Manager Mark Hughes was full of praise for his team and the club’s supporters after the weekend win against Spurs, but he reserved special words for match winner Adel Taarabt.

News

Hughes told the club’s official website: We were worthy winners. We allowed Spurs plenty of possession and that was the game plan, but we coped really well. We were always a big danger on the break and we showed real courage and determination to get the job done when we went down to ten men. All in all, right from the keeper through to Bobby up top, everyone put a shift in. It would have been a huge injustice if we'd not got the three points.

“I don't want to dwell on the red card. I've not seen it again so I'm not entirely sure what happened, but we won't let that spoil our night. I thought Adel was excellent today. Aside from his goal, which was a terrific strike, his whole performance was excellent. His discipline was spot on. He had a job to do and he did it very well.

"The fans were exceptional tonight. When teams come here now they are fully expecting a hostile atmosphere and that's what Spurs got, as did Swansea and Arsenal before them. Everyone wrote us off with ten games to go, saying our run-in was far too difficult for us. But I know what I've got in my dressing room and we all believe we can get the job done and move onto bigger and better things next season."

Speaking to the Fulham Chronicle Hughes added:“Adel’s game intelligence was lacking. He was in the wrong area, or he would make a pass when he shouldn’t. Now his understanding and discipline is much better and his defensive duties show a marked difference. I sense he’s maturing. You can see why people thought Adel was only worth that in the past, maybe his discipline wasn’t so good. But he’s worth a lot more than that now.”

All of which probably only darkened Harry Redknapp’s mood further as Tottenham slipped out of the Champions League places amidst a run of three wins from 14 matches. Redknapp allowed Taarabt to join QPR permanently for a cut price £1m almost two years ago and was begrudging in his praise of the Moroccan this weekend.

Redknapp said: "He needed games and he's never worked as hard in his life - so good luck to him. But he was useless when he came to White Hart Lane earlier in the season. He's got nothing to prove to me. We had Luka Modric and Gareth Bale and he wasn't going to get in with them around." Defender Nedum Onuoha told London24 that the appointment of Hughes has been crucial in Taarabt’s progression as a Premier League player. He said: “When he’s playing well he can be the difference because not every team up and down the country has a player like that who can make the difference. His work ethic is really good now as well, so while he has that and is scoring goals he’ll do well. He doesn’t really have a choice anymore, that’s probably the difference. If you’re being managed by Mark Hughes you have to be able to work. Until you get the basics right you won’t be able to play.”

Onuoha also told the Daily Star that although Derry led a delegation of players complaining to referee Mark Clattenburg about the sending off, the veteran midfielder didn’t actually realise Taarabt had been dismissed. Onuoha said: “The funniest thing was at the end of the game Shaun Derry didn't even realise we were down to ten men. There was just a real look of shock on his face when someone said that Adel got sent off. To think that is remarkable really, isn't it? I think it was Anton Ferdinand who told him. I just thought, 'Wow. I don't know what planet he's been living on to think it was 11 versus 11.'

"Adel was unlucky to be sent off. I think the referee forgot he had booked him in the first half because that was a bit harsh.”

The result means Tony Fernandes is in a better frame of mind than he was a few weeks ago when he described himself post-Sunderland as “bloody pissed off.” This week he told the club’s official website: “The players have come through amazingly and Mark and his team have done a magnificent job. We played with tremendous spirit at the weekend and we'll need to show that again and again over the coming weeks. The fans have been our twelfth man at Loftus Road. They've been brilliant and backed us to the hilt in recent weeks. It's a big advantage to have points on the board at this stage. We can't count our chickens though, because we've still got some very tough games ahead, but I believe in this team. We've got a great manager and a team of players who are producing the goods now, especially at home. We just need to keep our fingers crossed and get over the line and build for next season."

The result pushes QPR closer to safety but defender Anton Ferdinand was keen to stress the need to push on from here rather than assume the job is almost done.

He told the club’s official website: “It's a massive win that could push us on to safety - but we're not safe yet. We can't for one second think that we're safe. We've got to make sure that we continue push on. Now it's time to try and get something away from home next weekend, and carry on the form that we're showing at home.

