Martin Rowlands has moved back to his first club Wycombe Wanderers on a three month loan deal. Back at Loftus Road, Neil Warnock is less than impressed with Armand Traore.
Rowlands fell out of favour with Neil Warnock last season after recovering from his second cruciate knee ligament injury in two years. He played no part in the second half of the campaign at all and spent a brief spell on loan at Championship side Millwall with his former QPR coach Kenny Jackett.
Now another of his former bosses, Gary Waddock, has moved in to throw the 32-year-old a chance for first team football. Waddock has added Rowlands to his Wycombe side which currently sits twentieth in League One after promotion last season.
Rowlands told the Wycombe official site: “I'm happy to be signing for the club. I haven't played as much as I'd have liked in the last couple of years so I'm delighted Gary has given me this opportunity. I'm here until December so hopefully I can have an influence and help push the club on."
Gary Waddock added: “Martin is a quality footballer and will offer more competition in midfield with his experience and knowledge. To bring in a player of his quality is great for us and it helps that he already has an association with the club. I know him well from our days at QPR together and although the last two years haven't been kind for him in terms of game time, he's keen to show what he can do."
Rowlands started his professional career with Wycombe but was released into the non-league game by then manager John Gregory before he made his name at Brentford and then QPR.
The writing would appear to be on the wall for a number of QPR players who were left out of the 25 man Premiership squad for this season. New Doncaster Rovers manager Dean Saunders is also lining up loan moves for two out of favour players in W12 with Danny Shittu and Patrick Agyemang being linked with switches to the Keepmoat Stadium in today’s Daily Mirror.
Back at Loftus Road Neil Warnock was pleased with his team for fighting back from a goal down to take a point at home to Aston Villa on Sunday but was left fuming by the decisions of referee Michael Oliver and the behaviour of Armand Traore who got himself sent off in stoppage time and will now be banned for this weekend’s trip to Fulham.
Warnock told the official website: "To come away with a point is credit to the lads.The way that we try and play and the attitude of the players is fantastic. We've got a great spirit and that won us the Championship last season - you need that. We were all disappointed with the decisions - not one Aston Villa player appealed for the penalty. There could also have been a couple of Villa players sent off for second bookable offences. I thought we deserved more than a point - but I'm more than happy with it."
Warnock actually returned to speak to the media for a second time after reviewing the incidents on TV after the game. He was quoted in The Telegraph saying: “I thought in today's game the two main decisions went against us. When not one Aston Villa supporter behind the goal appeals for a penalty you know there is something wrong. It is a very soft one. From his position he assures me he saw this and technically you've still got to change the course of the play. You could have blown him down with the amount of contact you're actually talking about. If he gives that, there have got to be 20 or 30 more decisions given in the box every game because there is a lot more pulling than that.
“Likewise, I thought he was in a good position for the first handball on 70-odd minutes. The lad actually moved his arm down for the handball and it is the most certain 100 per cent penalty you'll ever see when you see it tonight. So, we've been unlucky on both counts but, if I am honest, I don't think there was anything to referee. I think when you are a young referee you listen and hopefully you learn not just from your assessors but those that have played the game or manage.” And he wasn’t thrilled with Traore ruling himself out of the Fulham game either, saying: “I thought it was a disgrace. Not the referee, the player. I am going to fine him as much as I can. Total amateur Sunday league sending off. They must be laughing their heads off, Villa. At that stage, losing 1-0 and he goes in for a tackle like that? You've got James Collins and Charles N'Zogbia, who both should have had a second yellow card but both were cleverer, both know what they are doing and they are both playing next week. What Traore did, that's not clever at all. He is a young lad, he obviously has got to learn and he can become a very good player. But like the referee sometimes you have to learn from experience - and I think Traore will learn from it.''
Traore’s suspension will probably see a recall for Matt Connolly at Craven Cottage but QPR are struggling to field the same defence from one week to the next at the moment. Both Fitz Hall and Anton Ferdinand were limping at various stages of Saturday’s game, Kieron Dyer is still no closer to a comeback and Danny Gabbidon’s knee is likely to rule him out until after the forthcoming international break.
Villa boss Alex McLeish told his club’s official website after the game: “I am gutted that we threw it away in the dying embers of the game after a second half performance which is much more what I expected from these players. The first half was pretty woeful and I let them know that at half-time. I thought we restricted QPR to only a few gilt-edge chances in the first half and defended well but the irony was that two of our best players - Richard Dunne and Stephen Warnock - ended up contributing to their equalising goal which both were involved in. I really felt for them.
"In the second half we looked like a different team. I gave them a few home truths at half-time. It was very poor. We were chasing shadows, not putting a foot in and not making runs off the ball. It was insipid and not an Aston Villa performance. I let them know that and it was a much better performance after the break. I thought the players looked afraid, they looked frightened in the first half and I don't know why that should be the case because they are playing in a great game and they should relish every moment. Our passing and touch was very poor up until half-time and thankfully we got a grip in the second half."
