Regular Loftus Road visitor Mick Thorpe is back in the Bush on Saturday for the visit of Scunthorpe United.

Queens Park Rangers v Scunthorpe United
Referee – Mick Thorpe (Suffolk)
Assistants – Davies (Hampshire) and Mason (Kent)
Fourth Official – Lennard (Sussex)

Wasn’t it nice to have a good referee in charge on Tuesday night? Keith Hill was hardly noticeable throughout the match and allowed the game to flow beautifully. His performance was so decent it was even brought up on the message board after the match so he certainly must have done something right.

A tough act to follow then, and the task of doing that falls to Mick Thorpe – a regular visitor to Loftus Road in recent years, not always with great success. Thorpe is an experienced Championship official from Suffolk which is just far enough away to be deemed nice and neutral from a QPR point of view, but close enough not to require a great deal of travelling – hence he’s quite regularly given midweek matches in W12. He’s had six appointments in the last three seasons and is one of a clutch of officials in joint sixth on the referee league after his creditable performance in difficult circumstances at our 3-0 home defeat by Southampton back at the start of the season.

Ref: Mike Thorpe (Suffolk) 7 - Thought it was a penalty on Rowlands in the first half but sensible refereeing apart from that with cards in pocket more often than not and Camp allowed to stay on after a superb advantage was played. LFW Southampton Match Report

So far this season he has shown 87 yellows (2.9 a match) and seven reds in 30 matches. Only seven of those matches have come in the Championship during which he has shown 20 yellows and a red – slightly lower than his overall average. His most prolific afternoon in the Championship was Coventry v Blackpool when he showed six yellows and one red, slightly better than his worst afternoon overall when six yellows and two reds were shown in the Brighton v Gillingham match earlier this month.

Last season wasn’t quite as good for Thorpe from a QPR point of view – he made a pig’s ear of our home match with Derby, then allowed a home game with Cardiff to degenerate into a brawl at Loftus Road. An average rating of 4.5 good enough for joint 24th on the referee league.

Referee: M Thorpe 3 - Awarding Derby a throw in after the ball hit Edworthy in the face was quite honestly the worst decision I've ever seen at a football match. It was so blatantly wrong. Within minutes he'd incorrectly penalised Cook and then booked him - referees are supposed to calm situations and protect the players, he seemed determined to wind them up. Constant use of the whistle, took an absolute age to book anybody, apparently penning a couple of chapters of his latest novel in his note book each time. Failed to clamp down on time wasting, bought every dive Howard and Bircham made all night. All in all absolute crap. LFW Derby Match Report

Referee: Mr M Thorpe 6 - Missed what looked like a blatant penalty in the first half and although he deserves credit for allowing the game to flow in the second half, at times he needed to blow for a few more things just to keep tempers in check. Ultimately he got a fight on his hands at the final whistle. Very kind to leave Gilbert on. Not the worst performance I've seen from him by any means, but he's not a great referee. LFW Cardiff Match Report

Overall last season he showed 109 yellows (2.94 a match) and six reds in 37 matches including eleven yellows in those two QPR matches.

The season before that, 2005/06, he was in charge of three QPR matches, including a home game with Cardiff again, and produced a real mixed bag of performances. An average mark of five meant 17th position on the referee league.

Ref: M Thorpe (Suffolk): 7 - Only two cards handed out to both teams all evening - something of a rarity these days in games involving QPR. Harshly booked Langley and missed a couple of obvious handballs but not a bad performance from a man in black. We're just pleased to get a win at home! LFW Cardiff Match Report

Ref: M Thorpe (Suffolk) – 4 It's like a lottery really getting an official in this league. On the rare occasion they are decent they let games flow and don't punish people for stupid things. Well, we got an awful ball tonight and how he ever gave a foul against Doherty for a superb challenge near the centre circle I will never know. LFW Luton Match Report

Ref: M Thorpe (Suffolk) 4 - It was bad enough watching a poor QPR side, but we get a poor set of officials too! Mr Thorpe was haplessly assisted by two very flag weary officials who hardly helped matters. He broke up the game, especially during the second half with his constant stoppages - a night to forget all round really. LFW Leicester Match Report

This is Thorpe’s first Scunthorpe match of the season but he did take charge of their last visit to west London just over a year ago. Three Scunthorpe players were booked as the Iron won 2-0 at Brentford on their way to promotion. He also had their 2-0 away win at Gillingham right at the start of last season – lets hope there’s no repeat of these comfortable away wins when Nigel Adkins brings his side to Loftus Road on Saturday.

Elsewhere this Saturday there’s a refereeing dream team for the Blackpool v Preston Saturday lunch time derby game – Probert refereeing and Andy Hall the fourth official. You couldn’t make it up. Expect a right carve up there. As if that wasn’t hilarious enough Stoke v Watford, two physical sides battling for promotion, will be refereed by Rob Styles who in three Championship matches this season has booked 14 (including nine in Charlton v Plymouth) and sent two off. Again, I’d go equipped for that one. Lower down the ladder another match with ‘aggro’ written all over it has a controversial referee in charge – Andy D’Urso has Millwall v Orient. Clearly the Football League fancy a lot of paper work on Monday morning.

Photo: Action Images

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