Captain Martin Rowlands has asked for more support from the fans in his latest programme notes - is he right, or are people spending upwards of £30 for tickets entitled to moan if the product doesn't match their expectations?
Boooooooooooo. Or perhaps not.
It has not been the best start to a season for club captain Martin Rowlands – suspended for the first three games for a very harsh red card at the end of last season, then made to wait for his place in the team, then used out of position supporting a lone striker or wide on the right, then forced to share a full a frank exchange of views with an angry supporter at the end of the Derby defeat. He followed that disagreement up with a moan about the attitude of some sections of the QPR support in his programme column before the Blackpool home match.
My first reaction to that was to fall off my seat on the tube, rarely if ever can I recall a manager, captain or anybody else putting forward a point of view in the official matchday programme. Normally it’s all welcomes to the opposition, talk of a tough game last week, another tough game today and plenty of tough games still to come, pleased/disappointed with the last performance and looking to build on that/put that right in this latest match. To see somebody actually using the programme to address the fans with a point of view was a welcome change – of course it helped that I agreed with what he was saying.
Rowlands’ main angst seems to be with the supporters that chose to boo the side off against Derby – despite a pretty rank performance from QPR it came after a good start to the season and just three days after a win at mighty Aston Villa and it made us look a little spoilt to tell you the truth. However I would go slightly further than our captain and say the attitude of some supporters stank, and continues to stink, during matches at the moment.
Some of the grief handed out to members of our own team during matches by our own supporters has to be heard to be believed – Dexter Blackstock and Damion Stewart are two regular targets and they have been two of our better players this season. Just in the seats around me at the Blackpool match an argument broke out between two strangers over the abuse of Stewart and two others nearly came to blows at half time because of the booing of the team.
The atmosphere at Loftus Road this season, particularly during the Barnsley and Blackpool games, has not been conducive to good football. Players have been jeered loud and early after mistakes and as a consequence confidence has drained away and the standard of play has got a lot worse. Now I am certainly no angel at QPR matches, Radek Cerny’s decision to play against Derby in bright sunlight with no hat and then moan about his vision being impaired as he chested a ball out for a throw in under no pressure at all nearly burst a blood vessel in my head, but I’ve heard people slating QPR from the first whistle, booing players’ individual touches, calling QPR players “c****” and much more besides this season and I’d like to think I’d never sink that low.
Rowlands is right, this is wrong and it has to stop. We should be supporting our team and urging them on to victory, not slating them and making them afraid to play their football at Loftus Road.
However, this is not a one way street. You see fans are entitled to voice an opinion, fans at QPR more than most because of the scandalous ticket price increases the club forced on us for that game. I’m sorry to come back to the Cerny incident again because it looks like I’m picking on the guy but after paying £40 for a seat with an obstructed view and a 20 minute queue for a bog is a supporter meant to sit and clap politely as a goalkeeper being paid massive money chests the ball out for a throw under no pressure? Are we supposed to sit and say nothing as a right back who must be on close to £10k a week gets a ball in attacking positions 20 times over the course of two matches and produces not one half decent ball into the box?
As Peter Ramage finds his favourite spot in the Lower Loft yet again with another cross are people supposed to say “unlucky Peter, better luck next time” for fear of hurting the poor rich footballer’s feelings? Probably the answer, if we don't want to dent his confidence and create a negative atmosphere, is yes but when you've spent your hard earned and got up at the crack of dawn and travelled 200 miles to be there it's a little galling to see somebody whose job it is to supply deep crosses from wide areas kick the ball into the stand time after time and I find it quite difficult to give him a clap and wish him better look next time. Maybe if he's concerned about the reaction of the fans to his poor crossing Ramage may like to stay behind after training every night until he can cross a ball properly? Then he'll get a nice round of applause. Ramage and Cerny are just two examples - I could have picked on anybody really, including Rowlands himself, but they are the most glaring at the moment.
The players have to understand that expectations have changed at Loftus Road now. We can no longer complain about teams having greater means than ourselves, us working to financial restrictions, us punching above our weight and all the rest of it. We are paying some massive wages to members of our squad, some of the highest in the league. People like Rowlands, Agyemang, Gorkss and others have never earned the money they're currently on before and are unlikely to again in the future and to fund that supporters are being asked to pay the biggest ticket prices in the league. For paying those prices we’re told the product will be improved – when the product actually turns out to be just as bad as it always has been against Derby you can’t expect every single fan to just walk away and say nothing, some of them are going to turn round and have a bit of a moan. Now booing during a match is counter productive, but if Rowlands and others are expecting people not to register displeasure at full time after paying £30 or £40 to get in then they're going to be disappointed I am afraid. You don't eat a raw bit of chicken in a restaurant and say nothing for fear of offending the chef.
Let's cut to the chase - we all know why everybody was in a filthy mood at the Derby match, it was because the game was preceded with our own club trying to rip us off and us relying on Derby County to contest the price rises on our behalf. The ill feeling at the match was entirely of the cub’s own making so perhaps Martin Rowlands in his role as club captain might like to make that point to the board rather than turning on supporters who have just shelled out for seven games in three weeks, including midweek trips to Norwich and Birmingham, and are about to do so again six times in three weeks including a hell of a Tuesday night trek to Swansea.