"We've had some bad luck this year with players getting sent off, and the same thing happened on Saturday. I thought it was a harsh sending off, but - with our backs to the wall - we showed great character and came out on top. It was a fantastic performance all around. We know that when we're at home, we're hard to play against. The team were hard to beat, and we were also very good going the other way. It was great to see."

Ferdinand was back to his best in keeping a second consecutive clean sheet at Loftus Road at the weekend, which means it’s rather a shame to see another fixture with Chelsea appearing on the horizon this weekend. Ferdinand started brilliantly for QPR after joining from Sunderland in August but his form dipped alarmingly after the John Terry race-row controversy and has only recently started to recover. The media attention around this weekend’s game is likely to be ferocious once Chelsea have finished with their Champions League commitments tomorrow night.

Today’s Telegraph reports that the Premier League has refused to cancel the ridiculous rigmarole of the pre-match handshakes as happened for the FA Cup meeting between the two in January and Ferdinand will now consult QPR’s players and management before deciding whether or not he will shake John Terry’s hand before the game.

On the off chance anybody in any position of authority at QPR is reading this, LFW is of the opinion that Ferdinand and the rest of the team should tell John Terry to shove his hand shake right up his arse.

In other news West London Sport reports that former Chelsea midfielder Jacob Mellis will not be kept on at Loftus Road following a trial. Mellis was sacked by the Blues after releasing a smoke bomb at the club’s training ground earlier this season and was arrested during his time with Rangers after a domestic incident at his home. Mellis is now no longer training at Harlington.

Off the field Ranger have confirmed the appointment of Mike Rigg as technical director. The 43-year-old worked with Mark Hughes at Blackburn and Man City but has left his contract at Eastlands to join Hughes’ project at QPR.

Rigg said: "When I sat down with the owners and Mark recently they sold the project at Queens Park Rangers to me. I see where they want to take the club and it is something I want to be a part of. I have worked with Mark in a number of different roles so I have a very good understanding of what he wants and what he needs. Player acquisition is a big part of football and it is where an enormous amount of investment is made. That's where we must get it right. My role involves a mixture of looking at the immediate needs for the football club as well as trying to make sure we have a long-term plan in place for bringing players through into the first team."

Chairman Tony Fernandes took to Twitter to describe Rigg as the most important appointment he has made at QPR apart from Hughes.

Former R’s

Neil Warnock has revealed that he wanted Cardiff manager Malky Mackay to take over from him at Loftus Road. Following Warnock’s new club Leeds’ 1-1 draw with the Bluebirds this weekend Warnock revealed he had hoped to keep Rangers in the Premier League before handing the job onto Mackay who he rates as one of the best up and coming managers in the country.

Warnock told Wales Online: “No wonder I’ve voted for him in my top three as manager of the year. He’s done a remarkable job. When Malky took the job, I bet most people thought he was going to struggle. But he goes about his job in the right way, there’s no frills with him. He looks at what he wants and gets that dressing room right and that’s what the Championship’s all about for me.

“I would like to have kept QPR up and got him the job,” said the managerial veteran. “I told the board he was the next best thing since sliced bread. But I ended up getting the bleedin’ sack! So much for that.”

One of Warnock’s many recent predecessors, Luigi De Canio, is taking over at troubled Italian club Genoa. Alberto Malesani was sacked for the second time this season following Sunday’s 4-1 home defeat by Siena that was delayed for 20 minutes in the second half when the club’s ‘Ultras’ invaded the pitch and demanded the players remove their shirts and stop shaming the club.

Melsani was sacked in December with Genoa tenth but when he successor Pasquale Marino took the team down to sixteenth in Serie A he was fired and Melsani reinstated at the beginning of April. In his three games so far Genoa have drawn twice and lost one which was enough for Melsani to be sacked again and now replaced by De Canio who also managed the club in 2004 when they avoided relegation from Serie B. De Canio was sacked as Lecce manager at the end of last season after a seventeenth place finish in Serie A.

De Canio’s first match is against champions AC Milan this weekend.

Loan Watch

Patrick Agyemang completed another 77 minutes for Stevenage without scoring on Saturday as they beat Brentford 2-1 in League One. Agyemang told the Fulham Chronicle this week he was unsure what the future held for him with his mammoth four and a half year contract at Loftus Road finally coming to an end this summer.

