Swansea give R's whipping

Match Report: Swansea 4-1 QPR

Just when you thought Rangers' defence had tightened up a bit under Harry and that scoring goals would be the key to us staying up, this happened.

When Swansea and Rangers came up together from the Championship two seasons ago, it was a not uncommon view that QPR would stay in the Premiership for the long haul while the Welshmen would struggle to sustain their status as they were still very much a work in progress and lacking the finances of the boys from W12, particularly after the arrival of Tony Fernandes. Since then, both teams have done their absolute best to turn this reasonable logic on it’s head.  Swansea have spent wisely and under consecutive ‘bright young thing’ managers have created a system of retaining possession and a cutting edge, allied with a reasonable sturdiness at the back. QPR have spent like a gambler in Vegas, with each long shot punt looking more forlorn than the last.

This was an invaluable trip for learning Welsh. I even know how to say "you're rich and you're effing shit" now!

Rangers started without the injured Remy and Fabio and looked set up to soak pressure and try and sneak a set piece goal to win it. This lasted five minutes before Michu mishit home a shot spilled by Cesar and then the R's completely imploded when 12 minutes later local hero Angel Rangel did the same thing. Cesar has been the shining light in recent weeks for the R's and proved an extremely dependable last line of defence, but he was flappy here and clearly uncomfortable with pass backs which he was repetitively sold by his frail defence in front of him - it was revealed after the game that Cesar had played with an injury sustained against Norwich, which won't have helped and it is questionable whether it was a good idea to play him from the outset. For the rest of the half QPR had no Plan B and with Derry and Mbia willingly conceding ground allowed Swansea to totally dictate the game with the inevitable ‘tippy tappy’ Jacks enjoying themselves without even having to try - particularly when twisting and turning around  the statues of Clint Hill and Armand Traore. Reflecting at half time, the only two efforts on goal Rangers had created were a wild blast from Taarabt long after the whistle had been blown for which he was booked and a set piece culminating in a header from Onouha that ended up further away from the goal than it had started. That was it, absolutely diabolical. A similar first half performance to that in the Norwich home game, only more damaging.

In fairness to Redknapp, he responded at half time, bringing on Zamora and Granero for Derry and the anonymous Jamie Mackie (who couldn't seem to decide whether he was a striker or winger). Within two minutes it was ‘game on’ as this time Vorm did the spilling: Taarabt shot from 25 yards and Zamora was quickest to react and scored with a tap in. This was but a fleeting moment as the sea of dross and ineptitude was resumed as Pablo Hernandez waltzed his way through the right side of QPRs defence and scored with what looked like a cross. Cesar, after single-handedly keeping Chelsea, Spurs and Man City at bay in recent weeks, was having a stinker. Apparently this was the first time three Spaniard’s have scored for the same team in the Premier League.

Compared to the limpness of the first half, there was just a fraction more conviction about Rangers and when Townsend’s cross was deliberately handled in the box by Williams there appeared to be an opportunity to get back into the game again (last week’s penalty miss notwithstanding). But referee Swarbrick and his assistants couldn’t or wouldn’t so didn’t and from the resulting corner Mbia had a goal-bound shot turned off the line.

A couple of weeks ago we saw Swansea begin pursuing innovative ways of breaking down opposing team’s momentum through time wasting tactics with the infamous ballboy/Hazard incident. Today saw three ball changes because they were not inflated to satisfactory levels for total football and a ridiculous amount of feigned head injuries that all added to Rangers' frustration.

On 67 minutes the away end half emptied as Michu shrugged off £13m man mountain Samba (how?) and poked home the fourth with ease. With the game long over and Swansea already thinking of Wembley in a fortnight, QPR began to play and eventually created chances: Taarabt curled around the post and SWP (introduced in a lightweight for lightweight exchange with Jenas) hit the bar on 90+2.

Swansea looked like a decent outfit but were made to look better by Rangers being toothless, set-up wrong and playing incredibly badly. In all probability this was always on the cards as the moment Bunn saved Taarabt’s penalty last week heads dropped as they realised that the size of the task was too daunting and they couldn’t be arsed anyway. Next up, Manchester United!

Man of the match: Miguel Michu continues to stun everyone in the Premier League and proved as he did on the opening day against Rangers where he announced his arrival to English (Welsh) football just what a class act he is. I can't see the Swans holding on to him for much longer, but at least he'll win them a first major trophy. 

You had to be there...

Match Review: Chelsea 0-1 QPR

Most Rangers fans made the journey to Stamford Bridge fearing the worst, but it’s a funny old game football. At a scandalous £55 per ticket (plus booking fee) and with a shocking run of form, the fact that the Shed was filled with 3,000 away fans spoke volumes for blind optimism and loyalty over level-headed analysis. But against all the odds (there were shorter odds for Chelsea to win 6-0 than QPR to win 1-0), they were rewarded.

Rangers opened with a 4-1-4-1 formation with Derry recalled to play just in front of the back four and, interestingly, Taarabt was pushed furthest up front. Armand Traore was out of the picture after his inept defensive performance against Liverpool on Sunday and the back four read Fabio, Hill, Nelsen, Onuoha. In midfield Esteban Granero was preferred to Samba Diakite who was another really off the ball against Liverpool whilst the woeful Shaun Wright Phillips was dropped at the expense of Junior Hoilett. Meanwhile Rafa made several changes for Chelsea, although with FA and Capital One Cup games coming up before their next EPL fixture it looked more like a case of over confident complacency rather than a genuine need for resting through rotation.

The teams emerge

Four minutes into his full league debut the Bosnian-come-German Marin (how many 'dual nationality' players have they claimed to be theirs now?!) should have been sent off for a two footed, off the floor and out of control scythe through M’Bia. Stunningly, referee Mason (who you will remember sent off Derry for not touching Ashley Young at Old Trafford last year) only produced a yellow. Equally stunningly M’Bia was not badly hurt. Retribution on Marin was later quietly dished out by both Derry and Hill.

QPR defended with determination and the few chances that came Chelsea’s way were as a result of mistakes. On 15 minutes Hoilett pulled up and was replaced by Wright-Phillips and a minute later Chelski did their emotionally disturbed ‘clap for Di Matteo’ thing.

Chelsea continued to huff and puff with a few long range efforts, particularly from a frustrated Branislav Ivanovic, but Hill and Nelsen snuffed out anything closer in. On 34 minutes there was an embarrassing dive in the box by Bertrand when he was several yards away from the nearest opponent. Boltonian whistleblower Mason was again deficient and no booking resulted.

Towards the end of the first half SWP had a run and shot and twice didn’t run and didn’t shoot when Taarabt threaded him decent passes to move on to. David Luiz (hereafter Sideshow Bob) had a pot shot that Cesar had to save with his legs after it deflected off Frank (‘one more to overtake Kerry Dixon’) Lampard.

Special abuse was saved for the warming up Ashley Cole and the half time appearance of ‘Suave Marv’ aka 60’s and 70’s centre back Marvin Hinton. I don’t think anyone had anything in particular against 72 year old Marv, it was more a case of his chaperon for the obligatory walk round the pitch being the personification of a smugly irritating annoying Johnny-come-lately, glory hunting tit.

The second half was more of the same, only better. Chelsea had a flurry of corners which Cesar dealt with positively, Ivanovic heading one excellent chance over. On 53 minutes Cesar saved well from the otherwise anonymous Torres. Moses should have got a touch to Marin's cross but this was to be the debutante's last involvement as he was then swapped for Hazard as Rafa began to realise more guile was needed. QPR for the first time began to string some coherent attacking moves together. Granero hit a curler to give Turnbull some catching practice. Shortly afterwards, Mackie was played through by Taarabt and he looked odds-on to score before Gary Cahill stretched out and conceded a corner. From said corner, Derry had a free header which should have troubled Turnbull more.

Home frustration grew as Lampard put the ball in from an offside position (still one more needed eh, Frank!) All the Rangers back four were now playing like men possessed with blocks and deflections keeping Chelsea out. To the delight of the Chelsea fans, their talisman Juan Mata was introduced by Rafa for Moses with sixteen minutes to play. But then, against all hopes and expectations, one of those ‘I was there’ moments happened. A partially cleared Rangers corner fell to Taarabt just outside the box. He made the sweetest lay-off into the path of SWP that since the match we have watched again and again. Time stood still as SWP hit a low 20 yard drive that arrowed into the corner of the goal. Delirium and confusion broke out in the away end, bodies everywhere. Stop the clocks at 21:20 02/01/13. Had he really done that? 969 days since his last EPL goal, you diminutive beauty, you. All is forgiven! You still owe the outstanding Fabio a beer for covering your defensive duties, though.

