Josh Smith, last in charge of QPR for the memorable Good Friday win at home to Birmingham, is the man in the middle for the final day trip to Coventry.

Referee: >>> Josh Smith (Lincolnshire), at 29 Smith is one of the youngest referees on the EFL circuit.

Assistants >>> Matthew Jones (Staffordshire) and Sam Lewis (Buckinghamshire)

Fourth official: >>> Adam Herczeg (Durham), one of three referees from Leagues One and Two given a recent Championship trial game ahead of possible promotion (Huddersfield 1-3 Coventry)

History

QPR 2 Birmingham 1, Friday March 29, 2024, Championship

Where things did get odd, however, was referee Josh Smith taking a ball that had been in QPR’s possession high up in an attack on the right wing and marching it back 60 yards down the field, into the Rangers half, whereby he unceremoniously chucked it at the nearest home player, allowed Birmingham to contest it, and set in motion a chain of events that saw Isaac Hayden injured in a tackle for which he was yellow carded, replaced in the middle of the midfield by Jack Colback, and then, through the confusion and newly opened spaces which highlight just how important Hayden is to this team, drove Birmingham’s best player, Juninho Bacuna, for a slickly taken opening goal into the top corner of the School End net.

QPR: Begovic 5; Dunne 8, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Paal 6 (Larkeche 87, -); Hayden 7 (Colback 60, 6), Field 6; Chair 6, Andersen 6, Willock 6 (Smyth 76, 6); Frey 5 (Armstrong 59, 6)

Subs not used: Dykes, Fox, Hodge, Cannon, Walsh

Goals: Cook 65 (unassisted), Dunne 90+2 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Hayden 58 (foul), Colback 76 (foul)

Birmingham: Ruddy 6; Aiwu 6, Sanderson 5, Buchanan 5; Laird 5, Paik 6, Bielik 6 (Gardner 90+1, -), Drameh 6; Bacuna 7 (James 85, -), Stansfield 5 (Hogan 85, -), Roberts 4 (Miyoshi 73, 5)

Subs not used: Etheridge, Dembele, Sunjic, Hall

Goals: Bacuna 62 (assisted Laird)

Bookings: Laird 47 (foul), Roberts 51 (foul)

Referee – Josh Smith (Lincolnshire) 6 I had this down as a seven, or possibly even eight, but I simply don’t understand the sequence of events that saw the play stopped for one of several non-existent injuries feigned by Buchanan, with QPR in possession and moving forwards down the right wing, and then restarted again 40 yards back down the field, with a ball chucked by the referee at a QPR player and Birmingham allowed to contest it. It resulted in the injury to Hayden, a free kick and a yellow card, and very soon after that the opening Birmingham goal. I feel for the official to some extent – the current bed-wetting about people possibly getting bumped on the head while playing professional sport has seen protocols brought in that footballers were always going to game to their advantage and Sam Field had done exactly the same act as Buchanan in the first half when he felt a stoppage would benefit QPR – but the chosen location and manner of the restart felt pretty wild to me. Still, one defeat in eight now for Rangers with this referee and he’s pretty decent overall.

Preston 0 QPR 2, Friday December 1, 2023, Championship

The key (nee only) incident from that first stanza was Lyndon Dykes smashing Andrew Hughes in the face competing for a high ball, which PNE manager Ryan Lowe felt should have been a red card rather than a yellow. I’m inclined to agree with him. I remember watching Pierluigi Collina doing a Monday Night Football once where he spoke about looking for a splayed hand or a clenched fist to tell him whether a player had gone to deliberately elbow an opponent or not, and Dykes does have his palm open, but he catches Hughes full in the face with a forearm/elbow and he’s lucky to stay on the field. Where I’m not so convinced with Lowe’s logic is the idea Ched Evans would have been sent off for the same thing. Evens is into his fourth season at Preston and across his 81 appearances for the club he’s been sent off once, for a tackle away at Wigan last August that was worth two red cards by itself. That’s his only red card in five years of football, since he was playing for Fleetwood, and he’s been booked once so far this season. Ched Evans is many things to many Andrew Tate troglodytes, but a guy getting unfairly sent off loads of times is not one of them. Still, after that horrendous run of refereeing decisions we had go against us when we played Swansea, Coventry and Leeds, this week truly has been one for the ‘they even themselves up in the end’ argument.

