QPR 1 HUDDERSFIELD 1
Well what a difference three bloody games makes! I hereby demote us from playoff definites and automatic promotion real possibilities to mid table number maker uppers, fodder for those aiming for the heady heights and those in desperate need of points. And for the rest, like Huddersfield, we represent a quiet day at the office.

This was one of those going through the motions exercises that took me back to days gone by. No real ambition, no real bite, no real Charlie Austin. And of course, that’s the main reason for this really disappointing blip. Charlie tweaked a hamstring before the Bristol City away game.

I didn’t travel to either Bristol City (1-1) or Ipswich (2-1) so rely on faithful reports from friends and Loft For Words.

It seems like we could have won both. Hoilet’s continued resurgence bagged him a goal at Ashton Gate and although City pressed hard afterwards it was felt we could and should have held out.

At Portman Road, the good form continued but we somehow managed to turn a 1-0 lead after 70 mins into a 2-1 defeat with the last kick of the game. OK, so the trend was still upwards performance-wise even if the results weren’t coming.

Unfortunately, the game against Huddersfield yesterday represented a real step backwards.

Consider the team. Philips up front with Fer in behind. Well we’re all pretty sure by now that one doesn’t work. Swap Faurlin for Toszer and things unravel a little more. Onuoha continuing to deputise at right back for Perch brings Clint Hill back into the fold and suddenly the spine just feels a little hunched.

To cover my arse, I did say that if we could stay relatively injury free, this would be the key to real points progress. That hasn’t happened and look how we’ve tumbled. three points from 12 when I would have expected seven or eight and secretly hoped for 10.

But it was the manner of this bore draw yesterday that was a worry. It was tepid stuff. Not exactly down to a lack of application. More a lack of ideas and confidence and good old fashioned chutzpah.

Our reliance on Faurlin is clear. Without him we were left with a competent but ultimately lacklustre Toszer. He’s OK. Mid table championship OK. Maybe he can do a job of keeping us up next year. Faurlin just makes things tick a lot better, a lot smoother. He gets things going much quicker when we haven’t got the ball and when we have. Faurlin and Sandro look awesome. Toszer and Sandro look bang average.

Philips up front is just really shameful. As a club, how we managed to get ourselves into a position where we didn’t have any adequate cover whatsoever should Charlie get sold or get injured is an embarrassment. A shocking state of affairs and one that Sir Les - a man close to losing his knighthood Jimmy Saville style - and the rest of the board need to take complete responsibility for. It’s nothing short of a joke. Philips is a good Championship winger. He gets his head down and runs and occasionally if the ball bobbles just right, he will score a decent goal. He is not and will never be a centre forward. He doesn’t have that kind of movement of that kind of eye for space or the ball. His miss in the second half when the ball was handed on a plate 6 yards out, my grandmother could have scored it had anyone placed her ashes somewhere close by for the ball to bounce off the urn. Philips hesitated, panicked and banged it straight into the goalkeeper.

Not that this would have given us a lead we thoroughly deserved. We wouldn't have. but Polter did give us the lead anyway. He spun and banged the ball in from close range after a bit of a tangle. That was late on and I guess everyone thought like I did, that we had completely nicked that one. But Huddersfield came to life finally, kickstarted by the injustice of it all. A free kick given away needlessly by toszer 25 yards out was very neatly despatched beyond the flailing dive of Green. He didn’t have much to do all game. Except stop that. Time for Smithies to get a run? I wouldn’t mind seeing him.

Other lowlights? The abuse from the same morons as Fer came off. Granted Fer isn’t firing on all cylinders. But he still represents the closest thing we have to a top class international player. He thrives on confidence and he’s lacking some right now. So what do the morons do? Let out all the frustrations of their shitty week on him. It used to be Henry. Then Ramsey. now it’s Fer. Who next for these idiots? They embarrass the rest of us greatly.

