For the third time this season already, South Yorkshire official Michael Naylor is in charge of QPR on Monday night as the R’s head to Derby County.
Referee >>> Michael Naylor (South Yorkshire), refereed QPR’s 1-0 home win against Ipswich and dreadful 0-0 draw at Wigan earlier this term.
Assistants >>> David Avent (Northamptonshire) and Alan Young (Cambridgeshire)
Fourth Official: Trevor Kettle (Rutland), vastly experienced and terminally incompetent Football League referee with a history of incidents with QPR long enough to stretch around the M25 three times.
http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33221/nothing-to-se Athletic 0 QPR 0, Wednesday October 30, 2013, Championship
It could have been even better had referee Michael Naylor not inexplicably turned a blind eye to Wigan’s rookie goalkeeper Lee Nicholls shoving substitute striker Andy Johnson to the ground as he waltzed around him in ten minutes from time, and it could have been worse had Chris McCann’s header hit the back of Robert Green’s net in the fifty second minute rather than the outside of his post during a period of sustained Wigan pressure — Callum McManaman should have done more than hammer the rebound over the bar as well.
Rangers did look slightly more threatening once Johnson was on — much needed support for the previously isolated Charlie Austin — but it was only relative to what had gone before and Wigan were hardly quaking in their boots. The Nicholls foul on Johnson apart they didn’t look overly threatened by the London side at any point and to be fair to referee Naylor he seemed as bored as the rest of us in the last ten minutes of the game and made some peculiar decisions — Phillips aggrieved that a goal kick was awarded when his late strike deflected over, Owen Coyle onto the pitch at the end to remonstrate with the officials over two robust late challenges from Hill on Fortune and Dunne on Powell that were for some reason given as QPR free kicks.
Wigan: Nicholls 7, Boyce 6, Barnett 6, Perch 6 Shotton 6, McManaman 7 (McClean 74, 6), McCann 6, Gomez 6 (Albrighton 74, 6), Powell 7, Holt 5 (Fortune 45, 6)
Subs not used: Watson, Pollitt, Espinoza, Beausejour
QPR: Green 6, Simpson 7, Hill 7, Dunne 7, Assou-Ekotto 6, Faurlin 7, Jenas 6, O’Neil 6, Kranjcar 6 (Phillips 44, 6), Hoilett 5 (Johnson 75, 6), Austin 5
Subs not used: Henry, Murphy, Chevanton, Onyewu, Traore
Referee — Michael Naylor (South Yorkshire) 5 Not a lot to referee for 75 minutes or so but, perhaps through boredom, he turned the last quarter of an hour into a bit of a farce, inexplicably failing to award a foul and card for the Nicholls attack on Johnson and then seemingly trying to even that decision up with several very harsh calls against the home side that had Owen Coyle on the pitch at the end of the game having a strop. To be fair, at least it livened things up a bit.
http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/32594/late-hitchcoc 1 Ipswich Town 0, Saturday August 17, 2013
Ipswich were limited in both ability and ambition. Referee Michael Naylor twice issued warnings about time wasting very early in the second half suggesting a 0-0 draw suited the Tractor Boys, but they could easily have won the game themselves. Striker David McGoldrick, signed permanently after a successful loan spell last term, was blocked out of a chance in the fourth minute after Richard Dunne lost the ball with a poor header. Dunne certainly grew into the game after that and denied McGoldrick a clear sight of goal with a fine tackle ten minutes from half time, although he was then indebted to Robert Geen who made a fantastic sprawling save to deny Daryl Murphy after the loose ball had fallen to the Irish striker in the penalty box. Green, abused throughout by a sizeable travelling support from Suffolk because of his Norwich connections, will have certainly enjoyed that one, and another stop deep into the second half when Dunne got lost among his own limbs and gave McGoldrick a sight of the School End net.
If anybody was going to pick Ipswich apart it looked like being Joey Barton who seemed to revel in starting in the centre of midfield for the first time this season and guided Rangers around the park with real class and panache. The goal itself came from a free kick deep in the QPR half, the second in quick succession where referee Naylor could and should have allowed play to continue with Rangers in possession. Not in the mood to argue, Barton acted quickly and sent a raking pass out wide to Wright-Phillips to set up the winner. An unlikely midfield partnership with sworn enemy Karl Henry may yet have legs if Ale Faurlin is out for any period of time.
