Goalkeeper Rob Green was the star of the show as improving QPR beat fellow promotion chasers Wigan Athletic 1-0 at Loftus Road on Tuesday night.
A bit of grit, a bit of determination, a bit of luck, a moment or two of real genuine quality… there was almost an atmosphere inside Loftus Road at one point as well. Perhaps this taxing 2013/14 campaign will have a happy ending for Queens Park Rangers after all.
A week ago at Sheffield Wednesday the R’s looked like a side happy to give up the ghost — meekly surrendering to a three goal defeat against a mediocre side after drowning in a sea of their own laziness and sense of perceived injustice. But Harry Redknapp and his players have responded with two hard fought victories on the spin to lift themselves back into third place.
On another night, with another goalkeeper, Rangers could easily have lost by two or three clear goals to a fast, fluid, physical Wigan side. On this evidence The Latics will make awkward play-off opponents for whoever is unfortunate enough to be paired with them in the end of season knock-out, but at the business end of a promotion campaign there’s more to be said for finding a way to grind out a victory through adversity than gallantly losing while playing well.
QPR were aided in their quest for only a second home win against a top six side this season by tireless, if at times slightly unorthodox, shifts from unlikely sources not usually associated with such commitment and graft.
Despite Bobby Zamora clearly showing since Christmas that he can be useful as a second half substitute but totally detrimental to his own team when played from the start, Redknapp chose to throw the veteran front man back into the line up for this game after his bizarre goal at Middlesbrough on Saturday. Zamora was limping with the time still in single figures, and at times showed the game management, decision making and touch of a wild horse who’s gone a bit simple through old age, but he produced a valuable 90 minute turn for his team.
Yossi Benayoun, rightly branded a gratuitous signing from a club that never learns from its previous mistakes and has far more money than sense, suddenly produced his best performance all year as part of a supporting cast of three behind Zamora. Looking and behaving like a rough woman in a seedy nightclub, he tirelessly chased the Wigan men around all evening, ultimately paying the price for his persistence and efforts with a tired tackle that brought a late red card, but by then his work was well done at both ends of the field.
It was the veteran Israeli international who scored the only goal of the game, poking home from close range to finish a slick move from a cleared corner that included a neat reverse pass from Little Tom Carroll and an outrageous, Brazilian-like back heeled assisted from Clint Hill.
And what of Wee Little Tom? For so long the bullied schoolboy at the heart of the QPR midfield, on a different wavelength from team mates and singled out by a hostile crowd for harsh treatment, here he guided QPR around the park with his usual range of clever passing, and added a previously unseen defensive niggle to his game into the bargain. But for a nightmare ten minutes during the second half, this was his best game for Rangers.
It would all have been in vain but for the exceptional efforts of goalkeeper Robert Green. The former West Ham man was out injured at Hillsborough, replaced by occasional goalkeeper Brian Murphy who warned his team mates on the club’s London Call In show last Thursday that they "don’t want to be going into the last couple of games requiring three or four wins.” Rightchyar Brian. Now fit and recalled, Green made five saves of genuine quality in the second half to preserve a league-leading seventeenth clean sheet of the campaign and leave visiting boss Uwe Rosler tipping a surprise England recall.
He was called into action for the first time after 23 minutes, thrusting two strong hands up above his head to repel a powerful near post shot from Perch after excellent approach work from first Nick Powell and then Jack Collison — two Premier League loanees showing their quality in the Wigan attack.
You’d have expected Green to save that, and a two handed parry at full stretch from Powell four minutes later, and indeed a leg save from James McClean when he skipped into the are but selfishly chose to shoot at the near post when there were options available for a pass. He rode his luck at times as well, dropping on one loose ball in his six yard box after Rangers had allowed McClean to control and turn on a long throw inside the six yard box, then claiming at the feet of Perch as he attempted to slide in and convert a half chance after Clint Hill took a risk and tried to shepherd a ball back to his keeper, and finally seeing a shot from McClean fly all the way across the face of the goal and out for a goal kick on the stroke of half time.
