A terrible mistake from goalkeeper Jamiee Ashdown gifted Adel Taarabt a goal and set QPR on the way to a 2-0 home victory against Portsmouth on Tuesday evening.
As the final whistle blasted out at Loftus Road on Tuesday evening Portsmouth goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown picked up the football that had betrayed him so cruelly half an hour previously and swung an angry right boot attempting to send it out of the ground and away into the White City estate as an expression of his own frustration. He missed. The ball hit the roof of the stand, and rebounded straight back down onto the field not five yards away from where he was standing. It rather summed up his night.
Ashdown won’t need anybody else to remind him that it’s on such narrow margins that football games are often decided, particularly in an evenly contested division like the Championship. This match turned on the hour, thanks to the goalkeeper who was linked with a move to QPR last season. Portsmouth had produced a spiky, committed performance to that point and Rangers were in trouble on a number of fronts.
Steve Cotterill had clearly liked what he’d seen from his DVD copy of our game at Hull on Saturday and set about constructing the same sort of system Nigel Pearson had utilised to keep both Adel Taarabt and Wayne Routledge quiet. It worked, forcing QPR to go too long, too often aiming for the isolated figure of Ishmael Miller who looked like a heavy legged giant, lumbering around and getting little joy from Pompey’s two centre halves.
Unlike Hull, Portsmouth had attacking ambitions of their own to go with the defensive solidity. They picked on Bradley Orr, playing David Nugent against him and giving him a torrid time across the ground and in the air. Up front, Dave Kitson dominated his markers aerially until the last nine minutes when the much maligned Fitz Hall came on and started winning headers. In an attacking midfield role Liam Lawrence, Miss Arizona herself, combined an all action, highly committed playing display with constant attempts to referee the game for Mr Grant Hegley who, as it turned out, didn’t need any help.
The QPR crowd had been expectant, then a little nervous, then encouraging, and finally, as Adel Taarabt picked up the ball inside the Portsmouth half and set off an arched run across the face of the penalty area, frustrated. This was on the few occasions Taarabt had managed to get the ball down at his feet with some time and space and having gone the long way round to turn and face goal he was then faced with a beautifully simple ball that would have sent Hogan Ephraim screaming clear into the penalty area.
Taarabt ignored his team mate, as you would expect him to do, and instead struck a weak shot from 25 yards out that, from the moment it left his boot, looked like the goalkeeper could have thrown his hat on it. Ashdown though was thinking about other things and failed to get either his body or his legs behind the ball which meant when it spun through his gloves on a greasy night he could only watch in despair as it rolled gently over the line and stopped before it hit the back of the net.
Had the keeper done as even the most amateur of amateur keepers would have managed and simply claimed the ball cleanly with both hands then the frustration building around Loftus Road would have escalated, possibly into anger at Taarabt for not passing, and just three days after his impromptu strike action on the field at Hull who knows what reaction Taarabt would have given to that. Maybe he’d have asked to come off again. Maybe the whole thing would have fallen apart. Maybe his reaction would have been so disruptive and arrogant as to effectively end his time at the club. Maybe we’d be sitting here today after a defeat, with Forest, Norwich and Swansea roaring up behind us.
Instead the ball trickled in, Ashdown was the villain, Taarabt was the hero once again, and that nice gap at the top of the league table was maintained. Like I say, fine margins.
Despite his pathetic temper tantrum at the KC Stadium Taarabt had kept his place both as attacker in chief and captain. Saturday’s man of the match Tommy Smith didn’t make it however after aggravating the hamstring injury sustained at Hull in training and he was replaced in the three man supporting cast for Ishmael Miller by Hogan Ephraim alongside Wayne Routledge. Ephraim, much maligned, is yet to lose a game he has started for QPR in the league this season. Further back Shaun Derry and Alejandro Faurlin continued their surprisingly successful holding midfield partnership in front of the usual back four of Bradley Orr, Kaspars Gorkss, Matt Connolly and Clint Hill leaving Pascal Chimbonda and Danny Shittu, who was given a massive reception from the home fans prior to kick off, to wait for their debuts on the bench.
