Oxfordshire official John Busby is in charge of QPR’s trip to Plymouth in the League Cup on Tuesday night.

Referee >>> John Busby (Oxfordshire)

Assistants >>> Mark Russell (Somerset) and Bhupinder Singh Gill (London)

Fourth official >>> Daniel Flynn (Somerset)

History

Millwall 2 QPR 1, Saturday February 1, 2025, Championship

They were also not aided by the performance of referee John Busby who, as he refereed the first meeting at Loftus Road, somebody somewhere has decided is a safe pair of hands for this fixture. In his fifth Millwall appointment out of 21 already this season, the Oxfordshire official had clearly come for an easy afternoon. You get that on this ground by giving Millwall lots of benefit of the doubt, while refereeing the away team by the book. Paul Smyth, trying to get a quick throw in away, first obstructed, then thrown to the ground. A quick talking to will suffice, apparently. Alfie Lloyd, sprinting to join a counter attack, clocked in the head off the ball by Cooper. Boys will be boys. When he wasn’t shafting Rangers up to his balls, Busby busied himself by getting in the way of our attacks. How many times have you seen a game restarted with a drop-ball this season? How many times did that happen on Saturday? Poor.

Millwall: Jensen 8; Crama 5, Tanganga 7, Cooper 6, Bryan 6; Saville 6, De Norre 5 (Wintle 80, -); Bangura-Williams 6 (Mitchell 89, -), Cundle 7 (Watmore 80, -), Connolly 7 (Honeyman 89, -); Ivanovic 6 (Langstaff 89, -)

Subs not used: Harding, Kelly, Roberts, Wallace

Goals: Connolly 1 (assisted Crama), Cundle 25 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Saville 75 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 5; Edwards 5, Cook 5 (Ashby 64, 5), Fox 4, Paal 4; Varane 6, Field 5, Morgan 5 (Saito 64, 7); Chair 4 (Yang 76, 7), Smyth 6 (Frey 76, 5), Lloyd 6 (Kolli 83, -)

Subs not used: Colback, Madsen, Morrison, Walsh

Goals: Lloyd 3 (assisted Morgan)

Yellow Cards: Morgan 59 (foul), Lloyd 74 (foul)

Referee – John Busby (Oxfordshire) 5 One-eyed. But then, so am I.

QPR 1 Millwall 1, Saturday September 21, 2024, Championship

QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 5, Cook 6, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Madsen 5 (Varane 69, 6); Dembele 6 (Celar 90+3, -), Andersen 4 (Lloyd 69, 6), Saito 6 (Smyth 60, 5); Frey 7

Subs not used: Ashby, Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Morgan, Walsh

Goals: Frey 40 (assisted Dembele)

Yellow Cards: Paal 60 (foul), Varane 84 (foul)

Millwall: Jensen 6; Leonard 6, Cooper 7, Tanganga 7, Bryan 6; De Noore 7, Saville 7; Esse 7, Honeyman 6 (Wintle 90+3), Watmore 7 (Azeez 75, 6); Langstaff 6 (Ivanovic 75, 6)

Subs not used: Emakhu, Hutchinson, Kelly, McNamara, Wallace, Roberts

Goals: Watmore 34 (assisted Langstaff)

Yellow Cards: Saville 86 (foul)

Referee – John Busby (Oxfordshire) 5 Suspect we may get a few letters about that mark, but I’m always liable to mark referees up who try to give the game every chance, keep the cards in their pocket, and adopt a hands-off approach. The problem it can give as you, as we saw at times here, is players take liberties. George Honeyman’s tackle just before half time was a yellow card all day long, Steve Cook was rightly furious about it, and Joe Bryan wasn’t far behind him in the moments leading up to the break. I think, ordinarily, you’d expect two yellow cards there. Having let both off with a warning you’re then sort of duty bound to give others the same benefit of doubt and things can spiral out of control. Savile took it as carte blanche to pursue the official around screaming in his face. Sam Field and Jake Clarke-Salter two of several in the second half who can count himself fortunate not to be booked for fouls that would be yellow cards on any other Championship day with any other Championship referee. Still, I’d rather this approach than Gavin Ward’s attempt to be involved in absolutely every little thing that goes on.

