 Friday, 12th Nov 2010 18:02 by Clive Whittingham Andy D'Urso, a veteran referee and regular official at QPR games, is the man in the middle for our trip to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Referee >>> Andy D’Urso (Essex), vastly experienced official with 14 seasons on the league list. Dropped from the Premiership list in 2005 after showing Blackburn’s Barry ferguson two yellow cards but failing to send him off in a game at Southampton. Assistants >>> Chris Akers (South Yorkshire) and David Benton (South Yorkshire) Fourth Official Amy Fearn (Leicestershire), female referee who has twice angered managers (Mike Newell at Luton, Kevin Blackwell at Sheffield United) with decisions made in QPR’s favour while working as an assistant. The Luton one came in a game refereed by Andy D’Urso. PreviouslyQPR 1 Blackpool 1, Saturday August 8, 2009 QPR went agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the twenty fifth minute after great work down the right flank by Wayne Routledge. Left one on one with Blackpool left back Stephen Crainey he always looked a strong favourite to reach the byline and having beaten his man for pace and skill he did exactly that before cutting the ball back across the face of goal to Helguson who stabbed a mishit shot flush onto the face of the crossbar and out again. The striker’s frustration was compounded when he miscontrolled a ball on the edge of the box and then crunched Adam with a nasty, two footed lunge over the top of the loose ball. D’Urso was quickly on the scene with a booking but for me Helguson could have had few complaints had it been red. Buzsaky’s first involvement saw him foul Charlie Adam and take a yellow card for his troubles, which looked harsh considering he had only just stepped onto the pitch. Wayne Routledge was also booked for a foul after play had initially been allowed to continue. Overall though this was not one of Mr D’Urso’s worst games by any stretch of the imagination. Loftus Road was jumping at this point and when Andy D’Urso found five minutes of time to add on at the end the push for a winning goal was definitely on. For one glorious moment it looked like Wayne Routledge’s injury time cross was to be headed into the net by Gavin Mahon, in fine pre-season goal scoring form remember, but he could not get enough on it and the ball sailed wide. In the end the only real incident of note in the added time saw Fitz Hall booked for obstructing Paul Rachubka as he attempted to deliver a quick clearance down field after catching a Buzsaky free kick – Hall knew exactly what he was doing and took the card on the chin as a necessary sacrifice to prevent the visitors going on a late offensive. QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 7, Hall 6, Gorkss 6, Borrowdale 7, Routledge 6, Rowlands 7 (Agyemang 60, 7), Mahon 6, Balanta 7 (Buzsaky 56, 6), Helguson 5 (Vine 56, 5), Taarabt 6 Subs Not Used: Putnins, Stewart, Connolly, Ephraim Booked: Helguson (foul), Routledge (foul), Buzsaky (foul), Hall (obstructing goalkeeper) Goals: Ramage 86 (assisted Vine) Blackpool: Rachubka 8, Crainey 6, Evatt 6, Baptiste 6, Edwards 6,Vaughan 6 (Clarke 73, 6), Adam 6, Southern 6, Euell 7, Burgess 7,Taylor-Fletcher 7 (Ormerod 68, 6) Subs Not Used: Gilks, Eardley, Martin, Nardiello, Demontagnac Booked: Adam (foul) Goals: Burgess 37 (assisted Taylor-Fletecher) Referee: Andy D'Urso (Essex) 7 Five bookings, which surprised me when I surveyed the notes at the end of the game because it did not seem like a five card game. Akos Buzsaky and possibly Wayne Routledge could have good grounds for complaint against theirs but the others were justified and Helguson was perhaps lucky to escape with such lenient punishment. Solid opening performance from the referee who got very little wrong in my opinion. Birmingham 1 QPR 0, Saturday October 4, 2008 The first action of the game after two minutes left a really sour taste in my mouth for the rest of the afternoon. Birmingham forced a free kick and brought the big men up from the back, QPR half cleared the ball but Owusu-Abeyie lofted the ball up the back post on the rebound. QPR pressed up trying to play the Birmingham attackers offside but when the flag stayed down a straight contest between Cerny and Ridgewell at