Referee Iain Williamson is back in W12 for the first time since Gary Waddock was in charge of QPR as the R's prepare to do battle with league leaders Wolves.
Queens Park Rangers v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Referee: Iain Williamson (Berkshire)
Assistants – Malone (Wiltshire) and Russell (Northamptonshire)
Fourth Official – Singh (Middlesex)
Respect
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It’s the assistants and fourth officials that catch the eye on the appointment list this weekend more than the actual referee. Brendan Malone is running the line in our game against table topping Wolves and I think he is what they refer to as a ‘larger than life character’. He is currently refereeing at Conference level and has been very decent at that whenever I have seen him but as a linesman he is severely accident prone and made an absolute howler in the Paint Trophy final last yea when he flagged an MK Dons player offside then allowed the referee to award a penalty for a later foul instead of keeping his flag up and getting Grimsby a free kick instead. It cost them the match.
The fourth official is Jarnail Singh whose geographical proximity to Loftus Road has so far prevented him from refereeing one of our games thank goodness. People ask me why I have such a thing against him when he has never refereed a QPR game but I have seen enough of Mr Singh to know he is a poor referee – freakishly card happy and often prone to making up new rules as he goes along. He’s one of those Rob Styles, Stuart Attwell type characters who seems to win promotions and fast tracks despite laughably poor performances – I remember they used to give him whatever Conference match was on the television, presumably to raise his profile, and he would make an absolute dog’s dinner of it more often than not. Regular watchers of QPR reserves when they played at Northwood are also less than keen on him.
The actual referee for the Wolves game is Iain Williamson who has a ridiculously high card tally so far this season. He has shown 61 yellows (4.69 a game) and four reds in 13 matches which is completely over the top. This madness has included nine yellows in a match between Millwall and Stockport, six yellows and two reds in a Palace v Burnley encounter, eight yellows last time out at Watford v Doncaster and so it goes on. Showing six or more cards in a match should be an exception, not the norm. last season he missed the first three months of the campaign but came back in November and showed 70 yellows (3.684 a match) and five reds in 19 matches.
His last QPR game was two and a half seasons ago, the opening week of the 2006/07 campaign, and a 2-0 win for Gary Waddock’s QPR side against Southend United. His rating of five in that match was enough for joint 16th position on the referee league.
Ref: I Williamson (Berkshire) 5 Mr Williamson started the game in a bad way and didn't get much better. Dexter Blackstock must have set some kind of record after managing to get booked within 20 second of his debut - for diving of all things. It was the start of a bad afternoon of referring decision. In fact, the first few minutes of the game were bizarre to say-the-least as he couldn't even get simple things like throw-in's correct and he left both players and the crowd bemused! LFW Southend Match Report
By some strange coincidence his last Wolves match was just seven days prior to that Southend match – a 1-1 draw at Plymouth on the opening day of the season where six players were booked, two from Wolves. Previous encounters with QPR include a 4-2 defeat at Chesterfield in League One, a 2-0 LDV Vans win against Kidderminster at Loftus Road and a 4-1 home victory against Cheltenham. He’s one of those referees that will always use a card where often a quiet word will do.
Elsewhere most of our old favourites seem to be in League One this weekend – Andy Hall has Colchester v Hereford, Kevin Friend Hartlepool v Yeovil and Steve Bratt Cheltenham v Crewe. Interesting to see Premiership referee Keith Stroud down with Stockport v Peterborough this weekend, not sure what he has done to offend anybody, I think we all know what Stuart Attwell has done to cause his appointment this weekend – Bradford v Dagenham just rewards for his arrogant attitude and crass incompetence in recent weeks. On Tuesday at Sheff Wed we have Nigel Miller who made a pig’s ear of Barnsley v Burnley last week, more on him on Monday.