BOND ON BESIKTAS 18th July 2013 by @OfficialQPR Assistant Manager pleased with pre-season win … Winning is always nice and keeping a clean sheet as well made for a good night for us all" Kevin Bond KEVIN Bond spoke of his satisfaction following Rangers’ 1-0 victory against Besiktas in Austria this evening. Andy Johnson’s second half header won it for the R’s at the Seeboden Stadium, on a night when the popular new blue and white home kit was on show for the first time. Harry Redknapp’s number two told www.qpr.co.uk: “It was a good evening for us. “Winning is always nice and keeping a clean sheet as well made for a good night for us all. “It’s given us all a lift and raised everyone’s spirits.” Bond added: “Results don’t really matter at this stage of the season – in the grand scheme of things it’s not that important. “But it’s always nice to have goals in the side and to get off the mark tonight was pleasing. Bobby and AJ linked up well for the goal. “The opposition were a lot stiffer this evening as well – Besiktas are a good side – so it was also very pleasing from that point of view.” The R’s squad have worked tirelessly on shape and formation since their arrival in Austria on Tuesday afternoon and Bond was pleased to see their hard work come to fruition against the Turkish outfit. “We looked a lot more organised with and without the ball tonight,” he said. “In fairness to the lads, the first two weeks of pre-season were all about fitness, but they’ve taken what we’ve said on board regarding shape and formation in the last few days and that’s very pleasing. “The tempo will pick up as the days go on but we were very organised and that’s probably what pleased me most tonight.” He added: “Clean sheets breed confidence, of course they do, and if we can take a bit of momentum from today’s game into Saturday’s and so on, then we’ll be happy. “Don’t get me wrong, we’re by no means the finished article after one win in pre-season – we’ve still got lots of work to do on many fronts but as far as our training and preparation is going, it’s very pleasing.” Loic Remy, Jamie Mackie, Stephane Mbia and Armand Traore all missed tonight’s match owing to injury, whilst Richard Dunne wasn’t risked in the wake of his move to Loftus Road on Monday. However, Bond revealed that the injuries to the quartet are not serious, adding: “Those lads that missed out tonight have just got minor knocks – and Dunney is a little bit behind the rest of the squad owing to the fact he’s only been with us a couple of days. “There’s no point taking any risks in pre-season – you’ve got to try and coax all the players through and get as much work out of them as possible." Read more at http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/180713-bond-on-besiktas-929419.aspx?#xAH7LKxyWSZRvvAR.99
The back four looked great, actually. Captain Clint was formidable. I thought Onuoha was a stand out player. He commanded his post really well. Suk young looked comfortable. I think everyone did well but Granero was weak to start with. He improved but if I was going replace someone with Taarabt it would have been him. But he got better as the game went on and it's obvious that he's having confidence issues. AJ put a lot of effort in and troubled the other team. That's all I care to write but I hope it offers some insight. Oh yeah and Derry was looking very good!
Many years ago a friend who followed the Winnipeg Jets, in the WHL back then (now NHL), suggested I buy a deck of Score hockey player cards, which in mine included Eric Lindros, then playing with the Oshawa Generals (OHL) - he suggested if Lindros made it big in the NHL, that card might be worth something one day - unfortunately his career was cut short by concussion issues, so the card is obviously not as valuable as it might have been if he had attained Gretzky or Lemieux status - still have it though protected in a plastic frame.
I see there was no goalkeeper rotation in this game, nice that Brian Murphy got the shutout - imagine that, if fit, Rob Green will get the nod for tomorrow's game, although in training photos it appeared that one of his arms was taped up?
