After thrashings in the first games of the last two seasons QPR finally chalked up a victory on the opening day by beating Sheff Wed 2-1 at Loftus Road.
The road to redemption for Queens Park Rangers promises to be long and arduous. A 46 game season stretches out ahead of them and with the bookies making them favourites, Harry Redknapp in the dugout and this week’s signing of Charlie Austin suggesting the big spending days are far from over many sides will see the newly relegated Premier League team as a significant scalp.
The R’s will therefore be hoping they haven’t used up too much of their quota of good fortune on the opening day of the campaign. A visit from Sheffield Wednesday, perennially cash-strapped and embroiled in a relegation scrap for much of last season after a disastrous run of 15 defeats from 19 matches before Christmas, looked like a gentle re-introduction to Championship life for them in theory. But after a summer of optimism and big name signings 12 months ago gave way to an embarrassing relegation campaign of just four league wins QPR fans will be wary of ever judging football on paper again and the Owls proved awkward opponents.
Twice, either side of half time, the visitors had strong appeals for a penalty kick waved away by referee Scott Mathieson. Wednesday manager Dave Jones has only recently stopped prattling on about a spot kick his Cardiff City side should have had at Loftus Road back in 2011 and a prolonged post match rant about an impending anarchic civil war within football and Cameron’s broken Britain suggests we haven’t heard the last of his latest perceived injustice either.
Jones is a hard man to like but it was easy to sympathise with him on this occasion. His side, heavy odds against at the start of play, were already in the lead when the first controversial moment occurred.
The long suffering QPR fans would have been forgiven a sense of déjà vu when Albanian-born Austrian youth international Atdhe Nuhiu, signed on a free transfer from Rapid Vienna this summer, made the most of a powder-puff challenge from left back Armand Traore and a pocket of space on the edge of the QPR penalty box to smack in the opening goal from 20 yards in the nineteenth minute. A year ago the not-so-Super Hoops had been hammered 5-0 on their own ground on the opening day of the season by a Michu-inspired Swansea side and the awkward, rangy frame of Nuhiu coupled with deceptive skill and control sparked obvious comparisons. Earlier he’d taken in a pass on his instep while working space for himself in the penalty box in one fluid motion before dragging a shot across the face of goal. A good performance and goal on debut with the sun on his back is no real indication of how he’ll fare across a full Championship season but the early signs are promising for Wednesday.
He might have fancied the penalty himself had it been awarded just eight minutes before half time. Traore was again culpable, this time caught out by a simple long ball over the top from David Prutton and having allowed Michail Antonio to run in behind him and receive the ball the full back then appeared to send the Wednesday man to the ground amid a jumble of arms and legs. Mathieson was unmoved.
The official went one step further ten minutes after half time when Wednesday appealed as one for another foul in the QPR area. This time it was Joey Barton, surprisingly recalled to the starting line up by Harry Redknapp, of which more later, who hung a leg out and Wednesday substitute Jacques Maghoma who crashed to earth. Mathieson accused the fallen player of diving and showed a yellow card.
Neither Wednesday player did themselves any favours at all with the manner of their falls — backs arched, arms outstretched, faces contorted — and had they simply hit the ground naturally under the contact they felt they’d probably have got both decisions. On both occasions the players looked far too willing to go to ground and in fact Barton appeared to have withdrawn his leg before Maghoma even started his fall, although the reaction of the QPR man betrayed his guilt.
Ultimately the two players involved, and their team mates, were left to reflect on one of those days where nothing quite went right. Maghoma, a former Tottenham trainee promoted two divisions this summer after a 18-goal season with Burton Albion in League Two last season, almost ripped QPR’s left post out of the ground with a low shot that beat Robert Green all ends up 20 minutes from time. Antonio meanwhile somehow, implausibly, lifted the ball over the bar from little more than 12 yards out under no challenge whatsoever and with the goal gaping after Traore’s third abysmal piece of defending of the afternoon had allowed Jermaine Johnson to race clear into the QPR half and put the ball on a plate for his team mate.
Wednesday were chasing an equaliser by that point after undoing 40 minutes of solid first half work by conceding two goals in three minutes just before half time. First a short corner from Barton set up a chance for Junior Hoilett to fire in a cross-come-shot which found defender Nedum Onuoha at the head of a queue of unmarked QPR players at the far post and he could scarcely miss from four yards out. Onuoha, I suspect, will pick up the club’s Player of the Year award this season if he avoids long term injury.
Infused with confidence and a palpable sense of relief from that equaliser the R’s quickly set about taking the lead. Onuoha’s centre half partner Clint Hill headed down into the arms of Wednesday keeper Chris Kirkland from the next corner and although the gangly stopper then raced from his line to keep out a Joey Barton header at point blank range when Hoilett’s cross was deflected into his path he was powerless to do anything about the rebound which was crisply struck into the back of the net by Andy Johnson — another who could star this season if his body allows.
