Neil Warnock described Sunday’s 1-0 victory against Chelsea as one of the best results of his managerial career but the fall out from the bad tempered encounter shows no sign of letting up.
Tonight the Football Association confirmed it had received a complaint a racist abuse relating to an incident between Anton Ferdinand and John Terry in the second half of Sunday’s fixture. Terry appeared to be caught on camera racially abusing Ferdinand who met with QPR officials today to discuss the incident. Those discussions seem to have lead to a complaint being made.
A statement from The FA read: “The FA can confirm it has received a complaint relating to an alleged incident of racist abuse in the QPR versus Chelsea fixture at Loftus Road on 23 October 2011. The FA will now begin to make enquiries into this matter. The FA takes seriously any allegations of discrimination and abuse of this type.”
With the FA and Metropolitan Police now investigating QPR seem keen to draw a line under the affair and move on. In a statement on the official website chairman Tony Fernandes said: “As a club, we will provide our players with our unequivocal support when alleged incidents like this occur. The club has, and will continue to support Kick It Out's One Game, One Community initiative, football's equality and inclusion campaign. However, we are keen to draw a line under this alleged incident and focus on our forthcoming fixtures, starting with Sunday's London derby at Spurs."
In his own statement John Terry said he was looking forward to the FA enquiry as it would give him a chance to clear his name. He previously claimed that the camera had caught him denying making the remark to Ferdinand. Terry said: “"I would never say such a thing, and I'm saddened that people would think so. I am the proud captain of one of the most internationally diverse teams in the Premier League and I absolutely believe that there is no place for racism in sport, indeed in any walk of life."
It’s a shame really that all this is overshadowing what was a fine result for Rangers.
In his post match press conference Warnock, quoted on West London Sport, said: “This is a very important day for this club. I am so happy. It has to be the best win of my career in terms of what it means to the fans. I’ve been involved in a few derbies and I have to say the place was absolutely rocking. The atmosphere was just incredible. They’ll talk about this win in 30 or 40 years and rightly so, because this is a very important day for this club.
“Eighteen months ago I said to Amit Bhatia that it would be nice if one day we were beating Chelsea, and here we are. The first sending-off was justified, the second – that challenge by Drogba – was worth three sendings off, and the penalty was definitely a penalty.”
Needless to say Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas did not agree with Warnock’s assessment of the officials. Chelsea have been charged with failing to control their players and have already been fined the automatic £25,000 for accumulating five bookings and two red cards.
Although Villas Boas had no complaints with Didier Drogba’s red card he was unhappy with the overall refereeing performance of Chris Foy. Immediately after the match he said: “The ref was poor - very, very poor. And it was reflected in the result. I spoke to him at the end and I was very aggressive to him. I don't care if he's OK or not. We have had three referees with a direct influence on the result and I think it's too much. I don't think he was ever in control. A couple of decisions he got right but most he got wrong. Eventually one day things will go in our favour but I think this is too much, it's not to Premier League standards and I am disappointed with his performance today.”
Villas Boas was unrepentant today, telling the BBC: “For me it is pretty clear, there are mistakes that have been done. Of course the FA want to speak to me regarding things I said after the game, but I will reiterate once again that the same criteria was not applied for both teams. That is why I find it extremely unfair, in terms of the refereeing decisions, because if you take one rule you have to stick to it for the rest of the game to show that you have a pattern in what you are doing, and I have full evidence now that wasn't the case. So I will stick to what I said. It is a game refereed by humans and human mistakes were present. That's why I'm disappointed. I don't think it is fair."
But Shaun Derry was pretty clear in his assessment of events – Rangers rattled their visitors, and they didn’t like it. Speaking after a bust up between the two sides in the tunnel after the game Derry told The Mirror: “I thought the ref did superbly. Most of the yellow cards were for Chelsea players and I felt we kept our heads. That was part of our game-plan - keeping our heads and approaching the game physically in the right manner. I don’t think we were vicious in any way or over-aggressive in anything we did. We had a plan. We wanted to unnerve them and put them under pressure in the right areas and I felt our plan really came off. These top, top players aren’t used to losing - and aren’t used to losing to teams of our stature. erhaps it hurt them because they showed that even the best players can lose their heads. When we saw the Chelsea players moaning at the referee, we knew we were doing our job right. We knew what we were doing was paying off. These big players have a knack of persuading refs to make different decisions but the ref was very strong.”
It wouldn’t be QPR without a story about either Joey Barton or Adel Taarabt coming out after the game. This time it was the Moroccan attracting attention for his reaction to being subbed midway through the second half. Neil Warnock, quoted in the Fulham Chronicle, said: ““I had a chat with him afterwards because it's not about Adel, it's about the team. He was disappointed to come off, but like I said to him beforehand it would've been easy for me to play Jamie Mackie today and leave him on the bench. It's a team game. He's a little kid and takes his toys home.”
