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Suarez-inspired Liverpool accelerate QPR descent — full match report
Suarez-inspired Liverpool accelerate QPR descent — full match report
Monday, 31st Dec 2012 21:58 by Clive Whittingham

Liverpool inflicted a miserable end to a dreadful year on a hapless QPR side at Loftus Road on Sunday, scoring three without reply and spurning the chance to bag at least the same again.

On Sunday Loftus Road echoed to the unmistakeable cracking sound of camels’ backs laden with straw. Some could stand it no longer at half time while others didn’t even last that long. People threw what they could lay their hands on – programmes, tickets, a replica shirt in one case – and booed. There was a feeling of helplessness among the long suffering massed ranks of the home support.

QPR could be forgiven for conceding two goals to the mercurial Luis Suarez who was in perpetual motion and simply far too good for anything Rangers had to offer - the only surprise in the end was that the Uruguayan didn’t score more as his performance warranted a four or five goal haul - but a lot of what took place under the leaden West London skies on Sunday afternoon was not forgivable at all.

Suarez, and the similarly excellent Steven Gerrard, you expect to be difficult opponents, but QPR even struggled to cope with the more meagre talents of Jordan Henderson – previously considered one of the division’s most expensive flops but made to look like the answer to all England’s midfield worries here after being afforded the freedom of W12 to do as he pleased. And while you don’t mind – relatively speaking – if Suarez makes an absolute fool out of an honest old pro like Clint Hill and scores a fine goal, when he’s allowed to stand completely unattended in the centre of the penalty box waiting for a corner to be taken with almost the entire Loft End on its feet pointing at him and screaming at the defenders to do something about it that’s simply not good enough.

I coped with all that reasonably well actually: I got to half time; I watched the three Liverpool goals; I sat and said nothing as Liverpool supporters – some brazenly dressed in their replica shirts – celebrated in the home stands with tickets purchased from the club’s “official ticket partners” Viagogo; I even resisted the urge to tear my seat out of its moorings and hurl it towards the playing surface when a rare chance to put a ball into a crowded penalty box from a corner in the second half was spurned in favour of a chipped delivery out to Shaun Wright-Phillips who then allowed it to run under his foot and set Liverpool away on another counter attack.

I’ve watched this all season in mostly decent humour and always gone back for more. I said nothing to anybody when the club awarded me the Supporter of the Year trophy, took the positive PR that came with giving that to a third generation QPR fanatic with a surname hundreds of people in the support base know because of my late father, but then didn’t actually get round to presenting me with the award itself. I even offered to just go down to the ground one afternoon and pick it up, no need for a presentation or anything, just so I could have something to place next to the same award that my dad won in 1998, nine months before his death. But, again, they hadn’t quite got round to purchasing some £30 trophy from Shepherds Bush Market yet so I decided to leave it.

I also said nothing when I spent several days earlier this season putting together an application for a job at the club for which I was well qualified and ticked every box on the job advert. An application which didn’t even warrant an interview, or even a “thanks but no thanks” reply until I chased it up after seeing via Twitter that they were already onto a second round of meeting with other candidates.

‘Self important, self indulgent prick’ you may think, and you’re probably right, but those two incidents are just a couple of a thousand microcosms of what QPR is at the moment: it’s a club that talks a good game, and cannot deliver; it’s a club that currently has a fundamental lack of footballing knowledge in the boardroom, resulting in a massively flawed squad building and managerial recruitment strategy; it’s a club with a total lack understanding of its own support base, what it means to be a QPR fan, what’s important to those who go to Loftus Road every week and what isn’t.

And I’m saying all this now because Esteban Granero put the last piece of straw on my back yesterday afternoon when he strode onto the field as a second half substitute, marched immediately to a previously awarded free kick on the edge of the area, made Adel Taarabt – who has already done more for QPR than Granero is likely to in his lifetime – step aside and then duffed a pathetic scuffed shot well wide of the post. Later, when another free kick was awarded in the same place, Granero showed no interest, Taarabt walked away and so we had another farcical situation where Stephane Mbia – God love him but he can’t shoot – took a direct free kick while Ryan Nelsen stood in the penalty area screaming at his team mates that the situation was tailor made for Taarabt and they were behaving like little children.

