QPR were certainly better against Norwich on Wednesday than they were against Coventry on Saturday, but that isn’t saying much and a single point from a game there for the winning leaves them teetering hopelessly on the edge of a return to the third tier 20 years after we left it last.
Queens Park Rangers are running out of road.
Now just two wins from 28 games, they are kept from the final relegation spot by one place and one point. That cursed position is currently in the possession of Reading, who still have League One certainties Wigan to come at home and go to fifth-bottom Huddersfield on the last day. QPR go to runaway leaders Burnley this Saturday before an away game at Stoke. On Wednesday night against Norwich, as on Easter Monday at West Brom, the R’s spent a substantial chunk of the evening in the bottom three, before being rescued by events elsewhere. This precarious situation will not sustain another three rounds of football.
Gareth Ainsworth holds the club so close to his heart, but he cannot make sense of the instruction book for his dream job at all. His latest desperately forlorn attempt to rescue it from itself was as much about who he chose not to include as who he did.
Yes, Jake Clarke-Salter and Tim Iroegbunam were welcome returnees, given how abysmally Rob Dickie and Andre Dozzell had been playing in their positions, but the headlines came elsewhere. Ethan Laird, a Manchester United player, surely on well in excess of £20,000 a week at a conservative estimate, here on a loan we had to beg to get, costing God know’s what, was left out entirely despite being fit to play and second choice right back Osman Kakay being injured for the rest of the campaign. Aaron Drewe made just a fourth start of his professional career, up against Onel Hernandez with only Jamal Lowe ahead of him by way of protection. Ainsworth says this was a tactical call. Captain Stefan Johansen, almost certainly this team’s top earner among the permanent signings, was also absent entirely and, when it came to making substitutions to chase a sorely needed victory in the closing stages, one-time star boy Chris Willock remained rooted to the bench after his dire efforts against Cov while Albert Adomah was instead given another chance to chug his way through his latest painfully ineffective cameo. Ainsworth was drawn only as far as saying "Chris Willock needs to get fitter, he knows that”.
Ainsworth placed enormous stock in attitude and "buy-in” to build what he had at Wycombe and promised to "root out” those who did not go with him in that regard here at Loftus Road. For me, and I am just guessing, that’s what you’re seeing manifest here because on a pure footballing basis Drewe over Laird, Adomah over Willock, 82 minutes of Chris Martin, makes no sense. However badly he’s been playing, if you think you genuinely leave Ethan Laird out completely, with Osman Kakay already injured, to pick Aaron Drewe against Onel Hernandez for tactical reasons, then I can’t help you. QPR’s third manager this season is now choosing to try and salvage the club’s Championship status with a line up that is miles and miles away from the one you would think is this team’s strongest on paper. I wonder if, one day in the future, Ainsworth, or anybody else who’s been involved in this horrid collapse, will come clean and be honest with us mug punters about what exactly did happen here, truthfully.
The players who were picked rewarded their manager with an improved performance. Now, of course, if a geezer punches you in the face 100 times in a minute, but then he slows down a bit, that also counts as an improvement. There will be myriad caveats to come, as QPR passed up a golden chance for a precious three points against a Norwich side with not so much one eye on the summer in Mykonos as one foot already dangling into the swimming pool. Rangers had only 32% of the ball, and seven shots to Norwich’s 18. Still, after sitting through the 3-0 loss to Coventry City here at the weekend — a club record equalling eleventh home defeat of the season, a third loss in a row here without a goal, a sixth loss here in seven games, a fourth 3-0 home loss of the season — spending the evening splashing around in the shallow end of the septic tank at John Prescott’s gaff would count as an improvement. There have been episodes of The Late Late Show with James Corden more bearable than QPR’s recent home games so ‘improvement’ should not have been difficult.
Nevertheless…
Rangers took the lead in a game for only the fifth time in 21 attempts over four months when Ilias Chair chipped a delightful assist in behind a high Norwich line for Lyndon Dykes to run onto and finish with a calm composure not always associated with the Scot in front of goal. With only two points recovered from losing positions by QPR in their last 30 matches, taking the lead tends to be pretty important and this goal was worthy of a team that knows what it’s doing.
It could, and should, have been added to.