Ramires came on for Lampard (who, Chelsea fans, I believe still requires one more goal to overhaul Kerry Dixon). The game was now frantic. You could see the vein in Clint Hill’s neck bulging with effort. Admirable Nelsen screamed for more concentration and effort. Derry was everywhere putting out fires and Mbia and Sideshow Bob enjoyed a tussle that, although rarely legal, was sufficiently good natured that you could still see them sharing hair conditioner in the showers afterwards. Even Granero put a shift in - I noticed he went over to Joe Jordan for a word in his ear during the first half and from that moment he returned a more determined man who got stuck in, something he hasn't done since the very start of his QPR career.

On 86 minutes I called it as a pen from where I was sitting but thankfully it was a free kick that was given instead, dead centre in the D, 2 yards outside the box. D wanted Sideshow Bob to take it and blast, C wanted Mata to chip straight into Cesar's arms. Thankfully D got his wish as Wrecking Ball Luiz simply smashed it into the 9 man wall.

Supporting their local team: Bristol and Bath blues, Norwegian blues, etc. Many already gone home early in a huff

Two time wasting R's substitutions later and it was all over. Man hugs all round. Everything that QPR hadn't been 3 days earlier against Liverpool, they were today. Solid, committed, intelligent and playing like a team. The questions remain whether they can repeat this level of intensity and dream of survival but, for the moment, who cares? Chelsea 0 QPR 1. Two clean sheets against Chelsea. A first away win since November 2011. A first win away at Chelsea in my lifetime. Simply unbelievable.



Man of the Match: Playing in an unfamiliar striker's position, Taarabt's ability to keep the ball and hold the ball up was played upon by Harry Redknapp and it proved to be an incredibly inspired move. He showed his quality in his passing and the lay-off for the goal and gave QPR an outlet all game. His patience and perseverance with the inept Shaun Wright-Phillips also deserves some serious credit. Well done that man, we'll need more of this if we are to pick up more points this year away from home.

Lennon on song

Match Review: Tottenham 3-1 Reading

With QPR not playing until tomorrow, our roving reporter D took in a visit to run an eye over their forthcoming EPL opponents, Tottenham, in their home game versus Reading.

The fake Hoops started brightly and on 3 minutes Ian Harte lined up for a trademark freekick (he's still got it in his locker!) which struck the bar and with Lloris still getting up from the deck, Pavel Pogrebnyak nodded home for his second lucky goal in two games. QPR fans will be hoping this spell doesn't continue for the striker who has flattered to deceive in a hot and cold Premier League career so far.

After a surprising opening to the game, Spurs began to get into their stride and from a weak Federici clearance, Lennon crossed and Adebayor headed wide. On 9 minutes Sigurdsson swung over a corner which Dawson headed home for 1-1. Defoe was now shooting on sight with efforts wide left, right, over and saved. His strike partner Adebayor was far less lively and most of the time seemed only faintly interested. When Federici spilled yet another Defoe attempt, Adebayor was too slow to react. Sandro and  Sigurdsson were showing nice touches and with Dembele alternating between marauding runs and enforcing crunching tackles, Spurs were running the game and not missing the suspended Bale in the least. Nevertheless, Reading somehow held on and went in at half time all square and still in the game.

Action shot: The players jostle for space whilst the corner is taken which lead to Dawson's goal

More of the same followed after the restart. Most of Spurs attacks came down the left where Lennon supported by Walker gave veteran Harte a torrid time even though he was regularly helped out by McAnuff tracking back. On 50 minutes Lennon crossed and Adebayor headed home. For the next 20 minutes the pattern of play continued with the Fakes offering nothing as an attacking force. Dembele was withdrawn for Parker on 68 minutes and briefly Reading were off the back foot. Realising that somehow they were still in the game, Pog make a good run down the right and his shot was well saved by Lloris. Again the rebound fell to him but this time his header was wide. McDermott threw on Robson-Kanu and Le Fondre to try and snatch a point but Spurs were still tearing them open at will.  Within four minutes of his arrival as a sub, Dempsey tried his luck from distance and the ball looped up and over Federici for 3-1. Reading were beaten now and they knew it. More chances came and went for Defoe, Lennon and Parker but the match finished 3-1, the least Spurs deserved.

So, what pointers for Rangers when Spurs visit Loftus Road on 14th? Basically none, we're in trouble here. Spurs have quality throughout with pace, movement and an array of dangerous set pieces. Double manning Lennon looks like a good idea, but then Bale will be back and the other flank becomes vulnerable. If Adebayor gets frustrated and loses interest, and Defoe goes for quantity rather than quality, we might just keep it reasonable.

Interestingly, just as it was when QPR came here in October, it was very quiet in the ground and the 'famous atmosphere down the lane' was nowhere to be seen or heard. Reading's bright start tempted their support to open with the somewhat predictable 'How $hit must you be, we're winning away' which was eventually replied to near the end with 'How $hit must you be, we're winning without Bale'!  Standard 36,000 crowd, most of whom seem to have split personalities in the matters of whether or not to celebrate their Jewish heritage and whether or not to stand up!

Man of the Match: The return to form of Aaron Lennon lately has been a joy to watch and he ran the show here, giving the Reading back line a torrid ninety minutes. QPR will have to watch him very very carefully indeed at Loftus Road in a fortnight. Harry will know all this already, of course.

Lightning definitely doesn't strike twice...

Match Review: QPR 0-3 Liverpool

Ranger's latest attempt to re-start the kick-start to their season took place today in front of the Sky cameras at Loftus Road. But unlike last year's fixture between the two sides which proved the turning point in their season, this one was a disaster...

The team was 'freshened up' by the reintroduction of Julio Cesar in goal after Rob Green's disastrous error versus West Brom, as well as the welcome (on the face of it) return of Onuoha, Nelsen and Diakite outfield.

Rangers were extremely slow out of the blocks and seemed to lack energy and determination right from the first whistle. On 3 minutes a Suarez shot was well saved by Julio Cesar, apparently on his way directly to a festive fancy dress party dressed as a banana. On 10 minutes, Suarez was proving a nuisance once again and mugged Liverpool fan Clint Hill, strode forward unopposed and stroked the ball in for one nil, which silenced the capacity crowd.

Banana man looking beaten before the game has even started!

The game continued with QPR frenetic, and Liverpool controlled and were threatening whenever in possession. At the quarter hour Traore was missing from his full back post as Suarez cut in from the right. His shot across goal was played directly back to him by Onuoha and Rat boy scored again as he continued moving when the QPR defence didn't. What was most remarkable about this is that the goal went down as a Stewart Downing assist - surely the midfielder didn't mean it?

Rangers first attacking spell of any note saw a Taarabt free kick clip the wall on 20 minutes and Mbia attempt an audacious overhead kick. Soon Downing broke down the right again with Traore nowhere in the picture and Nelsen just cleared his own bar. Two minutes later a short corner was played to Gerrard who had all the time he needed to measure up and swing in a perfect cross for the unchallenged Agger to head home for three nil. Liverpool, sensing a score to rival Chelsea's recent eight and Arsenal's seven, pressed on with every attack down either wing causing mayhem. Traore and Onuoha were AWOL from their full back positions almost every time the Scousers attacked, the former having been guilty of neglecting his defensive duties for much of the season so far.

The first half concluded with Mbia, not for the first time, rolling around on the floor like a toddler throwing a tantrum, looking for a free kick that never came. Rangers thoroughly deserved being booed off at half time having offered nothing - no quality, no ideas, no spirit; only three nil was something of a blessing.

For the second half Cisse was withdrawn with the veteran Derry coming on to stiffen up midfield, which will no doubt have angered the Frenchman who will feel he did little to deserve to be hauled off. However this was all about damage limitation now... 

Liverpool felt at 3-0 the game was safe (2-0 wasn't last year was it!) and were now playing in second gear, probably saving themselves for tougher challenges this week versus Sunderland and Mansfield. They also seemed to over-concentrate on trying to set up Suarez for his hat-trick.  In an all-South American duel on a winter's day in miserable England, Cesar saved well from the Uruguayan on 50 minutes. From a short corner on 53 minutes Jordan 'somehow capped by England' Henderson shot over. Mbia picked up his customary booking on 56 minutes, this time for overdoing things in the theatrical department.

A rare Rangers attack on the hour mark saw Traore put in a good cross but Mackie couldn't make a connection. Granero was brought on for QPR and Lucas for Liverpool. Granero's first action was to argue with Taarabt over who should take a freekick. Unfortunately the Spaniard won, and delivered a very poor effort from as decent a shooting position as we had found all game. 