It was at that moment, when Granero mooched away from his failed shot, that I stopped standing up and yelling and to a large degree stopped caring. QPR is not any kind of football club at the moment. It’s sort of a mixture between a cash cow for Mark Hughes and his friends, Kia Joorabchian and his overpaid, underworked, over rated clients, and an advertising vehicle for faraway airlines and businesses. A club that cannot even find 18,000 people to come and watch it without resorting to marquee Korean signings and the subsequent tourist trade (Ji Sung Park currently leads the online vote for Player of the Month by the way despite him only playing for 45 minutes v Aston Villa on December 1) and Liverpool supporters in the home end.

QPR is not actually a likeable club any more. Even if it had a team that won every now and again it’s a club whose positive points can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It’s a club that after everything that has happened this season so far thinks season ticket holders should pay £25 (plus £3.50 booking fee) this Saturday to watch an FA Cup game with West Brom. I found myself hoping Liverpool scored more in this game, partly because Suarez was so wonderful I wanted to see him go home with the matchball, but mainly because QPR deserved a good hiding. They deserved everything they got here and more, both for the way they played on the day and the manner in which they’re approaching their work on and off the field in general. They were an embarrassment to the good, loyal people who keep turning up and wanting the best for their team only to be repeatedly treated poorly. This was a shambles, a nadir of a dreadful season so far, and for a great many QPR fans who’ve been going to Loftus Road for decades it was too much to bear.

You’ll forgive me I hope, on New Year’s Eve, if I rattle through the facts of the matter quite quickly from here. Harry Redknapp – who surely would never have taken the job on had he been aware of just what a rotten state the club is in – was able to return Nelsen to the defence alongside Hill after a bout of flu. Nedum Onuoha also returned at right back after injury and was one of the few to emerge with any credit from the match for at least keeping a grip on former R’s trainee Raheem Sterling. Julio Cesar was recalled in goal suggesting that, for all Redknapp’s public support of Robert Green and lambasting of Chris Foy over the controversial second West Brom goal on Boxing Day, he too thought it was a dreadful piece of goalkeeping. Armand Traore was, ostensibly, the left back. In midfield Rangers tried to counter the threat of Sterling and Gerrard with a pairing of Stephane Mbia and Samba Diakite, but both were miles off the pace and totally overrun with Diakite in particular unable to produce a single piece of positive play to affect the match. Jamie Mackie started on one wing, Adel Taarabt played off Djibril Cisse in attack, and after several weeks of improvement Shaun Wright-Phillips’ form took a cliff tumble from the left flank. He, like Diakite, couldn’t stand up for falling down.

Mbia may have been slightly more use had he not spent the entire match diving pathetically to the floor and feigning injury under minimal, or sometimes non-existent, contact. This began as early as the second minute and when referee Anthony Taylor rightly ignored his pleas for a free kick Suarez tested Cesar with the first shot and the Brazilian keeper was lucky that Joe Allen – recalled to the Liverpool midfield – scuffed the rebound wide after the ball was spilled out to him.

At the School End Jamie Mackie almost latched onto a through ball from Taarabt but was offside in any case. That was about the only piece of possession QPR had in the first ten minutes and rarely has a goal felt as inevitable as Suarez’s ninth minute opener, cooly finished after tricking Clint Hill with speed and skill on the edge of the box. Five minutes later it was two, Suarez again revelling in the wide open spaces of the QPR penalty area and finishing well from an acute angle after his initial cross had bounced back to him off a defender. It was like shelling peas.

Mbia had play stopped for treatment on a mythical facial injury after another shameful piece of play acting in the nineteenth minute, but did win a free kick on the edge of the area a moment later which Taarabt drilled into the wall. Taylor turned down half-hearted appeals for a handball penalty.

At the midway point of the half Glen Johnson – an obvious threat as anybody who watched Liverpool’s recent win at West Ham could have identified – accelerated into an acre of space down the right and whipped in a dangerous low cross that Ryan Nelsen turned over his own bar from close range. Rangers left Steven Gerrard unmarked from the resulting corner and Cesar needed to make a smart, if slightly nervous and unorthodox, save to deny him.

Three minutes later, with lessons not learnt, Rangers allowed a two on one situation to develop from a short corner and then left centre back Daniel Agger unmarked in the centre of the goal and he notched the third goal with a firm downward header that Cesar may have done better with. Two minutes after that, with lessons not learnt, Rangers allowed a two on one situation to develop from a short corner and then left central midfielder Jordan Henderson unmarked in the centre of the goal but he shot wide. Five minutes after that, more space for Suarez in a wide area, a further penalty box farce after he cut the ball back, and Nelsen had to clear Gerrard’s shot off the line. Gerrard then shot over after Taylor allowed Enrique to play on after what appeared to be a deliberate hand ball.

