QPR halted a run of four straight defeats, but a midweek draw with fellow early strugglers Coventry means it’s now eight without a victory for Marti Cifuentes’ side heading into an unenviable run of tough fixtures – Saffa Michail reports for LFW.
If the last few seasons has taught us anything, it’s never to second guess what’s coming next when it comes to this football club. But even by our (unparalleled) standards, it’s been an odd start to the season. The opening day defeat against a good WBA side, followed by the entertaining and wholly unexpected draw away at Sheffield U, the 96th minute skirmish at Sheffield W and that magical night over at Kenilworth Road - all counterbalanced by the implosion against Hull, the horror of Derby and the masterclass in self-harm against winless Portsmouth.
Let’s be fair, the table reads very differently if we had registered the six points we could so easily have taken from Hull & Plymouth, but these recent results and performances do take their toll, and I headed to W12 on Tuesdayvery light in hope and expectation, and more punch-drunk from the sheer stupidity of some of what I’ve witnessed over the last few weeks. When we’re not needlessly slicing opposition in half for red cards in neutral areas of the pitch, we’re spoon-feeding chances down their throat - a lethal combination for any team - let alone one with such a powderpuff goal threat at the other end.
The calamitous performance from Morgan Fox on Saturday was one for the ages, you can’t legislate for that. But the individual defensive mistakes from Andersen, Paal, Madsen have all been just as horrific, straight out of the Russell Martin playbook on how to drain any remaining confidence from an increasingly anxious fanbase.
After Saturday’s latest debacle it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Cifuentes shake up the starting line-up.
Nardi continued in goal, with Fox mercifully demoted back onto the bench after his horror show, which saw a warm, long overdue return for JCS alongside Cook, with Dunne and Paal making up the defence. Varane was included following his three game ban alongside Field, with Smyth, Chair and Dembele all playing off of Celar upfront, who made a rare start due to a "minor” injury to Frey after his dogged performance on Saturday.
As was the case for our last Tuesday night game here against Hull, we started right on the front foot… After powerfully winning possession in the centre circle, Varane set Dembele away in the right channel, who after jinking past the full back saw his back-post cross cushioned out of play with Chair waiting in the wings.
A mere three minutes on the clock: QPR corner, crowd in full voice & out of sorts Coventry under the cosh… With fingers gently starting to caress the 'self-destruct’ button, in the ball came...
After being worked back to Paal, the resulting cross eventually ends up at Smyth’s feet, who sees his low snapshot cannon back to the edge of the box, and then prodded wide to a flurry of Coventry players as they charge towards our goal through the pacy Asante. The move starts with a 5v5 foot race from one goal mouth to the other, and to his credit, Paal covered Asante’s first attempt to cross, but somehow injures himself in the process, leaving Asante the option of just two Coventry players to pick out… We have nine outfield players in defence at this point, yet not one picks up van Ewijk who sees his free header from six yards well saved by the scrambling Nardi on his line… The loose ball falls to Dembele, whose needlessly desperate attempt at a clearance can naturally only find a Coventry man, and two passes later Haji Wright has squeezed the ball through a combination of Nardi and Cook to give Coventry an early lead.
Fire up the juke box, it’s Benny Hill time, another total balls up, another goal conceded, ground hog day.
Paal, celebrating his 100th QPR appearance was also replaced by Saito, who was shoe-horned into an unfamiliar wing-back role on the left-hand side. To Saito’s credit, he made an impact. After picking the ball up down by the corner flag, his quick body shift saw him skip past van Ewijk and square the ball for Field who ballooned over the bar from 10 yards out.
More good work from Saito forced a chance for Chair, who saw his left-footed effort deflect wide for a corner.
The resulting cross was a good one, but Eccles just stole the ball off of Cook’s head for what would have been a near certain goal and whilst Varane slipped on the follow-up, it fell nicely for Saito who was onto it like a shot, but couldn’t find his way past the sea of Coventry players in front of him as the ball went out for yet another corner.
With momentum building, Smyth was the next to try his luck. After Chair flicked the ball out wide, Smyth cut in and saw a rasping drive on his left foot fly just wide of the post.
The remainder of the half was largely taken up by Coventry time-wasting, with aptly named referee James Bell taking absolutely no action but to seemingly show the world and his wife that he was wearing a new watch. A pitiful 3 minutes added, and Jay DaSilva finally booked for refusing to take a throw-in that I honestly think we would still be waiting for had Bell not had the Sky cameras watching.
The first half ended with well documented limitations of this squad there for all to see alongside Bell and his new watch. An echo of boos at half time, some for the officials and some for the score-line.
Coventry were ever so nearly 2-0 up within 5 minutes of the re-start… After neat build up, Eccles low driven cross looked for the world that it would find Asante, but Cook managed to get a toe on it and prod it just past the far post with Nardi looking beaten, an outstanding bit of defending.
