Neil Warnock was pleased with the spirit shown by his side at Ashton Gate on Friday night as the R’s fought back from a goal down to take a point from the top v bottom clash.

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Warnock told the club’s official website: “I think a lot of teams would have probably thought 'this is not going to be our night' - but we're not like that. We went a bit gung-ho in the second half, you do when you're a goal down. We come into games thinking we can win every one, not that we can't be beaten. Defenders look after themselves in games like that. I thought today was a team performance. Bristol City will make it difficult for a few teams now they've got their act together. I sometimes think the games against teams at the bottom are the more difficult ones.”

Warnock’s performance at Loftus Road so far this season has drawn praise from his former Sheff Utd charge Phil Jagielka. He told Sky Sports: “He’s doing a fantastic job. The gaffer’s well known for doing things on a shoestring budget and obviously that was the case at Crystal Palace. He’s moved to richer pastures at QPR and he’s bought some fantastic players for the Championship. You look at the bench they had on Friday night and it was amazing, really. I’m sure he’s enjoying being there and being able to spend. He’s a great guy who did a lot for my career. He gave me my chance and I’ll forever be thankful for that. He’s a character to say the least.”

Bradley Orr told the Bristol City website he was disappointed to only be on the bench for his first return to the club he left in the summer, but fully understands his position in the pecking order with Kyle Walker impressing at right back. Orr said: “It was strange coming back and walking into the away dressing room. It would have been nice to have got out on to the pitch but I understand how football works. It wasn't to be but I'm sure I'll have another chance to run out at Ashton Gate in the future. I was treated really well by all the fans and staff. I'd love Bristol City to do well and wish them all the best in the future."

Paddy Kenny’s three fine saves in the draw at Ashton Gate earned him a place in the division’s team of the week. Our opponents Bristol City had centre half Steven Caulker selected for his commanding display in his team’s backs to the wall effort.

Team of the Week: Paddy Kenny (QPR), Cliff Byrne (Scunthorpe), Steven Caulker (Bristol City) Gary Monk (Swansea), Chris Gunter (Forest), James Coppinger (Doncaster), Lewis McGugan (Forest), Owen Garvan (Palace), Martyn Woolford (Scunthorpe), Steve Morison (Millwall), Jon Parkin (Preston)

No surprise to find Adel Taarabt’s name missing from that list after his worst performance of the season so far on Friday. Taarabt seemed determined to stand out in the televised fixture and his greed and selfishness hampered the team throughout his 70 minutes on the field. Taarabt’s poor free kick after a quarter of an hour actually led directly to Bristol City’s goal. It’s this wild inconsistency that keeps Taarabt at QPR rather than a Premiership side but his attitude does seem to be bubbling to the surface again, and as well as underperforming at Ashton Gate he has threatened to stop playing international football for Morocco after a row with the coach.

Taarabt told Le Martin: “This season I think I’m going to stop playing for the national team. I want to concentrate on my club because the national team hasn’t respected me and since I don’t want to hut it then I’m just going to pull back and let other youngster take my place. The fact that I was called up and didn’t play doesn’t sit well with me at all and since I have a personality that makes me want to always play and now I’m not playing, I’m going to step back. Last time, I travelled for 22 hours by plane and in the end I didn’t play and nobody explained why. I took this decision with my family. I don’t want to respond favourably to the FRMF call-up to face Northern Ireland on the 17th of November."

Finally Ipswich manager Roy Keane has bemoaned his club’s failure to sign Shaun Derry from Crystal Palace in the summer. Derry spoke with Ipswich before signing for QPR and he has been one of the season’s surprise packages at Loftus Road. Keane said: “He was here, we wanted to sign him, he wanted to sign, but we never did the deal. They are the type of players that I think you need to try and get out of this league, even though our younger players are doing well. The John Eustaces, the Lee Carsleys, you need them. I’m not surprised when I see where QPR are with people like Shaun Derry in their team. He knows I’m a fan of his anyway. I had a good chat with him in the summer and I was disappointed we didn’t get the deal done. He’s knows the Championship very well, he knows the game.”