The booing and attitude from fans is not good for the team and they must realise that, but in turn those criticising the fans that moan must realise the increasing financial sacrifices people are being forced to make to get along and watch QPR and understand their frustration when a team of increasingly well paid players does not even do the basics right - crossing a ball and passing it to a team mate are not difficult things to do and yet in the past three matches QPR have struggled to do either very well. Discuss this story on the Message Board Five users have commented on this story. Click here to add your thoughts: Once again I agree wholeheartedly with LoftforWords in this response to Rowlands. I think that to some extent fans are booing not just the players but, more particularly,the manager and his tactics (I'm thinking of the Derby game). Along with many fans I put in a great effort to get to matches (600 mile round trip) and whilst I don't mind the team losing to a good side in a well-contested match, I do object to what I seemed to see in the Derby game - a bunch of players who thought they only had to turn up to get their pay for a win. Only Damien Stewart showed real effort and commitment that day. The rest of the team seemed to have little idea of what to do or how to do it. Notice the difference when Ainsworth comes on for one of his cameos - it's 100% effort. That's what people are booing - the apparent insouciance with which some players carry themselves on the pitch. We want to see a QPR side come on the pit ch and impose itself on the match and the opposition with real commitment, not to just go through the motions, as in the Derby game. And Blackstock needs to learn to score the difficult goals as well as the obvious ones. He's still not the finished article by some distance. -Cornwall Mike completely agree with what your saying the "fans" who boo are making it uncomfortable for evryone, i sit in b block and have been disgusted with some of the fans actions , i would never boo them or send th einsults thats have been thrown at them, this isnt new it happened at sheffield away 2 games in and it appears to be coming from some of the newer fans as the guys throwing the abuse in our block i dont recognise from previous seasons, we are entitled to a view but my fear at the start of this season was that the fans would be one of the biggest detractors in us getting promotion as for some reason they think we have a divine right to win every game. where have they been for the lsat 13 years? i for one am pleased to see us competing with no real threat of relegation hanging over us. like i said it is frustrating and rangers fans fighting and arguing with each other is unreal bearing in mind the unity over the las t 10 years trying to get the side back to where it is today, just doesnt make sense.. -ghassan Clive, I think you're being a little contrary. I don't think Rowlands ever asked for us to clap politely at mistakes and I don't think Ramage expects people to just say hard luck every time he kicks another ball out of play. I think all that's needed is perspective and a bit of thought before blindly booing like a total moron. Mike, we played badly against Derby, but you're extremely harsh to suggest the players didn't care. This was QPR's 5th game in 13 days. Derby had just had a week off. Yes, yes, footballers are pampered they don't know they're born and so on and so on blah blah blah, but still, runs like that take their toll, as does the knowledge that a lot of fans are turning up these days, arms folded saying: "OK entertain me. And you better win. And win well." Because this season it isn't even enough to win - the players were slaughtered for the Barnsley win and sneered at for the Saints win. With that comes pressure, especially after a great win at Villa. Ticket prices have a lot to do with this, but some fans simply have diabolical attitudes I'm afraid. -StanFerdinand Stan - quite possibly I am being a little contrary but I'm doing it to illustrate my point. As I say repeatedly through the article and will say again here I disagree with the heckling of players and the booing of the team, I also agree with you about the Derby match coming at the end of a tough run of games (Derby had no midweek game before playing us as well) and I said in the match report it could well have just been "a game too far". However some fans paid a lot of money to be there and voiced their opinion at the end - the players will have to live with that and are paid massive money to do just that. I really think Rowlands, as well as his programme notes which I thought were spot on, would have been well served in his role as captain putting forward a point of view to the people that caused all the bad feeling at the Derby match i.e. the people who imposed a massive and sudden mid-season price hike. It's easy to slag the fans off but lets remember that this tough run of games you speak about for the players was also tough on supporters who will have paid for petrol, train fares, match tickets, time off work etc to get to seven games in three weeks. If they're doing that to see a keeper that can't catch, a full back that can't cross and a midfield that can't pass the ball to each other there are going to be some that boo. -Clive Whittingham Fair enough Clive. BTW, I've read you say a few times that Cerny claimed he misse that catch because of the sun. I think that's wrong. Firstly, the sun wasn't in the direction he was facing, and secondly he turned to the Loft and made a spinning motion with his hands, indicating the spin took it out of his grasp. Could be wrong, but that was my strong impression at the time. Not that it makes it any better! Reminded me of the one Campy dropped at Ipswich last season, which was also spinning viciously. -StanFerdinand
There has to be some give and take – I’d like to think supporters will realise the atmosphere at the Derby and Blackpool games is not helpful to the team and improve that against Nottingham Forest. We want the team to win, so let's help them do it - listening to some in people at games at the moment I can't help but wonder if they actually enjoy us failing because it gives them something to moan about. Supporters also need to be a bit more patient - the Derby result came at the end of a terrific run of form and results that had lifted us to fourth in the league, booing the team off after one defeat made us look spoilt as I say. The atmosphere and attitude of certain sections of the support must improve, and I include myself in that as always.
