Duckworth in charge of Bolton visit - Referee
Tuesday, 18th Aug 2026 13:56 by Clive Whittingham

Preston’s Edward Duckworth is the man in the middle for this Saturday’s top of the table clash with newly promoted Bolton.

Referee >>> Edward Duckworth (Preston), made his Championship debut in QPR’s 2-1 win at Bristol City last season.

Assistants >>> Andrew Fox (Warwickshire) and George Byrne (Suffolk)

Fourth Official >>> James Bell (Sheffield)

History

QPR 0 Bristol City 0, Saturday April 11, 2026, Championship

With rookie referee Ed the Duck in situ, the play acting and gamesmanship became farcical, and really quite embarrassing. Several of the players involved in it should be a bit ashamed, really. The atmosphere in the place was so benign you could hear what they were saying down there, and mostly what they were saying was loud, high-pitched screams over nothing very much at all. Varane yellow carded for a first half clash with Twine, who apparently suffered some sort of subgaleal haemorrhage for being nudged in the back but was then straight back up and about once the card had been successfully milked. Second half, Amadou Mbengue fucked up another cross, lost the ball, gave away a free kick, pretended to be injured, and then got booked for dissent. HOUSE.

Why am I spending so much of my Saturday watching gym fit young lads pretend they're seriously hurt when they're not? Why are professional footballers spending so much of their Saturday trying to get the football game stopped? What exactly are you all so desperate to rush off and talk about down there on the touchline? Cos the game don’t look much different to me once you’re back from each bloody conflab. How many “injuries” here didn’t even require the nominal, performative visit of the physio? At one point Mbengue was ordered off even though the doctor hadn’t come onto the field, presumably because the referee was just so sick to death of him and it.

You spend all week at work waiting for a weekend where you can spend the money you earned on this, and then it looks like this. Like waiting five hours in the queue for a blow job and ending up with a great white shark.

It was a nonsense summed up by five minutes cruelly added to the end of the game. This began with Joe Walsh coming through a crowd for a cross and bashing into the back of teammate Jonathan Varane, who then laid down in the penalty area saying he was hurt. Duckworth, now completely out of control of a game that didn’t need controlling in the first place, decided he’d had enough and played on, which Sam Morsy did and tried to score with the opportunity. Fair play to him, and the referee, because, shock horror, Varane was absolutely fine.

With Jake Clarke-Salter’s scream in the official’s face for not stopping the game concluded and the ball back in play, now it was Bristol City’s turn to hit the deck pretending they’d been mortally wounded and demand a game stoppage. Again, to his credit, the referee said no, and invited QPR to play on. Typically, Rangers then spent 30 seconds shitting the bed about what to do, pissing the remaining time away and infuriating their own fans. When play did eventually stop, the “injured” party got up and did a comedy flex in the direction of the home end. Morsy, meanwhile, charged around at full time trying to hit anybody who’d dared to play on through this apparent medical emergency, exactly as he’d done not two minutes prior. Bristol City the team that went to the trouble of writing to the rest of the league when Lee Johnson was their manager informing them formally they wouldn’t be kicking the ball out for injuries and would leave it to the referee.

QPR: Walsh 7; Mbengue 5, Edwards 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Norrington-Davies 6; Vale 6, Morgan 5 (Poku 75, 5), Varane 6, Smyth 6; Kone 5 (Bennie 68, 5), Kolli 5 (Burrell 68, 6)

Subs not used: Adamson, Cook, Hamer, Hayden, Esquerdinha, Scarlett

Yellow Cards: Varane 27 (foul), Mbengue 55 (dissent), Bennie 75 (foul) Norrington-Davies 85 (foul)

Bristol City: Vitek N/A; Knight 6, Eile 7, Borges 6, Pring 6; Morsy 6, Randell 5; Sykes 6 (McCrorie 76, 6), Twine 5 (Horvat 88, -), Bird 6 (Earthy 83, -); Riis 6 (Burgzorg 76, 4)

Subs not used: Armstrong, Bell, Naylor, Tanner, Thomas

Yellow Cards: Eile 66 (foul), Burgzorg 89 (foul)

Referee – Edward Duckworth (Lancashire) 5 I said similar when he gave an almost identical performance on his Championship debut at Ashton Gate in the first meeting – whatever you think of Championship referees, or this one in particular, the sheer amount of play acting, injury feigning, bitching, moaning and needless histrionics from players on both sides make it a thankless task and much more difficult job than it need be. Still, I’m not going to pretend this was a good refereeing performance, and frankly if you’re unable to keep control of this game then you’re probably not at this level.

