Rangers clip AVB's wingers

Match Review: QPR 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur

Queens Park Rangers continued their recent revival in front of the Sky Sports cameras for this twice rescheduled fixture (I hate the power they have sometimes, they completely mug fans off, it is they that I think should be subsidising away fans given the amount of crap they have to go through when a game gets rescheduled!)

Rangers kicked off this lunchtime fixture with one change to the starting eleven who had brought back three points from Stamford Bridge, Ji-Sung Park returning from injury replacing the now injured Granero to the delight of the Korean contingent in the stands. Spurs were at full strength (unless missing Kaboul counts?) and both Parker and Assou-Ekotto were available on the bench. 

Spurs looked the brighter in the opening stages and on 5 minutes Defoe was allowed to drift inside and unload a fierce shot from 18 yards which Cesar did magnificently to touch onto the post. Adebayor picked up the rebound and beat Clint Hill but also saw his effort turned away by the Rangers keeper. Shortly afterwards Aaron Lennon made a shameful Ashley Young-like dive which wasn't punished by referee Lee Probert. Probert is famous at Loftus Road for once sending off mascot Jude the cat because he was confusing him with the other eleven QPR players on the field at the time! On 11 minutes SWP showed some renewed confidence and went on a jinking run and had his goalbound shot deflected just wide by Dawson. Much of the rest of the first half saw Tottenham stroking the ball around well but continuing to meet stiff QPR resistance from the determined back four well protected by Derry and Mbia. Rangers were also defending well from the front with Mackie, SWP and Taarabt all working hard to close down opponents. Spurs were probably guilty of lacking ambition as neither of their full backs showed much in the way of attacking intent. Bale was busy but delivered no end product on the left but Lennon faded from the game. Both were well chaperoned as Fabio and Onuoha gave probably their best Hooped performances to date.

Halfway through the first half Sandro was replaced by Parker. This seemed to coincide with Ji-Sung Park transforming from a promising showing of harrying and probing to a frustrated figure who always seemed to arrive on the scene two seconds after the action had moved on. Basically for the next 67 minutes, he ran around a lot but had no impact on the game.

Dembele versus Mbia was a good contest with the Belgian well shackled by the Cameroonian for the most part and, particularly in the first half, the Rangers powerhouse was able to charge forward on some of his buccaneering runs.

After the break Spurs controlled the game for 15 minutes or so with QPR unable to get any decent possession in attacking areas, despite Taarabt's continued excellent hold-up play. He was isolated as the supporting players were fully stretched defending but to his credit he showed a level of maturity without the ball and without any support which we rarely saw from him in the Championship and last season. In spite of this, Tottenham did not really work Cesar with the closest attempt being a Kyle Walker free kick from range. Rangers came back into the game with Fabio and SWP having chances to score but when they did get forward there were no bodies in the box. Dempsey and Sigurdsson (that's probably Icelandic for Smith) came on as Spurs also began to look as if they would settle for a point. An outrageous piece of skill saw SWP mug Bale tight on the touchline as QPR pushed on. On 85 minutes Mbia collided with Lloris after the whistle had been blown. 3 minutes later when Big Steph had stopped rolling over, Probert arrived to declare all life extinct as Mbia lay motionless. In a moment of pure eschatology (look it up), Mbia was risen from the dead and rejoined the match as if nothing had happened. You've gotta love the big guy, and I forgot to mention that he continued his world record attempt to be booked for ridiculous infringements in the 69th minute when he added a nonchalant handball to his repertoire.

No further action of note and nil nil was probably a fair result. Spurs are third (fourth now) in the EPL for a reason and they have bags more quality than QPR, which showed here throughout. The R's were set up to defend and try and nick a goal from a set piece. If Tottenham had scored Rangers would have been scuppered, but they didn't, so 4 points from two derbies is an excellent return. So on we go to Upton Park (via a FA Cup replay that nobody wants) for jellied eels all round.

Man of the match: There were some stellar performances in the Rangers back line and a dogged display in midfield, so this, for once, is a very tough one to call. But I'll hand it to Julio Cesar, without whom QPR would have definitely let in a goal and heads would have dropped. That's back to back clean sheets in the league for the Brazilian.

Finally, a quick line for some of our new readers: Spurs have been linked with Kazakh playmaker Dmitry Byakov, who could make all the difference as they push to secure Champions League qualification. Вы услышали это здесь в первую очередь.

C

A minute of madness

Match Review: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Queens Park Rangers

Onlookers will see the scoreline and think this was a routine Tottenham home win and an equally routine abject QPR away performance. Those who were at the game will know the true story. For QPR fans it was an absolute travesty to come away with nothing. And it all boiled down to one mad second half minute...

