Experienced Championship referee Tim Robinson gets his first QPR appointment this season as the R’s travel to Millwall on Wednesday night.

Referee >>> Tim Robinson (West Sussex), took our pre-season friendly at Crawley.

Assistants >>> Le Venamore (Kent) and Robert Hyde (Leicestershire)

Fourth Official >>> David Rock (Herts)

History

QPR 1 Hull City 1, Saturday February 19, 2022, Championship

But that was it, and you could smell the nerves coming off the place. Sanderson’s mistimed header on halfway on 26 after he’d ordered Amos to leave it to him started a chain of events which included him then backheading the ball out for a sloppy corner from which McLoughlin’s nod-down was volleyed in off the underside of the bar by Brentford loanee Marcus Forss. Because of course. Goalline technology awarding that one, and just as well really because referee Tim Robinson and his team’s performance for the rest of the game suggested they wouldn’t have spotted that crashing down over the line as long as I’ve got a hole in my arse.

Rangers should have been thrown a bone in three minutes of first half stoppage time. Marcus Forss - clearly the best striker on the pitch, already with a goal to his name - boiled over needlessly and belted Jimmy Dunne over by the dug outs. They’re really easy these decisions, because it’s mandatory stuff — it’s either nothing at all, or it’s a red card. He’s either, in your view, belted him, or he hasn’t. You can’t, in the modern interpretation of the laws of the game, belt somebody a little bit. It’s violent conduct, or it’s just conduct. Tim Robinson made the fatal mistake of involving fourth official Trevor Kettle, who was officiating in this league 20 years ago and was the worst referee in it then by a country mile. He hasn’t been allowed to referee Championship games since 2017/18, when he sent off four players in four games. Are you more adept, competent, fit, decisive and observant than you were 20 years ago? Always a deliberately contrary lunatic, Kettle looked at this from a distance of barely five yards and advised it was a yellow card, and no free kick. Answers on a fucking postcard please. Indefensible, indecipherable, incompetent, horse-fucking-shit.

QPR: Dieng 6; Adomah 6, Sanderson 5, Dunne 6, Barbet 5, Willock 6; Hendrick 7, Amos 5 (Odubajo 69, 7) Field 6; Austin 4 (Gray 90+5, -), Chair 6

Subs not used: Johansen, Ball, Thomas, Dozzell, Marshall

Goals: Chair 75 (assisted Odubajo)

Bookings: Chair 34 (foul), Austin 90 (foul)

Hull: Ingram 6 (Cartwright 67, 6); Bernard 8, McLoughlin 6, Greaves 6, Elder 6; Smallwood 6, Jones 6; Longman 7 (Docherty 82, -), Honeyman 7 (Slater 90+8, -), Lewis-Potter 7; Forss 6 (Smith 81, -)

Subs not used: Moncur, Fleming, Walsh

Goals: Forss 26 (assisted McLoughlin)

Bookings: Forss 45+3 (booting somebody off the ball, this is a booking now apparently)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 4 As an officiating team of four working together, as poor as you’ll see. Every big decision in the game called incorrectly. The disallowed Adomah goal is borderline and debatable, the linesman gets one look at that and can’t slow it down and use the still frames you’ve seen on social media today, so you have to accept that and move on if, like me, you’d prefer that to the VAR nonsense we see in the division above. But so much other really obvious and basic stuff was wrong all afternoon it became profoundly depressing. Marcus Forss gets frustrated and belts Jimmy Dunne off the ball, five yards away from the fourth official, in first half stoppage time — yellow card and no free kick. It’s either nothing, or it’s a free kick and a red card, it can’t be no free kick and a yellow. He’s either belted him or he hasn’t; it’s either violent conduct or it’s not. The Keane Lewis Potter chance, which should really have been the winner, flagged onside, is so widely offside that linesman should be taken away by men in white coats. Yards and yards and yards offside. Not a difficult one to get right. The lino who flagged Adomah off, and spent the second half flagging a number of very questionable offsides, started the half engaged in mega bantz with the crowd at the start of the half — that sort of shit may go down well on Soccer AM, but it sets you up for a fall, and won’t have gone down well with the assessor. Nor should it. If I wanted a fucking comedian, I’d go to the Comedy Store. The inevitable time wasting that came late in the day from the visitors was, predictably, punished only with a series of vague, ineffective hand gestures.

When we first arrived back in this league in 2015, Tim Robinson was clearly rated as the best referee in it. He got all the big games, all the TV games, obviously he was being looked at for a promotion. Since then, several referees have gone past him into the Prem, including some very poor ones — Tony Harrington, Michael Salisbury who’d only been on the Championship list for a year when he was promoted — and he’s been left behind. You could see why here. Not to be too cruel, lockdown wasn’t kind to many of us, but his physical conditioning compared to where it was, compared to what it should be, is miles off. At the very least, he could do with a bigger shirt. Now left plodding the Jon Moss square around the centre circle, guessing at decisions he’s not close enough to get right, and on this occasion hamstrung by two assistants and a fourth official every bit as rank. If you wanted an example of how low refereeing standards have sunk in this league, this was it. I genuinely think I could have done a better job of this myself.