QPR: R Green 7, D Simpson 6, R Dunne 6, N Onuoha 7, C Hill 6, S Wright-Phillips 6, K Henry 6 (J Jenas, 77, 6), J Barton 8, D Hoilett 6 (G O'Neil, 56, 8), B Zamora 5 (T Hitchcock, 83, -), C Austin 6
Subs not used: B Murphy, M Ehmer, Yun Suk-Young, M Sharif
Goals: Hitchock 90 (assisted Austin/Wright Phillips)
Ipswich S Loach 7, E Hewitt 6, L Chambers 6, T Smith 6, A Cresswell 7, J Tabb 6, C Skuse 6 (R Tunnicliffe, 45, 6), C Edwards 5, L Hyam 6, D Murphy 6 (P Taylor, 63, 5 (F Nouble, 86, -)), D McGoldrick 6
Subs not used: M Crowe, F Veseli, C Berra, P Anderson
Bookings: Tabb 60 (foul)
Referee — Michael Naylor (South Yorkshire) 7 No major decisions to make really but threatened to lose control at one point in the second half by not punishing poor fouls on first Dunne and then Barton more sternly, and then cracking down in the wrong way by blowing up for fouls when there was an obvious advantage to play and getting pernickety about the placement of free kicks. The goal itself came from a QPR free kick that really should have been allowed to play on. Overall though, not bad at all.
QPR 3 Walsall 0, Tuesday August 28, 2012, League Cup first round
Referee Michael Naylor — no doubt thrilled to be dragged down from South Yorkshire for such a prestigious midweek fixture — awarded a generous free kick to Ashley Hemmings after an alleged foul by Anton Ferdinand. One thing football players should be able to do regardless of their ability relative to their opposition is deliver a nice set piece and the resulting free kick here was an absolute peach. Hemmings whipped the ball in with real venom with his left foot, drawing it back towards the near post with Walsall attackers rushing towards it from left to right. Striker Will Grigg came closest to getting a touch, but the visitors were unfortunate not to see the ball sail all the way into the net without a touch. Ultimately it landed safely in the gloves of Rob Green.
Things didn’t get much better for Smith as he was forced into an early change: former Orient man Adam Chambers went off to be replace by James Baxendale. His side then picked up the night’s only caution as Dean Holden was accused of a gratuitous foul on Zamora as the striker held up a ball and awaited the arrival of supporting runners.
Walsall were having their ten minutes in the game and after Park was adjudged to have fouled Cuvelier on the edge of the area the League One side executed a clever free kick routine that at first looked as if they’d made a complete mess of things, but then suddenly opened up for debutant Andy Taylor, a former QPR loanee, to have a smack with his left foot from the edge of the penalty box. Robert Green came to successfully claim the resulting corner after Aton Ferdinand had blocked Taylor’s shot behind. When Hemmings then shot wide after collecting the ball in broken play Mark Hughes reached for his cards for the first time and sent on Kieran Dyer instead of Junior Hoilett who had been fairly anonymous throughout.
QPR: Green 6, Bosingwa 6, Ferdinand 5, Nelsen 6, Fabio 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (Traore 68, 6), Park 6, Faurlin 7, Hoilett 5 (Dyer 60, 6), Johnson 7, Zamora 7 (Cissé 69, 7)
Subs: Murphy, Onuoha, Derry, Mackie
Goals: Wright-Phillips 29 (assisted Zamora), Zamora 66 (assisted Dyer), Bosingwa 84 (assisted Faurlin)
Walsall: Gróf 6, Butler 6, Holden 6, Purkiss 6, Taylor 5, Featherstone 6, Chambers 6 (Baxendale 37, 6), Cuvelier 6, Hemmings 7 (Jones 78, -), Grigg 7 (Bowerman 70, 6), Paterson 6
Subs: Walker, Benning, Downing, Williams
Bookings: Holden 42 (foul)
Referee — Michael Naylor 8 Very little to referee in a pretty uncompetitive game, did what he had to do without fuss.
Naylor is posting very low numbers so far this season — just 52 yellows and one red in 23 matches. He’s shown no cards on five separate occasions this season but has been getting more prolific recently with 25 bookings in his last seven matches including six card hauls at Bolton v Forest and Bournemouth v Birmingham. This is his first Derby appointment since a 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough in October last season when the Rams scored their first goal from the penalty spot.
Last season Naylor booked 72 players and sent three off in 30 appointments. Those games were split evenly between all three divisions in the Football League with a decent number of Championship fixtures for a referee in just his third season on the list. His biggest haul in a single game was seven yellows at Watford v Palace in the Championship in February.
That was only an average of 2.4 yellows a game which was substantially less than the previous year when he booked 101 and sent five off in 31 appointments (3.2 yellows a game). That total was boosted substantially by a card happy start to the season when he booked 11 and sent two off in Notts County’s 3-2 win against Tranmere, and then followed that swiftly with eight yellows and one red at Southend v Plymouth.
Premier League Another show of faith in young Michael Oliver as he gets the Saturday lunchtime game between Arsenal and Liverpool.
Championship Stuart Attwell has Middlesbrough v Blackburn, Gavin Ward has Doncaster v Brighton, Martin Atkinson drops a level for Leicester v Watford.
League One Lee Probert drops down from the top flight to take Leyton Orient v Peterborough.
League Two Not sure what Lee Mason has done to offend, or why Scunthorpe v Chesterfield would need a Premier League referee, but there it is.
Tweet @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images