The QPR keeper was over worked and required excellent concentration and footwork to complete his duties. Wigan looked lively in attack — particularly Manchester United’s Powell: a leggy, muscular presence up front with an immaculate touch and all round game far beyond that of any other visiting striker we’ve seen at Loftus Road this season. There’s a swaggering quality about him and given the carnage and panic at Old Trafford one wonders if a shrewd magpie has, Paul Pogba style, spotted a shiny trinket amid the wreckage ripe for a crafty bid at a desperate time for his parent club. They were, however, aided and abetted by QPR’s offside trap which creaked like a rusty gate all night.
On Saturday at Middlesbrough Rangers looked strong at the back, with Clint Hill and Nedum Onuoha impressing as a centre half pairing and South Korean Yun Suk-Young turning in a man of the match performance at left back. There was some pace about that back line, and so it seemed strange against a far better and quicker attacking outfit than Middlesbrough to change it back and bring Dunne into the team following his suspension.
The switch meant Rangers suffered in two departments. Firstly, Dunne repeatedly played James McClean and others onside throughout the first half, creating numerous dangerous situations that only poor finishing and the form of Rob Green prevented from turning into goals. Secondly, I lost count of the amount of times Rangers looked for an overlapping option wide left only to see empty space out there. That wasn’t Clint Hill’s fault necessarily — you have to pick your battles at his age — but it meant we missed the runs we saw from Suk-Young at the Riverside on Saturday. In the second half, during a backs to the wall effort when Rangers sat deep as a whole team, Dunne boosted his rating with typical headers and clearances aplenty, but he’s looked for a while like a man who needs more rest than the one game suspension he served at the weekend and it didn’t make much sense to bring him back from the start here in my opinion.
Wigan had another gear to move into after half time as it turned out. The first ten minutes of the second period were frightening, with the visitors bombarding the QPR penalty box right from the off. Rangers were unable to live with the increased tempo and an early cross to the near post gave James McArthur a chance to bundle one home but Aaron Hughes got something on it and the ball bobbled wide. Then the keeper was swiftly off his line to deny McClean in a one on one situation. He could do little about Ramis’ header off the bar from the third of three consecutive Wigan corners but was more than equal to an injury time header from Wigan substitute Nicky Maynard which he flung himself off to his left to palm wide with hearts in mouths all around the ground. A superb save that, easily his best of the season so far.
Maynard was one of three second half substitutions made by Rosler with Jean Beausejour replacing Stephen Crainey after an hour and Jordi Gomez coming on for defender Tom Rogne ten minutes later. Wigan already looked fitter and faster than Rangers before that and the two sides only got further apart in that respect as the half wore on. Harry Redknapp, forced to remove the distinctly average Niko Kranjcar at half time due to a hamstring complaint - Gary O’Neil the replacement - was indecisive by comparison. Loaned striker Will Keane was called back to the bench and sent away again, Junior Hoilett was prepped at one stage but told to sit down, while Karl Henry got stripped and ready for action only to be told to get dressed again only to be told to come on after all — he replaced the injured Joey Barton eventually with just six minutes left to play. QPR looked like they were crying out for fresh legs and lungs long before that.
It didn’t help that Ravel Morrison went from the sublime to the sulky in the second half. He’d started the game in fine fashion, gliding effortlessly past challenges and combining beautifully with Carroll through the heart of the team. There were barely two minutes on the clock when he found Bobby Zamora with an exceptional pass into the penalty area and he would have had a spot kick for an obvious foul by Rogne had he not, rather harshly, been flagged offside first. Later he scuffed a shot at keeper Ali Al-Habsi after being fed in by Carroll, and was then involved in a slick move when he carried the ball past two players and fed Zamora whose touch off was hit at Al-Habsi by Kranjcar.
But as the game wore on his frustration grew. Referee Simon Hooper, superb on his last visit here for the game against Huddersfield, followed a very decent first half display with a mad half hour in the second that turned Morrison from QPR’s chief attacking threat into a red card waiting to happen. First there was a nasty tackle from McClean on Carroll that should have brought a yellow card but didn’t, then there was an obvious foul on Morrison on the edge of the Wigan area that didn’t even bring a free kick. When Powell was then awarded a free kick when he’d appeared to dive under challenge from Barton, and then a promising looking counter attack from Benayoun was hauled all the way back for a QPR free kick they didn’t want, so McArthur could be booked, frustration was audible and Morrison let the situation get the better of him.
