Fruitless Fight Back Papers Over The Cracks

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Published on Sunday, 12 February 2012 17:58

Written by Ron Norris

At Ewood Park on Saturday afternoon QPR continued to show that despite any positives they might produce they can always find new ways of shooting themselves in the foot. A disastrous first 45 minutes did for us and despite a second half improvement this was a game that you struggle to take positives from.

Whatever way you look at it defeat at Blackburn was a poor result that leaves us struggling in an increasingly tight bottom five with the business end of the season now well and truly upon us.

Mark Hughes, never previously beaten at Ewood Park by his old side, made three changes ahead of this one, two enforced and one by design. Luke Young’s injury forced him out of the back four for the first time since his R’s debut. His place was taken by Fitz Hall meaning Nedum Onuoha switched to right back with Hall partnering Anton Ferdinand in the middle and Taye Taiwo remaining at left back.

Two changes in midfield saw Akos Buzsaky back in the side at the expense of Shaun Derry. He lined up alongside Joey Barton with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Armand Traore, in for the suspended Cisse, running the flanks. Adel Taarabt meanwhile pushed forward to play off Bobby Zamora up front while Paddy Kenny continued in goal.  It was an attacking and positive line up that gave much heart to the freezing Rangers’ faithful shivering in the away end. How things would change.

It was Rangers though that nearly got things going when Grant Hanley almost gifted the visitors a silly opener. His awful back pass was knocked straight into Zamora’s path but seemed to take Bobby by surprise too and he failed to capitalise on the young defenders mistake.

Rovers settled quickly after this though and, for a side struggling in the bottom reaches, certainly knocked the ball around rather well. They dominated possession for the next ten minutes albeit without ever really threatening Kenny’s goal and Junior Hoilett’s tame strike, easily blocked by Ferdinand, was about as close as they came. However with fifteen minutes on the clock they took the lead after a catalogue of errors in the R’s backline.

Paul Robinson launched a long goal kick forwards which Hall failed miserably to deal with, losing out in the air to Steven Nzonzi. The French midfielder flicked the ball into the path of the returning Yakubu who easily side stepped Ferdinand’s weak challenge and slotted past the wrong footed Kenny into the back of the net. It was a goal that summed up the lack of confidence in our backline, failing to deal with the ball in the air, on the floor and ending with a despairing Kenny shifting his weight the wrong way once again.

It only took the home side eight minutes to double their lead as they continued to dominate the match and you can chalk another one up to rank bad defending.

N'Zonzi was at the heart of it once again, this time playing Hoilett in down the left with the winger left in acres of space. The Canadian skipped unopposed into the box, easily dismissing the feeble attentions of Hall before squaring perfectly for the onrushing N’Zonzi to fire home left footed. Rangers were now two down and had only themselves to blame.

Blackburn have thrown away more points from winning positions than anyone else in the league this season but QPR did little to try and worsen that record as the stinking football at the back extended its way throughout the team. There was little support offered from midfield either defensively or offensively with Buzsaky in particular struggling with all aspects of his game, a ridiculously ambitious long range effort from the Hungarian that nearly went out for a throw summed up his afternoon’s work perfectly.

Akos’ poor showing left Barton continually isolated and Rangers constantly vulnerable to being carved open. Zamora and Taarabt showed some encouraging signs of linking well up front but found themselves regularly stranded with an impotent midfield behind them.

Taarabt had a sight of goal himself as we ticked towards half time but couldn’t get any purchase on his shot to bother Robinson. Barton then sent Zamora free with a clever ball from midfield, the R’s forward crossed for Traore but Robinson easily held his final effort. That was as good as it got for QPR though and Blackburn were soon back up the other end when Hoilett saw a low shot blocked and cleared in the R’s box before Morten Gamst Pedersen drove a free kick into the QPR wall. A third goal before the break would truly be a killer, Rangers had just seconds to hang on but predictably enough couldn’t make it with Rovers finding the net in added time.  

Again it came from a big ball forward but this time it was one time Rangers' target Scott Dann on the end of it. Unmolested in the box he headed across to Hoilett who was similarly roaming free. Hoilett lined up a shot and was fortunate to see it cannon off Onuoha and past a helpless Kenny to secure Blackburn’s third. It was an unlucky deflection granted but again some simple defending should have seen the danger cleared. Had we gone in at 2-0 there was always a chance of getting something back, three killed the game and the way we were playing it looked like things could only get worse. Much worse too.

Whatever was said by Hughes at half time, and I can only assume it was rabidly unrepeatable, had the desired effect as QPR came out a different side. Wright-Phillips had a bright opening to the half and put in two good early crosses, winning a corner with the first and setting up Zamora for a header with the second.