QPR 0 Derby County 1, Saturday January 23, 2021, Championship

The third was an incorrect penalty call by referee Tim Robinson. Kazim-Richards blatantly directing a flicked corner clear with a hand away from his body on 65 minutes. As with Sean Morrison at Cardiff during the week, and here against Watford before Christmas, and at Brentford in November, not a particularly difficult decision to see and get right, and Rangers once again left to rue a game slipping by that could have been drawn or won with a slightly kinder run of the ball or different referee. Wayne Rooney's Derby County will tell you they had one very similar to this waved away in injury time of a recent 1-0 loss at Sheff Wed and that these things even up over the course of a season — not that this was much use to us on Saturday.

QPR: Dieng 6; Dickie 6, Cameron 5, Barbet 6; Kane 5, Willock 5 (Bettache 65, 6), Chair 5, Ball 6, Hämäläinen 4 (Adomah 82, -); Austin 5 (Kelman 82, -), Dykes 5 (Bonne 73, 5)

Subs not used: Lumley, Thomas, Kakay, Duke-McKenna

Bookings: Cameron 31 (foul), Kane 51 (foul)

Wayne Rooney's Derby County: Roos 7; Evans 6 (Bird 46, 6), Wisdom 6, Clarke 7; Byrne 7, Bielik 6, Shinnie 7, Buchanan 7; Jozwiak 7 (MacDonald 86, -), Kazim-Richards 5 (Waghorn 79, 6), Knight 6

Goals: Kazim-Richards 56 (assisted Jozwiak)

Bookings: Shinne 77 (foul)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 5 Not a particularly difficult game to referee - one big decision in it and he got that wrong.

Blackburn 3 QPR 1, Saturday November 7, 2020, Championship

But a pattern of play flowing incessantly the other way was quickly set, with the home team able to get Brereton and Armstrong in behind Todd Kane and Rob Dickie down their left and our right at will. Kane could do nothing but haul Armstrong to the ground for an obvious yellow from referee Tim Robinson on eight minutes, and Dickie wasn’t far behind him into the notepad with a similar foul on 21. After dominating Derby’s forwards so comprehensively in the week, here Dickie’s lack of pace was rather exposed, and as we’re coming to learn when that happens so the panicked, handsy, grabbing of opponents begins. He was fortunate Robinson played advantage through another similar foul which surely would have seen him sent off, and I suspect he would like to have pulled Armstrong down again prior to what turned out to be the second goal but learnt his lesson from Oakwell and took the score on the chin without adding a sending off.

Every time QPR had a free kick, the ball was nudged off the spot, or in one egregious example when Chair was trying to take a quick one in a dangerous area, picked up and carried away by Ben Brereton. If there are Rovers fans looking in thinking these are the bitter, tired excuses of a beaten team then allow both regular readers to set you straight. This has been a pet peeve for a while. Every team in the Championship seems to exist purely to get a goal up, and then start wasting time. Every referee in the division does fuck all about it — occasional point at the watch, occasional get on with it gesture with the hands, but never a yellow card, and always the standard 1-2 minutes at the end of the first half, 4-5 at the end of the second. A referee at this level who we have rather a lot told a friend of mine after one of our games last year “their keeper was even pissing me off with it by the end, but QPR didn’t say anything so I just let it go”. It’s such a chronic issue, and such an easy fix, for a sport that’s currently destroying itself as a spectacle spending interminable amounts of time and money judging whether Patrick Bamford’s armpit hair is offside, to remedy a problem that only really existed in the mind of professional idiots like Chris Kamara in the first place.

Blackburn: Kaminski 6; Nyambe 6, Lenihan 6, Wharton 6, Rankin-Costello 7; Evans — (Buckley 5, 6), Johnson 6, Rothwell 7; Elliott 7 (Dolan 90+3, -), Brereton 7 (Gallagher 82, -); Armstrong 8

Subs not used: Davenport, Trybull, Grayson, Eastham

Goals: Brereton 50 (assisted Lenihan), Armstrong 73 (assisted Brereton), 90+5 (assisted Johnson)

Bookings: Johnson 64 (shithousing)

QPR: Dieng 8; Kane 5, Dickie 5, Barbet 6, Hämäläinen 5; Ball 5 (Kakay 46, 6), Cameron 6; Adomah 5 (Willock 46, 7), Carroll 5, Chair 5; Dykes 5 (Bonne 67, 6)

Subs not used: Wallace, Masterson, Bettache, Kelly

Goals: Dykes 61 (penalty, won Dickie)

Bookings: Kane 8 (foul), Dickie 21 (foul), Bonne 90+3 (foul)

Tim Robinson (Sussex) 6 Fine, big decisions correct, penalty bang on, bookings no arguments, possibly quite generous with Dickie on another occasion, but if you can’t be arsed to police clock running this clear and obvious then I can’t be arsed to give you more than a six.

