Grant Hegley of Hertfordshire will be the man in the middle as QPR take on Bristol City on Saturday.
Image courtesy of refworld.com
Mr. Hegley is a referee with a few years experience behind him, starting out his competitive refereeing career in 1999, Hegley was promoted to the football league and refereed his first league game in 2001.
It was that he officiated his first Rangers match, where he oversaw the R`s 1-1 draw with Oldham, Doudou had opened the scoring in W12.
The following season he took charge of the R`s at home once more, this time overseeing a win for Rangers over Barnsley, courtesy of a strike from Richard Pacquette.
In the R`s promotion campaign he oversaw a dramatic 3-2 win over Port Vale at Loftus Road once more. After running the show against Vale, Rangers let the game slip in the last minute as they conceded a goal for 2-2, within seconds Jamie Cureton had the ball up the other end to win the game.
Refereeing in West London was becoming a bit of a habit for Mr. Hegley as he visited W12 again to see the R`s lose out against Neil Warnock`s Sheffield United; Andy Gray the goal-scorer on that occasion.
In 2005, Hegley was charged with less than proficiently applying the laws of the game after failing to send of Sheffield United`s Keith Gillespie against Reading – he was subsequently banned for 14 days.
Forward then to 2007, and Hegley saw the R`s draw 2-2 away at Scunthorpe United – The Magical Magyar, Akos Buzsaky struck two sensational goals to haul the R`s out of their defensive despair.
Earlier on this campaign he oversaw a disappointing home draw with Blackpool, Dexter Blackstock equalising a stunning strike from Gary Taylor-Fletcher to hand the R`s a point.
Billed as a whistle happy card merchant, I can recall many times in which I wished this official would swallow his whistle. He has been around the circuit for a number of years and never been given his shot at the Premier League, which says a lot really.
In 29 games this season Mr Hegley has handed out 38 yellow cards and two reds giving him an average of 1.38 cards per game – one of the lowest so far this campaign.
Mr. G Hegley & Queens Park Rangers
QPR 1-1 Oldham Athletic – 27-10-2001.
Goals: Doudou; Stuart Balmer
Booked: Fernando de Ornelas.
QPR 1-0 Barnsley – 11-01-2003.
Goals: Richard Pacquette 11.
Booked: Neil Austin, Gary Jones, Steve Hayward.
QPR 3-2 Port Vale – 02-03-2004.
Goals: Marc Bircham 64, Jamie Cureton 77, 90; Steve Brooker, Adrian Littlejohn.
Booked: Arthur Gnohere.
QPR 0-1 Sheffield United – 31-08-2004.
Goals: Andy Gray 17.
Booked: Paul Thirlwell
Scunthorpe United 2-2 QPR – 08-12-2007.
Goals: Martin Paterson 24, Jonathan Forte 55; Akos Buzsaky 12, 42.
Booked: Andy Butler; Adam Bolder, Marc Nygaard, Rowan Vine.
QPR 1-1 Blackpool – 30-09-2008
Goals: Dexter Blackstock 79; Gary Taylor-Fletcher 18
Booked: Mikele Leigertwood
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