David Webb from Durham is the man in the middle for tonight's home game with Rotherham United, his second QPR appointment of the season.
Referee >>> David Webb (Durham), second QPR game of his career following Derby at home earlier this season.
Assistants >>> Lee Venamore (Kent) and Dean Treleaven (West Sussex), also both ran the line in that Derby draw.
Fourth Official >>> Andy Davies (Hampshire)
QPR 1 Derby County 1, Saturday October 6, 2018, Championship
And so, with an hour still to play and only one goal in it, began, once again, the excruciating palaver of a goal kick only being taken after the keeper has walked out to the edge of his box to speak with his defenders, walked all the way back to retrieve the ball from behind the goal, found a towel in the net to clean the ball (presumably in case it’s too wet and dirty to kick), picked a side to take the goal kick from (the opposite one to where he’s cleaning the ball naturally), walked over there, placed the ball, taken a few steps back, taken a few steps forward, picked the ball up again, replaced the ball, taken a few steps back, pretended he hasn’t understood what the referee is shouting, acknowledge the second time what the referee is shouting, take a few more steps back, and then finally kick the ball down the field. Every. Single. Time.
We also had players repeatedly throwing themselves up in the air and screaming as if they’d been the victim of some sort of David Buust-style leg annihilation under the bare minimum of contact, followed by a prolonged period of rolling around on the floor, treatment from two physios (we have to have two physios now for some reason), a long, drawn out, laboured, pained, agonising stroll to the touchline, and then a swift 180 and sprint back into the action once play had resumed and the opponent had been punished. Lawrence, a bit of an underrated shithead for me, ended up being booked by struggling referee David Webb along with Angel Rangel for a ridiculously overblown clash between the pair under a quick throw out from Carson. Bradley Johnson and new England call up Mason Mount were both guilty of literally screaming after innocuous challenges on them that were barely fouls, and yet both were miraculously able to jump up and sprint about again moments later. One day somebody will snap one of them properly, but referees will be so accustomed to them letting out these weird banshee impressions that they risk being left to lay seriously injured on the turf while play goes on around them — you could hear their cries of wolf from White City tube station. In actual fact the only serious injury suffered all day was Jake Bidwell’s suspected broken collarbone, from a bad challenge that apparently didn’t even warrant a yellow card.
Referees can clamp down on this, as we saw during the World Cup. Book early and often for time wasting and it stops. Allow the play to go on and invite the player to go to the sideline for treatment if it’s really necessary and they’re soon up and about again. But we are seeing time and time again this season, from QPR in games they’re winning and against QPR in games they’re losing, this ball acheing twattery just allowed to go on and on and on unchecked. Webb barely had a control of the game all afternoon - ignoring serious stuff, penalising stuff that could have been allowed to go, a grasp of the advantage rule as thin as tracing paper - and as per usual completely ignored everything that had gone on in the respective halves and added the regulation two minutes to the first and four to the second regardless. Championship football is a bracing watch at the best of times, and this sort of Portuguese league-style game killing is suffocating it even more.
Rangers were level almost immediately. Tomori was adjudged by Webb to have fouled Eze on the edge of the area when he’d done nothing of the sort giving Luke Freeman a presentable free kick opportunity. Scott Carson has enjoyed a career revival at Frank Lampard’s Derby County, and is rated by many of their fans as the best keeper in the league, but he has a history of mistakes at Loftus Road and is always a keeper I feel gives you a chance. Caught between a catch and a camera save from Freeman’s shot he did neither, parrying the ball straight to Nahki Wells who pulled it back blind from the byline for Geoff Cameron to slam in a first goal for the club.
QPR: Lumley 7, Rangel 6, Leistner 6, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6 (Wszolek 30, 7); Luongo 6, Cameron 6; Cousins 6 (Hemed 69, 6), Eze 6 (Smith 90+3, -), Freeman 7; Wells 6
Subs not used: Ingram, Scowen, Baptiste, Osayi-Samuel
Goals: Cameron 48 (assisted Wells)
Bookings: Rangel 9 (shithousery), Luongo 37 (foul), Leistner 86 (foul)
Derby: Carson 5; Bogle 6, Keogh 6, Tomori 6, Forsyth 6; Bryson 6, Johnson 5 (Huddlestone 75, 7); Jozefzoon 6 (Wilson 56, 7), Mount 7, Lawrence 6 (Waghorn 78, 6); Marriott 6
Subs not used: Roos, Nugent, Davies, Malone
Goals: Marriott 24 (assisted Johnson)
Bookings: Lawrence 9 (shithousery), Bryson 83 (foul)
Referee — David Webb (Durham) 5 A difficult game to referee, with several players (Bradley Johnson) trying every trick in the book to con him, screaming blue murder as if they’d had their leg snapped after every challenge. But, overall, not the best. Derby were, rightly, stewing over the free kick which led to the goal which was never a foul in a month of Sundays, although it’s a bit much to accuse the referee of costing you the game with one mistake across 90 minutes and it rather ignores Scot Carson’s part in it. It was one of several very soft/blatantly wrong free kicks given against both sides, often when there was an obvious advantage to wave on, while other much more serious stuff was ignored — the challenge that broke Jake Bidwell’s collar bone, for instance, not even a yellow card. Prior to the equaliser he’d been another example of a referee enabling and encouraging time wasting by failing to do anything about some pretty flagrant clock running.
Fairly odd career path so far for this official. He’s been on the list since 2008/09 refereeing mostly League One and League Two, with a smattering of Championship games each season. It’s only this season that he’s become a mainstay of our division with all but six of his 27 appointments so far in the second tier. He’s shown 73 yellows and two reds so far, topped out by six yellows at Wycombe v Oxford in League One and Norwich 3-4 Derby. He’s had four cardless games so far. This is his third Rotherham appointment of the season and they’re yet to lose, beating Ipswich 1-0 on day one and drawing 2-2 with Stoke and 1-1 at Blackburn.
Last season he showed 94 yellows and three reds in 43 games, with four of those matches in the Championship. He was rewarded for his performance with the League Two play-off final between Coventry and Exeter City at Wembley.
The Twitter/Instagram @loftforwords
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