Dozzell's spectacular arrival drives QPR's latest Riverside wonder - Report Monday, 4th Sep 2023 07:31 by Clive Whittingham QPR made it four wins from five visits to Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium, and added to their collection of spectacular goals on this ground, with a 2-0 victory on Saturday inspired by a 30 yarder from an unlikely source. The St Judeâs Institute which started all this nonsense off in the first place took its name from the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. How very QPR, you may think, and say, and laugh along with your mates in the pub who support âthe Arsenalâ via the means of âthe televisionâ when you inform them of that fact. Of late though - and by âof lateâ I mean several decades - theyâve been anything but. A lost cause overall, sure, but a sanctuary for footballâs down and outs, projects and punts? Ainât nobody got time for that. Get me another four loanees mate. As media, computer games and footballâs lamentable âbanter eraâ has driven the focus and discussion increasingly away from the sportâs long form â i.e. the actual bloody 90 minutes on a Saturday â towards short term sugar fixes and viral clips, so signings have become the be-all-and-end-all. Are we âcookingâ? Only if weâre signing players. We live in a disposable world â food, fashion, plastic, football players. Donât like this one? Fuck it off and buy another one. Those who spent a summer haranguing the club to make Austinâs loan permanent â âthis isnât Austin, whereâs Austin, nan stays in the cage until Austinâ â quickly moved onto the dual track of directly messaging Austin and his wife about how shit he was, and re-engaging with the club about signing another âfucking strikerâ. QPR, for years, while publicly billing themselves as a âdevelopment clubâ, have duly obliged. Nine permanent or loan signings last season, 19 heading the other way in one form or another; 13 in and 14 out the season before; 14 one way 16 the other the year before; 16 in and 19 out in Mark Warburtonâs first year in charge. And so this goes on, and on, and on. Always another player. Frequently another manager. A footballing Goldilocks, briefly parking their bum on a chair, bed or centre half, whoâs been perfectly good enough for somebody else, and immediately deciding itâs not for us. Spending and spending all the time. Churning and churning more than a provocative Polish Eurovision outlier. Steve McClarenâs âteam of menâ one of the more egregious examples, but peopleâs champion Mark Warburton was just as guilty. Always another signing. Just another six or seven more. When QPR are often at their best is when you put them on the naughty step and take their toys away. When you canât spend money, sign players, or replace people whoâve only been here for 20 minutes themselves you have to work with what youâve got. Maybe get on the training ground with a few of the discarded waifs and strays and see if there arenât some marginal gains to be had by, I donât know, coaching them? Playing a system that suits them? Having an adult conversation with them? And lo, here is Andre Dozzell, up and about in a fresh nameless shirt after taking a thick Middlesbrough boot to the chops, working an intricate three pass exchange with Ilias Chair and Jack Colback, to create space on the half shell for him to widen an angle on his favoured left foot and burn the whole barn down from 25 yards with a shot into the far top corner. QPR are doing a nice line in shots off both posts this year â Jack Colback and Andre successful, Sinclair Armstrong desperately unlucky not to be, perhaps these things do even themselves out over time. The away end at Middlesbrough is situated conveniently immediately behind the point of the pitch Dozzell drew his boot back and let rip on his technically immaculate shitpinger, it was in from the moment he struck it and it gave me an erection so big and shiny several ships altered course in the North Sea. I could hear Andy Sinton from where I was standing.
