QPR overcame adversity, tough times and numerical disadvantage to take six points from two long away trips this week, now can they cure their problem with 'backing-up' against Barnsley in the early Saturday game.
Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Saturday August 21, 2021 >>> Kick Off 12.30 >>> Weather — Pissing down again >>> Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, Loftus Road, London, W12
One week, one whirlwind tour of the North East, and six points later I’m heading home. Never mind the players being fresh and fit enough for tomorrow’s early start against Barnsley, I’m exhausted myself and I’ve just been moving from place to place to stand and watch them. Zero consideration here from the EFL for people having to write Championship previews and reports. Why, when I'm having to train to Hull on Saturday, and drive to Boro on Wednesday, am I having to rush back for the early game on Saturday? Nobody can explain it to me. Not making excuses here, far from it, we'll get on with the job, in a respectful way, but we talk about fansite writer welfare and then they make us the early Saturday game after playing on Wednesday night. The train wifi, incidentally, isn’t working on this one either. A myth. A myth I tell you.
I guess the really obvious takeaway from our travels this week has been the resilience, and ability to come under prolonged pressure without crumbling. That was a real onslaught at the start of the second half at Hull, and through a combination of stout defending, superb goalkeeping, and an outrageous goaline clearance from Rob Dickie we were able to grit our way through that storm and come out the other side into the calm of a 3-0 win. Again at Middlesbrough on Wednesday there was an out and out blitz to deal with at the very beginning, which we would have done but for the penalty call, and we then emerged from a second half played almost entirely with ten men, and a prolonged period of added time, with two further goals scored and a win. With that old mantra of attacks win games defences win Championships in mind, and thinking back only to the season before last when we shipped 76 goals which was the third worst total in the league, this sort of steely resolve at the back has been great to see.
There are a couple of players I want to single out here quickly in particular. Rob Dickie is, deservedly, understandably, getting all the headlines and attention for not only his almost flawless displays in defence but also the run of four goals in eight games he’d been on prior to the trip to the Riverside. The QPR fans have also taken Jordy De Wijs straight to their hearts as exactly the sort of head-it, kick-it nasty centre back we’d so obviously been in such desperate need of for so long — although, in the first half at Boro at least, he had all on keeping a hold of Uche Ikpeazu who twice knocked him to the ground in one-on-one duels. Yoann Barbet to their left really only tends to attract attention when we’re talking about his attendance record (now 64 consecutive league starts going back to Huddersfield away in February 2020), his ongoing insistence that he should be the free kick taker, and his penchant for big extravagant crossfield passes. If we are indeed to be missing Lee Wallace, Sam McCallum and Moses Odubajo tomorrow, I’m sure Yoann will have an absolute whale of a time gallivanting up and down that left side, outlandish diags to the far post coming out of the wazoo. But he is, touch wood, defending very well too. It was Barbet’s big, brave, goal-saving defensive header under his crossbar in first half injury time at Hull that preserved a one goal lead in to the break, and his crunching backpost tackle that denied Matt Crooks a certain opener early on up on Teesside. Osman Kakay, too, rather gets left behind in most chats, seen, not entirely unfairly, as just useful and cheap back up. But he was also excellent coming off the bench during the week, not only winning a key tackle to set up Chris Willock’s winner, but also coping with the troublesome Isaiah Jones a good deal better than Odubajo had before him.
You also had to admire QPR’s attitude when reduced to ten men in that game against Neil Warnock’s side. As we’d seen before pre-lockdown at Preston, losing an important defensive cog to a red card early in the second half was not seen as a reason to try and shut up shop and play for a point, or even just limit the scope of the defeat. QPR continued to play for the win, perhaps catching Boro, like PNE before them, complacently thinking we’d just sit in with ten behind the ball and hope for the best. The attack was every bit as dangerous with ten men on the field as it had been with 11, and even having been pegged back to 2-2 off our own mistake, we quickly went back on the front foot to score a third and come close to a fourth immediately. That confidence and attitude bodes really well, and Chris Willock is clearly shaping up for a breakout season if he keeps going like this.