PNE: Woodman 6; Ramsay 3 (Stewart 87, -), Storey 5, Lindsay 5, Hughes 4; Whiteman 6 (McCann 73, 5), Browne 5; Holmes 3, Keane 4 (Millar 46, 5), Frokjaer 5 (Woodburn 73, 4); Evans 4

Subs not used: Cunningham, Brady, Ledson, Cornell, Best

Bookings: Woodburn 90+3 (foul)

QPR: Begovic 6; Cannon 6 (Kakay 65, 6), Dunne 6, Clarke-Salter 7, Paal 7; Colback 5 (Chair 46, 8), Field 6, Dozzell 7 (Larkeche 79, 7); Willock 7 (Kelman 90+2, -), Dykes 7, Smyth 7 (Dixon-Bonner 65, 7)

Subs not used: Cook, Archer, Duke-McKenna, Drewe

Goals: Smyth 55 (assisted Chair), Willock 87 (assisted Chair)

Bookings: Dykes 22 (foul)

Referee – Josh Smith (Lincolnshire) 6 I think Dykes is fortunate to stay on the field, and I’ve no doubt I’d be screaming for that one too. Some refereeing howlers against us earlier in the season have evened up slightly this week. Other than that incident he didn’t have a lot to referee, though I very much doubt this would have gone ahead if it wasn’t on TV.

QPR 0 Blackburn 4, Saturday October 7, 2023, Championship

QPR: Begovic 4; Larkeche 2, Dunne 3, Clarke-Salter 4, Paal 3; Colback 3 (Smyth 71, 4), Duke-McKenna 3 (Dixon-Bonner 79, -), Dozzell 4, Chair 4; Dykes 3, Armstrong 4 (Kolli 79, 4)

Subs not used: Kakay, Archer, Willock, Cannon, Kelman, Adomah

Bookings: Clarke-Salter 22 (foul), Smyth 90+3 (dissent)

Blackburn: Wahlstedt 6; Hill 7, Carter 6, Hyam 7, Pickering 7; Tronstad 7 (Travis 60, 7); Rankin-Costello 8, Markanday 7 (Brittain 45, 7), Sigurdsson 8 (Moran 61, 7), Dolan 7 (Ennis 76, 6); Szmodics 7 (Gilsenan 89, -)

Subs not used: Wharton, Garrett, Telalovic, Hilton

Goals: Dolan 19 (assisted Rankin-Costello), Sigurdsson 23 (assisted Szmodics), 59 (assisted Dolan), Szmodics 66 (assisted Larkeche)

Bookings: Szmodics 43 (foul), Gilsenan 90 (foul)

Referee – Josh Smith (Bourne) 7 Must have enjoyed this, strolling around in the sun, refereeing a game about as competitive as one of those friendlies you play against a village team in the first week of July.

QPR 1 Sheff Utd 1, Monday January 2, 2023, Championship

QPR: Dieng 7; Kakay 7, Dickie 6, Dunne 7, Paal 6; Field 7, Iroegbunam 6; Chair 7, Willock 6 (Amos 74, 6), Roberts 6 (Adomah 78, 6); Dykes 7

Subs not used: Richards, Shodipo, Masterson, Armstrong, Mahoney

Goals: Chair 11 (assisted Willock)

Bookings: Field 57 (foul), Dunne 86 (foul)

Sheff Utd: Foderingham 5; Ahmedhodzic 6 (Bogle 83, -), Egan 6, Clark 5 (Robinson 46, 6); Baldock 6 (Jebbison 70, 6), Berge 6, Norwood 6, Doyle 6 (McAtee 60, 7), Stevens 6; Ndiaye 7, Sharp 6

