QPR turned in a diabolical first half display that made life easy for our hosts as our ever generous defence continued to toss away goals like its going out of fashion.
Many fans have kept their vitriol towards the team and the board to the message boards and discussions over a pint; but they came out in force as the team fell apart in front of our eyes. It's never nice to hear supporters barracking their own players, but quite frankly most of them deserved the criticism. Paldini and the other boardroom cronies were also in the firing line as was Gary Waddock who bizarrely enough is dividing supporters just as his predecessor did a few months ago. Paul Jones was ill so Jake Cole deputised behind the same back four from Tuesday night - I was hoping they'd been living on the training ground in that time to hopefully learn the art of defending. They hadn't but we'll leave that for a bit. Bircham rightfully continued in midfield following a couple of fine displays and was picked alongside Cook, Ward and Baidoo. Waddock went for height up front with Nygaard and Jones. The bench had a youthful feel about it with Kanyuka, Donnelly and Bailey alongside Czerkas and Bignot. The QPR fans were just beginning to settle in to the basic surroundings of Layer Road once they'd got past the ridiculously high police presence when all it started to go wrong on the pitch. We looked bad from the off and the defence in particular looked nervy and never comfortable on the ball. Matthew Rose, captain for the day, had a shocker from the start, happily gifting the opponents the ball at will - or so it looked from the stands. After nine minutes we were one down. It again boils down to defence errors. Colchester won a corner and after the ball hadn't been cleared Bircham managed to block the first effort. He couldn't block the second and Chris Iwelumo shot low past Cole into the corner of the goal. The goal again resulted from a set piece where we just seem to completely lose ourselves. We are still persisting with the irritating zonal marking, which I'm guessing must have been implemented by Waddock. Our players just simply aren't good enough to be able to do this effectively. We've looked shaky at set pieces for a long time but last season we often got away with it because of the presence of Shittu. Whereas this season Rehman and Stewart look uncomfortable and shaky. Nine minutes later and we were two down - once again basic errors costing us a goal. A long throw in was pumped into the danger area and with Rangers struggling to clear their lines we were immediately put under pressure. The ball was played back into the box and with the defence at sixes and sevens the unmarked Garcia was able to smash the ball past the exposed Jake Cole. Shambolic was an understatement. The hopeless defending continued as Duguid was gifted a shot and Jake Cole got in on the act by fluffing his kicking. Going forward we had little to offer as an attacking unit. Baidoo was playing right midfield and had a couple of lively runs but these came to nothing. Bircham was talking and geeing the players up but wasn't quite putting in a performance like the last two games. Nygaard was having a poor game and for a big man was winning little in the air, Jones looked lost and was struggling against the men from Essex. We had our first shot at goal after 30 minutes when Bircham's low free kick was easily gathered by the keeper. But it was wasn't enough and the travelling Rangers fans were growing more and more frustrated. Angry voices lashed out at the team, Waddock and Paldini and the powers from the boardroom. The team left the field to a chorus of boo's and rightly so. God knows what club captain Kevin Gallen was thinking sitting in the stands with the other angry R's. In fact the seven young QPR fans who took part in the half time entertainment showed more passion and dedication to the cause and received more of an applause than our shoddy first team. At half time Waddock took Jones off and put Czerkas on for his first game since the Leeds match. It didn't start well as early on Milanese nearly put the ball into his own net as his sliced clearance was tipped over by Cole. The whole unit continued to look shaky and if anything Rose got worse in the second half. It was uninspiring stuff and from a so-called captain you expect a lot more. At the other end Czerkas wasted his run into the box after he got the better of the defender. He had teammates unmarked in the middle of the box but he was too slow to take advantage of this. During the second half Cook saw plenty of the ball and was Rangers shining light going forward. He was booked for a mistimed challenge on Halford and after the defender refused his apologies this appeared to spark him into life. He turned him inside out but for all his efforts we couldn't take advantage of his final ball. Cookie himself had a couple of efforts but these were either blasted over or saved by the keeper. Shabazz Baidoo then had a great chance to drag Rangers back into the game and he will be thoroughly disappointed with himself after a great run. He disposed a Colchester player and after dinking inside the box he dragged his shot wide of the gaping goal. We were gifted a lifeline though as a generous Colchester players put the ball into his net! Nygaard managed to connect his boot with the ball as the home keeper came rushing out. His shot lobbed the keeper and looked to be heading wide but Brown's attempted clearance went crashing into his own net. Scott Donnelly made his first appearance of the season ten minutes from time, coming on for Baidoo who landed awkwardly. Donnelly had little time to make an impression but tested the keeper once with a long range effort. Nygaard missed a chance towards the end as well after a good cross by Cook and it was one he should have finished. With three minutes added time the game was slipping away from us and we couldn't find the all important equaliser. The players trudged off at the end while supporters were left cringing at the inept first half performance. We defended badly and are still making mistakes at the back both collectively and individually. The new players haven't settled in as hoped and Waddock is trying to keep a big squad happy with some players on the transfer list. At the other end of the pitch we look dangerous attacking but can't finish off our neat moves. With a wealth of strikers Waddock doesn't know his best front two and this is costing us vital points at an early stage of the season. Both today's game and next Saturday's against Hull are six pointers in my eyes, even at this stage of the season - and with us failing in the test against the Essex boys the game next week is even more important. Colchester: Gerken, Halford, Baldwin, Brown, Barker, Garcia (McLeod 67), Izzet, Watson, Duguid, Cureton, Iwelumo. QPR: Cole 5, Rose 4, Stewart 5, Rehman 5, Milanese 6, Baidoo 6 (Donnelly 79, 6), Ward 6, Bircham 6, Cook 7*, Nygaard 5, Ray Jones 5 (Czerkas 45, 5). Attendance: 5,246 QPR Man of the Match: Lee Cook - He didn't have much competition for this as his hopeless teammates didn't turn up till the second half. Cook was the shining light in terms of attacking options for Rangers. He particularly shone in the second half and turned the full back inside out. The only criticism is that for all his runs at defenders we couldn't score from one of these or even really test the Colchester keeper. Ref: Steve Tanner - 7- With Rangers putting in such a torrid performance we couldn't even look to blame the ref. Milanese was rightly booked for a poor challenge and so was Cook of all people for a late tackle. The game did flow though and Mr Wiley didn't do anything to ruin the game…..we only done that ourselves.
Subs Not Used: Cousins, White, Jackson, Guy.
Goals: Iwelumo 9, Garcia 18
Subs Not Used: Bignot, Bailey, Kanyuka.
Booked: Cook, Bircham, Milanese
Goals: Brown 76 og