QPR’s first unbeaten January since 1997 brought FA Cup progress, and more importantly significant strengthening of the team’s position at the top end of the Championship. Steve Hardy looks back on a successful start to 2022.
Happy new year all, a happy new year indeed after our first unbeaten January since 1997. Six matches, four victories, two draws and zero defeats, also worth pointing out that only three goals conceded.
Cast your mind back to the start of January, when we travelled to a half open St Andrews to face what I would be generous to describe as a mediocre Birmingham side. A comfortable victory in the end but one of those games where you couldn’t help but think we really should be looking to fill our boots in a match that we controlled pretty much from start to finish but somehow still contrive to be holding on at the end. Still, it was great to see Albert Adomah run the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the travelling faithful, finally fulfilling what must have been a boyhood dream of scoring for QPR, but this time with actual fans in the stadium.
I also couldn’t help but compare the state of the two clubs, both previously having Harry Redknapp at the helm may I add, and look at one playing in a stadium that can only be half filled with the team on the pitch in steady decline and compare it to where we currently are and although we did have to suffer Steve McClaren and Tomer Hemed for a season luckily it never got this bad for us, and it finally appears we are on an upward curve. A great way to start the year.
We then moved on to the FA Cup and what for all intense and purposes looked like it was going to be our annual exit to lower league opposition. The less said about this game the better, ultimately a game played between two teams that didn’t want to win in the middle of a biblical storm, exactly the sort of magic the FA Cup seems to serve us up in recent years. Don’t get me wrong I love the FA Cup and would give my right arm to see us ever win it, but my word can’t we ever get a draw to an away ground that we haven’t done? Anyway it turns out that when you win in the third round there are more games to play and you don’t just win the competition, so after our 58th penalty shootout of the season we finally get drawn away. To Peterborough. Who we played away in the league in October, the joys. Still, a fantastic opportunity for us to make it to the fifth round.
Following on from our FA Cup heroics we moved on to our first Saturday home league game at 15.00 since October 2, add in to the mix we were playing West Brom who were also occupying one of the play off places and a big attendance was on the cards. Ultimately this turned out to be one of those games that (hopefully) we’ll remember for seasons to come, similar to the Leicester game in the 2010/11 title winning season. I thought in the first half we seemed a little edgy and the goal seemed to be to get to half time level which really is key when you play teams like West Brom who don’t seem to concede too many goals. So with that goal achieved and an early goal disallowed after half-time the atmosphere really seemed to ramp up in the second half reaching the crescendo of Charlie’s last minute winner and my word did the place shake and fizzle like it hasn’t done for years. I think Clive said in his match report that he wished he was still there now and I echo that, I don’t think I stopped smiling after this game until the following Wednesday, by which it was time to start thinking about our trip up to Coventry.
It had been a while since I had been to whatever Coventry call that flat pack stadium out by the M6, I think it’s something to do with a building society nowadays, in fact it was so long ago that Paul Furlong scored our winner when I was last there and I could manage to stay up past 22.00 on a weeknight. However due to the current good fortunes of both clubs there was actually a rather healthy attendance this time, although still large swathes of empty seats behind the home end goal which just goes to show how oversized that stadium really is, which helped add to a pretty decent atmosphere and highly entertaining football match. The overall census is that we nicked one here, which I very much agree with, but had we taken one of the two chances we created towards the end of the first half then I think the second half would have been a different affair all together.
Still, what a day out and the celebrations at the end mirrored this, players and fans together as one is all we ever really want. I do feel that something changed with these West Brom and Coventry victories, not only because we beat two tough teams but with it now being the second half of the season it all feels a lot more serious. We feel like a genuine contender now and I think the players sense that too. Another performance to be proud of which left us coming out of the stadium not only looking at that gap to seventh but up at what could be achieved if we continue this current form.
That wonderful afternoon by the M6 was followed up with the rearranged Swansea game and one where we probably would have been better avoiding standing in the cold watching the swans time waste for 85 minutes, but it was on Sky and I can imagine it would have been an absolute ordeal to watch that, so a silver lining to that very cold and icy cloud. All in all this was just another one of those Championship games that winds me up where the away team treats a nil nil draw as some form of utopia that must not be sacrificed at any cost, whereas if they actually woke up to the fact that anyone can beat anyone is this slop of a division it would make for a lot more entertaining games. Ultimately we managed to grind out the victories against Huddersfield and Blackburn but this time just wasn’t to be. Still if you’re coming away from a game on a pitch that has allegedly not been cut or watered annoyed you haven’t won then you’re doing something right.
We finished the month in some style with the performance we have been craving all season, albeit against an abject team only heading in one direction, however it is annoying that Reading (league 2 club dressed as a championship team for far too long) will probably stay up this year by default unless Peterborough actually pull their finger out. That score line really could have read anything from four to eight in all honesty given the paucity of resistance we faced. Still, it was great to see the stadium as full as it was and to also hear it rocking throughout the game, it reminded me of those two seasons in League 1 under Holloway where we were always so good in W12 and we always had a good crowd. It was also great to see each player arguably have their best game of the season all on the same day, a day that showed what we are really capable of and capped off a fantastic month for the R’s which has left us six points clear of fifth place and only two off the automatic promotion places. Enjoy every minute of this R’s fans, these are the good times.
As always, where does this leave us now? First of all, let’s try not to get too carried away as QPR are never more dangerous to themselves than when we have an opportunity to move into a position that people don’t expect of us. Warburton’s rhetoric of taking each game as it comes is key here and let’s also not forget we are only at the end of January so there is still a long way to go but on the other hand let’s not beat around the bush, this season is going along fantastically well. A squad of players that we all love pulling in the right direction, the club being run how it should be off the pitch and the results are reflecting the plan that we have been following for the last few seasons. Keep enjoying these times and keep supporting the boys in numbers, hopefully things keep getting better and better. Plus, don’t also forget that we have Ilias Chair to come back into this team, dreamy.
January grade — A
Links >>> Follow Steve’s match-by-match reviews on Instagram >>> August 18 >>> September 18 >>> October 18 >>> November 18 >>> December 18 >>> January 19 >>> February 19 >>> March 19 >>> April 19 >>> 18/19 Season Review >>> August 19 >>> September 19 >>> October 19 >>> November 19 >>> December 19 >>> January 20 >>> February 20 >>> March 20 >>> April 20 >>> May 20 >>> June 20 >>> July 20 >>> September 20 >>> October 20 >>> November 20 >>> December 20 >>> January 21 >>> February 21 >>> March 21 >>> April/May 21 >>> August 21 >>> September 21 >>> October 21 >>> November 21 >>> December 21
The Instagram - @sph_1985
Pictures - Action Images