Subs not used: Davies, Basham, Brooks

Goals: Egan 90+6 (assisted Stevens)

Bookings: Foderingham 39 (handball), Jebbison 90+2 (foul)

Referee — Josh Smith (Lincolnshire) 6 Some bits and pieces as there’s always going to be — Sam Field’s booking felt harsh given some of the other stuff that wasn’t carded, such as Baldock’s late and frustrated hack at Chair, and like Neil Critchley I think there’s an argument for a foul in the build up to the sickening equaliser — but overall I thought he refereed a competitive game reasonably well.

QPR 3 Middlesbrough 2, Saturday August 6, 2022, Championship

Belatedly, QPR made substitutions, and given their impact I wonder whether Beale may have a bit more faith a bit earlier with these bench options. Albert Adomah, so off the pace last week, came on and gave an absolute masterclass in intelligent retention of possession and clock running in the opposition half. Honestly, he should teach a class in this. It was textbook, and nearly brought a killer goal as well as we finally put a move worthy of note together and Adomah drilled a shot past the beaten keeper but a foot wide of the post. And the much-maligned Bonne, with Dykes giving everything I’d asked of him last week and now spent, came on and closed up, ran down everything, and prevented Boro playing unchallenged balls forward from the back. I liked him a lot, with hindsight I’d have liked to see him ten minutes prior, and his hassling quickly drew a red card from Lenihan for illegally preventing the former Charlton man having a clear run on the goal. Referee Smith might do him a favour and put it down as denying a clear goalscoring chance (one match ban) but really the tackle was bad enough for a red regardless (three games). Perhaps Bonne isn’t dead to us after all, a very creditable outing here.

QPR: Dieng 7; Kakay 6, Dickie 8, Dunne 7, Paal 6; Amos 7, Johansen 7 (Dozzell 82, -), Field 7; Willock 8 (Adomah 74, 7), Chair 6 (Travelman 88, -), Dykes 7 (Bonne 87, -)

Subs not used: Masterson, Shodipo, Walsh

Goals: Willock 13 (unassisted), Dunne 27 (assisted Chair), Dykes 38 (assisted Johansen)

Bookings: Johansen 77 (very fouly foul), Kakay 90+1 (time wasting)

Boro: Steffen 4; Dijksteel 4 (McNair 46, 7), Lenihan 6, Bola 5; Jones 6, Crooks 6, Howson 6, McGree 6, Giles 7; Forss 7 (Smith 68, 5), Watmore 4 (Akpom 46, 7)

Subs not used: Fry, Boyd-Munce, Roberts, Finch

Goals: Crooks 41 (assisted Giles), Forss 56 (assisted Crooks)

Reds: Lenihan 90+2 (denying an obvious goalscoring opp/serious foul play)

Mellow yellows: Forss 17 (naughty, naughty), Bola 73 (pointy finger foul),

Referee — Josh Smith (Lincolnshire) 6 Curate’s egg. The Premier League is chock full of 50 somethings refereeing a young man’s game, hamstrung by employment laws around retirement age and some such bollocks that means we end up with Jon Moss waddling round making a catastrophe of the Championship play-off final. In an effort to get younger referees onto that list, several are on the fast track, and we’ve had two in two games with Thomas Bramall and Josh Smith here. This went badly wrong for Stuart Attwell and Gavin Ward early in their careers and these referees need to be carefully managed. There were woeful inconsistencies here — harsh yellows for some stuff, obvious bookings elsewhere turned away. You can tell these lads are good referees but lack experience, they’re learning on the job here. Wilder’s comments on his performance were wholly unfair, the penalty he wanted wasn’t even appealed for by his players, and he’s covering his own arse signing a dodgy goalkeeper for the second which is perfectly legit. The biggest gripe I had was he pulled us back for our own free kick on the halfway line in first half stoppage time when Illy was in at the other end, and came very close to making that same mistake for the Bonne break in stoppage time which he (just about) played on through to its red card conclusion.