Honestly though, this all feels a bit try-hard. Let’s show how clever I am, how much football I watch, how deep my understanding is, by picking out weird and wonderful little contrary bits that mere mortals won’t have noticed, and then let them all nod sagely along. Two away wins in a week, six goals scored, five away victories on the spin is the obvious takeaway, and just one step under that is the way we’re playing. One and two touch, perpetual movement of players, fluid formations - regardless of opponent or circumstance, we’re playing a very attractive, very brave, very effective form of football that I could just sit and watch all night long. It’s everything we ever wanted from a QPR side.
So, there’s something there. Something stirring. We’ve got a good chance this season. What I’m intrigued by next is what happens against Barnsley.
Firstly, because of the schedule, which Warbs Warburton has been ramping up his objections to over several weeks. Even during that superb second half to last season, QPR remained a poor team on short turnarounds. They won four, drew three and lost none of the games they played after a break of eight days or more, but won only four, drew three and lost eight of the 15 games they were forced to play straight after a midweek outing. There was no better microcosm of this than the Easter weekend where they emerged from an international break to absolutely whitewash Coventry in one of the performances of the season on Good Friday, only to then fall in a hole with a hopeless loss at Nottingham Forest on Easter Monday. It would still be nice to discover that ‘backing up’ is one of our many new-found skills.
Secondly, because Warbs’ reign so far tells us we should have expected to do reasonably well against Millwall, Hull and Middlesbrough. Neil Warnock was smarmy and disparaging about Warburton’s ideals when his Cardiff team beat QPR 3-0 in South Wales in 2019/20 despite having 30% of the ball and just three shots on target — Rangers haven’t lost to Cardiff or Middlesbrough since, and have now won three times in succession against Warnock on Teesside. Similarly, with Millwall’s notoriously robust response, QPR are unbeaten in five since Warburton took over, with three wins and two draws. Against those teams that rely primarily on channel balls, turning full backs around, roughhousing, and dark arts, Rangers have generally been able to play through, around and underneath them for wins. It’s against the energetic, young, modern, high press set ups where we’ve struggled. Barnsley, once an absolute guaranteed three points for us at Loftus Road, have beaten us four times out of four over the past two seasons, scoring 13 goals in those games, including three in this fixture last season. There are already mumblings that the new manager has strayed too far away from Valerian Ismael’s death by snoo snoo football, favouring a more considered passing approach which has so far yielded just two goals in four games. We want to hope either that’s true, or we’ve learned to cope with the other way a good deal better, otherwise it’ll be a long lunchtime outing for a tired squad tomorrow.
Should the same happen at home to Barnsley again tomorrow it’s not the end of the world. Beat Coventry next week and that would still be 11 points from August. Take ten points a month over the course of a season and you win this league.
Links >>> Toxic opening day — History >>> After the Lord Mayor’s show — Interview >>> The magnificent ten — Podcast >>> Ward in charge — Referee >>> Barnsley Official Website >>> Yorkshire Post — Local Press >>> Sheffield Star — Local Press >>> BBS Fan Forum — Message Board >>> Red All Over— Podcast
Team News: Warbs Warburton has fumed for weeks about being handed two of his longest away trips of the season back to back, then being asked to hot foot it back to London from a Wednesday midweeker in time to catch the early Saturday kick off back at Loftus Road. He’s been slightly mischievous occasionally dropping in the potential early hours of Thursday morning return from Middlesbrough, because in actual fact Rangers stayed the night and made a leisurely trip back by train the following day — a nice surprise for a QPR supporting cabbie who picked up Ilias Chair at Kings Cross upon their return. Nevertheless, there’s some walking wounded from the week of travelling, the most serious of which would seem to be Lee Wallace who sadly left the field late clutching a hamstring after another super individual display. If he is indeed not fit it’s a race for Sam McCallum, yet to make his senior debut for the club after a summer loan move from Norwich because of illness. Moses Odubajo serves a one match ban for his red card at the Riverside so if all three are indeed missing there’s a decision to be made at left wing back — Yoann Barbet moving out there and Jimmy Dunne getting a start feels like the easiest fix. Up front Lyndon Dykes left the field early on Wednesday but is fit to start, Charlie Austin didn’t impress from the bench and was fortunate not to be sent off — the referee seeing the incident and awarding a free kick deprives the EFL the chance of retrospective punishment so both are available for selection in theory. Luke Amos and Sam Field are your long termers.
