74 (assisted Kolarov)

Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire) 8 Refereeing that contributed to the ebb and flow of a tremendous game. Both cards were justified and although City can say the free kick for Bothroyd’s goal should never have been given, and QPR can point to the Jamie Mackie penalty incident, at normal speed at the time neither decision looked wrong. Probably the best refereeing display we’ve seen this season.

QPR 0 Bolton 4, Saturday August 13, 2011, Premiership

Bolton’s only real threat came from Petrov who lashed a wild long range shot into the Upper Loft. QPR were passing the ball nicely, pressing Bolton high up the field and restricting them to shots from long range. So far, so good and it seemed that the visitors may be getting frustrated when Kevin Davies, already penalised three times, needlessly hacked down Paddy Kenny as he attempted to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick by the corner flag. Davies was given a final warning by referee Martin Atkinson when he really should have been booked, but Kenny was lucky not to fall victim to a Kelvin Davis v Ray Jones type disaster having journeyed that far from goal and taken a risk that the ball had enough pace to go behind.

There was a further stoppage shortly after when Tommy Smith was chopped down by Nigel Reo Coker. The former West Ham man was yellow carded for the tackle, and given that he’d already committed numerous fouls and had hacked into Taarabt just half a second before then lunging in on Smith he can have few complaints. Reo Coker looked to me like somebody who was half a yard off the pace, in the first half at least. He’s been playing reserve team football for more than a year at Aston Villa and I thought you could tell, he was a long way short of his team mates in match fitness and sharpness for me.

Eagles was not a popular figure at Loftus Road last season when twice dived in the area trying to win penalties, but he was genuinely in the wars here. No sooner had he picked himself up from Derry ’s firm challenge than Clint Hill was scything him down as he skipped down the touchline. Hill’s first offence, but still deemed worthy of a yellow card by Martin Atkinson who’d earlier shown leniency with Davies for a worse challenge on Kenny. I actually think Atkinson booked Hill to justify him stopping the play because if he’d allowed it to continue Reo Coker was away and accelerating into space in the penalty area. Not the finest piece of refereeing we’ll see this season.

Sadly, a minute later, the afternoon was to turn sour for QPR and Gabbidon in particular. It started when Kevin Davies was treated to a free kick wide on the QPR left under the slimmest of contacts from Faurlin. Interesting that on Goals on Sunday Davies, a studio guest, laughed this one off before going on to lambast Joey Barton for play acting in the Newcastle Arsenal game and conning a “fellow professional”. Anyway having been duped Rangers didn’t then have to make it quite so easy for Bolton who tapped the free kick short to Eagles for him to drill it low into a six yard box containing not one single Bolton player. Under no pressure and with the ball flying out for a goal kick Gabbidon inexplicably stretched out and slid the ball into his own net. It was the action of a tired player and typified the lethargy and lack of concentration QPR played with from the forty fourth minute onwards. A shambolic goal.

To Buzsaky’s credit he did at least register a couple of efforts on goal. The first, between the third and fourth Bolton goals, came from a direct free kick won by Derry who had gone charging through the heart of the Bolton defence and been upended resulting in a yellow card for Gary Cahill. Buzsaky only found the base of the wall with that poorly struck shot but went closer in stoppage time when he sought out the ball in a penalty box scramble and unloaded a shot on goal that was blocked away to safety.

QPR: Kenny 6, Dyer - (Orr 7, 5), Gabbidon 5, Hall 5, Hill 5, Derry 6, Faurlin 5, Taarabt 6 (Buzsaky 72, 6), Campbell 5, Smith 5 (Helguson 72, 5), Bothroyd 6

Subs: Murphy, Connolly, Agyemang, Ephraim

Booked: Hill 52 (foul)

Red Cards: Hill 90 (violent conduct)

Bolton: Jasskelainen 6, Steinsson 7, Knight 7, Cahill 8, Robinson 6, Muamba 7, Reo Coker 5 (Pratley 83, -), Eagles 6 (M Davies 81, -), Petrov 8, Klasnic 7 (Blake 86, -), K Davies 8

Subs: Bogdan, Alonso, Gardner , Wheater

Booked: Cahill 76 (foul)

Goals: Cahill 45 (unassisted), Gabbidon 67 (own goal, assisted Eagles), Klasnic 70 (unassisted), Muamba 79 (assisted Klasnic)

Referee: Martin Atkinson 7 ( Yorkshire ) One or two things to quibble over – allowing Davies off without a yellow card after he’d committed four fouls and then hacked down Kenny was very generous. To then book Hill for exactly the same type of foul on Eagles when play could have been allowed to continue was inconsistent. Davies went on to con him out of a free kick with an obvious dive in the lead up to the second goal. Other than that, hard to argue with anything else including the Hill red card.

