Following a night at the mercy of pedantic refereeing in its purest form on Tuesday QPR will be hoping for a more low key approach from the match officials at Derby on Saturday evening
Derby v QPR
Referee – Mark Haywood (West Yorkshire)
Assistants – Bennett (Stafordshire) and Smallwood (Cheshire)
Fourth Official – Pawson (South Yorkshire)
After Andy Hall’s vintage performance on Tuesday night it would be nice if we could get back to a game dominated by the footballers rather than the match officials on Saturday as Rangers face Derby live on BBC2. Hall is obviously a real stickler for the rules and this was all the more infuriating as it came just three days after Russell Booth adopted a totally different, common sense approach to our game with Preston. Although he got the big decision wrong the last time he refereed QPR this weekend’s referee Mark Haywood is much more likely to produce a similar performance to Booth than Hall – thankfully.
So far this season he has shown 20 yellow cards in 11 matches, 1.81 a game on average, compared to Hall’s 46 yellows and five reds in 14 matches. Only two of Haywood’s games have been in the Championship - Reading v Watford and Middlesbrough v Leicester, during which he showed three yellows and a red. Last season he showed 58 yellows and four reds in 37 games (1.567 a game) with five yellows his biggest haul in a single game. On 16 occasions last year he showed one card or less in a game which is much more like what you want.
His only previous QPR match as a referee was last season’s 1-0 defeat at Burnley in Gareth Ainsworth’s second spell in caretaker charge. The goal was credited to Clarke Carlisle but was actually deflected past Radek Cerny on the goal line by Chris Eagles using his hand. Somewhat ironic therefore that Haywood says in his profile on refworld.com that he would like to be seen as a “safe pair of hands.” Anyway after allowing the goal he was awarded five by LFW, and that placed him joint 25th on last season’s ,a href=http://www.clubfanzine.com/QPR/v2.showNews.php?id=11991>referee league.
Referee: Mark Haywood (W Yorkshire) 5 Got the big decision wrong for me, the goal should have been disallowed. Also fell for quite a bit of Eagles’ play acting in the first half and should have booked him for diving after waving away his theatrical penalty appeal. LFW Burnley Match Report
His last Derby County fixture was a 1-1 draw with Cardiff City at Pride Park in 2008 when Martin Albrechtsen’s first half goal was cancelled out by one of Cardiff’s many penalties after the break.
Elsewhere this weekend Andy Hall’s unique brand of robotic madness will be inflicted on Swansea and Blackpool while Trevor Kettle’s whistle happy magic card show travels to Sheffield United v Cardiff. Mike Jones’ punishment for awarding Sunderland’s beach ball affected goal against Liverpool when the rule says a drop ball should have been the outcome is Peterborough v Scunthorpe. Further down the leagues the always fiery clash between Millwall and Leeds at The Den has been given to Premiership referee Mark Clattenburg. Jarnail Singh has Southampton v MK Dons.