East heads west for Leicester clash
Friday, 4th Mar 2011 11:51 by Clive Whittingham

For the second time this season Roger East is the referee for a QPR game at Loftus Road – Rangers will be hoping for a similar result to the first game on Saturday.

Referee >>> Roger East (Wiltshire) second QPR appointment this season, awarded the R’s a penalty in a 3-0 home win against Doncaster in September.

Assistants >>> Lee Collins (Surrey) and Tony Mason (Kent)

Fourth Official >>> Steve Rubery (Essex)

Previously

QPR 3 Doncaster 0, Saturday September 25, 2010

Doncaster responded by winning the first corner of the game which was quickly followed up with another – although Paddy Kenny tried hard to keep the ball in and the linesman who gave the decision from the opposite side of the field was well behind the play when he made the decision. From this set piece the ball was again allowed to drop in the area and Doncaster defender James O’Connor appeared to be tripped after he toed the ball back out to the corner taker. To me it looked like a nailed on penalty kick and QPR were fortunate it wasn’t given by referee Roger East.

Despite the upheaval of Derry’s departure QPR doubled their ten minutes from time with QPR’s sixth penalty of the season already – although not for the first time had the referee allowed play to go on a goal would have resulted anyway. Heidar Helguson burst into the area chasing a perfect through ball from Adel Taarabt, toed the ball past Neil Sullivan as he raced from the goal line, and then hit the deck under heavy contact from the keeper. It was a clear and obvious penalty but had play been allowed to carry on for three seconds Helguson bounced back up and stuck the ball into the empty net anyway. Exactly the same thing happened at Ipswich last week when Akos Buzsaky had a glorious long range strike ruled out and a penalty awarded instead, and against Barnsley on the first day of the season when Taarabt lashed home after a penalty had been given. There was an incident in the first half of this game as well where East blew up too early, hauling QPR back for a free kick in their own half when an advantage would have seen the R’s away with a heavily weighted counter attack. Referees just need to hold the whistle for a second or two, they can always come back and give the decision four or five seconds later. Having given the penalty Sullivan should surely have been sent off, as it was a clear goal scoring opportunity.

Anyway Adel Taarabt stepped up to take the penalty – I genuinely have no idea how him and Helguson are working out who takes what spot kick at the moment – and he calmly sent Sullivan the wrong way and slammed in the game sealing second goal from 12 yards out.

QPR: Kenny 8, Walker 8, Connolly 7, Gorkss 8, Hill 8, Derry 8 (Leigertwood 76, 7), Buzsaky 7, Taarabt 6, Ephraim 6, Mackie 6 (Smith 89, -), Helguson 8 (Agyemang 87)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Rowlands, Borrowdale, Parker

Goals: Gorkss 53 (assisted Buzsaky), 88 (assisted Taarabt), Taarabt 81 (penalty won by Helguson)

Doncaster: Sullivan 6, Dumbuya 8, O'Connor 7, Martis 6, Friend 6, Coppinger 7, Gillett 7 (Hayter 79, 6), Oster 7, Martin Woods 7, Shiels 7, Sharp 6

Subs Not Used: Gary Woods, Stock, Lockwood, Wilson, Hird, Fairhurst

Booked: Sharp (foul), Sullivan (penalty concession)

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire) 6 Not bad overall but three key incidents dragged his mark down. Firstly Doncaster should have had a penalty after four minutes, no question about it. Secondly QPR set off on a very promising counter attack in the first half where five players were comfortably outnumbering the backtracking Doncaster players but East pulled the play back for a QPR free kick giving Rovers chance to bring their whole team back behind the ball. Thirdly Helguson’s goal should have stood, again he was too quick with his whistle with the penalty. Referees seem to be far too quick to whistle this season because this is the third time we’ve scored but had to take a penalty instead.

Plymouth 1 QPR 1, Saturday August 15, 2009

Referee Roger East had a reasonable day all in all, although was possibly slightly fussy. There was a lot of whistle from him at times, but not cards which although is usually a relief was not a particularly good thing when Plymouth were kicking Taarabt from pillar to post in the first half and further punishment was probably required. His one really dodgy moment came with little more than twenty minutes left for play. First Taarabt was obviously fouled in the Plymouth half but was told to get up, Argyle then broke and players and fans appealed as one for handball as Fallon’s shot was deflected wide – it did not look like a penalty from the far end of the ground and a corner was the right outcome from where I was.

Plymouth: Larrieu 8, McNamee 6, Seip 6, Timar 6, Sawyer 5, Fletcher 5, Paterson 7 (Duguid 86, -), Judge 7 (Noone 82, -), MacLean 5 (Sheridan 46, 7), Mackie 6, Fallon 7

Subs Not Used: Letheren, Arnason, Summerfield, Johnson

Goals: Gorkss 90 og (assisted Fallon)

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Hall 7, Gorkss 6, Borrowdale 6, Routledge 7, Leigertwood 7, Mahon 5, Buzsaky 6 (Ephraim 72, 6), Taarabt 7 (Vine 76, 5), Helguson 6 (Agyemang 61, 5)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Stewart, Pellicori, Connolly

Goals: Helguson 43 (assisted Taarabt)

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire) 6 Slightly fussy perhaps, and probably should have produced a card for Plymouth’s brutal approach to stopping Adel Taarabt early on in the game, but overall made very few mistakes and did not stand out – which is what you want.

