Mike Dean, who awarded Chelsea a highly questionable penalty earlier this season at Loftus Road, is in charge of QPR’s key final game of the season at Man City.

Referee >>> Mike Dean (Wirral), hadn’t taken charge of a QPR game since 2008 prior to his appointment at our FA Cup tie with Chelsea in January but caused huge controversy there with an incorrect second half penalty award.

Assistants >>> Stuart Burt (Northants) and Andy Garratt (West Midlands)

Fourth Official >>> Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire), sent Joey Barton off in QPR’s home fixture with Norwich City earlier this season.

Previously

QPR 2 Arsenal 1, Saturday March 31, 2012, Premiership

An Arsenal attack broke down with an aimless ball forward that was collected by Clint Hill. He passed from midway in his own half towards space into which he thought Diakite would run. Diakite held his run and the ball carried on for much longer than might have been expected towards Taarabt, who was in a classic ‘inside forward’ position with Vermaelen in close attendance. The latter tried to nick the ball but our hero was too quick, nipping in to gather it, turn sharply, shimmy and then roar towards goal with Vermaelen in his wake. Koscielny came across to try to cover but Taarabt hit a powerful curling shot around Szczesny’s outstretched hand and into the corner of the net. At last, a Premiership goal in his 100th QPR game and after all those shots this season. Cue pandemonium and a goal celebration that got him booked, presumably for embracing someone in the crowd.

Barton was booked for dragging back Oxlade-Chamberlain and then Diakite, all maturity and composure until this point, scythed down the same player in the right-hand corner to get his customary booking and leave Arsenal with a free kick as injury time ticked down. Cometh the hour of need, cometh the moron as in the aftermath of the tackle someone in the Ellerslie thought it was a good idea to throw a coin at a linesman. This prompted Dean to hold things up by bringing the linesman onto the pitch whilst he presumably discussed the matter with the fourth official over the radio link. I really don’t know why people do this sort of thing, it could cost the club a fine and it could have broken the concentration of the defence. In the end, the free kick was cleared away and after over five minutes of injury time Dean’s whistle prompted the end of the game and wild celebrations amongst fans, players and staff. Learning that Bolton and Wigan had won was a mild dampener on proceedings but, as the cliché goes, you can only deal with what is put in front of you and QPR had dealt with Arsenal very well. Six points from Liverpool and Arsenal – who’d have thunk it?

  QPR: Kenny 8, Onuoha 8, Hill 8, Ferdinand 8, Taiwoo 8, Taarabt 9 , Derry 8, Diakite 9, Barton 8, Mackie 8, Zamora 8 (Wright-Phillips 90 -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Young, Gabbidon, Buszacky, Bothroyd

Booked: Taarabt (goal celebration), Mackie (squabbling with Vermaelen), Ferdinand (foul), Barton (foul), Diakite (foul)

Arsenal: Szczesny 7, Sagna 7, Vermaelen 5, Koscielny 7, Gibbs 7 (Chamakh 80 6), Rosicky 7, Arteta 7 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 80 7), Walcott 7, Ramsey 7 (Gervinho 69 6), Song 7, Van Persie 7

Subs Not Used: Fabianski, Santos, Djourou, Benayoun

Booked: Vermaelen (squaring up to Mackie), Song (foul)

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 7 Did not do a lot wrong and kept the game flowing reasonably well. Ignored some of the histrionics from Arsenal players who felt they were being roughed up a bit. The cards he dealt were all valid.

Blackburn 3 QPR 1, Saturday February 11, 2012, Premiership

Referee Mike Dean, immediately appointed back to a QPR game just days after incorrectly awarding a penalty against them in an FA Cup tie with Chelsea, added four minutes to the end of the first half and could easily have awarded another spot kick against them when Fitz Hall clumsily bundled Yakubu over as he made his way towards goal but this time Dean showed no interest as Hall had got enough of the ball.

