QPR returned to league action on Saturday with a goalless draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.
For Burnley it was a day that marked the start of a new beginning as baby-faced manager in waiting Eddie Howe took in the game from the stands having agreed to leave Bournemouth for Turf Moor on Friday.
QPR know a thing or two about managerial changes themselves having been through seven permanent bosses in the last five years. It made a refreshing change for it to be the R’s arriving at a ground as the outfit with the settled manager achieving success to find the opposing club scrabbling around for a mid-season solution to their problems.
Exactly how settled Neil Warnock is has been a cause of some debate in the past week or so for the first time since he took charge at Loftus Road. Talk in interviews about never being happier has been laced with increasingly barbed comments about a need to strengthen in January, and strengthen with his choice of players rather than those which the board may see as a better, or cheaper, option. Right on cue, Emmanuel Ledesma took his seat in the away end at a rain lashed Turf Moor on Saturday. The Argentinean told those brave enough to ask that he isn’t expecting to sign, but his presence and reasons for it have been a distraction we could well have done without this week.
Warnock’s keenness to strengthen his squad has increased at a similar rate to the number of seriously injured players at Loftus Road. Jamie Mackie and Patrick Agyemang both broke legs with varying degrees of seriousness last week, and Alejandro Faurlin limped out of this contest with what looked like a repeat of the muscle injury that afflicted him at the start of the season. Petter Vaagan Moen looks like a natural Faurlin replacement to me but with Akos Buzsaky still some way off a return options in that area are running low and Rangers were again left to suffer ten minutes with Leon Clarke in the second half of this match. The need to strengthen exists, the need to panic does not.
Despite the mounting selection problems Warnock was still able to select a very good starting 11 on Saturday, and then watch on as QPR dominated large swathes of the game at what remains a difficult place to go and get a result despite Brian Laws’ best efforts to undo the fine work of Owen Coyle. Matthew Connolly returned at the heart of the defence after a two match ban and partnered Kaspars Gorkss at centre half with Clint Hill and Bradley Orr at full back and Paddy Kenny in goal. Shaun Derry and Faurlin anchored the midfield with Vaagan Moen, Adel Taarabt and Tommy Smith returning ahead of them. Rob Hulse started as the lone striker ahead of Heidar Helguson.
Burnley were under the guidance of caretaker manager Stuart Gray for the first time. They had former QPR player Clarke Carlisle at centre half with Chris Iwelumo leading the attack at the other end. Lee Grant, a constant scourge of QPR during his career but a man under pressure in these parts after a series of lacklustre displays and very few clean sheets, started in goal.
Rangers have been starting games well of late, and did so again here. Alejandro Faurlin showed Taarabt like skills to win a corner in the opening minute but Vaagan Moen flashed his delivery right through the penalty area with nobody able to get a touch. Then five minutes later Taarabt turned on the style himself tight to the byline and then found Vaagan Moen in open play and he in turn played a low cut back to Derry on the edge of the area. Derry is yet to score for QPR, and has specialised in total air shots from this position of late, but he managed to craft a dangerous low effort on target in this game only to be denied by Grant who got down well to his left to palm the ball wide on the slippery surface.
The rain tends to roll across the hills in huge great sheets of water in this part of the world, and I had half an eye on my mobile phone during the pre-match drinks waiting for news of a postponement on what has been a problematic pitch in the past. Rangers made light work of the abysmal conditions though and although Taarabt’s tenth minute corner was typically poor the ball was cleared straight back out to him and he was able to cut inside and unload a shot that flew into the side netting with Grant always confident of his angles.
The blue and white tide kept flowing forwards and before the quarter hour mark Bradley Orr was the unlikely man to find himself on the end of an attractive and incisive multi-pass move that culminated in a fine ball in behind the Burnley defence from Vaagan Moen but, as you would expect from a right full back, he didn’t look confident with the chance and rather snatched at it and that enabled Grant to block the ball when he probably should have been picking it out of the net. Orr’s reaction told its own story, he knew what a great chance this was.
