Backhouse in charge at Birmingham - Referee
Tuesday, 10th Mar 2026 09:14 by Clive Whittingham

Anthony Backhouse is the referee for Wednesday’s trip to Birmingham, his first QPR appointment of the season.

Referee >>> Anthony Backhouse (Carlisle), last in charge of Rangers on the final day of last season.

Assistants >>> Paul Hodskinson (Lancashire) and Daniel Leach (Oxfordshire)

Fourth Official >>> James Linington (Isle of Wight)

History

Sunderland 0 QPR 1, Saturday May 3, 2025, Championship

Much of their attacking plan seemed to be based on tossing set plays high over the box while angelic shithouse O’Nien wedgied Jack Colback’s shorts up his arse and then heaved himself to the ground as soon as the ball was delivered giving the crowd the chance to scream for a penalty. Belgian motorway basic.

Jobbing lower league referee Anthony Backhouse clung to this glorified pre-season friendly with his fingernails through some thoroughly odd decision making, but even he wasn’t buying those antics. O’Nien was later booked for catching Michi Frey with a stray arm – great plan Bart, Michi Frey is twice the player when he’s angry and subsequently made himself a pain in the arse the home team absolutely did not need in their lives for the final half hour. I'm starting to think we should employ somebody to give that guy a slap in the tunnel before we go out each week. I get O’Nien, I like O’Nien, I wish O’Nien (or his non-union Mexican equivalent) played for QPR, but much of his input on Saturday was dense as a dying sun, totally needless and, more importantly, significantly harmful to his team’s chances of getting a result from the game. Still, got his likes and funnies on Instagram though.

Backhouse, meanwhile, summed up by a second half passage of play where QPR had a player down injured so Harrison Ashby deliberately fouled an opponent to get the game stopped only for the referee to inexplicably wave play on through a foul both teams wanted awarding. Sunderland (rather understandably) lost their minds and Bellingham absolutely cleaned Dunne out on the touchline with a horrible tackle for which he didn’t even receive a yellow card. Backhouse started his year sending Jack Colback off for dissent at Bramall Lane and has had a difficult season at this level, culminating in the nonsense late penalty at Middlesbrough v Plymouth a fortnight ago. He gave a bizarre performance here, and frankly if you can’t keep control of this game, in these circumstances, I’m not sure you’re in the right league. Or job.

Sunderland: Patterson 6; Hume 6, Mephem 6 (Ballard 60, 7), O’Nien 4, Cirkin 5; Bellingham 6, Neil 5 (Watson 75, 5); Roberts 4, Rigg 5 (Isidor 75, 6), Le Fee 5; Mayenda 5

Subs not used: Samed, Aleksic, Browne, Hjelde, Jones, Moore

Yellow Cards: Neil 29 (foul), O’Nien 55 (foul)

QPR: Walsh 7; Dunne 8, Morrison 7, Edwards 8, Colback 6 (Fox 62, 6); Chair 6 (Kolli 46, 7), Varane 8, Madsen 7 (Morgan 90+3, -), Ashby 7; Dembele 6 (Andersen 73, 6); Frey 7

Subs not used: Bennie, Esquerdinha, Murphy, Shepperd, Sutton

Goals: Madsen 5 (assisted Ashby)

Yellow Cards: Madsen 74 (foul), Frey 90 (persistent fouling)

Referee – Anthony Backhouse (Carlisle) 5 If you can’t keep control of this game, I’m not sure you’re at the right level.

QPR 3 Norwich 0, Saturday December 7, 2024, Championship

In these conditions, and with jobbing lower league referee Anthony Backhouse still finding his Championship feet, there was always likely to be a chaotic element to proceedings. QPR adapted and revelled in that chaos, while Norwich lost heads and tempers in an afternoon of spiteful toy throwing.

You’d have been angry too had Harrison Ashby punching the ball behind for the most obvious handball penalty I’ve seen since this time last week at Watford been awarded as a corner at the other end. The visitors surrounded the referee, with Emiliano Marcondes’ meltdown particularly hysterical and worthy of a yellow card. They had two goals disallowed for offside either side of that incident, the second of which looks level to me with Steve Cook playing Crnac on. But then Fisher showed all six studs to Nicolas Madsen’s shins at the end of the first half, Kieran Morgan took a forearm to the side of the face, and neither of these apparently warranted so much as a free kick. It was an afternoon of big misses by the match officials, who put up with Sainz’s spoilt bitching and moaning throughout, and as usual allowed Ashley Barnes to try and referee the game himself once he’d trundled on after half time.

