Well, in typical rangers fashion we fail to get a result we should have with diabolical defending. On the way back from Bournemouth now, well in actual fact, havent even made it out of the sodding car park yet! THE GAME In short, we deserved more from the game for sure but we as fans have been let down once again, so much so that Clint felt the need to apologise and hold his hands up at full time to the fans. Within 30 seconds came an immediate 4 minute hold up with Clint Hill and one of their players clashing heads. Looked very serious and I cant believe both carries on.Bournemouth began the better side with the early pressure but we quickly got our way into the game and had two deflected shots well saved by Lee Camp (one of your favourites Flyer! ). Incidentally, he gave and got a good reception from our fans as he ran out for the 2nd half. Seems like he genuinely likes our club from his reaction. We just couldnt break through enough with poor final balls and a lack of quality from Maiga. It became a bit of a battle with half chances for either side. Their strikers, particularly Grabban looked very useful and intelligent with the ball. Grabban himself wasted a couple of great chances. Then just as 4 added mins were shown a great corner delivery found Elphick who Dunne lost and the former headed home. 1-0 at the break. Unusually we came out for the 2nd half firing! With our first attack inside a minute the player I often criticise put in a awesome ball that amazingly Traore controlled on the run and finished superbly. You would then think we would take control? No, thats not QPR. We struggled to create a huge amount and our sluggish midfield was not helping. Then Dunne once again at fault got beaten to the ball and the cross/shot was blocked by Green/hill but Grabban got to it and managed to tuck it away. That obviously gave them something to hang onto and once they were reduced to 10 men after a horrible tackle on Hoilett, our job was to break them down. They played it well though, defending and breaking with only a few players quickly and continued to cause problems. We barely had a decent chance in the 20 mins we faced 10 men bar a header cleared off the line in the last minute. In that last 20 we were shocking. Mistake after mistake, no urgency or desire. They wanted it more. THE RATINGS GREEN - 7 - couldnt have done much with either goal i dont think, but saved several good shots. ASSOU-EKOTTO - 5 - average really but with no heart or desire. Crossing was poor and was slow to get back quite alot. HILL 7 - amazingly battled on after a head injury and gave everything. Defended well throughout. DUNNE - 4 - at fault fof both goals and looked clumsy, tired and was pretty poor. SIMPSON - 7 - got forward very well and defended solidly against a tricky winger. Crossing ok but could have been better. JENAS - 5 - had no control in the midfield and his passing was poor. Lack of bite in the middle a real problem today. CARROLL - 6.5 - did good and bad things today. Superb ball for the goal but then misplaces or under hits easy passes. Frustrating to watch but better than he usually has been. But got pushed off the ball a number of times. HOILETT - 5 - first half no end product, second half had nothing at all. A massive dissappoitment this season for me. In the final 20 he had so many opportinities to cross the ball but failed every time. TRAORE - 7 - great to have him back and he proved our biggest threat down the wings but was under used. And what a finish for the goal. Outstanding! Got injured not long after and struggled too then keep up his impact but battled on until he was replaced with Zamora. MORRISON - 7 - a constant threat but closed down very quickly when in shooting range so was forced to play it wide. But battled through and proved a big creator of chances. MAIGA - 4 - better than Keane but still pretty awful. Lack of intelligence or ability let him down. Couldnt hold anything up or run with the ball! SUBS: AUSTIN - 6 - firstly, got a great reception and great to see him back. Didnt really have a clear chance created for him but got stuck in and held the ball up well. ZAMORA - 6 - came on and won flick ons for Austin and generally made a nuisance of himself. BENAUOUN - 5 - injected some urgency in our play and kept things moving and always looked to set up an attack. FINAL WORD Safe to say we blew that today with poor defending and a lack of a midfield to create chances. Why was Henry dropped after a MOTM performance last week? We missed someone like him today to have a bit of bite in the middle. Too easily played through and exposed the poor Dunne who let us down twice. Likewise up front we were poor with poor final balls a constant theme. Easy to defend against attacks with no inventiveness. When we do get it right we score goals like we did, but doesnt happen enough. Also, corner kicks. All but one were taken short and messed up and often ended up at Greens feet. The one that went long (after we chanted in the box repeatedly) was also messed up by Carroll. But the point is, we had Austin, Zamora, Hill and Dunne waiting in there with not a single delivery - absolute madness. They showed us how to do it with their first. And once they went down to 10 men we just got worse and worse. Barely anything was created and they actually had at least 3 great chances from counter attacks against Hill and the slow and clumsy Dunne. So for the 2nd week running Burnley slip up and we fail to take advantage. Unbelievablw that we wait all season and are told if they slip up we will be there to take advantage. Simply not good enough today and got out thought and out desired from many on that pitch. Clint's apology at the end summed it up really. Now for the journey home.... Thanks for nothing Rangers.
