Onwards and upwards Rangers survive by the skin of their teeth Posted: 18th May 2012 16:40 Email Chris .. Barton: deserves all he gets Moral justice has to be inflicted upon Barton by both the Football Association and the club's internal disciplinary procedures. QPR FanZoner Chris King Quotes of the week ..There is a very fine line between triumph and disaster. Had Jonathan Walters' opening goal for Stoke City against Bolton Wanderers been rightly disallowed, Queens Park Rangers could have been in the Championship next season. Big name players such as Djibril Cissé, Bobby Zamora, Taye Taiwo, Nedum Onuoha, Joey Barton, Samba Diakité and Shaun Wright-Phillips would either have been sold, left of their own accord, or remained a huge drain on a drastically squeezed club purse. Mark Hughes could also have departed along with the excellent coaching set-up he brought to the club upon his arrival in January. Rangers would have been little better off than they were when Neil Warnock took over as manager in March 2010. As it is, however, QPR supporters can spend the summer safe in the knowledge that they will be returning to Loftus Road in September to watch their side play Premier League football for another year. The R's deserved to stay up, too. After five successive home wins, and a dogged, backs-to-the-wall defensive display against Manchester City that drew many plaudits, few would begrudge the west Londoners their top flight status. That is, they wouldn't have done, were it not for Joey Barton. Always the villain, with a unique sense of self-importance and an undying "victimhood", the Rangers captain showed that even with supposed maturity he still cannot control himself. First the former Newcastle United midfielder reacted to Carlos Tévez' provocation, which earned him a straight red, before lashing out at Sergio Agüero and even picking on gentle giant Vincent Kompany. On a day that was all about the rollercoaster ride of football, City's incredible last-gasp snatching of the title from neighbours Manchester United, and QPR's superb defensive resilience, Barton couldn't resist thrusting himself into the limelight. intellectual The shenanigans didn't cease with the skipper being forcibly led from the pitch by former team-mate and good friend Micah Richards. As usual, the misunderstood intellectual and scholar took to Twitter to express his hatred of the entire world. The first victim of the barrage that followed was Alan Shearer, and then people's favourite Gary Lineker, both of whom had rightly criticised Barton's abandonment of his team-mates and brazen selfishness. Moral justice has to be inflicted upon Barton by both the Football Association and the club's internal disciplinary procedures. Deplorable articles of sub-humanity such as he must be made examples of and forced to pay for their actions. The sending off so nearly cost Barton's team-mates all they had thrown themselves in front of shots, and ran themselves into the ground to achieve: a result at the Etihad Stadium. Still, all's well that ends well: there is genuine reason for positivity in W12. The R's board reflects the supporters now and whether he is or not, Tony Fernandes has mastered the "man of the people" persona with consummate ease. The manager has assured fans that "this will not happen again", and QPR's purchase of the Warren Farm site for a state of the art training ground points to a very bright future indeed. With a few minor additions and the return of fans' favourite Alejandro Faurlin from injury, don't be surprised to see this club do a "Norwich" or a "Swansea" next season. For now though, we ought to take a minute to remember one thing: Queens Park Rangers finished 17th in the Premier League, exactly where Warnock left the club. His contribution should never be forgotten, without the Yorkshireman, we just wouldn't be here. .
That's a good article Oslo. It's been on my mind all week, on and off, just how close it all was in the end and what a fine line there was between (our) happiness and (Bolton's) despair. I can't have been the only one looking at the Sky income figures, looking at last year's relegated clubs piece of the pie and thinking there but for the Grace of God....He's pretty much bang on the money re. Barton and Warnock too.
An extremely fine line! I saw the end of the Stoke Bolton game - Bolton had a header from a corner in stoppage time there that took a very good save from Sørensen to keep out - a few inches further to his right and we would have gone. But then we could back over a few other incidents from the whole season! I agree entirely with his comment on Colin, not so sure about Barton as I think as against Norwich, cheating by Tevez got him red. What he did after is another story.
I think after Bolton's second, Sorensen owed us one. Without going into the rights and wrongs of the sending-off, or the aftermath, would you ever trust him in a big game again? I never would. Cheating, gamesmanship or actual assault by Tevez; call it what you will, anybody going into a high pressure game against JB knows exactly what to do now.
Yeh, Sørensen owed us big time! I agree it's for the best that Barton goes, more for his corosive impact on the dressing room than anything else, but he'll need a good replacement.