I wasn’t at all sure what position Henry was playing. He didn’t have a bad game in right midfield but was less successful playing in the hole behind Philips (!). Sandro gave his all but Toszer’s lack of bite didn’t help his cause. Hall still looks classy and Hill provided his usual sterling effort, although it’s noticeable he now gives attackers about five yards grace if they are running at him.

Chery made a late appearance and I wondered why he wasn’t getting a start, maybe at the expense of Henry? Luongo hasn’t done much wrong this season but hasn’t got a look in either. JET came on late too but couldn’t influence the game. Something tells me one of these three should have been starting. I don’t know why that’s not happening. And that’s about it really. Nothing much to report except a ball bobbling around aimlessly between 22 pins.

I turned to my boy at the end of this and warned him that from next season, this could well be what football is like for us for the next 15 years or so. He didn’t look delighted by the prospect. But that’s what’s in store. If we don’t get promotion, we lose Charlie and we lose the finances to get another Charlie (half a Charlie would do just fine). And when we lose that we lose all hope of winning matches. These last three games have proved that beyond all doubt.

So the answer is to get Charlie back as soon as, and don’t rest any of our best players. We know what our best team is. It’s clear. Wrap them in cotton wool and hope for the best, or football purgatory awaits.

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Thank you qprbenjamin for taking the time to write that. I can't add very much more but watching this was really difficult though after the team was announced well that was going to be a difficult afternoon. I wrote previously that my hopes were really buoyed by the appointment of JFH and I thought (wrongly) that he would take time to analyse the team and look at a few matches from earlier in the season but how could he have done that? If he had he would have learned that Phillips is no striker and that Fer is poor and Henry is even poorer and as for Toszer..... it is like playing with someone who has made a pact with the opposition. And what about playing some youth players and please please start Luongo who is both quick and creative and can actually score ditto for Chery. JFH has to really change things....what's the definition of madness..... doing the same thin g over and expecting a different result....

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Juanmi and Ramirez I gave each one point. Such a pity we cannot award zero points and if we were awarding points to our manager for those substitutions then he sould have been given zero points.

We all saw a pretty good first half hour, totally overrunning WH but then we relaxed and started the second half like strangers. The strength of our subs bench is woeful but we are still missing a first choice player at right back. I would like to have more hmegrown talent but they now have such limited recent experience that they too would struggle.

I agree that Ramirez has not had enough time on the pitch but after this performance I don't think we will see him again.

Romeu looking better each game and a better player than Clasie at the moment.

I don't think Forster will make much difference. I think he kept so many clean sheets because the defence in front of him last season prevented the opposition from shooting on target and I also saw him at a loss in communicating with our defenders.

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Doubt Koeman had much choice as Tadic and Mane were burnt out by then and probably highly injury-risk prone. With nothing else on the bench what could he do although JWP wasn't used oddly.

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Three games in a week from a group of slow older players. No surprise we lacked any poise/control.

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Hull City were simply the better team and deserved to win

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Poor performance carried on from the Huddersfield game We panicked once we scored-again! I like Poulter he is raw but shows promise-his header was impressive Dont think the player are upto what jimmy wants them to do
The sad thing was that Hull were just as poor but are flying high in the league Subs made very little difference
Green and Hall need to speak -shamble of a goal fro Hull but think thye deserved to win

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Pathetic

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What can you say that we haven't said these past weeks, well l finally feel that Wanyama really is looking to leave, he puts in a man of the match performance against Arsenal to impress them so as to enhance his chances to get traded there but he does not produce in other games.
Two dumb tackles that were very costly by him cost us dearly.Sometimes it looks to me that he really wants out of the game.Again chances missed and it is costing us dearly pretty much every game.

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No-one is bigger than the club an RK decided to bench Mane because he was late for a meeting.
I argue that RK has overstepped the mark and that selecting the best team is more important than his ego or authority. Punish Mane by way of fines but do not punish the club and fans by denying us a win and three points. Mane on the bench served no purpose.

Wanyama should have been substituted after the first yellow. The second yellow was always just around the corner.

Today we were let down by poor managers decisions and it hurts me to say so

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