Rangers comeback unwound by Wigan By: Simon Skinner Published: 11 December 2012 At around 4.50 on Saturday afternoon, somewhere beyond the pearly gates, Norris McWhirter was readying his book and Roy Castle was polishing his trumpet as they got set to welcome yet another record breaker. The record this time was wholly unwanted and wholly avoidable. QPR clocked up a shocking 16th Premier League game without a win in a game that they werenât in for long periods but somehow lead only to find they didnât have the faintest idea how to see things out. Redknapp made one change to the starting XI following the home draw with Villa last weekend. Granero was left out of the midfield to make way for the more determined skill set of Derry. That meant Green lined up in goal behind Bosingwa, Nelsen, Hill and Traore. Derry, Diakite and Mbia made a sturdy if unspectacular looking midfield triumvirate with Wright-Phillips and Taarabt either side of lone front man Mackie. Rangers made a decent start to the game and Wright-Phillips tested Al-Habsi in the Wigan goal with a stinging drive/mishit cross (delete as applicable). The home keeper hadnât exactly been covering himself in glory in recent weeks with a couple of poor pieces of keeping costing his team goal, with a persistent mizzle falling it would have been nice to see Rangers trying to test him from range more often. The three attacking players often found themselves without a lot of support from midfield with Redknapp employing a Joe Royle âDogs of Warâ mentality. Mbia to his credit did try and get up to support; he was often deployed to attack long punts up field from Green. David Jones, employed a makeshift left sided centre back, tested Green with a flick and volley free kick that would be well known to anyone that had seen him in his spell at Wolves. From the subsequent succession of corners Wigan took the lead. The ball was swung in from the left and Mackie headed more up than out. Taarabt was caught ball watching on the edge of the area and James McCarthy stole a march on him to steer a volley past Green via the outstretched leg of Mackie. Redknapp has singled Taarabt out for criticism, it was no more than Mackie had done at the time, from the other end of the field you could see him fire a blast his way. Oddly Rangers responded quickly and incisively and even more oddly, from a set piece of their own! Traore powered down the left flank and won a corner off of Stam. From the resulting flag kick Taarabt picked out Nelsen who had run unchallenged to the edge of the six yard box and he bulleted a header past Al-Habsi. Rarely has a goal been more deserved for a player that has been carrying a piss poor team around on his back for weeks. Wigan should have been back in front quickly after Hill made a real mess of clearing a routine ball into the box. The ball fell to Di Santo and rather than employing his usual trick of aiming for an opponent to deflect the ball in off of (like some sort of football/billiards hybrid), he shot straight for goal and picked out the midriff of Green. It was an awful effort in truth. Gomez and Kone both fired wild efforts at the corner flags before Wright-Phillips drew the ire of the travelling fans with a ridiculous blast at goal when he had both Mackie and Mbia well placed in the box waiting for a cross. It was selfish or stupid play, in fact it was both. On the stroke of half time Taarabt mowed Stam down as he broke past him down the touchline and was rightly booked for his trouble. Things were all a little different after the break. Whereas it had been a fairly even contest to this point the home side suddenly took almost total control of the game and Rangers were chasing shadows. It was time for Rob Green to step forward and continue his convalescence from his wretched start for the club. Kone burst through the heart of the Râs defence and although he didnât shoot the ball fell to McCarthy who not for the first time, and unfortunately not for the last time, had run unmolested from the middle of midfield into the box. Green was alert to get out and block his effort at close quarters. Gomez forced Green into a flying save with a twenty yard screamer. From the corner Green was in action again this time to deny Jones. He was suddenly earning his mountains of corn. The ball was still in play though and Gomez almost decapitated Green with his next effort that flashed past him and smashed off the face of the bar. In a rare attack Al-Habsi was forced into action by a shot that Mbia duffed into the ground. It was a routine save but the Wigan man made a real meal of dealing with it. It only seemed a matter of time before the third goal of the game arrived and such was the shellacking that Rangers were taking it was something of a surprise that they scored it! Cisse had been sent on for Taarabt to inject a bit more pace up top and also to get Mackieâs work rate in wide areas. This was needed to assist lazy bollocks Bosingwa who, as usual, had barely lifted a leg in anger. Lopez played a sloppy ball out of defence and Wright-Phillips challenged for it and the ball fell into the path of Mbia. He quickly slipped it back to Wright-Phillips and he actually lifted his head to see what option he had (notice the lack of a plural there). He shifted the ball inside to Cisse and he steered a calm left footed effort past the diving keeper and into the net for one of the most undeserved leads of all time! Having managed to get their noses in front now was the time to dig in and get a good solid ten minutes in the tank. What Rangers did was concede a criminally soft goal within barely two minutes. It wasnât much surprise that it came down the Rangers right flank where Bosingwa was allegedly operating. Beausejour was played in by McCarthy who peeled off to head into the box. The Wigan left wing back had been afforded acres of space by Bosingwa who had moved inside for reasons known only to him. Nelsen was drawn wide to cover and the ball was slipped inside. It rolled past Bosingwa who made a feeble attempt to intercept and was collected by McCarthy who found himself ringed by five red shirts. None of them were either close enough or so inclined enough to make a challenge and the Eire international fired past the offside figure of Gomez and past the unsighted Green. Shocking defending and unfortunately, in total keeping with the pathetic efforts of this team in the previous 15 games. The final fifteen minutes of the game produced few chances. Wigan continued to dominate the ball but failed to create a great deal. Their only real effort came late on when Boselli fired in a low shot that Green did well to save low to his right. There was a late shout for a penalty as Nelsen slid in to execute a perfect challenge on Gomez. At the final whistle you could see who this mattered to by who scarpered the quickest. No surprise that the likes of Hill, Nelsen and Mackie took it pretty badly. Had Bosingwa not been hauled off I would wager his exit down the tunnel would have been his best turn of speed of the day. So the long wait goes on. Fulham at home is the next must win game, I fear that it will also become game number 17 of this diabolical run. Man of the match â Ryan Nelsen As has become standard over the last few weeks Nelsen lead by example and is a credit to the armband.
.................. spent his time writing that, so people would visit his site, not have a fellow QPR fan rip it off ! Leave a link, it's bad netiquette.
Oddball, Skinner has been the lead writer for QPRNET for many years and his reports were indispensable for overseas Hoops in the days before live streams, QPR World etc. Also his writing style is unequalled by anyone else out there. A modicum of respect would not be out of line here. Whittingham is a wind bag. He never shuts up. His reports are far too long.
The best QPR writer in the business.... fu*k him! Only you could follow such a compliment with a dismissive expletive.
Why do you rely on second-hand reports? I prefer to use my own judgement and not have someone put their own spin on things. Nothing in that report I haven't read elsewhere...
Clive Whittingham is still writing his match report from the swansea game. It currently stands at 20 gazillion words and counting.
Who said I'm relying on his reports? I watched the first half through a Mickey Mouse stream and listened to the second on "World". I can't overemphasize how important his reports were say 10 years ago when I could do neither of the above. Besides, what's the harm in getting another person's take on it, particularly when you like their writing style?
It's all subjective Swords, your opinion of a match varies from others. The same is true of journos and writers. The only true opinion is what you see with your own eyes...
Eamon Holmes or SB73 **** all over this bloke Swords ... Mind you I understand that it means a great deal to you ... reading... so i would just like to say I respect that and have a great evening reading in your twin set
I will write you one this weekend maybe in the style of Stuart Hall? Over a soundtrack of [video=youtube;iy7QzvP1k2w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy7QzvP1k2w&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]
