Tony Harrington, recently in charge for QPR’s defeat at Blackburn where the officials failed to spot an obvious Conor Washington goal, is in charge of the Barnsley game on Tuesday.
Referee >>> Tony Harrington (Cleveland), let’s hope he’s brought his looking glasses this week.
Assistants >>> Nigel Lugg (Surrey) and Robert Hyde (Essex)
Fourth Official >>> Nicholas Kinseley (Essex)
Blackburn 1 QPR 0, Saturday February 4, 2017, Championship
There’s something about Queens Park Rangers playing games in this part of the world against teams managed by Owen Coyle that turns assistant referees into incompetent, window-licking morons, incapable of finding their own arse with both hands or identifying the blatantly obvious when it occurs right in front of their face.
Joining Bob Pollock in the hall of horrors this week is Tony Peart. Or, perhaps, some random member of the Blackburn branch of the Royal Society for the Blind on whom Tony Peart had played a cruel trick earlier in the day, quietly swapping the guide dog for a flag without the poor bastard noticing and shoving him off in the direction of Ewood Park.
In fairness to Pollock — not a sentence I ever thought I’d be starting — Clint Hill’s famous ghost goal against Coyle’s Bolton in 2012 never actually hit the ground. On that occasion goalkeeper Adam Bogdan clawed a header out from well behind the line after it had kissed the underside of the bar on the way in. That happened fast.
Quite what defence Saturday’s scrotum can offer for his abomination I’m not sure. It began with a long throw from Darnell Furlong, who doesn’t really have a lone throw. This was no Dave Challinor/Rory Delap-style missile, more a gentle loft into the vague vicinity of the area. Using every inch of his height and straining every neck muscle substitute Matt Smith was able to help the ball on to Conor Washington who, in similar style, looped a header over goalkeeper Jason Steele, onto the underside of the bar and down into the net.
The ball never got above snail’s pace throughout. The whole thing happened in super slow motion. The ball dropped so far over the line it actually didn’t land on the grass at all, but came to rest on the artificial turf which surrounds the Ewood Park pitch. This was not, by any stretch of any pathetic excuses this anal gimp may come up with, a difficult decision to make.
Peart, whose positioning four yards away from the byline suggests he’d switched off and started thinking about other things, realised he was in trouble and sidestepped down the touchline to get himself level with the goal — where he should have been in the first place — after the incident had happened, presumably hoping the ball might have stopped dead where it landed so he could have a look. Of course, it hadn’t, long gone by now, and so with nothing to go on Peart delivered a firm no — shaking his head and waving his hands in the manner of a man absolutely sure of his decision.
We can talk about goalline technology in the Championship all we like — not much of a discussion, it should absolutely be here and should have been here since it was introduced in the Premier League — but the simple fact is this one was blatantly fucking obvious. A one-eyed, drunk chimp could have told you it was a goal.
Blackburn: Steele 6; Nyambe 6, Greer 6 (Akpan 70, 6), Lenihan 6, Lowe 6; Feeney 7, Mulgrew 6, Conway 6 (Mahoney 65, 6), Bennett 6; Gallagher 7, Graham 5 (Emnes 65, 7)
Subs not used: Joao, Guthrie, Brown, Raya
Goals: Gallagher 90+1 (assisted Emnes)
QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 6 (Lua Lua 90+4, -), Onuoha 6, Lynch 6, Bidwell 7; Luongo 6 (Morrison 78, 5), Perch 6, Manning 7; Mackie 6 (Smith 62, 6), Washington 6, Wszolek 6
Subs not used: Freeman, Hall, Goss, Ingram
Bookings: Perch 59 (foul), Manning 80 (foul), Furlong 90+1 (foul)
Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 6 Quite a decent referee actually from what we’ve seen of him this season. Good with the advantage, not too hot with the cards, tries to give games a good chance. Sadly, completely let down by an assistant referee here who should certainly be considering a change of career, or a full frontal lobotomy. Useless fucking prick.