Several times he could be seen beating the turf in frustration, and he started diving trying to win free kicks that weren’t fouls. There was a set to with Josh McEachran, who he has played with in the England Under 21s, that required intervention and another incident where he appeared to kick out at a Wigan man while on the ground. Had the referee seen that he could well have been off, but then so could Ramis who lashed out at Benayoun while trying to retrieve the ball for a late free kick. In the end Hooper settled for a yellow card for the QPR man on that occasion which would have bad consequences later on. At full time Morrison appeared to run onto the field and have words with McEachran again.
It’s behaviour and attitude that have brought such a talented player to QPR rather than a Premier League side and in almost every respect Rangers have found themselves Adel Taarabt, who we thought was a once in a generation talent, all over again. Morrison walked through the second half, either knackered or sulking or both, and Rangers really needed more from him in that situation. That said, a spectacular free kick 19 minutes from time that beat Al-Habsi but bounced down and back into play off the underside of the bar was absolutely exceptional and the only bigger shame than it staying out was Zamora’s pathetic follow up which he should have scored but actually fell over.
Still, Morrsion’s team mates had plenty of fight about them. Their aversion to scoring goals shone through when Zamora checked back and looked for a regressive pass rather than getting a shot away when played through on goal on his favoured left side just before the hour, but there were more positives than negatives for the R’s in this game and Clint Hill’s expert sliding tackle denied McClean a certain equaliser with 15 minutes left for play after the former Sunderland winger had twisted Dunne into the ground.
Although Redknapp did eventually send on Henry and Suk-Young — and both made valuable contributions during their brief cameos — it still wasn’t enough to stem the tide or the onset of tiredness. Benayoun, who’d been excellent all night, committed one of those deliberate trips against an attacker at full pace in injury time to earn a second yellow and a red.
Morrison got his inevitable yellow for a robust foul on Gomez with four left to play.
The extra space afforded Maynard his injury time opportunity, but Green was equal to that and everything else the Latics threw at him and the Loft End sang the goalkeeper’s name when full time finally did arrive after a torturous four added minutes.
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QPR: Green 8; Hughes 6, Onuoha 7, Dunne 6, Hill 6; Carroll 7, Barton 6; Kranjcar 5 (O’Neil 45, 6), Morrison 6, Benayoun 7; Zamora 6
Subs not used: Simpson, Keane, Hoilett, Murphy
Goals: Benayoun 16 (assisted Carroll/Hill)
Red Cards: Benayoun 90+1 (two bookings — one match ban)
Bookings: Benayoun 81 (kicking ball away), Morrison 86 (foul), Benayoun 90+1 (foul)
Wigan: Al-Habsi 6; Crainey 6 (Beausejour 61, 6), Ramis 7, Rogne 6 (Gomez 73, 6), Kiernan 6; Perch 6, McEachran 6 (Maynard 80, 5), McArthur 7, Collison 6; McClean 7, Powell 7
Subs not used: Carson, Caldwell, Fortune, Waghorn
Bookings: McArthur 71 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Robert Green 8 I’d have loved to have given this to either Carroll or Benayoun, who worked so hard and were the pick of QPR’s outfield players, but Green has to take it for an invaluable clean sheet and series of flying second half saves.
Referee — Simon Hooper (Wiltshire) 6 A really excellent first half, as we’re coming to expect from this referee, gave way to an awkward second where he struggled to keep hold of things at times. Ravel Morrison’s behaviour in the second period was poor, but the frustration stemmed from not being awarded a couple of early free kicks for definite fouls — clearly the referee was sick of hearing the cry of wolf from a player who does go down too easily. I thought McClean should have been booked for his foul on Carroll, particularly when you see the incident with Benayoun’s second yellow. Overall not too bad, but a bit of a wild 20 minute spell in the second half.
Attendance — 14,649 (180 Wigan approx) A night that stirred some memories of similar midweek successes against Preston in John Gregory’s time, and Birmingham during a Gareth Ainsworth caretaker stint. Nowhere near those two for atmosphere hee, but a whole lot better than it has been, particularly towards the end of the game.
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