Bogey referee Mathieson in charge at Elland Road
Thursday, 16th Dec 2010 21:11 by Clive Whittingham

Experienced, and usually very sensible, referee Scott Mathieson is in charge of our game at Leeds on Saturday – which would be good news if QPR didn’t have such a lousy winning record with him.

Referee >>> Scott Mathieson (Cheshire) a joiner with 16 years of experience as a league referee. His first QPR game for two seasons, the R’s have won just one of the ten games he has refereed us in.

Assistants >>> Gary Hilton (Lancashire) and Ryan Newman (Yorkshire)

Fourth Official >>> Nigel Smith (Derbyshire)

Previously

QPR 0 Palace 0, Saturday April 4, 2009

The main talking point of the half came in stoppage time at the end of it. Sam Di Carmine attempted to control a bouncing ball tight to the touchline on the South Africa Road side of the ground and as he leaned in to try and get a head on the ball Claude Davis arrived with an uncompromising challenge that did take the ball, but also delivered a kick to the Italian striker’s head.

The whole thing then descended into a farce with lots of players crowding around who were not involved in the incident, possibly pointing out that Di Carmine had now twice received blows to the face although in fairness he hits the deck and feigns injury that often it’s hard to tell when he is genuinely fouled and hurt and when he’s just putting it on. Then Paulo Sousa came across to see how Di Carmine was and remonstrate a bit with the officials. Warnock tried to get the Portuguese to go back to his technical area which he did. Di Carmine headed straight down the tunnel for treatment while referee Mathieson held a long conversation with Sousa resulting in the QPR manager being sent to the stand for the first time in his fledgling career. Sousa didn’t seem to entirely understand what had happened and had to have the situation explained to him by Gareth Ainsworth who then went onto the pitch for a chat with the referee at the half time whistle. Much ado about nothing really, it was a foul and nothing more on Di Carmine and the scenes afterwards were all a bit daft to be honest. Davis was booked for his part in it all.

The Rangers’ coaching staff finally gave the fans what they wanted with about seventeen minutes left to play when they sent Rowan Vine on for Adel Taarabt. The cheers for the striker’s return were mixed in with boos from some sections of the crowd when they realised it was Taarabt making way, and not Di Carmine as many thought was probably inevitable. Vine looked lively but a little rusty on his return, his main piece of action was a penalty appeal in the final minute of the game. Inside the penalty area with his back to goal he attempted to flick the ball over his head and that of his marker Jose Fonte who was very tight to the Rangers man. The ball appeared to strike the Palace defender’s raised arm and Vine immediately appealed, along with the entire Loft and Ellerslie Road stands, but referee and linesman stood unmoved. I have to say from my seat in F Block it looked like it would have been a very harsh penalty to give.

QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 7, Gorkss 8, Connolly 8, Delaney 7, Leigertwood 6, Routledge 6, Miller 4 (Cook 46, 5), Ephraim 6, Taarabt 6 (Vine 73, 6), Di Carmine 4 (Balanta 85, -)

Subs Not Used: Stewart, Alberti

Crystal Palace: Speroni 7, Lawrence 7, Davis 7, Clyne 7, Hill 5 (Jose Fonte 40, 6), Danns 6, Derry 6, Carle 6, Moses 8, Kuqi 6 (Scowcroft 83, -), Stokes 6 (Ifill 79, 6)

Subs Not Used: Hills, Rui Fonte

Booked: Hill (foul), Davis (high boot), Lawrence (foul), Moses (foul)

Referee: Scott Mathieson (Cheshire) 6 Couldn’t argue with any of the bookings and as I have no idea what was said on the touchline when Paulo Sousa was sent off hard to say if that was harsh or not although if he really has been sent to the stand simply for leaving the technical area to check on an injured player that’s pretty poor in my opinion. Palace were very physical and Sam Di Carmine could perhaps have been given more protection in the first half when Davis, Lawrence and Hill all had good cracks at him. I didn’t have the best view of the late penalty appeal but from what I did see it would have been a harsh one to give.

His last fixture with Rangers prior to that was a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth during the promotion season of 2003/04. Prior to that he was part of an inglorious moment in recent Rangers history when he took charge of the goalless draw with Vauxhall Motors at Chester’s Deva Stadium. QPR infamously lost the replay on penalties. QPR have only won one of ten matches refereed by Mathieson – a dire 1-0 televised success against Bradford at Loftus Road in 1997, Gavin Peacock bundled in a poorly taken penalty to win the game. Rangers have lost five and drawn four of the other nine games, picking up ten yellows compared to 13 for the opposition. In 1998 he was the referee for our 2-1 defeat at Watford where Vinny Jones turned up after the rest of the team, demanded to play, intimidated several team mates in the dressing room beforehand and then launched into a horrific tackle inside the first ten minutes that Mathieson booked him for, but really should have sent him off.

Stats

So far this season Matheison has shown 40 yellows (2.5 a game) and one red in 16 matches. That’s a reasonable average all in all and hiss busiest day was a relatively low four yellows and a red in a match between Bristol Rovers and Brentford. It seems the league have one for an experienced, calm official to keep control of what risks being a highly volatile contest between two of the Championship pace setters. He has refereed five Championship matches so far this season.

Last season his averages were again fairly low – 58 yellows (1.87 a game) and two reds in 31 games. Considering 11 of those cards came in two games, Port Vale v Barnet and Plymouth v Middlesbrough, those are remarkably low totals. He refereed Leeds twice in League One last season – a 0-0 home draw with Charlton, and 2-2 draw at Hartlepool where the Monkey Hangers scored in stoppage time to snatch a point.

Other Listings

Championship >>> It was never going to be long and once again Stuart Attwell has been forgiven all his many previous sins and been recalled to the upper echelons, he has Ipswich v Leicester on Saturday evening. Out of form Kevin Friend has Watford v Preston.

League One >>> Andy D’Urso has Brentford v Huddersfield, Rob Shoebridge gets Rochdale v Bournemouth.

League Two >>> Trevor Kettle has Torquay v Rotherham.

Christmas >>> Phil Crossley will be in charge of our home game with Swansea, more on him next week, and Neil Swarbrick is the official for the Coventry away game.

Photo: Action Images

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