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Reply | Charlton sold out
at 18:21 23 Jan 2026
Stats are funny aren't they?
You can say there's loads to play for (there always is until you're safe) because we're only 3 points off the playoffs with 18 to go. But...
There are also five teams between us and 6th - not to mention ten points between us and 3rd, and all the top three have absolutely spanked us, showing how far we are off being promotion-material.
Which is fine. I'm enjoying the season, mostly. We're a 12th placed team and that feels about right on form.
Fully fit top scorer, Chair and Saito with wind in their sails, midfield clicking, then maybe yeah, all to play for. Preston will drop out of the six...Just doesn't feel like kind of season for us, not with our best attacking players injured for a while.
Still impressive that 12th placed QPR have sold out to 9th placed Wrexham on a wet, windy January. |
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Reply | Charlton sold out
at 15:55 23 Jan 2026
Incredible that they've sold out the next home and away on the back of two 0-0s in the back end of January, one of the games on TV, when seemingly not much to play for (and not much being played either).
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Reply | WLS podcast Dave Kev James
at 15:28 23 Jan 2026
Harvey Vale is also apparently 22 but if it said on his Wiki that he was 28 or 29, I'd believe that. He certainly doesn't look older than Kone to me.
Are they conspiring together? |
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Reply | WLS podcast Dave Kev James
at 09:12 23 Jan 2026
Watching that you wonder who's coaching the strikers now - and wishing it was someone like Kevin Gallen. The bit about standing still, occupying the CBs, creating space for wide players like that instead of working so hard was really interesting.
There's a top-level former defender coaching defenders at QPR and similarly a midfielder, but there's no ex-centre forward. Would be a great job for Paul Furlong, whose overall game is not unlike Kone's. Wonder whatever happened to him? |
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Reply | Lather, rinse, repeat – Report
at 11:01 22 Jan 2026
God, you're right, just looked it up. What a mad streaky season that was: those four clean sheets were part of a 13-match sequence where we only lost once (3-0 away Swansea). Followed immediately by a twelve match sequence where we only won twice and lost seven times.
Had some good days with Marti last year, home to Derby, Watford, Luton, Norwich. Forget sometimes. But the bad runs too, desperate.
We need to win some games again soon (and some players back to do so). We need that release otherwise things may curdle. |
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Reply | Lather, rinse, repeat – Report
at 08:56 22 Jan 2026
Good report, very fair.
When was the last time we had three clean sheets in a row? Is this due to Steve Bould coaching them? Seen some comparisons to Ainsworthball but the main difference is that Gareth might have tried to shthouse a 0-0 and still probably concede.
No QPR team in recent memory has needed Ilias Chair back more than this current lineup, though. In the ten, with Vale on the left, Smyth/Dembele on the right, Kone up top ideally. [Post edited 22 Jan 8:57]
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Reply | Player Sales
at 14:17 21 Jan 2026
We need Murphy Cooper's spell at Sheff W to go well as he could be sold if Walsh is number one.
I imagine Field, Morrison and possibly Dembele, though the later two are so young they're worth another 18 months development.
These are not my choices, but what I imagine the club's thinking at the very least.The model just needs some churn to work, doesn't have be a box office sales yet, just sales. Madsen and Burrell could both fetch money in next year.
And I beat this drum regularly, and it sounds fanciful, but Jimmy Dunne's performances, leadership and experience will be valuable to others even if we don't believe anyone wants a 28 year-old CB. I don't reckon he signed that contract to see out his best years with us. |
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Reply | The 3 sides of a match thread at Oxford
at 22:28 20 Jan 2026
So far, on this thread people have claimed they'd have won this game with their 5-a-side ringers, their primary school team, a local team on Canvey Island...
Lads, you and they are all in the wrong jobs! You should be coaching QPR and if they won't take you then in the last couple of months Oxford have beaten Ipswich Town, Southampton, drawn with Middlesbrough and on Saturday Bristol City - one of those clubs will definitely take you and your ringers/schoolkids/Sunday league teams...
Every year, when we're mired in a relegation fight everyone says, "oh for midtable mediocrity." This is it. And still only three points off the play-offs.
Another clean sheet, away, take the point, move on. Big shame for Esquerdinha.
Nobody in July surely expected 40 points by January 20th, did they? Stay in the pack, keep accumulating, see what we can do in the (very difficult) run-in. Nothing is decided in January. |
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Reply | Team for Oxford?
at 14:58 20 Jan 2026
Richard Kone's not even 23, actually. He's 22 until July.
He's three months younger than Alfie Lloyd, who is out on loan at the level below "to develop" but didn't make any impact at Orient.
Kealey Adamson, who we are treating with kid gloves as he slowly gets ten mins here and there at right back, is four months older than Kone.
