Effort a plenty but Rangers remain winless By: Ron Norris Published: 04 December 2012 The Harry Redknapp coronation stuttered into life at Loftus Road on Saturday with a draw against Aston Villa. Whilst Rangers did improve Redknapp will now have seen enough of his squad to realise that this massive task he has taken on might be even more herculean than he could have possibly imagined. Having received a decent ovation for his first game on home soil Redknappâs second QPR selection saw two changes from the one that draw at Sunderland in midweek. Rob Green came in for his first start in three months replacing the injured Julio Cesar whilst Shaun Wright-Phillips was given the chance to show yet another manager that he had something about him. He replaced Djibril Cisse in the starting eleven with the Frenchman dropping to the bench. That left Green behind an unchanged back four of Jose Bosingwa, Ryan Nelsen, Clint Hill and Armand Traore. Samba Diakite, Estaban Granero and Stephane Mbia were the midfield three with SWP and Adel Taarabt supporting Jamie Mackie up front. Rangers started reasonably well enjoying a fairly bright opening couple of minutes buoyed on by some fantastic support from the stands. Positivity abounded from the terraces before the game and in the early going and it was great to feel a good atmosphere down The Bush again. Both Taarabt and Bosingwa sent in early crosses but neither could find anyone in Hoops on the end of them. After the initial five minute burst subsided Villa began to come into the game in their own right, Christian Benteke was the first to shoot for the visitors and Hill was forced to block away his effort on goal. A minute later though they had the lead and fingers of blame could be pointed in all sorts of directions. Rangers were defensively fannying around on the edge of their own box for four or five Villa passes, failing to challenge strongly and standing off their men before Westwood played a long one two out wide before receiving possession back. He then had time to tee up Bret Holman who in turn can be thankful that the weak attentions of Taarabt behind him allowed him to shoot. His 25 yard strike fooled Rob Green who desperately dived to get a hand on it but could only help it on its way into The Râs net. It was a weak piece of âkeeping from a struggling goalie but arguably the chance should have been snuffed out long before Green had to dive. That said goalkeepers are there for a reason. Where we did see a bit of a difference was what happened next though. General custom after going behind this season has been a complete collapse of what little confidence we have shortly followed by another poor goal conceded. Redknappâs Rangers at least mounted some offensive to try and get us back into it, and eventually succeeded too. First the bustling Diakite won Rangers a corner, swung in by Taarabt that was headed well wide by Mbia. Five minutes further on though and the home side pulled level in a game for the first time in a month. Bosingwa found himself out wide and thought about crossing but instead cut back to Diakite, he chipped the ball first time up and into the box and straight onto the head of the waiting Mackie who glanced it past the despairing Brad Guzan at The Loft End to make it 1-1. Rangers had barely finished roaring for their favourite son when they received a scare just seconds later. Benteke headed past Green but he was caught just offside from Lowtonâs deep cross and the goal was ruled out. Benteke continued to threaten and it took a well timed blocking challenge from Hill in the box to deny him his next opportunity on goal. Having seen off Villaâs attempts at a quick reply Rangers now went after the lead for themselves and it was Wright-Phillips, enjoying a more industrious display than we have become accustomed to, who had mixed fortunes with two quick chances. The first saw him return to something like his usual form when presented with a good chance. He was played in beautifully by Granero who hit a perfectly chipped pass from some thirty yards deep for his only real contribution. However, one on one with Guzan, SWP fluffed his lines and allowed the Villa custodian a save he shouldnât have been able to make. His second chance though could only be considered back luck, this time it was Mbia who launched one forward for the diminutive winger to chase. He beat his marker for pace and struck a fine shot on the half volley that rocketed back off Guzanâs post. Seasons turn on these small slices of luck, how much will we curse moments like this in May? QPR had the momentum now but that was snatched away from us when Mbia found himself laid out in the middle of the park after an innocuous tangle with Gabby Agbonlahor left him stricken. Play was stopped for some seven minutes as Stephane received treatment and when he was eventually stretchered off there was much concern around the ground about what might have happened to him. Fortunately the news has been positive since however the incident unsettled Rangers, Agbonlahor