Harrington in charge at Blackburn - Referee
Friday, 3rd Feb 2017 13:15 by Clive Whittingham

Following the win against Ipswich at Loftus Road in January, it’s a second QPR appointment in quick succession for Cleveland official Tony Harrington.

Referee >>> Tony Harrington (Cleveland)

Assistants >>> Tony Peart (North Yorkshire) and Nick Hopton (Derbyshire)

Fourth Official >>> Scott Duncan (Northumberland)

History

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.

Stats

Harrington has only shown three yellow cards in his last four matches, including that blank slate in our home game with Ipswich. His totals are low for the season, just 91 yellows and two reds from 23 games and a quarter 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.