Any hope the various contract announcements at Monday’s fans forum might lift QPR to a much needed first home win of the season on Tuesday were quickly dashed by Hull City.

When we’re all being wise after the event a few weeks or months from now, I wonder how we’ll look back on Tuesday’s defeat to Hull City. The night where signs were there of a bright season ahead for this fledgling team, or the point at which the amber warning light started flashing on the dashboard?

After a chunky 3-1 loss, each goal conceded more defensively shambolic than the last, it may seem perverse to be talking about signs of life. Rangers are going backwards. Winless in five, no wins in six home games, one win in the league in eight games… they’ve now got fewer points than they had at this point last season when Gareth Ainsworth’s start to the new campaign was being described in apocalyptic terms.

There was, however, a bit more to like about them in this latest game than there had been in the previous three against Sheff Wed, Millwall and Blackburn.

Finally, for the first time since the Plymouth home game, the team succeeded in making a strong, fast start to the game. Sam Field hit a beautifully executed first time volley from the edge of the box in the first minute which visiting keeper Ivor Pandur did well to save, and as Lucas Andersen honed in on the rebound the diminutive keeper sprang up and made an even better star-jump stop from point blank range. There was more to come from Rangers, but sadly also from Pandur. The keeper saved from Madsen as he returned the R’s first corner with interest from the edge of the box. Koki Saito, having his best game for the club so far, danced his way into space enough for a shot that Pandur brilliantly turned aside. Crosses galore, Michy Frey heavily involved, Jimmy Dunne just wide. Andersen, in all kinds of space, blazed hopelessly over – the Dane's finishing is weirdly woeful.

Games are rarely lost in the first 5 minutes but @QPR had 6 shots which could have put the game beyond reach. Superb classy performance from 24 year old Ivor Pandur who has emerged from the shadows of the Rosenior era with fans surely asking why he didn’t play last season #hcafc pic.twitter.com/iNVwcR0lzX— Peter Johnson 🎗 (@Pjohnnners) October 2, 2024

Ordinarily, I think, you’d score here. At least once, maybe twice. We can talk, as we did with Paul Smyth early in the Blackburn game, about the importance of making early chances pay in goals, of being more clinical, but bar Andersen’s these weren’t bad misses, this was terrific goalkeeping. It’s intensely frustrating that in the two home games Marti Cifuentes has got his team firing from the off they’ve come up against two opposition goalkeepers in such brilliant form as Pandur and Plymouth’s Conor Hazard. One, even two, nil up at this point and a Hull side probably a little fragile itself after taking six league games to record their own first win might have been fearing a long night.

There was more to come too. Lewie Coyle’s handled clearance in his own box was seen by newbie referee Thomas Kirk and Madsen delivered a penalty taking masterclass with a finish right up into the top corner, kissing the bar as it went – a conversion so brilliant even Pandur had no hope of getting near it. In the second half Saito, in almost identical circumstances to his run before half time, flicked the post on the wrong side with a 20 yard shot. His terrific approach work and cross just prior to that had set up half time sub Zan Celar with a chance from seven yards out, headed wide.

So, some positives there, and the turnaround experienced by the visitors and their manager Tim Walter – from calls for his departure to three wins in a row and ten goals scored – show just how quickly things can change in the Championship. Along with all the repeated mantras about how this team was inevitably going to take time to settle and get up to the speed and physicality of the league, this is also a QPR team missing key players who could help the newbies out right the spine of the side – Jake Clarke-Salter and Jack Colback injured, Ilias Chair finally making his first outing of the campaign from the bench.

Nevertheless, the way QPR contrived to lose the game – essentially by leaving what looked like two very, very obvious problems with their set up uncorrected all night until it bit them on the arse – was somewhat alarming.

