Outplayed by their opponent and conned by the referee, QPR slipped to a disappointing but deserved Monday night defeat to neighbours Brentford at Loftus Road on Monday night.
Occasionally, football can be all about timing.
A little over a week ago, Brentford were being very Brentford indeed. Losing home games despite having 76% of the possession and facing only one shot on target in the whole match — a header from 25 yards. Losing away to a newly promoted side despite dominating, seeing three shots cleared off the line in the same passage of play. Talking a lot about ‘expected goals’ while teams scored actual ones at the other end. They did keep bottom placed Stoke out, but only drew 0-0 at home. Stopit — show some bloody respect, Justice League champions three years in a row this lot. Murmurings about manager Thomas Frank were growing into proper grumbles as Millwall Millwalled their way into a two nil lead at Griffin Park.
Queens Park Rangers, meanwhile, were having a lovely old time. Goals flying in from all angles at both ends of the pitch; totals that took Steve McClaren’s tired side a whole season to rack up being matched and surpassed in early October; free scoring strikers, exciting young midfielders behind them, away wins; cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.
But over the last seven days or so, a couple of things have happened. Brentford, miraculously, came back to beat Millwall after all with three goals in the final six minutes. Buoyed, they subsequently stormed South Wales and beat early Championship pace setters Swansea 3-0 in fine style. QPR know only too well the perils of going from being a club that doesn’t spend money to being one that does, but in the space of a week the theory has switched on the Bees’ expensive summer recruits — perhaps they just needed time to settle. All those sides lucky enough to play them while they did now grateful to have them out of the way — those with them coming up in the fixtures cursing their luck.
QPR, meanwhile, for the second season in a row, saw good form and promising league position unexpectedly interrupted by a hard fought, scarcely deserved home draw with lowly Reading. Twice now we’ve gone into home games against the Royals with them low in the league, us riding high, only one result likely on paper, and nearly been stung. For the visiting scouts, there was lots to go on as Ejaria and Swift ran amok at Loftus Road on Tuesday night.
Now, suddenly, you’ve got a QPR team with a few doubts facing a Brentford team moving through the gears. A whole new slant on the match compared to if it had been played a fortnight ago, and in the first half at last it felt like the pitch was sloping heavily towards Liam Kelly’s goal. The bookies made the visitors favourites and, as it transpired, they were right to do so.
Said Benrahma got in behind Angel Rangel good and early and although a laughably bad cross drew ridicule, the problem of Brentford’s front three of him, Ollie Watkins and Bryan Mbeumo getting betwixt and between a leaden-footed back four, missing Yoann Barbet against his former club, was very real. Only a tremendous last ditch block by Grant Hall stood between Josh Dasilva and the goal on the quarter hour after Toni Leistner had given the ball away and Mbeumo had got him in. Then Dasilva turned provider with an outrageous piece of skill to bamboozle the entire QPR midfield and provide space and time to thread Watkins through on goal but Kelly saved brilliantly one on one.
They took the lead on 23 minutes when Mbeumo crossed for Watkins to head in — QPR with a proper wide on at the back once more, absolutely gaping — and only shrewd defending from Rangel prevented them going in again on 32.
In return QPR got Bright Osayi-Samuel going at his full back once — low cross claimed by keeper Raya at his near post on nine minutes. A glorious flick over his man and catch on the other side could have set Ebere Eze up for the goal of all time had he taken on the shot that presented itself rather than looking for another pass. Later Nahki Wells’ cute ball in field carried just too much pace for Eze to bring under his spell and scream through on goal. But that was it, 1-0 more than fair. Josh Scowen’s much needed cage rattling tackle on Mbeumo in first half stoppage time at least suggested some resistance to come — earlier he’d been lucky to escape a yellow for deliberately interrupting a counter attack with a trip. Usually a mandatory one that.