QPR: Nardi 7, Dunne 8, Cook 7, Morrison 7 (Fox 67, 6), Paal 7 (Ashby 46, 6); Varane 6, Morgan 6; Smyth 6 (Bennie 80, -), Madsen 6 (Andersen 67, 6), Saito 7; Celar – (Kolli 13, 8)

Subs not used: Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Walsh, Lloyd

Goals: Dunne 22 (unassisted), Kolli 45+4 (assisted Paal), 49 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Morrison 39 (foul), Nardi 43 (time wasting), Dunne 52 (foul), Smyth 64 (foul), Ashby 84 (time wasting)

Norwich: Gunn 3; Stacey 5, Duffy 4, Doyle 4 (Cordoba 87, -), Fisher 4 (Chrisene 46, 5); Nunez 5 (Sorensen 67, 5), Slimane 5 (Barnes 46, 4), McLean 5; Marcondes 5, Crnac 5 (Hernandez 78, 5), Sainz 6

Subs not used: Forson, Hanley, Long, Schwartau

Yellow Cards: Marcondes 54 (dissent), Sainz 66 (foul)

Referee – Anthony Backhouse (Carlisle) 4 Not an easy game to referee in the conditions at all, and rather felt like he was clinging onto it with his fingertips throughout. Missed a very obvious Norwich penalty in the second half for the Ashby handball, and both disallowed goals are highly debatable – linesman on that side had quite the afternoon. The fouls on Madsen and Morgan in the first half were nasty and worthy of greater punishment as Norwich lost their collective heads. An afternoon of big misses all round by the officials.

Sheff Utd 2 QPR 2, Saturday August 17, 2024, Championship

Michy Frey committed a daft foul on local Marvel universe villain Oli Arblaster down by the corner flag. Bit dim, but I quite liked Frey in this game so I was willing to give him a hall pass. Colback had the now traditional long, extenuated gob off to referee Anthony Backhouse, and was booked for dissent. They say the old ones are the best, but this one’s getting as tedious as Jim Davidson’s routine. Colback was booked 13 times last year, and four of those were for backchatting the officials. International Year of the Wally Brain.

Anyway, no matter, let’s get on with he quiz. I don’t want to talk about Mr Spock. All I’ll say now is what I said then – look at his ears. QPR deal with the free kick. QPR go up the other end. QPR get another corner. QPR continue push for an equaliser. QPR bring on Lyndon Dykes. QPR fans behind the goal bang the drum. But, out of the corner of my eye, a flash of orange. Charging off in the opposite direction to everybody, Gentle Ben was heading for the craft services table. Noooooooooo Ben. Before Cifuentes could get a blow dart in him, Colback had sprayed the fourth official. Deep sigh. Backhouse was called to the scene. A second yellow for dissent in as many minutes. QPR now down to ten men. Not now Chester, daddy’s sad.

Colback to a tee. Transformed the midfield when he came on, and then did that. His complaint, by all accounts, was not that Frey shouldn’t have been penalised but that a Sheff Utd player already on a booking was waving imaginary yellows around in front of the referee, which should have seen him sent off the other way. If it’s true, he’s got a point. Backhouse was rabidly inconsistent all day: Jake Clarke-Salter booked after just ten minutes for an obvious dive by O’Hare while other more serious fouls warranted barely a word on the run; Jack Robinson, immediately after Colback’s dissent dismissal, deliberately delaying the taking of a corner and then getting right up in the referees grill for a bit of an entitled shout and scream of his own with no card in return. But you cannot chase 40 yards across the field to scream at the fourth official while you’re on a card and I’m astonished that apparently needs explaining to a player of his experience. Don’t look at me like that news just came from Mars.