Two weak long range shots – one at the keeper, one wide – from Adel Taarabt were all Rangers had to show for their first half “efforts” and rarely has a QPR team deserved to be booed at half time quite as much as this one. Outclassed is acceptable, but this was so much worse than that.

Harry Redknapp knew it as well. He took off Djibril Cisse at half time and threw on Shaun Derry, an old hand to sit in front of the back four and try and stop the tide of possession Liverpool had enjoyed in the gap between the midfield and back four. The tide was stemmed, but this was more down to Liverpool putting the cue on the rack. If I was a Scouser I’d actually be quite annoyed at this second half performance, because this could and should have been pretty much any score they liked. Credit to Cesar for a fabulous save four minutes into the half as Suarez wriggled free again but a better team would have run the sword a little bit deeper given the same situation – Liverpool, easy to forget, were tenth at the start of play.

I actually saw more in the second half to upset me than the first in many ways. The Granero free kick primarily, but also after 50 minutes a set piece worked short by Taarabt and Traore after a foul by Joe Allen for which he really should have been booked which resulted in a cross into a penalty area populated by Jamie Mackie and six Liverpool players. One v six for an attacking free kick when QPR were, presumably, meant to be chasing the game.

Normal service was quickly restored as Samba Diakite – heavy legged, off the pace, patently low on confidence – sloppily lost possession in his own half and Suarez crossed for Gerrard who came steaming in but was an inch too short to power home a close range fourth. A corner was awarded for that, and with lessons not learnt Rangers left Jordan Henderson unmarked in the middle of the goal and he met the ball at the near post with a shot that flew over the bar. Mindblowing. Basic stuff this.

Mbia was then yellow carded for diving, and much like the Liverpool goals there was a masochistic part of me that enjoyed seeing it. Taylor rightly pointed out that it was the third or fourth occasion he’d fallen to the ground theatrically and the yellow was richly deserved.

Jamie Mackie’s positive run into the area set Traore up for a shot that he dragged across the face of the goal, and then Taarabt hit a low shot at Pepe Reina to hint at a revival but then there was the Wright-Phillips miscontrol on the edge of the area from a Rangers corner quickly followed by Granero’s free kick after he’d replaced the hapless Diakite and many took that as their excuse to head home, with half an hour still left to play.

Granero further endeared himself to the home fans by interrupting a rare Rangers attack to kick the ball out of play because Jose Enrique had sort of pulled up with a bit of cramp. Words fail me on that one I’m afraid but, credit where it’s due, a Shaun Derry interception midway through the second period did spark a neat five pass move through to the area and Mbia curled a shot a yard or so wide. That was better.

Wright-Phillips was booed as he left the field to be replaced by Fabio, and Anthony Taylor was cheered for finally producing a yellow card for Lucas Leiva after two quick fire fouls on Taarabt moments after he’d generously let Allen off again for kicking the ball away down the field a long time after the whistle had blown. The Leiva free kick only created another opportunity for an argument over the taker though and although Mbia had earlier tested Reina with a shot the Spanish keeper needed two attempts to hold, he was way off target with the set piece and I took that as my cue to leave with five minutes left on the watch.

I’ll pre-empt some criticism now if I may. LoftforWords is a site that gives supporters a chance to air their views. I write most of the stuff, and while I try and do so as neutrally as possible I am, at the end of the day, a dyed in the wool Queens Park Rangers supporter. I go over the top when QPR win, I get all melodramatic when QPR lose, but all I ever do is say it as honestly as I can from what I’ve seen having been to the match and spoken to other supporters and set it in the context of however many other thousands of games I’ve seen since I started coming to Loftus Road as a small lad. I’m not for one moment going to say that these are the worst QPR players I’ve ever seen because they’re obviously not – although pound for pound they probably are given their wage packets – or that this was the worst performance I’ve ever seen, or even the worst performance this season.

Yes, I could be more positive about the situation – eight points behind, 56 points left to play for, nine wins needed, it’s still doable however unlikely that may seem. Yes, I said Rangers would be relegated last season, and they weren’t. Yes, I probably am a little bit bitter about how I’ve been treated on a couple of occasions by the club this season – although judging by the recent Tweet from club sponsor Apex Car Rental to Tony Fernandes I’m not alone in that.