Rumours

Manager Neil Warnock has played down suggestions that he is about to move for Arsenal’s FA Youth Cup winning captain Jay Emmanuel Thomas. The Gunners’ utility player was linked with Loftus Road by a host of newspapers last week, with some even suggesting he would be signed in time for Friday night’s game in Bristol, but Warnock told the Ealing Gazette today he is happy with his squad and not looking for temporary additions.

Warnock said: “Is a loan signing in the offing? Not that I'm aware of. I read who I'm supposed to be signing and he was supposed to be playing on Friday wasn't he? I've not made any inquiries and I'm quite happy with what I've got.”

Despite this The Mirror has once again reported that Rangers are on the brink of signing Cypriot midfielder Giorgos Tofas on a free transfer. Tofas has apparently been trialling at Loftus Road this season.

Loan Watch

Lee Brown scored the first senior goals of his professional career as Hayes and Yeading won through to the FA Cup First Round proper with a 3-1 success at Poole Town. The result was expected, with Poole four divisions below Hayes, but it needed left back Brown to score twice to make passage to the next round safe. Brown headed the first midway through the first half and then finished the game off with a penalty in stoppage time at the end of the match. Hayes and Yeading will face league side Wycombe, Gareth Ainsworth and all, at home in one of the ties of the first round on November 6.

There was not such good news for Josh Parker as Northampton Town cut his loan move short a week early. Parker had been due to stay at the Sixfields Stadium for a further week but the Cobblers’ camp is not a happy one at the moment and after not being selected for the weekend game at Oxford United Parker asked to return to Loftus Road. The 3-1 defeat at the Kassam Stadium leaves Northampton second bottom of the entire Football League.

Manager Ian Sampson told the club’s official website: “Josh has gone back a week early. He was not happy when we told him he would not be in the starting 11 for the game at Oxford at the weekend. He asked to go back and we agreed that was the best course of action."

Rowan Vine completed another 90 minutes without scoring for Hull City on Saturday as they lost 2-1 at home to Portsmouth – their second home defeat in four days. It’s now 23 appearances and counting over the course of more than a year since his last goal in the 4-1 home victory against Reading last October.

Joe Oastler and Ramone Rose both started for Torquay at the weekend as they drew 1-1 at Gillingham in League Two. The Gulls started the season well but have not won in their last nine matches now and have slipped to 13th in the table. They needed a last minute equaliser from Kevin Nicholson to salvage a point at the Priestfield – by that stage Rose had been substituted but Oastler completed a full 90 minutes.

Youth teamer Danny Fitzsimons has returned from his loan at Histon early after picking up an ankle injury.

Former R’s

Danny Shittu impressed on his Millwall debut on Saturday as the Lions finally got a victory under their belts – beating in form Derby 2-0 at The Den. Shittu pulled up with cramp in the second half betraying a lack of fitness after four months out of the game but still impressed with a typical all action centre half display.

Manager Kenny Jackett told the South London News Shopper: “At centre-half, he has the ability to go one-on-one and come out on top. If you’re going to attack and play along the line, your defenders have got to be able to handle one-on-one otherwise it limits your selection as a manager. He has that ability and he brought that to the game. He had cramp in both legs and he's had a few weeks off with internationals. His fitness will improve with the more training he does. He did, I thought, have an impressive debut for us.”

Shittu’s former QPR team mate Kevin Gallen is back in the Football League after an 18 month absence. Gallen has signed a loan deal with lowly League Two outfit Barnet from Conference side Luton Town. Barnet currently sit third bottom of the Football League, just two points away from Northampton in the final relegation spot, but did win 1-0 on Saturday at home to fellow strugglers Macclesfield – Gallen appeared for the last 25 minutes as a substitute.

Damien Delaney made his long awaited comeback from the compartment syndrome that almost cost him his leg in the summer with a 90 minute run out for Ipswich in a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Delaney contracted the freak injury after a training ground incident last season and told the Green ‘Un that it has been a long struggle to get back to fitness.

Delaney said: “In the early stages, just walking to the toilet or going to the kitchen to get something to eat, I couldn’t do it. I was knackered, I was out of breath and I was light-headed. Just making a cup of tea, I’d need an hour’s sleep after it. You’re expected to come back and play at the level that the other lads are at, and yet I couldn’t even string two training sessions together.