quickly tested Green from the edge of the box when play restarted and the Râs âkeeper palmed his effort away albeit in unconvincing style. Rangers played out the extra long half before getting into the changing rooms no doubt keen for a chance to settle after a worrying few minutes. Redknapp made a change during the break as Granero was withdrawn in favour of Park. Having already been forced into replacing Mbia with Derry the Râs boss now only had one sub left available to him, something that would hurt us as the game progressed. Still Rangers started the second period the brighter side, Wright-Phillips again was in the thick of it, picking up a pass from the right wing he turned round his marker but could only send his shot behind Guzanâs net. From the next corner Nelsen pulled another save out of Guzan after Hill nodded down to set up his defensive partner. Soon after Diakite struck an 18 yard volley well enough but never found the power to trouble the American âkeeper who gathered with ease. Perhaps the best chance of the second half fell to substitute Park but much like Wright-Phillips in the first half heâll be kicking himself that he allowed Guzan to save what should have been a Rangers goal. The move that set it up though was a lovely one, starting with Hill at the back he passed to Diakite on the edge of the centre circle. The Malian powered through the midfield before passing out to Taarabt. The Moroccan reacted quickly and flicked it first time left to Park on the edge of the box. Ji had plenty of time and the whole of the goal to his right to aim for but instead tried to beat the keeper on his right side and Guzan was equal to it. Diakite, enjoying an industrious afternoon, then picked up a knock and having looked to be coming off twice he kept battling on before finally having to give up and be subbed. He was replaced by Junior Hoilett who struggled to make any impact in the remaining twenty minutes. The visitors made a host of changes themselves with all three subs deployed in a three minute period and that, combined with Rangers own reshuffles really knocked the stuffing out of the remainder of the game. Villa were now clearly settling for the point and whilst Rangers continued to push they were in need of fresh legs and Redknapp had nothing left to give having been forced into two unfortunate changes. Mackie had run himself to water and Iâm sure Harry would have thrown Cisse on if he had been able to. There was one more chance of note though, with ten minutes to play Hill rose highest to meet another QPR corner and the ball came agonisingly close to nestling in the top right hand corner but a triple combination of Guzan, defender Lichaj and the crossbar all came together to foil Clintâs chances of being the hero for the day. Whilst it provided a decent set of highlights the chances spurned showed just one of the many problems weâve faced this season, we just havenât learned how to take charge of a game when dominating. No disrespect to Villa but this is far from the best side of theirs Iâve seen over the years and we have now failed to beat them and a struggling Sunderland outfit inside a few days. Redknapp is very welcome at QPR in my book and I canât think of anyone better suited to come in and try and get us out of this mess. He said if he kept us up it would be his greatest achievement I wonder if he might be realising now just what a task this is. The positives? As I mentioned we didnât collapse when conceding as we have done in the past and we showed something of a response when falling behind and the improvement in effort was marked. Thereâs much more to do though before we can consider even going on a run of form, let alone making a charge for safety. We have now equalled Swindonâs winless run of fifteen games at the start of a season, they ended that horrendous run with a win in their sixteenth match against QPR. God we could really do with playing us right now. Man of the match â Jamie Mackie Ran himself silly and scored the crucial goal, I donât particularly think heâs suited to the role he was asked to play but you get nothing less than full tilt effort from him whatever he is asked to do and he is a credit to the shirt whenever he is on the pitch.
46 views and not a cherry. I must remember I'm not the best thread starter on this Board. Just a thread destroyer! For what its worth I think he's a little harsh on Phillips. He doesn't mention the great first touch he had which killed the ball dead from out of the sky. Watford has been overly critical too if I'm honest.
Norris and Skinner are the best there is with regards Match Reports Cerny.Whittingham is good but goes on a bit and our very own COL is impressive too but overdoes the Taarabt thing. You'll not find better than those two NET boys.
I bumped into Clive W and Paul Finney in the pub after the Southampton game. Christ on a bike! All they did was talk about QPR all night. I had to pretend to make my phone ring so I could get away from them. Who would want to discuss QPR for that long?
