There’s a burning sense of injustice in the QPR camp after the events of the weekend and the result of today’s FA hearing, and that may be no bad thing as the R’s prepare to welcome Swansea to Loftus Road.
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Ah the sweet, tangy, valuable taste of a potentially galvanising injustice; exactly what we needed at exactly the right time. Bolton's Lee Mason and his ludicrously out of touch bosses at the FA may just have done QPR a colossal favour.
There surely isn't anybody of sound body and mind who has seen the Shaun Derry incident at Old Trafford on Sunday, either at the time or retrospectively, and thought it anything other than an embarrassing shambles. A player three yards offside blatantly dives under minimal contact and yet finds himself rewarded with a penalty while the innocent party took a long, lonely walk to the tunnel.
Lee Mason, the referee in charge at Old Trafford, is not permitted to take charge of Bolton Wanderers games because he lives in the town, supports the team and has a brother who was once on the playing staff there but was allowed to oversee a match involving their immediate relegation rivals on Sunday with corrupt consequences.
The FA and referee's association has faced allegations recently that Manchester United receive favourable decisions from officials on a regular basis. Man City technical director Patrick Viera went first, followed by a tidal wave of public opinion in the wake of a similarly dreadful decision to Mason's from Michael Oliver at the very end of Man Utd v Fulham a fortnight ago when the visitors should have had a last minute penalty. With that going on it was inevitable that Shaun Derry's appeal against the scandalous red card he received would be rejected, because to do otherwise would be to admit that Man Utd have had a favourable decision at Old Trafford just as everybody has claimed. When the news broke on Tuesday afternoon it was the least surprised I'd been since I heard about Fitz Hall's latest hamstring injury.
By also refusing to charge Mario Balotelli retrospectively the FA has, in one afternoon, endorsed diving in the penalty area and knee capping opponents. That's quite a day at the office there.
But now is not the time for sulking and feeling hard done to, now is the time for QPR to turn this to their advantage. I don't think it's unfair to say they’ve had a fractured team this season, with big clutches and cliques signed in bulk at different times by different managers for different reasons with next to no forward planning at all expected to integrate into the line up. I also don't think it's incorrect to say that the support, both in numbers and volume, hasn't been where it should be at times and has been quite grizzly and irritable with each other and the players on occasions. There's been an ‘us and them’ attitude prevailing basically: between the new players and the old players, and between the supporters and the team.
Sunday at Old Trafford may just have changed all that at exactly the right time. I know I'm not alone in feeling immensely proud of the way Shaun Derry remained composed and simply turned and left the field when every thought in his mind must have been around the devastation of such an unjust decision 14 minutes into him captaining a team at Old Trafford for the first time in his career. Had it been me I'd have been tempted to give Ashley Young something to really roll around on the floor about so Derry 's restraint and dignity was admirable and a credit to him and our club. Thereafter the team stuck together to avoid a rout and the fans were as loud as they've been for months.
As well as Derry's long walk to the tunnel the other moment that stuck with me from Sunday, apart from the obvious, was Mark Hughes at full time ensuring that every member of his playing staff went to the end where the QPR support was housed to applaud the travelling support. Hughes is somewhat aloof, and never really one to acknowledge the support one way or the other, so for him and then the players to respond to the away fans in that way was a big moment after recent tensions over the Joey Barton issue.
The way our team performed, behaved and conducted itself in the face of such injustice was something to be really proud of and the supporters responded in kind. It felt like we were as one again and by all accounts the atmosphere and performance against Arsenal in my absence last week was as good as we've had all season.
There's nothing like injustice and an us-against-the-world attitude to galvanise a cause so let's embrace the nonsense we've put up with in recent away trips and use it to our advantage. The next three games are all winnable and all crucial so this could all have come at exactly the right time.
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Team News: Joey Barton was rested on Sunday as Mark Hughes attempts to protect him from a two match suspension for accumulating ten yellow cards but he will return to action for this game. As will Bobby Zamora who missed out on a start at Old Trafford after suffering from a virus. Alejandro Faurlin is a long term absentee and there is still no sign of Heidar Helguson but DJ Campbell got a run out as a sub on Sunday and is available again. Sadly, scandalously, Shaun Derry serves a one match ban while Djibril Cisse serves game three of four in his suspension.
Kemy Agustien is a long term absentee for the Swans who are likely to recall Danny Graham and and Scott Sinclair who both sat out the recent defeat against Newcastle.