At the same time I’d like to think that by the time we play Nottingham Forest Iain Dowie has had a look at his team selections and systems, Radek Cerny a look at his catching, Ramage a look at his crossing, Martin Rowlands a look at his own performances over the past week and so on. Likewise I hope the board will not impose a £40 ticket on QPR fans again this season. If these things don't happen and Rowlands and others still expect the fans to turn up in numbers and clap along happily to whatever they see then I'm afraid the problem doesn't lie with the supporters.
Let’s all pull in the same direction for God’s sake, at the moment the fans are on the players' backs, the players are playing poorly and now having a go back, Dowie is making poor decisions, the board are trying to screw the fans out of money. It feels like the whole club is at cross purposes with lots of infighting at a time when we should be on top of the bloody world.
Finally made it
I have to say having spent the past fortnight on the other side of the microphone/dictaphone/notepad I’ll be treating my interviewees with a little more respect and courtesy in future.
When you’re conducting interviews every minute of the working day on everything from a far right political festival to the latest goings on at the local Women’s Institute you can forget what a big deal it is for the person on the other end of the phone or your pen. It’s always irritating when people refuse point blank to speak to you, or give you five or six blinding quotes and then ask you not to name them in the copy, or ever worse still ring you up on deadline to change or retract what they said. It feels like these people are deliberately setting out to make your life difficult. Like I say, I returned to work on Thursday with a new found respect for them.
One thing I’ve always shied away from since taking over this website on the Rivals network four years ago is the little opportunities to comment that often come my way. Whenever a QPR story breaks it is never long before the phone starts to ring or an e-mail drops into the inbox from a journalist wanting a comment. I’ve nearly always refused. I remember telling a reporter from the Evening Standard preparing to break the latest “haven’t even paid the St Johns Ambulance bill” story that until his paper gave more coverage to QPR, Crystal Palace and Charlton in their “London” paper than Manchester U-bloody-nited he could whistle for his comment. I bet he was well pleased he rang me.
The reasons behind me regularly declining such opportunities are two fold – firstly, and those that read this site and site near me on match days will scoff at this, I am chronically shy. I drink away from the Bush on a match day, I keep myself to myself when not at the match, my heart sinks whenever anybody says “you’re that northern bloke that runs the website”. Secondly I am simply one QPR fan who loves his team more than he should. I am not important in the grand scheme of things, the club would carry on without me, the people who sit near me would probably be better off if I wasn’t there, and it doesn’t matter one jot whether I think replica shirts are too expensive or Radek Cerny is a reject from Billy Smart’s Circus. I’ve never wanted to come across as any kind of expert, authority or big headed ego so I’ve always said no.
That changed this week when I spoke to a journalist from The Guardian over the phone and met another freelancer writing for When Saturday Comes after the Derby match. I’m so appalled by the ticket price rises and the way the club continues to spin us complete nonsense via the official site that for once I did decide to say a little something, only as an individual and certainly not pertaining to represent anybody other than myself but something all the same.
Like I say it is somewhat terrifying when it’s somebody in front of you taking the shorthand notes rather than me holding the pen. I even found myself committing the cardinal sin and asking the WSC journo if I could see the copy before he submitted it because I was afraid I might have mortally offended somebody. I hadn’t, and both articles were excellently written I thought. So that’s the best football magazine in the country, a broadsheet newspaper and my little local papers bearing my name this week – I’m looking forward to getting back in my shell to tell you the truth.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, compares though to finally seeing an article of mine in A Kick Up The R’s. Those of you picking up the latest copy before or after the Blackpool match may have noticed my piece on Devon White – initially planned as a ‘top ten goals scored for QPR by Devon White’ but later downsized when a trawl through old programmes and season videos revealed he had in fact only scored nine times for Rangers. Still, a player worthy of some recognition in my eyes. He’s an electrician in Nottingham now apparently; I’m going to jam a paper clip into the work fuse box next week to see if he comes to fix it. Even if he doesn’t the electric shock and possible subsequent death would at least numb the pain of a home defeat against Derby friggin County.
I grew up with A Kick Up The R’s, my Mum tutting her disapproval as my Dad handed me his copy on a Sunday morning to leaf through. It got even better when I was old enough to understand what on earth it was all about. Dave Thomas and his team were rightly recognised in the inaugural fanzine awards last season and the new look magazine is now even better than ever before and well worth a read, even if you do skip past my ramblings. I speak as something of a poacher turned gamekeeper as it’s the rise and rise of football internet sites that is making it harder for paper fanzines to survive but if one deserves to it’s AKUTR’s – easily, by some distance, the best in the country. For God’s sake buy a copy at the next match and support an institution that we’re lucky to have at our club. Three pints and a pukka pie for that plug Dave.