It was a fine strike to add to a recent collection that includes brilliance from Jordan Hugill, Rob Dickie and Chris Willock on this ground where Rangers have now won four from five visits. Maybe we should just boot Dozzell in the mush more often? After 48 starts, 29 sub appearances, no goals and one assist, most had started to wonder just what exactly it is he does. His two-game transformation from passenger to leading man, asked to go forward and actually affect play while Sam Field and Jack Colback mind the shop, a fine example of a management team looking for solutions, rather than problems, with what they have to work with rather than abdicating responsibility and demanding further expenditure. Could this be where Gareth Ainsworth and Richard Dobson come into their own? They built a reputation at Wycombe wringing every last drop out of players many others had given up on and now theyâve got absolutely no choice other than to put faith in players that other managers, fans and the club wrote off as not good enough, not old enough, not arsed, not to their style, not for them, and demanded a replacement be signed. Youâve got one senior striker whoâs injured, and beyond that youâve got Sinclair Armstrong, Rayan Kolli and Charlie Kelman. You can moan about it or you can muck in and work with what youâve got. Is Rayan Kolli ready for this? Probably not. Is he going on now with 20 minutes left to play away at Middlesbrough? Yes he is. And so he should. Did he do fine? He did more than fine. And just look at that barnet. Michael Carrick, whoâd come dressed as a dad whoâs no longer allowed to see the weeâuns, seems to be doing the opposite. Heâs added 12 new players this summer, ten of them permanently, including our own social butterfly Seny Dieng whoâs so far let 60% of every shot heâs faced go into the net, and ÂŁ5m Atalanta striker Emmanual Latte Lath who spent the afternoon running clean through on goal and missing. Amidst much flapping of flags and banging of drums by way of an atmosphere, the home side attempted to set to work against an opponent you could have had at 7/2 if youâd wanted, but mostly found the imposing frame of Steve Cook in their way. A succession of headed clearances, timely interceptions, and get out of my pubs marked him out as an early man of the match contender. The first of several proficient saves from Asmir Begovic came after 25 minutes from Isaiah Jones on an angle and ten minutes later the Bosnian keeper did the same thing again on the opposite side to deny Lath. Another, similar, chance was also repelled well, though would have been flagged offside had it been scored. QPR, though, were playing well. If Ilias Chair was grumpy about the Championshipâs outright ignorance of his qualities through another transfer window it wasnât immediately apparent â off and away behind Paddy McNair down the left flank twice in the opening two minutes. Paul Smyth on the other side welcomed Lukas Engel to this level by grilling him a nice toasty brown colour over a 90 minute torture session, bursting past him and sticking a lethal cross-shot right through the six yard box 20-odd minutes in. Both Boro full backs looked massively uncomfortable with what they were being asked to do and who they were tasked with marking. Chair and Smyth had both had sighters on Diengâs goal immediately preceding Dozzellâs opener. It had been coming. One of the biggest criticisms of the Watford debacle on day one was it was like weâd never even heard of Watford or Valerian Ismael, let alone watched them or him play. Just so horrendously naĂŻve to what they were going to try and do to us and wide open as a result. Obviously weâve added Cook and Colback to things since then, and both of them were in the right place at the right time so often in the first half you wondered if theyâd been sent an advance copy of the script, but more importantly it also looked and felt like Lee Hoos has loosened the purse strings enough to stretch to a VHS recorder and Middlesbrough season video. Boro mostly spent the afternoon pisballing about in front of us, 50 yards away from the goal, as is the style of the time. That meant our recent problem of wilting after 60 minutes wasnât such an issue, because you donât expend much energy watching and scratching your head. When they did try and advance they frequently passed the ball straight to Colback, Sam Field or Kenneth Paal â often in 30 square yards of space â because clearly the work had been done on âif they do this it means theyâre about to do this so if you park yourself there theyâll just give it to youâ. What problems we did face were often of our own making. We took one throw in backwards and backwards again to Begovic who messed the pass back up, and then moments later did exactly the same thing again in the same situation. Colback dished out a couple of bollockings. A free kick given away in injury time was chipped up for McNair to head down and Begovic to save and the keeper had to come and bravely tackle through Lath right on the apex of the penalty area when, yet again, Rangers got a back pass badly wrong. Steve Cook leaving the fray injured felt like a big blow. Heâd been brilliant. Time for the first of this yearâs eight sightings of Jake Clarke-Salter from the bench. Boro were always going to come on strong at the start of the second half to retrieve the situation and so they did, regularly targeting Osman Kakay on the right of the back three. Begovic picked up where he left off, saving brilliantly from Lath, then having committed everybody forward for a cleared corner QPR faced a monumental counter attack of four against nobody at all and when Colbackâs attempt to bring the whole thing to a close with a red card failed the game looked to be up â Dozzell ran the full length of the pitch to brilliantly slide in, avert the danger and cement his star man credentials. Boro wanted a penalty for a big Sam Field lean in soon after, referee Thomas Bramall played advantage into a one on one situation between Lath and Begovic and, well, we know how those turn out. Carrick made two subs, and then two more, casually bringing Lewis OâBrien on, as you do. Brought a gun to a knife fight and then pulled out another gun. Mind you, the guy in charge of the public address system screaming âJosh Coburnâ didnât exactly instil the same sort of fear as when it was Juninho and Ravenelli in these parts. You donât need to shout mate, thatâs why theyâve given you the microphone. The whole thing was running out of steam somewhat. In the side stand, some absolute virgin decided to start blowing a whistle heâd brought from home. Iâve seen funnier episodes of Miranda. Sam Field stopped entirely, believing a free kick had been awarded, allowing Boro to storm through. Donât score off this, donât score off this, donât score off this⌠phew. Bramall held a Zoom conference on the touchline about the whole thing.