But, I’m afraid, that’s how I see it tonight, the final night of 2012 which has been the worst year of my QPR supporting life. Whatever lies in store in 2013 it begins with a trip to Chelsea on Wednesday, followed by a home match with West Brom on Saturday for which I’ve paid just shy of £90 to attend. This game, wherever you feel it lies on the all time list of disasters, felt like a big moment for many supporters and it needs to be exactly that for the club as well. QPR needs to remember who it is, what it is, and start working towards becoming that again. It needs to be a club that people like me are you are proud to support. At the moment it’s not even a club I like very much.

They’ll win at Chelsea now of course. Happy New Year.

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QPR: Cesar 4, Onuoha 6, Nelsen 5, Hill 3, Traore 3, Wright-Phillips 2 (Da Silva 80, -), Diakite 2 (Granero 63, 3), Mbia 3, Mackie 4, Taarabt 4, Cisse 2 (Derry 46, 6)

Subs not used: Green, Ferdinand, Faurlin, Hoilett

Bookings: Mbia 56 (diving), Da Silva 90 (foul)

Liverpool: Reina 6, Johnson 7, Agger 7, Skrtl 7, Enrique 6 (Suso 71, 6), Allen 7 (Carragher 87, -), Henderson 8 (Lucas 64, 6), Gerrard 8, Downing 7, Sterling 6, Suarez 9

Subs not used: Gulacsi, Coates, Shelvey, Assaidi

Goals: Suarez 10 (assisted Henderson), 16 (assisted Downing), Agger 28 (assisted Gerrard)

Bookings: Leiva 82 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Nedum Onuoha 6 Very tempted to just put this down as not applicable but I felt Onuoha deserved credit. He’s had a tough time in his personal life, and has been very poor for QPR since arriving, but selected out of position at right back again here he had a job to do on Sterling and did it reasonably well. He can at least look himself in the mirror knowing he did what he was asked to do.

Referee – Anthony Taylor (Manchester) 7 Very little to referee in such an uncompetitive game. I thought he called the Mbia simulation card exactly right and should have produced a card sooner, but was rather generous with Joe Allen all afternoon and might have given a foul on Adel Taarabt in the area more consideration than he did – would have been a soft one though.

Attendance 18,303 (3,200 Liverpool approx) Now we’ve all had to sit in a home end before as an away fan – behind enemy lines and all that – so I don’t begrudge Liverpool fans who couldn’t get tickets in the away end doing that, but there is an etiquette to observe in such situations. Wearing colours, for a start, is a no-no and you certainly shouldn’t be openly celebrating the goals as they go in. That there were Liverpool fans doing this presumably thanks to Viagogo – a ticketing agency promoted by the club selling match tickets above face value – sticks in the craw somewhat. That there were some doing it in the Lower Loft, where several QPR fans who’d had a season ticket there for many years were forced to move in the summer and have found it difficult to purchase tickets there ever since because of the draconian ‘family stand’ rules the club have imposed, is simply not good enough and needs looking at.

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Irish_Hoop added 22:43 - Dec 31
Sums up pretty much how I felt. Me and the lad fly over from ireland for every home game and the very least we expect is effort. In a country where 90% of the country support a top 5 side I feel that a call to Child Line from my son will soon be in order for what I've put him through. Still, roll on Wednesday, eh?
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N12Hoop added 22:44 - Dec 31
I didn't know about the Apex Car Rental thing, nor your treatment over the supporter of the year trophy. This is symptomatic of the 'new' QPR although supposedly TF was going to undo the damage caused by his predecessors.
The club is acting like a large, arrogant successful club yet we are neither large or successful. Unfortunately we will keep going week in week out because that is what we do. What we 'll be watching in the next years is anyone's guess though.

Anyway, Happy new year. Thanks for all the hard work you put in for no real gain. We all hope that re the football 2013 is better than 2012. However we should remember that our health and well being is more important than football ( although there is undoubtedly a link between them at times!)

Now come on Harry and sort this shower of sh1t out!
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billericaydicky added 22:46 - Dec 31
Top stuff as always Clive and I really cannot disagree with any of that. Being a Rangers fan has never been easy and this is just more of what we've been used to over the years, but at a time when we all hoped we'd turned a rather large corner.

