Grant Hegley takes charge of QPR at Loftus Road for the second time this season on Saturday as the R's face Bristol City.
QPR v Bristol City
Referee: Grant Hegley (Hertfordshire)
Assistants – Lee (Essex) and Long (Suffolk)
Fourth Official – Thompson (Middlesex)
Respect
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A week later than advertised we do get our chance to meet Grant Hegley of Hertfordshire this Saturday against Bristol City. You may recall last week that a cock up somewhere along the line saw Hegley listed as our fourth official at Southampton while at the same time being the man in the middle of Aldershot’s League Two game with Luton Town. In the end he did the latter, booking three in a 2-1 home win, and so we meet him at Loftus Road this week for the first time since our 1-1 draw against Blackpool on this ground back in September. His rating of six in that match was good enough for joint fourteenth on the referee league.
Referee – Grant Hegley (Hertfordshire) 6 Maintained his reputation as a lenient official by only showing one yellow card, and even that one seemed to come on the say so of a linesman. Let the game flow too much in truth with one or two fouls ignored and a couple of Blackpool players lucky to escape without bookings but I’d much prefer this kind of refereeing every week to the card happy, game ruining style of officiating exhibited by Mike Riley in the two big Premiership games last week. Disallowed a QPR goal and waved away a late penalty claim but both looked to be the right decisions to me. LFW Blackpool Match Report
Hegley has an astoundingly low card count – just 38 yellows (1.31 a game) and two reds in 29 matches this season. That’s an almost Dermot Gallagher level of leniency and bodes well for this match between two sides that will enjoy a free flowing match. Six of those cards came in a game between Colchester and Millwall earlier this season and Hegley has shown no cards at all over 90 minutes on ten occasions this season. He was just as friendly last season where he again only managed 32 yellows (1.33 a match) and one red in 24 matches. Four of those yellows came in our 2-2 draw at Scunthorpe in December. His rating of five in that match placed him joint twenty second on the referee league.
Referee: Grant Hegley (Hertfordshire) 5 Seemed to give a lot of decisions Scunthorpe's way in the first half although in his defence our circus act back four was making stupid challenges time and again. In the second half he was generous with Nygaard on two occasions - Scunthorpe looked to have a good penalty shout and then the Dane could easily have been sent off for a crazy challenge through the back of an opponent. LFW Scunthorpe Match Report
Prior to those games Hegley had been in charge of QPR on four other occasions. He refereed a 1-0 home defeat by Sheff Utd in our first season back at this level, a 3-2 home win against Port Vale thanks to a late Jamie Cureton goal in the promotion season, a 1-0 home win against Barnsley the season before and a 1-1 draw at home to Oldham when Doudou lobbed the goalkeeper in 2001. So that’s played six, won two, drawn three and lost one for QPR with Mr Hegley. In those games the card count is six five against QPR. There have been no sendings off.
His last Bristol City game was their 4-2 defeat at Crystal Palace in November and we would certainly take that scoreline again on Saturday.
Hegley’s leniency has landed him in hot water before. In 2005 he incurred the wrath of Sheffield United and Reading, and subsequently his employers, after losing control of a match between the two teams. He failed to send off Paddy Kenny for deliberate hand ball outside the area, failed to award United a penalty for a foul on Keith Gillespie and then failed to send the Sheff Utd winger off at the final whistle despite his forceful protestations to the official. Hegley was suspended for 14 days by the FA for less than proficiently applying the Laws of the Game – although he was back in charge of Forest v Bolton within three days, booking nine and sending one off. He seems to have calmed down somewhat since then.
Hegley said at the time: “"I did not give a red card because I did not believe it was a clear goal scoring opportunity due to the number of defenders who were covering. Just because the keeper handles outside the area does not mean that it was a goal scoring opportunity and I believe that was the case in this instance."
Elsewhere Trevor Kettle is in charge of Millwall v Hartlepool while Andy Hall has Luton v Macclesfield – commiserations to fans of all teams involved. Lee Probert has Dagenham v Brentford on Monday night.