Rayan Kolli has a new contract in the bag, and a winning goal on the road at Plymouth to celebrate, in the most significant week of his young career so far.

It has been some week for Rayan Kolli, the boy with two haircuts in one.

Linked with Toulouse among others in France and seemingly highly unlikely to extend his contract at QPR as recently as Monday, Kolli ends the week committed to his boyhood club and a match winner for the first team at Plymouth Argyle.

The potential importance of tying down not only one of the club’s brightest young prospects, but a genuinely creative and dangerous forward with an eye for goal, was perfectly encapsulated at Home Park. Rangers dominated the game as the away side, certainly in terms of clear-cut chances created, but looked set for a draw at best after a series of bad misses until Kolli rose from the bench to score. Rangers hadn’t won at Home Park in nine visits going back to 2002 and a re-run of last year’s draw on this ground, where a catalogue of misses eventually cost R’s two points thanks to Asmir Begovic’s brain fart, looked plausible until Kolli’s intervention.

Michael Frey, who’d been in good form with goals in the wins against Watford and Luton immediately prior to this trip, was most culpable. A typically purposeful and effective run through the heart of the Plymouth team by permanent pest Paul Smyth – never knowingly in control of the ball – set up a first half sitter for the Swiss striker but home keeper Daniel Grimshaw sprawled to his left to make an unlikely save. In the second half a long-range speculator by Dunne after good wing play by Smyth inadvertently fell at Frey’s feet in the area, but again Grimshaw was able to rescue his side with a big stop. Great goalkeeping from Plymouth’s best player on the day, no doubt, but a fraction second delay in the first finish from Frey and inability to get the ball out of his feet for the second proved costly.

Frey wasn’t alone. After several false starts Kenneth Paal finally got a back post delivery from a first half corner correct, with Morgan Fox peeling off in that direction to head back across goal. Ronnie Edwards, somehow, headed wide of the target from a yard or two out. A planned move and wasted opportunity. Fox probably deserves more credit than we’ve given him of late, and he nearly scored a goal himself when Grimshaw came for a cross but couldn’t gather and the QPR man tried to bounce a bomb over the stricken keeper and into the unguarded net. Later Sam Field would move clear through on goal, bang in the centre of the penalty area, go searching for the far corner with his favoured left foot, and implausibly miss the target, just as he had done against Preston before Christmas.

Even the goal Rangers did score started with a miss. Bali Mumba’s horrible misjudgement and control set Ilias Chair clean through on goal with time to think about his options. An attempt to bend one round Grimshaw into the far corner was easily read and saved. Chair’s composure in then pulling the ball back for substitute Kolli was a good deal more on point. Kolli’s head swivel to vibe the situation before the ball arrived befitted a far more experienced player, and his crisp finish into the far corner was probably the most difficult of the chances Rangers had on Saturday. The limbs in a packed away end were considerable – not only because the deadlock had finally been broken in our favour, but the identity of the goalscorer as well. Here’s to swimming with bowlegged women.

Supporters often talk about the need for a “20-goal-a-season-striker” but players who actually reach that total are vanishingly rare, particularly for a club operating on QPR’s budget. Only two managed it in the Championship last season and both have been traded for north of £10m (Sammie Szmodics and Adam Armstrong) which meant 22 of the 24 teams didn’t have one including two of the three promoted sides. The year before they were three of them – Chuba Akpom, Viktor Gyokeres, Carlton Morris – and, again, two of those three have since cost silly money. It's been four seasons since QPR even had a player make double figures for league goals (Andre Gray got ten in 2021/22) and the much fabled “20-goal a season striker” hasn’t played in Hoops since Andy Thomson in 2001/02 – although Charlie Austin did make that total in 2013/14 if you include his goals in the play-off semi-final against Wigan.

Jack Supple tells us Kolli has been directly involved in eight goals this season, scoring five and assisting three others in just seven starts and six sub outings – the most by a teenager in a single season for the club since Ray Jones in 2006-07 (six goals, two assists). Kolli is producing a goal involvement every 74 minutes currently. If Rangers have not only got themselves a forward capable of making even modest double figures for goals but actually grown him themselves out of their academy, rather than having to buy him, that’s going to be massive for the team in the short term and potentially game changing for the bank balance in the medium. We need to try and keep a lid on the hype and let the lad breathe and develop now the contract is signed – the amount of chat there is online about a 19-year-old is ridiculous and unhealthy. Richard Pacquette scored the last time we won here, also 1-0, so perhaps only the dizzying bright lights of Havant and Waterlooville await young Rayan. It doesn’t look like it at this stage though. He was the difference between a win and a draw in this game.