Portsmouth, it is said, have one of the best starting elevens in the league and to be fair with the likes of Lawrence, Nugent and Kitson around it’s not hard to see why people believe that. Their problem playing wise is the lack of squad depth and options other than those who start the game. They found 23 names for the back of the matchday programme although of those two were goalkeepers, four were on loan from elsewhere, one was released last week to Montpellier, two are unable to play because further appearances would trigger lucrative contract renewals the club cannot afford and one is stuck in a weird limbo between Pompey and West Ham after a contract dispute. Remove that little lot, and you see the problem Steve Cotterill has to face. They came into this game on a run of eight games without a win – but you’d never have guessed it from the performance they gave on the night.
The game began with a series of set pieces conceded by QPR around the edge of their own area which, considering Mr Hegley would go onto produce a performance so lenient I was wondering if a gunman would actually escape with a stern reprimand from the official were he to storm the pitch and kill five or six of the players, was unusual. The first was generous, David Nugent showing a turn of pace I never really realised he had skinned Bradley Orr for the first, but most certainly not the last, time on the evening and then hit the deck laughably under not contact whatsoever. A free kick was nevertheless awarded and QPR neglected to put a man within six yards of Greg Halford as he stormed up from the back to meet a free header firmly – luckily the ball flew straight at Paddy Kenny.
Rangers cleared the second free kick from a wide area three minutes later, and Kenny showed a safe pair of hands under the third. As tactics go giving a team as big as Portsmouth, managed by a former Wimbledon Crazy Gang member, one set piece opportunity after another in attacking areas wasn’t the best of tactics for us to employ. Nor, really, was the way we used the ball when in possession of it throughout the first half.
Portsmouth had weaknesses – Ritchie De Lait for instance looked very much a centre half out of position at full back, which I think is exactly what he is, and also betrayed either a lack of self belief or ability in his first touch which was often of League Two standard – but QPR were unable to make inroads into them. Too often aimless, hopefully long balls were sent in the vague direction of Ishmael Miller presumably with the expectation that the loaned West Brom man would produce some sort of all conquering strong man performance and fend off the two big defenders Portsmouth were able to put around him every time the ball was close. The first half succeeded only in making the home fans bored and giving them neck ache.
There was a moment of vague hope when Clint Hill worked his way free on the left side of the penalty area and fired comfortably over the bar – but we’re only talking excitement on a level akin to finding one of the better Top Gear episodes being repeated on Dave just as you’re at a loose end. The one where they make aqua-cars perhaps. Normal service was quickly resumed as Miller was first wrestled to the floor without receiving a free kick under a high ball, and then as he was still picking himself up from that when the next punt down the field came in he was offside. All terribly irritating to this point.
The first really good chance of the game fell Portsmouth’s way, around the 22 minute mark. Dave Kitson hardly lost a header in the air all evening and after winning the first ball again he proceeded to bundle his way into the area, without ever having the ball under control, with Gorkss and Connolly fussing around him trying to bring the little farce to an end. They failed, and when Paddy Kenny raced from his goal line to try and pinch the ball off Kitson’s toe but missed the game seemed to be up. Kitson lobbed the ball up into the night sky to gasps of horror from the home fans who exhaled collectively as it dropped onto the roof of the net, rather than under the cross bar which is where it looked certain to end up from my seat in F Block.
Paddy Kenny had been complaining for some time prior to that scare that the ball was – watch out for a technical term here – flat as a witch’s tit and finally after Kitson’s near miss he was permitted by referee Hegley to swap it for another one. The difference was immediate, and not altogether positive. More hard work, more hassling, more persistence from Portsmouth forced Kenny to rush from his area and attempt to clear the new ball as it bounced in behind the Rangers’ defence. For once Kenny erred, hacking the ball wildly off the outside of his right foot and sending it all of ten yards to his right where Liam Lawrence eagerly burst onto the scene to score what would have been a 35 yarder into an unguarded net.