Sheff Utd: Davies 6; Gilchrist 6 (Souttar 77, 6), Ahmedhodzic 6 (Brewster 90+1, -), Robinson 3, Burrows 5; Hamer 8, Souza 7 (Rak-Sakyi 90+1, -), Arblaster 6, Brooks 6 (Slimane 85, -); O’Hare 8 (Peck 85, -); Moore 7

Subs not used: Cooper, Marsh, McCallum, Trusty

Goals: Hamer 6 (assisted O’Hare), Moore 13 (assisted Hamer)

Yellow Cards: Souza 31 (foul), Hamer 72 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 7, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 6; Varane 4 (Colback 46, 6), Field 5; Lloyd 4 (Saito 67, 8), Andersen 5 (Smyth 43, 7), Dembele 8 (Celar 68, 6); Frey 6 (Dykes 85, -)

Subs not used: Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Morrison, Walsh

Goals: Dunne 55 (assisted Dembele), Dykes 86 (assisted Saito)

Red Cards: Colback 83 (two yellows)

Yellow Cards: Clarke-Salter 11 (“foul”), Varane 45+1 (foul), Colback 80 (dissent), 83 (dissent)

Referee – Anthony Backhouse (Carlisle) 4 Colback can have no complaints, but there were some wild inconsistencies in this – not least Robinson being allowed to scream in the official’s face seconds after Colback had been sent off. The insistence that every, single, fucking set piece must now be preceded by this utterly pointless, performative warning of everybody from the warring centre backs to the ball boy behind the goal is typically needless, infuriating, bureaucratic bullshit dreamed up by the sort of dickless wonders who genuinely think four out of five fans want VAR in the game. Not an easy game to referee, but nowhere near as difficult as he made it look.

Middlesbrough 2 QPR 0, Saturday February 23, 2019, Championship

But really this was just 45 minutes of Middlesbrough seeing a game out. Fletcher shot wide from the edge of the area 60 seconds into the half as QPR, again, started nice and strong. Saville, lovely looking player, shot just over from ages away. Assombalonga had one disallowed by fourth official Anthony Backhouse (on for original referee Andy Madley who had to leave the field at half time suffering the effects of acute boredom) for a foul in back play and was then denied by a leg save from Lumley one on one when QPR were carved apart once more and he really should have scored.

Boro: Randolph 6; Howson 7, Ayala 6, Shotton 6, Fry 7; Wing 6, Mikel 8, Besic 8 (Downing 59, 6), Saville 8; Assombalonga 6 (Hugill 78, 6), Fletcher 6 (Tavernier 73, 6)

Subs not used: Konstantopoulos, Clayton, McNair, Van La Parra

Goals: Howson 3 (assisted Besic), Fletcher 31 (assisted Besic)

Bookings: Besic 14 (foul), Howson 63 (foul)

QPR: Lumley 3; Furlong 4, Leistner 5, Hall 5, Bidwell 5; Wszolek 5 (Wells 81, -), Luongo 5, Cousins 5, Manning 4 (Osayi-Samuel 46, 6); Eze 6; Hemed 4 (Smith 69, 5)

Subs not used: Ingram, Scowen, Kakay, Lynch

Bookings: Cousins 70 (foul)

Referee — Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire) 6 (Anthony Backhouse 45, 7) Madley a little pedantic in the first half, popped off at half time presumably bored with an uncompetitive encounter. Backhouse marginally better second half, again with no tackles being made and therefore nothing to referee.

Stats

Backhouse started refereeing at 14 in the Carlisle Glass Longhorn Youth League and has amassed around 200 EFL matches as a referee since joining the league list in 2017/18. He was promoted onto the SG2 list for the 2023/24 season. Career highlights to date include refereeing the National League Play-Off Final in 2017, being Fourth Official in the 2022 FA Trophy Final and referee in the FA Vase Final in 2023.

The 2023/24 campaign was his first with Championship fixtures, he booked 102 (4.43) and sent off three in 23 appointments – 12 of which were in this division. That’s a high average card number, and was boosted substantially by back-to-back hauls of nine cards first at Northampton 1-1 Wigan and then again at Sheff Wed 1-2 Coventry in January.

Backhouse booked 105 players (3.8) and sent four off in 28 games last season. That ncluded Birmingham’s early 2-1 League Cup win at Leyton Orient. This season he’s 21 games in and is yet to send a player off (Amadou Mbengue enters stage right). He’s shown 95 yellows (4.5) topped out by eight at Hull 3-1 Southampton in September. Birmingham beat Norwich 4-1 in his only game with them so far.

This is officially his third QPR game, but he replaced Andy Madley at Boro in 2019 when he was fourth official. QPR are 2-1-1 across those four games. Birmingham are 2-0-1 from three.

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