Another meeting with Sheff Wed, another chastening at the hands of the division’s best manager, as QPR end a run of four straight league wins and five in a row at home.

As mentioned a time or two before, so much of this website/fanaticism/life is a desperate reach and grab back into a fading past.

You remember the great days and players. Marsh from the 60s; Bowles, Francis, Thomas et al from the 70s; Stainrod and Currie, Bannister and Byrne from the 80s; Les, Sinton and Sinclair, Bardsley, Wilson and Macca and from the 90s; Cook, Rowlands, Gallen and Furlong from the 00s; Akos Buzsaky, Adel. The great moustaches – Penrice, Fereday. You revere the managers who brought them altogether – Stock, Jago, Sexton, Venables, Howe, Francis, Olly, Warnock. You miss the lost friends and relatives you used to experience them with and seek connection to them in the present. You know how QPR can make you feel when it’s good, and you crave that fix again. Travelling far and wide looking for a hit. You remember what it was like getting on the train at Euston to go up to Goodison Park thinking “we’ll win today”, and then they do, 5-3. You just want to be back in that place, with that team, and those people.

There were, though, of course, plenty of long, cold 4-1 defeats at Oldham Athletic mixed in with those good old days. It wasn’t all Super Ray being super in midfield and Andy Sinton’s silkiness down the wing. Sometimes Alan McCarthy played, with Michael Meaker. If it’s a 90’s throwback you’re in this game for then a chastening, deserved defeat to Sheffield Wednesday puncturing optimism and interrupting a good run of form is every bit as on brand as a Jan Stejskal penalty save or a Trevor Sinclair bicycle kick. These fuckers have been doing this to us for decades.

The legacy of Don Howe, the fledgling team of Gerry Francis, had a barnstorming second half of the 1991/92 season. It included a 4-0 victory at home to Man City followed by a 4-1 trouncing of champions-elect Leeds in W12 inside four amazing spring days. It also included a 4-1 defeat at Hillsborough in which Carlton fucking Palmer scored an actual full blown first half hat trick. Three days before the genre defining 4-1 televised victory against Man Utd at Old Trafford, Rangers blew a lead at home to Wednesday in injury time – David Hirst scored with the last kick.

The 1992/93 side, which greeted the dawn of the Premier League with a fifth placed finish as London’s top place side, lost 1-0 at Wednesday over Christmas when Les Ferdinand had a stonewall penalty appeal waved away. Rangers would finish ninth in the top flight the year after, but lost 2-1 at home to the Owls and 3-1 away despite Devon White scoring from 30 yards. Few things signalled the impending doom of the 1995/96 relegation more than an early season 3-0 loss at home to a Mark Bright-inspired visiting team from South Yorkshire. Before all of that, of course, there was an infamous 7-1 loss for the R’s in S6 under Jim Smith.

When you look at who won the cups in those days, or got to the finals, it’s difficult to fathom how a team like Rangers, with a striker like Ferdinand, made it only as far as one FA Cup Sixth Round. Everton, Wimbledon and Coventry all won the FA Cup when it was still a big deal, Sunderland, Palace, Forest, Boro all made finals. Leicester, Villa and Forest all won the League Cup twice, bloody Luton won it, while Bolton, Oldham (!!) and Boro repeatedly made finals. If you want to know why QPR’s high flying Premier League team of 1992/93 didn’t, well it’s because they lost 4-0 away to Sheffield Wednesday. If you want to know why QPR’s high flying Premier League team of 1993/94 didn’t, well it’s because they lost 2-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday. Nobody, but nobody, could make Gordon fucking Watson look quite as good as QPR. Klinsmann? Yeboah? Wright? Don’t worry about it, Danny Maddix has got this. Mark Hughes? Duncan Ferguson? Ian Rush? Not a problem, here comes Macca with his elbows cocked and ready. But Gordon Watson? Run for the hills Ma Barker, this distinctly mediocre journeyman striker will devour us all.

Lo, fully 30 years later, Rangers are finding Wednesday the toughest nut to crack of all. Whatever the form, whatever the situation, same outcome. Now just one win from eight meetings and more pointedly none from four since Danny Rohl and Marti Cifuentes took over these respective clubs. Given the nature of the point QPR took in the first meeting this season it’s to all intents and purposes four defeats from four. This a manager and style the otherwise excellent Cifuentes is struggling to master.