Agyemang said: “My contract's up at the end of the season so I wanted to get out and play some games. I don't know what's going to happen. I was injured when Mark Hughes took over so I never got a chance to show him what I could do. I was training with the reserves and academy boys. When you're not in the 25 you don't get a chance to play with the first team and there's no real aim. It's hard to get motivated. I've always seen other players frozen out but it's never happened to me. It was hard to take as I wanted to be part of it. My confidence has been low after not being part of the things at QPR, so to come and play regular games has been amazing.”

Elsewhere in League One this weekend Mah Ehmer completed 90 minutes for Preston as they drew 1-1 at Oldham.

In the Championship Peter Ramage was booked but still helped Birmingham to a creditable 1-1 draw at Brighton, while Hogan Ephraim was an unused substitute for Bristol City as they beat Barnsley 2-0 at home.

In League Two Rowan Vine’s spell with Gillingham seems to be heading down a familiar path. The striker was left out of the team at the weekend, emerging for just the final 16 minutes of a 3-1 home victory against Swindon that kept the Gills’ faint play off hopes alive but wasn’t enough to deny Swindon automatic promotion.

Manager Andy Hessanthaler told Kent Online the decision not to pick Vine was a tough one. He said: "That was a real tough call. I ended up not picking the team until the last minute. When I am not 100% sure as a manager and, I am sure most will say the same, you sleep on it. We named the team just before the game and I said that to him. He was disappointed, he wanted to play. It’s not easy to then come on in games like that, but he has been great since he has been here.”

Premiership Shorts

- Man Utd’s extraordinary 4-4 draw at home to Everton on Sunday has opened the door for Man City to overtake them at the top of the table with a win in the Manchester derby this Monday night. City boss Roberto Mancini insists United are favourites while Alex Ferguson says: "We need a result. It's a derby of amazing proportions."

- City’s 2-0 win at Molineux on Sunday afternoon means Wolves are the first team officially relegated from the Premiership this season. CEO Jez Moxey defended the club’s mid-season managerial change though saying: “"An experienced manager agreed to come and then had a change of heart. Terry took the job because we felt he was then the best man of the small number of candidates available. Our team and all of us have not been good enough. It's a collective responsibility. I'm not pointing the finger at Terry Connor or an individual. We simply have not been good enough."

- There was another key game of a different nature tonight with Aston Villa hosting Bolton in what has become a real six pointer for both clubs. Villa took the lead but ended up losing 2-1 which leaves Bolton a point behind QPR with a game in hand, and Villa two points ahead.

- Few surprises at the PFA awards where Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie took the overall award, voted for by his fellow professionals, after scoring 34 times in all competitions for the Gunners.

- The Premier League team of the year was as follows: Joe Hart (Man City), Kyle Walker (Tottenham), Vincent Kompany (Man City), Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle), Leighton Baines (Everton), David Silva (Man City), Yaya Toure (Man City), Gareth Bale (Tottenham), Scott Parker (Tottenham), Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)

- West Brom boss Roy Hodgson was understandably delighted to heap more misery on Liverpool with a 1-0 win on his first return to Anfield since being sacked last season. He said: “It's not often that West Brom win here and although I accept that Liverpool were the better team, I have to be very happy that we have won it and that we have done it such a determined manner and shown so much spirit.”

Pictures – Action Images

Photo: Action Images

TacticalR added 00:48 - Apr 25 Always interested to hear about Luigi De Canio's adventures in Italy. I thought I read somewhere that he had resigned from Lecce, but I might have just assumed that as he got Lecce promoted from Serie B, and then kept them in Serie A last season. It sounds like out of the frying pan and into the fire at Genoa. I can only hope he doesn't lose his shirt there.
0

QPaRmchair added 14:31 - Apr 25 That Genoa manager was the 18th club (out of 20) in Serie A to sack their manager this season. Apparently in Italy, when a manager is sacked, he's put on gardening leave in case the new manager gets sacked too, the other manager comes back and has a second chance. Crazy. And as for the John Terry comments, so say we all!
0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Fulham Polls