Ian Holloway suffered a chastening 3-0 defeat at Ipswich in the second game of his QPR comeback on Saturday, despite his team dominating the first half.
Not hard to find an angle on this one. Holloway’s honeymoon cut short, QPR’s longest new manager bounce of recent times over after one match, size of the task laid bare to Rangers’ new manager, perhaps even a ‘Black Friday’ pun as, on paper at least, QPR sink to a dire and comfortable defeat against a poor team in bad form.
But this was actually one of those Championship matches that could easily have gone the other way entirely, despite the apparent one-sided scoreline. Seeing QPR dominate the first half of the game and yet lose 3-0 — and in truth, by the end, it could easily have been four or five — was an odd experience.
Ipswich had won only two of their previous ten matches coming into this one, a run that included a five game streak without them scoring a goal, and had lost on this ground a week ago to struggling Nottingham Forest 2-0 — a game that saw them concede within 17 seconds of the match starting, despite them taking the kick off. There were just shy of 14,000 empty seats inside a near silent Portman Road on Saturday as the natives grow wearier and more restless with their lot with every passing week.
It felt like a good time for QPR to be travelling to a ground where they’ve won on two of their three previous visits. The re-appointment of Ian Holloway as manager with all the energy and feels that has brought to the place, the renewed attacking ambition and fresh formation executed well the previous week, the confidence from a 2-1 win against newly-relegated Norwich — an away win felt more than possible, likely even.
You could see the contrasting mindsets of the two sides clearly in the first half. QPR, buoyed, pressing high up the field, playing with purpose and energy. Ipswich, nervous, lacking belief, frequently just whacking the ball out of play under little or no pressure. Tom Lawrence, in particular, seemed to have a bizarre fascination with finding the front few rows of the side stand in a dire personal first half.
Tjaronn Chery, playing more to the right than his centralised ‘ten’ role last week, lashed over after two minutes when home keeper Bartosz Bialkowski palmed a difficult, deep, looping cross out to him at the back post. Later the Dutchman found Conor Washington in the area and in space at the end of a flowing counter attack, but the former Peterborough forward miscontrolled the ball. At the midway point of the half Washington headed a prestenable chance at the keeper then, when Cousins powerfully won back possession directly from Bialkowski’s attempted quick release, Chery shot over the bar.
Grant Hall carrying the ball out from the middle of the back three to good effect was a feature of the first 45, and a typically forceful run ten minutes before half time led to Washington bearing down on goal one on one only for Bialkowski to spring from his line and block well having narrowed the angle right down.
This was a lot better than many recent away games, and yet little past the hour Rangers were three nil down. How and why is difficult to explain and summarise but here’s our best attempt.
The first factor was an enforced team change before the game. While Jake Bidwell’s return at left wing back after two months out with a shoulder injury was a welcome sight given Jack Robinson’s ongoing fitness issues, the return of Karl Henry at the base of the midfield didn’t have the 1,225 QPR fans in attendance hanging out the bunting and fetching the best crystal glass out of storage. Not necessarily because I want to join the boo boys on their Henry bandwagon, though he was bloody awful here, but more because his inclusion was forced by illness to Massimo Luongo.
No the Australian doesn’t score enough (at all) and yes he needs to influence games more and really cement himself as a dominant force in the QPR midfield, but Christ we do miss him when he doesn’t play. Rangers average 1.72 points a game when Luongo starts and 0.60 a game when he doesn’t this season (hat tip QPR Nippon) and when you replace his quick, intelligent, pass and move game with Henry’s ponderous, arthritic, over-cautious approach to possession it exacerbates the situation. Ipswich brought Jonathan Douglas back into their midfield after six games away and that, along with Luongo’s absence, saw them take over that area of the field after half time.
