Injuries mar QPR’s Morrison-inspired victory over Yeovil — report Monday, 17th Mar 2014 01:43 by Clive Whittingham A series of second half injuries ahead of a busy few weeks of away games took some of the gloss off an accomplished 3-0 win for QPR against Yeovil at Loftus Road on Saturday. For Queens Park Rangers, the outcome of their 2013/14 season increasingly looks like it’s going to have as much to do with the ability of their medical team as their football players. When the R’s won 1-0 at Yeovil Town back in September it was a result achieved despite a wretched performance and had the home team taken all three points that day few of a blue and white hooped persuasion could have complained. But, ultimately, Harry Redknapp had enough quality at his disposal that day to squeeze through — Matt Phillips on the wing, centre forward Charlie Austin scoring the winning goal, keeper Rob Green in fine form. Injuries to Phillips and Austin, as well as Ale Faurlin and Danny Simpson, haven’t affected the level of QPR performance greatly — Rangers were mediocre and dull to watch with them in the team, and remain so now — but whereas poor performances still yielded wins beforehand, now they bring defeats and draws with that vital extra bit of quality removed from the side. It was a relief therefore, particularly after a midweek loss at Brighton where Rangers had dominated proceedings but lacked sufficient cut and thrust with the goal at their mercy to make their superiority count for anything tangible, to see Redknapp’s side not only win, but win well in this season’s second meeting with the Glovers at Loftus Road in Saturday’s spring sunshine. There was, for a change, a lot to like about the way the Super Hoops went about their work: Joey Barton drove them on from midfield, providing energy and creative passing rather than aggro and arguments; Jermaine Jenas suddenly seems pacy and purposeful rather than laboured and anonymous, an upturn in form that by total coincidence has come just as his contract is about to expire; Armand Traore continued his recent rebirth with an eye-catching display on one wing and even the much maligned Junior Hoilett performed reasonably well on the opposite flank. The whole machine worked to Ravel Morrison’s advantage — the loaned West Ham man a cut or three above everybody else on the pitch for the third game in succession and the scorer of two goals to take his tally to four in a week. After last weekend’s one man demolition of Birmingham City, only the harshest of sceptics would have required further convincing of Morrison’s ability to play a sport that, to date, only his temperament and behaviour have held him back in. Two goals at St Andrew’s had Brum boss Lee Clark proclaiming the arrival of a new Paul Gascoigne and a further indication of Morrison’s skill came halfway through the first half of this game. Picking up a pass from Junior Hoilett on the left corner of Yeovil’s penalty area a lesser player may have snatched at the chance immediately, or rushed a shot after the first touch had widened the angle, but Morrison wanted rid of midfielder Joe Edwards first and so dummied for a second time, confident in his ability to hold onto the ball for a prolonged period, and with the Yeovil man then committed to a sliding block Morrison was able to pick his spot and fire in an opening goal off the inside of the post from 20 yards. The purity of the strike highlighted by the way the ball flew into the net with without spinning in the air as it went.
