QPR moved off the bottom of the Championship table with an unexpected 2-0 win at Burnley on Tuesday night.

This is why I'm destined never to have any money. I'd actually decided after the Scunthorpe game to scale down my remorseless attendance at QPR matches over Christmas. In the past few weeks I've taken time off work and spent days on end reaching Preston, Blackpool, Scunthorpe, Selhurst bloody Park, and for what? Misery. Poverty. A chesty cough.

Plymouth on Boxing Day? I must be bloody mad, but I've had it booked for weeks. I've been getting no pleasure out of QPR for ages now and lost my rag at Scunthorpe on Saturday to such an extent that I really should have been turfed out by the stewards for the first time in my life. Then my bank statement turned up and ohhhhhh my God there's a lot of red marks on that.

So that was that. I resolved in the car on the way back from Glanford Park on Saturday that Plymouth would be a bit of a swansong. One final crazy, illogical trip before an onset of common sense. I'd still go to the Saturday home games of course, but not the midweek ones, and I'd cut my attendance at away games in half. Cardiff away on a Tuesday night would be casualty one. Southampton away is a bit far, as is Norwich, and Wolves is a cesspit so they could all be avoided. Maybe give Leicester a miss on New Year's Day while I'm at it.

It all made such sense, why pay all this money and take all this time to see a team with a back four of Bob Malcolm, Zesh Rehman, Damion Stewart and Chris Barker? A team with snotty nosed kids on loan from the Premiership who behave and play like they're above all this Championship lark and don't need to make the effort. A team that is incapable of taking a throw in properly.

Northern the Younger was also ready to throw the towel in and missed this trip to Turf Moor even though he had a ticket for it. A sensible decision it seemed, as that same back four took to the field on a bitterly cold night in Lancashire. There were changes further forward with Ainsworth replacing the suspended Rowlands and Nygaard coming in for Saturday's man of the match Buzsaky - presumably injured - but the problem area of the team was still intact and therefore I was pessimistic over our chances.

Especially as Burnley were on such a terrific run of form coming into this game. I'd been very impressed with them at Wolves on Saturday night, their fourth consecutive win on the road, but looking through the programme their home form gave some cause for optimism. Leicester, Stoke, Hull and Southampton had all taken points from Turf Moor in the last four games there.

The first half progressed much as you would have expected. Burnley had more of the ball and most of the play took place in the QPR half but for a team meant to be high on confidence and "within sight of the play offs" as the tannoy announcer had screamed at us before kick off I was surprised to see the amount of ball they wasted. Time after time they knocked simple ten yard passes straight to QPR players or out for throw ins and as the half went on the groans from the home fans grew louder and louder. A shot into the away end from Mahon was all they had to show for nearly half an hour of being marginally the better team - Camp had very little to do and Rangers looked comfortable.

Stewart, Rehman and Leigertwood were the frustraters in chief, pinching the ball in and around the penalty area and calmly laying it downfield for Vine, Nygaard and Ainsworth on the counter attack. On only one occasion did they look uneasy in what they were doing, 27 minutes in Blake and Gray combined on the edge of the area and got in behind the centre halves but Barker covered round and shuffled the ball back to Camp with half hearted claims for a pass back waved away by referee Pike.

Burnley have outstanding players for this level on both flanks - Wade Elliott is a winger I've always rated and Kyle Lafferty has performed brilliantly both in the league and for Northern Ireland - but they didn't seem to get them in the game enough for me. Elliott saw more of the ball than Lafferty, and always looked to have the beating of Barker, but Rangers managed to cope with him reasonably well and confidence seemed to grow among the previously useless back four as the half went on.

The closest Burnley came to scoring all night was just before half time. Rangers, with Scott Sinclair particularly culpable, were very slack marking up from a Burnley throw in level with the edge of the penalty area and that enabled the hosts to work the ball swiftly into Alan Mahon on the edge of the area and he beat Camp with a rasping low drive that luckily came back into play after cracking against the base of the left hand post.

Burnley were getting on top towards the end of the half but the best chance of the opening 45 actually fell to QPR when a long ball down the line from Malcolm caused confusion between Carlisle and Unsworth which gave Rowan Vine an opportunity to race in behind them and race towards goal. Carlisle kept up with the Rangers man and looked at one stage like he might bring him down for a penalty and red card but Vine kept his feet deep into the penalty area before inexplicably firing over the bar when it seemed easier to score from eight yards.

The first action of the second half saw former QPR player Clarke Carlisle leave the field injured. This forced a reshuffle in the home ranks as Joey Gudjonsson came on as sub and moved into midfield, Chris McCann went to centre half. Carlisle walked back to the dressing room in front of the travelling QPR fans and the reaction to him was a strange one. At first there was silence and the fans didn't seem to know whether to clap or abuse him. In the end the reception was muted but quite a few people did stand up and shout some obscenities at him. Regular message board posters will know I backed Carlisle when he turned down our offer of a new contract to move to Leeds to be nearer his family, and I was absolutely furious when he then pitched up at Watford nine months later. In the end I just ignored him, he's not worth me wasting my breath.

The combination of McCann and Unsworth looked poor straight away. Suddenly QPR started to carve out chances.

Nygaard broke free down the QPR left but picked a poor option for his cross, Vine skipped into the area from the left flank but his shot was blocked and then a lovely one two on the edge of the area between Sinclair and Nygaard saw the former race in behind Graham Alexander and shoot powerfully for goal - Gabor Kiraly denied him with a fine save at the near post.

