An all-too-predictable comfortable 2-0 home defeat by runaway league leaders Fulham darkened the mood around Loftus Road still further on Saturday, with QPR slipping further out of the promotion picture with each passing game.
There are 24 places, 54 points and a goal difference of 108 between Peterborough United and Fulham in this season’s Championship. Could a team that has had three swings at the former and embarrassed itself each time now go out and beat the latter regardless? A fortnight ago you’d have struggled to find a Queens Park Rangers fan confident they’d ever win a game again, such was the shambolic nature of their collapse at home to the division’s whipping boys, let alone one against their neighbours from the other side of Hammersmith Broadway whose league title win and return to the top tier is now an absolute formality. But as much-needed international break 4/4 drew to a close and London dawned bright and breezy for a rare Saturday 15.00 date at Loftus Road, you just began to wonder. Stranger things have happened, or so they say. The bookies gave Rangers one chance in six.
Then the game started. And, look, we’re going to talk a little bit about the refereeing at some point because Rangers had reasonable cause to feel aggrieved with several things and from the moment Fulham responded to the non-award of a corner in the third minute as some sort of war crime Gavin Ward’s primary objective for the afternoon seemed to be trying not to get shouted at by Aleksander Mitrovic, which isn’t really what we’re going for in standards of officialdom I shouldn’t have thought.
We’ll mention at this point a sliding doors moment in first half stoppage time where George Thomas, QPR’s best player on the day of his second league start this term, ran in behind onto an improvised through ball by Lyndon Dykes and smashed a volley straight at Marek Rodak that could easily have equalised a few feet either side of the keeper and changed the whole mood and complexion of the game.
You could say Rangers could scarcely have been worse than the Peterborough debacle, and you’d be exactly right, but it would be mean not to acknowledge their improvement across the board here. The team selection raised eyebrows, particularly the decision to drop Jimmy Dunne to get Yoann Barbet back in rather than the hapless Dion Sanderson, but Warbs Warburton explained the logic behind it clearly and coherently and the introduction of Thomas and Luke Amos behind the finally fit again Dykes did at least add some legs and energy to a flagging midfield. I came out of the Peterborough game shaking my head and listing the things I didn’t understand, and I didn’t think they did a particularly good job of explaining it to us afterwards, but I got all of this and was excited to be a part of it.
But, we have to be honest here, the key thing was the quality of the opponent. I came away from last months’ defeat at The City Ground reasonably sanguine because sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and credit a superior opponent, and if you thought Nottingham Forest were good then cop a feel of this lot. Mitrovic, when he’s not charging towards the referee to scream in his face, is the headline act and added another two goals to take his ridiculous season total to 37, fast closing in on Guy Whittingham’s record of 42. But if you take away all of them Fulham would still be the second top scorers in this division behind only second placed Bournemouth. Two others — Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson — have outscored QPR’s three joint top-scores Andre Gray, Ilias Chair and Lyndon Dykes. Fabio Carvalho, playing behind Mitrovic in a 4-2-3-1 set up, looks outrageously good for a boy of just 19. Tom Cairney doesn’t get the headlines he used to at this level but looked an absolute cut above every other midfielder on the pitch further back. Down the right side of the defence Liverpool’s Neco Williams looks like he’s going big places (again, only 20 years old) and centre backs Tosin Adarabioyo is built like a fucking Anglican Cathedral.
With their resources and this team on the field the disappointing thing wasn’t that QPR lost reasonably comfortably to them, as they surely should on paper, but that this Fulham team has twice gone to the Premier League and failed miserably in recent years and could well do so again next year. Last time, albeit under the more miserable management of Scott Parker, they won just five times and scored nine goals at home all season long. QPR, presumably, aspire to getting back into the top flight in reasonably short order and if this Fulham team can’t cope with it up there what hope the rest of us? I’d crawl all the way to Craven Cottage on my hands and knees to shake hands with the last barman who served Antonee Robinson a drink and their LFW equivalent has him down as their weak link. I’m not going to spend all night noshing them off, because with QPR now on a run of just two victories in 19 meetings since the fixture was rekindled in 1999/00 and the Tarquins’ "it’s happened again” chant still ringing in our ears from the end of the match nobody needs that in their life. But, to a certain extent, I did come away wondering exactly what else we could have done. Even in victory it felt like they had another couple of gears they could have happily gone through if required.
Let’s rattle through the play-by-play for a bit then, all got homes to go to. George Thomas went first for Rangers, firing into the side net off a tight angle on seven minutes when exactly the sort of high midfield press we’ve chronically lacked in recent weeks caught Cairney in possession. Mitrovic had, as we said, already produced the overreaction of all overreactions to his third minute shot wide not being given as a corner when Joe Bryan cracked in a loosener from down town and Kieren Westwood improvised a save.
The opening goal, on the quarter hour, was lush. Watch it back and admire the movement off the ball as first Cairney angles a left-footed ball into the right channel for Carvalho to tempt Sanderson out of the area, then continues his run towards the area to receive a pass back on the edge of the box which he then immediately knocks back into the path of Carvalho who has also maintained his movement to shed the marker and from there he cut back a low cross which Mitrovic slammed in from four yards out. I’m torn. Should Cairney have been tracked better from midfield? Could Sanderson have done more to impede Carvalho out wide? Is Rob Dickie asleep at the wheel while marking the division’s most dangerous marksman for the second time this season? Possibly. It might just be a brilliant goal though.
