QPR lost for the third game in a row on Saturday, going down 1-0 to Burnley at Turf Moor.

Am I confused or worried? Or neither? Or both? You see after I spent £100 to travel to London on a working weekday to watch my pathetic excuse for a team surrender meekly to Stoke City I distinctly remember crashing through my front door at 3am and reading a quote from the manager saying wholesale changes would be made for Saturday's game.

I also remember reading some big apology from the team captain who promised the boys would do better next time.

So Saturday came around and I trekked off to the capital again, overdraft in tow, only to be greeted with a team that had just one different player in it, and that was forced by injury, and that performed even worse than it had done on Wednesday and lost to an even worse side than Stoke.

After stumbling back through the front door at about 9pm and giving the dog a swift kick I read a quote from the manager that said wholesale changes would be made for the next game and things would be better.

So Saturday came around and I boarded the infamous rattly express over the Pennines to Burnley to be greeted with another strange side. The captain, who'd apologised for the Stoke performance only to be even worse two days later, was no longer the captain, the young striker who was left out for refusing to sign a deal was picked again despite still not signing a deal, the Polish World Cup right back finally got a start only to be hauled off after an hour and replaced with a midfielder and the team didn't manage a shot in anger in 90 minutes.

Now all of this confuses me, but should I be worried? Are QPR a team in terminal decline? Am I about to spend £300 on a twelve month pass to depression land next term or is this just a team coasting and going through the motions waiting for the summer?

Is Gary Waddock going to be the new manager? Last week in the British Prince our chairman popped in to tell the regulars he would be. Then again the chairman also said that six of the players that lost to Crewe didn't care and weren't playing for the club and yet there weren't six changes for the Burnley game. Is it just me that thinks anybody not giving it 110% in every match should be kicked in the teeth and left to bleed to death in the showers? Apparently so.

To be honest my biggest concern on Saturday, even bigger than wondering why the hell it was snowing in April, was how in the name of God I was going to squeeze a couple of thousand words out of what was quite easily the worst football match ever played in the history of the world ever ever.

I'm doing alright so far.

QPR started with a back four that included Marcin Kus for the first time since the defeat at Leeds. If it's true that he came here for regular football to seal a ticket to the World Cup you have to feel sorry for the lad as he really hasn't had a look in since Waddock took over, despite Marcus Bignot delivering lessons in how not to play right back for the past six weeks. Shittu, Evatt and Milanese were the other defenders in front of 'Jones the save' between the sticks.

In midfield there was no place for Steve Lomas, Waddock finally ditching the miserable two defensive midfielder formation in favour of a rare start Richard Langley alongside Bircham. Cook and Ainsworth were the wingers, the latter taking over the captain's armband from Danny Shittu at the big man's request apparantly. It's alright Danny I'd be ashamed to captain that team as well.

Up front contract rebel Shabazz Baidoo partnered Marc Nygaard.

For all of that Burnley's side looked far superior to ours. The spine of the side was made up of Phil Bardsley, Alan Mahon and Andy Gray. All three would walk straight into our side as the star player. The home side also included giant keeper Brain Jensen, those with decent memories will recall that Jensen was torn apart by the Q and R blocks at Loftus Road for the whole of the second half earlier this season, culminating in two naked men running on the pitch to pat his stomach.

Rangers did craft out a decent chance in the opening minute. Lee Cook made progress down the left and swung in a good cross which Baidoo met but headed straight at Jensen.

Rangers won their first corner of the game after twelve minutes but although Ian Evatt reached Langley's cross ahead of anybody else his body position was all wrong and he sent the ball high into the Burnley fans.

Burnley soon hit their stride though and only last ditch tackles from Evatt and Shittu prevented Ricketts and Gray giving the home side the lead. The best chance of the match though fell to Alan Mahon whose curled effort on twenty minutes looked destined for the top corner until Paul Jones brilliantly diverted it wide of the post with the deftest touch of his finger tips.

Jones' good work nearly counted for nothing when from the resulting corner he elected to punch Mahon's delivery rather than catch it and needed Ian Evatt to help him out with a booming clearance inside the six yard box, still we'll forgive Jones that after all his heroics this season.

My God Waddock was lucky to get Jones on board when he did, imagine where we'd be without him.

Half an hour in and Jones was again the man to deny Burnley as he saved well from a bundled Michael Ricketts effort. Ricketts now looks a shadow of the powerful young forward that played against us for Walsall all those years ago - just when did he get so fat and slow?

Shortly after this Ricketts ran in behind Milanese and sent the ball flying across the six yard box, Mahon collected at the back post and knocked it back across goal but despite Gray's presence Shittu was able to hack the ball clear.

As the Burnley pressure continued Jones got a fist to a cross from O'Connor and Mahon tried to meet it first time on the turn from twenty yards out but only succeeded in skying the ball into the virtually deserted away end.