Then, on the hour, the opening goal went the way of the visitors. Sinclair was involved again, pouncing on a loose ball in the six yard box after Vine's shot had been blocked and shooting for goal. Kiraly got enough on that to force the ball wide for a corner which Sinclair took and put plum onto the head of Damion Stewart at the far post and he did the rest, powerfully heading into the bottom corner. Obviously the absence of Carlisle's height and marking under the corner played a part here. Stewart went absolutely crazy, racing fifty yards across the pitch to celebrate in the dug out with the rest of his team mates and manager. It was no more than he deserved for his performance to that point and he was increasingly impressive as the remaining half hour played out predominantly in the QPR half.

Burnley removed Mahon and Blake and replaced them with O'Connor and Steve Jones immediately after the Stewart goal. I'd presume fitness worries played a part there because Mahon and Blake struck me as Burnley's biggest threats and their replacements didn't trouble QPR half as much.

As time started to tick on QPR got deeper, and deeper, and deeper. It was exactly what we'd done and been punished for at Blackpool and at home against Crystal Palace. We were asking a back four previously not fit for purpose to win us the points. Lee Camp produced an outstanding, world class one handed save to claw O'Connor long range shot out of the top corner and Lafferty was also denied by the flying Rangers keeper. A succession of corners came to nothing with the marking in the box much more secure than it had been at Scunthorpe - Stewart and Rehman won everything in the air all night and frustrated the home side. In the end they started playing short corners which caused us more trouble as Rangers seemed happy to leave it two on one down the flanks in favour of having another body in the box.

De Canio introduced Dexter Blackstock for Sinclair who showed glimpses of class with the ball but again showed a lack of willingness to work hard for the team and track back. Blackstock saw little of the ball with QPR sitting so deep, at times the men in blue and white didn't even bother running out of their own area after clearing the ball and just set up to face another cross. It was hair raising stuff at times but effective in the end.

Every now and again Leigertwood and Bolder took hold of the midfield and we kept the ball for ten passes or so but more often than not we ended up retreating again with Ainsworth playing as a makeshift full back in the second half to help Malcolm. A scramble in the area saw appeals for handball against first Leigertwood and then Rehman rightly turned down.

QPR also took part in some fairly shameless time wasting during the second period. Chris Barker was carded for refusing to take a throw in until a substitution had been made, and Lee Camp was lucky not to see yellow for dawdling over every goal kick. De Canio introduced Simon Walton for his long awaited QPR debut two minutes from the end of normal time and he added quality and weight to the massed ranks at the back - a good substitution at the right time.

With a sizeable chunk of injury time approaching Burnley sent keeper Kiraly up for a corner. The Hungarian went close to scoring as well but Camp managed to shuffle the ball behind for another set piece from the opposite side. This time the cross wasn't as good and Rangers scrambled the ball away - suddenly the break was on. Vine got to the ball first on the half way line and raced away towards the away end.

My naturally pessimistic personality meant that I fully expected Vine to do a Devon Loch and fall over for no reason, or catch fire, or miss the target altogether but he had enough pace to move away from Kiraly as he chased back and roll the ball into the empty net in front of the jubilant QPR fans.

So a win at last, and we move above Preston and level with Colchester ahead of a game with the U's next week. It was no more than the players deserved really after a solid shift of really hard graft from all of them. Fantastic result in a game dedicated to the memory of Ray Jones, killed on the day of the original game.

No doubt if Burnley had scored during their periods of pressure we'd have been treated to another load of message board posts about how De Canio doesn't understand the English game. As it turned out our terrible defence had a good night and held firm - they got their reward with a killer second goal that we've been punished repeatedly for not scoring this season. The sitting back was a little extreme for my liking, there were times when we had 11 men in our own area and they made no attempt to get away when the ball was cleared which allowed Burnley to pen us in. Thankfully Rehman and Stewart stood tall and repelled their advances. We need to work on keeping possession to kill games rather than repelling teams for half an hour straight - there were signs of that at times in the second half, certainly more so than at Blackpool last week.

We got some luck at long last on Tuesday. Had Mahon's shot gone in and not hit the post then heads may have dropped and we may have lost but with the defence looking more confident and organised we survived that and went on to win. It was nice to see a killer goal go in as well.

On now to two home games, we never beat Wolves but Colchester the week after looks like a massive match. I'll be there, buying my tickets for Watford and Plymouth away, the bastards have dragged me back in.

Burnley Kiraly 6, Alexander 8, Carlisle 7 (Gudjonsson 48, 6) Unsworth 6, Harley 6, Elliott 7, Mahon 7 (O'Connor 63, 7) McCann 6, Lafferty 6, Blake 7 (Jones 63, 6) Gray 6
Subs Not Used: Jensen, Akinbiyi

QPR: Camp 8, Rehman 7, Stewart 9, Malcolm 7, Barker 7, Ainsworth 7 (Moore 90, -), Bolder 7, Leigertwood 7 (Walton 88, -), Sinclair 6 (Blackstock 75, 6), Nygaard 7, Vine 7
Subs Not Used: Cole, Balanta
Booked: Barker (time wasting)
Goals: Stewart 60 (assisted Sinclair), Vine 90 (unassisted)

QPR Star Man - Damion Stewart 9 - A great team effort all round really with lots of hard work and graft on show, but it was Stewart who stood out with a goal and superb defensive performance. He seemed to be on the end of every Burnley cross and corner with a powerful header clear. Great display.

Referee: Mike Pike (Cumbria) 7 - The home fans seemed pretty irate with him but he did well for me, let the game flow and kept the cards in his pocket. Excellent decision towards the end of the game when Lafferty hit the deck in dramatic fashion and was penalised for diving.

Attendance: 10,522 (300 QPR fans approx) There's never much of an atmosphere at Turf Moor, a couple of 'Come on Burnley' chants were all the frustrated home fans had to offer while the tiny but loyal following from W12 rattled around in the cavernous away end trying to get some chants going with the help of five enthusiastic Scotsmen at the back of the stand.

Photo: Action Images

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