Premiership referee Michael Jones is in charge of tonight's League Cup third round clash between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea v QPR
Referee – Michael Jones (Cheshire)
Assistants – Cairns (Somerset) and Beck (Bedfordshire)
Fourth Official – Booth (Nottinghamshire)

Stoppage time has been the big talking point of the week so far with Man Utd winning the derby against City almost six minutes into four minutes of advertised added on time on Sunday. The explanation given is a simple one – City celebrated their goal for a minute in stoppage time and then a substitution was made adding a further 30 seconds. Watching the video back it is clear City celebrate for nowhere near that long, and referee Martin Atkinson does not even glance at his watch while United are procrastinating over a late free kick that they eventually scored from which leads me to believe he had already decided he was going to let them take it, regardless of how long it took them to do that, and that is certainly not right.

There is no easy way around the problem created by the stoppage time board being a “minimum” allocation of time rather than a hard and fast rule. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing five minutes of time added on whittled away by phony injuries and substitutions. Really what should have happened on Sunday, apart from the whistle going earlier, is Atkinson come straight out afterwards and explain where the extra, extra time came from. To my knowledge that still hasn’t happened.

I feel Alan Wiley the fourth official owes City an apology as well for clearly standing laughing and joking with Alex Ferguson right in front of Mark Hughes after the Owen goal when he knew the City manager was unhappy and that the decision to play on in time for the goal was a controversial one. Ferguson was clearly winding Hughes up and Wiley played a part in that which he should never have done.

Our visit to Chelsea on Wednesday will be refereed by Premiership official Michael Jones. So far this season Jones has refereed four matches, all in the Premiership, showing 14 yellows (3.5 a game) and no reds. Last season he showed 110 yellows (2.894 a game) and six reds in 38 games. His biggest hauls were seven yellows in a 2-2 draw between Southampton and Burnley and six yellows and a red in a game between West Ham and Stoke – the red you may recall went to Ricardo Fullar for slapping one of his own players.

He showed four yellows and was awarded a mark of six out of ten in a dire -0 draw between Southampton and QPR at St Mary’s. That was good enough for position joint 15th position on the referee league.

Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 6 Didn’t do too much wrong but got a little bit whistle happy in the second half to the point where he was blowing it every thirty seconds at one point which, in a game of already poor quality, became very irritating. I did not agree with Gorkss’ booking but the others were fair enough. Blackstock’s penalty appeal looked like a reasonable shout to me. LFW Southampton Match Report

In 2007/08 he booked 134 (2.977 a game) and sent seven off in 45 games and finished the season with a play off semi final appointment between Crystal Palace and Bristol City at Selhurst Park. He did Championship and League Two play off matches in 2007.

He took charge of QPR twice during 2006/07 – away defeats at Luton in the FA Cup and Sunderland in the league. You may recall Stefan Bailey appeared to headbutt the Chester official after being sent off at Kenilworth Road but no charges were ever brought after it was deemed an accident. Jones averaged seven out of ten for his two performances and finished sixth on the referee league.

Ref: M Jones (Cheshire) 5 A quite bizarre official at times, giving perplexing decisions often flying in the face of facts and advice from his assistants. The final ten minutes of the game were refereed unprofessionally in my opinion - clearly lost the plot after the Bailey incident. Not good at all. LFW Luton Match Report

Referee: Mr M Jones 9 A very accomplished performance in my opinion. Hard to recall an error all day, got the crucial decisions and the bookings right and allowed play to flow where possibly. Hard to fault in any department. LFW Sunderland Match Report

In 2005/06 Jones awarded the R’s a penalty in a 1-0 home victory against Southampton. His mark of seven saw him finish sixth on the referee league.

Ref: M Jones (W Yorkshire) 7 A steady performance from the ref. Again we didn't have a player booked, have our players turned over a new leaf?! He was assisted by two less than competent linesman who made some errors, especially during the second half. The man in black should have also booked Powell far earlier as that way he might have stopped fouling during the second half. LFW Southampton Match Report

Elsewhere in the League Cup there are one or two names QPR have had problems with before listed for action. Last season’s walking disaster zone Stuart Attwell has Man City v Fulham, Peter Walton and his pathological fear of giving QPR penalties has Man Utd v Wolves and Phil Dowd has Preston v Spurs that really should be the televised game in my opinion.

Looking further ahead we have Kevin Evans in charge of our game with Barnsley in the Bush on Saturday – another new name for our list.

Photo: Action Images

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