Saturday's home hammering by Coventry has left the mood bleak and the team teetering on the brink of relegation as they head into tonight's homer with Norwich.
Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Wednesday April 19, 2023 >>> Kick off 19.45 >>> Weather — Sunny and dry >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
Another big week in the life of Queens Park Rangers.
Saturday, set the club record for home defeats in a season. A fourth 3-0 home defeat so far, this time at the hands of Coventry City, with three of the most defensively shambolic goals you’ll ever see. Chris Martin, the club captain, does a post match interview put out on the club’s own official website where he intimates the players are not dedicated enough off the field. Leon Balogun, one of the "cavalry” who was supposed to be coming to save us, off before the end four games into a comeback that has included one point, eight goals conceded, one boot off with the fans in the away end, and one training ground summit. Tyler Roberts, four months into his "calf strain”, picks up a "niggle” in the half time warm up of his comeback and disappears, then spends Monday Instagramming pictures of his latest tattoo captioned "putting pain into art”. Twitter blowing up having realised director of football Les Ferdinand is hosting a dinner in Hong Kong next week as the team prepares to head to Stoke for what looks like it's going to be a crucial game to our chances. CEO Lee Hoos gets accosted by a supporter on the street trying to film him, the clip cuts out, then cuts back in with him holding up two middle fingers at him. Gareth Ainsworth, who took over with the team eight points clear of the relegation zone, describes staying in the Championship as a "phenomenal achievement” and says that relegation to League One would be neither a tragedy nor a disaster because… volcanoes erupting and that.
And it’s only Wednesday.
Ainsworth’s pre-match interview for tonight’s game against Norwich was a tough watch. His stint here as a popular player in a successful team was always going to make him a candidate for the managerial position at Loftus Road the more and more successful he was at Wycombe. We watched with a mixture of admiration and pride as he carted the Chairboys all the way up to the Championship, every time our job came up (every 20 minutes or so usually) the question was asked and every time it became mired in the weeds of the same concerns over style of play, differing expectation levels at the two clubs and the fear that we would interrupt the brilliant thing he was continuing to build at Wanderers only to bring him in here and kill him with QPR. Could you stand to see a Loftus Road crowd turn on Gareth Ainsworth?
Usually both club and fans decided it was best not to go there, until this season when we got just desperate enough to try it. Even the most pessimistic QPR supporter, or biggest Gareth Ainsworth critic, would struggle to have predicted it going this badly. Seven defeats and just four points from nine games, a quick rattle through three formations only to land back on the basic 4-4-2 nonsense Neil Critchley left us with, 21 goals conceded, a 6-1 at soon-to-be-relegated Blackpool… There just doesn’t seem to be any plan over and above trying to optimism and attitude our way out of this mess. We go in with a two against a Preston team everybody knows plays with a three-man midfield, get completely overawed and out played through the middle of the park, and then one home game later do exactly the same all over again versus a Coventry side that, again, have been playing their three-at-the-back and three in midfield system for many years now. Afterwards Ainsworth said there "wasn’t much in the game” and he "didn’t expect that against Coventry”. We could see it all coming, I said as much in the match preview on Friday, I’m amazed there wasn’t at least some sort of effort to match up numbers and stem the bleeding through midfield rather than just letting Whiteman and then Hamer have the run of the place.
Ainsworth took over with the team eight points away from the relegation zone, at which point he said relegation wasn’t a concern and he wasn’t thinking about it. This is, again, his schtick. He’s enthusiastic, optimistic, and he hopes that carries his players with him — I get that. But it does betray a broader attitude at QPR which I think prevailed right up to the Wigan game that, look, it’s bad, we’ve got lots of things wrong, there will be changes, but… of course we’re not going down, are you mad? We were top in October, give over. Every interview, every conversation, every meeting, every contact we as supporters, and I as editor of this site, had with people at QPR through the spring has basically been themed Operation Get To The Summer. Just need to get this season over, just need to get to the summer, just need to get it over with. You were never going to be able to coast there losing literally every game, and there was nothing in this team and its performances to suggest it would do anything other than that returning players or no returning players.