Rovers nearly made it four though moments later, Pedersen horribly scythed his attempted shot only to see it roll into the path of Yakubu. The big Nigerian attempted an audacious chip that had Kenny well beaten only to see it crash off the crossbar and be cleared to safety. That was pretty much the closest Blackburn would come to threatening our goal for the remainder of the game as QPR set about dominating the rest of the half.

We had our first chance of seeing one of Taiwo’s much talked about free kicks shortly afterwards, but the full back could only smash his effort into the Rovers wall. Taarabt then begun to take things by the scruff of the neck and his lovely ball from central midfield sent Onouha into the box. Frankly it was a shame that it fell to a defender rather than a forward but Ned will still be disappointed with a meek attempt that did little to trouble Robinson.

Jamie Mackie was introduced with around twenty five minutes to play and Buzsaky was put out of his misery in the process. The change freshened things further and within minutes of arriving Mackie had kick started the R’s futile revival.

Traore and Taiwo overlapped down the left with Armand’s pass horribly dealt with by former R Bradley Orr on his Blackburn debut. Orr fumbled the ball straight into Taiwo’s path and the Milan loanie put his cross right across the six yard box for Mackie to steal in-between two Rovers defenders and slot home. It was a well deserved goal based on the balance of play this half but with only 19 minutes left had come too late for any real hope of a successful comeback.

QPR continued to press though, determined at least to achieve that famous football cliché and win the half. Taarabt, Traore and Zamora combined on the edge of the eighteen yard box only for Adel to shoot well over the bar before Tarbs found himself at the heart of it again interchanging passes with Wright-Phillips and Onouha to advance forward to edge of the box before eventually forcing a good save from Robinson. Mackie had another sight of goal himself but shot straight at the Rovers ‘keeper, although he had been inexplicably flagged offside in the move before managing to ensure a nervous finish at Ewood Park when he reduced the deficit to just one goal in injury time.

It was a lovely finish too after some industrious build up play. Onouha got things going with his ball into Mackie but he couldn’t turn on his shot and was forced wide, eventually sending it back out to Taarabt. The Scotsman then received possession back from The Moroccan on the corner of the Blackburn area. Mackie turned passed his man and fired a beautiful right footed shot across Robinson and into the opposite corner.

A fantastic goal but it was all too late for QPR who pressed one more time, winning a corner before the time finally ran out. You can’t help but feel that if the game had five more minutes in it we would have snatched the most unlikely of draws such was the dominance of that second half. Perhaps if we had been just a little less appalling in the first period we might have got a point. Perhaps if we had been significantly less so we would have won this game.

For all the credit you can throw at the players for bouncing back after a turgid opening forty five minutes it was incredibly frustrating seeing this game thrown away only to have it demonstrated to us how easily we could have won it if we had bothered to start in the right frame of mind. 

Once again results have conspired to keep us out of the bottom three and on top of the five team mini league that is developing in this survival battle. However things have tightened up significantly now with two points separating us in sixteenth to Wigan at the bottom and we have a massive battle on our hands to stay up. Frankly we're incredibly lucky that there are four other teams as woeful as us otherwise we could be well out of it already. 

There are still deficiencies in the side despite our recent strengthening particularly in midfield where we desperately miss Ale Faurlin and have been left looking really thin there since his injury. Hopefully the arrival of Diakite during the international break will go a long way to strengthen up that area. 

Something just doesn't feel right at the moment though, we were told we needed to get new owners in August to get players in to stay up, we did but we still struggled. We were then told we needed to change managers to stay up, we did but we still struggle. Then we were told we needed to limp to January to strengthen again, we did but we still struggle. Aside from the wage bill do we really look that different to the side that lost against Bolton on opening day? Or Wigan? Different personnel, same problems.

Everything has changed yet nothing has too and we find ourselves in a position only QPR could. We have the best team of talent we’ve had for fifteen years, a good manager for this level of ambition and owners who are prepared to invest and support our little club. Everything is so right and promises so much but things just aren’t working for us at all.

All the promise in the world won’t keep you in The Premier League if you keep throwing away crucial points against struggling sides. You can only shoot yourself in the foot for so long until you fall over and Hughes now has two really important weeks with the players to gel everything together before we return to action.

With home games to come now against Fulham and Everton and then a trip to Bolton following this really is the time to stop promising and start delivering.

Jamie Mackie
In a game that was reduced to picking the best of one half it’s hard to overlook a man who came off the bench to score twice and nearly force us back into the match.




Kenny 5, Onouha 7, Hall 4 (Gabbidon 5), Ferdinand 5, Taiwo 6, Wright-Phillips 5, Barton 6, Buzsaky 4 Mackie 8), Traore 6, Taarabt 7, Zamora 6.


 

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