The change meant that Rangers were now playing a bizarre formation with Wright-Phillips at right back, Onuoha and Hill at centre back with Nelsen left back, Traore left wing and Mbia up top with Mackie. Presumably this was down to Redknapp finally realising that it was no good relying on Traore to defend. But after 15 minutes of this experiment clearly not working and Liverpool easily holding Rangers at arms length, SWP was withdrawn as an act of  mercy. Fabio was brought on for the home team and did nothing other than get booked and booed for his Manure links. Lucas was also booked for tugging Granero. 

Added time was played out with nothing of note other than the ball striking my knee from another wayward Mbia effort.

In summary then, the damage was all done in the first half hour after which there was no way back for Rangers. Liverpool's slick passing opened up Ranger's defence at will. Derry did indeed prevent further humiliation after the break but I don't recall Reina making a single difficult save. Onward to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday....

Man of the Match: It pains me to say it because he is everything that disgusts me about modern day footballers - a cheat, a diver, a serial complainer, unsportsmanlike and generally a prat, but there is no denying that Luis Suarez is a gifted footballer. Yes, there was Sunday league like resistance between him and the goal today, but his determination, chasing of lost causes, ability to run in behind defenders, skill and this season's newly discovered ability to finish chances make him a real handful. I've no idea how playing Daniel Sturridge along side him might work though!

Weekend Preview: 'Arry's at 'ome at Loftus Road

Since we last wrote one of these, there's been a lot of water go under the bridge in various towns and cities in the UK but plenty in the footballing world too, arguably the most to have flowed through Loftus Road.

'Arry is back in football, the rumours were true. You can't help but think Gary Lineker might have known something was going on when he asked Redknapp on Match of the Day a couple of weeks ago whether he fancied the QPR job. Sparky finally lost his job just prior to the away fixture at Old Trafford (he should really have gone immediately after the dismal display against Southampton, but we can only assume the delay was in agreeing a provisional deal for the 65-year old former West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton and Spurs manager). Yet again Hughes' words came back to haunt him it seems - he claimed his future would not rest on the result against Southampton, just like he claimed QPR would never be in a position so close to the Premier League trap door again during his tenure at the club. He was so so wrong on both counts.

My personal take on the appointment of Harry is that he is the only man that was available that was right for the job. Much has been made of his ability to galvanise struggling teams and galvanising is precisely what Rangers need right now. Hughes might not have 'lost the dressing room' but he hardly strikes me as a motivator and a motivating, no-nonsense approach is what some of those lazy over paid lard-arses need right now. He showed straight away against Sunderland that he is quite happy to drop some of the Hughes favourites like Ferdinand and Granero and play players in different positions (e.g. Mbia in central midfield). Whilst some will say that Hughes wasn't given enough time to find his best eleven, my counter-argument is that he didn't experiment enough: he had his favourites and seemed so intent on playing only one up front and his many midfielders in positions they were not familiar with. A clean sheet is a good start, but there is undoubtedly a lot of work to do. Several of my colleagues and friends have told me that they *think* Harry is a good appointment but will reserve judgment for now because QPR's defence and attack are so woeful currently. Others have said that Harry will want to spend big in January, Fernandes will back him but we are on the road to bankruptcy. I'm not sure about that: I think people take Fernandes for a mug - he's not got to where he is as a businessman now only to go and blow it all on a football team. And then there are those that  are telling me 'for every Portsmouth and Spurs relegation escape there's the job he did at Southampton'. We'll have to see, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I have to admit that with the next three fixtures against Aston Villa (H), Wigan (A) and Fulham (H) and then Newcastle away (who haven't been at their best of late), December is crucial. Harry will have to get the most out of the team he has inherited, which have thus far massively under-performed. So you'll have to come back and ask me whether it's a good appointment on New Year's Eve.

West Brom v Stoke

Some people say that bogey teams don't exist in football any more. Just ask West Brom fans about bogey sides and they will all tell you that theirs is their Staffordshire rival the Potters. Stoke have won all of their Premier League away encounters at The Hawthorns and have not lost there in nine years. West Brom won at the Britannia last season to record their first win against Stoke in any competition for 11 games. And the omens aren't looking good for the Baggies for this one - they were outplayed by a classy Swansea side the other day whilst Stoke finished their match against Newcastle strongly and scored two excellent goals (well by their standards anyway!). Having said that, West Brom have looked a different proposition at home this year to what they were last year and I think they have enough in their side to bounce back with three points here.

Prediction: West Brom 2-1 Stoke

West Ham v Chelsea

The rozzers will be on high alert in East London this weekend for the traditionally hoolie-heavy fixture of West Ham v Chelsea. Rafa goes into this one looking for a first win as Chelsea boss and can expect an uncomfortable 90 minutes of taunts from the home fans as well as boos from his own but although I can see them going 1 down, I think he will answer some critics (in the media at least) by bringing Torres off the bench and him grabbing a goal. Chelsea have an excellent record against the Hammers and expect this to continue with a point here and a strong finish.

Prediction: West Ham 1-1 Chelsea

Man City v Everton

Another intriguing game in the top flight this weekend is at the Emptihad, where Man City welcome Everton, who have lacked their early season consistency of late. I still fancy them to give Citeh a good game here and can see them registering in the scoring, but ultimately I'm predicting a late winner for the Mancunians. Aguerrrrrrrrrrrrrrro!(?)

Prediction: Man City 2-1 Everton

MK Dons v Wimbledon

This weekend is FA Cup 2nd round weekend, which has thrown up the very interesting tie of MK Dons v Wimbledon. I just fear it has been a bit of a media circus for the away side, who I can't help but think will be overawed by the occasion and suffer a heavy defeat to the experienced seasoned pros of Franchise FC. Judging by their morals, I don't expect many of their die hard fans will be there to see it though, probably just as well!

Prediction: MK Dons 4-0 Wimbledon

Other cup ties this weekend include such all non-league classics as Luton (yes, non-league Luton!) v Dorchester, Harrogate Town v Hastings United and Barrow v Macclesfield whilst poor Bournemouth fans are lumbered with a second trek to Carlisle in one season (once is bad enough for them). Sheffield United v Port Vale should be a decent game with both sides doing well in their respective leagues.

There's a full programme in the Championship this weekend which commenced with Birmingham's 3-2 win over Middlesbrough at St Andrews last night on St Andrews Day. The two stand out games have to be the lunch time kick off between Huddersfield v Leeds and SE25 clash between Crystal Palace and Brighton.

The fire at the John Smith's Stadium has already been stoked by comments from the Leeds hierarchy criticising Simon Grayson's reign at the club, not that any local derby involving Leeds and Neil Warnock needs a fire stoking beforehand. This one's got to be a decent bet for a red card this weekend!

Meanwhile, those lucky enough to be at Selhurst Park this afternoon should see a very different footballing spectacle between two in-form sides. It's an odd rivalry that the two sides share (as Ian Holloway has also highlighted this week) but I liken it a little to that between QPR and Luton; just about close enough geographically and some classic and controversial battles down the years have left scarred relationships between the two sets of fans.

There is a further derby day this weekend and it involves Derby too, who head to the King Power Stadium for the forgotten East Midlands derby against Leicester. The Foxes showed they have ability among their ranks with their win over out of sorts Sheffield Wednesday which J and I both attended last weekend, but they were beaten by a second minute Luciano Becchio penalty at Elland Road midweek. They are very strong at home though (won seven, drawn one, lost one) and should return to winning ways this weekend  against a consistently inconsistent Derby side that have won two, lost two and drawn one of their last five games.

Preview of our teams

Manchester United are in Royal Berkshire this weekend as they take on Reading who looked to have turned the corner with their win over Everton but threw away the initiative at Wigan and let in a late goal at Villa Park on Tuesday night. I can't see United having any problem in replicating the Tottenham performance at the Madejski and believe that Reading will be vulnerable to the pace down the wings and technical ability of United's forwards. Sean Morrison and Kaspars Gorkss have done OK against the larger, less skillful attackers in the league this year but been found out by anyone with a bit of technique and pace.

As briefly mentioned above, QPR, the only winless and most hopeless side in the top four divisions, seek to finally record a first league win of the campaign at home to Aston Villa this weekend, who haven't had the best of seasons so far but have produced more encouraging signs of late and ground out a couple of results as they continue treading water. I think as long as QPR deal with Agbonlahor through use of anyone other than Bosingwa, and put players who know about marking from set pieces on and around Christian Benteke, then we really ought to be looking to this fixture to kick our season into gear. Easier said than done with the Hoops though...

Crewe are in 2nd round FA Cup action this weekend as they play host to Burton Albion of League Two. The Alex will be hoping to continue their good form of late which has had much to do with the form of loanee Lauri Dalla Valle. A money spinning tie could then arise from the third round draw on Sunday.

