What a great day and a fantastic performance. We looked up for it from the off and bombarded their goal and lo and behold we were two up inside five minutes. In the end it could've been six or seven. Every player put a shift in whether that be the starting eleven or the subs and Eze showed some nice touches when he came on in a brief cameo. As did Des Walker's son Lewis who looked keen and showed some good movement up front. Lumley looked mainly untroubled, the defence were solid, the midfield played and battled out of their skins and the two forwards were excellent. Hemed with two good finishes and Bright showing great energy and pace running at the Swans defence. Our most ineffective player was probably Freeman for once, but I think we can allow him that. We were talking in the pub before the game about the Swans whizz kid Daniel James and how he might be a bit of a handful when he gets on the ball. He's a huge talent and probably the fastest white man on earth. It would seem that the R's management thought the same as first Scowen booted him up in the air early doors and then Rangel did the same three minutes later. Didn't see much of him after that. A huge talent for the future though nevertheless. Motm for me was probably Scowen, closely followed by Hemed or Manning. But in essence this was really all about a complete team performance. I didn't see this coming and in truth was expecting the Swans to continue with their recent trend of scoring three goals every game. Bloody football eh? What a pleasant and completely unexpected surprise.
I'm beginning to wonder whether 4-3-3 is the formation that most suits us. It means Freeman can be a little less worried by defensive duties, something he clearly doesn't relish and we have a midfield 3 that doesn't get outnumbered and we can press with the 5 across the middle out of possession. Only downside for me is that Eze and Freeman wouldn't be able to play together in that line up, but I'm sure Eze's time will come.
Yes, I heard on radio someone say he's got his dad's pace and assumed it was Clive. Certainly promising for the future...
4-3-3 is my favourite formation, all the great teams played it (including our great team) and I would be delighted if the club’s ‘philosophy’ involved us playing this at every level, whatever personnel we have available. Obviously tactical tweaks are needed against certain opposition. I don’t think playing Freeman and Eze together will be a problem for us for long, they are amongst our few assets and one or both will be gone in the summer.
For those who weren't there Scowen was playing wider and less central and showed control skills and crossing ability I never knew he had. He also kicked people at times when required which I knew he could. Well done basically and Manning cultured left foot was a nice upgrade though we could have easily been caught out done the right wing early on
I’m a bigger fan of Bidwell than most on here but having a full-back who can both run and cross a football is a revelation.
Good to see Brian Rowe on the pitch at half-time yesterday. I'll always remember him for a time back in the 90s when we were having a drink in the ground after a Saturday game. We'd been in the SAR season-ticket holders bar until it closed and then slipped unauthorised into the Directors' Lounge for a couple more. When it came to my round, the barmaid told me that the bar was closed (I think someone had pointed out that we weren't supposed to be there), and when I protested that other people were still being served, she just said 'C-L-O-S-E-D, closed', which I thought was little unnecessary. We took the hint though, and left the bar. As we were going down the stairs, my pal Peter Lavers was still complaining about 'coming down here for 40 years and they won't even give us a drink', when someone behind us said 'What was that, they wouldn't serve you? Follow me.' This was Brian Rowe, who was a Director at the time. He brought us back into the bar, and said to my friendly barmaid, 'Give these boys a drink, would you please?' 'O-P-E-N' I said quietly as she handed me my beer.
They said on the pitch that he was the man responsible for the 'Guinness kit.' I didn't hear in what capacity as in if he designed it or he got or arranged the sponsorship. Do you or anyone else know?
Clive Whittingham's match report is a jolly good read ... https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/50132
QPR remains the footballing equivalent of a delinquent, paranoid, schizophrenic chimp. There simply isn’t enough Xanax in the world for this club, or the people afflicted with following it. made me snort anyway