Morrison scored a second in stoppage time at the end of the game to make it three nil, although that one — finished coolly past keeper Marek Stech from inside the penalty area — owed much to a 40 yard run, neat step over and perfectly weighted pass from substitute Niko Kranjcar, as well as a tiring Yeovil defence, as opposed to the first which was all his own work. But by the end of the match Morrison was hobbling and feeling his groin, and he wasn’t alone. Armand Traore has spoken recently of a new lease of life afforded to him by the revelations in psychologist Steve Peters’ book The Chimp Paradox. Peters has helped the British cycling team to world domination and Traore has found parts of the book helpful in overcoming his own demons that had seem him frequently hobble out of QPR matches and underperform when he was on the field. One presumes he was actually injured on Saturday, rather than conquered by said chimp once more, but either way the sight of him leaving the field to be replaced by Niko Kranjcar didn’t bode well given his improved recent form and the rush of fixtures facing his team mates in the coming days and weeks. Things only got worse after half time. Goalkeeper Robert Green made a hash of a clearance just after the hour and immediately signalled to the bench that he was hurt. QPR played on for nearly ten minutes with a stricken keeper, during which time Lawrence hit the angle of post and cross bar with a fine shot that would have beaten Green even if he was fully fit, before finally surrendering to the inevitable introduction of Brian Murphy for the final 20 minutes of the game. The Irish stopper has only ever played for Rangers in cup games since joining from Ipswich nearly three seasons ago, and his rustiness shone through with a hurried clearance soon after his introduction that would have freed Yeovil’s lone striker Ishmael Miller for a run on goal had Nedum Onuoha not been alive to the danger and raced back in to execute a goal-saving tackle. Last season Julio Cesar and several others picked up mysterious knocks and strains before a Christmas trip up to Newcastle United. Harry Redknapp strongly hinted at the time that some hadn’t fancied a plane flight up to the North East so close to the holiday period and while the “right sort” revolution in W12 this season surely means that sort of behaviour is a thing of the past, it did seem rather a shame that so many players would suddenly go down with muscle injuries during the second half of a less than taxing games just as the club faces trips all the way up to Sheffield and then Middlesbrough inside four days. An unfortunate coincidence no doubt. A real shame all round because injuries not withstanding, this game and performance was exactly what QPR needed after a tough few weeks during which they’ve dropped out of the race for automatic promotion into a battle just to hang onto a play off place. Having so many players injured all at once is a product of the way QPR recruit and train their players. It seemed rather apt that, after a game in which a Rangers team already missing half a dozen key men through injury lost another four or five ahead of key league games, Everton manager Roberto Martinez, the ultimate man with the footballing plan in the modern game, was quoted saying he believed all soft tissue injuries were preventable and he took each of them as a personal insult — a sign of poor preparation or player management. QPR rarely plan any further forward than the next meal and you only have to look down the list of a horribly bloated and overpaid squad to see the results of that attitude. Bobby Zamora has personified the club’s flawed thinking in recent times — signed at great expense from Fulham despite declining fitness and advancing years, he’s managed only 37 starts and seven goals in two and a bit years for handsome returns into his bank account.
Here he was introduced after the hour as a lone striker instead of Will Keane. That did the veteran front man an early favour because while he’s far from flavour of the month in W12, Keane is the fan base’s latest whipping boy and had taken plenty of grief from three sides of the ground for his fairly limp-wristed attempt to play a lone striker role that he’s totally unsuited for. Midway through the first half Morrison accelerated into the Yeovil half and worked space on the edge of the area from where, spoilt by years of watching Adel Taarabt, I just expected him to open his body up and search out the far corner with a shot. Having got cold feet on that idea he then overhit a through ball for Keane, who’d also expected a shot on goal and was therefore flat footed and unable to reach the ball. Cue more abuse from QPR fans. His lack of first team experience, and selection in a position he hasn’t played before, are not his fault, but he could do himself favours by putting himself about a little bit more and working harder to stay onside — twice he almost obliged the linesman to flag him by running towards a through ball while simultaneously looking over his shoulder to see if the flag would go up. This in turn brought more abuse from the crowd and so by the time Zamora came on he stood half a chance of winning support on an ‘anybody but Keane’ ticket. In actual fact, Zamora played very well indeed. He looked keen to put in some hard work, which certainly hasn’t always been the case during his time at the club, and won warm applause for a couple of incidents where he chased back to win possession in his own half. He looked lively and dangerous in attack as well and when Junior Hoilett hung an undefendable cross up to the back post 20 minutes from time it was actually no surprise to see Zamora climb unmarked to nod it in for a game-sealing second goal of the afternoon.