1.FC Union Berlin recorded a fine 2-1 win away at MSV Duisburg and will be hoping that a good run of form on the road eventually translates into some more consistent home form starting with the match at home to Bochum tomorrow. This is followed with next Friday's headline clash at home to unbeaten Kaiserslautern, so three points to carry into that would do most nicely!

So plenty of football to feast on this weekend. Enjoy! C&J

Still in the job!

Match Review: QPR 1-3 Southampton

Astonishingly, I'm sat here writing this match review and Mark Hughes is still Queens Park Rangers manager and still getting public backing from the 'ambitious' Hoops board!

I absolutely hate watching Match of the Day at the moment. Particularly the end credits. I've switched it off by that point. You see, when Gary says "before we go there's time to take a quick look at the league table", I'd rather not, so I grab the remote. This week I stopped listening when Lineker introduced the "bottom of the table clash" - I couldn't bare to watch that again. For what happened at Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon was embarrassing at the top level of English football. At this rate, Derby County's record low points total is under serious threat!

The afternoon began badly with news that yet again we were going with one up front, and Zamora's name wasn't even among the subs list - it now transpires he'll be out for three months, no big loss to be honest... Hughes really shot himself in the foot letting Helguson go and taking on just Andy Johnson as intended cover for the lazy duo of Zamora and Cisse - a crazy decision and one that has left us very very thin on the ground indeed up front.

And on the pitch itself the afternoon just got worse and worse. The game which was a must-win and will-win certainly didn't look like the walk in the park it was built up to be. Southampton looked far better, far more coherent and far more determined in the opening exchanges which is absolutely criminal for such a crucial clash for which we had a sell out home crowd. QPR were seeing hardly any of the ball and chasing the game right from the first minute. In the 8th minute, Saints began to show what their attack is capable of - an inviting ball was whipped in by QPR reject Jason Puncheon and missed everyone, including all of the static R's back line and Julio Cesar who reacted late. It hit the post and bounced away with Adam Lallana unmarked and inches away from diverting it goalbound. Another week without any defending coached at training then? Ferdinand and Bosingwa just looked at each other.

Southampton even had time to hit the woodwork again before eventually getting the goal their positive approach and QPR's dire defending merited. Poor marking allowed the Saints to do as they pleased in the QPR penalty area and, after a corner was only partially cleared, the ball was chipped back in, played to the side and then a cross put in with Cesar out of position for Rickie Lambert, unmarked and the most prominent aerial threat in the Reds' lineup, to head home from less than one yard out. Unmarked and one yard from goal? Utterly ridiculous. But such are QPR currently. At this point the support of the fans was well and truly waning - probably because we've seen this comedy defending every week since drawing with Chelsea this campaign and still nothing has been done about it. Southampton had scored 40% of their goals all season from headers this season - surely someone in Hughes' coaching staff will have picked that up and researched Rickie Lambert's game?!

The rest of the half was shocking from the home side. The passing was disjointed and positional play atrocious. Cesar insisted on booting the ball route one but Cisse couldn't be bothered to try to challenge for it or run after it. Ferdinand won hardly any headers and allowed Rickie Lambert to be the focal point of Southampton's play, which is what their gameplan relies upon. Granero looked lost out on the wing and clearly didn't want to be there, meaning it was thrust upon Bosingwa to be the creative source down the right hand side - a man without a single creative bone in his body and crossing ability worse than most goalkeepers. Bosingwa resorted to wayward hoofs, one even sliced so badly that it went out for a throw in, but didn't look in the slightest bit bothered by how awful his play is - he's earning a silly amount of money and has already won plenty of trophies, so why bother eh? Sod off back to Chelsea, will you?

Hughes at least recognised the last woeful tactical decision on that list his at half time and took off Alejandro Faurlin, who has been brought back into the lineup of late because he is a fans favourite and was beginning to show signs of discontent at being left out of a struggling side (as I've said before, central midfield is our strongest area).

But the change was too late as the inevitable 2nd was netted before half time. Rangers and not long ago Southampton reject Puncheon was being allowed the freedom of the ground he used to play so poorly on and after a neat bit of skill to shrug off a half-hearted QPR challenge from Clyne, he picked up the ball, ran a couple of yards to a point where he had a clear sight of goal and nobody tracking him, and slammed the ball home from 25 yards beyond the late dive of Cesar. At half time, the crowd booed the side off, called for Hughes' head and elected to sympathise with Ryan Nelsen, the one shining light in our defence this season, who must be wondering what he's done wrong in life to deserve to play in this team.

Faurlin's replacement at half time was Jamie Mackie, a member of the old guard and still much loved by QPR fans for his positive mental attitude and the fact that he runs at defenders with or without the ball. His presence on the field lifted the crowd and lifted the players who turned up the heat for five minutes and earned a goal back for their efforts - a fine ball in from Taarabt, who had been far too quiet up to this point, caught out the Saints defence and forced Paolo Gazzaniga into no mans land. There, he met Junior Hoilett, who outjumped his tame effort at commanding his area and headed into the empty net. Where did this tempo come from? The goal told us what we all knew - Southampton's attack might be Premier League standard, but they rely very heavily on it to carry them through games because their defence is shambolic. Game on and the impetus with the home side, or so we thought...

No.

Incredibly, QPR couldn't cause any further trouble to what is supposedly the league's leakiest defence and worst side on paper, and it was the away side who looked the more likely after the goal. Rickie Lambert was continuing to play knock-downs and run the show from the top for the Saints because the QPR defence allowed him to. He caused havoc every time a ball was played into his path and forced a series of corners and sustained period of pressure, which eventually told when Morgan Schneiderlin was allowed to run from the right hand side in towards goal in a straight time and produce a killer ball into the area where Cesar was standing. For some reason he just loves the near post position, but unfortunately so do defenders and this time the near post guard role was duplicated by the keeper and defender. A comedy of errors then followed, where the lack of communication between the two lead to Scooby Doo putting through his own net to sum up his abject display. Ferdinand just hasn't looked like the player he did in his early QPR days and looks lazier by the week. I'll be glad when Stephane Mbia returns at Old Trafford next week, but his short fuse doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either!

This was a totally unacceptable, gutless, spineless display to round of a series of failings from the team, who are just as much to blame as their manager, don't get me wrong. But Hughes just had to go after this one, yet he hasn't! The lack of testing the opposition's keeper was what angered me most in this latest installment. The full time whistle was met by a chorus of boos and all players bar Mackie and Nelsen were snubbed by the fans at the end. QPR are now six points from safety and only twelve games have passed. Disgusting, especially given the outlay this Summer on players we didn't even need on the face of it, certainly not in our starting lineup!

But I guess all this negativity needs some perspective doesn't it? It was only ten years ago this weekend just gone that the R's suffered the ultimate humiliation, the lowest point in their history - Vauxhall Motors. I still get flashbacks to that today and with defending like we have done in recent times I wouldn't mind betting they would do us again now! Oh, and seeing as we're talking anniversaries, this weekend just gone also marked a year since our last win away from home in the league. Now that's perspective, as we have a true means of comparison in terms of resources. But not a comparable playing squad: we didn't have many big names or foreign 'next big things' in our lineup that day, we had a team of seasoned football league camapaigners who are renowned triers, many of whom had earned their right in the promotion winning season or through hard graft in long careers to play in the Premier League. And, Joey Barton and SWP aside, most were on modest wages. I can only imagine what we could have done with a Helguson or Smith in our side on Saturday, even an in-form DJ Campbell who has rediscovered his love for football again having been left in the wilderness by the club he supports and wants to play for! Neil, we were wrong, please come back and save us from Sparky and his overpaid bunch of layabouts!!

Man of the match: Ryan Nelsen - he plays on his own, you know. Feel massively sorry for him, as he's clearly a top pro and deserves to play in a team with top pro's, but has to make do with this bunch of big time Charlie's.

Weekend Review: Wilshere sees red, Latics delight at The Lane

Another weekend and plenty to discuss in the weekend review. This was a weekend that saw supposedly struggling teams pick up points and 2 of the big 3 dropped points.

