As a group of Preston players who two weeks ago at Loftus Road looked incapable of tying their own boot laces held Cardiff to a draw on Saturday it was hard to shake the idea that it might just be our year.
1 Neil Warnock – QPR currently have the best manager in the division. The sculptors are ready to begin carving his statue, QPR fans are dropping to their knees when they see him in the street. At most he’s a God, at least he is a clear shining example of the value of appointing an experienced football manager and leaving him to get on with managing your football team. Warnock is everything we’ve been crying out for for years and he’s doing a superb job so far. He’s built a team, rather than a collection of individuals, and fostered a tremendous work rate among the players. He even seems to have calmed down on the touchline and in press conferences and the football we’re playing is actually reasonably good to watch and entertaining. He has been as good as his word in the summer and gone to win every match. He is the best manager in our league. It was always going to be this way, because LoftforWords used to say he was a mediocre long ball merchant who criticised referees and authority to deflect attention away from his own failings.
2 Adel Taarabt - QPR currently have the best player in the division. The media may be fluttering their eyelashes and barely disguising their erections from Craig Bellamy but the poisonous gnome has only managed three goals so far and Kaspars Gorkss gave him one of those before quickly equalising it so he hasn’t been the roaring success everybody expected. Meanwhile our magical Moroccan is described as exhilarating but frustrating, skilful but selfish, talented but arrogant – a flawed genius. This is starting to be rather insulting to a player who has added a consistency that his game was previously lacking, and isn’t the liability defensively he once was. QPR have done what Villarreal did with Riquelme in building a team around Taarabt’s strengths and weaknesses but the Moroccan has repaid Neil Warnock for that with real gusto so far and long may it continue. Top scorer with nine goals, and he should at least double that by May injury permitting.
3 The lone striker – Many of you may be lucky enough to find a copy of Football Manager in your Christmas stocking this year. If so please try to remember that in the real world Crewe Alexandra don’t win the Champions League. In recent years you knew things weren’t going well in W12 when the back seat managers started chanting for ‘442’ despite the clear and obvious limitations of that system. It is perceived that playing with just one recognised striker is automatically negative, and in the case of Craig Levein, Paulo Sousa and Paul Hart that is usually the case. However QPR have played with a single man up top all season and been excellent to watch. Warnock ensures there is plenty of support for his target man, and has built a squad with three players capable of doing the job. Heidar Helguson was superb for the first three months, Rob Hulse has finally hit form in the last two games since replacing him, and we also have Leon Clarke who, while clearly not very good bless him, has at least played that position regularly in this league before with Sheffield Wednesday.
4 Jamie Mackie - After nearly two decades of watching over paid nobodies like Steve Slade and Sam Di Carmine ambling around the pitch picking in Hoops picking their bum and not doing very much at all, how refreshing it is to finally see somebody who, while not the most talented player in the world, os making a success of himself at a high level through sheer hard work and graft. The goals may have dried up of late but Mackie’s persistency and endeavour sets the tone for our performances and hassles opposing defences into errors. I always imagine that once everybody else has packed up and gone home Jamie can still be found doing laps of the pitch in the dark. He’s even been roped into modelling the club’s extensive range of dressing gowns. He’s the player I always wanted to see at QPR through the dark times - somebody who actually gives a toss.
5 Last minute goals - In 1996 we fell cruel victims to the Manchester United phenomena whereby if Alex Ferguson’s men were losing time seemed to be produced from nowhere at the end of games and continued to be produced until they scored. That heartbreaking moment when Eric Cantona headed home an equaliser at Loftus Road during the second reading of the classified football results has fostered a hatred of those red bastards in me that burns brightly still to this day. It cannot be denied though that Man Utd are very successful, and teams like them that succeed on a regular basis always seem to find a way to get something from a game that seems lost late in the day. “We keep going right to the end” said Neil Warnock after our last gasp draw at Portsmouth and the R’s have also scored twice in injury time at Derby, one in the last five minutes at Bristol City and Leicester and one in injury time at Palace. Those goals have won us five points, and we’re currently four points clear.