The Liverpool fans situation in the lower loft is outrageous and I wonder why they were not ejected (as I was at Villa many years ago). The club really do need to sort this out as it will only get worse as the season grinds on and more fans lose interest.

Keep up the good work, and thanks for the entertainment over the past year and a happy 2013.
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YouRs added 22:52 - Dec 31
You are quite simply a Loftus Road legend mate. Thanks for all the honest, humorous reports this year. Yesterday, I sat stunned, motionless, couldn't even bring up the energy to vent. Deflated. When all those around you, and further afield, not so much waved, but shot the proverbial white flag up into the night sky, like a firework, you would have been forgiven for giving this report a miss. You had a report to deliver. And always mate, you did it with style.
Happy New Year mate. Here's to 2013.
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MelakaRanger added 22:57 - Dec 31
I only hope Tony Fernandes gets to read this report. Its might open his eyes.
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komradkirk added 22:58 - Dec 31
tough reading but what i watched on the tele.
love the reports and i have top of the table mates who enjoy reading the odd one as well.
happy new year Clive
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Noelmc added 23:00 - Dec 31
Even more worrying than the dreadful performance Clive is some of the insights you provided to what is going on behind the scenes. I can't believe they haven't got round to giving you the Supporter of the Year Trophy. It does seem to indicate its not just the players & management who talk a good game but don't back it up with action. Let's hope things on & off the pitch improve dramatically in 2013. Thanks for all your hard work on this site in the past year, you certainly wear your heart on your sleeve when it comes to QPR, which allied to your journalistic talents make this site a great read for all R's fans. Happy New Year to you & all involved in the site.
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DesertBoot added 23:06 - Dec 31
You are right. If I didn't support QPR I'd be wishing them relegation and all that comes with it. 30 years of being there makes the whole thing a huge depressant right now.
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ShotKneesHoop added 23:08 - Dec 31
The greatest concern is that the headless chickens will come home to roost and QPR will be in administration at the next end of next season. We will do well to stay in the championship with this lot.

There are no foundations at all and the club has taken the fans loyalty to breaking point. 'Arry hasn't got a clue how to fix this because this is a long term problem and his dog doesn't know where the next bone is coming from.

Hughes and Fernandes have royally fooked us in the same way that Chris Wright did. Well meaning but naive as a pair of baboons bollocks in Antartica.

I think many of us have had it, it's more than enough, we will end up worse than Pompey.
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ShotKneesHoop added 23:09 - Dec 31
The greatest concern is that the headless chickens will come home to roost and QPR will be in administration at the next end of next season. We will do well to stay in the championship with this lot.

There are no foundations at all and the club has taken the fans loyalty to breaking point. 'Arry hasn't got a clue how to fix this because this is a long term problem and his dog doesn't know where the next bone is coming from.

Hughes and Fernandes have royally fooked us in the same way that Chris Wright did. Well meaning but naive as a pair of baboons bollocks in Antartica.

I think many of us have had it, it's more than enough, we will end up worse than Pompey.
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Doughnut added 23:10 - Dec 31
Very pessimistic about our future. Hope we off-load the dead wood before we go down. Got a 2013 QPR callender for Xmas and don't want to hang it up. Very low, but always an R, come what may, premiership, championship....R to the end!!!
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AussieRs added 23:29 - Dec 31
Feel your pain Clive. Excellent and fair summary of current malaise. I am dreading each upcoming match rather than looking forward to them.

I know Faurlin was poor in last match but would have picked him v Liverpool over Diakite as we simply must play at least one midfielder who can pass the ball. Also, why not Hoilett instead of SWP? One of our brighter signings rarely seen nowadays.

But overall, teams that want to stay up need to try and apart from the usual suspects (Nelson, Hill, Tarbs), no real takers for the fight. Might be time to start playing some kids and getting ready for next year.
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QPRCambs added 23:44 - Dec 31
Hats off to you mate for an excellent, measured report. As you know, I walked out at half time. I have been to every game in this dreadful year, bar Blackburn away, and I had simply reached the point where I was either going to have a apoplectic fit or I was going to deck the two Liverpool supporters sitting in my mate's seats courtesy of Viagogo. Even then I could not escape because the game was on in the pub!

Not much more to say really - just hope next year will be better!
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TacticalR added 00:01 - Jan 1
Thanks for your report. That can't have been easy to write.

