#19 A Glimmer of Hope

After a dismal Christmas that culminated with QPR ending the year on only ten points, seemingly staring relegation in the face, we are now two league games and a cup game in to the new year and remain undefeated.

Celebrating going one up at Chelsea

We began the year with the daunting task of visiting a free scoring Chelsea at the Bridge and after our disappointingly poor showing against Liverpool few people could see anything less than the kind of hiding they gave us there last season. Nevertheless three thousand plus R's made the short journey having splashed out ridiculous amounts of money for a ticket at a time of the year when money was tight and they were deservedly rewarded with the shock result of the season as "Little Old" QPR beat the European Champions on their own manor. R's fans every where were jumping around in delirium even though we remained bottom of the league, it didn't matter, we had beaten Chelsea. In fact they have not scored against us this season and we have taken four points off them. More importantly, it was an enormous turning point in the epic journey that our players have embarked on in their quest to secure our premier league survival. This result meant so much to everyone that is QPR (fans, player or staff) and you could see it on their faces at the final whistle. The travelling R's had been in magnificent voice all night and the players revelled in it as, at long last they were able to give something back to the loyal R's fans. Wright-Philips was our goalscoring hero on the night, eventually breaking his premier league goal scoring drought (after over nine hundred days) but disappointingly did not celebrate his goal due to some misguided respect to his former club. It was quite fitting that he managed to score here tonight, as he was having a shocking game till he scored, but that's football and that's three points that nobody had counted on us achieving and can be offset against the points we expected over Christmas. More importantly, Harry sorted out the shambles from the  Liverpool game immediately and although we nicked the win we thoroughly deserved our clean sheet as every one worked their socks off as a cohesive unit, finally getting all eleven players to put an effective shift in. Much as we all love beating our foes in SW6, we've still got to build on this result to turn this disaster of a season around, so our feet must remain firmly on the ground.

Goal

Next up was WBA at Loftus Road in the cup and an unsurprisingly low attendance. Considering the two home games over Christmas followed by Chelsea away and the clubs insistence on charging silly money for tickets to this game, you would have thought they would have learnt from Chelsea in the cup last year. The game itself was quite uneventful and was never going to meet the euphoric levels of our shenanigans at Stamford Bridge days earlier. It did give Harry a chance to blood new signing Tal Ben Haim as well as have a look at returning loanees DJ Campbell and Bothroyd. Ben Haim had a solid game although he was asked to play at left back as a right footer and Bothroyd had a brief outing without doing very much and I cant see Harry including him in the squad of twenty five at the end of the month. Campbell who has been scoring freely whilst on loan at Ipswich, didn't get much of an opportunity as QPR's second half dominance failed to produce any clear cut opportunities for Campbell to capitalise on. The R's early second half dominance eventually petered out and they conceded a silly goal late on, but Dyer equalised for the Hoops in injury time to secure a replay at the Hawthorns. Dyer was subsequentley released by the club before the clause enabling them to do so expired, as Harry started to shuffle and make room for his twenty five man squad for the end of January. Harry's motives I suspect being Dyer's lack of availability due to injury and he didn't want to risk a place in the twenty five. Not a bad player, shame we didn't see much of him and I wish him well, but right call from Harry I think.

Following the cup game news began to break that our dependable centre half Ryan Nelsen had accepted the managers role at Toronto FC in the MLS. We are still unsure as to when Nelly will actually leave the R's, but I'd say it is unlikely to be before we have a replacement. Sadly some R's fans have been slating him and seem to have forgotten he was the only one to lead the team during the dark days of the previous manager. Nelsen signed for QPR as a squad player, but he has ended up being our first choice centre half and has arguably been our best player this season. The 35 year old Kiwi has openly said that his ankles and knees are made of glass and I'm amazed we've got this many games out of him. He has played through illness and given his all to the cause of QPR and I wish him well.


Dyer late equaliser before his exit from QPR

Further transfer speculation involving QPR is the continuing tug of war with Newcastle over the signing of Loic Remy, (I doubt very much if R's misfit, Joey Barton, has done much to sell the club to Remy, in fact he's probably encouraged him to go to the Toon.) whilst we continue to be linked with M'Vila and are currently preparing an improved bid for Peter Odemwingie. At the time of writing, it looks likely that we will also secure the services of Jake Livermore on loan for the rest of the season. On the players out front, Cisse is being linked with a move abroad and rumours are surfacing that Chelsea are interested in Mbia.