QPR 2 Forest 0, Saturday September 12, 2020, Championship

A cakewalk then? Well, yes, but not baked to the doom mongers’ recipe. QPR were bright, clever and creative. They repeatedly manipulated the ball in behind Forest’s exposed right back Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel and should have scored at least once by doing so — just before the half hour Dykes not quite arriving in time to sweep home Lee Wallace’s centre at the end of a flowing move. They posed threat from inventive set pieces, finding the net through home debutant Rob Dickie after nine minutes only for the goal to be ruled out for a foul in the build up. Referee Tim Robinson satisfying his fetish for defensive free kicks at attacking set plays — it’s all the same, only the names have changed. In the second half Yoann Barbet headed into the side netting from a tight but presentable angle after being worked free at the back post from a free kick, while Dykes hooked a volley over with his unfavoured foot after a cute chip over a defensive wall by Ilias Chair.

The first question was would it be enough for a win? QPR are not adverse to turning promising performances into disappointing results via the medium of missed chances, and when it got to half time at 0-0 you feared for them a little bit. Could they be as good again? Could Forest be as poor? Yes and yes. Joe Lumley’s superb pass out to the left flank after the break was met powerfully in the air by Wallace and that was enough to get Dykes in the wrong side of Figueiredo who clumsily brought him down for an obvious penalty. Bright Osayi-Samuel and Ilias Chair appeared to be playing rock, paper, scissors on the pitch for the right to replace Eze as penalty taker in chief but Dykes, with two successful conversions from the spot in Livingston colours already this season and a first international goal for Scotland during the weeks buoying his confidence, took the responsibility on himself and Julian Dicksed it into the roof of the net harder than a football has ever been kicked before. Wallop. A penalty with chest hair. Had keeper Brice Samba been able to get anywhere near the thing I’m not sure he’d have wanted to. He'd have been killed to death. Just rewards for Rangers, and Dykes, for their respective displays.
QPR: Lumley 6; Kakay 7, Dickie 7, Barbet 7, Wallace 7; Cameron 6, Carroll 7 (Thomas 75, 7); Osayi-Samuel 6 (Smyth 90+3, -), Amos 7 (Ball 84, -), Chair 7; Dykes 7

Subs not used: Kane, Oteh, Masterson, Kelly

Goals: Dykes 54 (penalty, won Dykes), Chair 90+4 (assisted Ball)

Bookings: Dykes 77 (foul)

Forest: Samba 5; Lawrence-Gabriel 5, Figueiredo 4, Worrall 5, Blackett 5; Yates 6, Colback 6; Lolley 5 (Ameobi 59, 6), Freeman 5 (Mighten 73, 5), da Costa 5 (Taylor 73, 5); Grabban 4

Subs not used: Smith, Jenkinson, Dawson, Johnson

Bookings: Figueiredo 53 (penalty concession), Lawrence-Gabriel 62 (foul)

Referee - Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 7 Robinson has something of a fetish for awarding free kicks to the defensive team at set pieces, often for very minimal physical contact by attackers. When the Rob Dickie goal was disallowed earlier, and with Lyndon Dykes about as physical as forwards get at this level, it felt like it was going to be a long afternoon. But that didn’t transpire, he refereed the game well, and the penalty decision was correct.

Charlton 1 QPR 0, Saturday June 27, 2020, Championship

What followed by way of pursuit of an equaliser was a mix of the bad, mad, sad and utterly perplexing. Rangers did get the ball in the net at the other immediately to be fair to them but Ilias Chair’s effort was ruled out for a very generous free kick decision against Bright Osayi-Samuel in the build up. Despite referee Tim Robinson’s decision, that actually boded well for the rest of the game. Osayi-Samuel had tormented Charlton at Loftus Road in December, setting up a memorable goal for Marc Pugh with a mazy run around a clutch of defenders. Chair also looked much more lively than he had seven days ago, winning an early free kick in a dangerous area from Tom Lockyer through pugnacious hard work that caught the centre half trying to shepherd a ball out for a goal kick — that one of three first half incidents that really should have wrought yellow cards from Robinson but only received a warning. Ebere Eze had also curled an early sighter wide of the post with the score still at nil nil. So maybe a groove had been found despite the early Pratley set back.

On the rare occasions the Addicks stopped sitting in and broke down field, they looked far more likely to score than QPR did. Bonne actually found the net with a header from an Aiden McGeady cross on 57 minutes but he’d strayed offside when he had no need to. Pratley headed another corner wide — referee Robinson somehow contriving to award another corner for it rather than a goal kick — and only a great Conor Masterson stretched clearance on 73 prevented a walk-in second. They very steadily made a string of their own substitutions to disrupt QPR’s attempts to inject tempo into the game, though the ever-durable Jonny Williams remained unused having only just recovered from a cut finger which ruled him out of a Fifa version of this fixture against Ebere Eze during the lockdown. If he makes it through to the end of the season without coming to a mischief on the concrete stairs Charlton must now ascend and descend twice a match to reach their new changing facilities I’ll be amazed.