This weekend saw 2 sides struggling yet again who have somehow managed to avoid the glaring stare of the media. Both Sunderland and Stoke sit in 15th and 16th place having lost to teams who seem destined to be embroiled in a relegation battle this year. Both their woes seem to centre on the fact they can't score. Sunderland are the league's lowest scorers with just 6 goals in 9 games, and incredibly their top (and only) goal scorer in the League in October was Demba Ba (yes - Newcastle's Demba Ba!). Steven Fletcher remains their only goal scorer from their team, and their woes were compounded in Saturday's 1-0 loss to Aston Villa. During the game Sunderland actually had 12 shots on goal and yet they somehow managed to get 0 on target! Last year's bright sparks for the Black Cats like Sessegnon and Larsson just haven't fired this season at all, and Adam Johnson seems to be showing why Mancini never took to him at Man City as he is too predictable constantly cutting in onto his left foot from the right side. Meanwhile, Stoke succumbed to Norwich in another 1-0 loss. Stoke's troubles have also come in front of goal as they've only scored 8 in 10 games in the league. Only 3 of their players have scored so far this season (Crouch 4, Walters 1, Kightly 2) and it seems like Tony Pulis' signings in the summer to make Stoke more of a footballing side have actually had an adverse effect on their attacking threat. Charlie Adam is yet to get an assist this season (which he has surely been bought for primarily with his free kick and corner kick taking prowess).Stoke had 9 shots in the game with 4 on target yet failed to find the back of the net and they haven't won in 4 now. Both sides need to start picking up points soon or we imagine that their managers could find themselves under pressure sooner rather than later.

The headline fixture of the weekend didn't disappoint as Manchester United overcame Arsenal by two goals to one. United were visibly (and understandably) disappointed to concede a goal late on to Santi Cazorla, which in spite of being merely a consolation and the last kick of the game, will have had SAF tearing his hair out. He, like all managers, will have identified Santi as the Arsenal danger man to be marked at all times, and quite frankly he was given far too much space to produce the crisp finish that he did. However, overall United can be very pleased with their afternoon's work. They could (and probably should) have had 5 or 6 with RVP, in particular, missing a few gilt-edged chances. However, the difference between these 2 sides this season was particularly evident in a comparison between United's Van Persie and his replacement at Arsenal, Olivier Giroud. Van Persie had 41 touches in the game whilst Giroud had 37 so they had similar opportunities on the ball throughout the game, yet RVP completed 87% of his passes while Giroud completed just 72%. RVP won 50% of his aerial duels in the game while Giroud (supposedly a more physical presence) won just 22% of his aerial battles. Giroud had 3 shots with only 1 on target whereas RVP had 4 shots and 4 on target, with his first touch in the game itself being a goal. Arsenal's first shot on target didn't come until injury time through Giroud just before Cazorla's goal! In essence United had 13 shots to Arsenal's 7 with 6 shots on target to Arsenal's 2. This game was a strange case of 2-1 not telling the story and actually flattering Arsenal.

Swansea grabbed an 88th minute leveller (and a beauty it was) through Pablo Hernandez to snatch a point off of Chelsea, who lead through Victor Moses' first goal for the club. It was a deserved point for the Jacks who had looked like they had run out of steam at the time but had played extremely well for large parts of the game.

The biggest surprise of the week was at White Hart Lane, where a lacklustre Tottenham Hotspur were out-foxed and out-fought by Wigan Athletic. Perhaps we should have known - they've been here and done it before, they've been to the Emirates and done it before. Martinez got his set up and approach spot on here and Wigan were very assured in their play. Incredibly, Ben Watson was confirmed as being the first Englishman to score for the side from the North West in 2012!

Roundup of our sides

Man Utd beat Arsenal 2-1 as detailed above.

In the Hoops Hoopla (trademark pending) QPR took a battling point against Reading in a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road. C's match report from the game will be appearing next week but it was an entertaining affair of 2 halves, which saw Rangers come back into the game after going down in the first half to yet another goal against his old team from Kaspars Gorkss. Djibril Cisse equalised for Rangers to leave both sides with a fairly deserved point. Check the blog in the next week or so for C's thoughts on the game and the result.

Crewe came from a goal down to beat Wycombe 4-1 in the FA Cup First Round. An early Matthew Spring (remember him?!) goal put Wycombe in front, but 2 goals either side of half time saw Crewe comfortably into the 2nd Round. Mathias Pogba, Mark Ellis, Chuks Aneke and Luke Murphy all got in on the goalscoring act for the Alex and it's a morale boosting win after last weekend's loss to Yeovil. They will face either Burton or Altrincham in the next round at home, after those sides played out a 3-3 draw - a very good result for non-league Altrincham against the League Two side! Either way it won't be a long trip in the next round for either side's supporters!

Meanwhile in Germany in the derby at Dresden Union Berlin ran out 2-0 victors against Dynamo Dresden in an excellent result for the team. The result sees Union sit in 10th place in the league now and they are 6 points from the relegation zone now. A Fabian Schonheim double either side of half time was enough to see off Dynamo for Union - a remarkable achievement for the defender! This result stops Union's run of 2 losses in a row and is very welcome as it is their first away win of the season. Let's hope it's the first of many!

What we learned this week

- For all the positives to come out of Goodison Park this season, Everton have developed a nasty habit of conceding early goals and giving themselves mountains to climb in games. The 7th minute goal they conceded at home to Fulham was the 7th goal they have conceded in the opening 25 minutes of games in their last five league matches.
- Wayne Rooney has a pretty dismal penalty record having missed 7 of the 20 penalties he has taken in his career - surely he shouldn't be the number one choice?!
- What is with players wearing short sleeve shirts and gloves?! Nani was a culprit and we spotted 3 alone for Man City - with Nasri, Dzeko and Balotelli all guilty of this ridiculous fashion faux pas.

- Strikers still on QPR's books are finding the net again in the Championship - DJ Campbell scored the winning goal at St Andrews for Ipswich, who began life under Mick McCarthy with a win, whilst Rob Hulse scored a first since a header away at Scunthorpe in April 2011

- Fernando Forestieri was the difference between Watford and high-flying Leicester City at Vicarage Road. The Argentinian has adapted well to the English game and is showing he is just too good for the Championship after running the game here. Maybe there are some benefits from being Udinese Reserves?!

- Big Jon Parkin only scores for Fleetwood in the presence of an ESDB Football blogger - read J's match report from Fleetwood v Bromley later this week.

- Efe Sodje saw red again for Bury this weekend, his 14th sending off of an illustrious career

C&J

Weekend Preview: Have You All Got Over The COCup last week?

After a midweek round of the COCup (Capital One Cup) which included an incredible 36 goals we're in the uncomfortable position that the Premier League might not be able to live up to the League Cup!

Reading and Arsenal played out a thriller at the Madejski where Reading went 4-0 up before half-time, before Arsenal pulled it back to 4-4 at the end of 90 minutes with 2 goals in injury time. There was a definite shift in momentum by this point and Arsenal ran out 7-5 victors in an extraordinary game after extra time. Sky must have thought that their luck was in this week as the next televised game on Wednesday night between Chelsea and Man Utd and featured a further 9 goals! United were 3-2 up in the 92nd minute but a last minute Eden Hazard penalty again saw the momentum shift. Chelsea had by this point essentially thrown on their full strength team against a Man Utd substitute and reserve team with only really Rafael a first teamer in their XI. Chelsea eventually won 5-4 after extra time. Amazingly there were more goals in each of those two games than there were penalties scored between Wigan and Bradford. The Bantams, with their German-esque record in shootouts (six shootout victories in a row going into this one) clearly knew that the strategy here was to hold Wigan out for 120 minutes before dumping them out with their nerves of steel from the spot. The quarter final draw has pitted Leeds and Chelsea against each other (two clubs which deserve each other) and Bradford have a money-spinning tie at last at Valley Parade as they host Arsenal. The COCup has fast become one of the most entertaining competitions this season amazingly! Still, it's a mickey mouse cup that nobody's bothered about, right?

This weekend's action:

The Championship kicked us off with another 'cracking game' (Warnock, 2012) last night as Brighton and Leeds shared the spoils in a 2-2 draw, with Paddy Kenny producing some fine stops including one from the spot and one deep into added time to deny the Seagulls all three points in front of over 26,000 at the Amex (again!). I noted that Lee Mason refereed the match last night and incredibly has now given six penalties in three days (he also took charge of the Chelsea v Man Utd league cup tie).

Fulham v Everton - This looks like it could be a decent tie, given their respective good starts to the season. Everton's sparkling early form has tailed off a little with three straight stalemates, but they've still shown plenty of quality in those draws to suggest that they aren't about to embark on any kind of slump (and, Stevie G, I can verify that Everton most certainly do not play long ball football!). As we've come to expect with the Cottagers, they've been strong at home and Berbatov and Petric have certainly hit it off with three goals each so far this campaign and we can't overlook the incredible goalscoring form of Bairdinho from the back so far this year! Everton have an excellent recent record against Fulham with five wins and a draw from the last six meetings, but for us all roads lead to a score draw this time around.

