Looking back on the long old trip to the South West on Saturday as QPR won a hard fought point at Plymouth Argyle.

1 – The Match
Pretty bog standard Championship fair. Plymouth started the game very well and were denied an opening goal by an incorrect decision from the linesman who ruled that Timar’s deflected shot had not crossed the line when it had. QPR came back into the match and took the lead before half time with their first away goal in eight matches from Heidar Helguson. They were then denied what would have been a killer second goal right on the break by a similarly incompetent decision from the assistant referee at the other end when Martin Rowlands’ found the bottom corner from 20 yards only to see it ruled out for offside against Helguson who was not interfering with play. Plymouth should have had a penalty when Gorkss handled inside the area but was penalised outside, another bad error by the assistant there. QPR should have put the game to bed through Agyemang straight after half time but they then sat deep and tried to soak up pressure which, with Plymouth throwing caution to the wind, resulted in an inevitable equaliser from sub Steve MacLean after numerous fine saves from Radek Cerny had kept the home side at bay to that point. Another late penalty shout for the home side was waved away which meant a fair draw on a crap patch under poor floodlights badly officiated was the general summary – like I say, very typical of the league we’re in.
5/10

2 – QPR performance
Frustrating. QPR started the game very slowly and were indebted to a blind linesman for keeping the score deadlocked when Timar clearly forced the ball over the line in the first two minutes only to see it ignored by the officials. However the London side quickly came into the game with Martin Rowlands to the fore in midfield. They were the better team for the last half an hour of the first half, scoring once through Heidar Helguson although he needed two attempts to do it, and having another incorrectly disallowed from Martin Rowlands. A one goal lead at half time was more than fair and it could and should have been two ten minutes after the break when Agyemang ran through on goal but missed the target. After that, and here’s the annoying part, Rangers gave up any further hopes of scoring again and decided that Stewart, Gorkss and Cerny should be left to win the game by themselves. The team dropped deeper and deeper, stopped keeping possession, stopped giving the ball to Rowlands, stopped creating chances and basically just lined up on the edge of their own penalty area, hoofing the ball down the pitch straight back to Plymouth whenever they got hold of it. It’s mindless, no way to defend a lead and it got exactly what it deserved – an equalising goal against. After MacLean had scored Rangers reverted back to doing the good things that got them there in the first place, only they will know why they stopped and cost themselves two more points.
6/10

3 – Atmosphere
Pretty muted for Home Park actually. Only 10,000 people there and the gang of home fans that congregate to the right of the away end and make all the noise seemed greatly reduced in number. The seating that has been bolted onto the terrace to the left of the away fans seems to have discouraged the morons that used to stand there as well, leaving behind a collection of chavy kids. Obviously the QPR support was affected by problems on the trains and as a result this was about as quiet and low key as I have known this fixture – very few songs or noise, disappointing on all sides.
4/10

4 – QPR Support
Reduced in number by the dire away form and, more importantly, the fact that hundreds of QPR fans were stuck on trains or back in Paddington as the game kicked off because of flooding on the line at Swindon. There were about 600/700 that did make it and they were pretty quiet throughout, even when we took the lead, but credit to everybody for making the trip down that far at an expensive time of the year.
6/10

5 – The Ground
Much the same as it always is. Three nice, new modest sides to it offering good views and ample facilities downstairs and one old wreck down the side. That old main stand looked impressive with the huge banked terrace at the front but with that now replaced by temporary seating borrowed from the British Golf Open it just looks like a tired mess desperate for redevelopment. That the temporary seating hugs the back of the dugout, the substitutes and managers separated from the fans by some makeshift steel railings and red and white road work tape, says a lot for the quick fix job that has been done there to bring the stand up to code. Up above the new seating is the old main stand seating, still looking as if it could drop off the back of the ground and roll down the park hill into the harbour below at any moment. Points off for the pitch which looked and played like a ploughed field and the floodlights which were barely fit for purpose and made the second half like watching football by candlelight.
5/10

