Relatively rookie referee Charles Breakspear is in charge of a QPR game for the first time this weekend, having previously run the line at Loftus Road on several occasions.
Referee >>> Charles Breakspear (Surrey), has run the line multiple times at Loftus Road but this is his first career outing here as a referee.
Assistants >>> Rob Smith (Hertfordshire) and Dave Bushell (London)
Fourth Official >>> Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire)
No previous QPR appointments as a referee.
Breakspear, a regular assistant referee across the Football League, has been a referee on the league list in his own right since 2013/14, prior to which he refereed at Conference level.
His opening campaign was spent almost exclusively in League Two across 25 games. His only Championship match, the first of his career, was Ipswich’s home match with Bolton when he awarded a second half penalty to the Tractor Boys for the only goal of the game. None of that this Saturday please. Overall that season he yellow carded 96 players and sent nine off in his 25 appointments.
Breakspear started last season in formidable form, with two red cards in his first two matches, and six in his first ten outings. He settled down after that and finished the year with nine reds and 97 yellows across 26 matches — a remarkably similar record to his first term. He refereed Town’s 0-0 home draw with Wigan.
This season, so far, he has 107 yellows in 25 matches — as many appointments as he had in the whole of the previous two seasons, with more to come obviously. He’s sent just two off in that time, but they were both in the same game - Newport v Blackburn in the FA Cup in January.
Championship >>> Stuart Attwell has Bolton v Rotherham, Mike Jones steps down from the Premier League for Charlton v Bristol City.
League One >>> Trevor Kettle’s mobile riot-incitement business heads to Walsall v Millwall this weekend.
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Pictures — Action Images