Red card enthusiast takes up tie - Referee
Tuesday, 28th Aug 2018 08:10 by Clive Whittingham

Charles Breakspear, an experienced Football League assistant referee, is back in League Cup action at Loftus Road on Tuesday night as QPR face Bristol Rovers.

Referee >>> Charles Breakspear (Surrey), refereed a League Cup victory against Northampton in August 2017.

Assistants >>> Grant Taylor (Warwickshire) and Andrew Aylott

Fourth Official >>> Darren England (Barnsley)

History

QPR 1 Northampton 0, Tuesday August 8, 2017, League Cup

Tuesday’s encounter with a committed and enterprising Northampton side was almost everything we’ve come to expect bar the result. In the end the main positive other than the 1-0 win was that QPR’s incompetence didn’t lead to an additional period of 30 minutes at the end of the game, but there wasn’t much in it. Despite playing against ten men for the last half an hour of the game Rangers came close to conceding at the death once when substitute Leon Lobjoit sent a powerful header towards goal from a corner only for little Ryan Manning to get up high enough on the line to head it away brilliantly. Then, in six minutes of added on time conjured up for no good reason from the same place referee Charles Brakespear got most of his unfathomable nonsense on the night, the visitors had a stonewall penalty waved away as Jack Robinson — tired, wrong side of his man, never getting to the ball, panicking — shoved the outstanding Town player Billy Waters in the back as he attacked a low cross at the back post. Brakespear waved the appeals away.

Rangers settled down somewhat after the switch. Leon Barnett was booked for a bad foul on Ngbakoto, Caulker (rustier than an old boat) likewise on Long. Referee Breakspear was having more influence than any of the players by this point, first harshly penalising Ngbakoto for very little then, after Ingram had intercepted the resulting counter attack and brilliantly freed Freeman for a burst of his own, failing to award a free kick to the French winger for an obvious foul on him. As QPR protested and Northampton broke, Robinson covered across from left back superbly to get in a strong tackle on Alex Revell and prevent him running away from the last Rangers man.

QPR: Ingram 7; Caulker 5, Onuoha 6, Robinson 5; Furlong 7, Manning 5; Freeman 6 (Chair 63, 7), Borysiuk 6, Ngbakoto 5; Sylla 5 (Petrasso 74, 6), Smith 4 (Washington 57, 6)

Subs not used: Baptiste, Luongo, Wszolek, Lumley

Goals: Ngbakoto 36 (assisted Furlong/Freeman)

Bookings: Caulker 31 (foul), Manning 44 (foul)

Northampton: Cornell 6; Taylor 6, Pierre 6, Barnett 4, Buchanan 6 (Smith 81, 5); Phillips 6, Crooks 7, Kasim 6; Waters 7; Revell 5 (Richards 69, 5), Long 6 (Lobjot 70, 6)

Subs not used: Bowditch, Goff, Poole, Taylor

Bookings: Barnett 20 (foul), Pierre 45+2 (foul), Barnett 53 (foul), Smith 90+7 (foul)

Referee — Charles Breakspear (Surrey) 5 Can be a very strange official at times this bloke. Waves away seemingly very obvious fouls (Robinson’s in the last minute, a trip on Chair on the edge of the Northampton box) one minute then awards incredibly soft free kicks for nothing very much at all the next. Barnett can’t have many complaints about his moronic red card but the wild inconsistencies in interpretation of what exactly is a foul and what isn’t were maddening.

QPR 1 Ipswich 0, Saturday February 6, 2016, Championship

Ipswich’s main tactic in the first half seemed to revolve around kicking Ale Faurlin out of the game. The influential Argentinean was belted hard twice in the first seven minutes, the second occasion resulting in a yellow card for Kevin Bru. To add insult to an injury that left him limping badly for the rest of the half he was later booked himself for a tackle in front of the Ellerslie Road stand that looked well timed and took the ball cleanly — referee Charles Breakspear bowing to the vocal pressure of six Ipswich players who immediately surrounded him demanding a card.

When they did finally force Alex Smithies into a save, it was a spectacular one — the former Huddersfield keeper chucking himself into the air to spectacularly divert a header over the bar just as it seemed to have looped beyond him. But even that was just for show, as the long throw that lead to the chance had been deemed foul by the referee, so the goal wouldn’t have counted in any case.

Sensing there was suddenly something here for his team, McCarthy made two changes — striker Daryl Murphy and former QPR junior Giles Coke on for the anonymous Varney and Cole Skuse. But the veteran manager and his players were indebted to referee Breakspear on the hour when their tendency to manhandle Polter and Hall as they attacked corners got out of hand, and the latter nearly had his shirt lifted clean over his head as he tried to nod home at the back post. Standing there, arms wide, bare chested in the near gale force winds, it was difficult to understand what else Hall had to do to be awarded a spot kick in that situation. Polter, meanwhile, probably enjoys less frequent affectionate contact from Mrs Polter than he got from Christophe Berra on Saturday. All unpunished, and therefore encouraged to continue at every corner.

Breakspear further endeared himself to the home crowd by waving away a bad foul on Hoilett before he went off, then booking Onuoha for a body check on Sears.

QPR: Smithies 8; Perch 6, Hall 7, Onuoha 6, Konchesky 6; Phillips 6, Luongo 7, Faurlin 6 (Tozser 59, 7), Hoilett 7 (Mackie 70, 7); Washington 7 (El Khayti 80, 7), Polter 6

Subs not used: Chery, Angella, Ingram, Petrasso

Goals: Phillips 88 (assisted El Khayti)

Bookings: Faurlin 34 (foul) Onuoha 60 (foul)

Ipswich: Bialkowski 8; Chambers 6, Smith 6, Berra 7, Knudsen 6; Bru 5, Skuse 5 (Coke 58, 7), Fraser 6 (Toure 90+6, -), Sears 6; Pitman 4, Varney 5 (Murphy 57, 6)

Subs not used: Maitland-Niles, Henly, Digby, Foley

Bookings: Bru 7 (foul)

Referee — Charles Breakspear (Surrey) 5 A fairly bog-standard Championship effort. Allowed absolutely blatant fouls to go unpunished as most corners were delivered, booked Ale Faurlin for winning the ball, failed to book several players for hammering Faurlin the other way, ignored a horrendous tackle on Hoilett in the second half altogether… then to put the tin hat on the whole thing he added a very hefty five minutes to the end of the game and played seven. The stuff he stared straight at but ignored at corners was remarkable — most notably the incident where Hall almost had his shirt completely liberated from his torso by Berra as he attacked a ball at the back post.

Stats

Not sure if everything is alright at home, but Breakspear has already sent off five players in five matches this season, including three in Swindon’s 2-2 draw at Crawley in League Two. Chuck in 14 yellows as well and it’s an intimidating total this early in the season.

This is a continuation of a theme from last season when he sent off a whopping 18 players in 47 games, booking a further 163 (3.46). That included a remarkable run of seven yellow cards in four games over Christmas. He showed seven yellows and a red in three matches, and nine yellows and two reds at Exeter v Forest Green. The only league game he refereed all season in which he didn’t show a card was Bristol Rovers 1-0 loss at Wimbledon.

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images

Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.