QPR 1 Swansea 1, Saturday January 21, 2023, Championship

Ryan Manning was back in town, in the midst of another dispute about a soon-to-expire contract (shocked, shocked I tell thee), and doing a lot of that thing he does where he lies motionless on the ground having come under apparent sniper fire only to leap back up and sprint back into the action when his cheating has failed to get an opponent booked — thankfully, a rare competent Championship refereeing performance here from John Busby wasn’t falling for any of it, hold that call to the coroner I reckon he’ll be alright in a minute.

QPR: Dieng 6; Laird 6 (Kakay 38, 6), Dickie 5, Dunne 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Iroegbunam 5 (Dozzell 89, -); Chair 5, Lowe 6, Roberts 5 (Adomah 90, -), Dykes 6 (Willock 58, 5)

Subs not used: Clarke-Salter, Johansen, Archer

Goals: Lowe 27 (assisted Dykes)

Swansea: Benda 4 (Fisher 61, 5); Latibeaudiere 5, Cabango 6, Darling 5, Manning 6; Grimes 6, Allen 5 (Ntcham 59, 7); Cooper 6, Fulton 7, Cullen 6 (Cundle 58, 6); Piroe 6

Subs not used: Wood, Sorinola, Naughton, Congreave

Goals: Fulton 81 (assisted Cundle)

Referee — John Busby (Oxfordshire) 8 Very good indeed. Controlled the game in a calm, unfussy way and was right on top of every decision. Best player on the pitch.

Coventry 2 QPR 0, Saturday November 12, 2022, Championship

Coventry: Wilson 7; Doyle 7, McFadzean 8, Panzo 7; Eccles 6, Hamer 8, Sheaf 7, Bidwell 6; O’Hare 8, Allen 7; Gyokeres 9

Subs not used: Moore, Kelly, Walker, Kane, Tavares, Burroughs, Palmer

Goals: Gyokeres 11 (assisted Allen), 78 (assisted O’Hare)

Bookings: Doyle 27 (foul), McFadzean 86 (foul)

QPR: Dieng 6; Laird 5, Dunne 6, Dickie 6, Clarke-Salter 4 (Kakay 80, -); Field 6, Richards 5 (Adomah 87, -), Dozzell 4; Chair 5 (Armstrong 83, -), Willock 5 (Thomas 87, -), Dykes 5 (Shodipo 83, -)

Subs not used: Archer, Trävelmän

Bookings: Field 59 (foul), Chair 76 (foul)

Referee — John Busby (Oxfordshire) 6 Gave some bits and pieces of nonsense — Mide Shodipo looked to have been fouled on the corner of the box late on but somehow got penalised himself; earlier having bought a spurious head injury claim after a QPR corner and stopped the play he returned the ball to Coventry even though Rangers had it in their possession 40 yards out from goal at the time — but overall not too bad and a world away from the pillock who was meant to be in charge of this one.

Stats

A first game of the season for Busby who wasn’t involved in either the first week of League One/Two action nor the Championship opening round.

Last season he finished up with 97 yellows (3.03) and two reds in 32 games. That was topped out by six yellows and a bizarre red card for goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski in Portsmouth 0-0 Luton at the start of the season. A real mixed bag of Plymouth results with this official last season – beat Luton 3-1 at home, lost 5-0 here against Burnley, and beaten 3-2 at at Hom Park against Derby.

The season before he finished with 125 yellows (3.9) and one red in 32 games topped out early on with ten yellows in Hull’s 1-0 home loss to champions Leicester.

QPR have drawn two and lost two of their four games with him. Plymouth have had 22 appointments with this official – more than any other club – and are 10-1-11 in those games.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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