It’s not the first time QPR have been a bit loose and pedestrian to start games this season. It hasn’t bothered them greatly, they’ve come from behind to win against Sheff Wed, Hull and Wigan, but it would have been nice in the context of this game to see a repeat of the start we managed against Luton. We showed we were capable of blowing opposition away that day, but we haven’t see it from the start since, and once more in this game momentum and scoreline would need to be overhauled in the second half.
Initially, no problem at all. Straight away Eze burst through and drew a yellow — Andy Woolmer had remembered his cards this half. Moments later a free kick from wide was headed firmly at goal by Nahki Wells drawing the first proper save of the game from Raya — a bloody good one as well. Then, from that corner, Grant Hall powered in at the near post to head down and in for the equaliser. Crowd, roused by a half time introduction to Clint Hill, and team resuscitated after a comatose first half. Three times in quick succession Osayi-Samuel took on his full back and beat him, the third resulting in another booking — Rico Henry joining Norgaard on Woolmer’s pad.
This was better. This was much better. There was width and pace, threat and intent. The ball was popping, the play was switching, Brentford were sweating and QPR were clicking. Where it had all been in the first half could be debated afterwards, what mattered at this point was it was here now and the scoreline hadn’t moved too far beyond Rangers when it wasn’t. This wasn’t just salvageable, this was winnable.
But, like I say, timing can be everything in football. Benrahma had curled one wide of the top corner on 50 which would have left QPR ruing chances for a tactical foul earlier in the move had it gone in, but most of play had been flowing towards the Loft End since half time. That was until Nahki Wells and Ebere Eze contrived to give the ball away in a bad area, Liam Kelly just about prevented Toni Leistner’s desperate clearance turning into an own goal, and then Bryan Mbeumo contorted himself theatrically into the air and landed between the non-existent tackles of Josh Scowen and Wells in the penalty area. It goes without saying that this was not a penalty, anybody who thinks otherwise is a certifiable moron, but unfortunately, as we detailed before the game, the PGMOL had decided to enliven proceedings by sending us exactly that to referee the game. Woolmer, whose handling of a long list of QPR games over the years has ranged from cataclysmically awful right the way through to the sort of rabid nonsense that should really have seen him sectioned under the Mental Health Act, whose inept handling of Championship games in general had seen him booted off the division’s list for the season before last, pointed straight at the spot. Of course he did. Fucking wrinkly prick.
It was the sixth penalty Rangers have conceded already this season, and the seventeenth going back to the start of last season. That’s more than any other team in the division and none of them have been saved. Not that any goalkeeper in the world would have got to Benrahma’s effort into the top bins mind — Kelly did go the right way, and wouldn’t have got there with a butterfly net.
And that was pretty much that. You could just feel the air go out of the place, like a balloon deflating. Crowd and team just getting into full flight, now suckerpunched and unable to bounce back. We’d wondered whether Jordan Hugill’s suspension might not be a bad thing after the difficulties of trying to accommodate him and Wells against Reading — not so. We missed the physicality, the target, the back to goal game, the presence and the pugnaciousness he brings to our attack. Wells, isolated and frustrated, started to look a lot like March and April’s Wells again. Jan Mlakar was introduced to try and do a job but was played too wide and had little effect. Osayi-Samuel, who’d tortured Henry in the first 15 minutes of the half, disappeared altogether — injured, according to those on the Ellerslie Road side, but not replaced. The midfield axis of Geoff Cameron and Josh Scowen looked slow, and tired, and one dimensional. Luke Amos hasn’t torn up any trees since arriving from Spurs, and was downright crap in the last home game, but I thought we lacked his athleticism and attacking vision from the centre of the park. Too often balls were played backwards and sideways, frequently ending up all the way back with Kelly, for want of better options showing ahead of the ball.
