Young Sheffield official James Bell is back at Loftus Road for the first time in almost a year as the R’s host Coventry on Tuesday.

Referee >>> James Bell (Sheffield), third year on the Championship list, fourth QPR game so far.

Assistants >>> Ian Cooper (Kent) and Matthew Smith (Leicestershire)

Fourth Official >>> David Rock (Hertfordshire)

History

QPR 2 Hull 0, Saturday December 9, 2023, Championship

Referee James Bell, in charge of a game at Loftus Road for the first time, had previously given several controversial decisions against Rangers at Southampton and West Brom. Here, what green there was rubbed the other way. After just a minute of play Jake Clarke-Salter slipped, fell over, knew he was stranded, and fairly obviously felled Delap on his way down to stop him running clear – Bell waved play on. That decision was highly suspect. Later calls, particularly ruling Reggie Cannon had got the ball rather than fouled Connolly in the School End penalty box in the second half, and a later booking of Delap for diving, were correct, but they’re the sort of moments we weren’t getting earlier in the season - in general, or from this referee specifically. All of the moments, all of a sudden, all going our way.

QPR: Begovic 8; Cannon 7 (Kakay 75, 6), Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Paal 7; Field 5, Dozzell 6; Willock 8 (Kelman 86, -), Chair 8 (Dixon-Bonner 85. -), Smyth 6 (Armstrong 66, 7); Dykes 6 (Larkeche 76, 6)

Subs not used: Dunne, Archer, Richards, Drewe

Goals Willock 45 (assisted Field), Chair 73 (assisted Willock)

Bookings: Dykes 70 (foul), Kelman 90 (time wasting)

Hull: Allsop 5; Christie 6, McLoughlin 5, Greaves 6, Coyle 5; Morton 6, Seri 6 (Tufan 76, 6); Traore 6 (Connolly 45, 6), Twine 6 (Vaughan 90, -), Philogene 7 (Slater 51, 6); Delap 7 (Sellars-Fleming 90, -)

Subs not used: Ingram, Docherty, Smith, Jacob

Bookings: Philogene 51 (refusing to leave the field after injury), Seri 70 (dissent), Delap 87 (diving)

Referee – James Bell (Sheffield) 7 Felt like we got the rub of the green here in a way we didn’t as the away side with this referee at Southampton and West Brom. Bit of a homer? The replays of the Connolly penalty appeal, which was the big decision in the game, suggest he was spot on, so a high mark for now and judgement reserved.

West Brom 2 QPR 0, Tuesday October 24, 2023, Championship

Ten minutes into the second half Jimmy Dunne left the field after treatment accompanied by our physio. The rule this season, to combat the blatant cheating that goes on at this level, is you have to stay off for 30 seconds and wait to be summoned back on by the referee. Perhaps Dunne will tell you either referee or linesman said it was ok, or at least he thought they’d said it was ok, but I’m not in a particularly forgiving mood and if there’s two of you over there you’d hope one of them might be able to count to 30 – especially as one of you has got a bloody medical license. Yellow card. For that. There followed a foul by Kenneth Paal, on Grady Diangana in the QPR area, which, short of pulling out a gun and mowing the Baggies’ winger down in a deathfire hail of blood and bullets, could scarcely have been a more obvious penalty. Dunne, not 60 seconds on from getting his first booking, then harassed and harangued referee James Bell until he sent him off (edit - it would appear, watching the ITV highlights, he's actually been booked for scuffing up the penalty spot which... well there are no words for that level of dumb). Now James Bell hasn’t been refereeing long, but it’s been long enough for us to establish he’s a bit of a dick. To give him an excuse like this is mindless. Mindless.

West Brom: Palmer N/A; Kipre 7 (Taylor 86, -), Bartley 6, Pieters 5 (Gordon 86, -); Furlong 6, Chalobah 6 (Molumby 75, 6), Yokuslu 6 (Mowatt 54, 7), Phillips 7 (Fellows 75, 6); Wallace 5, Diangana 8; Thomas-Asante 7

Subs not used: Griffiths, Higgins, Love, Shaw

Goals: Thomas-Asante 59 (penalty, won Diangana), Diangana 68 (assisted Thomas-Asante)

Bookings: Thomas-Asante 66 (foul)

QPR: Begovic 5; Kakay 3, Dunne 2, Clarke-Salter 4 (Smyth 45, 4); Cannon 6, Colback 5, Dozzell 4 (Armstrong 71, 4), Field 4, Paal 4; Chair 4 (Willock 81, -), Dykes 4

Subs not used: Archer, Dixon-Bonner, Larkeche, Kelman, Duke-McKenna, Merryfield

Bookings: Colback 30 (foul), Chair 40 (foul), Dunne 57 (re-entering field of play illegally), Begovic 58 (dissent), Dunne 58 (dissent)

Referee – James Bell (Sheffield) 5 Clearly – clearly - doesn’t need to be given the excuses we gave him here to start acting up. Fell on his arse at the end, missing a penalty appeal by Sinclair Armstrong as he did so, which rather sums him up.