We were still having plenty of the ball, but with Chair clearly still not at full fitness, and Dembele having little impact, Cifuentes switched it up and replaced them both for Andersen and Morgan following his bright cameo on Saturday. The impact was virtually immediate.
After Field, Andersen and Dunne exchanged passes, Dunne slid a great ball deep into the Coventry half which Smyth was straight onto after bursting away from DaSilva… Running at pace, with Celar sandwiched between the two centre-backs, Smyth’s perfectly dinked ball to the edge of the box fell perfectly for the oncoming Morgan, who saw his first time volley, straight into the ground, completely bamboozle Dovin in the Coventry goal who rather bizarrely dived out of the way.
I’m still none the wiser at what their GK was up to here, but it was a lovely moment, only topped by the interview given by Morgan post-match which will give Alfie Lloyd a run for his money for interview of the season. Absolutely fantastic content.
QPR 1 - Coventry 1. Game on.
No sooner had we finally scored, and Coventry came within inches of restoring the lead themselves. After Andersen had given away a free-kick on the left hand side, Rudoni saw a far post header bounce off JCS and wide of the post with Nardi nowhere to be seen.
Coventry continued to push forward, and a bizarre bit of refereeing saw them have two separate bites at us. Simms had been introduced for Asante, and after Wright had just beaten JCS to the loose ball and been fouled in the process, Simms was put through one-on-one with just Nardi to beat, thankfully the Frenchman was very quick off his line and smothered the ball, before Bell decided he wanted to call it back after all and award Coventry a free-kick to have another go. The resulting delivery was poor and sailed out for a goal kick.
Coventry weren’t having it all their own way though, and we had a fair shout for a penalty shorty after. Following a deep cross from Andersen, Dunne saw his left footed cross clearly handled by his marker… On first inspection it was hard to say if his arm was in a natural position or not, but I’ve certainly seen them given.
With minutes left on the clock, both sides had big chances to snatch all three points.
After a meaty challenge from JCS, the ball fell kindly for Ellis Simms who had oceans of space to run into with only Cook covering Bassette, who himself was in acres of space to the right, but Simms had only eyes for goal and saw his left footed drive parried out by Nardi.
Up the other end, it was QPR who posed the final threat. After Morgan and Varane jointly won back possession, the latter clipped a ball wide to Andersen who drifted inside before feeding Saito on the wide left and continuing to advance forward… Saito laid the ball off for Ashby who found Andersen, but his couldn’t quite direct his awkwardly arched header, and the ball was comfortably saved by Dovin in the Coventry goal.
Full time: 1-1.
Unlike Saturday, there was far more tolerance and acceptance of this performance than what we’ve seen over the last couple of games. It wasn’t the result we wanted or needed, but it was a marked improvement and I guess you take those small wins at the moment.
The game will only really be remembered for Morgan’s first QPR goal, albeit a fortuitous one. It’s impossible to judge how much of an impact he will have over the course of a full season, but on first inspection he certainly passes the eye test. Attitude, work rate and desire cover a multitude of sins, just contrast the performance of Frey on Saturday with the ghost-like performance of Celar upfront here. But ignoring Morgan’s exuberance and puppy-like energy, as it stands, he is the only midfielder that actually looks forwards rather than backwards or sideways, and boy do we crave that in this side at the moment.
There remains big question marks over a number of our ‘bigger’ summer signings, but this kid’s alright…
Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Cook 6, Clarke-Salter 6; Smyth 6 (Ashby 80, -), Varane 6, Field 5, Paal – (Saito 9, 7); Chair 5 (Andersen 58, 6), Celar 4 (Lloyd 80, -), Dembele 5 (Morgan 58, 7)
Subs not used: Santos, Fox, Madsen, Walsh
Goals: Morgan 63 (assisted Smyth)
Bookings: Dembele 9 (foul), Clarke Salter 75 (foul)
Coventry: Dovin 4; Latibeaudiere 6, Thomas 6, Binks 6; van Ewijk 6, Eccles 6 (Torp 73, 6), Sheaf 7, Rudoni 6 (Sakamoto 84, -), Dasilva 6; Wright 6 (Bassette 84, -), Thomas-Asante 6 (Simms 74, 5)
Subs not used: Andrews, Collins, Kitching, Mason-Clark, Tavares
Goals: Wright 4 (assisted Thomas-Asante)
Bookings: Dasilva 45+1 (time wasting)
QPR Star Man – Koki Saito 7 Impressed going forwards and defending when pressed into action as an emergency left wing back following Paal’s early injury. No player on either side won more duels (10), created more chances (3) or registered more ball recoveries (8) (per Jack Supple).
Referee – James Bell (Sheffield) 6 Another one who apparently cannot police time. Just another couple points at that watch, then a final warning I reckon.
Attendance – 14,173 (1,748 Cov)
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