the back post resulted. Cerny looked nervous underneath it and Ridgewell probably could have headed it in anyway with the keeper flailing around underneath the ball, instead he put up an arm and tried to con the officials by fisting the ball into the top corner. For one horrifying moment it looked like Andy D’Urso had bought it and given the goal but the linesman put his flag straight up to signal a handball and Ridgewell was shown a yellow card. I say this left a sour taste in my mouth because it was a blatant piece of cheating and Ridgewell had the nerve to wheel away celebrating and then argue with the referee about the card. He should be bloody ashamed of himself. A pathetic and needless piece of play from somebody who claims to be a QPR fan and a very, very poor reflection on him as a footballer and a person. Sadly Ridgewell went on to have a very good match after this. Andy D’Urso added one minute to a half where there had been no goals, substitutions or injuries and Birmingham made the most of that time, presumably awarded out of the goodness of D’Urso’s heart, to take the lead with a really soft goal from a QPR point of view. Murphy the full back lofted a hopeful ball down the line and although QPR shouldn’t have been turned around so easily there seemed to be little danger as Gary O’Connor collected the ball in the corner with his back to play. Fitz Hall though allowed the man to turn, stood off him, put in a terribly weak tackle and the rest is history – Phillips had run in unchecked by Leigertwood who was marking him at the start of the move and he slammed the ball in from a yard out. Once again the amount of stoppage time added to the end of the half was perplexing – D’Urso deciding on four minutes for a half with one injury, no goals and six subs. QPR could have used that time to pile forward in search of an equaliser but that wouldn’t have been in keeping with their attitude to the game so instead they decided to try and concede another one instead. The danger seemed to have been averted but a first touch worthy of Devon White from Cerny sent the ball flying back at Jerome and resulted in a clash between keeper and striker that left Jerome down in a heap. Suddenly I was getting deja vu because the last time we played here Jerome spent most of the stoppage time rolling around on the floor like a stricken tart demanding treatment as well and, despite there being rock all wrong with him, he did it again here. Cerny was having none of it and rolled the ball out for QPR to attack. The home fans were furious and had we scored I don’t think we’d have made out of the ground alive but QPR hadn’t looked like scoring all half and were not about to change that at this late stage. The attack petered out, Jerome got his leg rubbed by the physio and, shock horror, got up and played on. D’Urso blew the whistle almost as soon as Jerome got up, adding no further time for that stoppage, and that riled Ledesma who first kicked the ball at the referee and then stormed over to him to remonstrate about the additional time, eventually he was dragged away by his team mates. He was lucky to escape without further punishment there I thought, fortunately the ball missed D’Urso by some considerable distance when he kicked it at him – even a frustrated pot shot at the referee missed its target, nicely summing up QPR’s afternoon. Birmingham: Taylor 7, Parnaby 7, Jaidi 8, Ridgewell 8, Murphy 7, Larsson 8, Carsley 7 (Nafti 50, 6), Agustien 6, Owusu-Abeyie 7 (McFadden 75, 6), Phillips 7 (Jerome 80, -), O'Connor 8 Subs Not Used: Doyle, Martin Taylor Booked: Ridgewell (deliberate handball) Goals: Phillips 45+1 (assisted O'Connor) QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 4 (Connolly 87, -), Hall 5, Stewart 6, Delaney 4, Rowlands 5 (Ledesma 80, -), Leigertwood 6, Mahon 6 (Buzsaky 68, 6), Cook 6, Blackstock 5, Agyemang 5 Subs Not Used: Camp, Parejo Booked: Leigertwood (foul) Referee: Andy D'Urso (Essex) 5 Only two bookings which is a good thing, but on three or four occasions he brought both sides back for free kicks when they had the ball and would have preferred an advantage. His time keeping remains suspect for me, not sure that game warranted five minutes of additional time, and there were inconsistencies in his