6 A strong bench - The seven named substitutes for our game against Cardiff last week were as strong as I can ever remember during my time at Loftus Road. Radek Cerny, Bradley Orr, Heidar Helguson, Hogan Ephraim, Leon Clarke and Patrick Agyemang would all be regular starters in most other teams in this division and in the case of Cerny, Orr and Helguson would probably be the first names on most team sheets in the Championship. Add in Mikele Leigertwood, Lee Cook, Martin Rowlands, Peter Ramage, Akos Buzsaky, Gavin Mahon and even the dreaded Gary Borrowdale and Rowan Vine who all have extensive Championship experience but didn’t make the Cardiff squad for one reason or another and it’s clear to see we have plenty of strength in depth.
7 Paddy Kenny - The decision to allow Lee Camp to leave on the cheap because Flavio Briatore didn’t like him looked ridiculous at the time, and proved to be just that last season as Camp was named the division’s top goalkeeper at Nottingham Forest while Radek Cerny’s form disintegrated so badly we had to get Wolves’ fourth choice keeper in on loan. Briatore is lucky that Neil Warnock has a contacts book thicker than that belonging to Quagmire on Family Guy to secure the services of Paddy Kenny at such a reasonable price. The Irish keeper got away with some errors early in the season and has been revelation since then, winning us key points with important saves most notably at Bristol City and Swansea.
8 Early cup exit - I’m loathe to admit this because as far as I’m concerned QPR are never going to win the Premiership, so the best hope of a trophy and European qualification is by winning a cup and, after all, winning trophies is what it’s all about so I hate to see us just tossing away our places in such competitions. Nobody is going to sit their grandkids down and impress them with a story of how they finished 16th in the Premiership. Kids want to know about trophies and medals and chocolate. But the August defeat to Port Vale kept our fixtures down to a minimum, and reduced the number of three game weeks that would have really tested the likes of Clint Hill and Shaun Derry. If we’re looking for promotion, perhaps a similar early exit at Blackburn may not be such a bad thing. God I feel filthy.
9 Cardiff City - All is not well in South Wales, it’s a bit like being chased by the Keystone Kops at the moment. With their strike force they should be absolutely annihilating this division but Craig Bellamy has only scored three times and Jay Bothroyd has resorted to his previous tactic of limping out of many matches before half time with a forlorn, hard done to look on his face. Add in a seriously mediocre defence and goalkeeper and their short comings are obvious. With just one win from six games pressure is building on manager Dave Jones whose excuses and whinges are becoming a regular feature of his post match press conferences. Cardiff fans talk of key tactical mistakes, and against QPR he took of Danny Drinkwater for the ineffective Jason Koumas inadvertently releasing Kyle Walker’s attacking threat. Jones already has his maximum number of loans for a matchday squad but is still talking about making five further additions in January.
10 Poor division - It’s certainly competitive and entertaining but none of the teams relegated from the Premiership last season are tearing up any trees which has left the door open to the longer serving members of the division like ourselves and Cardiff to make a move. There is no Newcastle or West Brom yo-yo type side this season and with the Premiership television money and parachute payments now increased teams will be coming down from the top flight with more money than ever before. This really is the ideal opportunity for us, and possibly the last chance we may get for sometime.
11 Settled team - Warnock has shown that players must wait for their place, and earn their right to stay in the team. People like Tommy Smith and Rob Hulse had to wait for a turn, and Bradley Orr and Fitz Hall have both had to take a ticket and get in line after losing their places through injury. This breeds healthy competition, with players knowing they have to play well to keep their place but also knowing they won’t simply be dropped regardless of their performance when the first choice player is fit again. This was a key failing of Jim Magilton who jiggled the defence unmercifully to return Fitz Hall to the line up whenever he was fit which created an unsettled, leaky backline and damaged morale.
12 - Tottenham Hotspur. I have written several times this season about the reprehensible tactic of clubs like Spurs and Chelsea in hoarding the best young talent from around the country in their academy and reserve teams so nobody else can have it, without ever intending to make any use of it themselves. Having people like Kyles Naughton and Walker stuck either playing reserve team football or out on loan while foreign players make the first team in their stead is stunting the growth of talent in this country and harming the national team. For us though, in the short term, it’s proving to be hugely beneficial. Warnock called Harry Redknapp for a favour immediately after Bradley Orr got injured and within 24 hours we had completed our most influential loan signing since Lee Camp’s first coming. Tottenham have a vast pool of talent, and don’t be surprised to see Warnock plundering it again, hopefully with the same success he has enjoyed with Taarabt and Walker, if injuries start to bite in the New Year. If we can sign Walker permanently we should walk over broken glass in bare feet to do so.