Within a minute Tommy Smith was also let down by his control in the area as he glided onto decent service from Rob Hulse who was dominating Carlisle in this early period. In amongst this almost constant QPR pressure Burnley did break away for a sufficient amount of time to win a free kick on the edge of the area.
Premiership referee Chris Foy had been due to take charge of this game but was sadly replaced at late notice by the much fussier and less talented Mike Jones who had an absolutely nightmare on this ground last season in a Premiership match between the Clarets and Hull City. The Cheshire official’s first involvement in a game that would go on to produce 27 free kicks and seven yellow cards saw him buy a theatrical fall from Chris Eagles on the edge of the area and award a set piece which Tyrone Mears whipped over the wall and into the away end.
Eagles was substituted at Loftus Road earlier this season after being booked for a dive in the penalty area and subsequently losing his rag – as this game went on Eagles and Adel Taarabt produced a portfolio of falls so extravagant Tom Daly would have been on his feet applauding had he been in attendance. A shame, because they are both outstanding players who showed flashes of true quality in this game.
Eagles was on the floor again in the twenty first minute, arms outstretched and face turned towards the referee before he’d even hit the ground in the traditional style, but even the whistle happy Mr Jones wasn’t going to award him a penalty for that and nor should he have done as Clint Hill cleanly took the ball as the Burnley man entered the penalty area. A minute later, more time spent rolling around on the grass brought the first yellow card of the game for Faurlin who had given Eagles something to dive about close to the touchline.
This free kick sparked the first prolonged period of Burnley pressure with Matt Connolly forced to head it behind for a corner which Graham Alexander dropped plum onto the back post forcing Kaspars Gorkss into another clearance behind. The third set piece was taken by Fox and although it was initially cleared he re-gathered and delivered deep into the heart of the penalty area where Carlisle met it powerfully but headed wide. Carlisle has made a habit of playing well against QPR since leaving, but looked nervous and heavy legged in this game when asked to do anything other than win ball in the air.
Burnley continued to come into the game as the half hour approached. Bradley Orr followed Faurlin into the referee’s book for a rough shoulder charge on Jay Rodriguez and Kenny needed two attempts to save a low shot from the Burnley youngster down in the bottom right hand corner – although that was the only serious save he had to make all afternoon. At the other end Adel Taarabt tried his luck from similar range and having set off early Grant was lucky that a small deflection carried the ball into his midriff rather than beyond him into the net.
The remaining ten minutes or so of the half became a ding dong affair with play switching from one end to the other and back again aided by a succession of soft free kicks awarded by Mr Jones. Eagles, who looked to be offside when he was played in, crossed for Rodriguez to head off target. Then a crude lunge by Michael Duff on Taarabt earned the first Burnley card of the day – Taarabt lofted the free kick to the back post, Clint Hill met it well and Grant was forced into an instinctive save. The ball came loose in the six yard box but was then cleared away. Hill is so good in the air, and regularly gets free at the back post for such free kicks, I’m surprised he hasn’t scored yet for Rangers.
Burnley, attacking the QPR fans huddled together behind the goal, should have done better when Hill then completely misjudged a flighted through ball and Wade Elliott produced a fantastic low cross right through the corridor of uncertainty in front of Paddy Kenny but nobody was able to get a touch when the ball was crying out to be converted.
Then another soft free kick, again awarded in favour of Chris Eagles who this time collapsed under meagre contact from Shaun Derry, was cleared only as far as Elliott on the edge of the area but Hulse quickly closed him down and deflected the ball away for a corner. This set piece followed the same pattern as before with Alexander’s excellent delivery cleared behind, Fox’s cross from the other side cleared back to him and then his second attempt finding Clarke Carlisle who hacked an improvised half volley wide of the post.
Eagles is being linked with Everton in the media and it’s easy to see why – he’s a quality player at this level – but he does go down easier than a cheap hooker.
A half of cheap decisions and free kicks concluded with a QPR free kick that was lofted into the area and promptly dropped by Lee Grant who was then awarded a free kick so generous he probably got a receipt with the purchase.