“It was scary. People were going on about amputation, but I think that was a long way off. But there was a massive threat of having to have part of my thigh muscle cut out. That was very realistic, which would have meant the end of my career. I had messages from people who had a similar injury to mine, and they were horror stories. I had a letter off a sports player whom it took three hospitals and nine hours to diagnose the exact same thing. She lost 90% of her thigh muscle.”

Finally former youth team defender Ed Harris was on the scoresheet at the weekend for the first time in his senior career – his goal enough to seal a 1-0 win for AFC Wimbledon at Basingstoke in the FA Cup. The Dons will face Ebbsfleet at home in the first round proper – other ties that catch the eye include Sheff Wed away at Southport, Charlton at Barnet, FC United of Manchester at Rochdale and Luton at Corby Town.

Championship Shorts

- Cardiff moved level on points with QPR at the top of the table on Monday night after a comprehensive 4-0 demolition of Leeds at Elland Road. Jay Bothroyd (two), Lee Naylor and Michael Chopra got the goals to move the Bluebirds onto 29 points – but they still trail Rangers by seven goals so will have to make do with second until Saturday at least. Their next two games are at home to Norwich and Swansea who QPR faced in a similar double header last week drawing 0-0 in both games. Leeds, with Alex Bruce particularly culpable as always at centre half, have now conceded 15 goals in their last five matches.

- A weekend of brinkmanship from Portsmouth’s administrators seems to have paid off. After declaring the club was about to close on Friday the club was suddenly sold to Balram Chainrai, Levi Kushnir and Deepak Chainrai on Monday and exited administration. The debate about whether supporters’ emotions should be toyed with like this for a favourable end result is second in my mind to the question of why Portsmouth have been allowed to add Dave Kitson, Liam Lawrence and others to their squad on hefty weekly wages while in administration without incurring the transfer embargo or points deduction that the likes of Leeds, Luton, Southampton and others have been subject to I recent years.

- Doncaster’s record signing Billy Sharp faces six weeks on the sidelines after tearing his hamstring in the weekend win against Sheffield United. Sharp scored the second goal in a 2-0 victory and celebrated by revealing an under shirt with the slogan “just a fat lad from Sheffield” but his joy was shortlived.

- Iain Hume says he wants to stay at Preston rather than return to Barnsley when his current loan deal expires. Hume, two goals in six starts for North End, said: “"I am contracted to Barnsley until the end of the season and if they insist that I go back it is what I must do. I am hoping, however, that the two clubs can come to an arrangement."

- Derby are close to agreeing a deal to extend the loan of striker Luke Moore from West Brom. Moore - one goal, two starts and four sub appearances so far – was due to return to the Hawthorns today. Nigel Clough said: “We're very close to extending it. He hasn't played much but we're delighted with him."

Photo: Action Images

Myke added 23:32 - Oct 25 So we've used up our 6 point advantage in the last 3 games are now leading only on the strength of the goal difference we accumulated early in the season - and even that won't last long if cardiff keep winning 4-0! Still if this is our 'blip' it's not too serious - but it would be nice to start winning again. If Buzaki is fit I would pick him instead of Tarrabt against Burnley - time he got a much needed kick up the R's!

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Spaghetti_Hoops added 00:48 - Oct 26 Dropping Taarabt would be a Magiltonesque mistake. An own goal. Warnock won't do it. Why would you drop your best player to make a point that would be entirely lost on the individual concerned? Draw a line through the Bristol City match. How we played, and particularly how Taarabt played, has no relevance to the season going forward. Even on a poor day Taarabt is more of a threat to the opposition than any other player we have. Now that Mackie's form has dipped. Cardiff are probably a stronger team than us. Bellamy, Bothroyd, Chopra and Whittingham put them in an attacking class of their own in the Championship. In my opinion they will walk the division unless misfortune or mismanagement befalls them. We were a little on the lucky side early season and recently we have played a bit better than the results. It's not a blip, it is events putting us on a more realistic level.

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Northernr added 00:51 - Oct 26 Dead right Spaghetti, and frankly you'd never guess we were unbeaten the way some fans have gone on since Friday.
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qprdan added 02:48 - Oct 26 I watched the Bristol City game through a stream from what I think was Italian SkySports, interesting commentary...I thought we were a little unlucky not to take 3 points...but, arent we still top!!! No tinkering required we are still unbeaten and completely agree that dropping Taarbt would have no effect on him apart from to pee him off!! We were always going to have a dodgy spell and if this is it I will take it... Warnock has faith in the players and so should we... dandownunder..