Southampton 2 QPR 1, Saturday August 26, 2023, Championship

And maybe now's the time to mention Saturday's referee Mr James Bell of Sheffield. Only his second season in the Championship and his first time officiating QPR (and Southampton for that matter) A man who decided today was the day to reinvent the advantage rule. The Saints winner started from a free-kick given after Referee Bell had played the advantage rule for Southampton which they didn't take advantage of by playing a rare sloppy pass. So Bell blew up and let Southampton have a free-kick for the the earlier infringement. I'm no expert and the laws seemed to be being tweaked every season but I don't think this is how the advantage rule is supposed to work. He did this more than once, maybe up to three times all in Southampton's favour.

The game at St. Mary's ends minutes later with Steve Cook about to take another long throw after the previous one is cleared back to him. He wipes the ball, steps back, and readies himself classic throw-in pose style and begins to move forward but the referee blows for full time. Cook is apoplectic. I stay watching Cook's reaction. He kicks the ball away and makes a bee-line for the ref. Cook is pointing at the ref, jabbing his finger. He's furious. I try and lip-read what Cook is saying. He's calling the ref by his surname and he's making a reference to the untimely conclusion of the game. "Bell-End Bell-End" I can’t vouch for the complete accuracy of this but Mr Bell-End does wave a yellow card in Cook's face in a manner I would describe as pathetic and impotent. Oh I'm so looking forward to your first game at Loftus Road Mr. B-E.

Southampton: Bazunu 6; Walker-Peters 7, Bednarek 6, Stephens 5 (Downes 25, 7), Charles 6; Manning 6, Armstrong S 5, Alcatraz 4, (Mara 56, 5): Amo-Ameyaw (Fraser 56, 6), 5 Armstrong A 7, Fandab-Edozie 7 (Aribo 83, - )

Subs not used: Lumley, Ballsy-Ketchup, Bree, DJ Eneppo, Doyle, Fraser

Bookings: Manning 11 (foul), Armstrong S 19 (exceeding the Armstrong quota), Alcatraz 29 (Wearing a Woody from Toy Story t-shirt under his shirt), Fraser 92 (foul)

Goals: Fandab-Edozie 30 (assisted Manning), Armstrong, A 64 (assisted Manning)

QPR: Begovic 5; Kakay 7, Cook 6, Fox 6: Smyth 6 (Adomah 74, 5), Dozzell 6 (Kolli 82 - ), Field 6, Colback 7 (Duke-McKenna, 74 5), Paal 6, Chair 6; Armstrong 6

Subs not used: Archer; Clarke-Salter (Let it be known), Larkeche, Dixon-Bonner, Aoraha, Bala

Bookings:Duke-McKenna 87 (Playing football in a built-up area), Field 89 (the usual), Cook FT (Giving the ref a big dollop of truth-juice)

Goals: Colback (self-made)

Referee - James Bell (Sheffield) 3 This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Much like the one we have with Keith Stroud. Bell. End. End. Of.

Stats

Bell was promoted onto the league list for the 2020/21 campaign and after two campaigns in League One and Two was upped into the Championship for the start of the 2022/23 campaign. He did 17 matches last year, nine of them at this level, with 58 yellows and three reds shown.

Two of those red cards came in Plymouth matches – one for Argyle in injury time at Portsmouth as they conceded in the last minute to draw 2-2, and another for Accrington when the Green Army won 2-0 up in Lancashire. He has a chequered past with Plymouth. In May 2021 he sent off Jerome Opoku in a 3-1 home loss to Sunderland in League One. After the game manager Ryan Lowe went to town on the young official, saying that before the match he’d been laughing and joking about how, as a Sheff Wed fan, he used to sing Lowe’s name from the terrace when he played for the Owls, but then afterwards he’d refused to meet and speak about the red card decision. This would come back to haunt Bell at the end of the 22/23 campaign when he was appointed to referee Ipswich v Charlton, until Town fans discovered the old Lowe quotes online and kicked up a stink about him doing the game given how Ipswich and Sheff Wed were locked in a promotion battle. He was replaced for the fixture. He later issued a red card to Lowe, by now Preston manager, in a game against Birmingham.

Last season he finished up with 109 yellows and five reds in 26 games. His two Coventry games saw them win 1-0 at Stoke and lose 2-1 at home to Ipswich. He topped out at seven yellows and a red at Exeter’s 1-0 cup upset against Luton before Christmas.

Bell arrives into this fixture on something of a hot run. He’s shown 21 yellows and four reds in his last three games – six and one at Luton’s 2-2 draw with Oxford, seven yellows and two reds in Chesterfield’s 3-0 away win at Doncaster, and eight yellows and a red in Burnley’s 1-0 win at Leeds. That’s given his running totals a hefty boost to 38 yellows and four reds in just seven fixtures. This is his second Coventry game following their 1-0 win at Bristol City in the League Cup in August.

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Pictures — Ian Randall Photography

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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