Charlton: Phillips 6; Matthews 7, Lockyer 6, Pearce 6, Oshilaja 7 (Purrington 77, 6); McGeady 6 (Doughty 60, 6), Pratley 7, Cullen 6, Morgan 6 (Green 84, -); Bonne 6 (Field 84, -), Hemed 5 (Aneke 60, 6)

Subs not used: Williams, Amos, Sarr, Davison

Goals: Pratley 12 (assisted Cullen)

Bookings: Pratley 76 (foul)

QPR: Kelly 5; Rangel 5 (Kane 71, 4), Masterson 6, Barbet 4, Manning 5; Cameron 5 (Amos 71, 5), Ball 5 (Bettache 77, 6); Osayi-Samuel 4 (Oteh 71, 5), Chair 6 (Shodipo 60, 6), Eze 5; Hugill 4

Subs not used: Lumley, Kakay, Gubbins, Clarke

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 5 As rusty as most of the players, which I guess is understandable — no reason the referees should be back up to match sharpness any quicker than the footballers themselves I guess. Lockyer, Pratley and Barbet should all surely have been yellow carded for first half fouls, an indication perhaps why one of the division’s traditionally more pedantic and picky referees has gone from 3.7 yellows a game last season to 3.03 this and just one red card in 27 outings.

QPR 1 Blackburn 2, Friday April 19, 2019, Championship

You need look no further than the two goals that settled the game to tell you everything you needed to know about it. The first came after 20 minutes when Lewis Travis turned back on himself in the QPR area and Josh Scowen took his legs from under him for the most blatant penalty I’ve seen since Scowen did exactly the same to Ben Brereton in exactly the same part of the pitch to cost us the corresponding fixture up at Ewood Park. Scowen’s been much better recently, man of the match in three of the last five games, but what’s he doing there? Hanging a lazy leg out like that, what exactly does he expect? He’s going nowhere, let him go, wave him on his way, wish him well. Don’t do that. To do it once in the away game you can perhaps excuse, to do it twice… words fail me. It just typified the carefree, careless attitude and approach of the team to this match.

Deep breath. I say again, I’m a patient man, but can anybody explain to me exactly what the fucking point of that is? There are three games left of the season and you need 15 yellow cards for a ban. Leutwiler has none, this was his first (weirdly his only two appearances this season have been home and away against QPR). You do nothing about the time wasting all half, then decide to show the fucking goalkeeper a meaningless yellow literally immediately before full time. I know I’ve been swearing a lot lately and I’m sorry but fuck me sideways, how fucking stupid do you have to be? If ever there was an example of a referee with no feel for the sport he’s been placed in charge of then that was it. I feel like I’m spending my weekends and all of my money just watching a bunch of meatheads do their jobs really, really, really badly. It’s like the first 40 minutes of every episode of Kitchen Nightmares. It’s all Shawshank and no redemption.

QPR: Lumley 5; Wszolek 5 (Eze 74, 5), Furlong 5, Lynch 4, Manning 5; Luongo 5, Scowen 5, Cousins 5 (Wells 52, 4); Osayi-Samuel 6, Hemed 5 (Smith 64, 6), Freeman 5

Subs not used: Ingram, Cameron, Walker, Tilt

Goals: Smith (assisted Freeman)

Bookings; Luongo 59 (foul), Osayi-Samuel 83 (being a dick), Wells 90+3 (being a dick)

Blackburn: Leutwiler 6; Bennett 7, Lenihan 7, Williams 7, Bell 7; Armstrong 8 (Brereton 86, -), Evans 6 (Rodwell 65, 6), Travis 7, Rothwell 6; Dack 7, Graham 7 (Nuttall 68, 6)

Subs not used: Raya, Nyambe, Smallwood, Mulgrew

Goals: Graham 20 (penalty, won Travis), Dack 46 (assisted Armstrong)

Bookings; Rodwell 83 (foul), Leutwiler 90+7 (time wasting, joke)

Referee — Tim Robinson (Sussex) 5 Absolutely fine for an hour or so, albeit (as so often at the moment) in a non competitive game. Then got a bit weird. Prolonged discussions with players about nothing very much at all, huge gaping stoppages in play when they didn’t need to exist, free kicks awarded when advantage could have been played and then further faffing about over the placement of said free kicks. Very generous to Bright Osayi-Samuel, and the late yellow card for Blackburn time wasting was, as said, a complete nonsense.

Blackpool 2 QPR 0, Tuesday September 25, 2018, League Cup Third Round

The only thing we were good at was fouling and getting booked. Scowen was the chief culprit here, but did manage to avoid a booking until his third offence. By his fourth, inside the first 20 minutes, there was a problem. He should’ve been sent off and much to the fury of the Blackpool management and fans referee Tim Robinson let him off and he was quickly substituted before he did commit inevitable offence number five and receive a red card. Scowen himself was deeply miffed at being withdrawn, refusing to shake hands with his replacement Goss, and then booted a water bottle before disappearing down the tunnel. And he was one of the senior players in the team.

Well the linesman gave a throw-in to Blackpool when it was clearly to us, he then dropped his flag. Cousins was rightly sent off, losing the plot and earning a second yellow for a pathetic case of handbags after a nothing challenge on halfway that came after he and Goss had left a ball to each other and lost possession. Perhaps he too was tired of his own ineptitude and just wanted to leave the field.

Blackpool: Howard N/A; Nottingham 8, Henegan 7, Tilt 6, Bola 7; Spearing 8, Guy 6 (Turton 77, -), McLaughlin 7 (O Sullivan 85, -) Thompson 6; Dodoo 6, Gnanduillet 8 (Delfouneso 83, -)

Subs not used: O’Connor, Cullen, Feeney, Mafoumbi.

