QPR conceded a crucial injury time goal for the fourth time at Loftus Road already this season on Saturday, losing 1-0 to Southampton in Chris Ramsey’s first match in charge as a result.
How do you like your kicks in the teeth? Delivered by a steel toe cap boot?
There are few traits of struggling teams as damaging as their propensity to concede late goals, and QPR have now shipped four in injury time at home this season at a cost of four points.
Southampton were the latest team to benefit, snatching a victory during four minutes of added time at the end of the game through Saido Mane who was allowed to walk in behind a beleaguered QPR back four by Nedum Onuoha and finish powerfully over Robert Green and into the roof of the net. Steven Caulker had conceded possession downfield and then failed to commit a cynical foul to stop the play and allow him to file back. It was an all-round shocking goal to concede.
But Rangers, under the caretaker charge of Chris Ramsey and Kevin Bond for the first time following Harry Redknapp’s resignation on Tuesday, couldn’t say they hadn’t been warned. The Saints record prior to this game showed six away wins, including their last three road trips in the league, scoring 13 times which is fewer than any other side in the top eight and conceding just nine which is the league’s best away defensive record. A 1-0 away win always looked statistically likely.
And Ramsey’s back four, which featured centre halves Onuoha and Clint Hill selected at right and left full back, had allowed Southampton players, and Mane in particular, to wander in behind them unchecked all afternoon and had been lucky not to be punished for it long before the goal went in.
Hill and Onuoha were particularly guilty, given a torrid afternoon by Mane and Eljero Elia. Mane, a Senegalese international, fed Elia, a Dutchman signed on loan from Werder Bremen last month, in behind the defence after six minutes and with Green inexplicably out on the edge of his area he attempted a lob into the open goal but missed the target. On the half hour Mane turned Hill and drew a full stretch save from Green — centre back Jose Fonte smacked the resulting corner flush onto the face of the crossbar with a flying scissor kick. Two minutes later he did Hill for pace and toed the ball wide with Green this time choosing to stay at home.
The pattern continued in the second half. Hill was booked for snidely pulling back Ellia during a counter attack and Green had to dive at the Southampton man’s feet with recalled Caulker the culpable party this time. Hill was perhaps lucky to survive a penalty appeal when he executed a desperate tackle on Mane in the area with the Saints winger the wrong side of him yet again. It wasn’t exactly a shock to learn the identity of the goalscorer as the realisation set in that the game had been lost at the death.
To make things even more galling, QPR actually found time after conceding to force the ball over the line for an apparent equaliser at the other end. A cross from substitute Mauricio Isla caused panic when it deflected high into the night sky and goalkeeper Fraser Forster dropped the ball in a crowded penalty box under pressure from Onuoha. Charlie Austin and Mauro Zarate swarmed around the loose ball and bundled it home but somewhere in amongst the carnage Onuoha had technically strayed offside and the goal was chalked off. Southampton surrounded referee Roger East anyway, and Forster was booked for dissent, but his fumble was the result of bad handling rather than a foul and the Saints were lucky to escape.
Such desperate determination to score would serve QPR well if they could produce it across 90 minutes, rather than in the very final seconds of games after conceding as we’ve seen against Liverpool, Swansea and now Ronald Koeman’s side.
There simply hadn’t been enough threat from the home team prior to that. Ramsey spoke about playing positively, on the front foot, with flair before the match and selected Adel Taarabt up front alongside Austin accordingly. The Moroccan was QPR’s best hope of a goal, and removed prematurely after an hour although there are obvious match fitness issues there. He came as close as anybody in the first half, pulling a left wing cross out of the sky with an immaculate first touch and then seeing a volley blocked.
His replacement, Zarate, who Harry Redknapp had bizarrely attempted to return to the vendor with a receipt on Monday night and swap him for a part-used Matt Jarvis, looked half decent in his 30 minute cameo. The Argentinean won a corner midway through the second half that was part cleared out to Joey Barton on the edge of the area and when his low volley was diverted towards goal by Charlie Austin at point blank range only Forster will know how he was able to instinctively thrust an arm up and divert the ball over the bar. Later Zarate tried his own luck from 25 yards and sent the one screaming a foot wide of the top corner.