Kenneth Paal’s inswinging free kick on 22 minutes was expertly delivered, missed by the whole crowd scene in front of visiting keeper Angus Gunn, deflected off the legs of a defender on the line who knew nothing about it, and brought back into play off the inside of the post with nobody on hand for a rebound. Piss flaps. Later Gunn had to be alert to another left footed delivery from wide, this time by Sam Field, which threatened to dip under his bar at the last moment.
After half time the effectiveness of Lyndon Dykes’ tireless efforts on the press, and the value of having central midfielders who can run about a bit, almost yielded a goal for Tim Iroegbunam when the pair hassled Sara and Gunn out of possession on the edge of the Norwich area, but the Villa loanee’s instinctive shot was then well saved on the recovery by the goalkeeper. If he might have scored that, his replacement for the last 20 minutes Luke Amos surely should have done with his late chance — right in the centre of the goal, only the keeper to beat after an energetic run had carried him right through a crowd of defenders still with the ball at feet, but a panicked finish mixed with a deflection missed by the match officials sent it ballooning over the bar to exasperated groans.
Rangers would, once more, finish with an official total of just two shots on target for the thirteenth time in 20 games (in two of the others they’ve managed only one), but on this occasion that wasn’t a totally fair reflection of how they played or how the game went. I think they’ve counted Amos’ late effort as off target, when in fact it was deflected there, and the first half one off the inside of the post obviously counts as off as well. There was, at least, some goal threat here. Again though, it’s very much man with three hairs at Duncan Goodhew’s birthday party stuff this. Vanuatu poses more threat to the United States of America than we did to Birmingham City down here. It at least looked like we might score, although the Loft End total for the entire season remains steadfastly stuck on a paltry four goals, of which two were penalties.
Rangers felt very aggrieved they weren’t awarded another spot kick at that end of the ground here ten before the end. Josh Sargent, back from the Norwich forward line to help out his defence, got caught the wrong side of Jamal Lowe in the penalty box tight to the byline and dangled a leg out to attempt to impede his clear run into the six-yard box. It was a striker’s tackle, it whipped Lowe’s foot out from underneath him, and it was a penalty in my view. Lowe’s theatrical fall, not his first on the night, and keenness to go to ground rather than continue a very promising run, probably counted against him. But so did the identity of the referee.
QPR have had Keith Stroud more than any other club in the Football League. Another four appointments this season, the last less than a month prior at the home game before last, taking him to a whopping 35 games with us. This despite a string of mistakes and controversial incidents. Over the last decade we have had 24 fixtures with him resulting in 13 defeats, seven draws and only four wins. In that time they have had six penalties awarded against them, none for, and had four of our players sent off, to just two opponents. Now, you can debate the merits of Jamal Lowe’s penalty appeal all you like. Just as you can debate whether Isaac Hayden’s late hit on Aaron Drewe ten minutes before half time was worth a yellow (which is where I am) or a red (which is where Gareth Ainsworth was, sparking a big melee on the bench which resulted in coaches from each side being booked) — but Stroud didn’t even give that one as a free kick, and produced no card at all.
It’s like he goes out of his way to be contrary. When Ilias Chair botched not only a wide set piece delivery but also the follow up attempt at a cross he had to chase back and commit a deliberate foul to prevent a potentially dangerous counter attack — this was, without question, deserving of the yellow card it received. But when Norwich took that free kick and created a mess of their own, one of their players (I believe the already yellow carded Omobamidele but haven’t seen it back yet) did the self same thing to Dykes to interrupt a break back in the opposite direction and was given… a warning. Another seven yellow cards here, and two for the benches, from the EFL’s most prolific card dealer. Absolutely everything is a card in Keith’s world, a whopping 182 in 35 games this season, a ridiculous 36 yellows and one red in his five Norwich games alone. That’s a card, that’s a card, that’s a card, this is a card, this is a card, you’re getting a card, you’re getting one, and you, and you, and you, that’s a card, that’s a card, you better believe that’s a card, card, card, that’s a card, card, card. Chris Martin gets obstructed trying to join a counter attack, kicks out at the bloke, immediate free kick the other way and a card. Lyndon Dykes’s robost hit on a defender — card. Dunne kicks the ball away — card. Ilias Chair interrupts counter attack — card. It’s like some fucker has blown up the bloody Hallmark Factory to protest the commercialisation of Christmas. And then a Norwich player deliberately interrupts a counter attack with a tactical foul, the very definition of a booking, something that received a booking not 30 seconds earlier in this game, and… nothing.