Alex Aoraha, who plays semi-regularly for the Dev team and has completed less than a full game for the seniors, is seven months older than Kone.
I could go on.
The idea that some fans are running out of patience with Kone as he leads the line for an injury-ravaged first team at 22, his first season at this level, is absolutely insane. He qualifies for the Dev squad! He's miles ahead of any number 9 we've had aged 22 since...I can't think, Kevin Gallen? |
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Reply | And we never spoke of it again – Report
at 14:16 19 Jan 2026
I may be an idiot in your eyes. No problem with being called names by you.
However, you did write:
"Personally, I'd rather see us bummed in the gob 3-0 playing the game as it should be played."
And
"If we play anything like that at Oxford, we deserve to get obliterated - and, (not) sorry, I'll view it as a blessing."
Which reads very much like you do not in fact "want QPR to win every single time." It reads like you'd view it as "a blessing to get obliterated" tomorrow night if the terms of your conditions are not met.
How long have I been a supporter? You've asked this already. 50 years next month.
My support manifests itself by buying a season ticket, with money that the club can then use, going to matches, applauding, encouraging the team in song, abusing the away team, going away, mooning the opposition fans, etc. Generally offering tangible, unwavering, loyal support of the club, as per the description 'supporter'.
How does your support manifest? |
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Reply | And we never spoke of it again – Report
at 08:58 19 Jan 2026
Fair report. I do think it's a bigger achievement by management than we're collectively crediting them with, finding a way to get a point at a good Stoke in current circumstances.
We have a very competitive first 14 players for this league. If you strip out five of those, all starters, including our main source of goals, this is not a competitive squad for the league, not this season.
Previous managers - including Cifuentes, who I liked a lot - would have started a long losing run at The Britannia. They would not have found a way with that squad. That losing run may still be coming tomorrow - the games look very difficult for the duration of our injuries. But it hasn't started yet - surely that is better? Didn't we hate losing all the time?
The fact that Stephan can skin a cat more ways than one is very encouraging. He obviously prefers to play football. But sometimes a shthouse manager is what you need. |
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Reply | Stoke fans on QPR (whose side are you on?)
at 17:08 18 Jan 2026
Oh no, I will reply to "your" threads - it's a public messageboard. If you want to restrict access either a) start your own messageboard (good luck with that), b) don't start threads (best course of action), c) don't ask questions while banning answers. I will put you back on mute though, so don't worry.
Your question was this:
"why did you start supporting QPR in the first place? I did so because I loved the team, the style, the coaching, the ground, the underdog courage."
I support them because they were my local team, my dad took me as a 7-year-old. As such "the coaching and underdog courage" didn't make much impact. Being both football mad and loyal did though. Being top of the league did too.
In fact, it's the 50th anniversary of that first game next month, the night we play Charlton. I'm going with the group of friends I've been going with for decades, thick or mostly thin. It'll be nice to win but if we don't, so be it. We'll have a great night out anyway.
It's brilliant to win. It's great to play swashbuckling football. But I'd go to QPR if we fell through the leagues and ended up in the National League South.
Going to QPR is not for me like going to see a film, being disappointed by it, or a gig, or a gallery..."Yes, darling a valuable 0-0 away at Stoke, but the aesthetic quality of it - for someone reared on Bowles, Byrne, Wegerle...I could rip my eyes out!"
Take a point where we often surrender them and move on. And I don't worry much if the Stoke fans enjoyed it or not, really.
I've had a season ticket every year that I could afford one since 1976. Let me say, yes, the Sexton, Venables teams were beautiful (though probably less beautiful than you remember, judging by The Big Match Revisited), Since that first game in '76, I've remained loyal even while watching teams managed by:
Burtenshaw
Sibley
Mullery
Houston
Harford
Waddock
Hart
Hughes
McClaren
Critchley
Ainsworth
Some thin times there. Not much champagne football. Not much "style and underdog courage" under Redknapp. And Joel Stephan is better than all of them I think.
That is what I think being a football supporter, specifically of QPR, is since you suggest I don't know what it is. You think it's watching on a stream, coming on a messageboard and calling everyone else idiots for putting up with the ugliness of it.
Horses for courses. |
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Reply | Stoke fans on QPR (whose side are you on?)
at 12:17 18 Jan 2026
I care even less about what Stoke fans think than I care what you think. And we didn't lose 3-1. We drew 0-0. That's the whole point.
Question: if you're in an "aesthetic minority" of QPR supporters, why do you still persist in supporting them?
Why not support someone more to your "aesthetic" tastes, where you won't be in the minority? You don't go to games, you haven't for a very long time, so your affections are free to be lathered gloriously in awkward flowery adjectives upon, I dunno, Barcelona or Arsenal, teams who play more to your elevated taste - though Arsenal drew 0-0 last night too at relegation-haunted Forest, even with all those extravagant talents. And it wasn't pretty, I must say. Could you cope?