QPR 2 Ipswich Town 1, Monday January 2, 2017, Championship
QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 6, Hall 8, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6; Manning 6 (El Khayati 68, 6), Cousins 6, Borysiuk 6 (Onuoha 58, 7); Mackie 7, Wzsolek 7, Sylla 7 (Washington 38, 5)
Subs not used: Ingram, Ngbakoto, Sandro, Shodipo
Goals: Sylla 30 (assisted Perch), Wszolek 83 (assisted Onuoha)
Ipswich: Bialkowski 6; Webster 6, Chambers 6, Berra 6, Kenlock 6 (Knudsen 77, 6); Emmanuel 5 (Ward 46, 6), Bru 6 (Douglas 69, 5), Skuse 6, Lawrence 7; Pitman 6, McGoldrick 7
Subs not used: Gerken, Varney, Sears, Dozzell
Goals: Lawrence 48 (unassisted)
Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 8 Right fussy plonker when we had him earlier this season for Swindon but this was a well controlled game, allowed to flow, with no cards, and no big decisions wrong.
QPR 2 Swindon 2, League Cup First Round, Wednesday August 10, 2016
Referee Tony Harrington exacerbated matters, stopping the play unnecessarily frequently - including the very generous award of a free kick on the halfway line to QPR who might have liked him not to bother and allow them to streak away in a three v one attack instead. Several yellow cards were awarded completely at random. On three separate occasions play was brought back because a restart was adjudged to have been executed with a moving ball. It was the very definition of ball ache.
Regular time ended with Swindon booting Chery up in the air by the dugouts, then surrounding him and screaming in his face like a Terry family Christmas. Referee Harrington booked Karl Henry for the incident. Hasselbaink did his fellow Dutchman a favour, wrestling him away from the incident and off down the tunnel until things calmed.
The farce dragged on, with scant regard for local last orders regulations. Referee Harrington had a prolonged discussion with Swindon manager Williams before taking no action.
QPR: Ingram 7; Furlong 6, Onuoha 6, Lynch 5 (Polter 78, 7), Perch 5; Ngabakoto 6 (Kpekawa 71, 5), Henry 6, Cousins 6, Shodipo 6 (Chery 58, 7); El Khayati 5; Washington 5
Subs not used: Smithies, Hall, Gladwin, Kakay
Goals: Ngabakoto 58 (assisted El Khayati), Washington 93 (assisted Chery)
Bookings: Perch 57 (foul), Henry 90+2 (unsporting), Polter 103 (foul)
Swindon: Vigouroux 7; Jones 5, Thomas 6, Thompson 6 (Iandolo 61, 6), Sendles-White 6; Brophy 6, Rogers 6, Kasim 7 (Smith 65, 6), Barry 6; Hylton 6 (Stewart 65, 7), Norris 6
Subs not used: Goddard, Henry, Evans, Young
Goals: Stewart 72 (unassisted), Brophy 107 (unassisted)
Bookings; Barry 90+2 (unsporting), Stewart 112 (foul)
Referee — Tony Harrington (Cleveland) 5 A right pedantic arsehole.
Harrington’s pre-Christmas flurry of 24 yellow cards in four matches has died away and he’s only shown 14 (and no reds) in his last eight outings. That takes his season total to 102 yellows and two reds in 27 games this season. A big portion of those of those came in just three matches — seven yellows at Wiigan v Wolves and Rotherham v Burton and nine at Reading v Sheff Wed. He refereed Blackburn’s 4-1 opening day loss to Norwich at Ewood Park.
Harrington joined the league list from the National League in 2012/13 and this is his first year of regular Championship action.
Last season his numbers were low, just 72 yellows and three reds in 30 appointments of which 11 were in the Championship. There were 91 yellows and just a single red in 32 appointments the season before, which included his last Swindon date — a 2-1 win at Doncaster when he awarded them a second half penalty.
Championship >>> Darren Deadman at Ipswich v Wolves, good luck to both teams.
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