A quick trawl of a few basic porn sites will tell you that Liam Lawrence is not afraid to go down easily, no matter how many people are watching, but hitting the deck here wasn’t really in his best interests as the goal was crying out to be scored. Down he went though, Matt Connolly appeared to be the guilty man who’d made a back for Lawrence to roll across. I think seven or eight referees out of ten would have given strong consideration to sending Connolly off, which would have been a third red of the season, but to audible sighs of relief around W12 a yellow card was decreed punishment enough. Lawrence thought it was a sending off and spent a good few seconds telling the referee exactly that – but to be fair he did that all night, over every decision, so it was nothing new.
Having escaped a numerical issue, QPR almost had a scoreboard one when Greg Halford stepped up and struck the free kick powerfully towards the top corner forcing Paddy Kenny to fling himself left and make a fine save at the expense of a corner which Halford, posing more of an attacking threat than a defensive presence early on, headed clean over the bar.
Mr Hegley is, statistically, the league’s most lenient referee with 22 yellow cards from 20 games coming into this match. The Connolly incident was a judgement call, and a late goal kick awarded to QPR was blatantly a Portsmouth corner, but that apart I thought he refereed the game exceptionally well and is easily the best official we’ve had this season. How refreshing to see the advantage rule played so often, a game managed with words rather than cards, and players actually allowed to tackle each other. It made for a feisty but fair and competitive encounter and I would welcome more officials like him.
He spent the final five minutes of the half in almost constant dialogue with Portsmouth left back Herman Hreidarsson whose job for the evening was basically to keep a lid on Wayne Routledge through fair means or foul. Routledge objected to the undue physical attention once and the pair were spoken to, then a foul was awarded with Hreidarsson upended the little winger and then another long, long chat between the referee and both players came immediately before half time. No bookings, and no further problems. That’s what a breath of fresh air tastes like in case you were wondering.
From the free kick Routledge won QPR were able to craft their one and only decent shot on target in the first half. The ball was headed out for a corner which was also cleared but Routledge collected the ball and found Faurlin on the edge of the area who intelligently used the crowd in the penalty area as a shield to disguise his intentions to bend a low shot into the far corner – Ashdown read it just in time and made a late save down by the post with most behind the shot in South Africa Road expecting to see the net bulge.
Half time – it had been better than getting a BCG injection, but only marginally.
Round the pole made a welcome return to the field at half time, although they made the mistake of picking youngsters and sober people to take part when Loftus Road veterans know it’s only any good when fat and/or drunk people get involved. The discussion in the stands revolved around the question of whether my mate Dave had planned his wedding on a Saturday (he hasn’t) and why Clint Hill hasn’t scored for us yet considering he goes up for all the corners and he had been the only one at the back for QPR in the first half to hold his own in the air. I don’t mention that to be a smart arse considering what happened next, but as our chats normally revolve around crap television and films I feel it’s worth mentioning when a salient point is made. The rarity of such mentions should tell you a lot about the little group of us at the front of F Block.
More of the same in the second half? Perhaps. QPR recommenced with the aerial bombardment to start with, sending a long ball into the area that Miller headed over when only Devon White would have been able to score. Perhaps not. In the next attack the R’s finally got Taarabt on the ball, on the ground, in a dangerous area of the pitch and when he fed Miller, again to his feet, in the area the big striker showed strength, speed on the turn, and power in the shot which flashed just wide of the top corner with the keeper beaten.
Routledge however continued to find himself crowded out despite his high effort levels and constant switching of positions. Having run up a cul-de-sac in the fifty third minute he deserves credit for then using his pace to get himself back 90 yards further down the field and break up the subsequent worrying Portsmouth counter attack. His tracking back in his three games back with us so far has been worthy of high praise.