QPR 2 Crystal Palace 1, Saturday March 12, 2011

This game was a slow burner initially. Basking in the early spring sunshine a capacity crowd at Loftus Road was stirred from a malaise brought on by the most horrendous of weeks by a late tackle on Kaspars Gorkss by James Vaughan as the Latvian cleared a ball away down field. A Championship referee may have settled for a free kick and a word on the run, but the Premiership’s top man Martin Atkinson was in town and wasted no time in flashing the yellow card for the first time.

Taarabt was at the heart of the action again just before the quarter hour when he delivered a wonderful cross to the back post where Heidar Helguson had peeled away and seemed destined to score with a diving header but missed the ball altogether. The reaction of the players, and the fact that the ball was so far away from Helguson’s dive, suggests strongly that McCarthy had succeeded in flicking the cross away for a corner with his head but Atkinson awarded a goal kick.

QPR were playing well and looking good for more goals, but the quality of Danns in midfield and the keenness of Vaughan in attack meant Palace always posed a threat of their own when they had the ball in the QPR half. Danns had only a yellow card to show for his first half efforts, the referee taking exception to his late hit on Hill as he cleared the ball in a similar incident to the one Vaughan had been booked for earlier, but looked tidy and threatening whenever he had the ball. Likewise Vaughan, who could perhaps count himself unlucky to be penalised for a sly push in the back of Hall that allowed him to race in behind the QPR defence for what would have been a one on one chance with Paddy Kenny had it not been brought back by Atkinson.

Taarabt is a different physical specimen altogether but he showed tremendous upper body strength to hold off the considerable attentions of McCarthy until the Irish centre back completely lost the plot and hacked his opponent down in the penalty area. This was as clear a penalty as you’re ever likely to see – Rangers have had 12 spot kicks this season, and Palace have conceded a league leading 13. That’s no surprise on either count really because people like Taarabt, Helguson, Routledge, Mackie and Smith are hard working, skilful players who unsettle defenders and force fouls and on the other side of the coin Palace are unfortunately lumbered with a collection of centre backs who are a dire combination of stupid, clumsy and at times, in Claude Davis’ case, violent.

Patrick McCarthy was, is and always will be a dog of a centre back – persistently caught the wrong side of his man despite his years in the game and with a chip on his shoulder a mile wide when it comes to referees. He is the worst, most accident prone defender in this league except for Alex Bruce at Leeds . Week after week you’ll find him trying to retrieve a situation his own goldfish like concentration levels have caused by fouling the player and then screaming at the match officials to try and intimidate them into lenient action. He can perhaps have a case for not being sent off here, as Taarabt was fast running out of pitch and would have done well to score, but how McCarthy, Speroni, Gardner and others thought they had any kind of case to surround referee Martin Atkinson with on the spot kick is beyond me.

Anyway protests lodged and ignored, McCarthy dispatched to the baths, Davis readied to replace Iverson and the whole situation brought under control it was time for the penalty. The unfathomable formula that helps Heidar Helguson and Adel Taarabt work out whose turn it is to do the honours this week came out on the side of the Icelandic striker and he made light work of rolling the ball past a goalkeeper who has caused us untold problems in the past to give Rangers a deserved lead.