There were moments and mitigations, mumbles and grumbles, from the latest setback.

A bitty game played on a bare pitch, play stopped more than it was started, ball out of play more than it was in, bumbled and trundled along at the pace of the CBeebies Bedtime Hour. A first goal was always likely to be critical in a game played at this tempo. Had Ronnie Edwards scored his near post header from a rare well-taken QPR corner at the start of the second half, or Kenneth Paal’s free kick found the top corner after Paul Smyth had been felled right on the edge of the box just after the hour, I sense we’d have had a different outcome and a different match report. Throwbacks of a different nature, to Ian Holloway’s early 2000s team, who beat Sheff Wed all the time and won promotion at Hillsborough, against whom the present-day Rangers were setting record runs of consecutive league wins and victories at Loftus Road.

Beadle the butcher’s apprentice saved from Edwards, Paal hit the angle of post and bar, and that was that. Set pieces have been a decent source for QPR, and Jimmy Dunne in particular, of late. Wednesday arrived with apparent vulnerability in a defence that had conceded 16 times in seven prior games and is weak on crosses. Sadly, the R’s largely wasted a dozen corners with a series of piss poor deliveries, almost exclusively by Kenneth Paal and almost entirely square onto the head of the defender at the near post. Dunne meanwhile was wrestled into submission by Barnard, Ihiekwe and others, and cut an angry, frustrated figure at full time.

The Owls, with only 40% of the ball, frequently looked dangerous on counter attacks and from their own corners. Paul Nardi had already saved from Callum Paterson after Kieran Morgan gave the ball away, and recovered the rebound well with his feet, when he had to make an even better stop and extraordinarily good hold to deny Michael Ihiekwe giving Wednesday the lead on the stroke of half time from a corner. As with Luton and Mark McGuinness a couple of weeks back, Rangers were weirdly content to allow the giant Ihiekwe to stand at the back of a queue of three at Wednesday corners and then peel off completely unmarked to do as he pleased. This is not a strategy with a lot of success and longevity in it.

The Owls got the crucial go-ahead goal on 72 minutes when Barry Bannon’s teasing delivery was flicked on and past Nardi by substitute Michael Smith, and just about over the line via the post. Smith is likely to join Wrexham before the transfer window is out but with six goals in nine starts and 17 sub appearances this season I’m not sure why Wednesday are in such a rush to have him run off and join the circus, particularly with £3m tub Iche Ugbo parked down there on no goals and no assists.

There had been warning signs before that. Wednesday had a big ten minutes around the hour and were well on top – Fox having to complete a rescue mission when Nardi horribly duffed a kick back into traffic, Smyth yellow carded for deliberately interrupting a counterattack. Rangers tried to reverse that trend with a string of subs but there had been a cross right through the goalmouth desperately defended at the back post by Edwards just before the Smith goal. A second was added with two minutes left when returning loan hero Shea Charles sprung Paterson into clear blue water on his first start of the season and he finished round Nardi and into the far corner with relative ease.

Cifuentes was keen to avoid talk of tiredness in his post-match. Rangers, who have by far the division’s worst record in game three of a three-game week, trekked to Plymouth last Saturday and Hull on Tuesday night but the manager, stressing a no-excuses culture, refused to cite it in his defence. Possibly because QPR actually had 24 hours more to prepare for this than their visitors, who played Bristol City on Wednesday, or because it might attract follow up questions about why the Spaniard only rotated strikers Michi Frey and Rayan Kolli across the three games.

Rangers looked tired here to me, whatever the manager says. We don’t often criticise Cifuentes but asking that same defence, and particularly midfield, to go again felt like a gamble he lost. So much of the recent successful run of one defeat in 13 games has been based around running and covering hard yards, one would have thought a little freshness would have aided us here. Kieran Morgan has been key to so much of the good, but he looked the most baggy – which was inevitable at some point given his age and inexperience. We’ve been openly touting a below par showing from him for a few weeks.