13 More to com - QPR are well placed going into January. We currently only have one loan player in the starting line up so there is room to manoeuvre there if we need to, and Norwegian Petter Vaagan Moen is arriving from Brann in the transfer window. Akos Buzsaky will be back to fitness too so we have plenty of quality options to further strengthen our team.
14 Experience - Neil Warnock has won promotion six times before and he has added people like Shaun Derry, Clint Hill , Rob Hulse and Paddy Kenny who have been promoted from this league before. This will help on what could turn out to be a nervy run in. No other team in this league boasts the same level of expertise.
15 Like for like results - Cardiff’s four other defeats this season have come against Leicester, Ipswich, Swansea and Forest. QPR have played all four and taken eight points. This weekend Cardiff drew 1-1 with Preston who Rangers battered 3-1 a fortnight ago. It’s school play ground logic to add up the scorelines like this but it can’t be anything other than a good sign for us so far.
16 Two points a game - If you can average two points a game for the entire season you will finish with 92 points and be guaranteed promotion. Last season Newcastle and West Brom got 102 and 91, the season before Wolves and Birmingham got 90 and 83, West Brom and Stoke got 81 and 79 when they were the top two. At the moment QPR are ahead of the two points a game average – worth bearing in mind when you’re thinking of moaning at how many games we draw.
17 Defence – QPR have conceded five goals away from home, one of which was a penalty. Millwall are the next best in the league, they have conceded twice as many. At home Rangers have conceded four times, two penalties, which is matched by Swansea and Hull but Cardiff in second have shipped nine. It would be fairer on the rest of the league if we just bricked up the goal.
18 Swansea City - Impressive, solid defensively and good to watch – but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that the Swans lack sufficient firepower to sustain a challenge at the top end. Their form picked up when Marvin Emnes came on loan from Middlesbrough and although Craig Beattie suddenly exploded into form at Ipswich at the weekend there’s been little to suggest he can sustain that for more than half an hour at a time and is likely to return to his dormant state for another six to 18 months. Of course they may go out and buy a striker in January which would change all this, and they’re a very good side and a big threat even if they don’t, but that lack of a line leader may cost them in the long run.
19 Brian Laws - On paper Burnley should be running us much closer than they are with the players they have at their disposal and a Premiership parachute payment to spend in January. But they’re managed by a complete moron.
20 Dodgy hamstrings - Cardiff City rely heavily on Jay Bothroyd and Craig Bellamy, and don’t look the same side when one of them doesn’t play. Both players have hamstrings held together with elastic bands and chewing gum and Bothroyd is the football equivalent of the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz – impressive to look at, but as brave as a wet dish cloth.
21 Loftus Road - Teams are fearing the old place again, and the atmosphere against Cardiff City was electric. If the more positive and supportive attitude in evidence this season can remain, even when the going gets tough, and the noise levels can continue to be lifted this could be worth extra points. Our fabulous home record so far this season is already sapping belief from teams before they even step out onto the field – Scunthorpe, Middlesbrough and Preston looked like beaten teams from the first whistle.
22 Mick Jones and Keith Curle - Warnock’s assistants are hard as nails, vastly experienced and really hard working. They are what Nick and Margaret are to Alan Sugar – seeing everything and backing the manager’s message. We have seen with Rowan Vine and Martin Rowlands so far that Warnock and co aren’t afraid to break a few eggs making this omelette and nobody in their right mind would mess with him and his two sidekicks. Jones has won promotions with Warnock before and knows what it’s all about. This is literally the first positive thing I have ever written about Keith Curle who I have always found to be a loathsome individual, but it’s hard to argue with the job done so far.
23 At home on the last day - If it goes down to the final day of the season QPR have a home fixture while Cardiff, Derby, Leeds, Forest and Portsmouth are all away. In fact Cardiff’s last four games are QPR H, Preston A, Boro H and Burnley A which looks tough.