Barnsley’s timid start to the season in front of goal, just two from four games played, will not be helped by Carlton Morris dipping out for eight weeks with an injury suffered against Luton. With Darryl Dike back at Orlando and Alex Mowatt at West Brom all three goalscorers against Rangers here in April are not playing for the Reds tomorrow. In fact, of the 13 goals from seven different scorers Barnsley have managed against QPR over the last four wins and two seasons, only Cauley Woodrow remains fit and still on their books. Key defender Mads Andersen is also out while summer signings Aaron Leya Iseka (23, CF, Toulouse, Undisclosed) and Obbi Oulare (25, CF, Standard Liege, Undisclosed) are still to debut amidst a prolonged visa wrangle — a tangible benefit of Brexit at last.
Elsewhere: Some fascinating stories already developing across the Mercantile Credit Trophy. The footballing clown car that is Nottingham Florist seem to be on the cusp of sacking a manager in the final week of the summer transfer window for the second season in a row, with Chris Hughton hanging by the proverbial thread. The home crowd sang "you don’t know what you’re doing” and the name of predecessor Sabri Lamouchi as Hughton’s side bored their way to a third 2-1 defeat to start the season at home to Blackburn on Wednesday night — the value of James Garner in that limp form of turnaround they managed last season shining through clearly now he hasn’t returned. They have a tough trip to Stoke, who’ve taken seven points from nine and scored six times in three games, on Saturday.
Blackburn, meanwhile, host West Brom who trounced fellow relegated side Sheff Utd 4-0 during the week. Seven points for the Baggies as well as they shrug off pre-season fears that their ageing squad wouldn’t be suited to Valerian Ismael’s murderball style. The LFW tip for the title weighs heavy on the Blades, however, who are yet to score and continue to try and crowbar a squad built to play Chris Wilder’s back three formation into a standard 4-4-2. Rhian Brewster, still to score in the league a year after signing from Liverpool, spent more time at left back than centre forward in last week’s frankly quite weird 0-0 draw at Swanselona, who had Ryan Manning playing left centre back inside Jake Bidwell. Sheff Utd will surely (surely) have too much for hapless Huddersfield at home this weekend, the Terriers beat fellow disasterclass Preston Knob End during the week but registered zero shots on target in that game and look set for a season of struggle. Swansea are at Bristol City in the Friday evening game. Preston, who banged away at Huddersfield in a dour 4-5-1 with Brad Potts as the one, have newly promoted Peterborough at home this weekend.
Hull won 4-1 at PNE on day one but have since lost at home to QPR, and more surprisingly Derby, and they’ll have all on at Fulham tomorrow given the way the Whites ripped into Miiiiilllllllll in the Tuesday TV game. Likewise fellow League One alums Blackpool, who are down at Bournemouth. Gary Rowett’s Lions are yet to win, and go to Mick McCarthy’s Cardiff in a clash that should come with the sort of warning they put on bottles of supermarket own-brand bleach. Wayne Rooney’s Derby County will look to follow up that shock midweek success with their date on the Fourteenth Annual Neil Warnock Tour, assuming Neil isn’t still haranguing Steve Martin for not awarding Boro more than one soft penalty, or sending off more than one QPR player at the Riverside during the week.
Have I skilfully managed to work all the fixtures into a tightly wound three pars? I have not. Luton v Birmingham. Coventry v Reading. If you’re going to either of those you deserve everything you get.
