Prem ref Probert gets tough Millwall assignment
Tuesday, 28th Sep 2010 08:58 by Clive Whittingham

The visit of Millwall to Loftus Road for a mouth watering Tuesday night clash in the Championship has brought a Premiership referee appointment.

Referee >>> Lee Probert (Wiltshire) once branded the village idiot by QPR manager Ian Holloway after a string of dreadful performances in QPR matches.

Assistants >>> Peter Kirkup (Northamptonshire) and William Smallwood (Cheshire)

Fourth official >>> Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire)

Previously

Cardiff 0 QPR 2, Saturday September 19, 2009

The match officials incurred the wrath of the Cardiff fans after 19 minutes as QPR took the lead. Working the ball through midfield after a Mikele Leigertwood throw in wide on the right the R’s put together another classy move that ended with Borrowdale laying the ball into Vine’s feet on the edge of the box and he in turn feeding a perfect through ball into Jay Simpson in the area. He looked offside at the time, and on the video afterwards, but the flag stayed down and the loan Arsenal front man was able to calmly slide home his first ever QPR goal past the helpless David Marshall.

The home crowd gave the referee and his assistant plenty of abuse for the next ten minutes or so and that, in my opinion, led to a booking for Damion Stewart who received a yellow for a fine tackle on Chopra a that cleared the ball out for a throw in text book style a couple of minutes after the goal. The crowd bayed for blood and Probert obliged – very harsh card for Stewart that one. The resulting free kick was smashed into the wall from distance by Whittingham but the feeling that the referee was keen to even things up only increased when Ben Watson was crudely chopped down during a promising looking counter attack and did not even receive a free kick when moments earlier Stewart had been penalised and yellow carded for a far more meagre offence.

Cardiff Marshall 5, Kennedy 5, Hudson 5, Gerrard 5, Quinn 5,Whittingham 6 (Magennis 54, 6), Burke 7, Ledley 4, Taiwo 6 (Rae 54, 5),Bothroyd 5 (Scimeca 67, 5), Chopra 5

Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Gyepes, Capaldi, Comminges

Booked: Quinn (foul), Chopra (foul)

QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 7, Stewart 7, Gorkss 7, Borrowdale 7,Routledge 7, Rowlands 9, Watson 8, Buzsaky 7, Simpson 8 (Pellicori 77, 6),Vine 6 (Agyemang 82, 6)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Mahon, Faurlin, Ephraim

Booked: Stewart (foul), Pellicori (handball)

Goals: Simpson 19 (assisted Vine), 40 (assisted Routledge)

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) 6 Not too bad, plenty of advantage played and no really controversial incidents. His assistant appears to have got the first Simpson goal wrong – I thought so at the time and have seen nothing on the video to change my mind. After that goal I felt Probert was guilty of trying to appease the home crowd with a bit of evening up – Stewart’s booking was very harsh and Watson was chopped down and nothing given.

QPR 1 Cardiff 0, Saturday November 8, 2008

The game started to turn against Cardiff in the twenty eighth minute. Damion Stewart played a searching ball out to the left wing looking for Cook and although McNaughton got a head to it the ball did still fall to the feet of the QPR winger and he was able to clip it past the oncoming Darren Purse just before the Cardiff player crunched him. It wasn’t a good tackle, mistimed and slightly high, but it wasn’t malicious and to be honest I was more angry at the time that the referee hadn’t allowed play to go on because Blackstock was away with the ball at his feet. Referee Lee Probert didn’t mess about, he came straight across and showed Purse the thirteenth red card of his professional career.

For the second straight game at Loftus Road I find myself talking about a harsh sending off in the first half. I don’t go to football to see people sent off and to be honest the logic of suddenly rushing to red card anybody that slightly mistimes a tackle just because an Arsenal player got his leg broken at Birmingham nine months ago is lost on me. This would not have been a red card before the Eduardo incident and it isn’t a red card now. Cardiff were facing an uphill battle from that point onwards.

