When it boils down to it, it's not really here or there. It's difficult to convey emotions through a few typed words. It's like a text message, they can be mis-construed by the person reading them, as to how they are feeling at the time of reading. As opposed to the innocence of the original poster, with no real wrongful intent. We also sometime use a word or words, in the heat of the moment when maybe a better one can be used. Not until we realise afterwards. The bottom line is this.... We shouldn't need to feel the need to wind eachother up, ( theres plenty of other fans, pundits and writers out there who do that for us. ) We all share the same common goal, and only want the best for the hoops. We are all anonymous in this bizarre cyberspace, posting our opinions. But in those Kodak moments, we will stand side by side cheering, celebrating, and even cuddling a stranger.
Hehe, enjoying the show are you Swords? Perhaps because I should have started my post with I've been watching QPR since Year Dot and have been to every single game ever. So, some credentials are needed: I been going since I was 10, and had a season ticket for many years until recently, including when we were down in League 1, traveling to Plymouth and a fantastic day out in Sheffield amongst many other away days in my time. I live in Wales now, but still manage a few away games when I can or home when I visit my folks. So I've seen the original Prem days, and before such as famous victories against Leeds when they won the Div 1 title, and all the crap after. I've sat in the Loft through thick and thin and the only thing recent about my support is being on this forum!! Still thought Barton was below par today though!!
I'm gona have to stick up for husky QPR999! You haven't actually given a single assessment of Barton's performance today in this thread. I agree with all this, but it's not the point. No one is being negative here, we're just discussing the performance of a player in our side! What was your opinion on it? edit: chicken sarnie for me swords, going healthy these days
@ Grifter, Yes Grifter, I see your point, and I can see why your standing up for Husky. I appreciate that Swords and myself have a reluctance to agree with the original post (and WBA). I also agree that Barton didn't have a very good game. What I don't agree with is picking out individual players. Everyone has a bad game from time to time. ( Even I have at amateur level, in fact, now I reflect on it......... loads. ) If we had gone in 3-0 up ( I know we didn't, but could have. ) This post , wouldn't have come to fruition. It's a team game, and although we didn't get the score-line we deserved going into the half-time break, a lot of other players also didn't produce results. Here lies the conundrum. No-one played especially well, yet we dominated the 1st half. ( And I suppose this could be said for all of the match. ) So, as a collective, we were great. Individually poor. Who else was to blame for not winning a game we dominated? Bothroyd? Held the ball up well but didn't look confident in front of goal. Faurlin, brilliant recently, but gave the ball away cheaply. SWP, brilliant recently, but was imo, more disapointing than Barton Taarabt, great shot and then nothing. The fact that we had more of the ball, and more shots on goal, whilst the critics praised Villas defence sums it up for me. You dont do that if we were rubbish, and it would be unfair to single out Barton for an overall lack of cutting edge. Every now and then, someone else has to step up to the plate. Today they didn't. Some people just expect too much too soon. Me included. But sometimes you have to be realistic, and realise we have still come a long way, in a very very short space of time. I think Husky, showed a bit of frustration of his expectation of Barton, and decided to make a thread of it. And rightly so. It's a free country. ( Relatively. ) Not something I considered. Makes me no better or worse. I thought the same during the game. But when you put it all into context, wer'e doing alright.
Funny old lot, some on here. A critical appreciation of game, players, manager, owners is what fandom is all about. It goes on in studios, pubs, living rooms, trains and so on after every bit of incoming news... yet on here it's so often regarded as 'knocking' by certain faint-hearts. Weird. Like people are saying, it wasn't just Barton who couldn't get connected today... most Rs had a bit of an off day compared with what we'd become accustomed to (after two games!). Imho only three of delivered solid performances: Kenny, Ferdinand and Derry. Whilst team spirit drove us to earn a point, we lacked imagination and as skipper, has to be said that Barton failed to influence with tactical solutions. That doesn't mean that Joey's heart isn't in this Rs team. It's his team and personal pride will ensure he's a presence in most games.
Well said Grifter. IMO some people here had lost their minds in recent days talking about a top ten finish and Europe etc etc. Villa are a very good side. We matched them for long periods yesterday. This team has only been put together in recent weeks. We still need time to gel together. Newcastle and Villa will both be top 8 and we did not disgrace ourselves against either. Players are not robots and they have good and bad days. Letsnot loose the run of ourselves. STAY REALISTIC.
Storm in a tea cup. Some of you are saying Barton was !*^# today. Others are saying, yes he was but give him a break, it's only his third game for the club. Nothing to get worked up about.
I thought at times yesterday we played some sublime football. What, if anything, worries me is that after 30mins or so we seem to lose concentration and the passing starts to get sloppy. Cant work out if this a fitness problem, just lack of concentration or do the opposition easily work us out. Oh well, as said by a few on here before, i'd rather be getting a draw to Villa in the Prem than losing to Scunthorpe in the Championship.
Thought we were bullied out of a result,the ref was pretty soft on villa,they got away with s--tloads+two penalty shouts turned down,not all bad boys,better days to come
6 new players in, unbeaten since they have signed and we are top half. I dont know of any other teamn that would play 6 new signings, come away with 5 points and still have people moaning after 3 games.
Well said Ninj, the way that new team has bonded quickly is amazing. Some great stuff they've been playing.
I think to some degree we've all been enveloped by a warm glow since the take over, I don't think any of us could have envisaged just how much things were going to change since then. It's been amazing. I feared that with so many new players it would take some time for the team to gel and by that time we'd be in trouble. But then we played so well against Newcastle, we were so unlucky not to win, but against Wolves we were sublime and got the win we deserved. The problem is, if we'd continued in that vein of form we'd be challenging for Europe and all our players would be poached come January, as great as that sounds it was never going to happen like that. We were always going to have to come back down to reality. And that is, while we have improved beyond our dreams in just a few short weeks, we are still a work in progress. We showed that our attacking formation can work, but it becomes very ineffective with just one up front if a team parks the bus like yesterday. Boothroyd needs to get a goal and gain some confidence, but I'm not sure he's suited to the loan striker role, he keeps coming back in to midfield to get the ball which leaves us with no one up front. I think we might have to change to a more attacking formation at home with 2 up front, this will suit Jay more and get us more goals. Yesterday was just a bad day all round, bad decisions, players not on form - of which nearly the whole team was guilty of, but that's all it was, a bad day. Anyone who really believes that we should be unhappy with a point against Villa really should start being a little more realistic. From now until January is going to be a roller coaster with some great wins, some frustrating draws and more than a few embarrassing loses. We have nowhere near as many quality players in our squad as we need to make this an enjoyable season. Suspensions and injuries are going to make this a very dicey time until we can buy some more players to strengthen our squad. Anyone remember what it was like with Sir Les in the team, we had a team that could win the league but as soon as Les was injured or suspended we'd lose every match. Just be happy that we're on the up, the goons are gone and everything that is happening off the pitch is positive. We are going in the right direction, but we've got a few bends to negotiate first.
I think we did excellent. We just nearly beat Aston Villa. With a team that signed 4 weeks ago. Against an established side. Barton marked to death. Were you not entertained? Were you not entertained?