Referee Hegley picked up where he’d left off in the first half, penalising Shaun Derry for a wild challenge but failing to show a yellow card when the Arsenal fan in our group said immediately that it looked like a red card as he flew in. The debate quickly moved on as Ashdown entered the stage left. It was typical Taarabt, taking on an unlikely shot when he had several better options to pass to, but the old saying about buying raffle tickets sprang to mind as the ball trickled over the line in satisfying style. Faurlin’s stylish pass to find him in the first place is worthy of note.
The mood around Loftus Road was visibly and audibly lifted, but Portsmouth should have been on level terms within eight minutes. Liam Lawrence is a difficult man to like, you get more moaning out of him than a disc of whale music, but it’s hard to argue he’s a very potent force in this league. A typically swashbuckling run down the right flank ended with a cross into the area that Kitson intelligently stepped over and Aston Villa loanee Jonathan Hogg skewed horribly wide from plum in the centre of the goal with time and space to spare. A bad miss, as John Virgo would say.
Neil Warnock showed his hand first, removing Ishmael Miller and introducing Rob Hulse for the final 20 minutes of normal time. Miller was excellent on his debut against Coventry, steady at Hull on Saturday, and mediocre here. QPR didn’t, in my opinion, either play to his strengths or give him any kind of quality service in this game so it would be harsh to throw a manky pig’s ear at him and complain about the quality of the craftsmanship on the subsequent purse he returned. Hulse wasn’t a great improvement really and his poor start to life at QPR continues – we don’t play to Hulse’s strengths either in my opinion, and I’d hate for us to now waste the talents of Ishmael Miller in the same way.
Shortly after the substitution a tale of two corners emerged. The first went to Portsmouth, was taken by Lawrence, and headed goalwards by the omnipresent threat of Halford who was furious when a goal kick was awarded as he felt, justifiably, that it had taken a sizeable deflection en route.
Halford took out his frustration on Taarabt, foolishly kicking him up in the air when he was tight to the touchline with his back to the goal, going nowhere without support. It was a daft free kick to give away, one which immediately led to a corner and in turn a second goal. Taarabt elected for a delicate, floated delivery up to the back post rather than his usual whipped deliveries which often succeed only in giving the defender at the near post a sore head. Ashdown stayed on his line, Clint Hill powered in and although the header carried plenty of meat the goalkeeper will still have been disappointed to get two hands to the ball but fail to keep it out. Hill’s first goal for the club, and the game was all but safe.
It could have been back in the balance 15 minutes from time after Nugent was freed into the left channel of the penalty area but his mis-hit effort bobbled and bounced agonisingly through the six yard box, across the face of the goal and out for a goal kick on the other side. I found the Portsmouth attacking set up strange to be honest – Kitson was having great joy against Gorkss and Connolly but Nugent was stuck wide on the left and although he gave Orr a proper going over at times I couldn’t help but feel he’d have been better serviced nibbling at Kitson’s heal looking for flick ons and lay offs from the dominant target man.
It was only when, ten minutes from time, Warnock sent on Fitz Hall to provide some extra height in the defence that QPR actually started to win some headers for the first time in the game. I’d be lying if I said my cheque for membership to the Fitz Hall fan club was in the post, but he did a good job for us on Tuesday in my opinion, especially as Pompey had introduced the substantial figure of Nadir Ciftci to join Kitson, Nugent and Lawrence in attack moments before.
Ciftci almost made a telling contribution in the final minute of normal time when Dave Kitson again won the first header in the area and Ciftci then in turn diverted the ball towards the goal with his head from point blank range and only Paddy Kenny will know how he was able to react so swiftly and turn the ball away from the top corner with one hand in spectacular fashion. A fourteenth clean sheet of the season secured, Kenny must be in with a big chance of picking up awards at our end of season dinner.
