A wonderful first half strike from Charlie Austin was enough to win all three points for Queens Park Rangers against Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
One suspects that when Harry Redknapp looks back on his 30 years in football management many of the matches he’s been involved with all sort of blend into one. Run of the mill victories and defeats back in his West Ham and Bournemouth days have almost certainly been forgotten by now, though they probably felt like the most important thing in the world to him at the time.
Redknapp, and anybody else who was at Loftus Road on Saturday for that matter, will do well to remember Saturday’s game between QPR and Charlton, a match that ticked him into a fourth decade in the top job, much past the end of this week.
Last season defeats were routine for QPR, chalked up a couple of times a week with a minimum of fuss and effort. This term the trend has reversed, and Rangers are winning games consistently while apparently playing well within themselves. It’s testament to Redknapp’s experience and knowhow that the situation has changed around so quickly, after just a couple of months off during the summer, but while it seems churlish to complain after the suffering of the last 18 months in W12 there is a monotony to the way QPR are going about constructing their return to the big time.
Saturday’s game with Charlton was much like every other game played at Loftus Road this season. Derby apart QPR are finding themselves pitched against teams of meagre ability and even slimmer ambition — happy to pack midfields and hold on for draws. Charlton strung five across the middle of their team with lone striker Simon Church a token gesture towards attacking intent. They were solid, well drilled, and had a good shape to them. They made an eight day insurance seminar in Burton-upon-Trent look interesting.
So it rather depends on your outlook as to whether you’re pleased with how QPR are managing to pick off these limited sides one by one or not. Birmingham, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Ipswich and now Charlton have all adopted the same miserly outlook to trips to Shepherd’s Bush this season — carrying themselves with all the self-belief and confidence of a limp wristed liberal MP skulking home after his latest clandestine session with his regular rent boy — and Rangers have seen them all off without dropping a point or conceding a goal.
Here they won again thanks to striker Charlie Austin, who rode a challenge midway inside the Charlton half five minutes before half time and then unleashed a thunderbolt past goalkeeper Ben Hamer and into the top corner from the best part of 25 yards. A shining moment of high quality football to light up a gloomy afternoon.
That was always likely to be enough to win a match against a visiting side carrying so little threat, and it could have been even better still had a typically mishit shot from substitute Shan Wright-Phillips — making his first appearance in two months on for Niko Kranjcar midway through the second half — dipped into the net in four minutes of injury time at the end of the game rather than bouncing away to safety off the cross bar.
But at 63% possession, 21 shots to Charlton’s eight, seven shots on target to Charlton’s two — you couldn’t help but think QPR should have run the sword through the Addicks with a little bit more gusto than they managed here. Thirty five points and just a single defeat from the first 16 matches is a fantastic achievement given the mess Rangers were in just a few short months ago, but it’s only enough for third place in the Championship because of the lack of goals being scored.
Rangers initially showed no signs of rustiness after a two week international break, making an accomplished start to the game. Neat build up gave Joey Barton a sight of goal in the third minute but he lashed over the bar, then winger Matt Phillips used his centre forward’s physique to hold the ball up well and work space for a cross which Austin headed at Hamer. Benoit Assou-Ekotto showed the class that will see him take part in next summer’s World Cup with Cameroon when he turned smartly out of a tricky situation in his own half and set an attack in motion that ended with Jermaine Jenas having a shot blocked on the edge of the Charlton box. Hamer made a smart double save from Austin and Kranjcar shot over the bar when the keeper punched a QPR corner out to him on the edge of the box. Seventeen minutes in and QPR could feasibly have been out of sight.
And yet the scores remained deadlocked and the longer that went on the more it suited Charlton’s defensive game plan. It took the visiting side 23 minutes to pose any threat to Robert Green’s goal whatsoever but when the chance arose it was arguably the best one of the game — Simon Church, powering away downfield from a QPR corner with the home defence shorthanded and options for a pass left and right, elected to shoot speculatively at Green from long range and waste the opportunity. Seven minutes later Richard Dunne swooped in with a classy interception and pass out of defence when Barton — who left Loftus Road nursing a broken hand at the end of the day as injuries continue to mount in the QPR midfield — conceded possession sloppily in his own half.
This pattern of QPR peppering Hamer without ever looking like scoring, and Charlton staging very occasional breaks, continued through to half time. A smart save denied Phillips, Kranjcar wasn’t barwide with his shot ten minutes before the break, and Austin almost ripped the net off the back of the posts with his fortieth minute barnburner.
But Green had to parry a shot from Cousins and was grateful to see Church flagged offside as he honed in on the rebound and later poor communication in the QPR defence saw Danny Simpson head a ball behind for a corner when he had time to do pretty much whatever he liked with it. Charlton may have posed little threat but better teams in tougher away games certainly will and QPR would do well to work on their efficiency in front of goal for fear of being punished for their profligacy in the future — Millwall have already shown the R’s the danger of only holding single goal leads while dominating games this season.
