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McAnuff Does THE Jobi on Rangers
QPR
ended the season with a lacklustre 1-0 reverse against Cardiff City
at Ninian Park. The game had such an end of season feel to it, it
was untrue and it looked as though pre-season had already begun for
a lot of the players. With others playing for their Rangers careers
you would have hoped that some more urgency would have been shown.
Olly had already said that he would take this opportunity to give
people a final chance to get into his plans for next season. Rossi
remained in goal behind Bignot, Shittu, Santos and Padula. Rowlands,
Bircham, Gallen and Cook made up the midfield four with Thorpe and
Gallen in attack. There was a first place on the bench for young
left back Matthew Hislop.
From our diabolical vantage point inside the dilapidated Ninian Park
we were treated t o the sight of Cardiff making nearly all of the
early running. The searing pace of Jerome and McAnuff was in
evidence from the off. Bignot had his work cut out from the get go
as the former Wimbledon and West Ham winger looked to test him at
every opportunity. In the middle Jerome was giving Shittu a torrid
time also, it is rare that he gets tested for pace like this.
Cardiff were forcing a host of corners and from one of these the
flame haired James Collins nodded well over the bar. Rangers managed
to force a corner at the other end when referee Marriner decided
Neil Alexander had carried the ball out after good interplay between
Gallen and Rowlands. The ball wasn’t even close to going out; we
should have made the most of this as we were awarded precious little
else by this ref all afternoon.
It
was Jobi McAnuff that gave Cardiff the lead with twenty six minutes
played. Cameron Jerome set off like a rocket down the right side and
left Padula and Shittu for dead. His ball across the box went
through the space Shittu had vacated and McAnuff was moving in from
his left wing berth to fire into the bottom corner. In truth it was
no more than they deserved as they had been the brighter side for
long periods.
Rangers were simply not able to create anything going forward and
this was in the most part due to some poor forward play from Thorpe
and Cureton. Thorpe kept finding himself offside, mind you; at least
he was making runs which was a damn sight more than Cureton was
doing. Olly eventually moved Curo to the right, pushed Rowlands
inside and shifted Gallen up front in an attempt to give us some
presence.
Cardiff went close again when Boland mugged Santos by flicking the
ball over his head before volleying wide. The skill even drew
applause from the R’s fans as we were being starved of anything of
our own to applaud. Everything seemed to be breaking down on the
edge of the box no matter how intricate the build up. Rowlands
managed to eek out a rare sight of goal but could only fire straight
at Alexander.
Many hoped that Olly would change things up at the break; I would
certainly have welcomed the introduction of Miller in place of the
insipid Cureton. Olly stuck with the same personnel though and in
truth, things did pick up, a bit.
Gallen found space on the edge of the area and seemed to have done
Alexander but he could only drag the ball wide with the goal at his
mercy. Soon after Gallen released Cook on the left side and he bore
down on goal. He slammed in a low shot which Alexander did well to
turn against the upright.
The
game was a nothing affair by now, Langley’s every touch was being
booed by the majority of the travelling R’s support. I don’t
understand it myself, I would welcome him back tomorrow but I don’t
think he will be too keen on it now. He was sold to help improve the
team, which we did. Yes he went to Cardiff but who cares! People are
far too hung up on the whole Cardiff thing, yes we took an extra
season to go up, but who is in the better shape now?
With the game entering injury time Rangers almost snatched what
would have been a slightly fortunate equaliser. Rowlands was felled
on the edge of the box and Padula stepped up to strike the ball. His
effort whipped over the wall and just evaded Alexander’s hand to
cannon back off the bar. It would have been fitting for Gino to get
one in what could conceivably be his last game for the Rangers.
At
the final whistle nobody was overly bothered about the result. The
fact that we had managed to finish in 11th place in our
first season back at this level is a fabulous achievement. The
players came over to applaud the fans, but oddly the management
didn’t. Maybe they were letting the players have their moment but I
though it was a pretty poor show.
This game was a chance for some to prove themselves worthy of a
place in next season’s squad. I hope Gino has done enough now as he
has played really well in the last half a dozen games. I think
Thorpe and Cureton signed their own release forms today and I would
assume that Day will be going as he wasn’t even given a chance to
show what he could do.
There have been some low points this season, the defeats at Watford
and Leeds, the Ramon Diaz debacle, but the good far outweighs the
bad. Wins against a Wigan side promoted this afternoon and third
placed Ipswich; a stunning season from Furlong and the development
of Danny Shittu into a defender coveted by Premier League clubs.
Later in the season we also saw the breakthrough of the next
generation of Rangers stars.
You
should always look to improve and if we can improve by four or five
places next season then that is good progress. Many will say that
the season ticket hike means we should be looking even higher than
that but some sense of realism has to be applied. The transfer
windows are going to hit us hard but if we can amass a decent squad
from the off then next year might be a cracker.
simon@qprnet.com |