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Kiwi76 added 03:01 - Oct 26 NW colours are firmly pinned to Tarrabts mast - oo-err missus - he's made him captain and no chance of him getting dropped. Really interested in how he responds though as did cop a right bollocking on several occasions from Derry,Mackie,Hogan etc. I think he'll have a stormer Saturday
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SheffieldSteve added 08:43 - Oct 26 I'm right fed up with hearing reports on the radio that Cardiff are "joint top with QPR", no they are not, QPR are the League Leaders. Roll on November 27th and (hopefully) we'll make the points! I've spent all season hoping Leeds lose, and they have quite a bit ;-) but the one time I want them to at least get a draw, oh well... I agree with most of the above, should keep Tarbs on the pitch as he'll be unlikely to play badly on Saturday, but I'd rest Hogan for either one of a few others. Buzz, Smith or Hulse (and why not play 2 up front once in a while, a change may mess up the oppositions' play?). I'd love to see Rowlands back on the pitch, for his drive if nowt else (I need to move back down South, I'm starting to sound more like a Northerner all the time!), but worry that he'll never get fit to play for us again (fingers crossed he will). Anyway, looking forward to Saturday and a demolition of Burnley, but what price the first goal scored by Carlisle?

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Myke added 10:18 - Oct 26 Clive and Spaghetti -I think you're both missing the point. I accept that Tarbs is a superb individual talent and that early in the season he was winning games virtually single handedly. Now however, he has gone off the boil for whatever reason, and when a player starts to play badly he should be dropped - no mattter who he is - isn't that the whole point of a strong bench? Nobody complained when Leigerwood dissapeared off the scene after an apparent shocker against Norwich, I didn't see it, but was he any worse than Tarbs against Bristol City? Yes Tarbs is a far better player than Legs but I'm talking about FORM not ABILITY. Secondly, he is a bad influence when things go badly; he was directly responsible for Derry (who was magificent on Fri night) getting booked and he drove Mackie insane by constantly refusing to play him in when better positioned. By all accounts those two have already come to blows at haalf-time v Palace so if Warnock continues to pick Tarrabt when he's off form then imagine what does (a) to the frustration levels of those on the pitch, and, (b) the morale of those on the bench? Finally, to suggest dropping Tarrabt would be a 'Magiltonesque' error is laughable, who's in charge - the manager or the players?

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westolian added 10:19 - Oct 26 Adel must be bad if Ephraim's having a go
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Northernr added 11:03 - Oct 26 Taarabt was excellent at Swansea last Tuesday and then poor at Bristol City on Friday. That's what he's like, inconsistent. If he wasn't then we wouldn't have him. All this "he's lost form" or "he's gone off the boil" thing is a nonsense being peddled because there were only 400 QPR fans at Swansea to see him play well last Tuesday while everybody saw him play badly on Friday.

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QPRFish added 12:00 - Oct 26 So points wise its all square after 13 games. We have an identical home record to cardiff but they've conceeded 4, we have conceeded 0. They have won 1 more game than us away & lost 2. We have drawn 3 more than them away from home but lost none. We have a +21 goal diffrence, 7 more goals than cardiff. We have won 2 manager of the month awards & 2 player of the month awards. Oh & we are also unbeaten. All this after just 13 games with 33, count em, 33 still to play. Cardiff are deemed to be in form, we are deemed to be havin blips & dips? Hmmmmm, go figure.

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QPRFish added 12:27 - Oct 26 And i don't want to get drawn into some of the nonsense above but given that logic , should mackie be dropped as well then, since his last goals were at leicester on sept 18th? If that is the case, lets drop the two players who won awards for the the first two months of the season. And to think not so long ago people were crying out for a settled side, barring injuries, suspensions etc.