Prediction: Fulham 2-2 Everton

Norwich v Stoke - We don't feel like we've featured either of these teams too much this season so we're going to give them some attention now! This is a game between two sides out of form - they've each only won one in their last 6 league games. Stoke haven't won in 3 while Norwich did win recently against Arsenal but showed their lack of clinical edge this season in their draw against Aston Villa last weekend. In the last 6 games between the two teams Stoke definitely have the edge with 4 wins against the Canaries. In that period they've scored 10 goals to Norwich's 3. However, you can almost guarantee the game will be feisty with a total of 14 yellow cards in this period and 3 reds. Stoke haven't won in 14 attempts away from home so Norwich will be feeling that this could be a good chance for them to pick up another 3 points at Carrow Road. Both sides have averaged under 1 goal a game this season in the league (Norwich have 7 goals in 9 games, while Stoke have 8 in 9). But while Norwich have been leaking goals at over 2 a game, Stoke don't concede a lot with 9 in 9 for them. It could come down to the performances respectively of Stoke's forwards. If Stoke's forwards have a good day they should win, but if they misfire it could be Norwich's day.

Prediction: Norwich 0-1 Stoke

Crystal Palace v Blackburn - Game of the week in the Championship promises to be a real treat in South East London as 4th plays 5th. Hot on the heels of the news that Ian Holloway is set to take over at Sel'urst and on the back of an excellent run of form which continued with a fantastic 2-1 win away at Leicester last week, the Eagles host the mad chicken farmers who themselves will have new boss Henning Berg in the hotseat and have shown signs of recovery again lately by grinding out victories against struggling Sheffield Wednesday and Watford. I have been incredibly impressed by the Championship's surprise package this year so far: Palace have not lost in the league since August 25th and as well as at Leicester have claimed  victory over Cardiff, Bolton and Wolves in recent weeks. With 26 goals having been scored at Selhurst Park this year, I'm expecting more of the same here. Blackburn do not roll over easily though and they are the only Championship side unbeaten on the road this year, albeit having drawn 5 of their 6 away games. We fancy another 'Desmond' here!

Prediction: Crystal Palace 2-2 Blackburn

It's the FA Cup 1st round proper this weekend in the lower echelons of the football league, and there are some intriguing encounters. Among them, Chelmsford City take on Colchester United in an all Essex derby, whilst there is the always feisty encounter of Hereford versus Shrewsbury on Sunday. Crawley Town will be glad they don't have corruption king and general criminal Steve Evans still at the club as the Met Police come to the Broadfield Stadium in an attempt to arrest the Sussex club's recent series of cup runs. Gillingham host Scunthorpe today without any detailed scouting reports on their opponents - after their scout joined the opposition's staff this week! Last night saw Cambridge City force a replay out of MK Dons. 

Our teams:

Saturday's game at Gresty Road sees the FA Cup start properly for Crewe Alex as they take on Wycombe Wanderers. Both sides lost their last league outing and will be hoping to try and begin a cup run this weekend. Wycombe are however, without a win in 3 and they are the underdogs going into the game a division down from Crewe. Interestingly both sides would have been in opposite positions last year when Wycombe were relegated from League One while Crewe were promoted from League Two. Crewe have won 3 of the last 4 meetings between these sides, however, they have lost their last 4 matches in the FA Cup.

QPR take on Reading in the battle of the hoops, which ought to be viewed as a 'win or bust' for Mark Hughes. He's had plenty of mitigating circumstances with injuries and suspensions and the team have played better football than their league position suggests at times, but ultimately football is a results business and results are dictated by goals - which QPR don't score enough of, but concede to many of. I really hope Hughes goes for it in this one and stops pissing around playing one man up top at home. This has to be 4-4-2 for me.

Saturday's early game sees Man Utd host Arsenal. None of the last 6 games between the sides have ended in a draw, so our tip is not to bet on that outcome! United have won 5 of the last 6 meetings between the two and it has always seemed that they have had Arsenal's number when it comes to these games. The same fixture last season saw United run out 8-2 winners in a thrilling game, but I think you'd go a long way to get odds on that score again! United have scored 16 goals in their last 6 games against Arsenal and they will be hoping that run continues on Saturday.

Union Berlin have a massive derby game with Dynamo Dresden on Sunday. The last 2 games between these 2 have ended in a 4-0 victory for either team so that could be a decent score to bet on! Both sides are mid to lower table in II Bundesliga and Union actually sit 2 places and 3 points better off than their hosts. Union have won 5 of the last 6 games between these two teams so they will be hoping to keep up that run. Dynamo haven't won in their last 3, and both sides lost their last game so it should be an interesting battle between two sides fairly low on confidence.

Enjoy this weekend's football everyone! C is off to Loftus Road to watch QPR take on Reading on Sunday while J is travelling to the world famous Highbury Stadium to see Fleetwood Town take on Bromley in the magic of the FA Cup First Round. Look out for match reviews and the weekend review over the next week or so!

C&J

A score draw that should have been more

Match Review: QPR 1-1 Everton

The teams pre kick-off

Finally I bring news of a point again for QPR, an outcome which I've no doubt every Super Hoop would have taken before the game, but given the circumstances, I'm sure they are disappointed that we didn't do more to try and win the game.

For a change, it started really well! Going into the game, QPR had built up a reputation for being slow out of the blocks. Of the 17 goals they have conceded this season, seven of them were shipped  in the opening thirty minutes of games, including 4 of these in the last 3 league matches. Equally, they have an awful habit of leaving players unmarked, committing too many men going forward and leaving themselves completely exposed to pacey Premier League wingers and front lines. Considering all this, it was pretty satisfying to see the R's carry out a complete role reversal and themselves be the scorers of a goal on a swift counter attack where the opposition had over-committed going forward for a change. With less than two minutes played, an Everton corner was cleared as far as Junior Hoilett, who proceeded to run and run and run. With the last defender and goalkeeper off his line being all that was left before him, he unleashed a shot (which the keeper probably would have got) but it caught the trailing leg of Leighton Baines which completely wrong-footed Tim Howard and sent the ball on its way into the empty net. 

Everton, who had come to Loftus Road in outstanding form and flying high in the league, looked very surprised to have conceded and continued to be on the back foot for much of the half. This looked like a game where QPR would finally click, the early goal settling nerves (although clearly not those of Stephane Mbia, who on six minutes ordered the ball boy to slow down the delivery of the ball back to the pitch!) The R's were doing their usual though - showing nice touches and putting together neat passing moves only to have no end product. I can recall a Ryan Nelsen header from a corner but not a lot else in a spell of sheer dominance. No surprise then that when Everton strung a few passes together it would lead to an equaliser...

Referee Jon Moss, a headmaster on weekdays I'm told, decided that after an uneventful 30 minutes by refereeing standards, he would play the role of primary school PE teacher and become extremely whistle-happy. Jelavic went down fairly easily on a couple of occasions and Moss was quick to award free kicks as well as be very fussy about where they were taken from and how far back the wall was. One such free kick (which, I accept, was indeed a free kick) was delivered into the area for an unmarked Sylvain Distin to plant a firm header goalbound which hit the post and then ricocheted off Cesar into the net. Cesar was unlucky having made a really good save from an earlier low Jelavic drive from another set piece, but unlucky is not how I would describe the defending. Bobby Zamora and Stephane Mbia between them should have had Jagielka and Distin covered, but Zamora completely neglected his man and in truth either of them would have had a free header here. In spite of having had two weeks' international break to work with his players on ways to reduce their catalogue of defensive errors at the training ground, it seems that marking from set pieces is not top of Hughes' priority list. The longer that goes on, the longer it will continue to plague QPR this season. Not even two minutes after the equaliser it should have happened again - this time the R's defence were rescued by the crossbar. Infuriatingly, it was again Zamora's man that was allowed to get away (this time Jagielka) and he got a powerful head on the ball under no pressure whatsoever which was a lick of paint from making it 2-1. 

At half time the mutterings from the terraces were of the 'same old story'. QPR had once again dominated possession, produced some nice build up play but again had extremely limited end product. The only difference was that this time they had taken the lead first! Maybe the shot-shyness can be linked to the continued desire of Hughes to play one out and out striker up front even when at home. Zamora as a lone striker with the players we have just doesn't seem the right choice to me, and I feel that we'd work much better if it were 4-4-2. But given Cisse has been so out of sorts lately, maybe Hughes feels he is still better off playing this system, and the decision to play Hoilett had so far paid dividends - he'd looked lively and shown a willingness to run at Everton's defence, something Cisse hasn't done enough when he has been on the pitch this season.