That made it 3-2 for a short period before Mike Dean put the home team out of their self inflicted misery because a minute after the Taiwoo shot the burly left back got in again down the left flank after Bradley Orr, bless him, completely misjudged an interception and allowed the big Nigerian to run in behind him. Taiwoo showed good composure to hold fire until the chance presented itself and then squared the ball to Jamie Mackie who fired into the empty net from a yard out.

In between those two goals Mackie blotted his copy book with a yellow card for dissent, although he was perfectly within his rights to question Mike Dean about why on earth Fitz Hall had been penalised for winning a header cleanly in the Blackburn box from a QPR set piece. Perhaps the sight of Hall winning a header of any sorts stunned Dean into the decision as an involuntary reaction. Mackie also could have had another goal ten minutes after his first and ten before his last when he turned well onto an Adel Taarabt pass in the area but sidefooted his finish straight at Robinson. He had been flagged offside though. Mackie broke his leg horribly on this ground in January last season, and the standard of his performances since he returned to action following that has been a credit to him. He was the one QPR player that didn’t deserve to lose this match.

Blackburn: Robinson 7, Orr 5, Hanley 6, Dann 6, Martin Olsson 7, Nzonzi 7, Lowe 6, Hoilett 7 (Henley 50, 5), Formica 7 (Modeste 66, 5), Pedersen 6, Yakubu 7 (Goodwillie 90, -)

Subs Not Used: Bunn, Petrovic, Rochina, Vukcevic

Booked: Lowe (foul)

Goals: Yakubu 15 (assisted Nzonzi), Nzonzi 23 (assisted Hoilett), Onuoha 45 og (assisted Hoilett)

QPR: Kenny 3, Onuoha 4, Ferdinand 3, Hall 3 (Gabbidon 90, -), Taiwo 4, Traore 4, Wright-Phillips 4, Barton 5, Buzsaky 3 (Mackie 66, 8), Taarabt 6, Zamora 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hill, Derry, Bothroyd, Smith

Booked: Mackie (dissent)

Goals: Mackie 71 (assisted Taiwo), 90 (unassisted)

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 7 Didn’t have a lot to referee really, got the big decision right on half time when he could easily have given a penalty against Fitz Hall but correctly recognised that he’d won the ball from Yakubu. The Mackie yellow card seemed like a typical Dean decision, a big flouncy over the top booking to make some sort of point, but we don’t know what Mackie actually said so he may have deserved it. Didn’t give QPR much, and seemed to enjoy doing it, but I’m not convinced there was much to give.

QPR 0 Chelsea 1, Saturday January 28, 2012, FA Cup

Chelsea played with nine men for a good portion of the last meeting between these sides and decided to start with just the ten here, selecting Fernando Torres as a lone striker. Because of that they rarely looked like scoring themselves in a pretty dismal encounter that would have ended 0-0 without the intervention of referee Mike Dean who will be embarrassed when he sees just how much he was conned by Daniel Sturridge, who despite his flagrant cheating really should be the man Villas Boas is building his attack around rather than his giant Spanish white elephant.

There was little time to reflect on the miss because Chelsea flew downfield and took the lead on contentious circumstances. A deep cross to the far post from Juan Matta was above and beyond Sturridge when he felt the slightest of contacts from Clint Hill at the far post. The resulting dive was laughably bad, and Hill let the Chelsea man know it as he laid on the floor appealing to the referee. Sadly for Hill and QPR Mike Dean had been taken in and awarded the penalty, peering through a crowd of players to see the incident and getting his decision badly wrong as a result. After the usual committee meeting between the referee and three or four wronged players failed to overturn the decision Mata confidently dispatched the ball beyond Paddy Kenny and into the corner of the net.

Chelsea celebrated while Mike Dean retreated to the halfway line where he found Mark Hughes waiting for him shaking his finger to signal his opinion on the matter. Dean simply shrugged, I think he knew deep down he was wrong. QPR got the benefit of the doubt on several decision in the league game, and didn’t get it here. They say things even themselves up in football and maybe they did a bit here.

