Back into the swing of things then with the first game of the season tomorrow and we've got a fairly decent referee appointment for the opening weekend. QPR have a good record of results when tomorrow's official Keith Stroud has been in charge.

Bristol City v Queens Park Rangers
Saturday August 11th, Ashton Gate
Referee – Keith Stroud (Hampshire)
Assistants – Ganfield (Somerset) and Watts (Worcestershire)
Fourth Official – Malone (Wiltshire)

Welcome back everybody, my God it’s been a while. I reckon three months is just about long enough to get that incredible Trevor Kettle performance in the Stoke game out of your system and get ready for another season of torture at the hands of the men in black.

In fairness though we’ve been given quite a kind start. Keith Stroud is a steady Championship official who finished halfway up our referee’s league last season with an average mark of 5.5/10 from two games. He awarded a penalty to the Superhoops at Loftus Road in a 1-1 home draw against Leicester, and then denied Preston a blatant penalty down at the Loft End in that memorable 1-0 win towards the end of the season. So all in all a good lad then!

Ref: K Stroud 6 - Did well to spot the handball for the penalty and sending off decision. Made some poor decisions as well though; needlessly blowing up when there hadn't been a foul and then ignoring blatant fouls. He was very picky at times and clearly didn't have a clue with one throw-on decision in front of South Africa Road - he quickly changed his mind when everyone jumped up screaming at him!
Mark Jamieson - Loft for Words Leicester match report

Referee: K P Stroud 5 - He's a referee I like but it's hard to give him a higher mark than five because he missed the most blatant handball penalty you're ever likely to see, booked Lomas for dissent and yet allowed Alexander to moan on and on and on and on and on at him all night, and allowed a forearm smash on Lomas to go without a card. Inconsistent.
Clive Whittingham – Loft for Words Preston match report

His marks were pretty much the same from two games the previous season as well. A home win against Ipswich and a draw against Burnley earned him a five and a seven, although Mark did give him a bit of a panning for his handling of the win over the Tractor Boys.

Referee - K Stroud - 5 - A generous 5 at that as well. The game was a pulsating affair that had both sets of fans on tender hooks, but Mr Stoud was a constant thorn in the side of both sets of players and fans alike.
Mark Jamieson – Loft for Words Ipswich match report

Ref: K Stroud (Hampshire) 7 - A fairly decent game from the ref today, in fact it wasn't a dirty affair at all really. Have we turned over a new leaf this year? I doubt it! He took a bit too long to get to grips with Sinclair and McGreal but nobody's perfect - not a bad display really.
Mark Jamieson – Loft for Words Burnley match report

Overall though not too bad and it could have been so much worse. In the middle of this week we were one of three games in the Championship yet to be assigned a referee and one of the other ones, Southampton v Palace, ended up with this column’s favourite village idiot Lee Probert. What a way to spoil your first football game for three months!

Elsewhere last season’s wooden spoon official Trevor Kettle has Scunthorpe’s trip to Charlton, Andy Hall has Oldham v Swansea and Mick Thorpe has Grimsby v Notts County. Have to say it is somewhat demoralising to see these officials still on the list for another season, and it’s a bloody insult to have Probert on the country’s elite list this season. We’ll son see just how ‘elite’ he is when the cameras get on him this season.

There you go, didn’t even make it through one column before I started ranting about Probert again.

Photo: Action Images

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