Have your say on our message board
Upload your QPR pictures to our photo gallery
Read a range of opinions on our regular blogs
Check your team's progress in Fantasy Rangers
Stay in touch on the move with QPRnet Mobile
For the second time this season Rangers battled hard to notch up a 2-1 win over Brighton at Loftus Road. This game had the lot. Quality goals, plenty of challenges, the usual sub-standard referee and a comedy panto villain for the crowd to chip away at!
Holloway was forced to change a winning side as yet another player found his way into Prav's treatment room. This time McLeod had managed to injure a hamstring in training and couldn't take part. The reshuffle gave the midfield a somewhat defensive look. Day was in goal behind his usual back four of Forbes, Carlisle, Shittu and Padula. Bircham was shunted to the right wing with Matthew Rose coming in to partner Bean. Rowlands was pushed onto the left to complete the quartet. With Thorpe still missing the partnership of Gallen and Furlong continued in attack.
The game was barely five minutes old when Rangers had the biggest slice of luck Loftus Road has seen for many a year. A cross was only half cleared from the box and fell to Charlie Oatway just outside the area. He took aim and lashed a shot that seemed to have beaten Day before Carlisle intervened. He plunged to his left and tried to chest the ball away only to misjudge it and be forced into sticking out an arm. It was one of the most blatant penalties I have ever seen yet Colina wannabe Mark Cooper inexplicably waived away the appeals. The Brighton players went mental at him and rightly so. This was just the first example of him bottling big decisions all afternoon and he had set the standard early.
Mothercare pin up boy Leon Knight was soon trying to force his way through to goal. His speed carried him past Shittu but his shot was weak and so poorly placed that it went out for a throw in much to the delight of the Loftus Road faithful. Motor mouth Knight has won few admirers at Rangers with his cheating and whinging and the crowd took every opportunity to remind him just how unpopular he is in this part of the world.
The game was becoming a bruising encounter and Rangers were left counting the cost of this as two players went down injured within minutes of each other. Firstly Marcus Bean looked to have picked up a dead leg in a challenge and was trying to get off of the field when Carlisle went down with what looked like a dislocated shoulder. There was no getting Clarke off though, a quick trip to the touchline and some fairly barbaric physio work from Prav and he was back on, right arm hanging limply at his side. Beany though could barely walk so Palmer took his place in the middle of the park.
Rangers immediately took the lead with a quite sensational goal from Martin Rowlands. There seemed little on when he picked the ball up on halfway facing the touchline and boxed in by Brighton players. A lightening turn carried him away and he drove forward down the line. Picking his moment carefully he jinked inside and opened himself up before firing a great shot past Ben Roberts into the corner to send the crowd wild. It was a fantastic effort from a player that has proved to be so much more than any of us could have imagined when he joined in the summer.
Gino tried his luck from distance minutes later after robbing Knight of a bouncing ball and surging forward. His effort was wild though and didn't trouble Roberts. Just before the break though it was 2-0 courtesy of December's player of the month, Kevin Gallen. Carlisle thumped the ball forward and Furlong got above Cullip to flick the ball into Gallen's path. He did well to evade the challenge of Butters and steadied himself before firing past Roberts.
The lead was halved almost immediately though as Rangers slept in on a corner. Brighton feinted to play the ball short and Bircham was pulled away from the near post. The ball was delivered over his head and Brighton skipper Cullip got a free header at the near post that Day could only palm into the top corner. There was an ugly exchange in the net when Gino and Knight got into a shoving match over the ball as Shortround tried to get it back to the centre spot.
The game was set up for a monumental second half but Rangers never seemed to get going. Furlong had an early effort that was easily collected by Roberts before a freekick was awarded on the right. As the player lined up on the edge of the box Shittu seemed to be pole-axed by Cullip and he went down holding his throat and gasping for air. I don't think it was deliberate but the referee wouldn't let Shittu have any treatment as he hadn't seen the incident. This was typical of his general attitude to the game. He bottled any decision that might have meant having to dismiss a player, Cullip should certainly have gone later in the game for kneeing Gallen in the ribs. This bloke shouldn't even be refereeing a Sunday league game.
Gary Hart picked up Brighton's obligatory booking for diving midway through the half for a theatrical tumble under a challenge from Padula. I can't remember the last time I saw a team of such cynical cheats. Cullip was then booked for persistent fouling and sarcastically took the piss out of Cooper by mimicking him pointing to the fouls. A stronger ref might have taken further action although you could see the point Cullip was trying to make, he was clearly as exasperated as the rest of us!
It was all Brighton now as Rangers staged a desperate rearguard action to protect the three points. Carlisle, still unable to make any use of his arm, was having a colossal tussle with Trevor Benjamin and getting the better of him on almost every occasion. Knight was also beginning to cause problems and Terrell Forbes had to be alert to get a challenge in when it looked as though he may equalise.
Rangers had a great chance to close the game out as the match entered the final ten minutes. Paul Furlong picked up the ball in the centre circle and set off toward goal. The defence seemed to be melting away before Carpenter hacked his legs away with a challenge that even the most battle hardened of Italian centre halves would have been ashamed of. A yellow card was inevitable.
At the other end things were getting even more desperate as Brighton missed two great chances to level things up. Firstly Danny Cullip lifted the ball over the bar when a blast would surely have been the better option. Then Day produced a tremendous stop to thwart Knight after he found himself unmarked only six yards out. Knight had another chance soon after but this time Day's save was more comfortable as the half pint sized striker shot straight at him.
The final whistle was a relief when it came as I am not sure how much longer Rangers would have held out. Brighton absolutely battered us in the second half and it seemed just a matter of time before an equaliser came. I thought they were well worth a point but it is a mark of a good team that they can protect a lead, no matter how fragile it is.
simon@qprnet.com