QPR went into this one with long odds against their name and a patched up team with no less than four defensive absentees (Traore, Fabio, Ferdinand and Mbia). Four became five just three minutes in to the game when Jose Bosingwa felt his hamstring go and immediately signalled to the bench to be taken off. Emergency wing back Kieron Dyer was thrust into action, himself a man made of glass. However, what was to follow was a remarkable performance from Dyer and the rest of the patched up Rangers side.

Anton Ferdinand was sitting amongst the travelling support

The R's had started brightly and were pushing the ball around the makeshift side nicely. Hoilett, starting in an unfamiliar striker's role alongside Zamora, seemed to adapt well to the short passing game and possession football was the order of the day. Granero and Faurlin picked up where they left off against Chelsea and sprayed the ball all over the park all game - yet again they appeared a classy combination. It did look as though the defence was vulnerable to the trickery of Bale and pace of Lennon and Walker down the Spurs right hand side. But Rangers dominated possession with neat play which meant Bale et al were given a taste of their own medicine for a change and were left chasing Rangers shadows. Even when the R's did lose the ball, they were very effective at winning it back again through the once again outstanding Ji-Sung Park and Granero. The attacking mentality instilled by Hughes was a joy to watch given how hopeless QPR have been on the road for the last season (and in many gone by). A further plus for the R's was the quality of Granero's delivery from corners - for years now QPR have suffered from Adel Taarabt's bizarre corner routines but now we really do look a threat from them. This all gave Brad Friedel plenty of work to do and his first half performance was a stylish retort to the suggestions made by a certain Monsieur Barthez during the week that he didn't deserve to be first choice at the club and should immediately have been displaced by the incoming Lloris. However Friedel couldn't keep out Bobby Zamora in the 33rd minute, who scored with a fine finish after clever play from Faurlin.

After the goal, there was more of the same from the away side and the home fans grew in frustration in a half in which they were totally outplayed, and where Cesar did not have a save to make. Spurs' best chance fell to Dembele who hit a shot high and wide from range. Spurs did have the ball in the net but that was about thirty seconds after play had been stopped due to Defoe being offside (Rangers caught him off three times in the first half). I'm sure that not playing to the whistle earned a certain Robin Van Persie a second yellow in the Nou Camp in a Champions League game once upon a time, and since that day I don't think I've seen a single player receive a card for committing that offence. Where's the consistency?!

This was without doubt the best away performance I've seen for QPR since they played Ipswich in a midweek game at Portman Road in the promotion winning campaign. White Hart Lane was a library and Spurs were there for the taking. The only regret was that for all the Hoops' endeavours it was only 1-0...

Tottenham emerged after the break with a tactical substitution from AVB, with Gylfi Sigurdsson withdrawn to make way for Steven Caulker to both shore up the defence and allow Bale and Walker to push further forward and force the issue. It was clear straight away that Clint Hill was vulnerable to the pace of the Tottenham attack (particularly Lennon and Defoe) and the second half wasn't going to be as easy a ride as the first. However, QPR still continued to dominate possession and looked as though they could continue to cause the Spurs defence problems themselves. But then, on 59 minutes, disaster. A harmless looking corner had been partially cleared and then pinged back into the box. The ball was met inexplicably by a defending Alejandro Faurlin who put through his own net to gift Spurs a foothold in the game.

This visibly lifted the crowd and Spurs players and, with their tails up, they immediately pressed for a second goal. And somehow, within a minute of the own goal, QPR's game plan was in tatters as Spurs carved the defence open and scored a second, with Defoe driving home a rebound from a shot which Cesar had brilliantly tipped on to the bar. It was gut-wrenching.

QPR were forced to open up as they went in search of an equaliser which left them short at the back when Tottenham countered, but Cesar was solid and kept them in the game. Zamora soon tired and Hughes should have taken him off earlier than he did. However, his replacement, Djibril Cisse, looked off the pace and out of form when he entered the fray, perhaps an explanation as to why Hoilett was preferred to him for a starting position. At this stage Hoilett and Wright Phillips' play was diminishing in quality and Hoilett took far too much time over a one on one situation with Friedel which allowed a defender to get back and steal the ball from him just as he was about to pull the trigger. This was to be the best chance for an equaliser and in spite of the fact that the R's continued to make all the running in the game and dominate possession, they couldn't create any further clear cut chances before full time.

The result leaves us languishing in 19th spot in the Premier League with just two points from five games. The moral of the story? If you don't score when you're on top in a game, you'll get punished. And that is especially true against the top sides (and Tottenham). QPR have got to start turning performances into points. And that ought to start at home to West Ham on Monday night, in what is now a hugely important game for us.

Man of the match: Yet again I find myself spoilt for choice with candidates, but this week I definitely will award the coveted accolade to Ji-Sung Park, who has been everything QPR fans hoped he would be since joining the club and whose tireless work rate and outstanding ability are a pleasure to watch. An excellent choice for captain by Hughes, too, I must add.