Problem one was from Hull’s corners. Tim Walter’s self-professed “heart attack football” style includes putting all ten outfield players in the box to attack these set plays. So far in the Championship this has been more of a danger to Hull than anybody else, as Sheff Utd and others have realised it essentially means you’re one headed clearance away from running clear on the goal at the other end with as many players as you like and no defenders. In fact this was actually one of the main reasons I thought Rangers might be good for a win in this game – leave Karamoko Dembele and Koki Saito up the field, stress the importance of winning the first contact, enjoy all the one on one chances with the goalkeeper that come your way. Instead, Rangers brought everybody back. Dembele and Saito, four foot nothing the pair of them and without a defensive bone their tiny bodies, contributed nothing in QPR’s box, and their presence allowed Hull to commit even more than they were doing already. Cody Drameh’s opening goal was beautifully struck (first career goal in 92 senior appearances because of bloody course), but he’s the fucking right back - not to be a dick about it, but if you leave one of your 5ft 4 ‘tens’ on the halfway line at opposition corners then their right back can’t have a free shot from 18 yards out because he’ll be back there marking him.

Despite the goal, Rangers persisted with the approach. Persisted and persisted some more until it cost them again ten before half time. Players pisballing about in their own box, because there’s nobody downfield to clear it to, Andersen sloppily gives the ball away, one slide rule pass later and Bedia has an empty net finish at the back post. It continued all second half as well, Zambrano dribbling a 66th minute effort fractionally wide with Nardi completely beaten from yet another corner.

QPR went from worst to best in set piece defending across the final dozen games of last season, which was helped at least in part by bringing all outfield players back to help. But there were special circumstances in this game: Hull’s unusual approach to them, and two four-foot-nothing players in the QPR team. It’s time for that disclaimer again that I don’t know what I’m talking about – never played or coached to any kind of level, just a fan in the stand mouthing off, never going to pretend I could do any of this better than anybody else – but this approach clearly wasn’t working, cost us two first half goals, and yet still remained stubbornly the same.

On a similar theme, Hevertton Santos had a horrible night at right back. Liam Millar, Preston’s best player when they were here in April, absolutely pulverised him. A cruel moment on 32 where Santos gave the ball away, lost his footing and fell over trying to recover, and then scrambled back just in time for a cross to go straight through his legs and into the box rather summed up his night.

Admittedly there was no protection afforded him by the attacking players in front of him (Dembele, Saito and Andersen are poor defensively and Kenneth Paal was similarly exposed on the opposite side), but clearly a guy drowning in this game just from his body language alone and yet left out there for Hull to keep picking on. They eventually scored a third through Millar cutting in from that side and hitting a shot that deflected past Nardi. Could have brought Fox on and shifted Jimmy Dunne to that side - solving the other problem of Dunne not being very good at the Clarke-Salter role – or made a like-for-like change with Harrison Ashby. Instead, Cifuentes just left it like that. I was staggered to see Santos re-emerge for the second half, he looked bereft, and with Kasey Palmer pulling onto that wing for a slice of the carve up himself it felt inevitable that would cost us a goal eventually. Didn’t it? Please say if it’s just me. Only the introduction of Paul Smyth, who is a bit better on defence, offered some help, but within ten minutes of the Northern Irish international coming on he’d shifted onto the left side anyway.

I don’t want to labour this point but Hull’s corners, and Millar’s start to the season, aren’t secrets. If this had been happening 12 months ago we’d have been asking questions like have we even watched Hull this season? It made for a bizarre watch and my overriding thought and emotion for most of it was, simply, I don’t understand. And I don’t.

