Madley gets Preston date - Referee
Thursday, 18th Aug 2016 19:26 by Clive Whittingham

Highly rated Championship referee Andy Madley is in the middle of QPR v Preston at Loftus Road on Saturday.

Referee >>> Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire), Jordan Cousins was on the scoresheet last time Madley was in town, and QPR won 2-1. More of the same please.

Assistants >>> James Wilson (Cheshire) and Steven Meredith (Nottinghamshire)

Fourth Official >>> Akil Howson (Leicestershire)

History

QPR 2 Charlton 1, Saturday April 9, 2016, Championship

They led at half time thanks to a goal that rather summed the first 45 minutes up. Matt Phillips cut infield and decided to cross with his left foot, Junior Hoilett ran across from the opposite side in an apparently offside position, and the ball bounced limply past Pope and into the net. The celebrations, such as they were, stunted by the nature of the goal, the quality of the game, and referee Andy Madley’s prolonged interest in disallowing it. Almost apologetically, the ball was eventually returned to the centre spot and QPR held the half time advantage.
Grant Hall was obviously pulled down at an early QPR corner — bit of a clue when you can see the lad’s nipples from the fourth row of F Block — but Madley showed no interest in awarding a penalty and Charlton swept to the other end and struck the face of the bar after Harriott skinned Robinson and curled one round Smithies searching for the far top corner. Then Vetokele seemed to have a chance to go clean through on goal himself but decided to sort of casually jog after the ball rather than spring into the space ahead and Hall was able to swoop in and clear the danger.

QPR: Smithies 7; Perch 6 (Kpekawa 61, 5), Hall 5, Onuoha 5, Robinson 6; Luongo 6, Henry 6; Phillips 5 (Gladwin 71, 7), Chery 6, Hoilett 6 (El Khayati 85, -); Polter 5

Subs not used: Washington, Ingram, Faurlin, Petrasso

Goals: Phillips 45+1 (unassisted), El Khayati 90+4 (unassisted)
Bookings: Kpekawa 66 (foul), Onuoha 86 (foul), Gladwin 90+1 (foul)

Charlton: Pope 6; Fanni 5, Solly 6, Fox 6 (Lennon 83, -), Teixeira 6; Lookman 6 (Jackson 89, -), Cousins 7, Diarra 6, Harriott 7; Sanogo 4 (Makienok 31, 5), Vetokele 4

Subs not used: Henderson, Ba, Bergditch, Motta

Goals: Cousins 62 (unassisted)

Referee — Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) 7 Not too bad, bookings all correct, nothing overly officious or massively incorrect. Must say, this trend for referees to stand and stare unmoved at players basically having their shirts lifted clean off their backs at corners and not award penalties is starting to grate somewhat.

Reading 0 QPR 1, Thursday December 3, 2015, Championship

For all the improvements in the defence, Reading crafted two gilt-edged chances that should really have been scored. After eight minutes Paul Konchesky pulled back Garath McCleary — should have been booked but was let off by referee Andy Madley — allowing Oliver Norwood to deliver a fantastic free kick which Michael Hector, up from the back, headed wide when unmarked at the back post and favourite to score. In the second half Hector climbed over slack marking at the back post to meet a corner from Norwood but directed his header over the bar when it seemed easier to hit the net.

Rather than see Norwood’s set piece as a warning, QPR contrived to concede two more free kicks in exactly the same position in the following ten minutes — Fer and then, in amateur fashion, Konchesky giving the Reading man a chance to wrap his boot round a couple more dead balls.

There was also a bizarre moment in the second half when a foul by Faurlin set Reading’s top scorer Nick Blackman up for a free kick from the thick end of 30 yards. He met it sweetly, beating the wall easily, but with the ball flying right down the middle of the goal, directly above Robert Green who had a completely clear view of it, it seemed rather odd for the goalkeeper to stand perfectly still and let it cannon back into play off the face of the crossbar. Green didn’t even lift an arm to it. It was like he didn’t even know it had happened. Perhaps we should start using a ball with a bell in it. Or maybe he thought Blackman’s vision was based on movement, like a t-rex.

This was a dog of a game overall. Poor, even by Championship standards. Refereed pedantically.