Things went from bad to worse for Cardiff as they were reduced to nine men five minutes after falling behind. First midfielder Stephen McPhail was deservedly booked for a bad foul on Ramage as he clipped the ball past him on an overlapping run. Then almost immediately left back Miguel Comminges came through the back of Akos Buzsaky and was also booked. Clearly emotion was running high in the Cardiff camp after the goal against and earlier red card and Comminges followed his card up with a word or two to the linesman on the Ellerslie Road side of the ground. The assistant signalled to the referee that something was amiss and after a long consultation Probert summoned the Cardiff full back and showed his second red card of the match.

I’ve no idea what Comminges said of course, the card may well have been justified, but I say again I don’t come to football to see football players get sent off and in my last two trips to Loftus Road I’ve seen three red cards that could easily have been replaced with yellows or stern warnings.

When the yellow card did come out it was shown to QPR sub Patrick Agyemang for a foul on Kevin McNaughton.

QPR: Cerny 8, Ramage 6, Stewart 8, Hall 8, Connolly 7, Ledesma 5 (Buzsaky 55, 7), Rowlands 5, Tommasi 5 (Mahon 67, 7) Cook 5, Blackstock 4, Di Carmine 5 (Agyemang 71, 7)

Subs Not Used: Cole, Delaney.

Booked: Agyemang (foul)

Goals: Mahon 80 (assisted Ramage)

Cardiff: Heaton 6, McNaughton 7, Purse 5, R Johnson 7, Comminges 6, Rae 6, Ledley 6 (Gyepes 29, 7), Whittingham 6, McPhail 6, Eddie Johnson 5 (Parry 72, 5), Chopra 5

Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Blake, Brown

Sent Off: Purse (28) (dangerous tackle), Comminges (87) (two bookings)

Booked: McPhail (foul), Comminges (foul), Comminges (dissent)

Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) 4 I didn’t think Purse should have been sent off, a yellow card for me there because it was simply mistimed rather than dangerous or malicious. We should not be rushing to send people off. Comminges’ first yellow card was justified, I’ve no idea what he said to get the second but like I say I don’t go to football to see players getting sent off and I wonder whether a stern, final warning could have been administered instead.

Charlton 0 QPR 1, Saturday October 22, 2007

Rangers' first attack of the match after ten minutes yielded a very decent shout for a penalty. Martin Rowlands swung a corner into the near post and Damion Stewart got to it first. The big Jamaican headed powerfully for goal from eight yards out but the effort was blocked by the arm of Chris Iwelumo back helping out his defenders. The Rangers players and coaching staff appealed but referee Probert, a man with a long and chequered history when it comes to refereeing QPR, waved the protests away. Undoubtedly it was ball to hand but in that situation penalties are often given when players have their arms stuck out or up in the air attempting to make themselves big and execute a block. Certainly, with Iwelumo's hands right up above his head, Charlton could have had few complaints had it been awarded.

Ten minutes before the break Zheng Zhi cracked a low 20 yard effort which Lee Camp did well to palm away from the danger zone. Then Martin Cranie had his heart in his mouth when he ignored Camp's calls and tried to deal with Reid's cross himself, slicing the ball narrowly over his top corner. From the set piece Lee Camp seemed to be fouled and a melee ensued as Lee Probert waved play on - Rangers got the ball away and later in the game they were grateful for the referee waving play on a similar situation.

Five minutes in one such run from Vine should have brought the opening goal for Rangers. After charging into the penalty area the Birmingham loanee was crudely chopped down by Fortune for a nailed on penalty which Lee Probert had no hesitation in awarding. The QPR players celebrated like they'd already scored which is always risky, and the high fives and hugs proved to be very premature when Rowlands stepped up and missed the kick.

In fairness to Rowlands he couldn't have picked his spot much better, right down low to the keeper's right, and certainly couldn't have struck the ball any sweeter. Against Norwich the luck was with him, against Charlton the shot cracked against the foot of the post and rebounded back out into play. Rowlands couldn't believe it, and was still cursing his luck ten minutes later. A break in play allowed Harford to put an arm round his winger and calm him down a little bit which was needed because he was clearly devastated by the mistake.

With just under 20 minutes remaining the ball broke to Hogan Ephraim in the area but his initial effort was blocked. The West Ham youngster was alert enough to regather possession though and he fed the ball wide to Chris Barker to swing over a deep cross from the left.