The second was the opening goal. Plenty of luck involved in Grant Ward’s bobbling thirteenth minute effort which rolled agonisingly past Alex Smithies and into the corner of the net after the keeper had initially got a firm punch to a well-delivered free kick — a punch that could have gone anywhere but fell plum to Ward, Town’s outstanding player on the day. Had QPR taken the lead, as Forest did here, the home crowd may have done much of the work for Rangers, but handing Ipswich a leg up lifted their spirits sufficiently and allowed Town to engage in some of the classic Mick McCarthy tricks that get wheeled out on such occasions — including sending all ten outfield players to the very far end of the field to celebrate goals so as to delay the restart of the game for a couple of minutes.
There was plenty of debate about whether it should have been a free kick in the first place. Lawrence appeared to simply run into Perch in the QPR right back area and hit the deck having overrun the ball, but when you’ve been trusted into the care of experienced Football League official Andy Woolmer for the afternoon anything really is possible. Woolmer, who succeeded in turning a run-of-the-mill midtable match between Preston and QPR last season into something resembling one of the more fat-fetched episodes of Chucklevision, returned with a first half performance here of complete ineptitude.
Perch was an interesting case study in this. Booked immediately for a late tackle on Bialkowski when he appeared to simply lose his footing, he then committed a horrible foul on Lawrence right on half time — late, needless, reckless, dangerous on a player tight to the touchline and going nowhere, dumping the Town man into the advertising hoardings. Perch does that a lot — stupid tackles in neutral areas of the field on players going nowhere, often at daft times of the game like just before half time or very late on when the score is already settled. He got sent off at Derby last season in similarly mindless circumstances. This one was as obvious a yellow card as you’ll ever see, which would have meant a red, and yet Woolmer let him off with a warning.
He’s one of these officials that goes through long periods of time getting absolutely nothing right, even by accident. It’s quite a talent actually, to not even get the odd one right by the laws of averages. Twice, right in front of the away end, he guessed at reasonably simple throw in decisions and got them the wrong way round. The ball stayed in play for mere seconds at a time before another whistle was blown, another free kick awarded, another player spoken to. Every throw in was placed meticulously. The pace of the game was glacial at times and it was no surprise when frustration got to both sets of players and a fight broke out in the second half — Tjaronn Chery and Tom Lawrence booked as a result. Woolmer would go through periods of the game where literally everything was a free kick, and then snap that by turning down a blatant one — Christophe Berra standing behind Seb Polter with both arms wrapped around the German holding him in place as the ball drifted by one of the more startling misses.
He’s not capable of controlling games at this mediocre level, and constantly gives the impression of somebody on day release from a secure unit.
The third factor was the half time score. QPR had more of the ball, and more of the chances, but didn’t look overly threatening. Bialkowski had played well, and made one decent save from Washington, but it was hardly the second coming of Lev Yashin. Ipswich, who were in front at the break anyway, couldn’t possibly be as bad again in the second half and sure enough McCarthy put a number of measures in place at the break — stopping Hall carrying out from the back, crowding Chery, getting in behind QPR’s wingbacks, seizing control of the midfield through Douglas — that stopped the R’s dead in their tracks. Rangers, as the away team, needed to make the most of their first half superiority and instead they contrived to go in at the break losing.
The fourth, final and most crucial point was the second goal. The game was much more even after the tea and oranges — which went on until nearly ten past four for some reason, Woolmer incapable of even starting the bloody game on time it seems — and could have gone either way until Alex Smithies came out of his area to head away a long ball down the field, changed his mind about what he was going to do with it at the last minute, had a complete brain fart and left Luke Varney with a clear run through to an open goal for 2-0.
Even the bloke on the public address system was laughing when he announced who'd scored and with a record of just 35 goals across 238 appearances for seven different clubs since 2008 it wasn't hard to understand why, even without the farcical nature of the goal. Varney, a striker, hasn't scored double figures in a season since he left Crewe a decade ago.
That needn’t have been terminal, teams have come back from two goals down with half an hour to go before, but whether it was the manner in which it was conceded, a general lack of confidence around the team, or a collective bad attitude, Rangers seemed quite happy to run the white flag up the pole from the moment Varney knocked it home. Having looked like one of the worst teams we’ve played this season in the first half, Ipswich were absolutely rampant for the final half an hour and could have racked up four or five quite easily with almost no resistance whatsoever.