Away from all the transfer rumours, QPR welcomed Harry's old club Spurs to Loftus Road on Saturday and a very good performance from the R's earned a creditable draw. Harry got the troops to turn out another hard working and organised performance, as the R's managed to secure their first consecutive clean sheets in the premiership. Onuoha and Fabio occupied full back roles alongside captain Hill and Nelson, with this back four configuration seeming to be our most successful combination and Onuoha had a good game and looked settled in the right back role. However, it was the collective work rate of the team that earned this result and is the reason behind the good start to the year. Cesar made a few outstanding saves, proving his claim as first choice keeper. Wright-Philips recent form continued in so much as he's not as bad as he has been, but he is still not good enough or the answer. QPR's three best chances fell to him, but he failed to convert and I can't help thinking that the likes of Campbell etc would have put at least one of those chances away, which is what we need to to if we want to stay in this league. By the end of the day other results were not kind to us, but our last two games have produced four points when those around us were expecting us to achieve none.

Bothroyd scores to secure cup win

I was going to finish with the Spurs game, but I have waited for the cup replay at WBA. Another thousand odd faithful QPR travelled up in the freezing conditions to the Hawthorns to be rewarded by another QPR victory away from home. Harry made six changes to the side from Saturday starting both Cisse and Bothroyd. Cisse was pretty woeful in the freezing conditions and was replaced by Wright-Philips halfway through, but Bothroyd seized his chance and produced arguably his best performance in a QPR shirt and nodded in the winner to put the R's into the last 32 and a home tie with MK Dons. Green is reported to have made some fine saves and more importantly the collective effort of the team that Harry put out replicated the ethos and work rate of Saturday and it would seem our Harry has got through to his players and they are beginning to deliver. Many had thought this fixture to be a non event and one we could do without, but the victory has made me feel good and the all important momentum has continued as we find ourselves unbeaten in four games in 2013. Of these four games we have conceded only one goal, had three clean sheets and surprisingly our goalscorers were Wright-Philips, Dyer and Bothroyd. In 1982 we won a 3rd round replay that no one fancied up at Middlesboro after a late equaliser in the home tie, and that year we got all the way to the final, you never know we might have a good run in the cup this year.


Loic Remy signs for QPR

Finally as I complete this blog post, QPR have just confirmed the signing of Loic Remy from Marseilles (No thanks to Barton,but big thanks to Fernandes and Mbia) and the signing of M'Vila is looking imminent. Bottom of the table and people still want to sign £or u$. Here's hoping these guys love the club and deliver.

Next up is West Ham away this Saturday, who will have one day less to prepare as they have a replay at Man U to negotiate and a number of injury worries. We need to get at least a point from there. In Harry we trust, thanks for the nice start to the new year and thanks for giving us a glimmer of hope.

Come on You R's


The Bush Ranger

#18 Reality Check

Well it looks like QPR upset Santa this year as our two festive home fixtures returned no points after the farce of a defeat to WBA and comprehensive and humiliating drubbing to Liverpool.

NEVER GIVES UP
 

Words can not describe how sick I feel this morning after the way we were taken apart by Liverpool yesterday. My rejuvenated optimism and hope was quickly crushed as the sheer helplessness of the team and its shortcomings unfolded against a Liverpool team that was taken apart by Stoke just four days earlier. This was a Stoke team that has the belief, passion, and fight, to battle for the results (very much like we used to.) You will not see headline signings on £65k+ a week there. Each and every one of them will run and fight for each other for the cause of Stoke. They also found themselves 3- 1 down at home to Southampton after not playing well, but still had the fight and spirit to get a draw. I did not see these qualities collectively as a team from QPR yesterday, in fact not for a very long time. But it's not just yesterdays result that hurts, its more than that. What has our beloved QPR turned into. We have been here before, I have seen us in trouble like this more often than not over the last forty plus years, but the teams we've put out have always fuelled optimism and had a glimmer of hope and still made me proud of them. I don't get that feeling from this team.