Nicky Weaver arrived underneath the ball late and Nygaard was already off the ground looking for the header. The pair clashed and the ball dropped loose in the penalty area. Adam Bolder met it first, mishitting a half volley towards the far corner and after what seemed like an age it dropped into the bottom corner in front of the jubilant Rangers fans. Charlton appealed for a foul on Weaver but referee Probert said nothing and Bolder's first ever QPR goal was allowed to stand.

Looking at the replays it seemed to me to be one of those decisions that keepers nearly always get in their favour but probably shouldn't. Weaver arrived under the cross very late with little chance of getting there ahead of Nygaard, there was a coming together and Nygaard put his arms on him as he climbed but Probert could hardly blow for that one after letting the earlier one on Camp go and we do always say all we ask for from referees is consistency.

Charlton: Weaver 6; Mills 6, Basey 7, Sodje 7, Fortune 6; Sam 7 (Racon 85, -), Semedo 6 (J Thomas 46, 5), Zheng 7, Reid 7; Varney 6, Iwelumo 6 (McLeod 69, 5)

Subs not used: Randolph, Bougherra

Booked: Sam 81 (foul), Reid 87 (dissent)

QPR: Camp 7; Mancienne 7, Barker 7, Stewart 8, Cranie 8; Rowlands 7, Bolder 7, Leigertwood 8, Ephraim 7, Nygaard 8, Vine 8

Subs not used: Cole, Bignot, Ainsworth, Sahar, Moore

Goals: Bolder 72 (assisted Nygaard)

Referee: L Probert (Wiltshire) 7 Very good performance from him for a change. Lots of good advantage rule played allowing the game to flow, kept the cards in his pocket for as long as possible and showed plenty of common sense. Allowed challenges on both goalkeepers to go unpunished, QPR took better advantage of theirs of course, so consistency there. Few dodgy decisions against us early on I thought but all in all quite impressive. I'll have to have a lie down.

It was the 2004/05 season that Probert really went to town on QPR. In three Rangers’ fixtures that year he showed 13 yellow cards and three reds. At Wolves in October a torrential storm at half time left the field completely unplayable and literally under a foot of standing water in places – but with Wolves winning 2-0 Probert played on to the end, sending off Kenny Miller in the process. At Loftus Road in the February Eddie Lewis was sent off for Preston, and Jude the Cat for QPR as Probert was confusing him with Paul Furlong when the R’s attacked. His eyesight had apparently improved a month later though as he was the only one inside Bramall Lane who spotted an injury time pull on Leigh Bromby’s shirt in the area – The Blades sealed a 3-2 win with the resulting penalty and Rangers had Andrew Davies sent off for good measure in the time that remained.

Stats

Probert has already refereed six games this season, four of them in the Premiership, and awarded two penalties in the League Cup North London derby fixture last Tuesday night when Arsenal won 4-1 at Spurs after extra time. He is very much flavour of the month with the authorities at the moment, despite a cock up at the end of Stoke v Villa a fortnight ago when he awarded Jermaine Pennant a free kick for a clear dive and then allowed Stoke to advance it 15 yards behind his back and score the winner with the last kick of the game. He has shown 17 yellows and a red so far, exactly three cards a game.

Last season he showed 119 yellows (3.6 a game) and seven reds in 33 games. That included two red cards in a single match on two occasions, ten yellows at Leicester v Forest, and nine yellows in the Birmingham v Wolves fixture.

His last Millwall fixture was a 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient in August 2006. Millwall had Tony Craig sent off after just four minutes.

Other Listings

Championship >>> Premiership referee Peter Walton is in charge of Norwich v Leicester. Rob Shoebridge, the lowest ranked referee on LFW last season for his performance at Newcastle and the referee that failed to spot the ghost goal at Bristol City last season, has Scunthorpe v Barnsley.

League One >>> Gavin Ward, of Reading away infamy last season, has Brghton v Brentford.

League Two >>> Andy D’Urso has Northampton v Chesterfield.

Photo: Action Images

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