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Northernr added 12:40 - Oct 26 Exactly right Fish - it's all getting a bit Man Utd/Chelsea round at the moment. "Oh no we're only drawing and not winning" - it wasn't so long ago we were getting beaten by everybody with Hart and Harford in charge. In fact it wasn't even a year ago!
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QPRFish added 12:50 - Oct 26 And i didnt mean we'd scored 7 more than cardiff. I meant +21 as oppose to their +14. And there was me talkin of nonsense........ He without sin & all that!
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AshteadR added 14:09 - Oct 26 Tarbs did play well at Swansea and he did have a shocker at Bristol. Even when he was having a complete mare, he never hid and still wanted the ball - not sure whether that's good or bad! Cardiff looked pretty good last night, albeit against a pretty poor Leeds side. I don't think it will be all bad if they take some of the limelight away from us. How we use Hulse and Williams will be the key over the coming months.

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Myke added 15:51 - Oct 26 ok a few points here. First of all nobody's talking 'nonsense', not me, nor any other contributer -what were doing is airing our views on the team we all love and perhaps the different views should be respected rather than rubbished. The stats show that we took 19 pts from the first 7 games and 9 from the last 6. Now we all knew and agreed that it was totally unrealistic to maintain the form of the first two months or we would end up with about a million points! But the reality is we HAVE dropped back a bit over the last half a dozen games or so and that is all we are discussing here - no-one is talking about a crisis or anything negative of that nature that I can discern. Clive you said Tarbs was excellent against Swansea, I re-read your report and certainly he sounded good in the first half before QPR became more negative, although you also mentioned that he was very fortunate not to be sent off. You also mentioned in another report how his attitude seems to be bubbling up again which appears to have resulted in his 'retirement' from Morrocco because - surprise surprise - he didn't get a game and wasn't treated with 'respect'. The reality is - Swansea game apart perhaps - he appears to be below par for quite a few games even when we were winning. I read on a different forum how he didn't receive a single vote in September from the fans for player of the month after winning it by a street in August. All I was suggesting was benching him -not bombing him out of the club or making him play with the reserves or anything - and perhaps giving Buzaki a chance to play in his preferred advanced creative role versus Burnley until Tarrabt gets back to his best. Fish I have also suggested resting/dropping Mackie/Ephraim until they get their sharpness back. As I said earlier, there is no point in having a strong bench, with players chomping at the bit to come on, if we don't use them. One option is obviously Smith, a less obvious one could be to recall Orr at right back and push Walker further forward on the right where he could skin the opponents full back without being so concerned about his defensive duties. Regards -Mike

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Northernr added 16:55 - Oct 26 Personally I think that reading the tone of news comments and message board posts across the QPR network an outsider would never believe we're top of the league and unbeaten. People are looking for problems and things to complain about, changes that need making to the team and so on. There is literally nothing wrong with our team at the moment - we're three months into the season, we're top, we're unbeaten. Why are we looking to change the team? Myke the two players you mention there - smith did very little at bristol city and buzsaky is injured. Shall we just bench taarabt every time he has a bad game? That'll do his confidence the world of good. Why not just enjoy it? I dread the reaction to the inevitable defeat when it comes. We're going to lose some games, we're going to struggle to keep up with cardiff and their forward line, but nine months ago we had Paul Hart in charge and could have been relegated.

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Spiritof67 added 19:01 - Oct 26 As a glass half-full view. We are still unbeaten, top of the league, yet to concede at home and still have to play Cardiff TWICE during the season. In addition, Cardiff have to play a "local derby" v Swansea in a few weeks where I can see a few Yellow/red cards being issued. Unfortunately the goals have dried up, but that's why Warnock has added Hulse and Smith to the squad - watch this space!

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DublinQPR74 added 19:05 - Oct 26 I think if you had offered the play-offs at the start of the season, most fans would have bitten your hand off, or at least would have given it a good sniff. We finished in the lower half of the table last year and took some risks in the transfer market in the summer, some of which have worked and the team gelled surprisingly fast. Plus we've had the same manager for ages now. Taarabt had a poor game, but overall I feel we played quite well against B.C. and he's important in terms of providing an extra dimension. Once he went off, we started hoofing it up to Dave a bit whereas when he was on the pitch he was Faurlin's main target. People seem to be more inclined to focus on his mistakes than his successes - he actually didn't give away possession too much and was one of the few to get shots on target. People possibly focus on the negatives because he promises/talks himself up so much. Buzsáky is a good player, but he doesn't take on defenders as well as Taarabt (sometimes) does - still though it would be good to have him on the bench and it's a pity he's injured and playing cards with Fitz.

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