Obviously Cifuentes knows far more about the condition, training ground performance, sport science data, numbers and figures behind potential alternatives like Jack Colback. The manager also absolutely wasn’t helped by the performance of certain substitutes on Tuesday who you’d ideally have liked to start here instead of the likes of Morgan but were so dire on Humberside you couldn’t possibly risk them again, but still… Even the substitutions we did make were dillied and dallied over for a good quarter hour, tracksuits coming on and off, discussion upon more discussion, until eventually Jonathan Varane was removed – not the midfielder of the three I’d have taken off – and the newcomers made little headway. But then, as ever, what the fuck do I know about it? I write this shit for a living.

There was some post-match discussion from the manager about the eclectic performance of referee Sam Allison, who’d had a controversial week with a bizarrely disallowed goal in the Derby Sunderland game and came up with some weird and wonderful calls here. Ordering Beadle to move a goal kick 20 yards down the field before the fourth official staged an intervention was probably the pick, but Ilias Chair and Paul Smyth seeing yellow while a deliberate take out on Smyth as he burst into the penalty area, and another nasty crack through the back of Sam Field by the dugouts to deliberately interrupt another counter attack, warrant only a talking to is just absolutely perverse.

The idea of getting more former pros like Allison into refereeing is so we get officials with a better feel for the game who aren’t going to buy into all the dark arts and tricks footballers use to con free kicks, deliberately interrupt play, and clock run. Here Allison exacerbated all of that, rather than cure it. Players half a yard off the touchline, sitting down to stop the play, being allowed treatment on the field rather than being told to move a couple of feet to the right so we can get on with it. YES, GET ON WITH IT. Paterson himself allowed to sit down with nothing wrong, summon the physios to run the clock, walk off at his own pace, and then sprint back on literally seconds before he scored the second goal. Modern football is a bag of wank no.356 in the series.

Sometimes, though, it’s important to just hold your hands up. Danny Rohl is an outstanding young managerial talent – almost certainly as good as there is in this league. Cifuentes is the best manager QPR have had down here for years, and Rohl has had him every time. His ability to find solutions in games and get the best out of what he’s got available is exceptional. The dad’s army of 35-year-old perennial pest Barry Bannan and Callum Paterson, implausibly only 30 but built like Methuselah's Volvo, were the outstanding players on the pitch.

The quality in the Wednesday technical area is in stark contrast to the shameful, egotistical cunt-fest above him. This is a clown car, driven to professionalism by the guy in the dugout who is pushing piss uphill every day he goes to work. They haven’t even been able to use their training ground for a month, instead working on a threadbare pitch at Hillsborough during the week. With Derek Chansiri in situ they’ll likely be back in League One very shortly after Rohl ups and leaves for a club with an owner who recognises and respects the German’s ability, supports him publicly and with resource, rather than childishly and spitefully working against his own manager because his pathetic tiny dick energy cannot cope with somebody else being popular with the fans while he is universally loathed. Until then you’ll do well to beat Sheffield Wednesday. They’re big and awkward and physical, well set up and coached. Only Burnley and Sheff Utd have won more away games then their six. There’s no shame in being beaten by a better team on the day, and that’s what happened here.

Also important to recognise how far QPR have come. From five points adrift at the bottom at the end of November to safely harboured in midtable by the end of January, it’s been a winter we all would have hungrily feasted on if we’d seen it on a menu three months ago. The R’s could easily have won this game with the same team selection had a Kenneth Paal free kick flown a few inches lower, or a Ronnie Edwards header drifted slightly further to the goalkeeper’s right. Equally, they could just as easily have lost to an awkward opponent with a refreshed team boasting several changes from midweek – at which point all the usual keyboard warriors would have been along to lambast Cifuentes for changing a winning team and Aston Villa won the title using only 14 players you know. Pur-lease, wake me when you’re done.

A loss at some point, some regression to mean, was inevitable. It’s a shame it came here, but not a massive surprise. Two defeats in 14, eight wins in those games, a formidable turnaround. Even six points from nine in this logistically challenging week is a fine return that I’m very pleased with. It would be celebrated more robustly as such had the defeat come at Hull and the other victory in this game in front of a packed home crowd. Climbing to the dizzying heights of ninth and four points off the play-offs was wonderful for a support base that’s been through the mill over the last three years, but all these jokes about not booking anything for the second May Bank Holiday weekend were exactly that.

