Geoff Eltringham gets a second QPR appointment in reasonably quick succession as Rangers host Burton in W12 on Saturday.
Referee >>> Geoff Eltringham (County Durham), eight seasons on the Football League list but only one previous QPR appointment.
Assistants >>> John Flynn (Oxfordshire) and Daniel Robathan (Bedfordshire)
Fourth Official >>> Graham Horwood (Bedfordshire)
QPR 0 Aston Villa 1, Sunday December 18, 2016, Championship
Holloway was full of praise for his beaten side at full time. It could have been different had the recalled Pawel Wzsolek connected to a good through ball from Grant Hall, again pressed higher up the field into midfield, early in the first half. Later Wzsolek's cross that seemed destined to be headed in by Conor Washington in the six yard box was diverted away from him at the last minute. Washington had a penalty appeal given as a corner instead, referee Geoff Eltringham deeming the Villa man won the ball.
After quiet beginnings the visitors burst into the game on the half hour when Wzsolek got the wrong side of Kodija in the area and attempted to recover with a clumsy tackle that led to what looked at the time like an obvious penalty. Spot kick duly awarded but no need for panic as Smithies has saved 18 PKs (c Bob Bradley) in his career so far, including five for QPR while a sixth hit the post. Bananaman made light work of Kodija's needlessly poncey run up, diving left to save with relative ease. Perhaps with the former Huddersfield man keeping goal one defensive technique might be to start deliberately giving penalties away.
The final ten minutes were dominated by visiting goalkeeper Mark Bunn reaching new levels of cuntishness — allowing balls returned to him to roll past so he had to go and fetch them again, changing the side of every goal kick, pretending to be injured and basically engaging in clock running the likes of which I haven't seen since Paul Gerrard was keeping goal.
There's an obvious rule change that could help here — goal kicks must be taken from the side the ball goes out, same as corners, so keepers can't do this irritating walk to the opposite side of the six yard box. The rules as they are written should have seen Eltringham take action far, far sooner than a token yellow card for Bunn in injury time. But the most effective solution to this ball ache would have been a shot or two for Bunn to save. Equalise, and he'd have no advantage to protect.
Bunn behaved like an absolute prick, but he didn't have a save to make in the whole game. The easiest clean sheet of his career. In fact, it's getting hard to remember the last serious save made by a visiting keeper at Loftus Road. Eltringham added five minutes to the end of the game, Bunn's antics mean there should have been more, but QPR hadn't had a shot on target in the previous 95 minutes while Villa had tested Smithies seven times so it's a bit rich of them to be arguing the toss over not getting another 60 or 120 seconds.
QPR: Smithies 8; Perch 6, Onuoha 5, Lynch 5, Bidwell 5; Hall 6, Luongo 5, Chery 5 (Mackie 78, 6); Wzsolek 5 (Shodipo 62, 6), Washington 5 (Sylla 46, 6), Ngbakoto 5
Subs not used: Sandro, Borysiuk, Ingram, Polter
Bookings: Luongo 81 (foul)
Villa: Bunn 5; Hutton 6, Chester 6, Baker 6, Amavi 7; Adoma 6, Jedinak 7, Gardner 6 (Westwood 89, -), Bacuna 6; McCormack 5 (Agbonlahor 71, 5), Kodija 8 (Gestede 82, -)
Subs not used: Gollini, Elphick, Ayew, Grealish
Goals: Kodija 75 (assisted Hutton)
Bookings: Jedinak 43 (foul), Chester 63 (foul), Bunn 90+3 (time wasting)
Referee — Geoff Eltringham (Co Durham) 7 Odd one this, I came away thinking he'd got most of the stuff right. Villa's penalty was a penalty at first viewing, Washington's didn't look like one to me albeit from the other end of the ground. Should have clamped down on Bunn's antics a lot sooner, and Mackie did seem to be pushed in the back in that late incident, but that was about it. Lots, including those watching on TV, have said he was terrible and QPR should have had at least one pen.
Back in 2010/11 Eltringham showed 13 red cards in just 30 appointments across the season, but he’s thankfully calmed down a little in more recent times.
He’s already bossed 25 matches this season split across all three Football League divisions, with 15 of those in the Championship. His running totals of 79 yellows and four reds are topped up by the eight bookings and one sending off in Villa’s recent home win against Cardiff where the visitors had Lee Peltier sent off late on and the home side sealed the win with a late penalty. Afterwards Uncle Neil Warnock said the referee had allowed himself to be conned by Villa’s Jack Grealish.
Last season Eltringham showed 93 yellows and eight reds in 37 games, with the six yellows and a red in Chesterfield’s 7 (seven) -1 win against Shrewsbury the season high.
Championship >>> Keith Stroud’s ongoing card fest rolls into South Yorkshire for the derby between Rotherham and Barnsley.
League One >>> Darren Deadman at Swindon v Fleetwood — best of luck to both.