Bookings: Tilt 56 (foul)

QPR: Ingram 5; Kakay 4, Hall 4, Baptiste 4, Hamalainen 3; Osayi-Samuel 4 (Oteh 77, 3), Scowen 2 (Goss 25, 3), Cousins 2, Wszolek 3; Chair 3 (Smyth 46, 3); Smith 3

Subs not used: Owens, Dalling, Brzozowski, Omar

Red Cards: Cousins 70 (two bookings)

Bookings: Scowen 20 (repetitive fouling), Kakay 22 (foul), Chair 34 (tantrum), Cousins 39 (foul), Cousins 70 (rank stupidity)

Referee: Tim Robinson 7 Can be pedantic but no issues here despite a flurry of cards for QPR players. Every card looked justified and was a bit lenient with Scowen. Blackpool didn’t need to waste time as they knew we were no danger.

Aston Villa 1 QPR 3, Tuesday March 18, 2018, Championship

Villa: Johnstone 5; El Mohamady 5, Terry 4, Chester 6, Taylor 5 (Davis 56, 5); Jedinak 4, Hourihane 5 (Bjarnison 81, -); Adomah 6, Grealish 6, Snodgrass 4; Grabban 5 (Hogan 67, 5)

Subs not used: Lansbury, Bree, Onomah, Bunn

Goals: Chester 90+1 (assisted Snodgrass)

Bookings: Grealish 90+2 (fighting)

QPR: Smithies 8; Furlong 8, Onuoha 7, Lynch 7, Bidwell 8; Wszolek 7 (Perch 72, 6), Scowen 8, Luongo 7, Manning 8 (Cousins 74, 6); Eze 8 (Freeman 79, 7); Smith 7

Subs not used: Washington, Baptiste, Ingram, Osayi-Samuel

Goals: Manning 12 (assisted Bidwell), Bidwell 33 (assisted Wszolek), Freeman 82 (assisted Furlong)

Bookings: Lynch 59 (foul), Bidwell 90+2 (foul)

Referee — Tim Robinson 8 Dodgy old linesman on our side struggled to keep up with play and came up with some random ones as a result but Robinson, who’s usually a right pedantic arsehole and awarded four penalties at Hull v Norwich at the weekend, was very good here, albeit in a one-sided game.

QPR 2 Cardiff 1, Monday January 1, 2018, Championship

By half time you’d rather have been anywhere else in the world (apart from South Bermondsey) and the start of the second half only deepened the depression. The sides had traded half chances — Jordan Cousins, looking decent down the right until given a sight of the goal, miscontrolled a chance from close range; then Onuoha produced a vital block in his own six-yard box to steer a goalbound Zohore shot round the post. But in truth it felt like a game heading for a 0-0 draw until referee Tim Robinson intervened.
Seven minutes after half time, cross to the back post, Bidwell turns to follow it, Paterson collapses to the ground, penalty given. Total bollocks. Insufferable bullshit.

And there was the equaliser that wasn’t too. Hoilett would have loved nothing more than his eighty-third-minute shot under Smithies and into the net to have counted, but a late linesman flag, and Smithies tapping him on his shoulder, interrupted a dance under the jubilant away fans. Referee Tim Robinson came across and spoke with his assistant for what seemed like an age about whether the ball had actually been played into Hoilett’s path by Josh Scowen, which it had, although Scowen had pretty obviously been fouled anyway. So it was either a goal, or a QPR free kick on the edge of the area. In keeping with everything else he’d done since 15.00, the referee got it wrong, and disallowed it for offside after all. Neil Warnock fumed so hard he crashed into the dugout on his way off at full time while haranguing the officials.

QPR: Smithies 7; Baptiste 8, Onuoha 6, Robinson 7; Cousins 7, Bidwell 6 (Lynch 84, -); Scowen 6, Luongo 6, Freeman 7; Smyth 8 (Oteh 77, 7), Smith 6

Subs not used: Wszolek, Lumley, Chair, Oseyi-Samuel, Sylla

Goals: Smith 62 (assisted Robinson), Smyth 72 (assisted Smith)

Yellows: Smyth 70 (repetitive fouling), Freeman 90+3 (foul)

Cardiff: Murphy 5; Manga 6, Bamba 6, Connolly 5; Peltier 6 (Damour 58, 6), Paterson 6, Ralls 7, Bennett 6; Healey 6 (Mendez-Laing 67, 6), Hoilett 7, Zohore 6

Subs not used: Richards, Tomlin, Pilkington, Halford, Etheridge

Goals: Ralls 54 (penalty — won Paterson)

Yellows: Connolly 18 (foul), Peltier 50 (foul)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 3 Not a referee I’ve ever particularly got on with — the pedantry, the long drawn out conversations with players, the fetish for awarding free kicks to the defending team under every set piece, the heavy card count and more besides all contribute to bitty, stop-start, niggly games which are dreadful to watch and seemingly very frustrating to play in. There was all of that here, as usual, but this time he married it up with a series of dreadful calls with the big decision. The Cardiff penalty is a joke, an obvious dive under minimal contact, a clear and successful attempt to con the officials. Worse still, later in the game with QPR hanging on Alex Baptiste did actually shove his man in the area just as he looked set to make it 2-2 from close range and nothing was given. The Cardiff disallowed goal could have been waved off for a foul on Scowen, but not for offside (which is what they eventually gave) as it was Scowen that played the ball. Just about the only thing he did get right all afternoon was the late offside free kick which Cardiff took in the QPR half to much protest from the South Africa Road stand — new rule this year kids, if you retreat from an offside position the free kick is taken from where you touch the ball not where you start. Overall, bit of a catastrophe.