Elsewhere: The second half of the traditional Easter double header has been a strange one to keep up with as the games have been spread out over three days. So far the results have gone QPR’s way, just as they did at the weekend. On Monday Bolton were beaten 2-0 at Newcastle and then Blackburn contrived to lose at home to out of form Liverpool on Tuesday despite the visitors playing the majority of the game with ten men after their goalkeeper was sent off. Aston Villa’s cause wasn’t helped greatly by a 1-1 draw with Stoke that leaves them sweating and looking over their shoulder at the bottom five beyond.
There are four games left to complete on Wednesday evening with three of the bottom four in action including QPR. The other two have difficult tasks, with Wigan hosting champions-elect Man Utd and Wolves welcoming in-form Arsenal to Molineux. Elsewhere West Brom go to Man City.
Referee: Just when we needed a safe pair of hands, and eyes, to restore our faith in officialdom the powers that be send us Lee Probert, a man who once dismissed Jude the Cat in a QPR home game against Preston before he kept confusing him with the Rangers players. Reassuring. Of more concern is Probert’s decision in the preceding game between these two sides this season, which he also refereed, to allow Danny Graham to score after bringing the ball down with the palm of his hand. Hopefully there will be no repeat of that farce this Wednesday in a much more crucial game for the R’s. For a full case file please click here.
QPR: Man Utd kept a trio of lousy numbers ticking over with defeat against Man Utd at the weekend – they’ve now had seven players sent off this season, lost eight and drawn two of their last ten away matches, and gone 23 matches without keeping a clean sheet in the league. They have however started to put something together at home: having won just one at Loftus Road in their first ten attempts in all competitions this season they’ve now won four and drawn one of seven home fixtures.
Swansea: The Swans have only won one of their last 14 meetings with QPR and have never won a league match at Loftus Road. They have lost their last three league games coming into this one. They’re likely to have a big say in the relegation dog fight though with fixtures against Blackburn, Bolton and Wolves immediately following this match. Gylfi Sigurdsson has scored five of the club’s last seven league goals, taking the pressure off Scott Sinclair and Danny Graham who account for half of the goals the Swans have scored this season overall.
Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding tells LoftforWords… I am going to keep my preview as short as Derry's appearance at Old Trafford this week. Just to make a point, a compiler can do all the studying he needs and work really hard to arrive at his price but when the officials put in a performance like they did on Sunday, it’s hard not to justify going 1/100 Man Utd to get a penalty at Old Trafford every week. Now QPR, with rested players Zamora and Barton coming back into the fold, take on a stuttering Swansea side. I am not going to discuss the merits of Swansea's beautiful passing game just suffice to say, when unchallenged in your own half, putting together 100 passes is easy. The key to playing Swansea is let them expend lots of energy with their overplaying passing game in their own half - just press them high up on the halfway line. Tottenham and Newcastle both did this very well in recent weeks and indeed the ten men of QPR did it extremely well at Old Trafford.
QPR are 11/10 here generally. I think they may go off a bit shorter. If they can utilise the vast improvement in set pieces currently being shown due to the excellent Taarabt, this can be the start of the great escape. Clint Hill was robbed (like myself who bet on him!) at Bolton, and has looked dangerous at set-pieces in both the Arsenal and Liverpool games. Swansea have started to look suspect aerially and I am going for a big price bet for this game. Clint Hill to score at anytime 14/1 with Betfred or Totesport. My feeling on the game is QPR can add a third consecutive home win to aid their Premiership survival. I think if we lose here, we probably don't deserve to stay up....
Match Bet - Clint Hill to score at anytime at 14/1. (Note- If you wish, myself and my tips (mainly horse racing!!) can now be followed on Twitter @Gouldingo. Thanks)
Prediction: Still reeling from not only getting the score right for the first time this season on Sunday but also the time, method and scorer of the first goal correct as well I’m going to bask in the glow of success before normal service is resumed. Here I see a tense game against a team that’s easy on the eye and relaxed in the knowledge that their mission is done for the season. That could either see them overrun by a more committed and hard working side or suit them well against a team with plenty to worry about and pressure piling down on them. I suspect the latter will be more at play in a tight, tense and frustrating 1-1 draw.
1-1 best price 6/1 with Blue Square and Stan James, Swansea half time draw full time is 16/1 with Sky Bet
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