For perhaps the first time this season it was very hard to think of anything to draw from this comfortable win for one of the Championship’s strongest and richest teams (well we did keep our kit quite clean!).
I’m sure Harry Redknapp would have had a satisfied smile on his face as he followed the Cherries supporters coaches back down the M3.
After battling through the 3 security checks to get into the very dated Loftus Road stadium (I think it must be easier to get into North Korea) we were greeted by the news that Tokelo Rantie had been ‘rested’ for the first time since his multi-million pound signing. Eddie elected to play Brett Pitman up front on his own in a 4-1-4-1 formation but I’m not sure that Brett has enough pace to fulfil this role against top class opposition.
The early stages were promising with Matt Ritchie having a speculative shot which went just over the bar and Lee Camp making a straightforward save from a Charlie Austin header. The R’s began to settle though and take control of the game.
Predictably, the 2 midfield snappers Joey Barton and Harry Arter had their first ‘coming together’ after 15 minutes when Barton fouled Arter only to react aggressively to the Bournemouth man’s apparent stamp. The referee Mr Woolmer reacted weakly with a quiet chat, the first of several occurrences where he seemed not to be in control of the match.
As QPR got into their stride the first goal game when Andy Johnson was given the space to cross from the left for Austin to do what comes naturally and control it with his chest before slotting it past Camp.
Then came the most bizarre (and in hindsight the most entertaining) incident of the game when Tommy Elphick appeared to slip on the edge of the box whilst attempting to keep out Austin. As he fell Tommy reached out and grabbed the ball and, although the initial contact was outside the box, slid into the penalty area with the ball in his arms. After interminable delays and ‘advice’ from the linesman and numerous Rangers players the referee awarded a free kick outside the box. I think we were very lucky not to have conceded a penalty and a red card for Elphick for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Another example of very weak and indecisive refereeing.
H-T 1-0
Our hope was that we could frustrate Rangers and maybe get something on the break but the hosts doubled their lead ten minutes after the interval when Junior Hoilett latched onto a right wing cross and drove his shot past Camp from what appeared to be quite a narrow angle.
From then on the result was in no doubt. Eddie decided to change to a 4-4-2 formation and introduced Grabban and Rantie in place of Pitman and MacDonald but all this did was to concede the midfield and we struggled to get a meaningful touch after the switch.
Fraser replaced a tired looking Richie who was probably suffering from playing a full 90 minutes against Brighton following his long lay-off.
Matt Phillips completed the scoring seconds after coming on as sub when he drove through a dispirited defence and finished clinically.
It was relief when the referee finally blew for time and we could retreat to lick our wounds.
A competent if not outstanding display by the home team left us with a lot of food for thought. Looking at the names on the QPR team sheet (and even those on the bench) with considerable Premier League experience showed what we are up against. With the bottom teams starting to pick up points and with the Cherries now having no win in the last 11 games it’s starting to look like a long hard winter ahead.
Very difficult as nobody really played well but I’ll give it to Pugh who had one of his better games of late.
AFCB: Camp, Francis, Cook, Elphick, Daniels, Surman, Ritchie, MacDonald, Arter, Pugh, Pitman
Subs: Flahavan, Harte, Thomas, O'Kane, Grabban (for MacDonald, 61 mins), Rantie (for Pitman, 61 mins), Fraser (for Ritchie, 68 mins)
Clive Loader, Basingstoke