Nottingham Forest 4 QPR 0, Saturday November 4, 2017, Championship

Furlong on, Scowen dropping deeper, is a change that could have been made as early as the twentieth minute, when the score was only 1-0 but it was clear Rangers were starting to have a problem. Ian Holloway, a manager of huge experience and with several promotions on his CV, would tell me, some nobody who works in an office, I don’t know what I’m talking about but by the time changes were made, at half time, it was already 2-0. And when they did come, they were like-for-like swaps — Matt Smith, who isn’t as mobile or as big a goal threat as Idrissa Sylla, came on for the Guinean, and Jamie Mackie, who doesn’t have the craft or goal threat of David Wheeler, replaced the former Exeter man. Smith should have had a penalty when the shirt was lifted clean off his back just before the hour, referee Tim Robinson wasn’t interested despite the bare torso offering an obvious clue, and Mackie should have made it 2-1 with a diving header from close range straight after coming on. But the substitutions didn’t address the problems Forest were causing the system and consequently they continued to tear QPR apart all the way through the second half. Sneaking Yeni Ngbakoto on for Luke Freeman later in the day, again, added nothing to Rangers going forwards and didn’t solve any of their problems defensively.

Forest: Smith 6; Lichaj 6, Worrall 6, Mancienne 7, Traore 6; Bridcutt 7, Osborn 8; Walker 8, Dowell 9 (Bouchalakis 77, 6), McKay 8 (Ward 86, -); Murphy 7 (Carayol 85, -)

Subs not used: Mills, Clough, Henderson, Cummings

Goals: Walker 15 (assisted Dowell), Dowell 44 (assisted Osborn), McKay 52 (assisted Osborn), Walker 84 (assisted McKay)

Yellows: Walker 73 (foul)

QPR: Smithies 5; Baptiste 3, Lynch 5, Robinson 3; Wheeler 5 (Mackie 45, 4), Bidwell 5; Scowen 5, Luongo 5, Freeman 5 (Ngbakoto 74, 5); Sylla 4 (Smith 45, 5), Washington 4

Subs not used: Furlong, Cousins, Manning, Lumley

Yellows: Freeman 70 (foul)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 6 Not as pedantic as he can be, but that was a clear penalty on Smith in the second half — shirt ripped up over his head, torso showing, right in front of the referee who waved it away. For somebody who’s so quick to award free kicks to the defending team at every corner for tiny, tiny infringements to be waving that away having looked right at it is poor. Not that it had an effect on the outcome of course.

Norwich 4 QPR 0, Sunday May 7, 2017, Championship

Yes, there was a very obvious Grant Hall-sized hole between the defence and the midfield. His presence would have made a hell of a difference, and QPR’s most recent losing run has coincided with his knee injury. But he’s just a decent player, not our Lord and Saviour, and we’ve got to have a better plan than this for when he’s unavailable next season. Why we’ve abandoned the idea of using Perch in there when Hall’s out, despite Perch looking a good deal better there than he ever does at right back (unlucky to be penalised here by Robinson for his first clean tackle in six months mind you), despite Darnell Furlong being a far better bet than him on the right of the defence, I cannot explain.

The protection afforded the defence by the midfield was worse than non-existent. Michael Doughty following in the footsteps of Sean Goss and Michael Petrasso with a sudden, unexpected start here after months of in-action. This will surely be the last rites of Doughty’s QPR career which has lasted eight years as a professional during which time he’s made just six starts. On the ball, some nice passes, but without it he’s simply not quick enough. There’s no engine on him, he can’t get around the pitch. He was hopelessly schooled here. Only Murphy’s decision to execute a fairly flagrant dive in the penalty area over Nedum Onuoha — Robinson didn’t award a penalty but didn’t book him either strangely — stopped a particularly harrowing 50 yard slog down the field in vain pursuit of the Norwich man ending with Doughty and the ball in the back of the net. He will get a decent club at his level in League One, where he’s impressed before at Swindon, and knowing our luck get sold for £4m in 18 months’ time, but he doesn’t look a Championship player at all and his time is surely up here now sadly. If you can bear to watch the highlights again, look at him for the first goal — five yards behind the play, blowing.

Norwich: Ruddy 6; Pinto 6 (Godfrey 86, -), Martin 6, Klose 6, Dijks 6; Howson 7, Dorrans 7; Hoolahan 7, Pritchard 8 (Maddison 71, 6), Murphy 8; Oliveira 6 (Jerome 61, 5)

Subs not used: Wildschut, Tettey, McGovern, Murphy

Goals: Hoolahan 22 (unassisted), 90+2 (assisted Jerome), Pritchard 60 (assisted Hoolahan), Murphy 85 (unassisted)

QPR: Smithies 5; Perch 5, Onuoha 6, Lynch 6, Robinson 5 (Bowler 69, 7); Luongo 5, Doughty 4, Manning 4; Wszolek 4, Smith 4 (Freeman 45, 6), Washington 5 (Grego-Cox 81, -)

Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Petrasso, Furlong

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 6 Fixation with awarding a free kick to the defensive side at the majority of corners remains. Penalised Perch for the first good tackle he’s made in about six months, with an assistant referee standing three yards away giving nothing. Irritating in a non-competitive game.