I, like most hard core QPR fans love our club unconditionally. We don't expect to win the premier league, we hope...we want to try and challenge and get our satisfaction from being in the challenge, in the running and exceeding expectations.(We could win a cup) But above all QPR is our club, we have our own way, we always put out a team that try, play football the right way and that compete. We know what we are, we know our limitations, but we love QPR. We now have a manager that recognises these values and in the short time he has been with us, I think he's hurting as much as us R's fans. And believe me the pain is agonising at the moment and I'm sure all R's are also feeling it, but this time there is no pain relief in hope, as this team fails to inspire, and that's a first with me. This does not apply to all the team, there are still those that will fight for the cause and its no surprise that in these tough times its the real QPR players that got us into the big time that have been recalled to lead the way along with Nelson. ( a rare successful acquisition)

GREEN - LIABILITY

Loving QPR unconditionally does not mean we have to be detached from reality and it saddens me to see the bickering in the social media between R's fans saying its not loyal to voice criticism. But is it criticism? Surely we have to keep it real. Slagging off players in public or on the social media is not helpful, but I don't have the right to prevent anyone expressing their opinions. However, discussion of QPR's shortcomings and our views are both helpful and our right, even though it is sometimes hard to see the truth for what it is. Some QPR fans have been a little delusional since the arrival of Tony Fernandes and many have subscribed to the ambitions and plans that our energetic new owners have for our club (myself included). From an outsiders perspective (rightly or wrongly) QPR could/has been perceived as delusional with ideas of grandeur, and many are celebrating the situation we find ourselves in. I myself have always been honest in my blog and tried to emphasis the emotions experienced following the R's. This honesty has always reflected reality, so here's another reality check.

Harry's predecessor (you know, that Welsh bloke - still cant say his name) has in eleven months ruined much of what is the QPR way and (almost) what we waited sixteen years to get back. Apart from the fact that he never played football our way (insisting on being so deep and inviting pressure as opposed to excitement and attacking flair,albeit sometimes cavalier) he had the best resources ever afforded to a QPR manager. He acquired players that were getting on in years, past there best and just plain greedy, most of whom were on unprecedented salaries for QPR and on long term deals, (and we are yet to find out if they have relegation clauses) again not all of them, but most of them. This caused ill feeling amongst the proven QPR players that remained on much smaller contracts. He failed to strengthen the defence, which was our most obvious failing, when he said he would conduct his transfer business early. Of the players he bought that had any kind of pedigree, such recognition was gained as part of much better teams and in reality can not deliver when the onus is on them to lead. (one example being Park.) Results were dire and we survived relegation last year despite him being in charge. The shortcomings we have now are his legacy to QPR. The result of his failure to acquire the right players to make a QPR team. To put it bluntly, the team he built is not good enough. We do not look like a premier league team and have been punching above our weight. I have not seen a team so devoid of any attacking sense ever at QPR, this bunch of players do not know how to create or punish defences at this level and you can count the amount of times we get more than one man in the six yard box in a game on one hand, its no wonder we have only had one penalty this season.

I don't envy the task Harry has with what he has inherited on the playing side. Yes there are some players that put the effort in, but most of them are simply not good enough to produce what we need to improve, let alone survive. The fact that Harry has been starting Wright-Phillips is testament to the shortcomings in reliability of our squad, as he is not good enough despite his efforts or recent slight improvement. Robert Green (already relegated from the top flight twice - Jonah) is an absolute liability, regularly beaten from distance and makes too many costly errors. Against WBA, foul or no foul, why didn't he punch the ball out and/or push Fortune back out of the way. There are more players that have improved under Harry, but again are not good enough to improve our form or save us from the drop and I could go on naming names, but you know who they are. We only won seven games in 2012 and in any ones book that is a poor return, but it looks better than it really is as we have only won once since April.

DON'T LET ANY OF THESE LADIES START SINGING
 

The reality of the situation is that, as the team stands today, it is just not good enough and fails to inspire any hope of survival, being a QPR fan and an eternal optimist, for me to say that it must be bad. So unless Harry can conjure up some magic in the transfer window and destroy the destructive legacy left by his predecessor, I will not be expecting that sudden run of form and deluge of points unless the team is significantly improved. I will not give up hoping in my heart, but my head will be expecting Championship football next season. Unless Harry can improve the team, the fact is, you cant see us surviving. However, the fat lady is not singing yet and should you see one don't let her open her mouth!

