World Cup final referee takes charge of QPR at Spurs
Thursday, 27th Oct 2011 00:35 by Clive Whittingham

QPR have their first appointment this season with the Premiership’s top referee on Sunday as Howard Webb takes charge of our trip to Tottenham.

Referee >>> Howard Webb (South Yorkshire), World Cup final referee in 2010.

Assistants >>> Darren Cann (Norfolk) and Jake Collin (Liverpool), Cann was Webb’s official at the final in South Africa and was also the lineman at the centre of last week’s controversial penalty decision in the Villa v West Brom fixture.

Fourth Official >>> Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire), young referee less than fondly remembered by QPR for his handling of a home game with Birmingham City in 2009.

History

It’s amazing to think that Rangers have managed to avoid Howard Webb since way back in 2003 when we were a Second Division side. He refereed three QPR games that season and Rangers fans won’t forget two of them in a hurry.

His last QPR fixture was the play off final at the Millennium Stadium when Rangers were beaten in the last minute of extra time by Andy Campbell’s strike which promoted the Bluebirds and left Ian Holloway’s side to fight another season in the third tier. Webb showed five yellows that afternoon, three to QPR players. That was in stark contrast to Webb’s previous fixture with us a month previously when he was in charge for our famous 2-1 win at Brentford when Marc Bircham lashed home a spectacular winner with the final kick of the game – four yellow cards that day, three for Rangers. Back in the September of that same season he took charge of our 2-0 home win against Swindon with goals from Kevin Gallen and Richard Langley, one player from each side received yellow cards.

The previous season, 2001/02, he took charge of our 2-2 draw away at Blackpool when Leroy Griffiths scored twice and a 1-0 home win against Peterborough when the only goal came from an Andy Thomson penalty.

QPR 0 Chievo 1, Saturday August 2, 2008, Pre Season Friendly

Despite being second best to this point QPR actually got the ball in the net after 24 minutes only to find the goal very harshly disallowed by Premiership referee Howard Webb. This was QPR’s first corner of the game and it was immediately noticeable that Chievo approached the situation by leaving three men right up on the halfway line – one on the centre spot, one on the extreme wide right and one wide left. I’m a great believer in leaving men up when defending a corner because it forces the opposition to pull threats out of the penalty area and Chievo’s unusually ambitious set up meant that Gorkss, who scored eight goals for Blackpool last season, was back on the halfway line with Mahon, Leigertwood and Ramage – none of them slouches in the air.

Still from Ledesma’s delivery Damien Delaney bundled the ball in at the back post only to find Webb whistling for a foul by Hall at the near post – the fact that Hall had been wrestled into submission and almost had the shirt ripped from his back by his marker apparently worthy of a free kick against him. The decision was typical of Webb on the day who, with the assistance of a diabolical linesman on the South Africa Road side, looked very, very rusty himself making poor decisions and being needlessly picky throughout the game. QPR could count themselves unlucky to have this one chalked off.

Howard Webb, picky and fussy all afternoon, saved Blackstock’s blushes by ordering a retake and this time the striker made no mistake with a similarly tame effort to the other side of the keeper – the Chievo man dived the wrong way on this occasion. In fairness it was hard to get excited, it wasn’t a penalty in the first place and Blackstock’s first kick was so poor that Webb seemed to order a retake out of pity and charity, a point made rather too forcefully by Marco Malago who was booked for his comments to the referee in the aftermath of the goal.

Blackstock was replaced by Sam Di Carmine after this and in truth he’d done little in the 65 odd minutes he was on the pitch. I wasn’t impressed with Di Carmine either. He won little in the air, didn’t hold the ball up well enough, showed a poor touch on numerous occasions and posed Chievo no threat whatsoever.

The last half hour of friendly games are turgid to watch and seemingly pointless to take part in because every time the ball goes dead, and with Webb in an uncharacteristically whistle happy mood that was very frequently, both teams make substitutions. Dowie sent on Bolder for Mahon, Stewart for Gorkss and Ainsworth for Leigertwood and Chievo responded with four or five changes of their own. Gorkss certainly did himself no harm with a calm and composed display at the back and he really looks the part, particularly bringing the ball out from the back and distributing it. I have great hopes for the partnership between him and Hall on this evidence.

Having said that Stewart almost scored with his first touch ten seconds after entering the field. Another good corner from Ledesma found the Jamaican unmarked at the back post but Squizzi just about managed to palm the ball off his forehead and out for another corner in an aerial battle. Webb’s insistence on lecturing everybody in the penalty area before every set piece only added to the stop start nature of the game.

QPR Cerny 6 (Camp -), Ramage 6, Hall 7, Gorkss 7 (Stewart -), Delaney 7, Mahon 6 (Bolder -), Leigertwood 6 (Ainsworth -), Agyemang 5, Balanta 7 (Alberti 6), Ledesma 7 (Rose -), Blackstock 5 (Di Carmine 5)

Goals: Blackstock pen 69 (assisted Alberti)

Chievo: Squizzi, Mantovani (Scardina), Mandelli, Malago (Frey), Maroclini (Rigoni), Bentivoglio, De Oliveira (D’Anna), Iunco (Farias), Rickler, Bogdani, Italiano

Subs not used: Aldegani, Gasparetto, Moro, Sorrentino, Pellissier, Sabe, Grippo

Goal: Bogdani, Bentivoglio

Referee – Howard Webb (Rotherham) 5 - Normally a superb referee, certainly the best in the country, but got key decisions wrong today and was fussy throughout. Shouldn’t have disallowed the goal in the first half and it was never a penalty in the second half, although that decision was given by one of the equally poor linesmen. Like everybody else looked rusty after a summer break.

Stats

Webb has been hot with the cards so far this season, handing out 57 yellows and four reds in 12 matches already – 4.75 bookings a game. His biggest single haul was nine yellows in a European Championship qualifier between Greece and Croatia in October, but he also showed six yellows and a red in the North East derby between Sunderland and Newcastle back in August. Since the opening day when he showed a single yellow card in Cardiff’s win at West Ham he has shown three or more cards in every game.

Last season he showed 141 yellows and six reds in 45 games – 3.13 bookings a game. Both his biggest hauls, six yellows and a red at Shakhtar v Roma and seven yellows for Hapoel Tel Aviv and Lyon, came in Champions League games hinting that he may referee European games slightly differently to English league fixtures.

Other Listings

Premiership >>> Mark Halsey returns to Premiership action as Man Utd look to bounce back to winning ways with an awkward trip to Everton. Stewart Attwell has Man City v Wolves before serving as fourth official in our match and the authorities clearly didn’t see much wrong in Chris Foy’s handling of our match with Chelsea as he has another top flight game between Sunderland and Aston Villa.

Championship >>> Andy D’Urso has Watford v Peterborough while Michael Oliver, who attracted QPR’s ire after the recent home match with Aston Villa, has Burnley v Blackpool. Phil Dowd is the man charged with keeping a lid on Leeds v Cardiff on Sunday.

League One >>> Tony Bates, who received the lowest mark of any referee on LFW last season for his display in our win at Barnsley, has Bury v Stevenage. QPR fan Iain Williamson has Brentford v Chesterfield.

League Two >>> The LFW travelling crew is taking advantage of a Saturday off to take in Barnet v Burton Albion, and there we shall find our old friend Gavin Ward. Joy. Interesting to see Premiership referee Jon Moss dropping down three divisions to take charge of Cheltenham v Plymouth – seems an odd decision that one.

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Photo: Action Images

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