performance – penalising Blackstock for climbing at the back post in the second half in an identical way to Agustien had done without punishment in the first half the prime example. QPR 3 Stoke 0, Sunday March 2, 2008 Stoke appealed for a penalty ten minutes before the break when hesitation from Hall let Fuller in down the left side. He and Connolly met head on in the penalty area with the ball appearing to strike the upper part of Connolly’s arm. The referee waved away the half hearted appeals and replays suggested he’d made the right decision. You couldn’t say the same of him in the last three minutes of the half as two incidents took place to seal the victory for QPR. First Andy Griffin, given a torrid time by Ephraim during the first half, allowed a ball to run away from him slightly just inside the Stoke half. As Ephraim came across to try and nick it Griffin dived in to rescue possession and seemed to whip the ball away pretty cleanly. Andy D’Urso thought differently from his view behind the play and without consultation with the linesman he raced across and immediately produced a red card. Lengthy protests and arguments followed with the referee insisting that the tackle was two footed and the Stoke players adamant that it was one. Personally I’m not even sure it was even much of a foul. Stoke were understandably frustrated with the referee who certainly seemed to be giving QPR the better of the decisions. Michael Mancienne was booked for a foul on Richard Cresswell but Vine and Rowlands were both lucky to escape and a lot of the decisions certainly seemed to go our way. QPR: Camp 7, Mancienne 7, Connolly 7, Hall 7 (Stewart 79, -), Delaney 8, Buzsaky 8, Leigertwood 9, Rowlands 8 (Ainsworth 81, -), Ephraim 8, Agyemang 7, Vine 8 (Blackstock 75, 7) Subs Not Used: Pickens, Lee Booked: Mancienne (foul) Goals: Leigertwood 12 (assisted Buzsaky) 21 (assisted Vine), Buzsaky 56 (assisted Agyemang) Stoke: Simonsen 7, Griffin 3, Cort 5, Shawcross 5, Pugh 5, Lawrence 5 (Buxton 62, 6), Diao 6 (Gallagher 55, 5), Whelan 6, Cresswell 5, Sidibe 5 (Wilkinson 46, 5), Fuller 7 Subs Not Used: Hoult, Parkin Sent Off: Griffin (two footed tackle) Booked: Cresswell (dissent) Referee: Andy D'Urso (Essex) 4 Fantastic from a QPR point of view but two big decisions went against Stoke incorrectly here. Griffin should never have been sent off and Agyemang was well offside for the third goal. Add to that the letting off of Rowlands and Vine without bookings for tackles that really warranted them in the first half and it would be fair to say we’ve had the rub of the green from the official this week. West Brom 5 QPR 1, Sunday September 30, 2007 Gregory performed a mercy killing at half timed and hooked Zesh Rehman - a man so out of his depth in this match it was embarrassing. In his place though came John Curtis which seemed to make little sense with both Bignot and Timoska on the bench. Curtis introduced himself to the game with a booking - he barged through the back of Teixeira and then seconds later hauled him back by his shirt and was rightly carded. Curtis is far too slow to play football at this level and was no kind of improvement on what we had in the first half. QPR did have a couple of efforts on goal as time ticked by. Martin Rowlands unloaded a left foot shot from twenty yards which Kiely tipped over with one hand, then Rowly tested the former Charlton stopper again with a low drive towards the bottom corner. The frustration of it was all too much for Rowlands though and he picked up a booking for a needless tackle from behind on James Morrison. West Brom: Kiely 7, Albrechtsen 7, Hoefkens 7, Barnett 7, Robinson 7, Koren 8, Greening 8 (Gera 67, 7), Teixeira 8 (Brunt 63, 7), Morrison 8, Miller 8 (Beattie 67, 8), Phillips 9. Subs Not Used: Steele, Pele Goals: Phillips 17 (assisted Miller), Miller 18 (assisted Phillips), Phillips 39 (assisted Greening), Koren 57 (unassisted), Greening 66 (unassisted) QPR: Camp 8, Rehman 2 (Curtis 46, 3), Cullip 3, Stewart 4, Barker 2 (Bignot 60, 5), Ainsworth 7, Bolder 4, Rowlands 4, Moore 5, Blackstock 4, Sahar 4 (Ephraim 60, 5) Subs Not Used: Cole, Timoska Booked: Curtis (repetitive fouling), Rowlands (tackle from behind) Goals: Ainsworth 24 (assisted Blackstock) Referee: Andy D'Urso (Essex) 8 Nothing to referee really with only one team competing but did well overall. Let Moore off without a booking for a bad tackle that should have received a card but I'd rather see cards stay in the referee's pocket where possible and those that were awarded today were deserved. Well done - an easy afternoon though truth be told. Luton 2 QPR 3, Saturday November 11, 2006 Amid the mad ramblings of a sour faced sexist there was a football match taking place yesterday - one that QPR won and won well. Not that you'd know it from the coverage the game has received today. Even ITV dubbed a commentary over the top of their highlights to draw attention to what was apparently the issue of the day: "ooh Mike Newell doesn't seem happy with the decision by female linesman Amy Rayner there." Of course that was what everybody thought at the time and it's understandable that a commentator might name check a linesman and talk about a manager's half hearted appeals against the decision. My arse. It's like that bloody Arsenal game all over again. I was there when Jensen scored. And Gallen, and Allen and Impey - but you'd never know we'd won that one from the coverage it got. Even the Observer handed the report of the game over to a bitter Luton fan who made out like the home side had played like the great Brazilian side of 1970 and QPR had held them at gun point and forced them to concede three goals upon fear of death. Still in a way it's been fun watching Newell repeatedly punching the self destruct button since QPR "stole two goals from the first two corners of the second half, both of which were dubious decisions, and left with all three points in their back pocket" - Simon Pitts, Observer. Three minutes later the first of two very strong appeals for a Luton penalty was waved away by referee Andy D'Urso. A long ball from Heikkinen was flicked on by Vine and Brkovic raced through on goal. Stewart chased him all the way and as Brkovic approached the penalty spot the big Jamaican appeared to wrestle him to the floor but the appeals fell on deaf ears. Rangers were lucky to escape with the deadlock intact with D'Urso well known for questionable decisions against QPR. On the very next attack the referee again showed no interest when almost everybody else in the ground was expecting a penalty to be awarded. Lewis Emanuel sent a low cross in from the left and with Stewart and Rehman nowhere to be seen Carlos Edwards seemed all set to tap in at the back post. Marcus Bignot came across to cover and bundled the Trinidad international to the floor allowing the ball to pass through the six yard box and away. Again the complaints were dismissed. I'd have been furious if QPR had similar appeals turned down - they both looked fairly nailed on penalties from where I was. As if that wasn't bad enough QPR managed to fall behind before the half time whistle was blown. D'Urso inexplicably played four minutes of added time, despite the lack of a physio on the field at any point during the first half, and during that time Rangers failed to clear a corner and Brkovic headed into the bottom corner under minimal challenge. It took just six minutes for QPR to draw level - again Cook was the provider. His inswinging corner from the right flank caused havoc in the six yard box and Heikkinen headed the ball into the bottom corner of his own net. Lewis Emanuel argued that the original decision to award a corner was wrong but there were no mass protests as Newell would have you believe. Three minutes later Jimmy Smith turned provider from a corner on the opposite side - Marc Nygaard stretched full length to flick the ball on at the near post and with Luton at sixes and sevens Dexter Blackstock slammed home the goal his hard work deserved so much. Luton: Brill 5, Foley 5, Barnett 5, Heikkinen 6, Emanuel 7, Edwards 7, Robinson 6 (Morgan 85, -), Bell 6, Brkovic 7, Vine 7 (Feeney 85, -), Boyd 7 Subs Not Used: Barrett, Perrett, Holmes Goals: Brkovic 45, Boyd 45 QPR: Royce 7, Mancienne 7, Rehman 5, Stewart 7, Bignot 6, Ainsworth 6,Bailey 8, Smith 8, Cook 7, Blackstock 8 (Gallen 80, - (Ward 90, -)), Nygaard 8 Subs Not Used: Paul Jones, Milanese, Baidoo Booked: Blackstock Goals: Smith 33, Heikkinen 51 og, Blackstock 54 Ref: A D'Urso (Essex) 5 Kept his