I genuinely think Ainsworth, and everybody else at the club, thought being able to bring Ethan Laird, Leon Balogun, Kenneth Paal, Ilias Chair and Chris Willock back all at once for the Wigan away game was some sort of enormous ‘gotcha’ for us and the rest of the division. That they were keeping their cards close to their chest with regards injuries and who would be out for how long, and then they were going to go up to poxy, bottom-placed, obviously-going-down Wigan to plonk all those cards on the table at once and take the jackpot for themselves, like Del Boy's big ‘two pair’ reveal. This massively over-estimated how good these players are, how arsed these players are, how fit these players are, and completely ignored that all of the had been involved heavily in the beginning of this now biblical run of two wins from 27 fixtures. They have, predictably, not moved the needle at all. Having relied on these lads to get you out of this, and been rewarded with what we’ve seen over the last four games since they returned, Ainsworth and the club now have nowhere left to turn. The demeanour and words have changed markedly in the last few days — we’re reduced to the "there’s starving kids in Africa you know” defence of "well a relegation wouldn’t be the end of the world”.
Ainsworth has spent the build up to tonight’s clash repeatedly describing his players as "fragile” and says his job at the moment is to try and "pick the least fragile” of them. He continuously says he "feels for the boys” but it’s them letting him down every week, they are capable of better than this. "I tried to implement the style I’m used to with a high press and step into midfield, the boys were uncomfortable with it so we changed,” said the dog, frantically being wagged about by its tail. I’m much more taken by the club captain going on the club’s own official channel and saying publicly: "We need to have honest conversations with each other and with ourselves. How dedicated are we off the pitch?” That’s much more as I see it with these players. For a 10,000 hour captain to be coming here in January and drawing that conclusion about this group is really quite something for me. Saturday’s "injured in the warm up” farce, for example, came as absolutely no surprise to anybody who’s stayed above decks at any half time this season and watched how our substitutes behave and prepare themselves in that 15 minutes — mostly mooching about like sulky teenagers, attempting to nutmeg each other or do keep ups, while unfailingly the opposition at the other end go through set routines and planned drills.
"It’s a tough old place to manage,” Ainsworth concluded, nine matches into his reign. QPR’d already. His demeanour now much more that of a man struggling to see a way out of this mess with four games to go. On that I agree with him, I just got there sooner.
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Team News: Lots of familiar cavalry members back on the injured list after the weekend defeat by Coventry. Leon Balogun’s brief and glorious return to the centre of the defence appears to be done after a whopping four games, with a hamstring injury forcing him off after the defensively catastrophic second goal, leaving the team to play out stoppage time with ten men. Tyler Roberts had made it back as far as the bench having not been seen since January but then managed to get "injured” again in the half time warm up so we’ll wait to see if we’re being graced with his presence tonight. He spent Monday Instagramming pictures of him getting his latest chest tattooed under the caption "putting pain into art” — not sure if that’s the pain of his four-month calf strain, or something deeper. Osman Kakay is out for the season with the knee injury he picked up against Birmingham. Tim Iroegbunam may return to the squad tonight, although as usual we’re not allowed to know what’s been wrong with him. Jake Clarke-Salter also remains on the cusp of some alleged involvement at some point, somewhere. Big Bad Luke Amos, making a first start since November 5, got through 82 minutes at West Brom on Easter Monday before expiring again. The Ethan Laird sit-down sweepstake number is 48, the draw machine is Guinevere, and the set of balls is entirely absent.
First choice Norwich centre backs Grant Hanley and Ben Gibson both left the field early in the 2-0 win at Blackburn, Norwich’s only win in seven, and have both been ruled out for the season leaving the visitors very short in defence. Kieran Dowell’s knee injury will keep him out until the end of the month and this week’s crucial Countdown conundrum Przemyslaw Placheta is out with a shin problem.
