Richard Beeby is in charge on Tuesday night as QPR travel to Swindon Town in the League Cup First Round.
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Referee: Richard Beeby (Northampton)
Assistants – Horton and Weaver
Fourth Official – Knapp
I may be mistaken but it seems the referees have been told to chill out judging by what I’ve seen over the weekend. In the three games I’ve watched, at Birmingham, QPR and Nottingham Forest there have been just six yellow cards handed out and a lot of tackles allowed to go that probably did deserve bookings. This is a positive step in my eyes, we don’t pay our money to watch hundreds of cards handed out contrary to what Trevor Kettle might think and with the sending off of Van Homoet at Loftus Road clearly the severe punishments will come out when needed. Even Kettle himself only handed out two yellow cards in his game yesterday, although with Dagenham winning 6-0 it was hardly competitive.
The other thing to notice about those three games was the fair to crap quality of the football on show but that’s a debate for another time in another column.
This Tuesday night the League Cup begins and QPR have a tricky, watch between your fingers match at Swindon Town. The referee for this one is Richard Beeby who is forging a reputation as one of the Football League’s top officials despite being a fussy and picky sort of a referee. He started his career with two yellows and a red at Charlton v Swansea although. The red card for Swansea’s Monk came as a result of one of those late tackles that we’re trying to clamp down on apparently and to be honest it looked a little harsh but it’s fashionable to send off for that since the Eduardo injury so off he went.
Last season Beeby showed 76 yellows (2.111 a match) and five reds in 36 matches which was considerably less than his 116 yellows (2.9 a match) and nine reds from 40 games the season before. He was in charge of two QPR games last term, both at Loftus Road, and the R’s got four points from them with an entertaining goalless draw against Sheff Wed and a comfortable 2-0 win against Barnsley. His average rating of seven in those games was very creditable and good enough for joint fifth on the referee league.
Ref: Richard Beeby (Northamptonshire) 7 Failed to clamp down on Grant's time wasting in the second half, and let a couple of tackles go without bookings when they probably warranted them. The two cards he did give were correct and overall this wasn't too bad a display. LFW Sheff Wed Match Report
Referee: Richard Beeby (Northamptonshire) 7 Turned down a QPR penalty which I think was the right decision, kept cards in his pocket and allowed the game to flow where possible. One complaint I would have is that whenever a corner award was disputed by one of the teams, he immediately nullified the protests by awarding a free kick to the defending side for some mysterious pushing infringement under the corner. It’s an old referee’s trick when you think you might have stuffed up by awarding the corner, but when you’re doing it for the third or fourth time in the same game it looks a little bit obvious! LFW Barnsley Match Report
QPR will be hoping or no repeat of Mr Beeby's last match at Swindon - the Robins beat Port Vale 6-0 back in April. He refereed one QPR match the season before, a draw at Loftus Road against Plymouth and was, in truth quite kind to QPR awarding a goal that should never have stood and sending off Lilian Nalis for two bookings, one of which was for abusing the match officials after the decision on the goal. A rating of five saw him in 16th on the referee league.
Referee: R Beeby (Northamptonshire) 5 Shouldn't have allowed the QPR goal and seemed to blow his whistle as it went in. Should have awarded Rangers a penalty near the end. Plymouth's goal looked offside. So if it's key decisions you like your referee to be right with Mr Beeby isn't your man. LFW Plymouth Match Report
The season before that, Christ I’ve been doing this a long time now, 2005/06 he was in charge for our 1-1 draw at Southampton and again got a rating of five which was good enough for 17th in the league.
Ref: R Beeby (Northamptonshire) – 5 Infuriated both sides with some really bizarre decisions. Very much a technical referee, doing everything by the book. If the tackle is from behind it's a free kick - it matters not that the player took all of the ball, never touched the man, and the opponent didn't even fall over. If a boot is above waist height it's a free kick, it matters not that the nearest opponent is five yards away and there's all the danger in that piece of play as you'd find in a child's birthday cake. He also clearly told his linesmen that he'd give all the free kicks and they should just do throws and offsides, even when the linesman is five yards away and he's thirty five. The FA absolutely love these technical, everything by the book robots so expect to see this guy awarding penalties at Old Trafford in the very near future. LFW Southampton Match Report
Elsewhere in the cup Trevor Kettle has Palace v Hartlepool, Jarnail Singh has Coventry v Aldershot and Kevin Friend has Sheff Utd v Port Vale – God speed to all involved in those matches.