Anthony Taylor from Greater Manchester is our referee this Saturday, the second QPR game of his fledgling career.
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Referee: Anthony Taylor (Manchester)
Assistants – Malone (Wiltshire) and Mason (Kent)
Fourth Official – Jerden (Essex)
The fall out from last weekend’s scandalous goings on at Watford v Reading continues – neither referee Stuart Attwell nor assistant Nigel Bannister have games this weekend or on Tuesday night as far as I’m aware. Presumably their ‘operational advice’ is being handed out instead. The league continue to cover themselves in glory over the whole thing though and have this week charged Watford manager Ady Boothroyd with foul and abusive language to the official after the decision. I said last week that for Attwell to go around booking players and sending off managers for moaning about such an obviously wrong decision showed an arrogance that isn’t healthy in a young official, well to then follow those cards up with a disrepute charge is simply mind blowing.
I’m certainly not Boothroyd’s biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination but what was he supposed to do stand there and clap? Presumably his appeal against the charge will consist of a 30 second video clip of the incident followed by the defence resting. You have got to wonder about the people running our game sometimes, have they not thought that maybe in such exceptional circumstances a ‘no case to answer’ would have been more sensible than hauling a manager in front of a disciplinary board for swearing at a farce entirely created by the league’s employees? Words fail me.
It is Anthony Taylor from Greater Manchester for us this weekend as we tackle Derby County at Loftus Road. Taylor has already refereed seven matches this season, showing 18 yellow cards in the process (2.57 a game) and no reds. Two of those matches have been in the Championship – no yellow cards were shown in the Cardiff v Norwich draw but five plyers were booked by Taylor at Charlton v Wolves recently.
Last season he showed 105 yellows (2.92 a game) and ten reds in 36 matches although ten of those cards did come in one bruising encounter between Leicester and Watford. He only showed more than five cards in a game on five occasions. Taylor was in charge of our memorable away win at Southampton last season showing four yellows and a red to the home side’s skipper Yousseff Safri. A rating of five out of ten in that match placed him joint 21st on last season’s referee league.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Greater Manchester) – 5 Over fussy at times and seemed to give Southampton the benefit of the doubt on numerous occasions in the second half. Missed Wright Phillips kicking Rehman off the ball. Had no choice with the sending off. LFW Southampton Match Report
This is only Taylor’s third season on the full list and on Saturday he takes charge of Derby County for the first time. Keep an eye out also for Brendan Malone on the line - he's a Football League linesman and Conference referee and is a little eccentric. In the Johnstones Paint final last season he initially flagged a Milton Keynes Dons player offside, then gave him a penalty despite that and he's certainly larger than life. Worth keeping an eye on.
Elsewhere Premiership referee Mark Halsey is in the Championship this weekend for the Sheff Utd v Watford game. Other ‘favourites’ in action this week include Andy Hall at Northampton v Brighton, Kevin Friend at Oldham v Huddersfield and Jarnail Singh at Shrewsbury and Bradford. Phil Dowd has clearly crossed the wrong person as he is again dropped down to League One – MK Dons v Peterborough for him.
Looking further ahead we have Grant Hegley back at Loftus Road on Tuesday night for the visit of Blackpool – more on him on Monday as ever.