24 - Success breeds success. The first team is unbeaten in 19 games, the youth team has won 12 of its first 13 and the media department has scooped the programme of the year award. We’re like an unstoppable juggernaut gathering speed as we power towards inevitable success. Or something.
25 - Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena. Since the two Indian businessmen have assumed day to day control of the club things have run like a Swiss watch. Neil Warnock is their man, and has been allowed to get on with the job. QPR suddenly seems like a professionally run business, and a pleasant place to be again. It’s a tight ship where Warnock has the final say and money is being spent wisely on players we actually need rather than splashed around here there and everywhere on whatever kid one of Briatore’s mates want to loan us, or third rate piece of tat Paladini’s agent friends have on their books. Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone are firmly back on the scene but while it’s Warnock running the team and Saksena directly above him we’re very well placed indeed.
26 Unbeaten start - Some have described this as a millstone around our necks, something that plays on the minds of our players and forces them to hold on for draws rather than going for wins. In my opinion that is nonsense and the games we have drawn, Bristol City apart, have been good results against decent teams. To go through 19 matches in a season unbeaten is a tremendous achievement and is the clearest indication of all that we have a team capable of winning promotion.
27 Newcastle Wolves, Birmingham, Reading - In four of the last five seasons the team that was top at this stage went on to clinch automatic promotion. This time last season Newcastle were top by four points and won the league at a canter. The season before Wolves were top at the start of December by three points and went on to clinch the title. In 2006/07 Birmingham led the way and were promoted under Steve Bruce and the year before that Reading were four points clear in this week and went on to score 100 points and 100 goals on their way to the title.
28 No favourites - Warnock clearly rates Hogan Ephraim more than most supporters, and started the season with Fitz Hall as captain, but has not been afraid to drop the former and not recall the latter when poor form an injury has struck. An insistence on picking certain favourites badly undermined Jim Magilton and Ian Holloway at Loftus Road.
29 Saturday working - For the first time in my life I’m doing a job that necessitates some Saturday working. Trust QPR to suddenly be fantastic when I might miss matches. So far I’ve managed to dodge it and work on international weekends or when we’re on television, but I’m missing Bristol City at home for work and there are sure to be more. In previous years I would, as Lorraine Kelly used to say on GMTV, have missed absolutely nothing but that’s not the case anymore. Lottery tickets are being bought on a daily basis to try and correct this situation.
30 Warnock’s shorts - The gaffer probably thought nothing of wearing a pair of home shorts (£17.99 from the club shop if you want to get in on the act yourself) for the first game of the season against Barnsley when the mercury was touching 30 degrees. But he’s one of these superstitious types and has vowed to wear them until we lose – that’s bound to be tested to the full this Friday night with polar bears wondering down the Uxbridge Road as I write this. He’s not the only one, I didn’t think anything of buying a copy of the Big Issue on day one, now I find myself forking out money to homeless people on a weekly basis, even buying issues I’ve already got.
31 It’s our turn – God haven’t we suffered enough? Don’t take this away from us now.
1 Adel Taarabt - As already said, our formation and system is structured around him. We get men near him in possession to distract defenders and give him space to work magic, and we have Faurlin and Derry sitting behind him to mop up the inevitable mistakes and possession concession. This is all well and good, but how will we cope if he loses his form, his temper, or his fitness? I’d expect Tommy Smith to move into his position if he was absent but taking him out of the team would weaken us terribly and I wouldn’t fancy our chances as much as I do now if we had to cope without him for a long period of time, or even sold in January which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility with his current form.
2 Martin Rowlands - Shaun Derry has been an absolute star so far, confounding scepticism over his signing to be a front runner for the player of the season so far accolades. However the Palace fans who have watched him for the last few seasons continue to just nod knowingly and tell us that he is sure to run out of steam by the spring. If that happens we need somebody who can do his job and the nearest thing we have to it, assuming Gavin Mahon isn’t going to play much of a role, is Martin Rowlands. He is known to be unhappy at his lack of first team opportunities but needs to follow the examples set already this season by Rob Hulse, Tommy Smith and Bradley Orr in just patiently waiting for his turn. We will need him at some point, I just hope he hasn’t burnt his bridges before that point comes.