If we are to take the positives from the game and build on those, a couple of things will need addressing. The first is we look a bit powderpuff to me – that old criticism of QPR being a bit too nice, a bit too weak, a bit too lightweight. Madsen should help with that but he doesn’t appear to be that sort of player despite his frame – a 6ft 4ins player hanging around out on the wing to be part of a short corner routine, not in the box where we’ve got the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz waiting for the cross was a nice microcosm. The centre of midfield was Sam Field against the world. Colback’s a liability with referees, his attendance record is not where it needs to be, but he’d help with this. We can talk about game models and fun new signings at the fans forum until the cows come home, but it’s still the Championship and you do need to compete physically. We’re not, really

The second is the way results and nights like this drain confidence out of players and teams. QPR’s home record has been appalling for the last two seasons and a first win at Loftus Road this term appears as far away as ever. From bright beginnings, the crowd and team soon let their heads drop here. No need, given we’ve already recovered more points from losing positions than anyone else in the league, and we showed with Madsen’s goal and Saito’s near miss at the start of the second half that the game was still there against this Walter set up even at 2-0 and 3-1. But heads were down, players looked a little sorry for themselves. Zan Celar, introduced at half time, immediately put himself about, won his first header, demanded the ball for a free kick which he hit into the wall, and looked pretty keen and purposeful. Starved of service he became frustrated, and then forlorn, snatching at a late chance with a decent sight of goal after good approach work by sub Alfie Lloyd, and sticking the tin hat on the evening by at one point passing the ball out of play towards Jude the Cat. Maybe he can play up front?

With that mood prevailing, Rangers were once again grateful to Paul Nardi for keeping the score down. Hull headed a deep cross wide ten from time when they should score, and then Nardi saved brilliantly from Belloumi when Millar showed Andersen, Smyth, Dembele and co exactly what a good, early ball behind a retreating defence looks like and the damage it can cause when you play it. For all their early threat, QPR spent much of the second half seemingly trying to weave an intricate perfect goal. Take a chance, get a shot away, get an early ball in there. Having quoted Roy Keane at the weekend I’m loathed to do the same with Gary Neville now, but his line about modern football teams being more willing to take a risk in their own penalty area than they are in the opposition’s rang a bell for me with what we’ve seen from this iteration of QPR.

Of course, just our luck, when Andersen did get a good strike away it hit McLoughlin the face, he collapsed to the ground holding his head, and that means we must immediately stop the game with QPR on the ball in the opposition box to phone the bed wetters’ switchboard in case he explodes into a thousand pieces. It was that sort of a night.

Lazily copying from the match preview, it’s easy to say this will take time and we’ll need to be patient, but when you see what that looks like while freezing your nuts off in an empty stand it’s a lot harder to actually bite your tongue and settle in for the long haul. A long haul is certainly what it looks like it’s going to be.

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QPR: Nardi 6; Santos 3, Cook 5, Dunne 5, Paal 4; Field 5, Madsen 5 (Lloyd 83, -); Dembele 5 (Chair 74, 5), Andersen 4 (Smyth 65, 5), Saito 6 (Dixon-Bonner 83, -); Frey 5 (Celar 46, 5)

Subs not used: Ashby, Fox, Bennie, Walsh

Goals: Madsen 44 (penalty, unassisted)

Hull: Pandur 8; Coyle 6, Jones 6, McLoughlin 6, Drameh 7; Salter 6 (Zambrano 58, 6), Simons 6, Palmer 7 (Mehlem 58, 6); Belloumi 7 (Omnur 93, -), Bedia 6 (Burstow 86, -), Millar 8 (Giles 95, -)

Subs not used: Alzate, Burns, Kamara, Rushworth

Goals: Drameh 25 (unassisted), Bedia 36 (assisted Coyle), Millar 71 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Simons 17 (foul), Jones 63 (time wasting), McLoughlin 64 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Koki Saito 6 One of the reasons we’re having issues at the back and our full backs look so exposed, is that Saito, Dembele and Andersen are all very suspect defensively. That notwithstanding, Saito posed our biggest goal threat and on another night could easily have scored twice without doing much different.

Referee – Thomas Kirk (Wilmslow) 7 Very good. Big decisions correct. On top of everything. Love a card for time wasting when it’s early enough to effect player behaviour rather than a performative action in stoppage time.

Attendance – 13,407 (600 Hull approx.) Cruel on the away fans to have this and the corresponding fixture on midweek nights. Hopefully we’ll get a similarly rewarding result up there in the New Year.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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