Ramsey also seemed keen to partake in the witchcraft of playing players in their correct positions. Rangers have been fielding central midfielder Leroy Fer at left wing this year with mixed results, but returned the Dutchman to the middle here and were rewarded with arguably his best performance for the club. Alongside him, Joey Barton grew into the game and had his best game of the season, working incredibly hard to deal with a Southampton midfield greater in number and ability than the four QPR had across the middle. Rightly booked after 13 minutes for a foul on Mane when Caulker played him into problems with a poor pass, he did well to get through the amount of work and tackling he did without being sent off.
He also started Matt Phillips on the right wing and the former Blackpool man responded with a curate’s egg of a performance that at one point threatened to disintegrate altogether through laziness, lack of fitness and poor choices only for him to then produce an excellent 20 minute spell where he finally, finally, finally, finally realised that all he needs to do is push the ball down the line and deliver a decent cross into the box. Three times in quick succession he provided better quality service than he has during his entire 18 months at Loftus Road. Typically, when given a fourth opportunity, he abandoned what was working well, cut inside and gave the ball away, ruining a promising three on three counter attack. Charlie Austin, who left the ground in a protective boot and will miss Tuesday’s crucial trip to Sunderland with a bruised foot, cut an understandably frustrated figure.
You could only hope and pray that the Hoops would miraculously find a late winner, and Ramsey sent on Eduardo Vargas to hunt for exactly that, not happy with a point against the fourth-placed team in the league. But while Koeman could bring sought-after Morgan Schneiderlin and talented Dusan Tadic off his bench, QPR were weakened by a succession of injuries to key players. Nedum Onuoha pulled up with a hamstring injury, Richard Dunne collapsed with a knee problem and Steven Caulker could barely walk by the end. With only one substitution left, and no more defenders on the bench, Caulker and Onuoha had to soldier on, perhaps explaining the poor defending for the goal. Dunne, with his contract up at the end of the season, may have played his last game for the club — he’s out for at least three months.
Southampton had lost young left back Matt Targett to a horrid looking head injury in the first half — a prolonged stoppage while the academy graduate was placed on a spinal board and given oxygen, saw seven minutes added to the end of the first half. The heartbreaking goal came during the second reading of the classified football results but they all count the same and the situation it leaves QPR in at the bottom of the table is increasingly dire. Still in touch with the fourth bottom team, they are going to have to find a first away win of the season at Sunderland on Tuesday or Hull a week on Saturday if they want to keep it that way.
Now short of confidence, defensive numbers and winnable games, with the transfer window closed and no manager, it’s surely only the most partisan Loftus Road regular who wouldn’t tip them to be making that immediate return to the Championship. A tough job awaits Tim Sherwood, or whoever else is brave enough to take this seemingly cursed club on.
Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Green 6; Onuoha 5, Caulker 5, Dunne 6 (Vargas 83, -), Hill 5; Phillips 6, Barton 7, Fer 7, Traore 5 (Isla 73, 6); Austin 6, Taarabt 6 (Zarate 63, 6)
Subs not used: McCarthy, Kranjcar, Henry, Zamora
Bookings: Barton 13 (foul), Hill 57 (foul)
Southampton: Forster 7; Clyne 6, Fonte 7, Yoshida 6, Targett 6 (Gardos 26, 6); Wanyama 6 (Schneiderlin 61, 6), Davis 6; Ellia 8 (Tadic 80, 6), Ward Prowse 6, Mane 8; Pelle 6
Subs not used: Davis, Reed, Flanagan, Seager
Goals: Mane 90+3 (assisted Yoshida)
Bookings: Schneiderlin 74 (foul), Forster 90+5 (dissent)
QPR Star Man — Joey Barton 7 When he keeps it simple and sticks to working hard, breaking up play and moving the ball on, rather than trying to be some sort of creative force spraying Hollywood passes around he’s actually quite effective. Excellent last half hour here, unlucky to lose.
Referee — Roger East (Wiltshire) 7 There was an obvious foul on Leroy Fer that he waved away during a second half counter attack, and Southampton were unhappy he didn’t award a free kick for a potential foul on Forster in that incident at the death, but overall I thought he refereed the game reasonably well. Yellow cards all fair enough.
Attendance — 18,018 (1,800 Southampton approximately) Not the up-beat, positive atmosphere one might have expected following Redknapp’s departure, and an air of resignation around the place by the end.
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images