Even as I write this, I remember the 1990/91 season. We were stuck in the bottom three for months after a bad start to the season and lost many games up to Christmas including eight in a row. Don Howe was manager and took on Bobby Gould to assist for a short while, with the latter discovering some gems in the transfer market as we signed the likes of Darren Peacock, Rufus Brevet and Andy Tilson amongst a few others when we were in a dire mess. These acquisitions epitomised every thing that we are at QPR and we ended the season comfortably above the drop zone. That was against the odds then much like now, but we done it then and I only hope we can do it again now in a similar fashion.

As I get to the end of this blog post, the pain is still there and I still can't watch Sky Sports News because I just cant bear to be reminded of yesterday's game and the R's predicament  does get you down. Relegation I can handle, (I don't like it, but can handle it) but the manner in which we are playing is hard to stomach. It is not the QPR way and it hurts. I will draw hope and optimism not from the team, but from those few QPR players that are real QPR. I will draw hope from Harry Redknapp and the fact that he believes he can save us. I will draw hope from the open transfer window and the subliminal messages from Harry in his post match interview regarding this matter. And I will draw hope from the family that is the QPR fans and our shared understanding of what it is like to support the R's. We will share the pain, and the glory, because should the worst happen to us this season we will be back. We're QPR, its what we do.

Come on you R's

The Bush Ranger

Next blog out after the Spurs home game - don't want this blog to be too concentrated on match reports.Want to mix it up a bit. Comments welcome.

Same Old Story

Premier League matchday seven saw the R's travel to the Hawthorns for a winnable away fixture that frustratingly ended in another defeat continuing our dismal run of results but leaving us all puzzled as to how we still only have two points to show for our efforts to date.

For the second game in five days, QPR found themselves two goals down within 30 minutes after yet again gifting our opponents the lead as a result of defensive inadequacy. The 1400 travelling R's had only to wait 5 minutes to see a repeat of the now all too familiar defensive lapses that inevitably end with a goal conceded. Clint Hill was left to deal with (the annoying) Shane Long by Nelson when the latter was better placed to have dealt with him. Long left Hill for dead to cross a quality ball to the oncoming Morrison to nod past the helpless Cesar. I personally think Ferdinand could have busted more of a gut to try and win the header, but Long should have been dealt with before he could cross. From then on the R's were playing catch up. Hill for the remainder of the half had a torrid day at left back, but he has my sympathy as Hughes should never have picked Hill at full back, he's immense as a centre back but sadly lacking as a full back. Bosingwa returned to the side at right back and looked miles from fitness and also performed very poorly, not winning a header all day and frequently going missing in the first half as the Baggies hit us on the break. It looks like he was rushed back from injury as he didn't look ready to play today. Hughes also opted to play Mbia in the holding midfield role but alarmingly didn't look like half the player he was against West Ham. Twice in the opening minutes Mbia gave the ball away and never looked convincing whilst his distribution was not up to scratch. Its early days for him but on this showing he looks like a better centre back than midfielder and I would play him there next to Nelson.

15 minutes later an innocuous cross from the right was not dealt with by Ferdinand as he completely fluffed his clearance straight in to the path of Gera to slot home past the again helpless Cesar. 22 minutes gone, two nil down with only two away points since Hughes took charge at QPR, things were looking all too familiar and the likelihood of a point let alone three were remote at best.

The R's tried to press but were continually caught on the counter attack with both full backs often out of position and we could easily have been three or four goals down. Park had started the game playing off the striker and was mainly ineffective, whilst Taarabt was wasted out on the left.  Zamora continually dropped far too deep looking for the ball, but this changed when (now facing a two goal deficit) Taarabt started to drift inside switching with Park. Granero along with Taarabt  were the most effective for QPR and in the 35 minute Granero's deft little chip forward was met on the chest by Taarabt who then volleyed the ball home from 15 yards to send the travelling faithful wild.

