RateTheRef

The moderator's might be busy here but I thought Hendo's 'Worst Ref Performance Ever' thread was in relation to Matt Donohue this afternoon.

It was a poor game, where QPR came for a point, but were aided by being allowed to break play up with time-wasting and tactical timeouts - the GK going down 'injured' to get treatment after 20 mins when nobody had been around him.

There were 3 KMIs, all of which he has failed to correctly identify, as he did with a couple of SPA offences, which he didn't caution despite booking players willy-nilly for holding at corners and dissent.

KMI 1: A Sorba Thomas goal-bound header is blocked by Mbengue with his arm in an unnatural position, away from the silhouette. Donohue waved the appeals away and booked Stoke's Cisse for his appeal. At that point, Mbengue had already been booked as well.

KMI 2: Jimmy Dunne's challenge on Mubama that saw him stretchered off with a season-ending injury. Looked pretty poor and gave just a caution.

KMI 3: Richard Kone looks at Ben Wilmot under a high ball then thrusts his elbow into the defender's head. Only a yellow card. Given Tanganga's red for Sheff Utd, this was assault and any professional referee has to spot that it's a red card. 

Donohue's authoritarian style doesn't help. And, for me, he doesn't protect players and is a threat to their wellbeing. That was highlighted by Mubama's season-ending injury.

He also must have had a new watch for Christmas given the amount of times he pointed to it to try and get QPR to move the game along. No sanctions for persistent and obvious time-wasting yet again. Although one of the offenders was Mbengue, so I doubt he wanted to show him the second yellow for that.

For one the supposed top SG2 officials, this was a performance way off what it required at this level. A lot of training required on positioning and identifying the correct sanctions/restarts.

Thought Doughty was pretty poor overall. Lacked any control and his judgement for fouls & contact lacked any sort of consistency.

If you say he remained consistent for not cautioning players for cynical fouls or SPA, then that's a big negative in my book. First 5-10 mins, Ajayi lucky not to see yellow for a trip when he was turned and out of position. Haven't seen the Hull penalty appeal back to comment on. Crooks committed a couple of cynical first-half fouls, yet again, no card & Manhoef will a blatant yellow in the second half not issued either.

Big question marks over the equalise. There's a hint of handball followed by potential offside. The nearside asistant seemed to miss a couple throughout the game as well.

First card for Destan kicking the ball away, yet first half Crooks stood in front of the ball stopping a quick restart, so the Stoke man kicked it off him only for Doughty to give him the talking to. Personally, I felt he lacked any authority and control, which led to the handbags at the end with Lundstrum goading the Stoke fans causing a mass confrontation that had about three different breakouts.

So far Stoke have had Elliot Bell, James Bell, Lewis Smith and now Josh Smith. So two Bells and two Smiths, which pairing will be next?

They must be readying the Madleys for their next two games?

Didn't expect to see Rob Jones being sent to Birmingham. Sure Preston will be thrilled by Donohue, wasn't there a quirky stat last season about his first four red cards in game involving the Lilywhites?

First time seeing Elliot Bell in person yesterday. I can see the makings of a decent referee. He seemed to be a calm and composed figure, dealing with any flash points fairly well and seemed willing to talk to control proceedings.

All three cautions were correct, potential argument that the Wilmot challenge was in the orange category. For that Wilmot incident, he did have a discussion over the comms with his assistant before deciding on yellow.

Overall, a positive showing and can see why he's risen to this level quite quickly.

Think Seb Hutchinson on comms during Man City v Bournemouth has mentioned this is Derek Eaton's penultimate game. He's retiring after his final game, which was said to be Liverpool v Crystal Palace.

Would be interested to hear the opinions on Reading's penalty at the end of their game. Saw a yellow card was issued to the Rotherham defender.

How is that incident any different to the one in AFC Wimbledon v Crewe in midweek? One sees the perpetrator cautioned, the other sent off. Where's the consistency? 

It was a disappointing below-par performance from the usually reliable Smith tonight. He'll have to be much better than that on Monday's top-of-the-table game.