Joe Gallen’s Under 18 side overcame league leaders Leyton Orient with relative ease, despite being reduced to nine men by the time the final whistle was blown, and teed themselves up nicely for what promises to be an exciting FA Youth Cup match against Southampton at Loftus Road next Tuesday.

QPR’s South East Conference league standing going into this game was in second place, seven points behind Orient. Central midfielder Stefan Bailey was unavailable through injury, and Scott Donnelly and Ryan Johnson were in Nottingham with the first team.

Rangers lined up in a 5-3-2 formation with Daniel Murphy and John Fletcher as wingbacks and Lee Craig, Jonathan Munday and big Pat Kanyuka in central defence in front of ex-Arsenal keeper Sean Thomas. Scot Mulholland, Andrew Judge and Sonny Farr were the central midfielders, with Luke Townsend and top scorer Shabazz Baidoo up front.

In the warm-up Joe Gallen had been working with Townsend and Baidoo on their link play and this was soon to pay off. For the first 15 minutes  Orient played long ball to little effect against our strong defence whilst Rangers settled well, with the rolling back five looking particularly impressive. Baidoo then received the ball from a free kick, turned and unleashed a fierce shot. It was partially blocked by an Orient defender but Luke Townsend was on hand to follow up and score from six yards out.

Spurred on by this Rangers dominated the rest of the first half, with Sonny Farr going into the referee’s book for an over the top tackle and Andrew Judge missing two sitters, one of which he sliced wide and the other hitting the post.

Orient returned from their half-time team talk apparently determined to target Shabazz Baidoo and proceeded to niggle and kick him at every opportunity. On 55 minutes after being tackled by two Orient defenders followed by some pushing and shoving, Baidoo lost it and head butted one of them, and the ref had no hesitation in sending him off.

That left Rangers’ 10 men to try and hold on to a one goal lead against the league leaders for 35 minutes, but in the event they made light work of it, switching to a 4-3-2 with Judge joining Townsend up front and Murphy moving up onto the left wing.

The O’s still couldn’t penetrate our defence, in fact QPR keeper Sean Thomas didn’t have a save to make all game. They put in one decent cross late on which Lee Craig cleared.

Referees at this level usually prefer to have a word with players where possible rather than booking them, but today’s official was an exception, and the end of the game was marred by him sending Daniel Murphy off in the closing moments for a dubious second yellow card offence.

This was a big win for Rangers. Thomas in goal and Kanyuka in central defence put in immaculate performances. Scot Mulholland covered every blade of grass, and Luke Townsend deserved his goal. The form players this season are Baidoo and Murphy along with Donnelly and Johnson, and they will be key to our performance against Southampton in the FA Youth Cup game at Loftus Road next Tuesday night. On the face of it, it’s a David and Goliath contest, with Southampton spending half a million pounds a year on youth players. But Joe Gallen’s team has the self-belief, the team-spirit and quite possibly the talent to pull off a shock result. They will need every bit of support they can get, so please come along on Tuesday if you can.

QPR: Thomas S, Murphy, Craig, Kanyuka, Munday, Fletcher, Farr, Mulholland, Judge, Townsend (O‘Connell), Baidoo. Subs not used: Heselton, Barnett, O’Rourke, Thomas W