Leeds 0 QPR 0, Saturday March 11, 2017, Championship

They couldn’t, for a mixture of reasons. Conor Washington missed the two key chances. The first, after six minutes, looked a sitter from a couple of yards out as Darnell Furlong, who has a prodigious leap on him, flicked a whipped Luke Freeman corner on at the near post. Leeds full back Berardi appeared to take the ball off Washington’s toe but referee Tim Robinson awarded a goal kick.

After Washington’s second miss both managers embarked on a quick flurry of substitutions. Leeds sent O’Kane and Sacko on for Roofe and Vieira to no real positive effect, then brought in a half-arsed Doukara for Alfonso which made them worse. Holloway replaced his front three with Sylla, Mackie and Ngbakoto on for Washington, Smith and Wszolek. The craft of the Polish winger was missed in the closing stages, but Mackie provided niggle value, breaking up the closing stages as Leeds tried to push on. He was booked after a typical football scrap — lots of gentle pushes and dramatic fallings over — with O’Kane in injury time which wouldn’t have happened at all if Tim Robinson wasn’t so keen to award a free kick to the defensive team everybody somebody tries to take a corner.

Leeds: Green 6; Ayling 7, Bartley 6, Jansson 6, Berardi 5; Bridcutt 6, Vieira 6 (O’Kane 78, 6); Roofe 6 (Sacko 60, 6), Hernandez 6, Pedraza 6 (Doukara 73, 5); Wood 5

Subs not used: Cooper, Silvestri, Taylor, Dallas

Bookings: Ayling 35 (foul), Alfonso 48 (foul), Bridcutt 66 (foul), O’Kane 90+4 (ungentlemanly)

QPR: Smithies 6; Furlong 6, Onuoha 8, Lynch 7, Bidwell 6; Freeman 8, Hall 7, Luongo 7; Wszolek 7 (Ngbakoto 79, 6), Smith 6 (Sylla 78, 6), Washington 6 (Mackie 80, 6)

Subs not used: Goss, Ingram, Manning, Morrison

Bookings: Bidwell 87 (foul), Mackie 90+4 (ungentlemanly)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 6 A bit of an odd performance really. Several times, for both sides, what seemed like fairly obvious free kicks were waved away only for fouls to be awarded for other lesser incidents later on. No arguments with any of the bookings really, although the Mackie and O’Kane incident only happened because, as he does all the bloody time, Robinson had awarded a free kick to the defending team at a corner for no reason whatsoever. Bit of a fuss pot.

Newcastle 2 QPR 2, Wednesday February 1, 2017, Championship

Shelvey’s petulant kick out at Mackie before he was subbed could have brought more punishment from referee Tim Robinson, as could Joel Lynch’s apparently deliberate trample of Ameobi out by the corner flag which roused the Geordies briefly. That suggested Newcastle were frustrated but, in truth, QPR’s goal threat had dissipated and although the best travelling support (volume wise) the club has enjoyed for some time kept the singing going, hope appeared to be running out until Clark intervened.

Newcastle: Darlow 7; Yedlin 6, Lascelles 6, Clark 5, Dummett 5; Hayden 6, Shelvey 7; Gouffran 6, Perez 5 (Diame 86, -), Ritchie 7; Murphy 6 (Ameobi 66, 6)

Subs not used: Hanley, Lazaar, Gamez, Sels, Mitrovic

Goals: Shelvey 1 (Unassisted), Ritchie 54 (assisted Hayden)

Bookings: Ritchie 89 (foul)

QPR: Smithies 8; Furlong 6 (Goss 81, -), Onuoha 7, Lynch 7, Bidwell 7; Luongo 7, Perch 7, Manning 8 (Freeman 66, 5); Wszolek 7, Washington 8, Mackie 7 (Lua Lua 74, 5)

Subs not used: Cousins, Ingram, Doughty, Petrasso

Goals: Washington 44 (assisted Bidwell) Clark own goal 89 (assisted Lua Lua)

Bookings: Perch 44 (foul)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 6 Nowhere near as annoying as he was in our home match with Wolves, but still not great. Missed both Shelvey’s kick out at Mackie, and Lynch’s stamp on Ameobi. Seemed to lose the plot rather in the last ten minutes, with fouls awarded for very little and other obvious bad tackles waved on.

QPR 1 Wolves 2, Thursday December 1, 2016, Championship

Robinson had already awarded Wolves a free kick from QPR’s first corner of the game when goalkeeper Carl Ikeme seemed to simply fumble the ball in a crowded six yard box. This time the former QPR loanee definitely dropped it clean, under no pressure at all, and yet the whistle was once again blown immediately and the visitors awarded a free kick. This continued all half to the point where corners became completely pointless — player trots over to take it, players come up from the back to attack it, ball comes over, whistle gets blown, free kick the other way. I wondered if it might be worth saving time and just forfeiting them. “Corner”, “nah you’re alright ref, let them have a goal kick and let’s at least try and get home before first light you pedantic schlong”.

