Anthony Backhouse is the referee for this Saturday's dead rubber final game of the season at Sunderland.

Referee >>> Anthony Backhouse (Carlisle)

Assistants >>> Richard Woodward (Cheshire) and Matthew McGrath (East Yorkshire)

Fourth Official >>> Scott Tallis (Coventry)

History

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.

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 more than 160 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.

Last season, 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 has booked 100 players and sent four off in 27 games so far this season. His only Sunderland game was their 0-0 draw at Burnley when James Trafford twice saved penalties from Wilson Isidor in the second half. His most recent red card was the controversial Plymouth red in the last minute at Middlesbrough which resulted in a penalty that all but doomed the Pilgrims to relegation.

This is officially his second QPR game, but he replaced Andy Madley at Boro in 2019 when he was fourth official. QPR are 1-1-1 across those three games. Sunderland are 7-4-3 from 14.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

francisbowles added 10:49 - May 1 I think I'd be tempted to leave Colback out of this one, especially if we intend to keep him for next season.
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DamienGH added 10:41 - May 9 A lot depends on refereeing in team games. Especially in football. That's why European soccer is gradually losing popularity. I see deliberate mistakes by both players and referees. It's unfair to spectators and fans. I prefer to follow football in Bangladesh now - https://bd1xbetapk.com/ Few people think of this country when it comes to sports. But it really does have its own football clubs and its own championship.

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