It was never a penalty in a month of Sundays, anybody with half decent eyesight could tell you that. But I have to say that Clint Hill does give players the chance to do this to him. He will always put in a little needless shove, a little niggle, a little bit of contact that isn’t required. It’s part of his game, part of his wind up technique, a way to put players off their game – it’s needless but it’s the way he goes about his work. On three or four previous occasions in the game Hill had done something similar to Sturridge, absolutely nothing really and not worthy of a free kick but Sturridge had exaggerated the contact and complained to the officials about it every single time. The seed of doubt had been planted in the referee’s mind and he was watching the pair of them closer than he would have been had Hill just left him alone. On this occasion Dean was wrong, the decision was dreadful, but Hill had allowed this situation to brew prior to this incident and then he made contact (very meagre contact) with him under a cross that neither of them were ever going to reach. He gave the referee a decision to make, or rather he gave Sturridge a chance to give the referee a decision to make, and he does this quite often.

Dean is a hard referee to like given the arrogant manner he conducts himself with around the pitch, and he was in no mood for avoiding the limelight after this error. A few moments later a QPR fan in the front row threw the ball back into play in the direction of Ashley Cole, catching him flush in the back. Cole didn’t even turn around but Dean saw fit to stop the ball, call a steward out of the stand and lecture him. The steward, hilariously, then sat back down next to the supporter who’d done it and patted him on the back. Hopefully we won’t hear any more about that non-event.

QPR: Kenny 7, Hill 6, Ferdinand 7, Hall 7, Young 7, Mackie 6, Buzsaky 6 (Hulse 79, 7), Barton 6, Wright-Phillips 5, Helguson 7 (Macheda 46, 4), Smith 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Derry, Ephraim, Onuoha

Booked: Wright-Phillips, Hall

Chelsea: Cech 7, Ivanovic 6, Luiz 6, Terry 7, Cole 7, Meireles 6, Ramires 7 (Romeu 79, 6), Sturridge 7, Malouda 6, Mata 8 (Essien 90, -), Torres 3

Subs Not Used: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Lukaku, Cahill, Bertrand

Booked: Cole, Romeu

Goals: Mata 62 (penalty, won Sturridge)

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 Will have been glad to find the game passing off as quietly as it did, with many including myself expecting a nasty bloodbath. Refereed perfectly well for the most part, but had one big decision to make in the game and got it obviously wrong. Players will continue to dive while referees are able to be conned this easily.

Coventry 0 QPR 0, Wednesday March 5, 2008, Championship

It took 18 minutes for QPR to actually get the ball down and keep it for more than five passes but just when you thought they were going to come into the game a little Coventry won a free kick from Damien Delaney and after a brief goal mouth scramble Best had a golden chance to open the scoring when Leigertwood’s wild clearance dropped at his feet eight yards out from goal – his finish into the ground sent the ball bouncing up and over the crossbar and smacked of a striker lacking confidence. His approach play was good all night, but he never once looked like hitting the back of the net even on the half hour when he raced through on goal after what looked like a foul sent Matt Connolly crashing to the floor on the edge of the centre circle. With Premiership referee Mike Dean waving play on Best strode into the area but his low shot was brilliantly saved at point blank range by Lee Camp who then led the protests to the referee with Martin Rowlands.

The rare sight of QPR on the attack was quickly erased from the memory as Connolly became the first player into referee Mike Dean’s notebook. Mifsud got the better of Delaney again and as Connolly came across the Maltese mosquito did him for pace. The former Arsenal man was forced to upend his opponent in a scything and blatantly deliberate trip that Dean had no hesitation in producing a card for.

The frustration of it was all too much for Buzsaky who, after miscontrolling the ball once again on half way, chased after Mifsud and launched into a crude lunging tackle on him right on the touchline. This incident took place in front of the only well populated area of the ground and all three Coventry fans jumped up and demanded action from Mike Dean. The referee showed Buzsaky a yellow card after taking some time out to calm the situation down – what a difference from D’Urso on Sunday who raced across red card in hand without hesitation and caused a problem for himself.