I wouldn’t fault anybody’s effort. Had Ebere Eze’s nutmeg and 20 yard shot on 64 minutes gone in the net we’d have been talking about the goal for years to come but it, and another similar try from Ilias Chair later in the game, irritatingly flew straight at the keeper. Overall I felt we looked leggy, and distinctly second best for all bar the first ten minutes of the second half. Having made such a big deal of the use of the squad in previous three match weeks I did find it strange that Warburton would basically stick with the same team three times this week, bar the enforced withdrawal of Hugill and Barbet. Rangel, Cameron, Scowen, Osayi-Samuel and Wells all looked likely candidates to be replaced to me after an hour here, and quite a few of them do have direct replacements available.
Far from chasing an equaliser, Rangers actually looked well capable of conceding a few more. Benrahma was basically through on goal on 62 when Kelly denied him, and the goalkeeper was forced into more nervous but still effective action five later when Mbeumo cut in and tried his luck. Two free headers from a wide free kick 15 minutes from time gave Watkins a chance to turn and shoot — Kelly blocked at the near post.
The play acting that had won Brentford their second goal, and got the game stopped at a convenient moment for them in the first half when Benrahma was clutching his leg and demanding refereeing action while at the same time shooting a wind-up grin to the east Paddocks, reared its head again at the end of the game when big hard Pontus Jansson took a sniper shot on the edge of the Loft End penalty box. Woolmer played along with the flagrant clock running episode, but QPR did not — refusing to return the ball from the resulting throw in. Shame we couldn’t get an equaliser off that really, or when Raya came for a routine cross in the eighty seventh minute and dropped it cold but nobody reacted to put it into the empty net. Chances are QPR’s infuriating technique of starting half a dozen players offside from every free kick expecting Brentford’s high line to drop back and play them on as the ball was kicked, even though they’d shown no inclination to do so all night, probably meant somebody would have been flagged off if they had scored. Come on boys, engage brain will ya.
Four minutes of stoppage time bought one half chance when Jansson allowed a ball to bounce with Wells and Mlakar in hot pursuit but having survived that the Bees were able to counter attack and add a third through the game’s star man Ollie Watkins from close range with the last kick.
The penalty was crucial, coming just as QPR had gained ascendancy and equalised, and changed the course of the game back Brentford’s way. It was a disgusting decision from one of this league worst referees. But we shouldn’t pretend we were cheated out of this, we were outplayed for the majority of the game and they deserved the third goal they added right at the death. Even the penalty itself only came about because we gave the ball away on the edge of our own area.
One of those bottle of red wine alone in a dark living room ends to an evening.
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QPR: Kelly 6; Rangel 6, Leistner 5, Hall 6, Manning 6; Cameron 5 (Mlakar 72, 5), Scowen 5, Osayi-Samuel 6, Eze 6, Chair 6; Wells 5
Subs not used: Lumley, Kane, Wallace, Pugh, Amos, Ball
Goals: Hall 48 (assisted Eze)
Brentford: Raya 6; Dalsgaard 6, Jansson 6, Jeanvier 6, Henry 6; Mokotjo 7, Norgaard 7, DaSilva 8 (Jensen 81, -); Mbeumo 7 (Castillo 75, 6), Watkins 8, Benrahma 7
Subs not used: Thompson, Pinnock, Daniels, Zamburek, Rasmussen
Goals: Watkins 23 (assisted Mbeumo), 90+4 (assisted Jensen), Benrahma 60 (penalty, won Mbeumo)
Bookings: Norgaard 46 (foul), Henry 57 (foul), Watkins 90+4 (excessive celebration)
QPR Star Man — Ebere Eze 6 I don’t know, I nearly didn’t give one, I thought everybody was a bit of nothing really, trying hard without ever getting anywhere. Liam Kelly made good saves, but conceded three goals and was off with his distribution. Eze did get an assist, and kept going, and did pose an attacking threat.
Referee — Andy Woolmer (Northants) 4 Captain bellend, chuckling away through his staggering ineptitude.
Attendance — 15,562 (3,000 Brentford approx.)
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Pictures — Action Images