I must be mad, because despite everything I did see a few positives. At one point it looked like it was going to be a cricket score. At least Redknapp had the sense to shut up shop at half-time (which we weren't able to do against Fulham away and Chelsea away last season). We also looked better without Cissé, and that might be something worth considering, because playing Cissé as the one up front isn't working.

Mbia. Kept on falling over and demanding fouls, and if he doesn't get the foul he's demanding he doesn't recover quickly enough to get on with the game. At one point he lost the ball himself and still fell to the ground and had a little tantrum. Tried too many shots when he was too far from goal.

Onuaha. One of his best performances, perhaps because he was happier just defending and not going forward. Handled Suarez and Sterling well.

Hill. I don't blame him for the first goal. There was no protection in front of him and he got done by Suarez. The second goal was the killer, because no one went with Suarez (Hill should have probably gone with him), and Traoré was left to mark two people.

Nelsen. A rock and made an amazing clearance in the first half.

Derry. I thought he looked really good. The midfield looked a lot more solid with Derry snapping at the heels of Gerrard and Allen.

SWP. I am not even angry any more. It's just strange how bad he is. The other team play as if he's not there. For the third goal he was on the near post and suddenly disappeared towards the corner with Cesar shouting 'where are you going?'. Felt like he gave away the ball every single time.

Taarabt. Some good moments, but a lot of unconvincing long range shots, and a lot of runs into dead ends with areas packed with 3 or 4 opposition players.

Traoré. Did well to block Gerrard's shot the first half, and was left trying to defend against 2 players for the second goal.

Diakité. Looked very nervous. Completely lost his battle with Gerrard. At least he managed to make it through an hour without getting sent off.
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ShrivHoop added 00:24 - Jan 1
Thanks Clive and all other commenters.
Three points:
1. Obviously an awful performance but over 50years I have seen worse! - even home v Watford in the promotion season wasn't that great. It was, though, a one off.
2.Comments on players were all as I saw it although Mbia was at least trying despite his pathetic and persistent diving.
3.The Board have no choice now. They will be well aware of the implications of relegation and the difficulty of getting out of the Championship. Harry will be given LOTS of spending money. Will this work? Don't know but accepting relegation as inevitable would be a catastrophe.
Happy New Year to you and all your readers and contributors.
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extratimeR added 00:58 - Jan 1
Absolutely 100% correct Clive, it was on a par with the night game at home against Ipswich a few years back, the Granero free kick showed how bad things have now become at the club.

Clive,I was a bit worried in the second half as I thought you were going to have a complete seizure, ( our corner that we managed to use to start a Liverpool attack).

The goal where everyone at our end spotted the unmarked Liverpool players was a first for me at Loftus Road., pure John Cleese material!

Everone back in the boozer after the game feels exactly the same as you Clive about the club at the moment.

Your report exactly sums up the frustration we are all feeling at the moment.

Thanks Clive.
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carrotcrunch_R added 01:00 - Jan 1
NorthernR it could be worse as on the day of the Liverpool game my wife walked out on me with my daughter who I worship we had been together 22years things go stale like my marriage and like qpr are at the moment. I am trying to look for a positive but can't find one at the moment but noone can predict what is around the corner in life (we can only can guess) but one thing I believe is I can bounce back and the same can be said for qpr life can be harsh at times but we just have to keep on trying and you never know we may have our 5minutes ofgood times once more and that is what keeps me going . I refuse to let all this get me down roll on 2013 onwards and upwards .Oh and happy new year to all lfw posters
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Hunterhoop added 04:16 - Jan 1
Jesus Christ, Carrot!!

I wish you all the strength in the world. That sounds horrible. Without knowing the circumstances, all I can offer is perhaps it's for the best?! Perhaps it wasn't meant to be and each of you will come out stronger and better, particularly your daughter.

Clive, there's no hiding the fact, you are a superb supporter. You, and this site, and integral to do many QPR fans lives. You do more for QPR than any single employee in that club at the minute. The fact they couldn't even get back to you regarding that job application speaks volumes for the lack of awareness of what QPR is about. It also shows gross crassness simply regarding judgement.

It's tough. TF has f*cked up. Having spoken a great game to begin with, especially that quote about "getting the right people in the right positions in thr club to make it successful", he has completely failed to date. He dismal appointments and flawed strategy (if indeed there was a real business strategy or budget process gone through) will set this club back 5-10yrs. It's Chris Wright (albeit it different nature) again.

