QPR’s meanness at both ends of the field continued at Loftus Road on Wednesday night as they drew 0-0 with Brighton to move clear at the top of the Championship.
The working theory is that QPR are simply biding their time waiting for their creative pivots to get fully fit. If true, then moving clear at the top of the Championship in mid-September without slipping into top gear once is a promising sign for the Loftus Road faithful, and an ominous one for the rest of the division.
Dreamy Niko Kranjcar playing in the hole behind one of the top marksmen from last season’s Championship, Charlie Austin, with Matt Phillips flying down one side, Junior Hoilett the other, all being fed passes by England’s next great white hope Little Tom Carroll and the reformed Joey Barton.
Throw in the Premier League talents of Danny Simpson and Benoit Assou Ekotto from full back and then anchor the whole thing with Karl Henry, Nedum Onuoha and Richard Dunne — just on the off chance their team mates do ever give the ball away. It’s going to be glorious, free flowing, enterprising stuff. People will come from miles to see it. If QPR could ever get them all on the field at the same time.
In the meantime the R’s will just muddle through, making sure the basics are right. On Wednesday night at Loftus Road the discipline of the home side was to be admired.
Henry, who the QPR fans didn’t exactly roll out a welcome mat for when he moved from Wolves during the summer, had his best game for the club at the base of the midfield — his absence keenly felt when he was replaced by Jermaine Jenas and his touring Casper the Friendly Ghost impersonation show which caused the midfield to fold in on itself like a Great Bake Off mishap for the final 15 minutes.
Gary O’Neil was perpetual motion, tirelessly running the ball down in tandem with Austin as teams must do when faced with an opponent playing this new-fangled continental style. Brighton, moulded by Gus Poyet in recent years and now under the charge of Barcelona pupil Oscar Garcia, like to build from the back, draw players onto them and strike in the space they vacate but on Wednesday they found O’Neil a pesky menace to their best laid plans. Several times they worked themselves into difficulties that could only be solved by punting the ball into touch or, on one occasion, out for a corner.
Joey Barton could scarcely have done more for the cause, while not always enjoying the success or refereeing decisions his effort deserved. Shaun Wright-Phillips started the long road back into favour with the Loftus Road crowd with a high energy performance — although he still hasn’t actually beaten a man in a one-on-one situation since his Manchester City days. Matt Phillips, starting here despite a dire debut performance as a sub at the weekend, impressed in fluorescent boots — powerful running, a nose for goal.
With seven minutes on the clock Rangers sprung forward from a Brighton corner — Phillips, powering down the field with the ball at his feet, found a pass for Wright-Phillips who squared for Barton to score but in their keenness the home team had run offside. Two minutes later O’Neil’s persistent harassment caused such confusion Brighton centre back Matthew Upson almost passed him the ball while he was standing on the penalty spot catching his breath. Even QPR, profligate with finishing on the night and in general this season, might have scored from that had O’Neil realised a fraction earlier what was coming his way.
The home team put together the move of the game on the half hour. Barton won the ball back well in his own half, Henry swept it out to Assou Ekotto on the left, he crossed low and when Wright-Phillips showed an unprecedented level of game intelligence and awareness to step over the ball it all opened up for Charlie Austin and his wild shot wide of the target is not one he’ll want to see again.
Phillips fired over from range, Austin planted a firm header from a Barton corner smack on target only for visiting goalkeeper Thomasz Kuszczak to fling himself to his left and palm the ball aside with two hands. Three minutes before half time the former Burnley man hesitated over a free ball in the area believing himself to be offside, but referee Andy Madley — who on this evidence has an unhealthy love of farce and uncertainty — had ruled that the ball was played to him by a Brighton player and had Austin scored the goal would have counted.
On the hour Richard Dunne Pub Landlord — not bad for a fat bloke — headed a deep Barton corner down into the ground, up and over Kuszczak, and seemingly over the line as well before Brighton were able to hook clear and survive a linesman’s call on the decision. Phillips belted a shot wide with such venom Kuszczak must have thought it had been fired out of a cannon — the Pole wouldn’t have stood a chance had it been an inch further towards the goal.
And had any of these chances gone in Rangers supporters could have gone away happy with their lot. For 75 minutes their team had turned in a vastly improved performance that the dirge they served up against Birmingham on this ground at the weekend — a display that yielded a victory more through opposition incompetence and old fashioned good fortune than any purpose or tactic. There was, at times, a pattern and intensity that was a step up from every other game Rangers have played in the league this season which have mostly seen two evenly matched teams bump into each other for a couple of hours and then count up the goal(s) when time is called.