And that was far from a smash and grab raid. Johnson had seen a speculative 20 yarder deflected an inch wide of the bottom corner with Kirkland beaten, and cleverly used his chest to manoeuvre space for a powerful volley that the keeper palmed aside with the time still in single figures. Bobby Zamora, ineffective for the most part, was also denied by a fine save when he went for power from a narrow angle after Johnson had flicked a cross from debutant Danny Simpson into his path. And only Junior Hoilett will know how he failed to score from all of three yards out with a first time volley from an inch perfect Barton cross.
Rangers, who failed to score a goal in open play in their final six matches of last season, certainly weren’t wanting for creativity. Hoilett, who last season seemed to have dealt with a crisis of confidence by consuming excessive amounts of chocolate buttons, looked slim and brimming with self-belief here. When Barton sought him out with a raking crossfield pass immediately after half time he was able to glide into the heart of the penalty area past two challenges and was only denied a goal his all-round performance deserved by another fine stop from Kirkland. This was much more like the player who impressed so much at Blackburn prior to signing for QPR.
And Barton was impressive too, though his inclusion raises issues that may haunt Redknapp and QPR further down the line this season. QPR have made much of their desire to bring in "the right sort” to play for the team this season after a succession of incidents during the calamitous 2012/13 campaign. It’s difficult to see how Joey Barton can possibly fit in with that ethos given his behaviour since he arrived at the club, the infamous red card at Manchester City and subsequent 12 match ban, and the constant disrespect shown to the club and its supporters through his Twitter account.
Even if you ignore all of that, Barton turned up two days late for pre-season training and didn’t go on either the tour of Devon or the trip to Austria. Other players who did — Esteban Granero and Stephane Mbia for instance — were rewarded for their summer of turning up on time for gruelling fitness work and a variety of ball acheing friendlies by not even making the bench on Saturday. What kind of message does Barton’s inclusion send to the rest of the squad? Redknapp has point blankly refused to adopt Neil Warnock’s one-rule-for-one… approach with Adel Taarabt and yet seems happy to use it for Barton.
His performance here was impressive, punctuated with several high quality deliveries into the penalty box from wide areas, but that’s hardly the point and in actual fact, having been booked a short time earlier for a typically cynical lunge on Jeremy Helan out by the corner flag, he’d more than likely have picked up the third red card of his QPR career had Mathieson awarded the second penalty when he should have done.
Almost as perplexing as Redknapp’s decision to pick him from the start was the reaction of the QPR fans towards a player who has been nothing but trouble for the club since the day he arrived and even in the lead up to this game had his agent publicly courting a move to Everton while he Tweeted incessantly about a desire to move to Marseille. Bobby Zamora, admittedly playing poorly, got an ironic cheer from the crowd when he finally won a ball in the air during the second half and the decision to replace him with Charlie Austin a short time later got a rapturous reception. Zamora’s behaviour and performances have been nowhere near as bad as Barton’s during their respective time with the club and yet he’s heckled while Barton had his name sung during the game and was given a standing ovation when he left the field to be replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips ten minutes from time. I’m afraid someone will have to explain to me why Zamora, Jose Bosingwa and others are bad while Barton is some sort of returning hero because the logic is totally lost on me.
I personally felt that the widespread fawning over Barton on Saturday smacked rather of a lack of self-respect.
His inclusion was far from the only surprise sprung by Redknapp with his team selection. Barton played well enough to justify the faith but the same cannot be said of Armand Traore, another who looks set to leave the club and has played very few minutes of the pre-season games but was nevertheless started ahead of Yun Suk-Young despite the South Korean starting nearly every match during the summer. The Senegalese full back was at fault for the Wednesday goal and two other rank bad pieces of defending should have resulted in further scores.
And then there was Ale Faurlin — dropped from the first team friendly at Southend last Friday completely and forced to play with the stiffs against Leyton Orient behind closed doors on Saturday only to suddenly pop up as a starter here. Redknapp doesn’t seem to like the popular Argentinean, partly that’s down to his poor form since the former Spurs boss arrived at the club and possibly also because the manager is a little sick of hearing from supporters and board members what a wonderful player Faurlin can be. After a disastrous showing in an FA Cup thrashing by MK Dons in January, Redknapp made a pointed remark about being let down by players he’d been assured were excellent and then loaned Faurlin out to Palermo for the rest of the campaign. Then suddenly he threw him in from the start here.
