Illy and Willy feast on Lumley treats - Report Thursday, 10th Feb 2022 20:48 by Clive Whittingham QPR and Middlesbrough, the Championship's two form team, served up a scintillating two two draw at Loftus Road on Wednesday night. Queens Park Rangers have been in promotion form for well over a year now. Since 2020 became 2021 they have played 53 league games, won 30 of them, and lost just 14. They placed themselves in the top six of the fledgling league table in the first week of 2021/22 with statement-making high-scoring away wins at Hull and Middlesbrough on two of the longest trips of the year inside five days, and they’ve remained there almost every day since. If they can continue all of this for two more months, and 17 more games, then at the very least play-off football will be returning to Loftus Road for only the third time. And this is what it will look, feel and smell like. If there’s been a better performance by a visiting team at the Riverside Stadium than the one QPR produced in August, I’d love to see it. On a ground where Forest, Bournemouth and Sheff Utd have all come a cropper, Rangers didn’t even miss a beat when Moses Odubajo was sent off just after half time — scoring two more goals while a man light to win a thrilling encounter 3-2. It should be said though, tactically at least, the team they beat was rather the rabble. When a 15-minute blitzkrieg to begin the game yielded just one goal from the penalty spot, the well of ideas ran dry awful quickly, and in the enormous gaps left between defence and midfield, midfield and attack, Chris Willock, Ilias Chair and the other talented technicians were able to run rather riot. There’s certainly been no better performance by s visiting team at Loftus Road this season than the one Middlesbrough produced last night. The Fourteenth Annual Neil Warnock Farewell Tour perhaps proved one annual Neil Warnock farewell tour too many, and the difference under serial winner Chris Wilder has been palpable. Palpable on paper, where Boro have taken 23 of 33 points available and arrived in W12 on a run of seven league wins in nine and fresh from a monumental cup upset at Old Trafford on Friday night, and in practice where the ball now stays on the floor, the attacking plan is a touch more advanced than ‘get it up to Ikpeazu and let’s see who Crooks can smash on the second balls’, and the gaps that QPR revelled in that summer’s evening have been tightened considerably. They came to play, and played to win. Warbs Warburton’s QPR know no other way. The result was an absorbing, thoroughly entertaining, high spec technical game of proper bloody football. Surely the best 90 minutes to be found anywhere in this season’s Championship. You could pick faults — with Stefan Johansen, with Middlesbrough’s goalkeeping, with choices of substitution, with the lack of a serious striker in red to make their large periods of domination count in goals. You could laud individuals — Sam Field’s two man midfield mission, James Tavernier’s determined influence, marvellous David Marshall’s flying form, the skill and pace of Isaiah Jones. You could perhaps make a case for a QPR win, having led twice as the home team and conceded only through defensive errors. You could certainly press a stronger argument for a Boro maximum, so brilliant and dominant were they for 20 first half minutes and a good chunk of the second as well. Or you could just enjoy. If there wasn’t something for you here, consider a new hobby. Warbs and Wilder teams don’t die wondering, they play on the front foot. It should have been 2-2 after half an hour. Isaiah Jones was in round the back down the right after two minutes, putting one on a plate for Matt Crooks whose shot forced the first in a series of crucial defensive blocks by Sam Field. Three later Duncan Watmore found Tavernier advancing and his cross had to be converted at the back stick by Neil Taylor — David Marshall appeared from nowhere to save the tap in on the goal line. QPR announced their arrival in the game first with a thunderous Lyndon Dykes hit on Paddy McNair (referee Dean Whitestone setting his hands-off tone for the evening by not producing a yellow card) and then the Scotsralian closed in on Albert Adomah service after a nice combination down the right but a low clearance denied him at the crucial moment.
QPR looked like they’d played out from the back effectively and attractively on 18 minutes only for Field to be robbed with men committed the wrong side of the ball which then set a monster counter attack in motion the other way. Crooks crossed to the far post, Watmore nodded the ball back across, Sporar had to score from a couple of yards, Marshall’s arrival and one handed save under the bar even more miraculous than the one which preceded it. Seny Dieng, back in the building on Thursday, may have to get used to a watching brief. Rangers responded in kind, Dykes relishing the battle with McNair and Dael Fry, putting ILias Chair in for a gilt edged chance which he uncharacteristically snatched at and steered wide. It didn’t matter greatly. Field found the key to the midfield door on the half hour, Willock received the service gratefully and with Boro committing four men to his detail the space that had been in such abundance in the first meeting was finally here again for the first time on the night. Chair didn’t need a second invite, one touch to set and a second to bend a beauty around Joe Lumley and into the net for the opening goal. The advantage of having both those players back on the pitch at the same time there for all to see — you can triple up on one, but you can’t triple up on two. Strictly business. Strictly brilliant.
