What a day to be a QPR fan. A new board in place, good win and some real enthusiastic supprot from our fans. To top it all off, I even got to air my views on 606 when I got home. QPR controlled parts of this game with a beautiful flowing passing game, looking more like a champions league team than a championship team. Everton had there chances however were kept at bay by some brilliant defending from Bradley Orr who had the game of his life, Shaun Derry playing like he did last season and Paddy Kenny who has picked up where he left off last season. QPR fashioned the earliest chance. Some neat interplay between Orr, Taarabt and Faurlin fed in Smith who's snap shot just went wide of the post. Everton then missed a succession of good chances including Tim Cahill missing essentially an open goal from 3 yards out when it was easier to score than miss. The QPR faithful were full of song at this point as they were throughout the whole match (when you watch MOTD later, you'll hear that the only sound at Goodison was coming from our fans). Next came a true hearts-in-mouths moment for rangers fans. A needless freekick given away on the edge of the box was lined up by Leighton Baines. Even from my position down in the paddock, I could see that the wall and keeper were in the wrong place. Baines struck it sweetly, over the wall and it looked to be heading straight in with Kenny rooted to the spot only for it to come down off the inside of the crossbar and bounce out. QPR once again regained control of the match and it was another passing move that this time to the goal. Taarabt and Connolly this time combined down the left, layign each other in and when the ball came to smith in the box, he spun and fire a superb shot right into the bottom corner of the net. He looked around in near shock, almost expecting to see a flag but when none came, he ran away celebrating towards us. My dad who has seen us play through thick and thin over the last 45 years, was almost brought to tears with sheer joy. The rest of the half passed largely without incident and when the half time whistles went several fans started celebrating like we'd just won the game. The second half saw the R's camped out in there own half, rarely attacking and focusing more on just maintaining the slim lead we held. The R's nearly conceded when Rodwell got in behind the defence only to hit his shot straight at Kenny who comfortably caught it at the second attempt. QPR lost their second player to injury in games this season when Dave went down after a fairly routine header. Everton played on ignoring the calls of the QPR fans but the referee Mr Friend soon awarded a free kick. After going over to check on Dave, the physio was called and it became instantly apparent he was to leave the game. For the first time in the whole match, we heard the Everton fans who were whistling, apparently thinking he was faking. Once the stretcher came on and Dave was stretchered off, the whistling silenced. Boothroyd came on and spear-headed the R's attack for the rest of the game. The remainder of the half saw a complete team effort from Rangers defending their goal like mad. Everton by this stage had brought on the big guns of Arteta, Fellani and Saha so rangers were defending on tired legs against arguably Evertons best 3 players. This was where Derry and Orr came into their own, endlessly making blocks, pushing the ball upfield and shepherding Everton players on the wings, out of play. Even Fitz Hall made a great defending move, managing to catch Everton offside to the suprise of most around me and even by the looks of it himself, seeing as he seemed quite confused by the linesmans flag. Rangers played out the rest of the game and even though we had to withstand 5 minutes (how the **** did he get that much??!??) of extra time, the players made those who made the long trip or in my case short trip home worthwhile. The funniest moment of the day had to be for me, as I was walking to my car, I passed another group of QPR fans sitting in the back of someone's car. We chatted briefly about the game and then they told me, the guy who was driving was a Liverpool fan who had offered to give them a lift to Lime Street Station as thanks for beating the blues. Onwards and upwards now for us to Wigan. Player Ratings: Kenny 8 - marshalled his box and made several important saves to get us the result. Orr 9 - superb MOTM performance Hall 6 - slightly more proficient performance from one size although still definetly a liability at the back Gabbidon 6 - similar to One Size, shoudl aerial dominance but gave the ball away needlessly on many occasions Connolly 7 - about as good as you could ask for a CB filling in at LB Derry 8 - superb in the centre as always, played nice passing game with Faurlin Faurlin 8 - vast improvement on last week, played nice passing gme although still needs to increase speed of passes slightly Buzsaky 7 - looked like the old Buz today, still needs a bit more confidence to take a shot though Taarabt 7 - nice link up play but still a bit out of fitness. showed some of last seasons skills towards the end of the match Smith 9 - best attacking threat we had on the pitch, woudl have been definite MOTM had Orr not played so well Agyemang 6 - big Dave won plenty of headers but his touch let him down and he doesnt look to be premier league quality Subs Boothroyd - n/a inspite of being on the pitch for 35-40 minutes, had been told not to attack and hence was only trying to hold the ball up when it came to him Ephraim 7 - looked shaky going forward but was brilliant defending, harrangued Arteta and didnt let him have any chances Ref Friend 8 - had a game with no real bad decisons although the amount of stoppage time was a bit excessive
Not gonna argue too much with that... Would give our CB's higher marks though. Thought they were outstanding today, especially 2nd half.
watched the game on setanta ireland.we were much quicker to the ball than last week.they may have had more of the ball but oly looked like scorein once. derry was emence today
Agree with Bakes. To keep a clean sheet away from home our CB's deserve a higher rating. I thought Gabbidon was very good. Agree with the rest though.
Thanks for the report, it was an enjoyable read. Agree with most of it and I'm really glad for Orr, he was very good today. I thought Gabbidon was worth a higher mark though. He looks a cut above our other centre backs imo.
ill admit that hall and gabbidon could have got higher marks, i just felt that there mistakes were often saved by connolly and orr. the goal looks even better on MOTD
Nice , well balanced report. What a result! I think a career in sports journalism beckons sooperdoopah.
Strangely, I think you've confused Connolly with Buzsaky. It was Buz that assisted Tommy Smith's goal.
hello guys, only second or third post and very much more an observer than a writer myself, but i felt i had to say how how proud i was of the team today!! last week showed the worst part of our defensive game, and in my opinion showed how we really need to focus on how we react to going behind in a game, but today showed the opposite, the professional and encouraging, albiet slightly fortunate, defending after going ahead showed that holding a lead is something that we can replicate after doing it so successfully last year. I believed it to be the case last year, but i believe it to be even more so this year that the way warnock sets its teams out is much more suited to playing away, and i wouldn't be surprised if we gained more points away from home this year, and i was wondering what everyone else's view on this is?
Wouldn't surprise me if we did ok on our travels this year, although I still think it'll be our home form that decides our fate this season. We're going to have to play like this in almost every away game this year, soak up the pressure and try and nick a goal.
When I first read the teamsheet I thought 'holy cow, we're in serious trouble'. Dave, one size, Orr in the side? After last week's thrashing? How the boys did us proud yesterday. We beat a better side (than bolton imo), away from home and with an inferior team compared to last week....surely thats the fernandes effect. The result sets us up nicely for the real start of season. With the takeover now complete and the talk for 4-5 signings before the window shuts....I can't wait for the wigan game!!! Can someone please speed up the clock!!!!!