3 Responding to the blip still to come - Cardiff are having their blip now, ours is still to come. You’d have to be incredibly optimistic, and dare I say stupid, to believe that our run of draws through October was as bad as it will get for us. There will be defeats, maybe even consecutive defeats, and our message board’s completely over the top negative reaction to draws hints that when this happens an explosion of misery and pessimism could engulf us all like a tidal wave. Our response as fans and a team to the inevitable blip could prove to be crucial.
4 Tough fixtures - While our home form is such that visits from the likes of Swansea, Derby and Leeds hold no fear Rangers still have to go to Cardiff, Reading, Leeds, Norwich and Burnley. And those northern games look cold from here. QPR have never been good in the cold. Or the north.
5 Cardiff City - Despite recent troubles they have the best attack in the league by some distance. A team with Craig Bellamy, Jay Bothroyd and Michael Chopra in attack with support from Chris Burke, Peter Whittingham and others surely cannot fail in this league. They’re having their blip now while ours is still to come, expect them to come back strongly over Christmas when we could well be in a dodgy patch of form ourselves.
6 Swansea City - They may lack a decent out and out striker but Swansea have more than enough in their locker to cause problems. Scott Sinclair is revelling in a regular starting place and permanent deal and their defence is water tight.
7 One from the pace - There is often a team that arrives on the promotion scene late in the day with a great run of form towards the end of the season. Hull City and Blackpool have won promotion having been that late arrival in recent years and several clubs are well positioned for an assault. Billy Davies has finally found where they’ve been stashing the money at Forest and made a couple of tidy signings, Leicester seem to be gearing up for a big January and Portsmouth can add quantity to their quality when the transfer window opens up in January. Were Rangers to slip and require use of the play offs the last thing they’d want is to face one of these three, or another side, in tip top form come May.
8 Televised games - In the second half of the season Sky unashamedly show the sides competing for the title in this league week after week. Newcastle had exactly half of their games televised last season. While the support levels for teams like Forest, Leeds, Derby and Leicester and the Craig Bellamy factor at Cardiff is sure to deflect some attention away from us we already have four games due to be screened and will have at least four more besides. QPR must overcome their tendency to underperform on television, and stop Adel Taarabt from showing off for the cameras, if they are to avoid dropping crucial points starting this Friday.
9 Expectations - Loftus Road is awash with new found and returning supporters and there has been a tendency in recent weeks to sit quietly and wait for the entertainment to begin. While that is the supporters’ prerogative expectations must be kept in check if the positive Loftus Road atmosphere is to maintain. The last thing the team needs is people getting on their backs for losing one match, or falling behind against a poor side.
10 Flavio Briatore - Previously loitering in the background, now very firmly back in the director’s box, the spectre of the orange slug looms large. He’s already had one go at unsettling things this season by claiming he dreams of appointing Marcello Lippi as QPR manager and we could do with him being as quiet and absent as possible. The last thing we need is a run of bad results triggering a premature panic in Briatore who sees his Premiership place slipping away and springs into action with one of his renowned inspired and well timed changes of management, especially with Paul Hart out there looking for work. Any interference from Briatore in the team, as Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa had to put up with, is likely to lead to Warnock walking out. All in all if Briatore is going to start coming to the games again his involvement must stretch solely to turning up, stuffing his face with the food, watching the game, and going home to his underwear model again.
11 Watford, Cardiff and Ipswich. In 2007 Watford raced away at the top of the table, winning ten and drawing one of their first 12 games. Their second half of the season was a disaster. They were overtaken at the top by West Brom and ended up in the play offs where their form was so awful they were easily rolled over in the semi final by Hull who were the form team arriving late on the scene. The year before Cardiff were six points clear in November and finished 13th. And Ipswich led the league, and were widely said to have the outstanding team, in 2004 but ended the season being muscled out by Sunderland, Wigan and West Ham in the play offs.
12 We are QPR – We don’t do things the easy way, and we don’t do success very often. Even when we put together the best side in the country in the 1970s we contrived to blow the title with a late defeat at Norwich that allowed Liverpool to pip us to the title. If there is a way to mess this up QPR will find it rest assured of that.