I was at the match. The way Brentford started, even disregarding their 2nd minute goal, I thought we were going to get hammered. Gradually, however, we fought our way back into the game, without ever threatening Brentford's dominance. For example, I think our first shot on target didn't arrive until around the 75th minute!
Nevertheless, there were some good displays in the team. I disagree with awjm (above) on at least couple of counts. Firstly, poor Morgan seemed to be asked to play as something like a deep-lying centre forward, which hardly plays to his strengths, but he worked hard and tried to get involved. I like to have him in or around the first team.... albeit probably not as a centre forward! Secondly, my overriding impression of Poku was someone who wanted the ball and looked tricky with it. Sure, he wasn't given much time or space by one of the best left backs in the Premier League but he continues to look very promising indeed. Awjm also criticises people for picking on Madsen. I'm very reluctant to vilify any QPR player but this is a forum where we are allowed to praise and to criticise players. I can give you an opinion on the performance of any QPR player today. To my eyes, they all showed up at one time or another, except maybe one: Madsen. He was pretty much invisible to me, although if I had to pick out the 3 worst passes that I remember from today's game, they all get marked down to one player. You guessed it. Sorry but, based on what I've seen in the friendlies (and most of last season), he doesn't deserve a place in the team, he's nowhere near the right level. Sometimes these harsh criticisms are justified. If I were a betting man, I would say that Madsen is only selected on the instruction of the CEO, who probably initiated and championed the transfer and the embarrassingly large fee involved. Opinions, eh?
I didn't have a great angle to see their goal (from B/C block, SAR) but I was a bit surprised when it went in. It looked almost like a cross from where I sat. If Walsh was a little bit at fault with that, he redeemed himself later with 3 or 4 outstanding saves. Apart from one slip up, his distribution was generally excellent. Dembele looked a handful, especially in the first half, and I thought Morrison had a really good game, again more so in the first half. For those of us worrying about Larkeche's ability to fill the left back slot, I found his performance today very reassuring. Time will tell. There were nice cameos, too, from substitutes Varane, Sutton and Adamson.
I was very conscious of having a good friend who supports Brentford and, today, if you'd offered my a one-nil loss after 20 minutes today, I'd have snatched your hand off! As it turned out, I think we can hold our heads up high.