Lancashire official Neil Swarbrick is the man in the middle on Saturday as QPR take on Sheffield United, the second successive season he has been put in charge of this fixture.

QPR v Sheff Utd
Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)
Assistants – Holderness (Essex) and Sannerude (Suffolk)
Fourth Official – Evetts (Hertfordshire)

Once again this weekend we see the policy of a referee being given the same fixture as last season in evidence - Neil Swarbrick takes charge of our home match with Sheffield United, just as he did in March when the teams met and drew 0-0. Swarbrick was also in charge on the opening day of last season against Barnsley when he awarded QPR a penalty (that we missed) and sent a Barnsley player off in a 2-1 win for the R’s so here’s hoping for more of the same. Ever the neutral though I resisted the urge to give him a ten in the match report, his rating of five, coupled with a six in the Sheff Utd game left him joint 23rd in the referee league.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 6 Not too bad but missed a fair bit of physical contact from both teams that should have brought free kicks. Quinn was very lucky not to be booked for backchatting after spending the whole afternoon mouthing off, likewise Howard. Almost cost QPR a goal in the first half by playing on when there were two head injuries. Average performance I would say. LFW Sheff Utd Match Report

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 5 The Barnsley fans and players seemed to be irate with him in the second half and I can understand why, we’d have been screaming blue murder in their position. I didn’t think it was a penalty at the time but replays suggest that was the correct decision, likewise the sending off, but he seemed to be very kind to QPR for most of the game to me and bought a lot of the play acting from Ledesma when he really should have played on. The sending off also wouldn’t have happened had he given Barnsley the free kick they deserved a few seconds before, and that in turn wouldn’t have happened had he given a foul that Mahon deserved ten seconds before all of that. Having said that he booked Cook for a foul no worse than three previous Barnsley ones that had gone unpunished. Not great. LFW Barnsley Match Report

So far this season Swarbrick has shown 45 yellows (2.368 a game) and two reds in 19 matches. His biggest haul in a single game was seven yellows in the derby between Rochdale and Bury back in August. Five of those matches and 11 of those cards have been in the Championship. Last season he showed 82 yellows (2.277 a game) and four reds in 36 matches.

He was in charge of two QPR games in 2007/08 – Ipswich at home and Sheff Wed away picking up an average rating of 6.5 out of 10 and joint 14th on the referee league. He showed 77 yellows and eight reds, including Hogan Ephraim at Sheff Wed, in 39 games that season. His busiest afternoons came at Charlton v Ipswich with five yellows and a red and Shrewsbury v Macclesfield with six yellows. He only booked more than five in a match on that one occasion last season and after that match he finished the campaign by showing just five yellows and no reds in six matches – including three games with no cards at all.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 6 Kept cards in his pocket and allowed the game to flow where possible but seemed to let Ipswich get away with far more than QPR to such an extent that when we did finally get a free kick right at the end of the game the whole ground cheered the decision. Got the penalty decision right I think, Bolder went over very easily. – LFW Ipswich Match Report

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 7 - Seemed to referee the game very well to me, both the penalty decision and the red card were the correct decisions. Thought he could have handled the stoppage time situation a little better, he allowed it to degenerate into a farce by the corner flag and needed to take better control which could easily have been done by warning Songo’o over his play acting earlier in the game. No excuse for what Ephraim did though and he deserves his three match ban. - LFW Sheff Wed Match Report

The season before that, 2006/07, he flashed 96 yellows and nine reds in 34 games which is obviously slightly more. He did one QPR match, the memorable 3-1 win at Leicester with that goal by Marc Nygaard. Six yellow cards shown that day, and a very dodgy late penalty given to Leicester, but still a rating of six and tenth place on the referee league.

Ref: N Swarbrick (Lancashire) 6 - Absolutely terrible in the first half, culminating in the farcical Cullip booking, greatly improved in the second apart from the dodgy late penalty decision, good job that wasn't crucial. - LFW Leicester Match Report

This is only his second first ever meeting with Sheffield United and both have been in this fixture.

Elsewhere this weekend our old foe Trevor Kettle is in charge of Derby’s home game against Doncaster. Looking further ahead we have David Phillips in charge of our Boxing Day game with Bristol City and Steve Tanner in the middle at Ipswich two days later. More on them over Christmas whenever I get a moment!

Photo: Action Images

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