At the other end Ainsworth and Cook were enjoying decent possession but a combination of poor conditions under foot and atrocious forward play by Nygaard and Baidoo meant that the crosses either weren't good enough or were hopelessly wasted when they were. Nygaard smacked a twenty yard effort so far over the bar it was embarrassing and headed a Lee Cook cross off target when he should have done better.

The best move of the half from the visitors saw Milanese rampaging away down the left as he'd done so well against Crewe but his low cross was turned behind by Jensen. The big keeper made a bit of a hash of the resulting corner but O'Connor helped him out with a clearance.

Right on half time Gareth Ainsworth found some space down the right flank and after skipping past Harley well he looked set to open the scoring only for Jensen to fling his ample frame down at Ainsworth's feet and block the chance away. Excellent play by Ainsworth, but tremendous goalkeeping as well. Apart from Mahon this was the one snap shot of quality in the entire half.

By the time Ray Olivier blew for half time I felt like I'd been sitting there for a good three or four years. To this point you couldn't wish to see a worse football match.

Andy Gray turned Ian Evatt on the edge of the penalty area but dragged his shot wide five minutes after the break and had another effort blocked by Shittu a short time later. Alan Mahon sent a long range effort straight at Jones after good work from Bardsley as the Burnley pressure continued.

At the other end a poor back pass from Duff was intercepted by Baidoo before it reached Jensen. Sadly for the youngster the ball was right on the byline at an impossible angle and with nobody to pass to in the penalty area the chance went begging.

On the hour Waddock made his first substitution, replacing Kus with Steve Lomas. This seemed a very strange chance to me. Kus had done pretty well up to this point and didn't seem to be carrying an injury. He'd started the game quite nervously and passed the ball straight back to Burnley twice in the opening ten minutes but nobody went past him in the whole game and after his initial hesitancy he began to pass and play with some real quality.

Quite what the purpose of taking him off and sticking a midfielder out of position at full back was I don't know. From where we were sitting it looked like Kus confronted Waddock on the way off to ask him that and he soon made his way behind the goal to the dressing room rather than staying in the dug out to watch. Can't say I blame him.

Within seconds of coming on Lomas nearly had a hand in setting up a Rangers' goal. He took one of his trademark long throws down the right and caught Burnley cold, Nygaard turned his man and let fly on the half volley from the right side of the penalty area about fifteen yards from goal. Jensen flung himself across and palmed the shot away one handed, the rebound just evaded Shabazz Baidoo who was rushing into the area trying to feed on the scraps.

Burnley responded with a change of their own and ultimately that's what swung the game their way. Cotterill slung on wide man Wade Elliott for the terminally useless Ricketts and that allowed Mahon to take up a position right at the centre of the entire team and soon he started to pull Rangers all over the place with his passing.

Twelve minutes from time a delightful through ball from Mahon saw Gray race in behind the Rangers defence and after a touch to steady himself he fired the ball into the bottom corner to give Burnley the lead. Gray has now scored on his last five appearances at Turf Moor for Bradford, Sheff Utd and Burnley.

That's the value of having a tactically aware manager. Coterill wasn't afraid to remove a striker and go to five across the middle despite the fact they needed a goal, because he knew it would free up Mahon and cause Rangers problems.

The best response Rangers could manage was a weak shot from Ainsworth that was easily saved and after three minutes of injury time the faithful two hundred travelling fans were left to trudge home dejected and defeated once again.

It's difficult to think of any positives from this one for Rangers. All the game showed me was just what a difference three decent signings could make to us. Imagine our side with Bardsley, Mahon and Gray in it.

Kus didn't do too badly when he was on, certainly it was a great improvement on having Bignot at right back, and Danny Shittu looked a little more composed than he had done in the two home games last week. Both wingers struggled in the conditions with both flanks of the pitch quickly turning into mud baths. Langley and Bircham were completely overrun in the middle of the midfield, although the former did pass the ball nicely at times, and the two strikers were ineffective as always.

Just four games left now, two of them next weekend, and we could just do with a point from one of them with Crewe closing the gap all the time. It is still possible for Rangers to be relegated this season, though hardly likely. Looking at the team these past few weeks I think it's a miracle we have as many points as we do.

Teams

Burnley Jensen 7, Bardsley 7, Sinclair 6, Duff 6, Harley 6,Branch 6 (Hyde 65, 6), James O'Connor 7, McCann 6 (McGreal 87, -), Mahon 9*,Ricketts 4 (Elliott 55, 7), Gray 8.
Subs Not Used: Garreth O'Connor, Spicer.
Goals: Gray 79.

QPR Jones 6, Kus 6 (Lomas 66, 5), Shittu 6, Evatt 5, Milanese 5, Ainsworth 5,Langley 5, Bircham 4 (Donnelly 86, -), Cook 6, Nygaard 4, Baidoo 4.
Subs Not Used: Cole, Furlong, Howell.

Att: 11,247

QPR Star Man - N/A

Ref: R Oliver (W Midlands) 9 - Nothing to referee really but allowed the game to flow, booked nobody, didn't waste a lot of time by chatting to everybody after every foul. He did his best for the game, sadly the players didn't.

Photo: Action Images

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