Salisbury Refs Scunthorpe Clash

Graham Salisbury will take charge of QPR`s trip to Scunthorpe United this weekend.

Promoted to the national list of referees in 2001, Mr Salisbury has recently entered his ninth season as a Football League referee.

He begun his journey at Victoria Park as Hartlepool United took on Mansfield Town, and in his next game gave Exeter City defender Neil Whitworth a red card in their 1-1 away draw with Halifax.

It was later on that season that he took charge of his first QPR game, as the newly-relegated Rangers were looking to find their feet in the Second Division.

Refereeing Rangers

After Steve Palmer`s opener had given Rangers a lead at London Road, Peterborough United came back with a vengeance in a disastrous evening for QPR.

Leon McKenzie tore the Rangers defence to sunder with some direct running and skill, and his strike combined with David Farrell`s effort and Neale Fenn`s brace saw the Posh to a 4-1 win.

Danny Shittu was making his debut for QPR and received his marching orders on 83 minutes in a forgettable encounter for the Charlton Athletic loanee.

Rangers revived their fortunes under Ian Holloway and gained promotion to the Coca Cola Championship, one of their first fixtures at this level was a cup game against Aston Villa - refereed by Mr Salisbury.

QPR were blown away in the opening period by the strike force of Darius Vassell and Juan Pablo Angel, despite a couple of chances for Rangers duo Jamie Cureton and Kevin Gallen.

Into the second half and a complete unmitigated cock-up from Olof Mellberg and Thomas Sorensen allowed Kevin McLeod to sneak in and put the ball into an open net. Nolberto Solano sewed the fixture up with a pin-point free-kick past the despairing dive of Chris Day.

Mr Salisbury oversaw another away fixture for Rangers, once again in the League Cup as Gary Waddock`s QPR travelled to their bogey ground Port Vale.

Rangers record in Burslem has always been below-par in recent years and this was no exception with Akpo Sodje and Leon Constantine tormenting a supposed Championship defence. Rangers went on to lose the game 3-2 and Waddock paid the price with his job.

Since then Rangers have had dramatic changes behind the scenes and in terms of management, but the R`s will be hoping that the result is dramatically different from Salisbury`s QPR track-record thus far.

Mr Salisbury & Queens Park Rangers

Peterborough United 4-1 QPR - 23-10-2001
Goals: David Farrell 39, Neale Fenn 45, 84, Leon McKenzie 49; Steve Palmer 4
Booked: David Farrell, Leon McKenzie
Sent Off: Danny Shittu

Aston Villa 3-1 QPR - 23-10-2001
Goals: Darius Vassell 29, Juan Pablo Angel 38, Nolberto Solano 78; Kevin McLeod 48.
Booked: Marcus Bignot

Port Vale 3-2 QPR - 23-10-2001
Goals: Jeff Smith 19, Danny Whitaker 28, Richard Walker 61; Marc Nygaard 9, Damion Stewart 78.
Booked: Stefan Bailey, Marc Nygaard.




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