QPR have the Football League’s best defence and top a Championship many thought they’d struggle to cope with. They remain unbeaten so far this season but let’s be honest here, they’re bloody hard work to watch at the moment. Hope and pray that Niko Kranjcar may finally be the answer to creating chances without Adel Taarabt — something Rangers haven’t been able to do for three years now — because otherwise they’re not going to be shifting many Season Review DVDs down the club shop come May.
Brighton are pretty: they get into their little triangles and tip and tap; they’re well drilled on shape and possession of the football; and they’re solid defensively. But with Will Hoskins and Craig Mackail-Smith injured, and star man Leonardo Ulloa suspended after a brain melt at Reading on Sunday, their attacking options numbered one half-fit Ashley Barnes. This was not a team that QPR, with the players they have at their disposal, should have had too many problems dispatching.
I couldn’t make my mind up whether QPR lacked the creativity or the inclination to push on for the win. The lack of support for Austin when the ball was played up to him, and the introduction of Jenas, suggested the former. But then at times it seemed like it was part of the plan — a draw not a bad result, stay in shape, keep the sheet clean, see if anything more comes up but if it doesn’t we move on unbeaten and top of the league. Is this actually the plan, regardless of who is fit or not? Steady the ship, don’t do anything daft, keep it nice and tight.
The visitors rarely threatened. Barnes could have gone in midway through the first half but Nedum Onuoha thrust a muscly frame in the way and saw the danger off. The former Man City defender did exceptionally well considering he clearly felt something go in his leg as he turned to chase Barnes but battled on to get the ball safe anyway before collapsing to the ground. He was replaced by Assou-Ekotto, with starting left back Clint Hill moving inside.
For all this talk of what QPR will do when they get their full team out, they’re actually losing players faster than gaining them at the moment. Andy Johnson faces a month out and Bobby Zamora has finally gone in for an operation on one of his catalogue of issues leaving the striking options numbering Charlie Austin and a queue of spotty youths lead by Tom Hitchcock.
The loss of Onuoha for any length of time is a worst case scenario because there simply isn’t another centre half available to Harry Redknapp who can run. Richard Dunne has been colossal so far — an uncanny ability to read the game and be in the right place, and an experienced knowledge of when to go or stay and when the ball needs to be belted off down the South Africa Road, has contributed to six clean sheets in his first six appearances for the club. But Onuoha’s pace alongside him is a key factor and he’ll not have that when paired with Clint Hill. One would expect the pair of them to get so deep at times of concerted pressure they may find themselves charged for tickets on the front row of the stand behind the goal.
The solidity of a backline led by Dunne and protected by Henry on Wednesday restricted Brighton to set pieces alone — and Austin and Dunne seemed quite happy to head those deliveries away all evening. But Rangers didn’t threaten regularly enough themselves and allowed the game to drift into a niggly farce.
With Keith Andrews the wind-up merchant in chief, Joey Barton a time bomb with a dodgy clock attached, and referee Andy Madley often showing the inexperience that comes with only being on the league list for two years the game became a frustrating watch in the first half, and almost American Football-like in the second when it was often reduced to a stoppage every minute and a designated kicker situation.
Barton, his rainbow boot laces in support of the closeted gay footballers set against a backdrop of gormless "Jose Mourinho is gay” and "we forgot that you were queer” dirge from a minority of knuckle draggers, has had a tough week with the death of his close friend and confidante Peter Kay from the Sporting Chance Clinic. He’s not a safe footballer to have in your team when his head isn’t right and when Madley penalised him twice in quick succession in the first half, after he appeared to win the ball cleanly and legally on both occasions, and then showed him a ridiculously harsh yellow card into the bargain, it seemed a red was inevitable.
For several heart stopping minutes Barton sought out the referee for a further exchange of views at every stoppage of the game and QPR dispatched a member of staff to the dressing room to start running the taps. It took a fellow Scouser, Clint Hill, to forcibly wrestle Barton away into a quiet part of the penalty area while awaiting a Brighton throw for a "calm down, calm down” session lacking only fuzzy wigs and novelty moustaches to save the day. In the second half Madley pulled Barton up and halted a counter attack with an accusation that he’d handled the ball while controlling it — in actual fact it had come off the top of his shoulder. The volcanic temper grumbled and bubbled but failed to erupt.
Just as well really. When Redknapp inexplicably called for the persistently ineffective Jenas ahead of either Tom Carroll or Ale Faurlin, and then rather ill-advisedly removed safety net Henry to get him out there, the heart of the QPR midfield turned to a stodgy slop. Suddenly there was space for Brighton where no space had existed before and Barton was required to scramble back and execute a couple of desperate tackles to rescue situations for his team. Wright-Phillips did likewise 13 minutes from time after Jenas had passed the ball straight to an opponent — warm applause from the home crowd for the winger, but he needs to be able to beat his man occasionally when attacking to justify a place in this team, even with the injuries currently mounting.