England manager Fabio Capello was in the crowd at Loftus Road, along with prime minister David Cameron, sparking hope of an England recall for in form Shaun Wright Phillips. The diminutive winger told The Guardian: "I am loving it and I think we're gelling quite well as a team. I go home happy and I look forward to training and the game again. I know how to prepare myself again; if you don't know when you are going to play, how do you focus on a game. That's part of football, though, and if you are going to be at a big club you have to deal with it. I had it at Chelsea and Manchester City and you know it's not about yourself, it's a team game. If you are hurting inside, you can't really show it because you want the team to do well. I was hurting inside because I am a footballer and I want to play but that's just the way it goes sometimes."
And he told The Standard: “I am never not going to want to play for England so I don't care how old I am. If I am doing well I hope I am going to get picked. I'm enjoying my football again and if you play well then it's just down to the gaffer to pick you. If not, you just have to hope he does the next time.”
Another loan spell has fizzled out for Rowan Vine, who has returned to Loftus Road after a month in League One with Exeter City. Vine wasn’t able to complete 90 minutes while at St James’ Park and failed to score in four starts and one sub appearance before the Grecians severed ties with the player. Vine said via Twitter: “Didn't go brilliantly for myself or Exeter - fully understood where we both stand and enjoyed the opportunity to play some games. I feel I was starting to find some form and hope to continue playing regularly from now. Truly wish all the players and staff all the best.”
Max Ehmer also had a weekend to forget, playing a full 90 minutes in a 2-1 away defeat for Yeovil at struggling Scunthorpe. Angelo Balanta came on as a second half sub for MK Dons in their 0-0 draw at Bury.
There was better news in the division below for Michael Doughty who scored his first senior goal for Crawley in a 1-0 win at Aldershot who had been unbeaten in eight matches. Doughty was introduced as a substitute after 20 minutes due to injury and made the most of his chance by cutting in from the right flank and firing a low cross which went right through the area and in off the far post.
In the Championship Peter Ramage played a full 90 minutes for Crystal Palace, but the Eagles slipped to defeat at Doncaster Rovers in Dean Saunders; first game in charge of the home side. Things went better for Clint Hill who helped Forest to a rare clean sheet on his debut – they won 1-0 at Watford in the Saturday evening TV match.
After the sacking of former QPR midfielder Peter Reid last week, crisis club Plymouth secured a first League Two win of the season at the eleventh attempt on Saturday with a 2-0 home victory against Macclesfield. Simon Walton, who has not always seen eye to eye with the hierarchy at Home Park and has only played 34 times in more than three seasons, was made captain by the caretaker manager Carl Fletcher.
Walton told the Plymouth Herald: “I was really grateful to be given a chance to captain the team. But I thought there were 11 captains out there today. Everyone was brilliant, and it’s only an armband at the end of the day. I felt I had ten captains with me. It was brilliant, and I’m proud of everybody. “If you had told any Plymouth fan two or three years ago I would be captain they would probably have laughed in your face. But football does funny things to you, and it throws up little hurdles here and there. You take it as it comes and, like I say, to be given the chance to be captain was a massive honour. I’m really grateful to be given the chance and it’s my turn to pay back the trust and faith in me.”
Another midfielder who endured an unhappy time at Loftus Road, Daniel Parejo, is being linked with a £5m January move to Arsenal. Parejo came to QPR on loan from Real Madrid during Iain Dowie’s reign but struggled to adapt to the Championship and was returned halfway through the spell by Dowie’s successor Paulo Sousa. Now enjoying a new lease of life with Valencia after rejuvenating his career at Getafe he is starting to attract scouts again and The Metro reports that Arsenal had two scouts there to see him play in a 2-2 draw with Barcelona at the weekend. Arsenal’s numbers are already stretched in midfield with jack Wilshre injured (more to follow) and will lose Emmanuel Frimpong to the African Nations Cup in January after he chose to play for Ghana over England.
- Life doesn’t get any easier at Arsenal despite a relieving win against Bolton at the weekend. Star midfielder Jack Wilshere has been sidelined for a further five months after it was revealed the cracked bone in his foot has failed to heal. He had another operation at the weekend and England manager Fabio Capello is now sweating on his fitness ahead of next summer’s European Championships. In other Arsenal disaster related news Robin Van Persie is now stalling on signing a contract extension.
- Former Everton CEO Trevor Birch says the club cannot continue to compete at the highest level without a new stadium and has described the work done by manager David Moyes as miraculous. Birch said of Moyes: “He is armed for hand-to-hand conflict and he is competing against armoured artillery.”
- Newcastle striker Demba Ba says he is confident of making a big impact in the north east after scoring a hat trick against Blackburn at the weekend, coincidently just one week after he was removed from the LoftforWords fantasy team. Ba has been fasting for Ramadan but enjoyed a pre-mach meal on Saturday and the difference was there for all to see. Of more concern now is his Billy Davies-like knack of talking in the third person a lot. He said: “I was not the Demba I wished I could be, and I've trained every day to improve and I'm happy today for what's happened for me."
- That result dropped Blackburn into the bottom three despite last week’s big win against Arsenal. Captain Chris Samba said: “We need to have more will, more heart, everything we can improve. As a team and as individuals we have to ask ourselves questions and come into the game with a different attitude and to be tougher, much tougher. It is on ourselves. You need to force your own destiny."
- In the Monday evening game Norwich held off a late rally from Sunderland to win their first home game of the season 2-1.
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