Elsewhere: Four of the teams down at the bottom with QPR played last night, and three of them picked something up. Most impressive was Wigan’s 1-0 away win at Stoke, which keeps them just about in the fight with a five point gap to fourth-bottom Cardiff and five points to ourselves. Second bottom Blackpool, however, were beaten 2-0 at home to West Brom so they remain four back from Cardiff and five from us. Huddersfield nudged a point ahead of the R’s with their impressive 1-1 draw at play-off chasing Sunderland while Rotherham are now three points away with a 17 goal advantage into the bargain after a 2-2 home draw with champions Burnley.
In all likelihood, Wigan and Blackpool are gone and the final relegation spot is between QPR, Reading and Cardiff. Reading kick off 15 minutes later than us tonight at home to promotion chasers Luton. The Royals still have Wigan H and Huddersfield A to play which looks like it could settle their destiny. Cardiff, who sit between us, with point fewer than QPR and a better goal difference than Reading, go to unpredictable and untrustworthy Watford tonight.
Elsewhere last night Sheffield Red Stripe all but booked their trip to the Premier League with a 1-0 home win against Bristol City. Millwall, despite having easily the kindest run in, are stumbling in their quest to join them, with a 1-0 defeat at home to Birmingham the latest blow to their play-off chances. There are only four points between the Lions in fifth and Norwich in eleventh. Two of the clubs in that clump, Blackburn and Coventry, play at Ewood Park tonight. Another, Preston, are at Swanselona. Boro are secure in the six but can’t make the two so have an extended play-off warm up starting tonight at home to Hull.
Referee: The beatings will continue until morale improves. Details.
QPR: Yet another six-game winless run following the 1-0 win against Watford, five of which have been lost with 15 goals conceded and just three scored. Rangers have lost ten of their last 12 games, and seven of nine since Gareth Ainsworth took over. It’s now just two wins from 27 matches, 21 defeats from 42 played, 34 defeats in the last 64 games under four managers and just 15 wins in that time. The 67 goals conceded is the league’s worst record, and only Cardiff and Wigan have scored fewer than our 40 goals. At Loftus Road, where QPR have only scored four times at the Loft End all season (two penalties), records are starting to tumble. They’ve now lost three in a row without scoring on their own ground, have lost six of the last seven here and won only one of 13. The Coventry defeat was the fifth time Rangers have conceded three goals in a game in W12 this campaign, and the fourth time they’ve lost 3-0. It was the eleventh home defeat of the season, equalling the club record set by Steve McClaren’s team in 2019 so another defeat either here or against Bristol City will make it the worst ever season for QPR home defeats in the history of the club. The current total of 22 points would be our lowest ever second tier haul at home. Four of the bottom ten seasons for points won at home have come in the last decade — 2013 (14), 2023 (22), 2015 (23), 2012 (26). Last time we were relegated from this league, in 2001, we managed 27. Three of the four central midfielders we’ve used in the last two games - Andre Dozzell, Luke Amos and Taylor Richards — have scored fewer goals this season than Seny Dieng. QPR are yet to receive a red card this season, one of only eight teams in the Football League.
Norwich: David Wagner won six of his first nine games as Norwich manager to rekindle the team’s dwindling play-off hopes. However, things have gone awry since three straight victories against Cardiff, Millwall and Birmingham at the end of February. City arrive at Loftus Road tonight with just one win from seven games and currently sit eleventh — albeit only two points away from the top six given how bunched up the play-off chasers are from fifth to twelfth. Prior to Friday’s 5-1 loss at Middlesbrough the away form had actually been pretty decent. Only four clubs have won more than their nine away games this season and they’d lost one of eight and two of 11 on the road prior to the thrashing at The Riverside. Since the turn of the year the Canaries have won at Preston (4-0), Coventry (4-2), Millwall (3-2) and Blackburn (2-0) with draws at Stoke, Wigan (both 0-0) and Huddersfield (1-1). Josh Sargent is top scorer here with 12 goals. Teemu Pukki is second with ten but hasn’t scored in 14 appearances. City have won their last two visits to Loftus Road, and three of the last six games here.
Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for 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. Here’s what reigning champion Cheesy has for us this time …
"Not looking forward to it. Can't see a way of avoiding relegation.”
Cheesy’s Prediction: QPR 0 Norwich 2 Hamstrings 1
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 0-3 Norwich. No scorer.
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