..Queens Park Rangers took a huge step away from the bottom three with a 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Loftus Road. Weak and limp-wristed throughout January and February, the R's dismal defeat to Fulham at the end of February summed up all that was going wrong at Loftus Road. Back then, QPR were a team of strangers, skippered by a captain who spent more time on social media than leading the team, and managed by a boss notorious for being a slow starter. All of these factors combined to produce a meagre four points from a possible 18. Following the Fulham tie, Rangers were a point off the foot of the table, and, with the hardest run in of all the relegation battlers, appeared very unlikely to survive. Fast forward two months and the R's still have the hardest run in of all, and face away trips to Manchester City, who have dropped two points at home all season, and an ageing Chelsea, enjoying a resurgence under Roberto Di Matteo and chasing Champions League football for 2012-13. QPR fans will, presumably with some degree of difficulty, be cheering on the Blues in midweek with the hope that, should they progress to the final, they may just "rest" a few of the players again this weekend as well. Sandwiched in between these trips is the visit of Stoke City, the Premier League's lowest goal scorers and an opponent Rangers can realistically expect to match, after four straight successes at home. The difference between QPR now and in February is drastic. The side is finally beginning to resemble its manager. Tenacious, pressing, aggressive, well-organised and full of self-belief, at least on home turf, Saturday's game saw a team lusting after Champions League football nullified almost entirely in an attacking sense. Average A midfield of Gareth Bale, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Sandro, Scott Parker and Luka Modriæ was made to look distinctly average, and forced for more than 90 minutes into nothing more than fruitless corner kicks and playing the ball back and forth across the box, with almost no penetration beyond the hosts' solid defensive line. A liability under Neil Warnock, and in the early stages of Hughes' reign, Joey Barton can genuinely claim to be a leading light in this resurgence. His self-imposed Twitter moratorium has helped no end to transform the skipper fortunes, and that of the side as a whole. Bobby Zamora showed on Saturday that, despite a lack of goals and his slight profligacy against West Bromwich Albion, when it comes to holding the ball up, an often devalued skill, there are few better. When he arrived, many had doubts that Taye Taiwo was equipped for Premier League football. Although this view is highly ignorant, given that he came to the R's from AC Milan, not Alfreton Town, he was shaky early on, and looked set to take longer than even Hughes to "bed in". Yesterday, Taiwo performed admirably to curb the forward intent of substitute Aaron Lennon, and was part of a back four that has conceded one goal in three games. Paddy Kenny, who at times this season has appeared half the goalkeeper he were last year, was back to his best, saving superbly from Gareth Bale and looking far more comfortable with a less disaster-prone defence in front of him. Hughes even managed to force Adel Taarabt to conform to a tactical decision. Deploying Taarabt defensively, at least compared to his usual "free role", the Moroccan coped fairly admirably with Kyle Walker's pace, only hacking the former QPR loanee down once. With this unexpected win in the bag, and plenty more shocks to come, Rangers and their superior goal difference may only need three more points after all. .
Sums up the season, and the recent upturn in fortunes perfectly. Its exactly how I see the performances of the players aswell.
Praying that they are right re the three points though I anticipate 4 or more. The game plan for Stoke must be water tight. Pleasing read.
I wont be cheering them on, theres no reason to as our game falls in between the CL semi and the FA cup final. Them getting to the CL final is irrelevant to us.
