Will Finnie is the man in the middle for QPR’s trip to Oxford on Tuesday, his second appointment with the R’s.

Referee >>> Will Finnie (Luton)

Assistants >>> Hugh Gilroy (London) and Mark Dwyer (West Yorkshire)

Fourth Official >>> Lewis Smith (Wigan)

History

Coventry 1 QPR 0, Tuesday February 11, 2025, Championship

Referee Finnie had been, frankly, a pain in the arse dealing with corner situations all night. Interminable hours on end wasted with him warning, pre-warning, warning again, yellow carding and generally pissing about in the crowd scene before every sodding free kick and corner. Coventry hit the post with a firm first half header but had already been penalised. The wrestling, pushing and shoving was out of control all night, eventually resulting in a scuffle between Jimmy Dunne and Ephron Mason-Clark and bookings all round. Rangers wanted fouls on both Paul Nardi and Steve Cook from Rudoni's final delivery of the evening but, for me, neither of them were. Both far too busy trying to make out they’d been fouled rather than defending their line, and the goal scored by Bobby Thomas at the back post with basically the very final kick of the game was legitimate. Cook looks a bit ropey to me post injury. It was a fine time for Finnie to come over all lenient and passive but, even if there was a foul there, if you piss away four corners of your own in stoppage time you can’t be bitching and moaning if the opposition then get one, take it properly, and score. Rangers had done it to themselves, no excuses.

Coventry: Dovin 7; Thomas 6, Binks 6, Kitching 6 (Eccles 64, 6); van Ewijk 5, Torp 6 (Mason-Clark 74, 7), Grimes 6, Dasilva 6; Sakamoto 7, Simms 5 (Thomas Asante 64, 6), Rudoni 7

Subs not used: Allen, Bassette, Bidwell, Rodrigues, Collins, Latibeaudiere

Goals: Thomas 90+4 (assisted Rudoni)

Yellow Cards: Kitching 11 (foul), Grimes 62 (foul), Mason-Clark 90+2 (fighting)

QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 6, Cook 5, Edwards 6, Paal 5; Colback 6 (Varane 60, 5), Field 5; Smyth 6 (Yang 71, 6), Chair 5, Saito 7 (Morgan 81, -); Frey 6 (Lloyd 60, 5)

Subs not used: Ashby, Fox, Madsen, Morrison, Walsh

Yellow Cards: Paal 25 (foul), Dunne 90+2 (fighting)

Referee – Will Finnie (Luton) 5 A total lack of grip and control on what was going on in the box under every set piece for both sides. I’ve heard a lot of QPR fans saying variations of Cook and Nardi were fouled for the Cov goal. For me they weren’t. You’ve got to be stronger, particularly your big, experienced centre back, and the goal was right to stand. But having spent all night to that point being a pedantic arsehole, every corner and free kick into the box turned into some long drawn out affair with pre-warnings, warnings, cards and free kicks, to suddenly come over all lenient at that point was, to say the least, inconvenient.

Stats

Will Finnie joined the EFL list in 2017 and has since clocked up more than 100 games across the three leagues as well as refereeing last season’s FA Vase final at Wembley between Great Wakering and Romford. The 30-year-old made his Championship debut in April last year in Millwall 3-1 Cardiff.

He finished 2023/24 with 128 yellows (3.2) and seven reds from a chunky diary of 40 appointments. Nine yellows and two reds at Wimbledon 2-1 Mansfield in League Two was by far his biggest total.

Last season he booked 115 (3.08) and sent five off in 38 games. Four of those red cards came in his last three games of the regular season and he finished up with a play-off final between Wimbledon and Walsall at Wembley. Of those, 15 games were at Championship level. This all included five different games with Oxford – a 1-0 League Cup loss at Coventry, a 2-1 away defeat at Bristol City, 1-0 home wins against Blackburn and Hull and a 2-0 home loss against Portsmouth.

Just the 12 games so far this season, 42 yellows and no reds. He only returned to action at the start of November with a couple of Conference games which suggests an injury lay off. He’s done three Championship games since, including Ipswich 2-1 Oxford on New Year’s Day.

He has refereed Oxford on 17 occasions, more than any other club, from which they’ve won nine and lost eight but never drawn. QPR are 0-0-1.

Pictures - Reuters Connect

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