The addition of Karl Henry, instead of Jenas, at half time was never going to improve the spectacle greatly and Charlton started the second half much the stronger of the two teams. QPR were caught — technical term this one — pisballing about around their own penalty area on a couple of occasions early doors and Dervite should have found the target with his header from Stephens’ free kick after a foul by Gary O’Neil. Immediately afterwards Assou-Ekotto had to make a great tackle in his own area to deny Stewart a sight of goal, then the former Hull winger volleyed wide when the resulting corner dropped his way.
Sensing there might be something here for his team after all, Charlton boss Chris Powell made a double substitution on the hour replacing Pritchard with young Callum Harriott, and the ineffective Church with French forward Yann Kermorgant who, even allowing for his recent period of inactivity enforced by injury, carried an extra layer of winter blubber that hints at rather too much enthusiasm for his nation’s cheese industry.
Still, despite the extra lumber, he was effective in a niggly way, diving around theatrically — including one incident where he claimed Assou-Ekotto had struck him in the face from a distance even Inspector Gadget would have struggled with and another where Joey Barton was harshly yellow carded - to con referee Dean Whitestone out of a couple of dangerous late free kicks that Rangers saw off easily enough. Immediately after coming on Kermorgant nodded back a deep cross immediately after his introduction that Stephens should have done far more than simply hack over the top.
Redknapp sent on Wright-Phillips for the tiring Kranjcar to little positive effect and Barton hit a shot straight at Hamer who was certainly being worked over less than he had been in the first half. Andy Johnson livened things up when he came on for the final 15 minutes alongside Austin and the way the pair of them linked up as time ticked down will add fuel to the fires of the 442 enthusiasts in W12 — but, again, better teams than Charlton will happily make hay through the wide open spaces of a central midfield containing only Joey Barton and Karl Henry, neither of whom look comfortable in that set up even in a game as low on quality as this.
Austin and Johnson teamed up immediately to set up the tireless Gary O’Neil for a shot that deflected over and Wright-Phillip drilled a clearance from the resulting corner straight back through the crowd but Hamer was equal to it. Johnson teed Austin up for a mishit shot off target and then showed the value his work rate can bring to the team when introduced late in matches by retrieving a ball any other player would have allowed to run away for a goal kick and crossing for O’Neil to shoot off target. Wright-Phillips hit the bar in stoppage time but there were chances for Charlton as time ran down as well — Cousins dug out a shot in the last minute but couldn’t keep it down.
A yellow card for visiting captain Johnnie Jackson for a late hack on Assou-Ekotto brought the curtain down on just the sort of victory that is becoming routine for Queens Park Rangers this season — a result that draws them level with Burnley and Leicester on an impressive 35 points at the top of the table. That Rangers are third despite losing two fewer games than the Foxes highlights the need for more goals.
It was the sort of ground-out win and stubborn performance that builds a consistent, promotion-winning set of results — a game nobody will remember come May if Rangers are celebrating in the sunshine at Barnsley, but important glue to hold a promotion charge together. Not one that will have the punters flocking back to Loftus Road during a long, cold winter ahead though, and probably not a particular career highlight for QPR’s evergreen manager.
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QPR: Green 6; Simpson 6, Dunne 6, Hill 6, Assou Ekotto 7; Barton 6, O’Neil 6; Phillips 6 (Johnson 77, 6), Jenas 5 (Henry 45, 6), Kranjcar 6 (Wright-Phillips 64, 6); Austin 7
Subs not used: Traore, Onyewu, Young, Murphy
Goals: Austin 40 (unassisted)
Bookings: Barton 85 (foul)
Charlton: Hamer 7; Wilson 6, Wiggins 6 , Morrison 6, Devite 6; Stewart 6 (Sordell 87, -), Jackson 5, Cousins 6, Pritchard 5 (Harriott 58, 6), Stephens 5; Church 5 (Kermorgant 58, 6)
Subs not used: Hughes, Evina, Alnwick, Wood
Bookings: Jackson 90+4 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Benoit Assou-Ekotto 7 Solid defensive performance and some classy touches on the ball made him stand out from the mediocrity. Crucial tackle at the start of the second half maintained QPR’s lead at an important time.
Referee — Dean Whitestone (Northants) 8 Certainly not the most fiery, keenly fought London derby you’re ever going to see, but what there was to referee Whitestone did well — remaining in the background while keeping a firm hold on proceedings. Marks off for allowing himself to be conned by Kermorgant twice in the final 20 minutes.
Attendance — 17,397 (1,700 Charlton approx) A subdued atmosphere in keeping with the action on the pitch — not the first time I’ve written that this season. Chris Powell seemed to get involved in a heated exchange with somebody in the Paddocks at the end of the match so we’ll see if anything comes of that.
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Pictures — Action Images