There was still time for Clint Hill, getting a bit of a taste for it now, to head down another Taarabt corner that Gorkss attempted to lash in on the turn as it dropped only to see his shot blocked. And the Portsmouth corner that wasn’t, Mr Hegley’s one real mistake of the evening, but apart from that and the usual standing ovation for Taarabt as he was replaced by Petter Vaagan Moen in three minutes of injury time, it was rather a comfortable cruise into the full time whistle as the fog started to roll in over the School End roof.
So another tick goes into the column of games won while not playing well. Portsmouth were the better team in the first half, QPR dug in and held on with Shaun Derry and Alejandro Faurlin impressive in midfield. QPR were the better team in the second half and found a way to win through good fortune and good set pieces. This was a grind, had we played here as we did against Coventry in the previous home game we’d have won more comfortably.
Our centre backs continue to worry me. They’re still allowing the ball to bounce too much, not being positive and going towards it choosing instead to hesitate and let it come to them, and once again they struggled to cope with a physical front man. Danny Shittu will be useful to us in the run in. Bradley Orr also had a tough time against Nugent but to be looking for problems in a defence that has conceded a league lowest 18 goals this season seems to be negative for the sake of it. Let’s instead praise Clint Hill who wins so may crucial defensive headers and on Tuesday finally powered one in at the right end, and Hogan Ephraim who remains a lightweight attacking prospect, but excels when it comes to the Jamie Mackie style hussling and harrying of opponents.
Once again a lesson to learn would be getting the ball to feet, early, in wide areas, particularly when Paddy Kenny has got the ball in hand. When we play it direct down the middle we’re just another Championship team, when we work the flanks on the floor we’re a cut above and we improved that in the second half.
Neil Warnock was as delighted as I’ve seen him this season on the pitch at full time – little wonder he was glad to keep the cushion in our favour at the top, it’s Reading on Friday followed by Nottingham Forest. Both are bang in form and seeking our scalp – the next two games will be our toughest of the season so far.
Links >>> Have Your Say >>> Interactive Player Ratings >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 5, Connolly 6, Gorkss 6, Hill 7, Faurlin 8, Derry 7, Routledge 6 (Hall 84, -), Taarabt 7 (Moen 90, -), Ephraim 6, Miller 6 (Hulse 69, 6)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Rowlands, Chimbonda, Shittu
Booked: Connolly (foul)
Goals: Taarabt 59 (assisted Faurlin), Hill 73 (assisted Taarabt)
Portsmouth Ashdown 4, De Laet 5, Halford 7, Mokoena 6, Hreidarsson 7, Ward 6 (Ciftci 83, -), Hogg 6, Mullins 6, Lawrence 7, Nugent 7, Kitson 7. Subs Not Used: Flahavan, Sonko, Kanu, Rocha, Kilbey
QPR Star Man – Alejandro Faurlin 8 Remember those fears about some tippy tappy South American not being able to mix it in the Championship when we signed him? It’s an English disease to write off all players from that part of the world as unable to cope with the physical demands of our game. Faurlin wins nine out of every ten headers he goes for, invaluable in a division where winning the second ball is crucial. His range of passing was back to a high standard after a few off games. And in a game where the referee let everything go he was more than happy to get stuck in and mix it himself. Run so close by Clint Hill who I also thought was excellent, and Shaun Derry as always.
Referee: Grant Hegley (Hertfordshire) 8 Fantastic. Football is a contact sport, so just get the hell on with it. He was consistent for both teams, used the advantage rule really intelligently and as often as possible, and managed the game with words rather than cards. The one yellow he did show was the right decision, as was just about every other one he made apart from the Pompey corner near the end. Come back soon.
Attendance: 14,078 (1100 Portsmouth approx) An improved atmosphere inside Loftus Road, aided by the usual noisy following from the south coast but also by a willingness to sing a bit louder and make a bit more supportive noise when the team was struggling rather than just moan and get on their backs. Bradley orr copped some stick, and this wasn’t his best game, but he played well at Hull on Saturday and the last thing we need now Leon Clarke has decamped to Preston/the glue factory is another boo-boy target.