It could easily have been Barton with the last laugh. Six minutes after half time Andrews hacked down Austin 25 yards out — the lack of a yellow card perplexed — and Barton whipped the free kick towards the top corner only to be denied by Kuszczak. Later a handball by Barnes gave him another chance and although a wicked deflection off the top of the wall beat the keeper all ends up the ball dipped wide of the post.
Having given everything as a free kick for 75 minutes Madley then decided to have a mad 60 seconds where three bad fouls in immediate succession went without a whistle. It was like he swallowed his Acme thunderer by mistake. Bodies littered the playing surface. Of course the game then immediately descended into an open war necessitating the long overdue booking of Inigo Calderon for a crude hack on Gary O’Neil and then full back Bruno Saltor for a hatchet job on his fellow substitute Armand Traore — on for a tiring Phillips.
Barton planted that free kick plum on Richard Dunne’s head in the last second of normal time but The Landlord could only direct the ball over the bar. Salter upended Traore again in four minutes of time added on and could perhaps count himself slightly fortunate not to have been sent off, but Madley was (rightly and sensibly) happy to settle for a warning and this time Barton’s ego got the better of him and he shot from a ludicrous angle into the stand behind the goal. That was a waste with so many players to aim for in the box, and a shame to put a slight blot on his copy book for the night because although plenty of what he tried didn’t come off, and it needed Clint Hill to hold him clear of the self-destruct button in the first half, Joey Barton couldn’t have tried any harder or done any more to get QPR over the line in this game despite a difficult set of personal circumstances.
Had Brighton substitute Rohan Ince planted a firm header past Rob Green from a corner right at the very end of the game, rather than head over the bar, it would have been harsh on the hosts.
The praise of Barton applies to most of the team: O’Neil, Hill and Dunne hard to fault in any department; Simpson, Wright-Phillips, Barton and Henry committing admirable shifts of work; Austin isolated, surrounded by centre backs, poor in front of goal and frustrated by the evening’s end but certainly not shy of graft or with any inclination to give up.
And it was a good result, and QPR are top of the division and Richard Dunne is superbly leading the best defence in the Football League.
It’s just… was it always… well… always this dull?
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QPR: R Green 6; D Simpson 6, R Dunne 7, N Onuoha 7 (B Assou-Ekotto, 23, 6), C Hill 7; K Henry 7 (J Jenas, 74, 4), J Barton 7; S Wright-Phillips 6, M Phillips 7 (A Traore, 80, -), G O'Neil 7; C Austin 5
Subs not used: A Faurlin, B Murphy, T Carroll, T Hitchcock
Bookings: Barton 34 (repetitive fouling)
Brighton: T Kuszczak 7, G Greer 6, M Upson 6, I Calderon 7, S Ward 6 (Bruno 80, -); A Crofts 6, K Andrews 6; J Caskey 6 (R Ince 85, -), D Lopez 6 (W Buckley 67, 6), C Conway 6; A Barnes 6
Subs not used: P Brezovan, A El-Abd, K Lua Lua, S March
Bookings: Calderon 71 (foul), Bruno 89 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Richard Dunne 7 Out of shape, over the hill, devoid of whatever pace he previously had, crocked — so calm, composed, commanding and in control that he almost doesn’t need to change out of his club suit to play. Remarkable to watch at the moment. I honestly don’t know how he’s doing this and I'll be interested to see how he copes without Onuoha if he's out for any length of time.
Referee — Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) 5 A curate’s egg of a refereeing performance this one. Given the fouls he let go without a card — Andrews particularly fortunate — it was difficult not to conclude that a first half booking for Barton for two seemingly fair tackles was done more because of who he was rather than what had gone on. Went through long periods whistling for everything, then short bursts where several fouls were allowed to go. This created odd situations where the players seemed to think a free-for-all had been declared only to then find it was whistle and card time again. Odd.
Attendance — 17,246 (1,700 Brighton approx) A decent, noisy following from Brighton who, it should be said, gave the trophy winning QPR Under 18 side a really good reception when they came around to the School End of the ground at half time. And a good crowd for QPR for a midweek league match as well. The atmosphere mirrored the match with occasional peaks interspersed largely with boredom. It’s always a different atmosphere for these work night games — people you usually see bevvied up on a Saturday are sitting quietly in suits and shirts — and when the football is less than gripping you can turn around and see a sea of Blackberries out checking work e-mails behind you. The self-congratulation on a series of totally unfunny and unoriginal chants about Brighton’s reputation as a gay capital of the UK was school playground stuff and embarrassing.
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Pictures — Action Images