For the second time this season QPR will have Premiership official Mike Jones, famed most recently for his role in the 'beach ball' incident at Sunderland, in charge of their match as Coventry visit W12.
QPR v Coventry City
Referee – Mike Jones (Cheshire)
Assistants – Artis (Norfolk) and Burt (Northamptonshire)
Fourth Official – Taylor (Hertfordshire)
This weekend we have premiership referee Mike Jones for the second time this season. The previous occasion was at Chelsea in the League Cup when the R’s went down 1-0 to a goal scored after Wayne Routledge should have been awarded a free kick at the other end of the field - Jones’ low mark of four that places him 11th on this year’s referee league came because I felt, as is often the case on such occasions, that the Premiership referee looked after the Premiership team a little bit too much for my liking.
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 4 It is often a bitter accusation levelled at referees in defeat in these matches that a Premiership referee looks after Premiership players. Mike Jones did little to distance himself from that idea on Wednesday. The Chelsea goal could have been disallowed for three separate offences, some of the free kicks given to the host were soft in the extreme and some of the things QPR were left to suffer with no free kick, including a horrible tackle from behind on Jay Simpson just before he went off, were astonishing. Ably assisted on the line by Mike Cairns who turned in just about the worst performance I have ever seen from an assistant referee. LFW Chelsea Match Report
Jones has had a difficult time of it over the last 18 months, being demoted from the Premiership list after high profile mistakes on more than one occasion. Earlier this season he allowed Sunderland’s winner against Liverpool at the Stadium of Light to stand despite deflecting off a beach ball and into the net. The rule states the goal should have been ruled out and play restarted with a drop ball. He was dropped for one week after that but returned for Burnley v Hull where he awarded the Clarets a questionable penalty, disallowed a perfectly good Hull goal and then sent Giovanni off for two yellow cards, one of which was given for dissent after his earlier mistake. He was sent to do Stockport v Exeter in League One last week as a result. Last season he was bumped down to our level after a controversial game at The Hawthorns where he awarded Blackburn a penalty for a shirt pulling offence and then sent off Benni McCarthy for a nothing tackle.
So far this season he has shown 33 yellows (three a match) and one red in 11 games. Seven of those yellows came in two Championship games, Newcastle’s 4-0 win at Ipswich and Peterborough’s 3-0 home win against Scunthorpe. Last season he showed 110 yellows (2.894 a game) and six reds in 38 matches. That included Coventry’s 2-1 defeat at Derby and 4-1 home win against Southampton, as well as our 0-0 draw at St Mary’s. he received a mark of six and finished 14th on the referee league.
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 6 Didn’t do too much wrong but got a little bit whistle happy in the second half to the point where he was blowing it every thirty seconds at one point which, in a game of already poor quality, became very irritating. I did not agree with Gorkss’ booking but the others were fair enough. Blackstock’s penalty appeal looked like a reasonable shout to me. LFW Southampton Match Report
In 2006/07 he refereed QPR twice - a 2-1 league defeat at promotion chasing Sunderland and a 1-0 FA Cup replay defeat at Luton where he appeared to be headbutted by midfielder Stefan Bailey after sending the youngster off in the second half. No charges were ever brought against the player. A mixed bag of performances averaged out as seven and ranked him sixth on the league that year.
Referee: M Jones (Cheshire) 5 A quite bizarre official at times, giving perplexing decisions often flying in the face of facts and advice from his assistants. The final ten minutes of the game were refereed unprofessionally in my opinion - clearly lost the plot after the Bailey incident. Not good at all. LFW Luton Match Report
Referee: Mr M Jones 9 A very accomplished performance in my opinion. Hard to recall an error all day, got the crucial decisions and the bookings right and allowed play to flow where possibly. Hard to fault in any department. LFW Sunderland Match Report
In 2005/06 he took charge of QPR’s home game with Southampton - the R’s won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Richard Langley and Jones was rated as seven.
Referee: M Jones (Chester) 7 A steady performance from the ref. Again we didn't have a player booked, have our players turned over a new leaf?! He was assisted by two less than competent linesman who made some errors, especially during the second half. The man in black should have also booked Powell far earlier as that way he might have stopped fouling during the second half! LFW Southampton Match Report
Elsewhere this weekend pity Bristol City and Sheff Utd who have Andy Hall in charge of their game, with the Blades’ style of play and Hall’s robotic method of refereeing I’d expect a red card or three there.