Bristol City 1-2 QPR, Saturday October 4, 2025, Championship

Bristol City: Vitek 5; Tanner 5 (Mayulu 86, -), Dickie 5, Atkinson 5; Sykes 6 (McCrorie 55, 5), Twine 5 (Hirakawa 67, 5), Randell 6, Vyner 5, Borges 6; Riis 6 (Armstrong 68, 4), Mehmeti 6

Subs not used: Cornick, Lumley, Morrison, Pecover, Roberts

Goals: Riis 32 (assisted Borges)

Yellow Cards: Sykes 29 (off ball incident), Mehmeti 48 (foul), Vyner 73 (dissent), Hirakawa 90+5 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Morrison 6, Cook 7, Esquerdinha 5; Dembele 5 (Smyth 65, 7), Varane 6, Madsen 7, Saito 6 (Vale 65, 7); Burrell 6 (Frey 90+3, -), Kone 7 (Kolli 83, -)

Subs not used: Adamson, Field, Hamer, Hayden, Morgan

Goals: Kone 66 (assisted Vale), Smyth 86 (assisted Dunne)

Yellow Cards: Kone 51 (foul)

Referee – Edward Duckworth (Preston) 6 A first ever Championship game. I said this the other week but it’s really quite difficult to tell how a referee is doing with this modern trend for histrionics, hands on head, oh-my-God, as if everything he gives is the worst decision anybody’s ever seen in their lives – call it ‘doing the Lewis Travis’ if you like because his performance in particular is really something to behold. Twice it looked like Esquerdinha had been killed in this game, Sykes booked in the first incident, only for him to get up and sprint off afterwards. Bristol City’s first goal might have been called a throw in or a goal kick in QPR’s favour – 50/50 decisions about which Jimmy Dunne charged around the pitch arms flailing in mock disbelief. Paul Nardi might have got a finger to a second half shot wide, a goal kick was awarded in Rangers’ favour, Vyner went so over the top in protest he got booked. Paul Smyth’s goal might have been disallowed for a push, but rather than the Bristol City defence all appealing as one how about… defend a bit better/stronger? You've been pushed over by Paul Smyth, I'd be too ashamed to speak to the referee about his performance after that. The one I did think he got wrong was the late Dunne challenge on Borges where it looked to me like he just charged into the guy and was lucky not to concede a penalty. Not exactly blatant, but I’d lean more towards probably was. These are all fairly marginal calls though. Referee was mostly fine.

Stats

Having started in the Lancashire Sunday League, Duckworth joined the National League list in 2022/23. He was, at this point, the FA’s national talent manager for officials, but has stepped back from that role to focus on his own refereeing career and was promoted into the EFL to referee in Leagues One and Two the season after.

His first EFL season brought 138 yellows (4.18) and six reds from 33 appointments in the bottom two divisions and cup competitions. That was topped out by a chunky ten yellows and red in Cambridge 0-0 Burton in League One. There were two other ten-card hauls among his 2024/25 offering too – ten yellows at Tranmere 0-0 Salford and another ten at Bolton 2-1 Blackpool.

A hefty 40 games last season with 158 yellows (3.95) shown along with seven reds topped out by seven yellows and a red in Bristol Rovers 0-1 Notts County in the bottom division. He made his second tier debut in our 2-1 win at Ashton Gate and then refereed the return fixture at Loftus Road as part of six Championship appointments.

Two games so far this year, Stoke's 2-0 win against Oldham in the League Cup followed by Saturday’s 1-1 draw between Notts County and Leicester. Three yellow cards in each.

His only Bolton fixture so far ended in a 2-1 home win against Blackpool in 24/25, a game in which the Trotters scored in the last minute and a chunky ten yellow cards were shown.

Pictures - Reuters Connect

Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.