Which all seemed rather harsh on Yeovil. Rangers probably pay Bobby Zamora enough in a week to cover the wage of the entire Yeovil starting 11 for seven days and they relied heavily on loaned front man Ishmael Miller — fondly remembered in these parts for a late winner against Leicester in Rangers’ last promotion campaign. Miller, who’s often accused of laziness, was a game runner throughout but got little change from Hill, Onuoha and Richard Dunne. Yeovil could, nevertheless, have easily taken something form the game. Tom Lawrence shot straight at Green and Luke Ayling was fractionally wide of the top corner with his effort that had Green rooted to the spot with the time still in single figures. Yeovil were well on top in those early stages and recovered from the first half loss of Huddersfield loanee Duane Holmes — known in these parts for a masterful display in last season’s Under 18 player off final between Rangers and his parent club — to stage another raid on the half hour that saw Edwards hit the floor theatrically in the box and claim for a penalty. Referee Mark Brown should have punished that play acting with a yellow card but Rangers had already had some rub of the green from the official — a mishit clearance from Green after three minutes was knocked back into the empty net by Luke Ayling only for Brown to penalise the away team for interfering with the original piece of distribution. That looked a fair goal to me. Brown then infuriated the home side by failing to spot Nedum ONuoha being clearly held down by his shirt as he attempted to head a corner towards goal, and then penalising Will Keane for a foul on Shane Duffy on halfway when the loaned Everton centre back seemed to have clearly climbed over the Rangers man to get to the ball. Had Lawrence found the top corner to make it 1-1 while Green was labouring, rather than bouncing the ball off the angle of post and bar, this could have been a very different game. Neither team’s fate this season will be settled by games like this. QPR were expected to win and did, Yeovil cannot realistically compete with a club that can bring Niko Kranjcar and Bobby Zamora off their bench and so probably expected to lose the game. Rangers must overcome injury problems and indifferent form with four away matches to come in the next six games, and fixtures against Wigan, Forest and Leicester fast approaching. Yeovil, who can take heart from their efforts here, will live or die this season on the results of home matches against Bolton, Barnsley, Huddersfield and Middlesbrough and a relegation six pointer at Charlton. There has been enough good will between the two clubs this season, further highlighted by moving tributes to their former manager Alec Stock on Saturday, for them to wish each other well and, potentially, look forward to seeing each other again next season. That of course would be a tremendous result for the Glovers, and a disaster for QPR who take their last men standing to Sheffield Wednesday for a game in hand on Tuesday night. Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Interactive Player Ratings >>> Have Your Say >>> Message Board Match Thread QPR: R Green 6 (B Murphy 68, 6); N Onuoha 7, R Dunne 6, A Hughes 6, C Hill 6; J Jenas 7, J Barton 7; A Traore 6 (N Kranjcar 44, 7), J Hoilett 7, R Morrison 8; W Keane 6 (B Zamora 66, 7) Subs not used: T Carroll, Y Benayoun, K Henry, M Maiga Goals: Morrison 25 (assisted Hoilett), 90 (assisted Kranjcar), Zamora 70 (assisted Hoilett) Yeovil: M Stech 6; L Ayling 6, B Webster 6, S Duffy 6, J McAllister 5 (A Morgan 76, 6), D Holmes 6 (K Dawson 29, 6), T Lawrence 6, M Lanzoni 6, J Edwards 6; J Hayter 6 (N Ofori-Twumasi 76, 6); I Miller 7 Subs not used: S Hoskins, C Dunn, K Moore Bookings: QPR Star Man — Ravel Morrison 8 Two more fine goals and another performance far superior to anything else on the pitch. Where this injury-hit QPR side would be without the West Ham loanee doesn’t really bare thinking about at the moment. Referee — Mark Brown (East Yorkshire) 5 An odd refereeing display at times which left both teams feeling aggrieved. The disallowing of the early Yeovil goal looked like a very generous decision to give to Robert Green, but then later Edwards should have been booked for a penalty box dive. The decision to penalise Keane for being clattered by Duffy was a particular low point. Attendance 16,667 (1,500 Yeovil approx) A relaxed atmosphere inside Loftus Road in keeping with the weather and the pattern of the game. Very creditable following, in size and noise, from Yeovil. The Twitter - @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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