Sadly for Rangers, and the future financial security of the Plymouth Student Union bar, the opportunity to nudge Wazza Rooney closer to a third relegation in three jobs was denied us by his mercy killing over the New Year weekend. Spoil sports. After masterminding demotion to League One for both Derby and Birmingham it was always an obviously bloody stupid idea to place the Championship status of a club with the budget and resource of Plymouth in his nicotine stained fingers. It does perhaps say something of the challenges any manager would face here though, particularly with Ibrahim Cissoko and Morgan Whittaker (Argyle’s two best outfield players in the first meeting) out injured for much of the first half of the season, that the arrival of a grown-up has only moved the needle as far as one point from two home games against Oxford and QPR.

Miron Muslic took Cercle Brugge from obscurity in the Belgian league to a first European campaign in 14 years, and only the fourth time in their history, so his appointment represents something of a coup for the club currently bottom of the Championship. A left field choice, and not just because Argyle seemed to be labouring under the misapprehension all their bosses had to come from Merseyside, Muslic went semi-viral last week when his opening speech to the team was recorded and put out as part of the PR around his arrival. You could see why. Fuck me, after listening to that I was ready to lace up and play for Plymouth on Saturday myself. But here, as on Tuesday, they looked a tired side.

Both full backs struggled – Mumba passed to Ilias Chair more than the QPR players, and new signing Tymoteusz Puchacz was given a torrid time by Paul Smyth. Ridden hard and put away wet, he’ll have been delighted to see Smyth subbed off with 15 to go. Pleguezuelo, tag on an extra vowel for good luck, seemed to be in a foul mood – literally and metaphorically. The midfield was Adam Randell against the world, and the halftime removal of Leeds loanee Gyabi did little to change that. Whittaker, perhaps not yet fully fit, perhaps lacking confidence despite winning the cup tie at Brentford last week, maybe beaten down by the weight of carrying this team for so long, looked a shadow of what he’s been against us before. Ryan Hardie, back up front after three games out with a shoulder injury, was a challenging watch.

I know a lot of us have a soft spot for Plymouth after the battles of the early 2000s, but sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making somebody else look bad, and I’m tired of making other people feel good about themselves.

Home team, scrapping for Championship survival, only one goal in it, there were inevitably periods of pressure. Standing up to that, primarily, were Jimmy Dunne and Ronnie Edwards. In the final five minutes, with the game on the line, Dunne twice came up with towering headed clearances deep in his own penalty area to bail out his team. Without Steve Cook, Liam Morrison and Jake Clarke-Salter, I hadn’t really fancied the back four against Whittaker and Hardie on paper, but Dunne was an absolute monster at right back again and Edwards really showed the class that attracted Southampton to him at Peterborough in the first place with a Rolls Royce centre half performance. Fox and Paal played pretty well themselves, but Dunne and Edwards were a cut above and - bar a fifth minute improvised back flick from Rami Al Hajj which flew straight at him - Paul Nardi didn’t have a serious save to make all game. Wish he’d catch the ball rather than that weird two-handed punch he likes so much, mind.

Rangers really should have won this by more. They had 15 shots to Plymouth’s four, seven on target to their one. Plymouth’s super high press and penchant for passing the ball straight to their opposition made them unusually vulnerable to counter attacks. Their pass completion stats make for a grim read – apart from Randell (85%) every one of their outfield players gave the ball away at least one in every four times they tried to pass it. Time after time, particularly at the end of both halves, QPR broke into an almost entirely empty half of the field, with the ball, and men in support, but picked the wrong option, pass or final ball. Introducing the busy head of Alfie Lloyd into this situation only furthered the chaos. We need to get that boy on a Valium. How it was still only 1-0 at the end I’m not sure, but given an evening of horrors awaited us all on the trains home I’m pleased it was. It would have been a bleak night if Argyle had scored.

Instead, QPR move into the top half for the first time in two years. While I must confess I was rather disappointed to discover there is another half to the Championship table, Rangers’ recovery is undoubtedly growing momentum. From one win in the first 17 games through to the end of November, the R’s have now picked up 25 points out of 36 since that last international break – only Leeds (27) and Burnley (26) have more in that time. They’ve won three league games in a row for the first time this season and are now nine from the bottom three – this just a couple of months on from being five points adrift in dead last. More importantly, while some of the early results in this run (Cardiff, Bristol City) were perhaps more luck than judgement, Rangers are now playing pretty well – against Preston, Watford and Luton certainly, but then again here which, with one win in ten away games prior, was another important step. Would have been nice to bury this game when we had the chance(s) though.

There’s still so much work to do. Our thirst for giving the ball away in our own half needs quenching – the usually excellent Kieran Morgan had an alarming pass completion of 56% here from 36 attempts. And whether it all vindicates the changes Cifuentes made to this team at Leicester a week ago, and the six goals we conceded almost entirely from our own errors in that game, probably depends how niggled you are by the club’s continued FA Cup failures. QPR certainly looked a good deal fresher than their leggy hosts, who’d poured heart and soul into their upset at Brentford last Saturday and then played again during the week. Starting a tough three game week, which sees us now slog all the way up to Hull on Tuesday (the second season in a row the EFL has seen fit to give us these two long distance fixtures back-to-back over four days), is a wonderful fillip and takes a lot of the pressure off the team for the other two games.