The result and performance gives Neil Warnock a pleasant selection headache ahead of next weekend’s trip to Spurs with full back Armand Traore and centre half Danny Gabbidon both expected to return to fitness for the game at White Hart Lane.
Elsewhere goalkeeper Aaron Lennox, who joined the club in the summer from the Australian Institute of Sport, has been called up to the Australian Under 20 squad for its Asian Football Confederation qualifying tournament in Malaysia at the beginning of November.
Finally, Joey Barton’s return to Newcastle has tempted the Sky cameras to screen another QPR match. The away fixture at St James’ Park has been put back a day to Sunday January 15 with a 1.30pm kick off.
Crystal Palace’s unlikely conversion from relegation candidates to Premiership contenders continues – the Eagles moved up to third in the Championship at the weekend with a 1-0 away win at Ipswich Town. Peter Ramage was an unused sub for Dougie Freedman’s side. Millwall spectacularly turned around their poor recent form with a 3-0 away win at big spending Leicester on Saturday with Darius Henderson scoring all three goals. Patrick Agyemang was also an unused substitute.
Bad news for Max Ehmer and Yoevil who sunk to the bottom of League One on Saturday, more on that shortly. In fact it was a pretty desperate day all round for the loaned R’s in League One with Angelo Balanta subbed after 71 minutes of MK Dons’ 0-0 draw at home to lowly Scunthorpe, and Martin Rowlands one of three ex-QPR players subbed early in Wycombe’s 2-0 defeat at Oldham. Gareth Ainsworth and Scott Donnelly were the other early departures.
In League Two Michael Doughty was left out of the Crawley squad for their 5-2 win at AFC Wimbledon, Troy Hewitt played the last half an hour of Dagenham’s 5-2 home defeat against Aldershot, and Gary Borrowdale played 77 minutes of Barnet’s 1-0 defeat at Hereford.
Leon Clarke seems to have crept through the same tear in the fabric of reality that Patrick Agyemang once poked his head through at the start of his QPR career. Clarke, chronically overweight and out of form in four years at Sheff Wed and QPR and thrown out of Swindon Town after just a fortnight earlier this season, is on fire for League One newcomers Chesterfield.
Clarke scored again at the weekend to bring his tally to seven in eight starts for the Spirerites but couldn’t stop them falling to a 3-2 home defeat against away win specialists Hartlepool. John Sheridan’s men were promoted from League Two last season thanks in part to the prolific goal scoring of striker Craig Davies who subsequently moved to Championship side Barnsley. Although Clarke is now replicating Davies’ strike rate the step up in level is proving tough for the Derbyshire side who currently sit twenty second in the table.
Worth noting that one of the three Hartlepool goals came from our former midfielder Paul Murray.
Elsewhere in League One Chesterfield’s fellow strugglers Exeter climbed off the bottom of the table with a 3-1 home win against Rochdale at the weekend with Daniel Nardiello scoring twice. That’s bad news for Yeovil who sink to the bottom of the table despite drawing 0-0 at Stevenage, a game in which Max Ehmer played a full 90 minutes as part of his season long loan deal from QPR.
- The first half of one of the greatest Sundays of football ever played saw Man City extend their lead at the top of the Premiership with an incredible 6-1 win over Man Utd at Old Trafford. Reds manager Alex Ferguson said: “It's the worst result in my history. The impact will come from the embarrassment of the defeat." United have handed striker Javier Hernandez a new five year contract.
- West Brom will be without striker Shane Long for six weeks after the Irish international suffered a knee injury in two horrendous tackles by Aston Villa full back Alan Hutton at the weekend. Normally placid Baggies manager Roy Hodgson said: “It will be very interesting to see what the experts think but I thought it was an appalling tackle," Hodgson said after the match. Shane's lucky not to have two broken legs. He has a serious knee injury I would think."
- Norwich boss Paul Lambert says Fabio Capello should consider his goalkeeper John Ruddy for national selection. Ruddy made a fine injury time save from Luis Suarez as the Canaries rode their luck to a 1-1 draw at Liverpool on Saturday evening. Lambert said: “At big moments in big games, big players produce things, he certainly did that, he's been massive for me. Last season he saved us in huge games and he's done it again this year, England should have a look at him."
- Newcastle have allowed long serving goalkeeper Steve Harper to join Championship side Brighton on loan to cover first choice Kasper Ankergran. Harper made his debut in a 1-0 defeat against West Ham on Monday evening. Magpies striker Shola Ameobi has been ruled out for six weeks with a hamstring injury after the 1-0 win against Wigan at the weekend.
- Aston Villa midfielder Barry Bannan has been arrested on suspicion of drink driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident after a crash on the M1 in the early hours of Sunday morning. Shrewsbury striker James Collins was also arrested. Villa have suspended Bannan pending an investigation.
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