QPR opened their 2007/08 account at Loftus Road with a dire performance and comfortable defeat against Cardiff City.
"Your current position is… eight." EIGHT! I haven't been eighth in the queue on the box office telephone system since we were in the play offs. It took me 25 minutes to get through and order an extra ticket for this one - it seems talk of a takeover and bright future has brought people out of the woodwork already, the feel good factor is threatening to return to Loftus Road. When I did eventually make it through I could hear the takeover being discussed in the background at the box office - the general consensus being that only Mr Briatore having a heart attack over the weekend stands between QPR and an answer to all their problems and prayers. It was a good to see Paladini and Caliendo arriving together in the same taxi after the bust ups of the last week, and after watching Rangers turn in an abject performance against Cardiff it was just as big a relief to hear that Briatore apparently missed this game. If he'd been one of the souls unfortunate enough to be imprisoned in Loftus Road for this one he might well have packed his case and got himself back to Monte Carlo in double quick time. Rangers, but for ten minutes at the start of the second half, were limp and lifeless. They lacked ideas and organisation in all areas of the pitch, they fielded at least half a team out of position and were comprehensively outplayed on their own patch by a Cardiff side yet to field their star summer signings and with a left winger playing as an unorthodox striker. To make matters worse there were more hopeless long balls hoofed down the field by QPR on Saturday than on even the darkest night at the end of Ian Holloway's QPR career. I dare say there were some Paddocks regulars with sore necks on Sunday having spent all Saturday staring up into the grey skies over W12 waiting for the latest useless punt down the field to drop. With Johnson and Loovens at the back against Blackstock and Nardiello this tactic was pointless, infuriating and stupid. Nardiello left the field early to be replaced by Nygaard, a shake of the head and exasperated shrug of the shoulders gave the impression that the former Barnsley man is wondering why the hell he's bothered moving here. His partner too by the end looked to be getting to the end of his tether. I fear for the Blackstock family cat. There was none of the slick passing we'd seen at Bristol City, none of the goal threat, none of the spirit. Rangers started with Camp in goal behind Rehman, Stewart, Mancienne and Curtis. Moore and Ephraim played wide in the midfield with Rowlands moved into the middle with Bolder. Blackstock and Nardiello played up front. By my reckoning that's five players, including three midfielders, out of position right from the kick off. Rehman the centre back at right back, Curtis the right back at left back, Moore the striker at right wing, Rowlands the winger in the centre and Ephraim the striker on the wing. Some of this has been necessitated by injury and suspension of course but I'd be interested to hear Gregory's explanation for the non-selection of Sammy Timoska at left back. I may have dreamt his sending off against Stoke but I seem to recall two yellows, therefore a one game ban, therefore he could and should have played yesterday. If Timoska at left back and Curtis at right back isn't a better bet than the shite we fielded at the back yesterday I'm watching the wrong game. And Rowlands, man of the match in both games so far while playing wide, immediately moved into a less effective central role and, even worse, not moved out of it when it clearly wasn't working. The game started at a pedestrian pace with Nardiello hammering a volley into the empty seats of the lower school end and Parry firing a low drive an inch wide of the bottom corner with Camp scrambling across trying to cover it inside the first ten minutes. Nardiello smacked another effort towards goal on 15 minutes which appeared to be blocked by the arm of Glenn Loovens but referee Phil Joslin waved away the penalty appeals, probably the right decision on reflection. To rub salt into the wounds Adam Bolder then got a booking for a late tackle on Parry. The volley wide and penalty appeal was the only action to take place down at the School End in the opening 45 and as the half wore on Cardiff took the game over with embarrassing ease. They were well on top by the time they took the lead on the half hour. First McLean raced through a creaking offside trap to set up a one on one dual with Camp which the keeper won with a fantastic sprawling save down at the Scot's feet. From the resulting Trevor Sinclair corner though the ball was flicked on at the near post after being played in low and there was McLean totally unmarked eight yards out dead centre of goal to sweep the ball home. The summersault celebration in front of the Loft hardly endeared him to the QPR fans but frankly their angst should have been aimed more at the pathetic defending from their own side. Within three minutes Sinclair got free again and delivered a across that picked out McLean, again totally unmarked on the edge of the six yard box, but the summer signing from Sheff Wed contrived to head the best chance of the game wide of the post. Cardiff lost McNaughton to injury but it didn't upset their rhythm with Football League Apprentice of the year Chris Gunter replacing him and indeed within seconds the Blue Birds missed another