Hughes mercifully replaced Hill with Traore at the break as QPR dominated possession looking for a equaliser, but without creating any clear cut chances. West Brom at this point were quite happy to put everyone behind the ball, making it very difficult for Rangers. SWP was again full of energy, but completely ineffective and should have done better with one of our few shots at goal. Thankfully he was finally replaced by Mackie who managed to be more effective on the right hand side. Nelson, easily our best defender on the day, comfortably dealt with West Brom's rare second half forages into the QPR area but going forward the R's always wanted to make one pass to many sideways and made it easy for the hosts to deal with. Zamora had a quiet day as we failed to play to his strengths. The excellent Taarabt put in an industrious shift and worked very hard continuing in his commitment to improve his work rate. Park was replaced by Hoillett after the R's fans had been chanting for his introduction to the game, however he did not have the time to effect the game significantly.

As the game approached the last five minutes a West Brom counter attack was not dealt with by a static, ball watching R's defence, with Traore not committed enough to try and win back the ball. As a result some quick inter passing found Mulumba unmarked to tap in from six yards to restore their two goal lead. This triggered a mass exodus of R's fans who missed the excellent Granero curl in his first goal for QPR in the 92nd minute. Then just to compound the way things are going for the R's at the moment Bosingwa wasted a chance to get QPR a draw with the last kick of the game, blasting the ball over the bar from seven yards.

To surmise, its pretty much been the same old story for the season so far. Yet again we have conceded goals from teams on the break as a result of pitiful defending and individual errors leaving ourselves mountains to climb. The R's had a go and were dominant for much of the second half but lacked the cutting edge in the last third. Defensively we were again diabolical, but we knew that last season. All through the summer we knew we needed a centre back but all we bought in was Neslon, who has been our best centre half this season followed by Hill. Ferdinand, in my opinion is sadly not consistent enough to do what we need in the Premier League. He makes too many errors and has a degree of naivety to his game. Traore and Onuoha are also inconsistent and the former is often guilty of being lazy and ball watching and seems disinterested in defending.  Hughes must be tearing his hair out because he has not been able to pick his best defence because of injuries and although we have improved the squad, he has been let down by them. Hughes needs to find a settled back four and stick with them (injuries permitting) as this is the part of the team that needs to gel most.

Hughes finds himself under increasing pressure and many R's are calling for his sacking. On Saturday I heard people moaning about the team selection, but I never heard anyone chanting for Hughes head. Some of his decisions are questionable. Why does he insist on starting SWP, does he not remember it wasn't until he dropped him last season that we started winning. Why does he play Hill at full back? I said before I'm not his greatest fan and find his management style sterile and emotionless. But has he really had a fair crack of the whip. Injuries have meant the defence has been unsettled and we have giving goals away for fun.We have shown glimpses of what we can achieve. The QPR revolution is still on and I believe this side will go on to the next level. It just starting to look as if its going to take longer than we all hoped. Like him or not Hughes is more than capable of keeping us up. In August I had not even contemplated the possibility of even flirting with the bottom three this season so the position were find ourselves in is painful for all R's fans. We all know we're playing well on the whole. The midfield is better than last year, but the defensive frailties have not been fully resolved. Personally I have reservations about some of Hughes back room team and would be happier if they got a good defencive coach in. I still believe QPR will avoid relegation because this team can play football. They now have to learn how to win games.

We are rock bottom as we go in to the international break. I, like my fellow R's, was so gutted on Saturday. We are still in pain. We are angry, I know I am, so feelings are running high, that's why I left it three days until I published this blog post for fear of saying something I might regret. I was mad at Hughes on Saturday, but I don't think sacking him will help QPR. I would like to think he knows what he is doing, please don't let me be wrong. The anti QPR brigade are slaughtering us at the moment, but there are thirty one games to go and come the end of the season I'm optimistic that we will comfortably survive and I will gladly stick my two fingers up at them. We know how we feel at the moment, so imagine how Hughes feels. The last thing he needs is the supporters on his back, so if you can't support him, it would be better to say nothing, the job in hand is hard enough.

Hopefully this two week break will give the injured players time to fully recover and for Hughes to iron out the problems besetting the defence. The only way is up now, starting next game against Everton.

Blog to you soon

The Bush Ranger