And then it happened. The all-too-often spotted James Perch brain fart. Less of a fart, more of a full on beer shit in truth, given what had happened at Ipswich. Robinson had to get a decision right eventually, and sadly it was this one. On a yellow card, the former Wigan and Newcastle man decided to get airborn and fly into a wild fool’s mission of a challenge on Wolves’ Matt Doherty as he cut in from the left wing. Luckily he didn’t connect too much with the player, or he might have killed him, but a yellow card was the only option and Perch headed off for an early bath, money well earned for the week and no need for him to make that long trip up to Rotherham next weekend now either. I’m alright Jack, pull the fucking ladder up.

QPR: Smithies 8; Perch 2, Onuoha 5, Lynch 6, Robinson 4; Hall 6; Luongo 5, Sandro 5 (Henry 61, 5), Chery 5; Polter 5 (Sylla 67, 5), Washington 5 (Ngbakoto 46, 6)

Subs not used: Ingram, Gladwin, Cousins, Bidwell

Goals: Lynch 90 (assisted Robinson)

Red Cards: Perch 35 (two yellows)

Yellow Cards: Perch 9 (dissent), Perch 35 (foul), Luongo 51 (foul)

Wolves: Ikeme 6 (Lonergan 81, -); Iorfa 6, Baath 6, Stearman 6, Doherty 6; Coady 6, Saiss 7, Edwards 7; Costa 7, Dicko 6 (Bodvarsson 76, 6), Cavaleiro 6 (Saville 73, 6)

Subs not used: Wallace, Price, Hause, Enobakhare

Goals: Edwards 60 (assisted Dicko), Costa 67 (assisted Saiss)

Yellow cards: Cavaleiro 49 (foul), Batth 78 (dissent)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 3 Insufferable.

QPR 1 Fulham 3, Saturday February 8, 2016, Championship

But there was some sort of rally at the start of the second half as Mackie freed Hoilett on the edge of the box to burst into the area only for Michael Madl to chop him down right on the line. It was the dictionary definition of a yellow card, but referee Tim Robinson didn’t even speak to the offender, and then allowed Scott Parker to stand seven yards away from the kick as it was taken. As QPR - stupidly, moronically - decided to touch the ball rather than just hitting it, Parker was only about a foot away from it when it was finally struck by Phillips and was therefore able to block it away. Shambolic refereeing all round really, and Onuoha was subsequently yellow carded for telling him as much.

When, midway through the half, Jamie Mackie caught Fulham pissing around in possession and ran clear on goal only to be chopped down by Dan Burn a red card seemed the only likely outcome. Robinson bottled the big decision and showed a yellow, before then booking O’Hara a short time later, and speaking to Mackie at length about his own dissent — a farcical five minutes at the hands of an official out of his depth.

QPR: Smithies 6; Perch 5, Onuoha 4, Hall 5, Konchesky 4; Phillips 3 (Chery 76, 6), Toszer 3, Luongo 5, Hoilett 5 (El Khayati 65, 6); Polter 4 (Washington 46, 5), Mackie 6

Subs not used: Hill, Henry, Ingram, Petrasso

Goals: Chery 89 (assisted Tozser)

Bookings: Onuoha 48 (dissent), Hall 82 (foul)

Fulham: Lonergan 6; Fredericks 7, Madl 6, Burn 8, Christensen — (Garbutt 6, 8); Amorebieta 6, Parker 7 (Ince 78, 6), O’Hara 7, Cairney 8; McCormack 8, Dembele 7 (Hundman 84, -)

Subs not used: Richards, Smith, Kacaniklic, Lewis

Goals: McCormack 35 (assisted Cairney), Dembele 41 (assisted Garbutt), Cairney 45+2 (assisted Dembele)

Bookings: Burn 63 (foul), O’Hara 65 (dissent)

Referee — Tim Robinson (West Sussex) 4 Made rather a pig’s ear of a one-sided, uncompetitive game which doesn’t bode particularly well. One red card challenge from Burn only received a yellow, one yellow card challenge on Hoilett didn’t get a card at all, one foul on Luongo was waved away altogether, two players were booked for dissent when their frustration with the officials all became too much for them… but he was very hot and precise about the placement of throw ins. Not as bad as QPR, but not far off.

Stats

Five games already this season for Robinson with six yellows and two reds kicking things off at Cardiff’s surprise opening day win against Norwich, and then 15 yellows and no reds in the four fixtures thereafter. Very busy season last year, with 37 appointments, but no play-off action for him come May which suggests that early career hopes of progression to the Premier League, currently, don’t have much prospect of being fulfilled. He showed 166 yellows and seven reds in those games, a hefty total boosted significantly by two separate games where he showed nine yellows and a red — including the final day fixture between Preston and Boro. He refereed Millwall’s 1-1 draw at home to Derby, sending off the visitors’ Nathan Byrne in the second half. His overall QPR record is 3-3-9 from 15 appointments, and 5-8-5 from 18 games with Millwall.

The Twitter @loftforwords

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francisbowles added 16:05 - Sep 12 Might be better if it's postponed.🙄
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