magnificent chance to double the advantage. Trevor Sinclair, best player on the pitch by far to this point, made a late run into the penalty area to get on the end of a McPhail cross but his effort flew a foot wide of the post. Rangers couldn't have complained if it had dipped into the net and it would have been no more than Sinclair deserved for a performance that really rolled back the years on his old stomping ground. The whole half was summed up right on half time. A Cardiff free kick was flighted into the penalty area and the QPR defence stepped out as one to play the attackers offside. Everybody that is except Adam Bolder who remained in the area playing everybody on. It was a criminal piece of defending. Whether Bolder wasn't told, or he missed the signal, or made a decision not to run himself it was a shocking piece of defending and only Cardiff's complete confusion at what had just happened prevented them scoring from it. It needed a massive improvement from Rangers in the second half and so it was a surprise and a disappointment to emerge from the members' bar at half time to see the same eleven players taking to the field in Hoops for the second half. Rangers hadn't made it to the byline once in the first half and yet Rowlands was still stuck in the middle of a crowded midfield with Ephraim well marshalled on one wing and Stefan Moore offering next to nothing on the other. The performance did improve at the start of the second stanza though. Moore was unfortunate not to equalise with his first meaningful contribution to the game right after the break. Rowlands fed a lovely ball in behind the defence and Moore got to it first, lashing a fearsome drive towards the bottom corner which Turnbull did extremely well to touch onto the post. Sinclair was booked for a wild lunge on Ephraim as Rangers continued to press and then, ten minutes after the break, the chance of the game for the home side. Nardiello did well to nip in behind Loovens on the edge of the area and he looked certain to score until keeper Turnbull raced from his goal line and caught the striker's volley square in the chest to deny him his first QPR goal. A good save, although the keeper probably knew very little about it. As if Nardiello didn't feel bad enough about it Cardiff stormed straight down the other end of the field and killed the game off. Stephen McPhail faced little opposition as he moved onto a ball played into the channel down QPR's left and he had all the time he needed to deliver a plum cross right onto the head of Parry at the back post who could hardly miss from four yards out. Rangers immediately melted back into their first half floppy blancmange of a football team with one aimless long ball after another pelted at the heads of the strike force. That, and theatrics the National Ballet would have been proud of from Glenn Loovens, had the home crowd's teeth itching as the clock ticked down. After an extra lengthy spell rolling round on the ground Loovens was asked to get up and carry on by the referee. Turnbull threw the ball out anyway and Nardiello threw the ball short so Turnbull was forced to clear it out for a throw to QPR. Dave Jones wasn't happy and it injected some bad blood into an already turgid encounter. Even the normally faultless Michael Mancienne tried to do too much and conceded the ball on the halfway line leaving Parry a clear run on goal which was only blocked by a great recovering challenge from Stewart. Marc Nygaard was brought on for Nardiello a short time later to try and reach some of the aimless shit coming up from the back but Mr Joslin is one of those referees Paul Furlong used to hate because the target man always gets punished and so it proved, Nygaard succeeded only in conceding a plethora of silly free kicks. Nick Ward also came off the bench and he missed the best chance Rangers managed to create in the final 20 minutes, hammering a half volley into the ground at the back post so the ball bounced up safely into Turnbull's arms. All in all a dire performance from the entire team. It's hard to take any positives from this - the football was dreadful, nobody had a good game, the team lacked width and cohesion, there were square pegs in round holes everywhere, Cardiff needn't have taken their club suits off to play this game. The tactic of hoofing aimless balls down the field in some sort of sattempt to turn the Cardiff defence around with the giant Loovens and Johnson at the heart of the defence was a criminal tactic and one that should have been ditched after five minutes. All the pre-season optimism is flowing away at the moment and Briatore's money is needed on the pitch almost as much as it is off it. QPR need to respond to this at Burnley next week or I very much doubt there'll be eight people on hold when I ring for Southampton tickets in September. QPR: Camp 5, Rehman 5, Stewart 5, Mancienne 5, Curtis 5, Ephraim 5, Rowlands 6, Bolder 5, Moore 5 (Ward 5), Blackstock 5, Nardiello 6 (Nygaard 5) Cardiff: Turnbull 7, McNaughton 6 (Gunter 7), Johnson 8, Loovens 7, Capaldi 7 (Whittingham 7), McPhail 8, Rae 7, Ledley 8, Sinclair 9, McLean 8, Parry 8 QPR Star Man - N/A Referee - Phil Joslin 8 - Usual steady performance from Joslin, a referee I'm a big fan of. Cards kept in his pocket for the most part, allowed the game to flow, stayed out of the way. Little bit harsh on Nygaard when he came on I felt but otherwise excellent.
Subs not used: Bignot, Cullip, Cole
Subs not used: Oakes, Purse
Goals: McLean 29, Parry 58