It’ll take more than a hard fought 1-0 at the league’s bottom club to make the more grizzled QPR fan forgive and forget the Filbert Street farce but, now just six points from the play-off places, probably not much more. Three new contracts for the club’s best young talent and a 1-0 away win is a great start.

If a week is a long time in politics, at QPR it’s an eternity.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

Plymouth: Grimshaw 7; Mumba 4 (Sorinola 80, -), Pleguezuelo 5, Palsson 4, Puchacz 4; Randell 6, Gyabi 4 (Houghton 46, 5); Whittaker 5, Baidoo 5 (Cissoko 80, -), Ell Hajj 5 (Wright 60, 5); Hardie 4 (Bundu 73, 5)

Subs not used; Baker, Issaka, Ogbeta, Roberts

Yellow Cards: Houghton 60 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 7, Edwards 7, Fox 6, Paal 6; Field 6, Morgan 6 (Ashby 86, -), Varane 6 (Colback 59, 6); Smyth 7 (Saito 75, 6), Chair 6 (Lloyd 86, -), Frey 5 (Kolli 59, 7)

Subs not used: Clarke-Salter, Madsen, Bennie, Walsh

Goals: Kolli 65 (assisted Chair)

Yellow Cards: Varane 1 (foul), Smyth 55 (foul), Edwards 64 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Paul Smyth 7 Never knowingly in control of the ball but a persistent pain in the arsehole for whichever full back he’s playing, vital pace and outlet for the side with the ball, diligent and hard working on the cover in defence.

Referee – Darren Bond (Lancashire) 7 Well refereed. Booking Jonathan Varane inside the first 60 seconds looked a little extreme but I don’t think we can have too many complaints given the strength of that challenge.

Attendance – 16,988 (1,739 QPR) A sold out away end for a 1230 kick off in the deepest South West, and a horror seven hour train journey back for everybody afterwards. And we go again Tuesday.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

062259 added 23:29 - Jan 19 Nosebleed
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extratimeR added 00:21 - Jan 20 Yes, spot on Clive, worrying all the misses , but good solid team performance, Dunne is attracting a lot of attention at the moment, ( particularly from the play off clubs) another great performance by him. Yes, really like Nardi but punching the incoming crosses not his strong point, ( their was a time when any keeper who didn't catch crosses would be on the bench the following week). Cheers Clive, great report as usual.

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stainrods_elbow added 00:48 - Jan 20 'Here's to swimming with bow-legged women' did give me a moment of poetic joy!
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hoops_legend added 06:58 - Jan 20 Great report - what happened on the journey home? Hope all was ok
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gazza1 added 07:59 - Jan 20 Fxxx me Norf, you are a mean man with the player markings!!!! ....proper mean!!!!The report is spot on. I thought it was arguably the best performance away this season, we controlled the game so well, thought the back 4 were very good, midfield tidy, score the chances and, not difficult chances, and we win 5-0!!!
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qprninja added 09:38 - Jan 20 Argyle keepers do seem to always play absolute blinders against us, so it was always going to take a special finish to score on Saturday. Living 5 mins walk from Home Park, this was a sweet win and gives me rare bragging rights for a few days. Sympathy for all you guys who had to battle the trains on the way back. I enjoyed watching Smythy bully that new full back, he's added brain and brawn to his game. Kolli looked proper dangerous when he came on and took his goal very well indeed. He seemed to be feeling his right calf at halftime and fulltime, hopefully he's ok.

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tsbains64 added 10:37 - Jan 20 Fantastic support -great time to be following the Rs away from home Came over loud and proud on the TV
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TacticalR added 11:24 - Jan 20 Thanks for your report. Despite our many chances, Grimshaw was stopping everything, so a draw (or even a loss if Plymouth had managed to score) looked on the cards. That was until Mumba's mistake. Kolli still had a lot to do. It's the sign of a good striker to get the ball into right into the corner of the net, and Kolli has been doing that recently.
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HastingsRanger added 12:18 - Jan 20 Compared to the reverse fixture, Plymouth were much poorer and we were much better. That said, this was a very good performance. As noted, the inability to put away chances is frustrating. Even during our poor spell, the number of chances created quite often was high, just not converted. One clear difference now is the movement when in possession, which makes for so many options and gives Chair more freedom too. Kolli continues to impress, just must not put pressure on him. A lot of the team have really come on, it is not just confidence. Very satisfying and not obvious a few months back! Cheers, Clive

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oakskull added 12:55 - Jan 20 Speed is crucial in modern football, and we have been in remiss of that particular ingredient for too long. This is why Smyth, despite his obvious limitations of his technical skills, is so important to us.
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ytt28 added 16:11 - Jan 20 Filbert Street eh!
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snanker added 23:26 - Jan 20 Thank you Clive great report as always and Wazza Rooney "in his nicotine stained fingers"........always wondered where he got that stain on his paw from. U R'ssss
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