QPR fans should make the most of the calm and reasonable presense of referee Russell Booth at Loftus Road on Saturday ahead of a potentially explosive apppointment on Tuesday.

QPR v Preston
Referee – Russell Booth (Nottinghamshire)
Assistants – Blackledge (Cambridgeshire) and Mason (Kent)
Fourth Official – Atkin (Sussex)

It is a case of the calm before the storm at Loftus Road this Saturday as Nottinghamshire official Russell Booth takes charge of our game with Preston prior to a visit from an old LoftforWords favourite for the Reading game on Tuesday. So far this season Booth has refereed 12 games showing 19 yellows (1.58 a game) and two reds in the process. His biggest card haul in a single game is five yellows, which he has managed twice so far. Five of those matches, and 16 of those cards, have been in the Championship but this is his first appointment with either QPR or Preston this season.

Last season he showed 52 yellows and three reds in 23 games including seven yellows in a game between Luton and Grimsby and six yellows and a red in a fixture between Stockport and Millwall. He has shown one card or less in a game on 16 occasions in the last two seasons, including seven this year and is on the whole a reasonable official who normally gives the game every chance.

His last QPR fixture was in 2006, a 1-0 home win against Barnsley with Martin Rowlands getting the goal. Four yellow cards were shown, three of them to QPR players. He was given a mark of five by LFW for his performance which was good enough for joint 16th position on the referee league that year.

Referee: R J Booth 5 Not bad but not the best. Missed a lot of fouls from both teams, including what looked like a nailed on Barnsley penalty for a push by Milanese, but deserves credit for a good advantage played in the lead up to the goal. LFW Barnsley Match Report

His last Preston fixture was in 2005, a 3-2 home win against Coventry when four yellow cards were shown, three of them to Coventry, and Preston were awarded a first half penalty.

Elsewhere Premiership referee Mike Dean, who was in fantastic form in the recent Villa v Man City Monday night football, has Leicester v Derby. Jarnail Singh makes an unwelcome return to the Championship with Bristol City v Peterborough, Trevor Kettle has Swindon v Hartlepool.

Andy Hall has Hereford v Chesterfield on Saturday and then, drum roll please, the horrible pug faced idiot is in charge of our Tuesday night fixture at home to Reading. A full dosier of exactly why we track him so closely and loathe his appointments to our game will be online on Monday.

Photo courtesy of refworld.com.

Photo: Action Images

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