It’s this sort of rank, hypocritical, contrary, inconsistency of the bloke that infuriates so much and so when we consider whether Jamal Lowe deserved a penalty ten minutes from the end of this game, we consider it in the context that at the same end of the same ground, on the same patch of grass almost, this same referee considered that the incident ten seconds into this video clip was a penalty against us, but the challenge on Lowe was not one in our favour. What QPR have to do to get a decision out of Keith Stroud, versus what we have to do to have one go against us, feels out of kilter to me as an admittedly biased observer.
So that’s the good stuff that helped Rangers stem the bleeding to the extent of one point. It wasn’t turned into three because of all the stuff that follows.
The huge, yawning chasm right through the middle of the team, where Gustavo Hamer made absolute hay on Saturday, opened up before Liam Gibbs inside eight minutes. QPR, who have conceded in the first ten minutes of five of their last six games, allowed Gibbs to pick the ball up 15 yards inside his own half and run right down the centre of the pitch as far as our penalty area without anybody engaging or tackling him. Fortunately, and luck is all that saved us, he shot straight at Dieng when he arrived at the goal.
Jamal Lowe, who’s looked about as engaged in the goings on at QPR of late as I am with the latest whereabouts and activity of Cara Delevingne, compromised our structure and press repeatedly playing wide on the right, in my unlearned and probably incorrect opinion. perhaps he was hanging back so as not to expose Drewe too much, but for me Lyndon Dykes was all energy all night, and the backing he got in the press from Field and particularly Iroegbunam behind him was as good as it’s been for weeks, but several times Norwich were able to move it once to the left to avoid Dykes, a second time to avoid Martin, and then left back Giannoulis (later our old charge Sam McCallum) would receive the ball with Lowe 20 yards back down the field not doing his part of the operation — out they come, with two or three home players now committed the wrong side of the ball. There’s a really good example of this to watch out for in first half stoppage time as Dykes successfully closes and rushes Gunn into a pass left, Martin does the same to Sorensen, but then Lowe stands off McCallum and lets him out too easily from a cornered position deep in his own half. A couple of passes down that side of the pitch later and Rangers were split asunder allowing Sargent to drill a low effort right through the goal and wide of the far corner.
David Wagner’s side were ropey in the first half and not much better in the second. It took them half an hour to realise Hernandez had a huge overlap on his side of the field, and Drewe was being afforded little protection against him. When that realisation belatedly sank in he first teed up Sara for a shot nervously parried by Dieng who later made a more accomplished stop from Aarons, and then got in himself for a certain goal denied only by the tackle of the game by Sam Field back brilliantly on the cover. You certainly couldn’t have asked more of Field in this game, and he was at the heart of a series of last ditch tackles and blocks that crawled QPR through to half time in the lead.
Having made it to the break, with the crowd in good voice, and perhaps one of those nights under the lights in W12 in the offing, it felt mind-blowingly, ball-achingly, teeth-itchingly soft to come out and concede a shambolic defensive goal straight from the kick off. Keep it tight, get the crowd back into the game, commence the shithousing, break the play up, demoralise and frustrate them, draw them in, rope the dope, win the game, back to The Winchester, all blow over, goodbye Reading and your preposterously named shopping centre, goodnight Vienna. Nah. Once again, QPR give the ball straight away from their own throw — not even one touch this time off Drewe’s lob down the line. Hernandez is allowed out of a tight spot under the camera gantry unchallenged. One long ball into the channel takes Dunne out of the game. Nobody tracking the run of Sara from midfield. Dieng fails to hold a pretty routine shot. With his first touch 40 seconds after stepping off the bench Idah scores from a yard because he’s first to the ball and we’re not. Wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
I reckon half a dozen of the ten stupidest things I’ve ever seen in my life happened in this game, and that was one of them. I did not enjoy Buster Merryfield collecting the ball for a late attack, turning down an easy set ball back inside to midfielders, and instead setting off on a dribble that carried him all of ten yards before he ran the ball off the pitch and into the stand. I did not enjoy Rob Dickie, on for the last half hour after Jake Clarke-Salter had gone through the now oh so familiar sitting down routine, heading the ball unchallenged into that same stand with no opponent near him. My good mate Colin sits in the middle of the middle of the Stan Bowles Stand, and I genuinely think he’s registered ball possession stats in excess of some of our outfield players in recent games, such is our obsessive determination to plant the ball firmly into that block of seats every time we get the fucking thing. I did not enjoy hearing that Cardiff were cruising to victory at Watford and Reading were beating Luton, but I enjoyed it even less when Seny Dieng started ambling about and clock running to protect the one point we had that at this point placed us in the relegation zone. I enjoyed us swinging every corner we got high, wide and over the heads of everybody in the penalty box, sometimes straight out for a goal kick on the other side, almost as little as I did our previous corners onto the head of the defender at the near post every single time. I did not enjoy us loading the penalty box in injury time for a long throw we Do. Not. Have. Resulting in a great big counter the other way which could have lost us the match. I did not enjoy us spending what little of the stoppage time was left taking Ilias Chair off for Taylor Richards, for all the influence and impact he was going to exert in a minute and 30 seconds — again, difficult to shirk the idea we were actually behaving as if a point was a good result. Our ability to find the opposition with every one of our throw ins reached new heights when Paal threw a ball in, and out again for their throw, without it touching anybody at all. Nice trick if you can do it. Just like that.