6 - Pre Match
We arrived in Plymouth at just after midday and made our way straight to the Barbican and The Navy pub which has become our regular haunt on this trip. It’s a great pub this, one of the best we go in on our travels all season. It offers a friendly welcome, the lunch time match on plasma screens, good food and a great atmosphere. It’s an old pub with low ceilings and wooden floors but it’s warm and inviting on a cold winter’s day and we always enjoy it. I had scampi and chips, young north had sausage and mash and both meals were very welcome after the long journey. It seemed a shame to leave and head up to the game at just after 2pm, we walked it this year after using a cab in previous seasons and it took us about 25 minutes although we did spend some time considering going into Santa’s grotto and wishing for an away goal before being moved on by a grumpy elf. After the match our train did not leave until half six which gave Paul a chance to go to Sainsbury’s and stock up for the journey home while I went back down to the fish and chip shop on the Barbican to fetch our dinner and so with a point in the bag, 20 bottles of Grolsch, two portions of haddock and chips and five Terry’s Chocolate Oranges we boarded the train at the end of a very enjoyable afternoon.
9/10

7 – The Journey
This is always a monster for us coming down from Sheffield, but I cannot moan too much because at least we made the game while other QPR fans were strung out like wet washing between Swindon and Paddington. I left the house at half past five, picking Paul up from his uni digs on the way down to Sheffield station where we caught the 0630 train to Birmingham New Street. We only had a ten minute changeover there and it looked like it was going 5to be tight as engineering works and signal failures delayed us around Chesterfield and Tamworth but the Cross Country timetable is geared towards giving the company hours of recovery time en route so they can then say 99% of their trains run on time. Consequently we arrived at New Street early which gave us chance to buy a couple of papers before boarding the next train all the way down to Plymouth. That had track circuit problems at Cheltenham and got stuck behind a steam engine at Tiverton so we arrived into Plymouth half an hour late at a little past midday.

On the way back we left at half six and despite having enough lager to get us completely potted should we wish Paul decided to go straight to sleep and leave me on my own all the way up to Derby, some five hours later. Paul seemed to pick our seats specifically because they were across the aisle from some nice young ladies but like I say he went straight to sleep and we had a couple of stinky portions of fish and chips with us anyway so it was hardly alluring for the girls so we were left listening to a Sky Sports employee trying to flog free Sky for a year to his mates over the phone – he literally could not give it away.

Five hours, several bottles of beer and two and a half chocolate oranges later we arrived at Burton where a wide variety of the scum of the earth got on and spent the ten minutes through to Derby trying to avoid paying for their tickets. We had 45 minutes to wait at Derby for a bus service which gave us the chance to take in the last bit of Barcelona v Real, luckily the only bit with any goals in, and then it was time for the coach.

The bus was freezing cold, and the driver decided that we would all want to listen, at half eleven at night, to hard rock played at great volume on a poorly tuned radio station that dipped in and out of signal every few seconds. When somebody complained he put on a similarly poorly tuned jazz station and turned the volume up. He also obviously worked for a tight arsed bus company because instead of going up the M1 to Chesterfield he took the shorter in distance but longer in time windy road up through Clay Cross. Paul managed to sit next to a filthy drunk who appeared to have soiled himself earlier in the day and over the course of the hour long trek up to Sheffield decided that he wanted to spread out, initially onto Paul’s lap and then after a polite request to Paul to “fuck off” across all three seats so my brother had to move. Nice fella.

Knackered, travel sick and poor we arrived back at my front door at 2am.
5/10

8 – Police and Stewards
Normally there’s total overkill when QPR come here but thankfully this year the police numbers seemed to be reduced and we didn’t encounter any of the problems we’d had in previous years with being searched or kept in the ground after the match. And guess what? There was no trouble at all anywhere without them. The stewards were very friendly, even saying ‘enjoy the game’ as we clicked through the turnstile – nice touch.
8/10
Total – 48/80

Photo: Action Images

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