Kevin Wright from Cambridgeshire is the man in the middle for Saturday's clash between QPR and Swansea at Loftus Road.

Queens Park Rangers v Swansea City
Referee: Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire)
Assistants – Laver (Hampshire) and Sannerude (Suffolk)
Fourth Official – Atkin (Sussex)

It will actually make a change to see Kevin Wright somewhere other than Pride Park, as the designated referee for our fixture there over the past few years I was beginning to think he lived in the ground full time. Still, I suppose with our excellent record at Derby we should be happy to see him at Loftus Road for the first time this Saturday for the visit of Swansea.

Wright got an almost unheard of rating of nine out of ten for his performance in our 2-0 win at Derby in January 2009, when Paulo Sousa was in charge of the R's of course. That unsurprisingly saw him finish on top of the referee league that season. Referee: Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire) 9 Not a referee I have a lot of time for normally but it is hard to think of a decision he got wrong in this match. Both bookings were justified and he did not interfere unduly with the play. Probably the best so far this season. LFW Derby Match Report

The two yellow cards given in that match, both to Derby players, formed part of a total of 74 yellows and five reds in 30 matches last season - 2.466 bookings a game. This season he is already on 78 yellows and eight reds from 26 matches, an increase in his average to three bookings a game. Nine of those games have been in this division, with 24 yellows and two reds in that time (2.66 yellows a game). His biggest haul in a single game has been six yellows and two reds in a League One game between Swindon and Millwall in October.

He only refereed nine matches in 2007/08 and in 2005/06 he was in charge of Ian Holloway's QPR at Derby again, sending off Paul Furlong for a nothing clash with Emerson Thome and awarding Derby a late penalty that Simon Royce saved in a 2-1 win for the R's. Thome wound Furlong up to such an extent that the QPR man lashed out and the referee, having done nothing to check Thome’s behaviour prior to that, brandished a red card. Wright was in charge of three QPR games in the 2005/06 season including the win at Derby. He was the man in the middle for a thrilling 4-3 New Year win at Crewe, a dull 0-0 draw at Cardiff and of course the win at Pride Park. His average rating of five saw him finish joint fifth in the referee league.

Ref: K Wright (Cambridgeshire) 4 No arguments about the penalty decision, or the sending off, but a series of perplexing decisions riled both players and fans on the QPR side. Countless times he waved fouls on Gallen, Sturridge and Moore away claiming they'd dived but at the other end he couldn't the whistle in his mouth quick enough when Peschisolido, Idiakez or Bisgaard crashed to earth - which they did regularly. When a team goes down to ten men defending a lead you'd expect them to concede more free kicks but a final total of 23 free kicks to 8 in Derby's favour is taking things a little bit far, especially with the amount of Rangers free kicks he ignored. Also allowed Emerson Thome to batter Furlong for half an hour with both boots and elbows before the Rangers man foolishly took the bait. LFW Derby Match Report

Ref: K Wright (Cambridgeshire) 4 This guy always has been and sadly always will be a total cretin. He wouldn't notice three diesel engines pulling fifty wagons blasting Cliff Richard hits from the cab until it had run him over. He was up to his usual home orientated, incompetent standard today. LFW Crewe Match Report

Ref: K Wright (Cambridgeshire) 7 Not too bad at all surprisingly. He kept the cards in his pocket although he could quite easily have sent Loovens off for his wild hack on Ainsworth. Allowed the game to flow as much as possible and all in all did a steady job. Most unlike him.LFW Cardiff Match Report

His only other two games with QPR were a 2-1 home win against Nottingham Forest on the last day of the 2004/05 season, and a 1-1 draw against Tranmere at Loftus Road in 2003. In total over his five games he has shown three yellow cards to QPR players, eight to opposition players and sent off one of each.

Elsewhere Andy Hall is back in the Championship at Middlesbrough v Reading, Jarnail Singh has West Brom v Preston, while down in League Two Trevor Kettle has Burton v Chesterfield. Our tormentor at Reading on Tuesday Gavin Ward is at much more like his true level this weekend, he's in charge of Cheltenham v Port Vale. Looking further ahead Premiership referee Chris Foy drops down to League One for the grudge match between Leeds and Millwall on Monday while we have Mike Russell in charge of our Derby match - he postponed a Tuesday night match against Palace at Loftus Road earlier this season, more on him next week.

Photo: Action Images

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