Yun MOTM one week, then dropped for the lazy and uninterested BAE. Henry MOTM one week, then dropped for the lightweight pairing of Jenas and Carroll. And some people wonder why others are at the end of their tether with HR!!
Thanks Judo - very quick delivery which is more than we got from Hoilett and Traore today!, though as you say Traore did well otherwise. You give credit to Clint but I didn't see too much of him today and thought he might be half concussed. After the first 15 minutes when we were decent, I thought we were poor, and as you say very open at the back. Having played Henry as a DCM at home to weak Blackpool with 3CB's and 2 backs, amazingly away against a free scoring in form team today Arry left the back 4 very exposed. Neither Carroll or Jenas sat back in front of them, leaving acres of room for Bournemouth to launch into, and leaving Dunne who seems to get slower every game, and possibly half concussed Clint in many desparate situations. The backs did OK, especially Simpson but it was never going to be enough. 2 calamitous games in a row now from Arry IMO, and all the more reason he should have gone weeks ago.
Arry is quoted as saying this on the BBC: "We lacked that bit of flair to open them up. You are looking at a bit more from Junior Hoilett and Ravel Morrison, your flair players to open them up - and they didn't really do it." Yeh, true Arry, but why were Bournemouth without many "flair" players continually able to open us up?
Cheers Judo, excellent as ever. Many thanks. Camp got a decent reception at LR earlier in the season. He was also on London Call-In on Thursday and, as you say, genuinely likes our club. Thankfully, for our playoff prospects, the matches are starting to run out now. Hopefully we can finish 3rd as I do fancy the home match on the Sunday, I really don't see it happening though. I was pleased to see Traore stay on the left for the majority of this match, he is so much more effective on that side; he certainly wouldn't have scored that goal had he been breaking down the right. Dunne is a shadow of his former self, he needs to be dropped. Do we have any idea when Onouha will return? Or Hughes? Would anyone play Hughes ahead of Dunne? How did Austin look to you? I noted in the match thread that he was strapped up like an Egyptian mummy, but did he look capable of 90 minutes on Tuesday night? One last thing, who was your MOM, as he clearly wont be picked against Blackburn?
Just got back home with Judo, must say Im very dissapointed with the result. The team seemed to work hard and Judo's report pretty much sums it up, but where is the intelligence in our tactics and play. Our central midfield was out muscled time after time today leaving the centre backs exposed. I could carry on with more faults but Im fed up winging about the obvious. Gonna sit in a dark room and chill out I think.
Let's hope it was Richard Dunne; then based on recent precedent, he'll be bench warming at Ewood Park....
Not sure that he would be up to 90 mins but certainly got stuck in straight away actually landing on his shoulder which gave us a scare! He was ok though! Didnt really have any decent support to properly judge him though - well tbh he has had none all season! As for MOTM i guess it would be Traore. Lively whenever he had the ball, using his pace to beat a man unlike Hoilett. End product not great bar the great goal but full of effort and desire.
Thanks Judo. Sad reading, sad result, sad for Fernandes and sad for the faithful travelling fans. Not happy.
Can't argue with any of that Judo apart from I think Hill was equally culpable for the second from what I can remember. Will have to look at it again tonight. Very good report as ever.
Second goal was more hill's fault in my opinion, fair enough Dunne couldn't block the cross but hill totally fluffed a simple clearance. Hard to believe it's the same defence that nobody could score against at the beginning if the season. To be honest I don't care about results now, as long as we make the play offs. What I do want to see is us looking like we will raise our game for the playoffs, but at the moment we don't even look like we could do that. We need Barton, Onuha back and we definitely need to wrap Austin in cotton wool. Then hopefully just have a few games with a consistent team selection and get some belief in time for the playoffs, cause you can bet every other team will and I for one am sick of seeing us lose at wembley.
Thanks Judo, great report as ever shame the subject was so devoid of any real interest. HR is to blame for this poor show again. Five team changes (not all through injuries) and ineffective use of subs. Only positive from today was the return of Austin.
Having just watched the goals for the first time the second is a mixture of Dunne and Hill as you say. Hill should have done better and we gave Grabban a simple chance.
Cheers Judo for some reason I couldnt get to watch on Sat and havibng seen the score i really aint intrested in the highlights. Your post just sums everything up that is wrong with our team at the moment.
Its the same story.Brighton, Sheffield Wed and now Bournemouth. Good start and we kepp puffin'n'huffin without any significant result. Suddenly the other team take the lead and our "house of cards" collapsed. Gettin Austin back wont help us cos our backfour (not hill) is slow, lazy and unmotivated. Dunne has been awful for a while now. We would be a laughing stock in the play offs if we succeeded to get there.........