Cardiff 0 QPR 0, Tuesday February 24, 2009

Liam Miller was the first man to go into the referee’s book for a poor foul on Ledley deep inside the Cardiff half. East could easily have let him off with what was his first foul of the game but it seems churlish to complain when two minutes later Mikele Leigertwood was lucky to get away with a thigh high lunge on McNaughton who subsequently required extensive treatment in the centre circle and was substituted at half time. The home fans bayed for blood, the referee settled for a free kick and a final warning.

The next forty five minutes were about as well as Cook has played this season after a poor first half. Within two minutes of the restart he had picked the ball up wide on the left touchline, turned and accelerated away from Cardiff’s new arrival and collapsed in a heap on the edge of the penalty area buying a free kick from our referee. Liam Miller sized the free kick up and was clearly aiming low for a gap to be created by Mahon peeling away just before the shot. Sadly Miller’s aim was slightly out and he succeeded only in blasting the ball straight into the gut of one of the blue bricks in the defensive wall.

Cardiff then came back into the match and enjoyed what would turn out to be their last ten minutes of pressure. It all started with Michael Chopra theatrically hitting the deck under minimal contact from Kaspars Gorkss and appealing demonstrably for a penalty to be awarded. It never was. Cheating, plain and simple. Not the first time Chopra has done that in his career, not even the first time he has done it against us. East was absolutely right to wave the appeals away and could even have showed Chopra a yellow card.

The mood among the home fans did not improve much when Parry took Stewart to the byline and was then the victim of a crude lunge by the Jamaican which should have been a free kick and booking at least but was actually given as a QPR goal kick right in front of the most vociferous Cardiff fans. Mr East was not winning many friends in South Wales although having given them a penalty and disallowed a Coventry goal on his last visit here perhaps they have had their fair share of decisions from him this season. QPR completely took over and dominated the game from this point on.

Cardiff: Konstantopoulos 6, McNaughton 8 (Comminges 46, 5), Purse 7, R Johnson 7, Kennedy 7, Parry 6, Rae 6, Ledley 7, Burke 7 (Owusu-Abeyie 73, 6), Chopra 5 (Whittingham 66, 6), McCormack 6

Subs Not Used: E Johnson, Scimeca

QPR: Cerny 7, Connolly 7, Gorkss 8, Stewart 8, Delaney 8, Cook 7, Miller 6 (Alberti 58, 6), Leigertwood 8, Mahon 7 (Blackstock 89, -), Routledge 7, Helguson 6 (Di Carmine 90, -)

Subs Not Used: Hall, Lopez

Booked: Miller (foul), Alberti (foul)

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire) 6 The Cardiff fans were moaning about him on the radio afterwards but I thought he got both of their penalty appeals absolutely spot on. One was a blatant dive and the other was a good tackle from Gorkss. Should have booked Stewart and Leigertwood for their fouls and was assisted by a truly awful linesman down at our end of the ground but not bad overall.

Stats

East has been rather card happy this season, showing 92 yellows and three reds in 25 matches – a high average of 3.68 bookings a game. His average was up around the five a game mark when he last came to Loftus Road and although he has calmed down a little since then he has still shown five cards or more in a game on eight occasions this season – and I would suggest that in the Championship a five card match should be an exception rather than a rule. His busiest day so far saw him book seven and send one off as Bournemouth beat MK Dons 3-2 at home before Christmas – the man sent off was our own Angelo Balanta, currently on loan with the Dons.

Last season he showed 109 yellows (3.2 a game) and three reds in 34 games. Two of his red cards came in the same game, Exeter v Southend in League One, and he showed eight yellows at Gillingham v Tranmere for his biggest haul of the season. Nine of his appointments were in the Championship in which he showed 27 yellows and no reds. Neil Warnock has had a run in with this referee before – in October 2009 he accused the referee of not knowing the rules after he awarded Leicester a penalty against his Crystal Palace side and then allowed Paul Gallagher to encroach in the area and score after the kick had been saved by Julian Speroni. Warnock said: “The lad who scores the goal has encroached three yards inside the box when it is kicked. The best thing is he actually brushes past the referee to get to the ball.”

He ran the line for QPR's play off final defeat to Cardiff and lists Andy Campbell's winning goal as a career highlight as he got the offside decision correct and allowed the goal. The swine.

Other Listings

Championship >>> The name of Gavin Ward is cropping up higher up the list more and more of late, which no doubt means we’ll be due another date with the demon child soon. He has Coventry v Bristol City this weekend. Premiership referee Lee Probert has Leeds v Doncaster, Andy D’Urso has Burnley v Palace.

Tuesday >>> Steve Tanner is the man in the middle for our midweek trip to Millwall.

Photo: Action Images

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