We can blame Mark Hughes. He's a c*nt. He was a disgrace. If he was on fire, I'd punch him in the face and then throw petrol on him. But he was employed by TF. As was Rigg, the rest of the staff, all the new players and Kia J. All were allowed to become involved in our wonderful, small, underdog club by TF.

I don't want TF to leave. We need him now more than ever. But he has got almost every decision since he joined wrong. The buck stops with him. Everyone else answers to him; he answers to us...including you, Clive!

Get this report and web page printed and on his desk!
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qprmick added 05:10 - Jan 1
Only at the Rangers, this is not the best Liverpool team and we could'nt even give them anything like a contest. At 67 I am a bit old to find another interest, we are the eternal optimists but Gawd it is hard sometimes.
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ozranger added 07:11 - Jan 1
When I started to read this it crossed my mind of the unthinkable.. for you to say enough is enough and that you would walk away from writing about this miserable clutch of impostors. Many here, I am sure, would have easily, as many walked out of the ground much, much earlier than you. I know you won't because I know what you are going through and with the type of person you really are that would not be an option. I won't say "hang in there mate" as there is no use because you have more QPR in you than any (or possibly all combined) of the players on the park will ever have.

As to the game itself, I do not want to take anything from Onuoha but I felt that Sterling had a rather poor match and was certainly the worst of the Liverpool players. It was also a pity that you would not award a "1" because SWP certainly deserved it, but just maybe he did something right to get him that extra point - it skews the end of year averages.

What Shriv said may be right and that we cannot afford to just say let's take the relegation and work on making sure we do not take too long to come back up. This is the biggest question that TF has to make now: either concede and start building now or take the risk and possibly lose too much when relegation happens. I do hope that he makes the right decision, whichever is correct.
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isawqpratwcity added 10:24 - Jan 1
Clive, how's about this?

[headline] SUPPORTER OF THE YEAR SHOVES SEASON TICKET UP TF'S RRRSSS!

No, ok, it hasn't got to that yet. But I agree with the above poster who hoped that TF would read this post.

There was a thread recently commenting on some club-favouring bullsh*t and contained some criticism of the issuing (oooh-er!) Press Officer, and I asked if that wasn't the job you were going for. No-one apparently picked up on my implicit question that, if you had got the job, you might have been forced into issuing some similar bs statement. I was, really, so glad that you hadn't been appointed.

Seriously, Clive, everybody bar the wummers hangs on your every exposition of the club's progress. You are both supporter and honest critic. I'd hate to see you be compromised by the 'need to spout the party line'. We get that its your ambition to be serving the club, but believe me, you already are, and so much better than you know.
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stneotsbloke added 10:42 - Jan 1
Truly awful, as bad as I can remeber seeing in 45 years. A lot has been said about players not trying but the real problem is that they are simply nowhere near good enough. Surely Ephraim and Campbell would pose more of a threat than the utterly pointless SWP and Cisse. And please stop beating up Clint Hill over the first Suarez goal, what could he do !!, Suarez is a world class player and has embarrassed a lot younger and better players than Hill. After seeing the Club escape by the skin of their teeth last year we (MH/TF) clearly didn't learn anything and bought in players who have actually taken us backwards. Chairmen get criticed if they don't back the manager and we're now criticising him for backing the manager but it's all MH's fault. We are lucky to have TF at the helm, let's hope to God he and Harry stay with us next year.
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YorkRanger added 10:58 - Jan 1
Great report Clive - sums it all up perfectly and most on here will feel your pain.

It does feel like the club has lost its soul - money can't buy that back...
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smegma added 11:15 - Jan 1
MelakaRanger added 22:57 - Dec 31

I only hope Tony Fernandes gets to read this report. Its might open his eyes.











Better still , force the players to read the report AND watch the whole 90 minutes again. THEN maybe , just maybe , they may an inkling of how we feel. THAT was unacceptable for a pub side on Sunday morning let alone pro football.
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QPRski added 11:20 - Jan 1
A very good article that reflects exactly how I feel. It is not OTT. This match was very painful to watch on TV and live it must have been close to unbearable. "Hapeless" is a good term For the team and anger expresses my mood.

I cannot understand the situation with the Supporter of the Year trophy. But I also cannot understand why the team plays so badly. Supporting a team is meant to be fun and currently it is not, even by QPR bizzare standards. I hope Tony and Harry have got a magic wand for Christmas.

I wish that you regain your enthusiasm again and I really appreciate all your hard effort during 2012. Best wishes for 2013 to all!
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