Tom Nield, who we've had previously in one of our rare League Cup outings, gets just his fourth Championship game as a referee this Saturday as the R's host Coventry.

Referee >>> Tom Nield (West Yorkshire), previously refereed QPR’s League Cup win against Oxford on this ground in 2021.

Assistants >>> Alex James (Dorset) and Craig Taylor (West Mids)

Fourth Official >>> Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire), banned for four matches in 2021 for “locking heads” with Ipswich’s Alan Judge in a row over whether he’d dived for a penalty. Used to be in the RAF. Probably best not to mess with.

History

QPR 2 Oxford 0, Tuesday August 24, 2021, League Cup

QPR: Archer 7; Odubajo 6, Kakay 6, Dickie 8 (Gubbins 88, -), Dunne 7, McCallum 6 (Duke-McKenna 64, 6); Thomas 6, Dozzell 6, Chair 7 (Alfa 75, 6); Willock 7, Kelman 6

Subs not used: Walsh

Goals: Dickie 26 (unassisted), Chambers-Parillon og 40 (assisted Chair)

Bookings: Chair 66 (kicking ball away)

Oxford: Eastwood 7; Chambers-Parillon 5, McNally 6, Moore 6, Seddon 7; Sykes 6, Rodriguez 6, McGuane 5 (Brannagan 46, 7); Agyei 6, Winnall 5 (Johnson 69, 6), Holland 6 (Whyte 46, 6)

Subs not used: Taylor, Stevens, Mousinho, Cooper

Bookings: Sykes 59 (foul), Johnson 76 (foul)

Referee — Tom Nield (West Yorkshire) 8 Liked him. Quite a feisty, keenly contested cup tie at times and he kept right on top of that, getting some big penalty calls from Oxford right in the second half.

Stats

Nield made his Championship bow last season with West Brom’s 1-0 home win against Reading and Stoke’s 1-0 home loss to Wigan. He was also part of the referee exchange programme that included him doing three leagues in Japan’s J League in March. He finished up with 100 yellows (2.857) and three reds from 35 games. That included six yellows and a red in Coventry’s remarkable 4-3 FA Cup defeat at home to Conference champions Wrexham – his only fixture with the Sky Blues to this point. Wierdley got two of Stockport’s three games in the League Two play-offs last year – a semi-final win against Salford, and final defeat to Carlisle.

So far this season it’s 19 yellows and one red in five games, topped up substantially by seven yellows and a red at Bolton 3-1 Fleetwood. He got a third career Championship game in last week as West Brom drew 0-0 with Millwall – Wawll missed a first half penalty.

Nield was promoted out of the National League and onto the EFL list for 2017/18 refereeing 29 games, almost exclusively in League Two, that season and showing a slim 65 yellows and two reds. His card average didn’t stray too far from that lenient 2.24 in 2018/19, with 68 yellows and three reds from 21 appointments, but shot up to 3.34 in 2019/20 with 97 yellows and three reds in 29 fixtures.

Nield is a senior nurse in the NHS and you can read about his role in fighting Covid-19 in West Yorkshire on the Sky website.

The Twitter/Instagram @loftforwords

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