QPR threatened sporadically, but struggled to force a serious save from Rodak. Sanderson’s speculator fumbled on the half hour about as exciting as it got until Thomas’ chance in stoppage time. More often than that Rangers attacks actually just set up lethal counters back down the field as the front four of Mitrovic, Wilson, Carvalho and Reid ran amok in the sunshine. Moses Odubajo’s enterprising foray on 26 actually just left space in behind for Carvalho to run into and hit a shot wickedly deflected by Sanderson over Westwood, off the inside of the post, down onto the line, and away by Sam Field. Westwood’s save soon after that to deny Reid one on one after Cairney had again carved the home team apart was fairly brilliant. Wilson was fractionally wide of the top corner from the edge of the box with the first attack of the second half.
Chino Warbs’ post-match Warbleton did, once again, raise the standard of refereeing. Fulham didn’t need a leg up in this game, but got one a quarter of an hour from the end when Lee Wallace was very harshly adjudged to have handled in the area as a cross hit him from close range with his elbow in what was deemed an unnatural position by the referee — not, though, the linesman looking straight at it. I’d have wanted it at the other end to be honest with you, but it was debatable and stung a little when Mitrovic calmly slotted in the second goal from the spot to kill the contest just as Rangers had chucked Charlie Austin on and gone to two up front.
I was more troubled by some of the other decisions and game management. I’ve praised the way Fulham played their football, not only the best team in the league by a distance but the best team this division has seen for several seasons for my money, but the genuine, died-in-the-wool, old-school Fulham fans can’t possibly like or approve of the way they behave with the match officials. Dion Sanderson’s well executed last-ditch tackle on Cairney two minutes after half time brought another huge song and dance routine, Harry Wilson’s hideous dive in the penalty box on 65 minutes should surely have yielded a yellow card. In the end the only person that was booked for dissent was Lee Wallace, obviously pulled back and prevented from getting on the end of an attacking one-two on 51 minutes and rightly furious when Ward somehow waved play-on. Not a difficult decision to get right, Wallace immediately penalised himself with a booking and a free kick for grabbing the referee by the arm which you obviously cannot do — but, then, I didn’t think you were allowed to charge 20 yards across the field to scream in the referee’s face either?
QPR, as we’ve said before, waaaaay too nice at times. When Harrison Reed decided he fancied a little sit down five minutes from the end the time wasting was so egregious even Ward was in favour of playing on until Rodak threw the ball out to force the issue — under duress from four Fulham players Lee Wallace threw them the ball back after the "treatment” when we should have been doing nothing of the sort. I was actually quite glad to see John Eustace getting involved in stoppage time when one of the Fulham coaching staff started doing keep-ups with the ball in the technical area instead of returning it for the QPR throw (to be fair to him, brilliant touch). Eustace wasn’t having it, but actually seemed to mistake the fourth official (Carl Boyeson, who you may remember for a farcical performance away at Barnsley in the Adel Taarabt game ten years ago) for one of the visiting coaches and pushed him down the touchline which is always going to be a red card. Warburton got a yellow for good measure, but the guy who’d actually caused the whole thing wasn’t even spoken to. Ward about as useful as a marzipan dildo, and a good deal smaller than you’d ideally like one of those too.
Not the reason we lost though. There were some scraps of positive to take away — Sanderson was better, Barbet I thought played reasonably well on his return and had the diags going a treat in the second half, Amos and Thomas were far better than a lot of people who’ve played their roles recently and did at least play with energy on the front foot, Moses was rocks and diamonds again but I like the jewels when they do come along. Goal threat, however, was once again minimal. QPR are barely averaging two shots on target a game at the moment, while facing almost six themselves. Stefan Johansen’s stock continues to tank, and he blotted his copy book walking off when subbed and milking the applause from his old employers a bit when Rangers were trailing and ideally would have liked him to get a move on and stop wasting our own time — injured, again, perhaps, as mitigation, but even so, exit the field at the nearest point in that case.
The disappointment, ultimately, for me wasn’t losing this one, it’s that this level of performance would have added ten points to our total had we been able to produce it against Peterborough, Cardiff, Hull and Barnsley. That’s where this season has unravelled, not in games like this, which made post-match reports from that bastion of truth and accuracy The Daily Mail that QPR had chosen this point to sack their manager especially difficult to fathom. They hadn't, haven't, and shouldn't.
Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread
QPR: Westwood 6; Odubajo 6, Sanderson 6, Dickie 6, Barbet 6, Wallace 6; Johansen 5 (Chair 70, 6), Field 6, Amos 6 (Dozzell 79, 5); Thomas 7 (Austin 73, 5), Dykes 5
Subs not used: McCallum, Dunne, Hendrick, Mahoney
Bookings: Wallace 51 (dissent), Barbet 76 (foul), Field 90+1 (foul)
Fulham: Rodak 6; Williams 7, Tosin 7, Ream 6, Bryan 6; Reed 7 (Seri 87, -), Cairney 8 (Chalobah 75, 6); Wilson 7, Carvalho 8, Reid 7 (Kebano 79, 6); Mitrovic 8
Subs not used: Tete, Hector, Muniz, Gazzaniga
Goals: Mitrovic 14 (assisted Carvalho), 78 (penalty, handball)
QPR Star Man — George Thomas 7 Played with purpose, energy and pace, on the front foot at all times. Lots of things we’ve been sadly lacking in recent weeks.
Referee — Gavin Ward (Surrey) 5 God the standard of refereeing in this league is abysmal. Given that he’s been given this match, a local derby between two supposed promotion contenders at the business end of the season, it’s pretty safe to assume that the PGMOL view him as one of their best at this level at the moment, possibly one of the ones they’re considering for promotion and, well, just look at the absolute state of it.
Attendance — 18,000 approx (3,000 Fulham approx.) No official attendance figures available, which isn’t that unusual this season for some reason.
If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk.
Pictures — Action Images
The Twitter @loftforwords