I didn’t enjoy feeling Norwich were there for the taking, and we couldn’t do it. I also didn’t enjoy feeling we couldn’t do it despite producing what’s probably somewhere close to the best this set of players, in this shape and system, playing this way, is capable of. That I’m left to pick the positives out of a 1-1 draw that bibbed and bobbed chaotically from one end to the other, never truly in the composed control of QPR at any point, painfully short on quality and skill, in the hands of a referee where great, big, long stoppages in play where nobody in the ground has the foggiest idea what’s going on are the norm. But then, it’s difficult to remember the last time I did actually enjoy watching this team, writing these reports, spending time like this.
Three games to go.
Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Dieng 5; Drewe 5, Dunne 5, Clarke-Salter 5 (Dickie 60, 5), Paal 5; Lowe 4, Iroegbunam 7 (Amos 69, 6), Field 7, Chair 6 (Richards 90+1, -); Dykes 7, Martin 4 (Adomah 82, -)
Subs not used: Willock, Archer, Dixon-Bonner
Goals: Dykes 9 (assisted Chair)
Yellow Cards: Dykes 30 (foul), Dunne 41 (kicking ball away), Chair 55 (foul), Martin 76 (foul), Amos 90+3 (foul)
Norwich: Gunn 6; Aarons 6 (Tzolis 87, -), Omobamidele 5, Sorensen 5, Giannoulis 5 (McCalleum 34, 6); Hayden 4 (Nunez 84, -), Sara 6; Marquinhos 5 (Idah 46, 7), Gibbs 5, Hernandez 7 (Pukki 75, 6); Sargent 6
Subs not used: Krul
Goals: Idah 46 (unassisted)
Yellow Cards: Omabamidele 19 (foul), Hernandez 32 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Lyndon Dykes 7 Ran the line superbly, closing down throughout, great energy. Deserved his goal, which nudges him ahead of the midfield two of Field and Iroegbunam who I thought were both decent in different ways from midfield — Field frantically trying to plug leaks at the back, Iregobunam contributing legs and drive going forwards which so nearly brough him a goal after a win back on a high press.
Referee — Keith Stroud (Hampshire) 4 Should not be refereeing football at this level.
Attendance 14,132 (1,600 Norwich approx.) Well, while you’re here, if you happen to sit within earshot of me at home games, then I apologise. I apologise anyway, and in general, because I wouldn’t want to pay £500+ to sit near me and listen to the shit that I spout every week. I have tried to get better with it, sadly last night a combination of these players, this team, this situation, some of the stuff I see with some players pressing and others not, all mixed into a crucial game with this referee, tipped me over the edge and I lost the plot a couple of times. As usual after a home game I woke up ashamed and full of regret. I bet I look and sound absolutely ridiculous. If you did have to listen to it and I did spoil your night in any way then I am sorry and I will try and be better — not like Tyler Roberts tries to be better, like actually trying. I just need to shut up basically, just chatting unmitigated shit, at the games, and in general. Sorry guys.
If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk.
Pictures — Ian Randall Photography
The Twitter @loftforwords