QPR 1 Derby County 0, Monday April 18, 2022, Championship

A chunky eight minutes of stoppage time only enough for sub subs Cybulksi to meet a free kick at the back post but head down into the ground allowing Westwood to comfortably save. Sam Field was booked for a seventh match in a row, and thirteenth time in 23 appearances this season, now perilously close to a three-match ban. Designated driver Tom Lawrence exemplified his value as captain by getting himself sent off, fouling Charlie Austin in the final seconds while already on a yellow card to earn himself a nice rest for the remaining dead rubbers — Reading’s remarkable comeback against Swansea up the M4 sealing Derby’s fate.

QPR: Westwood 6; Odubajo 7 (Kakay 58, 6), Dunne 7, Sanderson 6, McCallum 6; Field 7, Dozzell 6 (Johansen 75, 5), Amos 6, Chair 7; Thomas 7 (Austin 71, 6), Dykes 6

Subs not used: Ball, Gray, Adomah, Mahoney

Goals: Amos 89 (assisted Dykes)

Bookings: Dozzell 59 (foul), Field 72 (foul)

Derby: Allsop 7; Byrne 6, Davies 7, Cashin 6, Buchanan 7 (Cybulksi 85, -); Bielik 6 (Morrison 64, 6), Thompson 6; Ebiowei 8, Lawrence 5, Knight 6 (Sibley 75, 6); Plange 6

Red Cards: Lawrence 90+8 (two yellows)

Bookings: Lawrence 56 (foul), Lawrence 90+8 (foul)

Referee — Josh Smith (Lincs) 6 Rooney was absolutely fuming for most of the last half hour, engaged in the sort of constant berating of a fourth official that’s tolerated for reasons that are beyond me, even if it is Chuckles Woolmer on the receiving end. I’m not reeeeeeally sure why. Smith is an inexperienced referee, and that shows sometimes when he allows himself to be conned into awarding a free kick by an obvious dive, or issuing a card to assert authority when a little word on the run would suffice. But was he that bad here? Did he get that much wrong? Not for me.

Luton 1 QPR 2, Sunday March 13, 2022, Championship

A goal was absolutely, definitely coming, though when it did arrive it was highly preventable. Marshall, at fault for the winner at Blackburn and Cardiff’s equaliser last week, kept up his sad recent goal-a-game average by allowing the tamest of speculative efforts from Cameron Jerome to squeeze between his gloves and over the line from long range. From debating whether Seny Dieng would regain his place post AFCON, to now wondering whether he might be able to play on one leg. QPR fully justified in wondering why Jordan Clark’s basketball-style control in the build up — hand and arm raised high above his head and batting his miscontrol back down to himself — was waved as play-on, but really had everything going for them to make that as irrelevant as the lino’s earlier faux pas. Before half time a ball fell to the impressive Clark in a great spot in front of goal and only a block first by his own man, and then secondly, brilliantly and bravely, by Jimmy Dunne prevented that being two nil there and then.

The winning goal came from a corner - Naismith, again, wild and rash in hacking a horrible clearance high and mightily wide behind his own goal. On the long list of QPR issues in recent weeks had been finding a taker for these — only David Marshall is yet to have a go, and I’d back him to do a better job than Yoann Barbet. Barbet might be a better goalkeeper as well. With the French centre back safely back on the near post, Chris Willock decided to have a go — a winger, crossing a deadball, burn the fucking witch. The delivery was a horror from the moment it left his boot — the sort of devilish, nasty, whipped ball that goalkeepers see coming towards them in nightmares that jerk them awake as a sweaty mess at three in the morning. You couldn’t see a lot from where we were standing, but the arc and trajectory on this brought it right towards us, and three of the faithful who travel with me and improve my life through their mere existence said “it’s in” in unison. It was in immediately, it was in all the way, it was in from the moment he kicked it. It was in. It was written. From a crowd at the near post the ball skimmed off Rob Dickie’s shoulder and landed satisfyingly in the corner of the net nearest to us. Goalkeeper Shea, blocked into his net by an obviously offside Luke Amos, couldn’t do a thing about it. The linesman’s failure to spot this only adds comedy to the glorious, euphoria of it all. If anything, I wish he’d been further offside. Behind the goal, amidst the collapse of society, a full size, old school tin rubbish bin was launched into the air like a Cold war Soviet spacecraft. Dickie’s fifth of the season, but first in 33 games going back to late August. Hook it to my veins. Just when you’re out, they drag you back in again. These are the moments, these are the moments, we missed so dearly in lockdown. You simply have to be there.

