Harry's Honeymoon well and truly over

Match Review: QPR 1-2 West Brom

  Rangers' mini-revival under Redknapp is well and truly over now after this one, but at least they don't look quite as toothless as they did under Hughes.

With a tube strike for the third year running (bring on driverless trains!) meaning extra cars were heading for W12, kick off of this Boxing Day turkey was delayed by 15 minutes as West Brom arrived late at the ground. Didn't anyone warn them that the whole area was likely to be gridlock given the start of the Westfield sales?! We could have done without them turning up really...

The R's went into the match on the back of Harry's first defeat in charge, a 1-0 reverse away at struggling Newcastle, a game after which Harry was very open and frank in his assessment of the situation he faces in W12. Redknapp told how Jose Bosingwa, a regular pantomime villain where this blog is concerned, refused to sit on the bench at St James' Park and was therefore to be fined two weeks' wages (£100,000). How on earth his agent managed to wangle him that contract I will never know, and I hope I never do find out just how much some of Hughes' other signings and their agents have earned out of Tony Fernandes' pockets this season. It seems as though all these 'low cost or free transfers' are actually nothing of the sort and I really do worry about the financial outgoings versus income at the club. I also fully expect us to be held to ransom in the January window with wages like this being bandied about in the press.

Anyway back to matters on the pitch here, Bosingwa was unsurprisingly left out but unfortunately our best centre back, Ryan Nelsen, also was forced to sit out with illness. The ever-disappointing Esteban Granero was dropped once more and Shaun Wright-Phillips was preferred in the lineup to him (another option in this position has to be a priority in January). That meant a back four of Traore, Ferdinand, Hill and Fabio, with veteran Hill worryingly being the best at defending of the four.

The first 16 minutes of the game were characterised by much sliding around and some highly interesting swirling patterns of the incessant rain. In other words: not much happened on the pitch. Bizarrely, the game sprung in to life when Shaun Wright-Phillips made good progress down the WBA left and put a peach of a cross (but I thought he couldn't cross?) onto Jamie Mackie's head but he couldn't get this highly reasonable chance on target. WBA hadn't done a lot to this point but when Brunt ran on to a pass from Mulumbu, Anton Ferdinand, in for the sick Ryan Nelsen, was slow closing him down and his shot from 30 yards beat Green to his left. Rangers responded with three corners in quick succession which were over-hit, under-hit then the one that was halfway decent was headed wide by Clint Hill, captain for the day. M'Bia also had a good effort from around the 30 yard mark which Foster turned wide. M'Bia's effort was very interesting when contrasted with Brunt's goal: the key difference between the two efforts was the starting points of the two keepers. Green was back on his goal line while Foster was already on his 6 yard line and this slight advancement changed the angles - at this level, goalkeepers have to be prepared for the unexpected and Green's anticipation was woeful. As half-time approached, Gera and Morrison had decent shots for WBA who had already started wasting time at free kicks, throw-ins etc.

You might have expected QPR to start the second half with a charge. But they didn't. On 49 minutes from a left wing corner the ball was skied high into the air and Green flapped the ball into his own net when it came down. At the time it looked like a major ricket by the QPR keeper, confirmed when the away fans started singing his name. Viewing on MOTD, it could be argued that he was impeded by Fortune standing his ground in front of him. Not for me: Green should have displayed much more conviction and cleared out Fortune, the ball and anything else in his way. Too timid and from a bad starting position (again), I put it down to Green.

Green saved a one-on-one, but the unevenness of some of the individual battles was becoming evident. Mulumbu versus Wright-Phillips was the most obvious where the diminutive Hooplet was out-jumped and frequently shrugged aside by his Congolese opponent (just as he is by every other opponent every week in the league). On 63 minutes Harry rolled the dice with a double sub in an attempt to revive the side, bringing on Hoilett and Diakite for the below-par Fabio and Faurlin. 

I was just wondering where Cisse was when at 68 minutes he scored with a lovely dink over Foster from M'Bia's exquisite through ball. Rangers then should have cranked up the pressure in search of an equaliser but WBA began to re-impose their highly effective 'pass and move' game and most of the action was at the West Brom end. M'Bia looked like he was heading for one of his red-mist moments as he began performing even more erratically and was booked for pulling back an opponent. For the last 5 minutes plus the added 5, Rangers did at last go for it. Hill had a header well saved on the line by Foster and there were a succession of scrambles from corners. We also saw WBA make a change late on with James Morrison subbed, possibly broken strings?

The final action was the most controversial. M'Bia went to head a cross back across goal and the ball was blocked by Ridgwell's raised arm. Referee Foy was unsighted on the other side of the box but the lino choked it and, this time with total justification, M'Bia exploded and is probably still in a strait-jacket now.

In the away game at The Hawthorns in October, Rangers gave The Baggies a two goal start then ran the game before losing 3-2. Similarly here, WBA were gifted two easy goals before The R's really got going, which just isn't acceptable because they leave themselves too much to do in every match. Green and Ridgwell controversy aside though, the better footballing team won. Rangers weren't that bad today, but what is really frustrating is that as QPR's opponents you know you just have to be patient and a mistake or two will come your way allowing soft goals. Rangers meanwhile are forced to work incredibly hard to score one every time.

Next up, home to Liverpool, the fixture that started last year's survival saving run of 5 consecutive home wins. Don't even think it......!

Man of the Match: Nobody shone in Hoops today and one man was allowed to run the game for the opposition: Youssouf Mulumbu. I seriously don't understand why this guy isn't talked about more often and linked with the bigger clubs in the league - he is sheer quality, and better still he really puts himself about. Albion fans will be hoping he continues to ply his trade unnoticed.