The second half began fairly evenly with both sides looking determined to produce a performance. In the 50th minute, Samba Diakite produced an excellent run where he emerged from deep in his own half, danced past several challenges and then produced a low cross which begged for a hooped shirt to get on the end of and smash home. Sadly, the man it fell to was QPR's pet tortoise of recent weeks, Ji Sung Park. He was far too slow reacting to the intelligence of Diakite and by the time he eventually got a shot away, it was blocked by Jagielka. 

Meanwhile, challenges were getting a little more heated and the referee was getting ever fussier, blowing even for fifty-fifties. Steven Pienaar, unrecognisable after his haircut, was the first name to go into the book for a fairly nasty challenge shortly after the Park effort. He was also the second name in the book just nine minutes later for what seemed like an innocuous tussle between him and Jose Bosingwa out on the right wing. This wasn't really a surprise given the way the referee had been going about the game since early on and Pienaar appeared to have lost his rag after his booking - whilst this offence was definitely not worthy of a yellow card, he was bound to go at some point within the next ten minutes if he had escaped here. The sending off should have given QPR the impetus to go gung-ho and instead of reacting instantly to the dismissal, Hughes let the game roll on another ten minutes before making two substitutions. Managers win praise for being quick, decisive and catching the opposition off guard with their substitutions, but it was so obvious during that ten minutes what the changes were going to be that Moyes was afforded time to ready his pack for their introductions. So when in the 70th minute Djibril Cisse and Nedum Onuoha finally entered the fray in place of Zamora and Armand Traore (incidentally, Hughes was true to his word when he said Traore would only last 70 minutes!), it wasn't exactly a shock that they didn't have the intended impact on the game that they could have done. 

For the remaining twenty minutes QPR rallied but disappointingly only produced two more saves from Howard, both from good Hoilett efforts. This was the Canadian's best performance for QPR and he has clearly been told to work on getting shots out of his feet sooner, which can only be good news. But the Hoops need more than one contributor if they are to get out of the situation they are in. Taarabt had a very quiet game compared with his last two games for QPR which was disappointing but Zamora also just doesn't get involved enough in attacking play. Cisse should have come on much earlier and been instructed run at the Everton defence, who had shown on occasions in the game that they don't like being ran at. But as was the consensus at half time, there is a much simpler way of getting more contributors to attacking play - have two up front!!! Please, Sparky. Especially at home.

Free flags for all in the home ends: not condoned by ESDB football due to the fact they are associated with plastic supporters from SW6 these days. But good atmosphere builders, admittedly

Man of the match: As alluded to at times during this match report and many others, central midfield appears to be the Rs' strongest department, with Ale Faurlin only good enough for a place on the bench behind Esteban Granero and Samba Diakite, and it was the latter that stole the show in this game for QPR. He made some excellent runs, produced some cute passes and even well timed challenges in this game (apart from once, when he picked up his customary yellow card). He's still a lunatic, but a talented lunatic at that...

C

Weekend Preview: Football rains supreme

After an eventful week that saw Roy Keane involved in all manner of banter to pad the England match being rained off we hope to live up to Roy's skills and review England v Poland and preview the return of the Premier League...

Tuesday night's fiasco brought one question to most fans' minds: why have a roof if you're not going to use it properly?! Surely it makes sense to pay attention to weather reports and close the roof accordingly if it's due to rain? Either that or leave the roof closed on the day of a game until shortly before kick off if the weather is alright? Anyway, the game went ahead on Wednesday afternoon and we were almost left wishing it hadn't. It was a dismal game from an England point of view. Unfortunately for Wayne Rooney, he had one of those games that seem to happen for him in an England shirt all too often. He had a passing accuracy percentage of 69% - to put that into perspective, only Joe Hart had a lower accuracy. Nonetheless, he did what strikers are there to do - he scored. More to the point he had a shot on target, which no other England player managed all game. Joe Hart has saved England and Manchester City on a number of occasions but unfortunately he made a big error in this game leading to Kamil Glik scoring a free header into an empty net. Hart rushed off his line - as Adrian Chiles put it (not that we like to give him any credit), he had made his mind up too early and was like a batsman playing the ball he wanted rather than the ball he was bowled. It's interesting that Joe Hart gets such an easy ride when he makes a mistake dealing with a cross yet foreign goalkeepers such as David De Gea are pilloried in the press if they make any kind of misjudgement when coming for a cross. Back to England though - it's worrying that they can have 58% possession in a game and yet have 5 fewer shots than their opponents - sounds rather familiar doesn't it C?! It looks set to be the same old story for England that when they meet a top quality side they will crumble yet again. They need to be more prolific in front of goal and more penetrative with their passing if they want to succeed.

Thankfully for everyone, the internationals are over (at least until November) and the Premier League is back this weekend.

This week's news has been dominated by the BBC's 'Price of Football' survey, which revealed pretty much what we already knew - C's season ticket is a rip off compared with other clubs of QPR's calibre but the Hoops' board can get away with it because of supply and demand economics, whilst Arsenal fans pay up to £1,955 to watch their team continue a run of seven seasons without a trophy. As you will know, we don't officially recognise Scottish football as a sport, but we particularly enjoyed the stat earlier this week that Montrose fans have seen their side lift more trophies in the last five years than Gooners fans have and yet they pay one tenth of the cost for their season ticket. Similarly, it is bizarrely more expensive to see Bury play than Barcelona's cheapest ticket. Joking aside though, the price of football is most definitely rocketing and attendances are continuing to decline - no coincidence seeing as we're in the midst of one of the biggest recessions for decades. But with more and more money being pumped into the game, clubs are forced to look to the fans to provide finances just so they can compete on the pitch, so I can't see the trend of rising ticket prices changing any time soon. 

Anyway, enough about all that, let's move on to this weekend's action...

Tottenham v Chelsea - The early kick off on Saturday sees the battle of Andre Villas Boas against his former employers Chelsea. Besides the inevitable sideshow that will stir up the issues between AVB and Chelsea's senior players, this is a tasty affair between 2 in form sides. Chelsea are unbeaten this season in their 7 league games and they've won their last 3 games on the trot, while Spurs are unbeaten in their last 6 league games and have won 4 in a row. Spurs haven't beaten Chelsea in the last 5 meetings between the two teams and it should be interesting to see if AVB's resurgent Tottenham are the real deal this season. Chelsea still haven't convinced us yet that they are real title contenders. They've been a strange team this season as they sit top of the league yet haven't really dazzled us yet. Gareth Bale has been on fire the last few weeks for both Spurs and Wales and it's notable Chelsea are definitely weaker on the right side of defence than on the left. Branislav Ivanovic has been good this season but it has been notable it's been going forward he's impressed rather than defensively. This game could be won or lost on that side of the pitch. AVB went through a lot of media persecution during and after his spell at Chelsea and it would actually be quite good to see him get one over the likes of Lampard and Terry who arguably forced him out of Stamford Bridge last year, then proceeded to play out of their skin for Roberto Di Matteo.

Prediction: Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea

Sunderland v Newcastle - Sunday sees the Tyne-Wear derby, as the Mackems host the Toon Army. In stark contrast to the game previewed above, this is a derby clash between two out of form sides. They only have 3 wins between them in 14 league games this season (2 for Newcastle, 1 for Sunderland). In their last 14 league games Sunderland have failed to win in 13, and 3 out of the last 6 games between these two teams have ended in draws. This game could be a tale of two strikers - one on each side. Steven Fletcher and Demba Ba have together scored 11 goals this season and Fletcher's tally of 5 goals represents 100% of Sunderland's goals this season while Demba Ba's return of 6 goals represents 75% of Newcastle's goals this season. Only 3 players from either team have scored in the league this season (Hatem Ben Arfa has Newcastle's 2 other goals) so if Ba or Fletcher aren't firing it is unlikely that their team will be firing either. Don't expect this to be a high scoring affair, and we can see this being a low scoring draw, since neither team can afford to lose.

Prediction: Sunderland 1-1 Newcastle

All four of our teams are in action this weekend after having two weeks off (or one in the case of The Railwaymen). 

In what is surely a novelty for Manchester United fans, they find themselves with a home Saturday fixture kicking off at 3pm! The Potters make the relatively short trip north to Old Trafford where they have lost on their last eight consecutive visits. But this year there's every possibility they will start with the former England first choice strike duo of Crouch and Owen. Not that that will have any material effect on the outcome of this game... 

QPR are the weekend's Super Sunday game as they take on Everton at Loftus Road. The Toffees strengthened their squad this week with the signing of one of our all time favourite Premier League players - Thomas 'Der Hammer' Hitzlsperger. Presumably they felt they needed someone who can strike a ball hard from distance after Royston Drenthe finished his loan spell at the club last summer and the club opted not to sign him (largely because he was wildly inconsistent and a bit of a loose cannon). Still, even without a player that can do that, the Blue half of Merseyside have made a fantastic start to the new season and won many plaudits for their scintillating football this season which has catapulted them to 4th in the league. In the home dressing room there should at least be some refreshed and fitter players after the two week break but in spite of having all this time, Armand 'half a game' Traore will probably end up amongst the substitutes and not on the pitch at the start where his services are so desperately required by the R's right now (Clint Hill at left back simply isn't an option and neither is Nedum Onuoha).