And the second half began in much the same manner. Duff had plenty of reason to feel aggrieved at being penalised for a foul on Rob Hulse that the striker looked a little surprised to have won himself. Taarabt took the free kick, but for once his delivery was absolutely spot on and Grant was clearly panicking and failing to reach the ball as it dipped over his despairing dive but agonisingly missed the far post by a matter of inches.
The game had been niggly to this point, not helped by the overbearing and over fussy refereeing style, but it escalated into out and out nastiness five minutes after the break. Hulse was involved again to begin with, collapsing to the ground on the corner of the penalty box clutching his face. This was right in front of the away end, and Hulse clearly felt he had been elbowed by Clarke Carlisle off the ball, but nobody around me saw anything, and neither did the referee.
While Hulse was being treated an argument was taking place on the halfway line between Adel Taarabt, Bradley Orr, Michael Duff and Graham Alexander who, as usual, was never more than ten yards away from the referee offering advice throughout the game. Taarabt was clearly annoyed at the suggestion that he should return the ball to Burnley upon the resumption as QPR had possession when the game was stopped. Referee Jones arrived on the scene, told Taarabt he would indeed be expected to return the ball to Burnley and the Moroccan promptly thumped it out for a Burnley throw down by the corner flag and ordered his team mates to hem the home side in. The Burnley fans reacted with fury, as you would expect, and Neil Warnock actually took their side and lambasted Taarabt for his conduct before ordering Vaagan Moen to receive the throw in and play it back to Lee Grant which he did.
The bad mood was set though and for the next ten minutes Burnley players formed an orderly queue awaiting their turn to have a go at kicking QPR’s captain out of the game. Taarabt produced a couple of dives worse than anything even Eagles had managed that were rightly laughed off by the referee, but also gifted spectators the moment of the match with a sublime piece of control on the turn on halfway that brought a high clearance under his spell and took three Burnley players out of the equation with one fluid movement. It was worth the entrance fee alone.
A minute after the unpleasantness with the Hulse injury Mears had the first crack at Taarabt, whipping his legs from under him as he teased his way into the penalty area. At least, I thought he was into the penalty area. Mr Jones awarded a free kick right on the very edge of the box when it looked like a penalty all ends up to me. Replays have suggested it was right on the whitewash and could have gone either way. Taarabt took the free kick himself and chipped it over Grant but onto the roof of the net as well.
Taarabt was grounded again four minutes after that, Alexander literally hacking him to the floor but escaping without a yellow card – inevitable really as he had a say in every decision the referee made. There was no doubt about it after the hour though when he again belted Taarabt and simply had to be booked. The resulting free kick was headed down at the back post by Vaagan Moen and Gorkss, up from the back, skied it over the bar from all of three yards when he should have scored with ease.
The traffic was flowing one way, and Gray reacted by taking off Iwelumo who had been awkward in the first half and anonymous in the second. Steven Thompson came on for him but still Rangers had the best of it – Fox was booked for a high tackle on Smith, Taarabt volleyed wide after controlling the ball on the edge of the box.
Smith picked himself up from that challenge to threaten the goal himself 20 minutes from the end. Taarabt accelerated across the halfway line ad found Hulse, he turned and fed Smith in the right channel and then after cutting inside the former Watford man saw a low shot that looked goal bound smack into Carlisle’s backside and rebounded away to safety.
A heart stopping game of to-me-to-you between Matt Connolly and Paddy Kenny as they ran towards each other with the ball stuck in the middle was all Burnley had to show for the second half and Thompson’s frustration at his lack of ball manifested itself in a laughable rugby tackle on Leon Clarke, on for Faurlin by this stage, that brought a deserved yellow card.
The Faurlin substitution looked concerning. He could hardly walk as he left the field holding the top of his thigh – he spent time out of the team at the start of the season with groin and muscle problem at the top of that leg and the last thing we need is a prolonged absence for him, although Vaagan Moen looks like a ready made left footed replacement in that position. Warnock also sent on Heidar Helguson for Rob Hulse and he, like Smith before him, saw a powerful shot inside the area beaten back by a defender before it had reached Grant who would have struggled to save it.