Reading: Al Habsi 3; Gunter 6, Hector 5, Ferdinand 6, Taylor 5; McCleary 6, Fernandez 5 (Robson Kanu 73, 5), Williams 6, Norwood 7; Blackman 6 (John 80, -), Vydra 5 (Sa 80, -)

Subs not used: Bond, Obita, Hurtado, Cooper

Booked: Norwood 67 (foul)

QPR: Green 5; Perch 5, Onuoha 7, Hall 6, Konchesky 5; Phillips 5, Fer 5, Sandro 7, Faurlin 7, Petrasso 6 (Austin 63, 6), Hoilett 6 (Chery 76, 6)

Subs not used: Henry, Angella, Smithies, Angella, Tozser

Goals: Onuoha 89 (assisted Faurlin)

Booked: Fer 28 (foul), Hall 40 (deliberate handball)

Referee — Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) 5 Lots of whistle, lots of inconsistency, lots of pedantry — including a bizarre incident with a Norwood free kick where he insisted the ball be placed on just the right blade of grass and not rolled away from a weird snow-ball of foam he’d built behind it. Twice in the first half QPR players appeared to have been fouled, only for a free kick to be awarded the other way seconds later for similar offences. He suited a dreadful game well really, a suffocating, ball-acheing presence at times.

QPR 0 Brighton 0, Wednesday September 18, 2013, Championship

Phillips fired over from range, Austin planted a firm header from a Barton corner smack on target only for visiting goalkeeper Thomasz Kuszczak to fling himself to his left and palm the ball aside with two hands. Three minutes before half time the former Burnley man hesitated over a free ball in the area believing himself to be offside, but referee Andy Madley — who on this evidence has an unhealthy love of farce and uncertainty — had ruled that the ball was played to him by a Brighton player and had Austin scored the goal would have counted.

With Keith Andrews the wind-up merchant in chief, Joey Barton a time bomb with a dodgy clock attached, and referee Andy Madley often showing the inexperience that comes with only being on the league list for two years the game became a frustrating watch in the first half, and almost American Football-like in the second when it was often reduced to a stoppage every minute and a designated kicker situation.

For several heart stopping minutes Barton sought out the referee for a further exchange of views at every stoppage of the game and QPR dispatched a member of staff to the dressing room to start running the taps. It took a fellow Scouser, Clint Hill, to forcibly wrestle Barton away into a quiet part of the penalty area while awaiting a Brighton throw for a “calm down, calm down” session lacking only fuzzy wigs and novelty moustaches to save the day. In the second half Madley pulled Barton up and halted a counter attack with an accusation that he’d handled the ball while controlling it — in actual fact it had come off the top of his shoulder. The volcanic temper grumbled and bubbled but failed to erupt.

QPR: R Green 6; D Simpson 6, R Dunne 7, N Onuoha 7 (B Assou-Ekotto, 23, 6), C Hill 7; K Henry 7 (J Jenas, 74, 4), J Barton 7; S Wright-Phillips 6, M Phillips 7 (A Traore, 80, -), G O'Neil 7; C Austin 5

Subs not used: A Faurlin, B Murphy, T Carroll, T Hitchcock

Bookings: Barton 34 (repetitive fouling)

Brighton: T Kuszczak 7, G Greer 6, M Upson 6, I Calderon 7, S Ward 6 (Bruno 80, -); A Crofts 6, K Andrews 6; J Caskey 6 (R Ince 85, -), D Lopez 6 (W Buckley 67, 6), C Conway 6; A Barnes 6

Subs not used: P Brezovan, A El-Abd, K Lua Lua, S March

Bookings: Calderon 71 (foul), Bruno 89 (foul)

Referee — Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) 5 A curate’s egg of a refereeing performance this one. Given the fouls he let go without a card — Andrews particularly fortunate — it was difficult not to conclude that a first half booking for Barton for two seemingly fair tackles was done more because of who he was rather than what had gone on. Went through long periods whistling for everything, then short bursts where several fouls were allowed to go. This created odd situations where the players seemed to think a free-for-all had been declared only to then find it was whistle and card time again. Odd.

Stats

The good news is Madley’s three matches so far this season have brought three home wins and loads of goals (Coventry 3-2 Portsmouth, Brighton 3-0 Forest, Newcastle 4-1 Reading). The bad news is there have also been bag loads of yellow cards, with 18 flashed already including eight at the Brighton match. There were also two penalties in the Newcastle Reading game on Wednesday evening.

That’s in keeping with Madley’s start to last season where he rapidly racked up 28 yellows and three reds in his first eight appointments. That included eight yellows at Brentford v Reading and seven at Brighton v Blackburn which would be his biggest hauls of the season. After that he calmed down considerably, in fact he made it through the next 32 fixtures and the first three of this season without showing a red card again. Think we know what comes next.

His finishing figures of 118 yellows (2.95 a game) and three reds from 40 appointments was on the lenient side in the end. Perhaps he’s one of these officials that takes all the new summer edicts to heart only to lose interest — like everybody else — in the autumn.

Other Listings

Championship >>> Couple of Elite referees dropping down this Saturday, with Simon Hooper at Sheff Wed v Leeds and Mike Jones getting a first outing of his season at Reading v Brighton.

League Two >>> Still not quite sure what Lee Probert has done to offend anybody, but the one time Premier League referee is again scraping the barrel this weekend with Crawley v Barnet.

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Pictures — Action Images

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