QPR had played well against Ipswich and Southampton for no reward, held back by a good goalkeeper in the first instance and woeful finishing in the second. Here, neither were an issue. Smythâs destruction of Engel, even with Hackney there to help out this time, was total. His cut back was on point and caused carnage. Go onnnnn. Chairâs shot was miraculously stopped on the line. Aggggghhhhhh. The rebound fell to Jack Colback. Surely now⌠And he lashed home. Mwahaha. Prior to kick off the only player on the pitch with more goals for QPR than Chair and Field was Jonny Howson with two own goals, now hereâs Colback with two in two. Not sure thatâs what we bought him for, also not sure I care. To our left, the hormonal teens and blokes so well fed they havenât been able to see their own dick since the days of Ayresome Park, so keen to engage previously, either went very quiet, or left. Armstrong, who we felt had been a little more conservative and reserved here, perhaps learning to conserve energy rather then burn out after an hour but less fun for it, was replaced by Kolli, who came on and started winning headers. How tall is he? Difficult to tell under there. Pray for Darragh Lenihan, one minute expecting to win a routine ball in the air the next trapped in a Tina Turner video. The referee added six to the end of the game which, with all the substitutions, goals, injuries, and imaginary whistles, would have been at least twice that on the opening day of the season. Colour me shocked theyâve given up with that after a fortnight. Still, having sat through ten extra minutes leading 2-1 at Cardiff Iâm not complaining. There was a late Clarke-Salter goalline clearance and a Begovic camera save to prevent another nervy finish, but Boro were spent a long time before the final whistle, and QPR were thoroughly good value for an excellent and deserved victory. Gareth Ainsworth has undone another button and added a necklace. Clearly heâs pleased with the direction of travel. Many more performances like this and heâll be bare to the waist but for a gold medallion. Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread Boro: Dieng 5; McNair 4, Fry 5, Lenihan 5, Engel 3; Howson 5 (OâBrien 69, 6), Hackney 5; Silvera 5, Rogers 6 (Greenwood 58, 5), Jones 6 (McRee 58, 6); Lath 4 (Coburn 69, 5) Subs not used: van den Berg, Barlaser, Gilbert, Glover, Bilongo Bookings: Greenwood 77 (foul) QPR: Begovic 8; Kakay 6, Fox 6 (Larkeche 85, -), Cook 7 (Clarke-Salter 45, 6); Smyth 8, Dozzell 8 (Duke-McKenna 85, -) Colback 8, Field 6, Paal 7; Chair 8 (Willock 85, -), Armstrong 6 (Kolli 72, 7) Subs not used: Archer, Dixon-Bonner, Kelman, Adomah Goals: Dozzell 43 (assisted Colback), Colback 71 (assisted Smyth) Bookings: Colback 50 (foul), Chair 65 (foul) QPR Star Man â Andre Dozzell 8 Nice to have several choices in this for once, but the narrative pick has to be Dozzell. A spectacular first goal for the club, and arguably just as important a magnificent sliding tackle to avert the three v none counter attack at the end of the first half turning into what felt like an inevitable equaliser. So, thatâs what heâs for. Referee â Thomas Bramall (Sheffield) 7 Best game Iâve seen him have, though thatâs not saying a lot. Six minutes added to the end of each half, given everything that went on in both, suggests theyâve already rowed back fairly substantially on this seasonâs trendy clampdown. Attendance â 25,671 (563 QPR) If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures â Ian Randall Photography The Twitter @loftforwords Ian Randall Photography Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
Blogs 32 bloggersSwansea City Polls[ Vote here ] |