Great stuff. Loving the 'Chair' puns. Far too early to be optimistic but if we continue like this, there will be large slices of humble pie to be handed out and eaten on here.
Real quandary now - what do we do about the fixture congestion that comes with a cup run versus the dream of drawing one of the big boys, like Accrington or Doncaster, in the next round..........
I have a totally different view on things. They were not the better team in the first half by any means. We were at least equal to them bearing in mind the fact we kept losing the ball under not much pressure. We also had a LOT more chances on goal all game.
Not a riveting game but some interesting QPR performances: Ingram had some close calls with several of his clearance kicks nearly being charged down. Did not fill me with confidence today. Robinson's passing and control let him down - a poor game by his past standards. Furlong had a decent game and, as we've seen before, wouldn't look out of place in the first team. Onuoha looked good but had his usual one per game brain fart with an intercepted pass across the penalty area. From the start, I thought Caulker looked fit and classy but, unsurprisingly, he may have faded a bit. Freeman continued his excellent run of form, clever on the ball and inventive, able to beat a man. Manning seemed less influential than I expected but hit the bar with a terrific shot from 25 yards in the second half. Borysiuk looked slimmer and fit; hit some lovely long passes. Smith looked cumbersome, won a limited amount in the air and left the field with a cut after he was out-jumped by a Northampton midget. Sylla had a good game, held the ball up well and showed some clever touches. Yeni had one of the best games I've seen him play, showing great skill, beating men and being creative. Chair was a bit of a revelation: great feet, confident on the ball, busy, some good link up play and clever passes. Looked like a man with 100+ first team games under his belt. It was quite a strong QPR team and I just wish we had made a few more chances, especially after they were reduced to 10 men for 40 minutes. Our goal looked a tad offside. Not a thumping victory against a League One outfit who looked pretty competent but a welcome cup win.
Thanks for the report Dave, I mean Rodney. Good news about Chair. Hopefully he'll put a few bums on seats.
I wrote what you quoted at half time which renders your LAST sentence moot. They were the better side in the first half hence why Holloway had to change the shape of the team after fifteen minutes. They got down the channels every time they went forward and got behind our wing backs so Holloway had to change from a 3-5-2 to a flat back four. They had at least four good chances whereas we had a 25 yard pass back shot from Robinson and the goal. Most of our play in the first half was static with lots of backwards and sideways passing and very little penetration. Even Holloway said how well they played in his post match interview. They did to us ( High press ) what we did to Reading until the sending off and it was only then that we began to come on top.