cards in his pocket which makes a welcome change, and tried to allow the game to flow however at least one of the two first half incidents should have resulted in a Luton penalty and where all that stoppage time came from at the end of the first half only he knows Southampton 1 QPR 2, Saturday September 30, 2006 Right on half time it looked as though the visitors would be reduced to ten men when some off the ball petulance from Rehman gave Skachel the chance to hurl himself to the floor like a victim of chemical warfare. D'Urso immediately reached for his pocket and normally that means only one thing but this time he produced only a yellow card. Licka fired over the bar from the edge of the penalty area and Rasiak headed the final of Southampton's eleven corners wide of the post. As Andy D'Urso punished QPR's time wasting with five added minutes Rasiak's desperation showed with the most outrageous dive I've seen in many a long year trying to milk a penalty. Now D'Urso, as we know, has never been shy of an outrageous decision against QPR but even he wasn't buying this one - although he didn't produce the yellow card Rasiak deserved. Licka found his way into the book a moment later though when he took all his frustration out in a big hit on Lee Cook. Southampton: Davis 4, Makin 6, Pele 6, Baird 6 (Jones 70, 6), Bale 7, Skacel 7, Licka 7, Viafara 6, Wright 7 (Dyer 57, 7), Rasiak 7, Wright-Phillips 7 (Surman 77, -) Subs not used: Miller, Ostlund Scorer: Wright Bookings: Licka 90 QPR: P Jones 8, Bignot 7, Rehman 8, Stewart 8, Rose 5 (Kanyuka 21, 8), Rowlands 8, Bircham 7 (Lomas 62, 6), Bailey 6 (Smith 62, 6), Cook 7, R Jones 8, Blackstock 8 Subs not used: Royce, Gallen Scorers: Blackstock 35, R Jones 41 Bookings: Rehman 43 Referee - Andy D'Urso 8 One of his all time best ever games I think! Just two bookings, both deserved and apart from that play was allowed to flow, free kicks were evenly distributed, competence and common sense was shown. Unbelievable really. Should have booked Rasiak for his outrageous piece of play acting near the end and failed to clamp down on some pretty blatant time wasting from QPR but other than that disturbingly good. Other appointments: QPR 1 Watford 2, April 22 2006, sent off Marc Nygaard for two bookings, one for over celebrating and the other when Darius Henderson feigned injury. Sheff Wed 1 QPR 1, March 11 2006, angered the home fans with a series of free kicks in QPR’s favour QPR 1 Palace 3, October 3 2005, showed seven yellow cards including four to QPR players Ipswich 0 QPR 2, February 26 2005, goals from Furlong and Shittu QPR 0 Brighton 0, January 1 2005, very harsh red card for Paul Furlong QPR 1 Luton 1, March 27 2004, two bookings shared between the sides QPR 0 Cambridge 0, February 2 2002, two bookings for Richard Pacquette and Marcus Bignot QPR 1 Watford 1, March 7 2001, awarded Rangers a penalty scored by Michel Ngonge QPR 1 Watford 2, February 20 1999, sent off Danny Maddix in the second half QPR 3 Walsall 1, August 26 1998, game went to extra time in first round of League Cup QPR 5 Middlesbrough 0, March 4 1998, sent off Andy Townsend for two quick fire bookings QPR 0 Wolves 2, August 12 1997, Rangers crash out of League Cup at home. StatsSo far this season D’Urso has shown 35 yellow cards (2.69 a game) and two reds in 13 matches. Four of those matches (ten yellows and one red) have been in the Championship and he was the man in the middle on Wednesday night when Reading furiously protested against Cardiff City’s equaliser that bounced down from the crossbar and was given as a goal by one of Mr D’Urso’s assistants. Last season he showed 104 yellows, but just three reds, in 36 matches including our 1-1 draw with Blackpool on the opening day and Forest’s 0-0 draw with Watford on Boxing Day. Other ListingsChampionship >>> Trevor Kettle has Preston v Hull this evening, sympathies to everybody involved there. League One >>> Gavin Ward’s prize for his almighty cock up at Portsmouth v QPR on Tuesday is another south coast appointment – Bournemouth v Walsall, which seems much more like his level. League Two >>> Mr Whistle Iain Williamson has Northampton v Port Vale after ruining our game with Burnley a fortnight ago. 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