The Palace fans at the other end of the ground responded to this by throwing bottles onto the pitch in the general direction of Paddy Kenny as an expression of their own frustration and frankly who can blame them? Three weeks ago similarly aggrieved Millwall fans decided to pelt Middlesbrough goalkeeper Jason Steele and one of the assistant referees with beer bottles during a match at the New Den. So many of them did it in fact that referee Chris Sarginson called a halt to the game and told both managers he was minded to abandon it altogether fearing for his own safety and that of the other officials and Middlesbrough players. The FA, when they weren’t busy terrorising the QPR support last week, ruled that Millwall had no case to answer for this and will face no charges. So there it is lads, precedent set. If you don’t like what’s going on down there on the field then start throwing things at the people doing it – don’t worry about your club getting fined or losing points or playing games behind closed doors because no action will be taken.

It’s the most perverse ruling the fucking idiots running out game have come up with since QPR were fined for having their goalkeeper attacked on the pitch by a Stoke fan at the end of a game at the Britannia Stadium. It will no doubt be reversed at some point in the near future, probably when one of the high profile Premiership players gets smacked in the face by a bottle provoking some mass hysteria in the papers and opinion columns about the lawless society we live in which will then force the FA to come down like a tonne of bricks on whichever club was unfortunate enough to be the home team that day, but in the meantime the potentially lethal precedent stands – you throw what you like lads, there’ll be no punishment coming your way.

Paddy Kenny cleared the penalty area himself, looking for all the world like he was preparing for one of his much sung about parties, while Shaun Derry attempted to calm the supporters of his former club. The stewards, as usual when anything actually needs doing at Loftus Road , did nothing at all.

Perhaps feeling that he’d been a little unkind to the visitors Martin Atkinson offered an olive branch by way of a weak free kick on the edge of the area for a perceived foul on James Vaughan. The free kick was perfectly placed for Darren Ambrose to hit – he may have been in the defensive wall had circumstances worked out differently in the summer – but he couldn’t find the target with a shot from 25 yards.

QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 7, Hall 7, Gorkss 7, Hill 7, Faurlin 8, Derry 8, Smith 7 (Ephraim 86, -), Taarabt 8 (Buzsaky 89, -), Routledge 7, Helguson 8

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Connolly, Hulse, Miller, Chimbonda

Booked: Taarabt (kicking ball away)

Goals: Helguson 20 (assisted Taarabt), 54 (penalty won Taarabt)

Crystal Palace: Speroni 7, Clyne 6, McCarthy 5, Gardner 7, Moxey 6, Ambrose 7, Wright 6 (Zaha 75, 6), Dikgacoi 6, Danns 7, Iversen 6 (Davis 55, 6), Vaughan 7 (Easter 62, 6)

Subs Not Used: Price, Scannell, Counago, Agustien

Sent Off: McCarthy 53 (denying obvious goal scoring opportunity)

Booked: Vaughan (foul), Danns (foul), Dikgacoi (foul)

Goals: Vaughan 40 (assisted Ambrose)

Referee: Martin Atkinson ( W Yorkshire ) 7 The big decision in the game was right – Patrick McCarthy fouled Adel Taarabt in the area and had to go by the letter of the law. However the red card, along with a couple off the bookings, could easily have been dealt with less severely and probably would have been by a referee who does this level on a more regular basis.

Stoke 1 QPR 0, Saturday December 9, 2006

Higginbotham took his usual penalty - hard and straight down the middle - to put Stoke one up. It was no more than they deserved.

Then a superb inswinging free kick from Mauro Milanese had goal written all over it but Nygaard failed to make contact at the back post and the ball drifted a couple of inches wide. Finally Jimmy Smith looked to be tripped just inside the area but his theatrical fall did him no favours and the appeals were waved away. For me, the Blackstock incident was a better shout and would have been given as a free kick anywhere else on the field, or as a penalty at the other end.

Rangers wouldn't have deserved a penalty equaliser even if they had been awarded. Furlong was introduced for Blackstock and although he looked sharp and got the ball moving a bit the chronic lack of width provided by the formation meant they never looked like scoring and Stoke were always comfortable. Marcus Bignot's mishit cross which Simonsen claimed right under his bar was as good as it got - and there's no way in the world that can be counted as a shot.

Just to infuriate the travelling faithful further the only chance to get a decent cross in the box with this formation was from corners and after taking a dismal short one in the first half, Milanese and Smith did exactly the same in the second half and it was again blocked away without reaching the penalty area. Quickly taken short corners when two on one out wide are a good idea, short corners when Stoke are back and it's two on two by the flag are a stupid, idiotic waste of time, which ironically is what this trip north turned out to be for the QPR fans.