In an all Polish affair, Crewe travel to Warsaw's Banks's Stadium where they will fancy their chances of a result considering that the home side have lost their last two home matches. The Saddlers have a similar side to Crewe and I'm sure that Steve Davis will welcome the chance to play a game of football again this week after last week's wrestling match at Fratton Park. 

Finally across the Nordsee and a few hundred miles further east after that, Union Berlin have FSV Frankfurt at home whilst you all eat your Sunday roasts, so make sure you have a live feed on in the background. Die Jungs from Köpenick are gunning for a third successive success on home soil. 

C will be present in the Lower Loft as ever this weekend and will return with a match report early next week. We'll also have the usual weekend round-up in tow. Until then, have a good weekend and brave the rain, get out the house and go see some football!

C&J

Another fruitless away trip

 Match Review: West Bromwich Albion 3-2 QPR

QPR (without a win) went to The Hawthorns this weekend to face West Brom (with a 100% home record and having not conceded a goal there). The omens were not good, but yet again they showed they can compete at this level... in some areas anyway.

The Superhoops were forced into one change but Hughes elected to make several others. Anton Ferdinand and Jose Bosingwa returned to the starting eleven after a few weeks off each with leg related injuries. Nedum Onuoha was dropped to the bench after a horror show against West Ham on Monday night and so the back line from left to right read Hill, Nelsen, Ferdinand, Bosingwa. Armand Traore made a welcome return to the bench but with the Senegalese man you just never know if he really is fit or not. The decision to start Hill at left back suggested not. Even so, Hill at left back was a crazy decision from Hughes. This is the Premier League. A league well renowned for pacey counter attacking teams that will punish any defensive mistake. And Clint Hill is 33 and desperately short of both pace and confidence. Surely the versatility of even an out of form Onuoha would have been a better choice for the position? West Brom's right winger must have been licking his lips at the prospect of facing Hill... With Samba Diakite suspended, QPR had a ready made loony as a replacement in Stephane Mbia, who was shifted from central defence into the position of 'tough tackling' defensive midfielder. Taarabt was rewarded for his display against the Hammers on Monday with a start and he was preferred to the also out of form Cisse, leaving Zamora playing the role as lone striker.

Standard player warm up drill photo - I never find time to take pictures during the game itself!

And from early on, the travelling R's faithful's worst fears were realised. Hill was being absolutely roasted by Shane Long who was getting in behind him every time the ball was played forward. Sure enough, on five minutes, it was 1-0 for that very reason. Oh, and crap marking by Ferdinand which left Morrison a free header. Oh, and Cesar was also poorly positioned. Far too many individuals making errors and yet another early goal conceded. Absolutely infuriating stuff because yet again it was so avoidable. 

QPR responded in kind by stringing some passes together and weathered the early storm. But the R's are their own worst enemies at the moment, and after over-committing men for a short corner routine (why do we bother with those?!), the ball was given away and there were not enough people back who could catch up with Odemwingie. He played a great ball across to Shane Long who somehow managed to sky a chance from four yards when the goal was at his mercy. 

The defensive shambles continued and at times there were two and sometimes even three going for the same ball. Park and Bosingwa were particularly guilty of overlapping each others' defensive duties, whilst I can recall one occasion where Gareth McAuley had three men marking him on a set piece who ended up just falling over one and other. The lack of communication at the back was alarming and it was only a matter of time before the 2nd goal would go in. It arrived courtesy of some comedy defending that simply isn't good enough for a Premier League team. Morrison's misplaced cross was not dealt with by Ferdinand who had nobody around him and time to calmly clear but instead he elected to try to rush his clearance, slipped and inadvertently gave the ball to Zoltan Gera. With Ferdinand arsing around on the floor, nobody was within a mile of Gera who had time to set himself, look at Cesar's position and slot in to the gaping goal. 

The R's fans' frustrations were pouring out now, and sections of the away support joined in with the home fans as they told Hughes he would be 'sacked in the morning'. The frustrations were beginning to show from the players, too. Adel Taarabt managed to catch a ball from the air before it went out for a throw and then complain at the referee for giving a free kick as a result (he was lucky not to go in the book for that) whilst Mbia was looking increasingly like he could get sent off, flying into challenges Diakite-esque. This prompted the beleaguered Clint Hill to expend some more of his limited energy and run over to try to calm Mbia down, which to his credit he did to great effect. 

But then, out of nothing, QPR were back in the game. A superbly weighted pass forward (or possibly long hopeful punt) by Granero had Adel Taarabt latch on the end of it. The man who found his mojo again on Monday night then produced a superb chest and volley combination to beat Ben Foster all ends up. "Taarabt's too good for you" sang the travelling support, but in reality he is too good for us. The only reason he is with us is because he isn't one bit a team player. And I feel the same can be said for a number of our players. West Brom, on the other hand, have no real big names but work effectively as a team, and look where they are compared with us! 

For the rest of the half, QPR, who should have taken inspiration from Taarabt's moment of brilliance, continued to look shaky. Clint Hill was clearly being targeted and forced into errors, Park continued to show he is off the boil right now and SWP and Bosingwa were just god damn awful! The rest of the midfield and attack (i.e. Granero, Taarabt and Zamora) looked OK but were very shot shy. West Brom created one further clear cut chance before the half time whistle but were thwarted thanks to some Julio Cesar heroics, as he saved when one on one with Gera. These openings were arising where the West Brom attack was getting in behind the static R's back line all half and the lack of movement was unbelievable. 

Sparky had to change it at half time and so he did, replacing the 'out of his league' Clint Hill with Armand Traore. QPR dominated possession from this point but failed to test Foster at all, their best chance being ballooned over by Granero, who again seemed to take an age to work the perfect position before trying to shoot. Whatever happened to shooting on sight? Surely Mark Hughes, as a former striker, should be preaching that in the Premier League defenders won't give you time to score the perfect goal (QPR defenders aside, that is). SWP was the only player ever in space for QPR, but perhaps WBA knew he presented no danger - he can't cross, is woeful at taking on players and is generally a waste of space. Fans have even taken to sighing when he gets on the ball! Finally he got the hook midway through the second half but in spite of cries for Junior Hoilett, it was another out of form player, Jamie Mackie, who Hughes introduced. As a consequence, QPR continued to boss proceedings but still not testing keeper. And yet again I find myself referring to the moral of my previous match reports - it is essential to score when you are on top!! No surprise then when QPR were made to pay by the Albion, who, after getting a free kick which took the sting out of the R's passing game, afforded Gonzalo Jara Reyes time to plant an accurate pass into the area which was swept home by Youssouf Mulumbu (who incidentally is better than Kaka, I'm led to believe!). 

It occured to me at this point that the lack of pace in the side is the root of our problems. Granero has skill but no pace, Park has tenacity and determination but no pace, a snail would give Zamora a decent race and Mackie and Taarabt are not desperately quick either. Our only hope for pace on the field, substitute Armand Traore, was clearly not fit enough to play here, stopping his running about five minutes after coming on. Junior Hoilett was introduced when it was late enough that Hughes recognised this but had no effect because like Granero, he waits for the most perfect of openings and consequently allows defenders time to recover. Shoot on sight for god's sake!! As the board went up for five minutes of injury time, QPR found themselves in the West Brom half and at long last, the defence were caught out and Granero had enough time to look up and produce an excellent effort to beat Foster from the edge of the area. 3-2 and with two minutes of injury time to go, the Hoops sensed an unlikely equaliser and suddenly, in the last minute of added time, they had a corner. Rangers piled men forward and when the ball was partially cleared, it bounced back into the area to an unmarked Jose Bosingwa at the back post, who summed up his and QPR's performance when he blazed over with so much time and space to do so much better. 

If ever there was a game that summed up QPR's season to date, this was it. Not enough chances created, suicidal defending, but other than that, we've actually been alright (so in conclusion, not very good then!). We've played some pretty football at times and I still have faith yet, but these individual errors and our shot-shyness are costing us dear. 

The only way is up!

Man of the match: It's only fair that I reward Adel Taarabt for a couple of good performances. He goes missing at times and did so here but so do all good attacking players, and then pop up with the goods. When he was in the game, he was QPR's shining light. I just hope he finally has found his Championship form in the Premier League, particularly since Cisse has looked so poor of late. 

C