Having dominated for such long periods of the game it would have been devastating to lose the game in injury time. Paddy Kenny was lucky to escape fumbling a late corner without being punished, and the R’s were indebted to Shaun Derry for a superb covering tackle on Eagles as the Burnley man raced towards the penalty box with men up in support. Going the other way Jack Cork fouled Derry to collect the seventh yellow card of a feisty, but over refereed, encounter.
This was, on the whole, a job well done by QPR. We would, I’m sure, have taken a point before the game had one been offered to us and it was only after seeing the 90 minutes, and just how much better QPR were than Burnley that doubts set in about just how good a result it was. A Burnley fan in the pub afterwards admitted he felt his team was in trouble after the first 20 minutes in which QPR looked quote: “proper tasty”. Although we never quite reached the heights of that first period again we dominated all but the final 15 minutes of the first half and restricted the home side, who have scored 27 goals at Turf Moor this season, to a single serious shot on target in the entire game.
There were negatives – if QPR don’t win against Coventry next week then this will be viewed as a big two point dropped, and in all likelihood I would think we’ll be going into that game without another one of our key players looking at Faurlin as he trudged round the pitch after being taken off. We’ve also stopped scoring away from home – we’ve been shut out in five of our last seven road trips and I felt at times in this game we lacked sufficient belief and ambition to really press home our superiority. Quite often we were just giving the ball to Taarabt, or lumping it into the area to see what would occur rather than really grabbing the game by the bollocks and making something happen.
Overall though I was happy – after a tough Christmas where we looked fatigued and in difficult conditions at a ground we rarely get a good result QPR were dominant and very unlucky not to win. If we produce the same kind of performances from now until the end of the season we’ll be a Premiership team at the end of it.
Links >>> Have Your Say >>> Interactive Player Ratings >>> Message Board Match Thread
Burnley: Grant 7, Mears 6, Carlisle 6, Duff 6, Fox 6, Elliott 6, Alexander 7 (Edgar 86, -), Cork 7, Rodriguez 6, Iwelumo 6 (Thompson 68, 5), Eagles 7
Subs Not Used: Jensen, McDonald, Bikey, Wallace, Easton
Booked: Duff (foul), Alexander (foul), Fox (foul), Thompson (foul), Cork (foul)
QPR: Kenny 6, Orr 6, Connolly 7, Gorkss 7, Hill 6, Faurlin 7 (Clarke 81, -), Derry 8, Smith 6, Vaagan Moen 7, Taarabt 8 (Hall 90, -), Hulse 6 (Helguson 81, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Cook, Borrowdale, German
Booked: Faurlin (foul), Orr (foul)
QPR Star Man – Shaun Derry 8 A straight fight between Adel Taarabt who was a constant pest to Burnley and unfortunate not to score, and Derry who anchored the midfield really well with superb strength and composure. Derry’s late tackle which showed stamina and timing means he just about shades it for me.
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire) 5 Whistle, whistle, whistle, card, card, card. Usually for a match with seven yellows I find myself writing that it was never a seven card match – I think this one was, and I can’t argue with any of the cards given, but Jones referees like a fussy old woman. He just whistled for absolutely everything and disrupted the match at every opportunity. Having not seen the penalty incident again since I thought it was in the area at normal speed. Allowed Graham Alexander to get into his face after every decision, and let him get away with several bookable offences before he did actually receive a card.
Attendance: 14,819 (800 QPR approx) A poor atmosphere truth be told. QPR had a decent band of singers at the back of the stand but the away support remains quiet in general, though I don’t agree with the way those that do enjoy the singing are trying to intimidate others into joining in. Burnley had a gang of standers to the left of the away end, not bothered by stewards throughout the game despite the constant visits in the away end to anybody who dared to stand, but they made little noise.