Coventry: Marshall N/A, Osbourne 6, Ward 6, Dann 6, Fox 6, Mifsud 8, Tabb 6 (Gray 75, 5), Stephen Hughes 5, Doyle 5, Thornton 8, Best 6

Subs Not Used: Konstantopoulos, Hall, Andrews, Simpson

Booked: Best (handball)

QPR: Camp 8, Mancienne 7, Hall 7, Connolly 7, Delaney 5, Buzsaky 5, Leigertwood 5, Rowlands 6 (Ainsworth 90, -), Ephraim 5, Agyemang 4 (Blackstock 85, -), Vine 5

Subs Not Used: Pickens, Barker, Stewart

Booked: Connolly (foul), Buzsaky (foul)

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 - Seemed to miss a lot of fouls on QPR players, particularly the one on Connolly that allowed Best through on goal in the first half, but overall not too bad. No complaints over any of the bookings.

Chelsea 1 QPR 0, Saturday January 5, 2008, FA Cup

Chelsea had the first chance of the half when Mikel collapsed theatrically under minimal contact from the excellent Martin Rowlands and won a free kick – Mike Dean’s only poor decision of the game in my opinion. Alex stepped up from fully 40 yards and although he beat the wall the shot was never going to seriously trouble Camp and he gathered easily.

Fitz Hall became the first and only player to enter the referee’s book for a crude lunge on Shaun Wright Phillips after indecision by Chris Barker had let the winger in behind him. Wright Phillips was replaced by Cole moments later but didn’t appear to be carrying any lasting damage from the tackle.

Chelsea: Hilario 7, Ferreira 8, Ben-Haim 7, Alex 7, Ashley Cole 6, Wright-Phillips 5 (Joe Cole 79, 6), Obi 6, Sidwell 8, Sinclair 5 (Drogba 60, 6), Kalou 6, Pizarro 7 (Ballack 71, 7)

Subs Not Used: Taylor, Belletti

Goals: Camp 28 og (assisted Pizarro)

QPR: Camp 7, Hall 8, Stewart 8, Barker 7, Ainsworth 6 (Agyemang 46, 6), Connolly 8, Mahon 8, Rowlands 8, Ephraim 6 (Balanta 65, 6), Blackstock 6, Buzsaky 6 (Lee 50, 7)

Subs Not Used: Bolder, Walton

Booked: Hall (foul)

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral) 9 - An almost faultless display with just one free kick given for a foul on Mikel that I would question. Allowed the game to flow, only showed one card. Great stuff.

Prior to that he refereed our 3-0 defeat at Palace in December 2006 booking Kevin Gallen and Zesh Rehman in the process, and then you have to go all the way back to the opening day of the 1999/00 season when we beat Huddersfield 3-1 at Loftus Road for his next QPR appointment. The previous season he’d sent off Paul Murray in a typically awful performance and 3-1 defeat at Swindon Town.

Stats

Last season he showed 147 yellows and seven reds in 43 games (3.41 a game) headlined by seven yellows as Aston Villa drew with Man Utd and six yellows and a red at Dortmund v Seville in the Europa League.

Other Listings

Premiership >>> This weekend’s list provides a good indication of who the authorities think has done well this season and who hasn’t. In the games that matter they’ve hone for Howard Webb at Sunderland v Man Utd, Chris Foy at Stoke v Bolton, Andre Marriner at Everton v Newcastle and Phil Dowd at Spurs v Fulham. I can’t imagine many dissenting voices against those four and Mike Dean at our match being the best of a mediocre bunch this season. The dead rubbers are taken by the rest – Lee Mason at Chelsea, Martin Atkinson at Norwich, Mark Clattenburg at Swansea, Mike Jones at West Brom and Michael Oliver at Wigan.

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