Referee: Once upon a time the name Gavin Ward would strike fear into the hearts of anybody who’d paid money to attend a QPR game with him in charge, but he’s actually been very steady in more recent times. Can’t wait to see how that one blows up on me tomorrow. https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/55531/ward-in-char
QPR: The win at Middlesbrough on Wednesday night was QPR’s fifth-straight league victory on the road, their best sequence since 1927 when they won the first three away games of the 1927/28 Third Division South campaign to go with four wins at the end of 1926/27 (Norwich 1-0, Newport 2-0, Southend 3-0, Exeter 2-0, Swindon 2-0, Gillingham 2-1, Bournemouth 2-1) to set the club record at seven. It was also their ninth away win of 2021, with four months and ten away games still to come to match or beat the club record of 11 in a calendar year set in 1962 and equalled in 2003. Lyndon Dykes’ goal at Middlesbrough means he has nine goals and four assists in his last 13 appearances, having failed to score at all in his previous 21 games. Rob Dickie’s goals in tbhe opening three games of the season was the best QPR return since Andy King in 1981/82, but his failure to score at Boro stopped him equalling the club record held by Mark Lazarus and Brian Bedford, who both notched in the first four games of 1962/63. The last QPR player to score in four straight games was Charlie Austin against Yeovil, Middlesbrough, Barnsley and Millwall in September/October 2013. It’s eight years since QPR remained unbeaten through the first five games of the season in all comps, and you have to go back to 1987/88 for more than five unbeaten games to start the season when Jim Smith’s side went seven — Neil Warnock’s 2010/11 class were unbeaten through their first 19 league games of the campaign, but bowed out of the League Cup at home to Port Vale. Since Mark Warburton arrived, no team in the Championship has recovered as many points from a losing position as QPR’s 38. Massive hat tip to @QPR_Stats, @JTSupple and @HoopsDreams_QPR who assist with so much of this and are worth your time.
Barnsley: For so long, Loftus Road to Barnsley was like The City Ground to QPR. The Tykes had failed to win in W12 in 26 visits going back to 1950, with QPR winning 23 of those including 11 in a row between 1999 and 2020. Famously, in Barnsley’s remarkable 1996/97 promotion to the Premier League, they were beaten 3-1 and 3-2 at Loftus Road in league and cup, the latter game featuring Trevor Sinclair’s bicycle kicked wonder goal. However, they’ve now won their last two visits to this ground, 1-0 in the first game out of lockdown and then 3-1 last season. QPR are yet to win against the Tykes under Mark Warburton, with four defeats from four games played and 13 goals conceded across those fixtures. The win here last season was part of a sequence of seven straight victories and 11 unbeaten games for Valerian Ismael’s side which catapulted them into the play-off picture. However, they won only two of the last seven, and none of the last four, bowing out of the play-offs against Swansea, and have continued that run into this campaign with one 1-0 home win against Coventry the only success in four played so far. They drew at Cardiff on the opening day, lost to League One Bolton on penalties in the League Cup, and were beaten 1-0 by Luton at Oakwell during the week despite a 70% possession stat. They have scored just twice in four matches. Fear not though, they didn’t win any of their first seven matches in the Championship last term, a run snapped with a 3-0 home victory against QPR, and still made the play-offs ahead of Reading who won seven and drew one of the first eight.
Prediction: We’re indebted to The Art of Football for once again agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Mick_S took the title on the very final weekend of the season last year giving him the dubious honour of finishing our match previews in 2021/22. Here are his thoughts on Boro…
"Very hard to call as I don’t know if this season’s Barnsley are anything like last season’s - I hope we will have a bit too much for them as we have had such an encouraging start, so I’ll go 2-1 Rangers - Willock first goalscorer. Let’s get rid of the Barnsley bogey.”
Mick’s Prediction: QPR 2-1 Barnsley. Scorer — Chris Willock
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-0 Barnsley. Scorer — Charlie Austin
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