Success this season remains the same - steady, considered progress into midtable while half the new signings become good Championship players for us, and at least one becomes a lucrative sellable asset.

As long as this doesn’t spark one of our collapses in form and another long losing run then right now, as January turns to February, we’re parring that course nicely.

Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Edwards 6, Fox 6, Paal 5; Field 5, Varane 6 (Colback 70, 6), Morgan 5 (Kolli 74, 5); Smyth 6, Chair 5 (Saito 70, 5), Frey 5 (Lloyd 70, 5)

Subs not used: Ashby, Cook, Morrison, Madsen, Walsh

Yellow Cards: Chair 46 (foul), Smyth 68 (foul)

Sheff Wed: Beadle 6; Valery 6, Ihiekwe 7, Bernard 7, Lowe 6; Paterson 8, Charles 7, Bannan 8 (Palmer 90+4, -), Gassama 6 (Otegbayo 90, -); Lowe 6 (Smith 66, 7), Windass 6

Subs not used: Charles, Ingelsson, Johnson, Palmer, Ugbo, Valentin

Goals: Smith 72 (assisted Bannon), Paterson 88 (assisted Charles)

Yellow Cards: Valery 80 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Paul Smyth 6 Probably the best, most effective and most threatening of a tired bunch. Paul Nardi made two exceptional saves in the first half but blotted his copy book with some wild second half distribution and being stuck to his line for the first goal.

Referee – Sam Allison (Trowbridge) 5 Not as egregiously bad as has been made out, but still not the best of adverts for the oft-cited theory that we need more ex-pros to become referees. You’d expect somebody who has played the game himself to be wise to the dark arts footballers get up to, and yet he fell for every trick in the book right down to Paterson sitting down to stop the game with nothing wrong with him only to then go sprinting off to the other end to score the second goal barely a minute later. Booked Chair for a flailing arm on Paterson, who made a lot of it, straight after half time, and Smyth for interrupting a counterattack, which I don’t have many complaints about. Yet Smyth running into the area and being taken out a yard or so outside the box didn’t bring a yellow card and nor did a nasty smash through the back of Sam Field right in front of the dug outs on 52 minutes. Yellow cards every day of the week and twice Sunday. Then there was the bizarre minute or so where he seemed to be insisting Beadle took his goal kick ten yards outside the box only to be talked out of it either by the linesman or the fourth official at the opposite end, both of whom were 80 yards away from the whole thing. All in all, a bit weird.

Attendance 17,352 (1,760 Sheff Wed) Nice sunset though.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

tsbains64 added 18:20 - Jan 26 Fastest report in a decade Well done Clive
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Northernr added 18:25 - Jan 26 Out the way and back to the pub.
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062259 added 21:07 - Jan 26 Toothless
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PastCaringNW2 added 01:02 - Jan 27 There are days when the visitors have your number (for whatever reason) and you should just take the point and live to fight another day. Dark arts or no dark arts I would have gone home pretty happy had we choked the game to death and bagged a 0-0 with a clear week to prepare for MIllwall. Love Marti but I wonder sometimes if he is too keen to please us. That said looking down the subs list he only had Colback available as someone reliable to help shut-up shop in midfield and that was with as many three players looking in need of being subbed off (though none of those three were named Varane in my book). Perhaps going for a win after 70 minutes was the only logical option available. Makes the enigma that is Madsen even more frustrating. I still think we miss the Marc Pugh type all-rounder who could reliably play any of the midfield positions and look pretty comfortable. There was a Wilkins like quality to him that I really liked. He wasn't a player easily replaced in the aggregate and never has been. And, speaking of enigmas, what on earth has happened to Dixon-Bonner if he is fit and can't make the bench ahead of Madsen and Ashby?

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Rangers67 added 07:44 - Jan 27 As usual a great reflection of the game Clive but 5 for the ref , 3 at the most aterrible performance that did and didn’t cost us the game. It was clear that We’d had done their homework on this clown.
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Ghost_on_the_Westway added 09:24 - Jan 27 Ah the Everton 5-3. I was sat in the home stands with a couple of Red Nose mates. They enjoyed it almost as much as I did.
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Marshy67 added 10:15 - Jan 27 Clive, I think you read my mind with that last sentence! Hopefully "one of our collapses in form" is a thing of the past. Hopefully....
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