The result was somewhere in between the performances of Traore and Barton. Faurlin struggled in the first half and when he inexplicably played in Jermaine Johnson for a shot across Rob Green’s goal at the start of the second half it seemed as though we were watching the final moments of his QPR career. That could still be the case but he grew into the match after that — strong in the tackle and clever with the ball, he’s another who looks leaner and fitter than at any point last season. Again though, the effect of suddenly including a player who’d been ignored for the latter stages of the pre-season ahead of those who probably thought they’d start on Saturday may pose problems later in the season.
A 2-1 lead can be a nervy affair in the closing stages of games and given that Wednesday hit the post you could argue that was the case here. But the visitors seemed low on ideas and demoralised towards the end to me. They’d already lost Joe Mattock through injury in the first half and slung on Gary Madine for Nuhiu and Rhys McCabe for former QPR youth teamer Giles Coke during the second period to no obvious benefit at all. It seemed they’d accepted it wasn’t to be their day.
QPR meanwhile spurned chances to make the game safe. New big-money buy Charlie Austin betrayed his rustiness by guiding a header from a fine Danny Simpson cross past the top corner when last season he’d have scored it in his sleep. Another back post header landed plum in the hands of Kirkland and Hoilett had a speculative shot blocked. Redknapp sent on Wright-Phillips for Barton and Jermaine Jenas for Hoilett by way of clock running but five minutes of added time passed without incident.
It won’t have escaped Dave Jones’ notice that Wednesday probably should have had a free kick on the edge of the box with the final kick of the match but Mathieson decided to blow the whistle for full time instead. A pinch of salt for the wounds and the Owls will no doubt consider themselves unlucky. It could easily have finished all square, but QPR looked a more accomplished side with the ball than Wednesday and perhaps just about deserved the victory penalty claims notwithstanding. A lesser goalkeeper than Kirkland probably would have conceded at least a couple more.
With games against Ipswich, Leeds and Bolton to come the August fixtures have not been gentle with Rangers and so getting a win on the board on day one was far more important than laying down any kind of performance marker. A win’s a win, and Rangers did just enough to get it.
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QPR: Green 6, Simpson 6, Onuoha 6, Hill 6, Traore 4, Barton 7 (Wright-Phillips 79, 6), Henry 6, Faurlin 6, Hoilett 7 (Jenas 87, -), Zamora 5 (Austin 68, 6), Johnson 7
Subs not used: Murphy, Dunne, Suk-Young, Derry
Goals: Onuoha 40 (assisted Hoilett), Johnson 43 (assisted Barton)
Bookings: Barton 56 (foul)
Sheff Wed: Kirkland 8, Zayatte 6, Gardner 6, Mattock 6 (Maghoma 37, 7), Palmer 6, Johnson 6, Prutton 6, Coke 6 (McCabe 69, 6), Antonio 5, Helan 6, Nuhiu 7 (Madine 76, 6)
Subs not used: Davies, Semedo, Taylor, Llera
Goals: Nuhiu 19 (unassisted)
Bookings: Palmer 19 (foul), Maghoma 57 (diving)
QPR Star Man — Andy Johnson 7 Looked bright, confident, relaxed and happy. Most importantly of all he looked fit and was a constant goal threat in the QPR attack. He could easily have scored twice before he finally did notch, and while the goalkeeper was absent for that one there were two defenders back on the line and he controlled his first time shot brilliantly, making it look easy when it was anything but. If that knee can hold up, he could be in for a great season.
Referee — Scott Matheison (Cheshire) 5 QPR haven’t had much luck with Mr Mathieson over the years, winning just one of 11 outings with him which includes the first part of the Vauxhall Motors debacle back in 2003. Dave Jones must wonder what he’s got to do to get a penalty at Loftus Road but perhaps QPR were owed the rub of the green from this official, who refereed one of the five defeats in Rangers’ 2010/11 promotion season as well. Impossible to give him a high mark though, given that he appears to have got two massive decisions wrong in the match and cost Wednesday a point, even allowing for the theatrical falls from both players in mitigation.
Attendance — 17,626 (3,000 Sheff Wed approx) Had QPR started the season with a "welcome back to the Championship” sort of a fixture against a club with a smaller travelling support then falling behind in the game when they did could have been a disaster. Empty seats and a demoralised home crowd could quickly have had this develop into a continuation of last season. But with a full house and a huge travelling support it almost felt like a Premier League game, and the QPR fans deserve huge credit for sticking with the team after it went behind. All in all the atmosphere was great and really helped Rangers get the right result. Small issue — why have smoke bombs suddenly become the must-have accessory for the travelling football fan and how on earth do you get them into the ground when I get stopped trying to take a bottle of Diet Coke in if it’s got the lid on?
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Pictures — Action Images