Wigan’s Lewis Smith, recently promoted to the Premier League, is the referee in charge of Saturday’s trip to Norwich just as he was for last week’s trip to Sheff Utd.

Referee >>> Lewis Smith (Wigan), went from National League to Premier League inside ten months on the fast track programme.

Assistants >>> Johnathon Bickerdike (West Riding) and Steven Meredith (Nottinghamshire)

Fourth Official >>> Scott Oldham (Lancashire)

History

Sheff Utd 0 QPR 0, Saturday November 8, 2025, Championship

There was some understandable early rust to dust away – young referee Lewis Smith awarded a corner for Hamer holding onto the ball too long after just 12 minutes, a new rule the keeper said afterwards he wasn’t aware of which one would hope is just one of those nonsense throwaway lines people chuck into football interviews otherwise it doesn’t say much for our coaching in that department nor how much attention he was paying from the bench on Wednesday night when Gavin Bazunu was penalised for the same thing.

Sheff Utd: Cooper 7; Seriki 6, Mee 6 (McGuinness 46, 6), Tanganga 6, McCallum 7 (Burrows 81, -); Peck 6, Riedewald 5 (Davies 56, 7); Brooks 6 (Ogbene 68, 5), O’Hare 5; Campbell 5 (One 81, -), Ings 6

Subs not used: Cannon, A Davies, Shackleton, Soumare

QPR: Hamer 7; Mbengue 6 (Morgan 78, 6), Dunne 6, Cook 6, Field 6; Dembele 6 (Vale 72, 6), Varane 6, Madsen 6, Chair 6; Kone 5 (Frey 78, 5), Burrell 7

Subs not used: Hayden, Esquerdinha, Morrison, Nardi, Saito, Smyth

Yellow Cards: Mbengue 45+2 (of course), Varane 63 (foul)

Referee – Lewis Smith (Wigan) 7 Decent. Big fan of this pro-active targeting of dallying goalkeepers, even when it is ours.

Bristol City 1 QPR 1, Saturday December 13, 2024, Championship

Jimmy Dunne was caught napping twice in the first three minutes, first by a long throw, then by ball in behind he thought was going out for a goal kick only for an opponent to appear and win a free kick. That was cleared, and cleared again, before Mehmeti struck a first time shot back through the crowd and off the base of the post. The next serious threat came down that side as well, though this time Dunne had surely been fouled up on the halfway line – blatantly shoved into touch by Mehmeti. Referee Lewis Smith, implausibly, awarded the free kick the opposite way and with QPR largely set up for their own set piece City were able to act quickly and break for half a handball appeal in the area.

Cue another City break downfield, a desperate Sam Field swipe on the edge of the box, and another City free kick for which Liam Manning was no longer in pissing about mood. Scott Twine was summoned as designated kicker and, after some needless toying around with the positioning of ball and opponents in the wall, neither of which referee Smith should have tolerated, he lifted a typically glorious kick over all else involved and into the net for one nil with his first touch of the game.

Bristol City: O’Leary 4; Vyner 6, Dickie 7, McNally 7, Pring 5; Bird 6, Knight 7; Hirakawa 6 (Twine 59, 7), Earthy 6 (Bell 77, 6), Mehmeti 6; Wells 5 (Mayulu 77, 6)

Subs not used: Atkinson, Bajic, Cornick. McRorie, McGuane, Roberts

Goals: Twine 60 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Knight 26 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 6, Cook 7, Morrison 7, Ashby 4 (Paal 80, -); Varane 6, Field 6; Saito 6 (Chair 74, 6), Andersen 4 (Madsen 74, 5), Smyth 7 (Bennie 88, -); Kolli 4 (Lloyd 46, 5)

Subs not used: Fox, Frey, Morgan, Walsh

Goals: Smyth 65 (assisted Varane)

Yellow Cards: Dunne 45+2 (foul), Field 58 (foul)

Referee – Lewis Smith (Wigan) 6 Few bizarre calls, but when you set up to chase the opposition around out of possession for two hours you’re not going to get many decisions you like out of the referee.

QPR 2 Millwall 0, Saturday January 20, 2024, Championship

Then he curled a long ranger wide himself as part of a successful high press advocated by Marti Cifuentes – booked by rookie referee Lewis Smith early on for waving an imaginary card around after a bad tackle on Chris Willock and dressed like somebody with a spot on Pards Pardew’s regular Saturday night table at Tiger Tiger. London Fire Brigade will have to cut him out of those jeans.

Second half, more of the same. Good build up, Dykes heads wide. Effective high press, Dykes shoots at the keeper. Keeping the ball from a throw in (fuck me dead), and what looks like a pretty clear penalty for Wes Harding handling in the area. Second goal. Second goal please. Why can’t we just have a nice time?

QPR: Begovic 5; Cannon 5, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 6; Field 7, Colback 8; Willock 5 (Adomah 84, -), Dykes 7, Chair 7 (Larkeche 90+4, -); Armstrong 7 (Dixon-Bonner 89, -)

Subs not used: Dunne, Fox, Drewe, Walsh, Pedder, Talla

Goals: Chair 27 (assisted Willock), Armstrong 87 (assisted Colback)

Millwall: Sarkic 4; McNamara 5, Harding 5, Cooper 6; Norton-Cuffy 5 (Tanganga 67, 6), Honeyman 6, Mitchell 5, Bryan 5 (Wallace 67, 5); Watmore 4, Flemming 4, Nisbet 4 (Longman 56, 6)

Subs not used: Campbell, Saville, De Norre, Esse, Bialkowski, Grant

Yellow Cards: Mitchell 32 (foul), Flemming 85 (foul)

Referee – Lewis Smith (Wigan) 6 Premier League referee, and Huddersfield Town fan, Bobby Madley was meant to be down for this game. Instead we ended up with the far less experienced Lewis Smith doing just his sixth Championship match. A really big ask – London derby, big Millwall following, QPR desperate for points – and initially I thought he looked a little out of his depth and the game would prove too much for him. He grew from there, and I think this was a pretty impressive display from a young official in a game like this, but that looks a penalty to me in the second half.

Stats

There’s fast track, and then there’s going from National League to Premier League in ten months. Wigan Athletic season ticket holder Lewis Smith completed that feat in 2024 when he took charge of Fulham v Aston Villa in the top flight in February. Aged just 30, he’s the youngest referee at that level since Michael Oliver in 2010.

The PGMOL have been working him hard, with 44 appointments in 2023/24 and 144 yellows (3.52) with five reds. Another 45 games last season and it was an eclectic mix which included three games in Japan’s J-League to begin the campaign as part of an ongoing refereeing exchange programme between the two divisions. There were seven Premier League games among those and a League Two play-off between Wimbledon and Notts County. He took Norwich for three away games of contrasting fortunes – a 2-1 loss at Cardiff where they conceded twice in the last minute, 2-2 draw at West Brom and a 1-0 win at Watford where the hosts had Vakoun Bayo sent off in the first half.

So far this season it’s been ten appointments (3.5), nine in the Championship and one in the League Cup. He’s shown 35 yellows and no reds.

QPR are 1-2-0 from three while Norwich are 1-2-1 from four.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

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