Luton: Shea 5; Bree 7, Burke 6, Lockyer 6, Naismith 4, Bell 6; Mpanzu 7 (Lansbury 15, 6), Clark 7 (Snodgrass 81, -), Campbell 7; Jerome 7 (Cornick 74, 5), Adebayo 6

Subs not used: Potts, Berry, Isted, Onyedinma

Goals: Jerome 37 (assisted Campbell)

QPR: Marshall 4; Odubajo 7, Dickie 6, Dunne 7, Barbet 6, Wallace 6; Field 7, Johansen 6, Hendrick 5 (Amos 74, 7); Chair 5 (Austin 60, 6), Gray 7 (Willock 78, 7)

Subs not used: McCallum, Dozzell, Adomah, Mahoney

Goals: Gray 55 (penalty won Gray), Dickie 83 (assisted Willock)

Bookings: Chair 45 +6 (unsporting), Amos 87 (foul), Wallace 90+5 (time wasting)

Referee — Josh Smith (Lincolnshire) 5 Much like Blackpool away I came away reasonably impressed with his overall game management and how he handled a potentially difficult game, but there were too many incorrect decisions for a high mark. Luton’s first goal should be disallowed for a hand ball, our winning goal is pretty obviously offside with Luke Amos blocking the goalkeeper — as at Bloomfield Road, referee let down by a poor linesman call there. I thought he got the Ilias Chair incident about right, though plenty of referees would have sent him off there and the QPR man was dumb for giving the referee a decision to make when the half time whistle had already gone.

Blackpool 1 QPR 1, Saturday November 6, 2021, Championship

Perception — Rangers cannot defend. On nine occasions already this season Mark Warburton’s side has required two goals just to get a point. They’ve conceded goals in the last minute of games five times in ten fixtures. They’re light in the centre of midfield and with the wing backs trying to compensate for that by joining the press it’s easy to get in at an exposed back three, behind which Seny Dieng is rather struggling for form. It can all feel a little bit seat-of-your-pants at times and that was certainly the case here where Blackpool had an early goal controversially disallowed (Perception: Madine is offside. Reality: the ball was over the line anyway so it should have counted, though if he wasn’t such a greedy fucker the error by young referee Josh Smith and linesman Akil Howson would have been irrelevant) and went dangerously close on numerous other occasions. Rob Dickie’s heroic block denied Dougall on ten minutes as another Bowler set piece dropped loose, eight minutes after that Gabriel turned back inside Odubajo in the area tight to the byline and was wrestled to the ground for a half decent penalty shout. It felt like the R’s were cashing in a few refereeing chips accumulated over the prior few weeks of controversies against us.