QPR meanwhile have spent a grand total of 23 seasons in the top division. Of those, I'd say they played truly aesthetically pleasing football for around 18 seasons. The last time they did that was, what, 1994-95? Thirty years ago.
Since then, one great second tier season in 2011, 15 years ago. Spent the last decade mostly in a slightly worse condition than now in the second tier of English football, where we've been for 36 seasons in total. Mostly, we've spent our history in the third tier: 46 seasons.
What are you hanging around for? What do you expect? Dave Sexton and Terry Venables are dead, along with Jim Gregory. They're not coming back. And neither are you. Just let us enjoy our simple pleasures, week by week, in the flesh, at the games, without you pompously acting out your anonymous Statler and Waldorf fantasy act on the Internet because 2026 QPR are not "aesthetic" enough for you. Who cares what opposition fans think?
Right, putting you back on mute you wee daftie. |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 08:55 18 Jan 2026
This is a week with the potential for total ruin, especially as we will lose more players than we have any return by time Wrexham turn up on Saturday. Then after this week it's only Coventry at home. Who will be back for that for potential bloodbath? Ronnie, maybe Chair or Vale? Morgan will definitely get a game in this run.
This is going to be a bumpy ride until players start returning. Think we toast that unexpected clean sheet at Stoke to start it off and brace ourselves for the next fortnight, take pleasures where we can - artistic merit be damned for now. |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 08:17 18 Jan 2026
What it does is it says to Joe Walsh, you can keep a clean sheet in the Championship away in a difficult game that's actually contested (unlike the beach football match at Sunderland or Coventry). That's as good as a three month loan to Macclesfield for him, and us.
It shows all those young players, like Bennie, Adamson, Esquerdinha, even Kolli, players who many QPR managers down to "bare bones" might have stuck on the bench only as a message but wouldn't dream of bringing on when Sam Field is unused, that if you train well you can play. It shows them the level required, the atmosphere you need to negotiate to get a clean sheet at Stoke. That's worth 100 PL Youth Cup wins in front 600 fans at Loftus Road.
Everyone wants a coach who is good at youth development. Well, unfortunately this is probably what it looks like at the start.
That this team, with these injuries to so many key creative and attacking players got a point at Stoke is plenty. You predicted a 2-0 defeat, let us not forget. Would that been better if we'd 20% more possession? Last year, we went there also with injuries but stuck to our style, got beat 3-1 and were lucky it wasn't heavier. Would that have been better?
This is not the season we get in the play-offs, nobody predicted that. Not you, not me. And yet, we still can. A point at Stoke in Jan when every first name attacker bar one is injured does not derail that. Bank this. See how the run-in in pans out when players return. But this puts plenty in the tank for seasons to come. |
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Reply | St Oke Methodist Church Away Match Fred
at 23:21 17 Jan 2026
At end of the game, away at Stoke, we collected a clean sheet and a point with six players on the pitch aged 23 or under (mostly under, including two teenagers):
Walsh - 23
Mbengue - 22
Esquerdinha - 19
Bennie - 19
Adamson - 22
Kone - 22
+
Kolli, 20, did 87 mins.
+
Dembele, 22, did 70 minutes too.
Eight players eligible for the Development squad got that point.
Only one player was over 30, Cook, and he won't be here next season.
I know over the years we've been used to sexy, attractive, free-flowing performances at the Britannia (maybe that Eze goal in '19 spoiled us forever, erasing every previous game) but maybe our youngest team in memory grinding out a hard-fought 0-0 at the most typical "tough place to go" Championship away ground is just as substantial.
I love kids getting a gritty 0-0 away like this. Big change for the club. [Post edited 17 Jan 23:37]
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Reply | Team for Stoke?
at 17:08 16 Jan 2026
1/ I can't believe he's blocked you. That's very snowflake of someone resolutely anti-snowflake. He's always seemed a good sort. Blocking is quite violent, really, it's a message. Muting is sufficient unless you're blocking actual personal abuse, racism, etc.
2/ I remember the Holloway post on the list! Ironically, Dave Mc wrote a very long piece then about how Holloway could turn out to be the equivalent of Martin O'Neil at Leicester for QPR (almost true, really). By the end, Dave Mc was pulling his hair about Olly, quite down on him (and vice versa!) and you were his biggest fan. You'd swapped positions.
That's why blocking someone over an opinion on QPR is mental.We all change our minds all the time based on...results. It's a fickle business. Get on with it. [Post edited 16 Jan 17:09]
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Reply | Team for Stoke?
at 11:47 16 Jan 2026
And Matt Winton will send you a detailed report why. |
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