Milanese compounded matters with a yellow card for a cynical handball preventing a Stoke break on halfway. Atkinson allowed an advantage to unfold before returning to book Milanese later. Nygaard was also carded for a clumsy foul on Duberry.

Stoke Simonsen n/a, Hoefkens 7, Duberry 8, Higginbotham 7, Griffin 8,Lawrence 8, Diao 7 (Brammer 80, -), Russell 7, Hendrie 8 (Berger 87, -),Sidibe 6, Fuller 7 (Pericard 74, 4).

Subs Not Used: Sweeney, Buxton.

Booked: Griffin.

Goals: Higginbotham 17 pen.

QPR Royce 7, Bignot 5, Mancienne 7, Stewart 7, Milanese 5,Rowlands 6 (Ward 87, -), Bailey 4, Gallen 5, Smith 6, Nygaard 6 (Baidoo 90, -),Blackstock 6 (Furlong 70, 7).

Subs Not Used: Cole, Bircham.

Booked: Mancienne, Milanese, Nygaard

Ref: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire) 4 Clearly knows the score in Stoke: home team win, controversial incidents go their way, everybody goes home happy, nobody runs on the pitch, nobody gets beaten up. I'd have given the penalty to Stoke in the first half - Milanese was the wrong side of his man the whole way and although Fuller went down looking for it a penalty was the correct decision. But at least one, if not both, of the second half incidents involving Smith and Blackstock were penalties as well. Smith fell theatrically, but so did Fuller. You can't even level a diving criticism at Blackstock - that was a stone wall pen. Very home orientated, assisted by one linesman who never put his flag down and one who never put it up. No the best display of officiating you're ever likely to see.

Prior to that he was in charge of a 3-1 defeat at Watford on a Tuesday night in 2005 when Danny Shittu’s last minute goal served as mere consolation only. He refereed us three times in 2004/05 –a 3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves when Carl Cort equalised late on, and notably a 2-1 defeat at West Ham where Tomasz Repka was allowed to remain on the field despite a horrific two footed tackle from behind on Tony Thorpe that ended Thorpe’s career at QPR and, as it turned out, in the Football League altogether and was one of the worst challenges I have ever seen at a game. Atkinson was also in charge of the infamous game at Wycombe played in a force nine gale during the promotion season when Rangers battled back from two down to draw.

Stats

So far this season Atkinson has shown 70 yellows (4.11 a game) and seven reds in 17 games, that includes the ludicrous dismissal of Everton's Jack Rodwell in the Merseyside derby last month. His total is artificially inflated by a ten yellow and two red haul at Bosnia v Belarus in the European Championships qualifiers back in September. Refereed West Brom’s 3-0 defeat at Swansea earlier this season, awarding the Welsh side a penalty in the process.

Last season Atkinson finished up with a total of 143 yellows and 13 reds in 41 matches; including five yellows and a red at Chelsea v Man Utd after which Alex Ferguson described him as “neither fair nor firm" and found himself charged with misconduct. He averaged 3.48 yellows a game and QPR v Palace was one of only two Championship matches he refereed all season. His biggest haul in a single game was six yellows and a red which he managed on two occasions – Villa v Spurs before Christmas, Inter v Schalke in the spring. In 2009/10 he showed a whopping 187 yellows and six reds in 48 matches (3.895 bookings a game) two eight booking games, ten games of six cards or more, and a Merseyside derby with six yellows and two reds. 

Other Listings

Premiership >>> Lee Probert’s stock continues to rise, he has Aston Villa v Man Utd in the Saturday evening kick off this week after refereeing Arsenal v Man City in the League Cup on Tuesday. All a far cry from the day he sent off Jude the Cat because he looked like Paul Furlong. Stuart Attwell has Spurs v Bolton.

Championship >>> Young referee Michael Oliver is trusted with keeping a lid on the latest Leeds v Millwall showdown showing that despite a number of high profile blunders this season his stock is still high among the powers that be.

FA Cup >>> Problem child Gavin Ward gets Stourbridge v Stevenage.

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