Thomas Bramall, a 32-year-old from Sheffield, is in charge of QPR for the second time in his career as the R’s face Reading at Loftus Road tomorrow night.

Referee >>> Thomas Bramall (Sheffield), despite only joining the EFL list in 2018/19, Bramall has been promoted to the Premier League list for the first time this season.

Assistants >>> Simon Long (Cornwall) and Richard West (East Riding), Premier League pairing.

Fourth Official >>> Andy Davies (Hampshire)

History

Blackburn 1 QPR 0, Saturday July 30, 2022, Championship

Let’s blow the dust of this old chestnut as well, while we’re here. How nice are QPR? What a lovely, lovely group of young men we are. Beaten all ends up by Ilias Chair after ten minutes, John Buckley chopped him down and took his yellow medicine from referee Thomas Bramall. Quarter of an hour later, Rangers well on top at this point, Buckley was done again, this time by Mide Shodipo, and to stop him accelerating away into space he deliberately pulled him back by the shirt. Now, come on, what are we doing here? I’ve sat here and tapped away that QPR players getting booked for shit like that in the middle of the park could consider themselves unfortunate, the decision harsh, and been told categorically ‘no — if you’re beaten, and you deliberately pull that player back, you can expect a yellow no complaints at all’. Here, a warning on the run. And nobody is saying anything. Not one of our players, captain or otherwise, doing a damn thing about it. We should be screaming for this stuff. On the hour, Sam Gallagher, last seen booting our goalkeeper out of the second half of last season, put a horrible tackle in on Sam Field — clear yellow. Again, word on the run. Again, we just accept that. Later at QPR free kicks Gallagher started with the picking-the-ball-up-and-running-off-with-it shit again, and sitting down pretending to be injured delaying the restart — did somebody mention a clamp down on clock running? I see no clamp down here. But more to the point, I see and hear no QPR complaints about it either. I’m not asking for the Matt Mills Bank Holiday Parade of Cuntery, people surrounding officials and screaming in their face about every little thing, but we just let this shit happen to us. Footballers are never going to care about this as much as we do in the stand, they come and go and play for many clubs, we are the constant and are way too emotionally invested in the outcome. Marc Bircham, Kevin Gallen, Lee Cook, when you get these people at your club it’s a rare and beautiful thing. I don’t expect Stefan Johansen to be as cross about it as I am, but I do expect him to be a little bit cross all the same. Get mad for fuck’s sake, get mad. He's screwing your wife and you’re standing there waiting to hand him a towel.
Blackburn: Kaminski 6; Brittain 6, Ayala 6, S Wharton 6, Pickering 6; Travis 7, Buckley 6; Gallagher 5, Hedges 6, Brereton-Diaz 7; Vale 5 (Dolan 64, 7)

Subs not used: Edun, Pears, Markanday, Dack, Barnes, A Wharton

Goals: Travis 34 (unassisted)

Bookings: Buckley 11 (foul)

QPR: Dieng 5; Kakay 6, Dickie 6, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 5; Dozzell 5 (Thomas 64, 5), Johansen 5 (Armstrong 77, 5), Field 6; Chair 5 (Richards 77, 6), Dykes 5 (Bonne 77, 5), Shodipo 6 (Adomah 65, 5)

Subs not used: Walsh, Dunne

Bookings: Dykes 12 (foul)

Referee - Thomas Bramall (Sheffield) 5 Interesting one. QPR strike me as a very easy team to referee at the moment, particularly once we’re behind in a game. The heads go down, the team goes quiet, nobody’s smashing anybody, nobody’s complaining about things — a referee can pretty much cruise through our matches, and I think that’s what this new Premier League referee attempted to do here, settling for a word on the run when many would have produced yellow cards. Usually I much prefer that approach, but I personally don’t see how Buckley was allowed to commit the deliberate pull back on Shodipo on 27 minutes, after being booked, without being sent off — nor why QPR are so happy to just meekly accept that this is going on. A really bad tackle by Sam Gallagher was also let off without a card just before the hour mark. Gallagher then started engaging in all the running off with the ball at QPR free kicks, and sitting down pretending he’s injured when he’s not, clock running stuff that we’re told there’s a clampdown on this season — again, no cards, and no complaints. QPR should be, nee need to be, screaming for this stuff. Why does an early yellow card give Buckley immunity for the rest of the game? Why are you letting Gallagher do that? I think I’m as pissed off with us as I am with the referee to be honest. Waaaaaaaaay too nice.

Stats

Bramall, 32, stepped out of the National League and into the EFL for the 2018/19 season where he took charge of a chunky 44 games and showed a lenient 102 yellows and three reds, mostly in League Two. His 2019/20 season was restricted to five outings by an ACL rupture that threatened his career. Coming back from that, and the Covid break, he refereed 33 games showing 78 yellows and four reds in 2020/21, a season that included his Championship debut in Luton’s 1-0 win at Preston, and a League Two play-off semi-final between Morecambe and Tranmere.

Last season, his first as a regular Championship official, he booked 105 and sent six off in 33 games — totals boosted substantially by three red cards shown in West Brom’s 1-1 draw with Cardiff. Two of those red cards came in a brawl after the final whistle when West Brom felt they had a stone wall penalty but the referee chose to blow for full time instead. He finished the season with the MK Dons v Wycombe League One play-off semi-final, and the FA Trophy final between Bromley and Wrexham. Despite a slew of retirements among Premier League referees, Bramall is the only one to be promoted from the EFL last season with assistants Natalie Aspinall, Nick Greenhalgh and Steve Meredith also stepping up.

This season he’s shown 25 yellows and one red in eight games, including his first Premier League games Fulham 2-1 Brighton and Bournemouth 0-0 Brentford. He had three Reading away games last season, and remarkably given how badly their campaign went they won two of those — 1-0 at Cardiff and 2-1 at Birmingham before crashing 4-0 at Forest.

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