They scored again, almost immediately, when Lawrence was left unmarked and onside in the area and slid home after a mishit shot fell his way — his transformation from first half to second a microcosm of his entire team.
Chery, harassed all half having been left alone in the first period, conceded possession on halfway with a quarter of an hour left and David McGoldrick curled wide with Smithies beaten. Sandro, on for Perch to no positive effect whatsoever, gave the ball away soon after that and Smithies made a great save one on one with McGoldrick to stop him scoring a fourth. Ward then thought he was in for his second but the keeper skilfully repelled him as well — all well and good this, but little use making spectacular saves after your bollock has ended the match. McGoldrick went through on goal in four minutes of injury time and tried to chip Smithies but the keeper read the intention and beat the ball away.
As with last week, QPR got worse with each substitution. A bench of four wingers for a team playing with wing backs will do that to you I suppose.
Idrissa Sylla came on for Seb Polter to try and spice the attack up, but appeared completely disinterested. Only Conor Washington kept running to the end. That lack of legs and mobility wasn’t helped by Sandro coming on for Perch — any hope that might wrestle control of the midfield back from Douglas and Skuse quickly drained away with the Brazilian miles and miles off the pace of the game. He did thump the post with a header from a corner, so the fan club can cling to that, but he, like Henry before him, was dire and Luongo was missed terribly.
Holloway stood on the touchline whirling his arms around demanding more. Marc Bircham was particularly disgruntled with Sylla at one point when his half-hearted attempt at some hold up play ceded possession once more. Both will have been less than impressed with a limp final 30 here and will need to get to the bottom of whether it’s a lack of belief and confidence, or something more mercenary, more sinister and, sadly, more QPR.
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Ipswich: Bialkowski 6; Webster 6, Chambers 6, Berra 6, Knudsen 6; Ward 7, Skuse 5, Douglas 6; Lawrence 5 (Best 80, -), Varney 6 (Sears 68, 6), McGoldrick 6
Subs not used: Gerken, Bishop, Bru, Williams, Emmanuel
Goals: Ward 13, Varney 54, Lawrence 61
Bookings: Lawrence 71 (fighting)
QPR: Smithies 5; Onuoha 5, Hall 6, Lynch 6; Perch 5 (Sandro 59, 4), Bidwell 6; Henry 4, Cousins 5 (Ngbakoto 67, 6), Chery 5; Washington 6, Polter 6 (Sylla 59, 4)
Subs not used: Ingram, Wzsolek, El Khayati, Shodipo
Bookings: Perch 25 (foul), Chery 71 (fighting)
QPR Star Man — Conor Washington 6 Star man with a six, star man despite being a striker who didn’t score, star man simply for running about more than everybody else… Possibly all true but after an opening hour that, despite the scoreline, offered encouragement the most troubling aspect of this performance was the way the white flag went up the pole after the second goal. Washington, at least, fought to the end.
Referee — Andy Woolmer (Northants) 4 Absolute helmet. Unique, uncanny ability to get every 50/50 decision completely wrong. Some of these will inevitably be guesses, so you would think he’d get them right purely by luck. But no. The James Perch nonsense summed him up — one yellow card that could easily have been a quiet word, then an obvious second yellow where he settled for a warning - followed immediately by a throw in given the wrong way. Fourteen years on the list, and yet entirely incapable of controlling midtable Championship fixtures with any modicum of confidence or competence. Total liability.
Attendance — 16,510 (1,225 QPR) Sad to see and hear Portman Road, which is a quality football ground right in the middle of the town and very atmospheric when it gets going, half empty and almost completely silent even in comfortable victory. This is your Financial Fair Play fall out — two clubs working with a hand pressed firmly on their heads, who already know where they’re going to end up this season, charging in excess of £30 to get in. Don’t expect a lot of people to turn up, and for those that do to be in particularly high spirits, in those circumstances.
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