Getting to half time would have been nice. But then, waking up every day next to comebody with lower back curvature the shape of Ilias’ opening goal would be nice too. Sometimes life’s a shitter. Three minutes of time added on proved to be one minute too many for the R’s as a corner was cleared first at the near post by Lee Wallace, then on an aerial return by Yoann Barbet, but, crucially, not at the third attempt by the usually faultless Jimmy Dunne whose air shot was punished into the bottom corner by rival centre half Dael Fry. You couldn’t argue with the score, or the scorer, but having got down to the final few grains of sand in the hour glass, this was a full blown ball ache. And then there was Joe Lumley. On his first return to Loftus Road, not 15 seconds into the second half, exactly the sort of concentration failure we became so sadly used to when he played for us. Boro, from their kick off, highly unusually, went backwards rather than forwards. Walking spellcheck Anfernee Dijksteel miscontrolled the ball and was immediately seized upon by Lyndon Dykes, whose work rate and physicality made him a useful pest all night. He passed the buck to Lumley and at this point it should have just been ‘let’s get out of here’ and argue about it later. Instead he tried to let the ball run across his body and switch the play, butchered it horribly, lost the ball to Chris Willock, and he couldn’t miss the empty net from five yards. Joe Lumley in a nutshell. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, OH MY GOD THE PIPER ALPHA’S ON FIRE. An error so horrendous, a personal moment so bleak, a mental torment so far, that even the Loft End could barely bring themselves to rip the piss to the extent they normally would. You couldn’t help feel for him, given his Rangers’ connections, but equally could you really say you were that surprised? This is what we came to expect when he was our goalkeeper — long periods of calm lucidity and decent form followed by a dramatic beer shit explosion just when you least expect it - often related to kicking, almost always down to concentration. In 1975, no one died. In 1976, no one died. In 1977, no one died. In 1978, no one died. In 1979, no-one died. In 1980... someone died. In 1981, no one died. In 1982, there was the incident with the dodgy kick at Fulham. In 1983, no one died... Lumley’s personality and concentration levels may actually benefit from the installation of Homer Simpson’s Everything’s OK Alarm. How crucial could his three point contribution to our cause this season prove to be come May?
Mind you, Marshall nearly had one of his own to reflect on soon after. When he did try to bail out of a botched attempt to play out from the back, the Scot skied the kick barely ten yards down the field, allowing Boro to nod the ball back into an under populated penalty box and Sporar struck the bar. The pressure thereafter was incessant. QPR couldn’t get out, or maintain possession of the ball. Johansen’s underperformance, albeit while apparently suffering from illness, didn’t help with this, nor the replacement of him with a second striker (Andre Gray) rather than another midfielder. Gray spent much of his time working back diligently in defence rather than threatening in attack. My untrained eye continues to think we under utilise Luke Amos in these situations, though Jeff Hendrick looked tidy enough on home debut — just that extra level of touch, control and awareness that comes with a Premier League player. Boro camped in and around the QPR penalty box for what felt like an age, ice hockey powerplay style, and eventually made it pay when Jones absolutely annihilated Wallace with an outrageous trick and nutmeg, then put a cross into the goal mouth which Albert Adomah turned into his own net rather than allowing Taylor to do the honours directly behind him. Adomah now just one short of 30 career goals for Boro. Every bit as annoying as the first goal, and every bit as deserved.
In truth, there only felt like one winner from here. Howson’s deliberate pull back after a beautiful Willock trick on the touchline for the game’s only yellow card a rare moment of light for harassed and harangued Rangers. I’m not sure Yoann Barbet taking the corners is the best idea we’ve ever had. Brighton loanee Aaron Connelly, fresh from the bench, wrought a final brilliant save of the evening from Marshall with an ambitious bicycle kick at the Trevor Sinclair end of the ground. Tavernier the latest to see a goalbound effort blocked away by Field, who’d recovered from a worrying looking injury in the first five minutes of the game to hold the midfield together by himself through sheer bloody mindedness. It all felt set for a grandstand finish through a skinny four minutes of stoppage time, but a nasty gash to Matt Crooks’ eye brought the sort of prolonged stoppage that football could easily avoid by moving players to the side of the pitch for treatment for such superficial injuries, and then his replacement Martin Payero went tearing into Field and ended up destroying his own knee in the process which brought another, more justified, break in play. We wish him the best, as always. Boro, now down to ten, chose to see the time out, and QPR, bossed for most of the final third of the game, were more than happy to shake hands on that.
The quality of the opposition, the intensity of their performance, the fierce tempo of the game, the atmosphere, the lights — this felt like a play-off semi final, and a match of this calibre would grace that end-of-season showcase. We are, very quickly, moving into the business end of the season, and this felt like a big game. The post match talk on the QPR side has focused on how good Boro looked, how we were perhaps lucky to hold them, and how they look best of a hard chasing pack to break into the six. Rangers, undoubtedly below their best, and in the face of such a challenge, didn’t lose. On this evidence, four points from two games with Boro is a haul many will happily swap us for come May. What we mustn’t do now, what we mustn’t do now, is go all ‘typical bloody QPR’ at Barnsley on Saturday. Recommended. Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread QPR: Marshall 8; Adomah 6, Dickie 6, Dunne 6, Barbet 6, Wallace 6 (Odubajo 78, 6); Field 7, Johansen 5 (Gray 68, 6), Chair 7 (Hendrick 60, 6); Willock 7, Dykes 7 Subs not used: Amos, Austin, Sanderson, Mahoney Goals: Chair 29 (assisted Willock), Willock 46 (assisted Lumley) Boro: Lumley 4; Jones 8, Dijksteel 6, Fry 8, McNair 6, Taylor 6; Crooks 7 (Payero 87, -), Tavernier 8, Howson 7; Sporar 6 (Connolly 81, -), Watmore 7 (Balogun 71, 6) Subs not used: Peltier, Bamba, Daniels, McGree Goals: Fry 45+2 (unassisted), Adomah og 60 (assisted Jones) Bookings: Howson 84 (foul) QPR Star Man — David Marshall 8 Three outstanding saves to preserve a point. Run close by Sam Field, doing the work of two in midfield with Johansen off colour, and producing a number of key blocks in his own area. Referee — Dean Whitestone (Northants) 8 Usual complaint about lack of time added at the end (four minutes given everything that went on in the second half was laughable) notwithstanding, I thought this was very well refereed and he contributed to the flow of the game and the overall spectacle. Not every bit of contact is a foul, not every foul is a yellow card. Solid, calm, unfussy, sensible refereeing. Attendance 14,140 (2,200 Boro) Impressive travelling support in number and volume. 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 Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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