What a waste our glorious win at Wembley would be if we went straight back down again. I wouldn't mind so much if we went down after giving the Premiership our best shot, but we haven't...................yet. I am hoping that we can regroup after a weekend off and show some of the passion that we say on that day. Whatever happened to #findaway??
We were up against a bang in form side, playing rubbish and down to 10 men. As I sat there I thought about the consequences of our inevitable defeat: No new stadium, an FFP clobbering, the rapid departure of the real money behind the club and an equally rapid descent down the leagues. Yes I'm one miserable sod but then I have supported QPR for 50+ years so you need a bit of bleak stoicism. But then along came Bobby and the executioner's hand was somehow stayed even as the axe came down. Thoroughly undeserved but fate had handed us another chance. Surely this time, with so much at stake, the club would contrive to get it right and start building for a successful future - for sure there will be no more let-offs. The rest is (bad) history. Are we just unlucky? Is there some kind of hoodoo over LR that sees managers who've been successful everywhere else forget everything they've ever learned and hugely experienced players now unable to control a football or make a pass? Please someone tell me as I've given up hope of working it out for myself. Waiting for the second miracle.
I think it's important to keep the play-off final separate. To merge it into the sea of ****e that surrounds it, devalues the moment and experience. You could smooth over all our highs throughout history by saying it has all brought us to where we are now but the fleeting moments of glory are what garnishes all the dross and disappointment we go through and the highs are more emphatic if there's more bad. At the moment it feels like a game we're losing 5-0 but the referee refuses to blow for full time and end the agony but the May final was fantastic and nobody (including Tony and Arry) can take that away from us.
This coming Saturday at Stoke is as good a time as any to do away with our hanging on for dear life 0-0 away attitude because it obviously ain't working and actually take the game to them, you know create chances, cause them to panic by getting people wide to put dangerous crosses into the box, all the things we haven't done so far. Lets face it we won 3-2 up there with Warnock in charge..... If we lose so be it but at least give it a bloody good go, draw some inspiration from what Bradford and Boro did yesterday, play with no fear......
You just know we'll set up to get a 0-0, the problem is when we concede we really aren't good enough to play catch-up. This surely is the reason Harry sets us up in such negative fashion. He did the same just after he took over and we got a few lucky 0-0s before the rot set in...
Yes. Getting rid of Colin was TF's first big mistake. That day at Stoke we looked a comfortable mid-table team and were 9th when that game finished. We have been nowhere near that comfort zone in over 3 years now. Hughes was a disaster but did help keep us up that season, but Harry has been even worse. There seems no chance he'll fire us up for an away game at Stoke, he can't manage that for a big team away. Time for him to bow out.
Ageed Soops, that's what so bloody depressing.....if we put our minds to it we are good enough to get results at these places, we've shown that with our home form.....
I get where the OP is coming from, but for me nothing can ever diminish the absolute ecstasy of that Play Off Final day. From arriving at Wembley and seeing the sea of blue and white to that never to be forgotten last minute goal, that day will live in my memory till the day I die! (All shared with my two Sons too............unforgettable!)
Spot on Col Absolutely top afternoon out However, within days I was already worrying about our ability to cope in the PL, despite the fact that we still had a transfer window to attempt to address our clear deficiencies Sadly the concern was to turn into reality, and I'm now really struggling to see how we can escape the drop. I'll be at Stoke on Saturday and would love to see us get at least a point, but the team not only need to up their game, but really believe in themselves. There has been an almost palpable evaporation of both at the majority of away games this season when we've gone behind
I don't think the win at Wembley is a waste - we got lucky that day, that we were rewarded with promotion - after all, we finished 4th in the league that year, and without the Play Off system that was invented (and borrowed from the silly Yanks for the sake of generating more noise and cash), we would still be in that league below......... We've still got a good chance, and we have to give it our all to stay up.
It would be a terrible waste ... Lady luck was kind to us so what have we done? given her a big **** sandwich IMO
I still don't accept that we were lucky in that game. Derby were unable to get through a wonderful defence on the day and Zamora showed them how to finish. Also, Austin had the next best chance of the game before O'Neill was even sent off!
Agree Col, all Derby's chances were "half chances" at no time could you ask "how did we get away with that?" or "how did he miss that?"...you could see that with 10 minutes or so to go they seem to run out of ideas and that was when we started to have a bit more of the game, don't forget Barton lashed one high and wide a couple of minutes before we scored. We were amazingly well disciplined after O'Neills sending off, set up with 2 banks of four and said to Derby, break us down if you can......they couldn't. A solid defensive performance is very often over-looked because it is not the glamorous part of the game, but we gave a defensive masterclass that day.
Why aren't we doing that NOW????? Is that all that happened or needs to to happen? All these silly losses to the likes of Liverpool at home and such - we should just set up a 2 banks of four and call it a day? Well in that case we do have a serious defensive problem, as can be witnessed with the CBs we have now compared to what we had on that day! We obvious need to do more of it, mind. It's really not a bad idea, after all. We need to say to the enemy, "BREAK US DOWN IF YOU CAN!" And we all had better be singing it from the Loft! What? I can't hear you....... !