Reality — Rangers had kept four clean sheets in eight games prior to this one. Theirs is still the eighth leakiest defence in the Championship, but that’s progress from a few weeks ago when it was the worst bar Peterborough. Rob Dickie was commanding and assured again, Jimmy Dunne a tower of strength under a barrage of wind-assisted high balls bar one near mix up with Dieng over a dodgy back pass. For all Pool’s impressive play, for all QPR’s apparent failings, for all the harum-scarum (Dieng flapped around in the wind all afternoon but saved well at his near post as Expiteta threatened to bundle home from a corner, former Kings Lynn prospect Sonny Carey struck the outside of the post late on) the home team did only score here off the sort of basic individual error that has become too commonplace this season. Yoann Barbet, who was erratic at Cardiff during the week, trying to be too clever by half under a routine cross when the conditions called for a safety-first approach, allowed Gabriel in on Dieng and he rather needlessly thrust out an arm to fell the advancing attacker. Gabriel had already toed the ball well wide of the goal, hence a yellow card, but that meant he didn’t need to make the challenge at all. Barbet’s fault in the main though and, as I’ve apparently got as much chance of saving a penalty for QPR as Dieng has, Madine was able to make it 1-1.

Blackpool: Grimshaw 6; Gabriel 8, Expiteta 7, Husband 6, James 6; Bowler 8 (Mitchell 79, 6), Wintle 7, Dougall 7, Dale 6 (Carey 73, 6); Anderson 8, Madine 6

Subs Not Used: Connolly, Yates, Casey, Gretarsson, Moore

Goals: Madine 54 (penalty won Gabriel)

Bookings: Madine 36 (foul), Anderson 60 (foul)

QPR: Dieng 5; Adomah 5, Dickie 7, Dunne 7, Barbet 5, Odubajo 5 (Kakay 46, 6); Dozzell 6, Amos 5 (Ball 73, 6), Chair 7; Willock 7 (Austin 73, 5), Dykes 5

Subs not used: Archer, Field, Duke-Mckenna, Thomas

Goals: Willock 26 (assisted Chair)

Bookings: Odubajo 33 (foul), Adomah 50 (foul), Dieng 53 (foul), Ball 82 (foul), Dunne 90+5 (foul)

Referee — Josh Smith 5 Very difficult game to referee, and the EFL’s youngest middle man copped plenty from an enthusiastic home crowd. The Dougall/Madine disallowed goal is wrong, it’s a big decision which has cost Blackpool the match, so the mark is never going to be particularly high. Of the other big decisions: I’d have wanted the Odubajo/Gabriel penalty appeal in the first half but I can maybe see why it was waved away; their penalty they did get, along with the yellow rather than the red, is fair enough; most of the bookings were just, though Odubajo can perhaps count himself slightly fortunate it was only a yellow; Dougall lucky not to have seen yellow for persistent and ongoing haranguing of the match officials. Tough task for the referee, but it certainly felt like QPR got the rub of plenty of green here.

Stats

Josh Smith was promoted onto the Football League list for the 2019/20 season aged 26, despite an operation to pin a regularly dislocated shoulder the season before. The former Bourne Grammar School student is one of the EFL’s youngest officials and he began life at this level with 26 appointments, 81 yellows and six reds, spread across Leagues One and Two and concluding with a League Two play-off semi-final between Colchester and Exeter.

His first Championship appointment, in October 2020, was quite a thing — eight yellows and a red in Huddersfield’s 2-1 home defeat against Preston. That was part of a 54 yellows and two reds from 19 games season in 2020/21 which included five Championship games.

He was very busy in 21/22 with 37 appointments bringing 143 yellows and five reds, led by seven yellows and a red at Blackburn’s 2-0 home defeat to Forest. His appointment for the Welsh derby between Cardiff and Swansea suggests he’s a fast-rising name to watch and he began last season on Monday night with a televised match between Watford and Sheff Utd in which he showed seven yellows and rarely appeared in complete control of. He finished up with 140 yellows and five reds in 35 games.

Promoted to the Premier League this season, he awarded a controversial penalty in Luton 1-1 Wolves on his top flight bow. He’s booked 138 and sent seven off in 34 games, topped out by eight and one in Brentford’s 3-1 home win against Burnley – that one of four games in the top flight he’s had so far. His last Coventry game was 6-2 home win against League One Oxford in the FA Cup, and the Sky Blues are 2-2-1 from five appointments overall. QPR are 5-2-1 from eight.

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