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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 10:39 - Feb 3 with 2221 viewsAntti_Heinola

Wth the atmosphere flatter than a Paul Hart teamtalk, it was hard to believe this game took place in the same month as two triumphant thrashings and a defeat of the current league leaders. Then I remembered it was February 1st, a brand new month, and it seemed slighty more understandable.

1. PATIENCE: I had to feel sorry for the team. 30 minutes in, admittedly a goal down, and the boos started. I've talked about this before but I've been going to the football since I was two and I swear to God my recollection in the 80s was you had to be about 5-0 down before boos rang out and they generally only rang out at the end of the match. Now, apparently, we can boo after 30 minutes if things aren't going right.

That's not to excuse players or management for a very slow first 45 - although any team is going to find it hard to break down Bristol when set up like this. Clive reckoned they had 7 behind the ball, but I frequently counted every outfield player bar Diedhiou massed between the 18-yard line and an imaginary 30 yard line. Sorry, but while you might see Mane and Salah dance through that sort of density, at Championship level it's a different story. The booing was, it seemed to me, because the the team was not being direct enough. And there was too much passing backwards and sideways and not enough risks being taken. But sometimes patience is needed from players and fans. We were only 1-0 down. We dominated possession after that for long periods and once or twice the excessive possession led to chances when they finally found gaps - usually thanks to the celeverness of Ilias Chair.

It wasn't good enough, they knew that, MW knew that. I'm just not quite sure why we couldn't lend them a bit more support here? I get the frustration to an extent - although the weird notion that with Leistner and Scowen we'd somehow be troubling the play-offs but without them we've 'binned off the season' seems an absurd one to me. Even with Wells we weren't going to finish 6th and while I love to dream as much as the next person, sometimes dreaming that big is only going to add to your fury. At the start of the season, many were convinced we'd go down. By January, the club are being hammered for not chasing a play-off dream hard enough. To return to the point - who in this team does not work, does not give their all, does not show passion, does not try to pass the ball? In the bad times you often hear the refrain 'all i want is for my team to care and try and play good football' - well if that's the case, why not support this lot? People are angry at the state of football, they're angry about QPR's financial situation, at the owners and so forth. 'What's the point in coming,' they say, 'if they've binned off the season?' But what they're really saying is, 'what's the point in coming if we're not going to get promoted - or challenge for that?' And I think - if you think like that, fine. But this is sport and not all clubs can challenge all the time. We used to come because it was our local team and we loved the game and we wanted to see our team do well. I don't know when success was a pre-requisite for attendance. Maybe it's because of how fans are treated now - as customers, and as customers you demand satisfaction (especially at modern prices), so patience is in short supply.

But success never comes easily or quickly. We may have been conditioned to think that because of the quick turnaround under Warnock, but even that came off the back of three years of frankly crazy spending and he inherited a side packed with talent that had been appallingly managed. I looked at this team of cheap buys, free transfers, U23 graduates and two loans and thought, 'do this lot really deserved to hear booing after 30 minutes? Really?'

2. NICENESS: Personally, I actually like the fact that we're not in the ref's face all the time like most other teams. One of the greatest managers of all time, Brian Clough, always forced his players to be respectful of refs, and I've often thought that if players are reasonable refs might actually feel better disposed towards you. So complaints that we don't try to ref games like other teams are not something I agree with. But I do feel we are too nice sometimes. You look at that team on Saturday and think apart from Wallace, who's hardly Mark Dennis, walking yellow card Dom Ball, and Hugill, who is, admittedly, something of a sh!thouse, we're a very nice team of nice lads trying to play nice football. Now, of course, they are tough - you don't get to play at that level without being tough - but it does feel we're lacking a bit in that department - a real bully somewhere to give us a different dimension.

3. REFEREE: Gah, I hate it when a ref is one of my jerks. We didn't lose because of him, but he really wound me up on Saturday. Perhaps worst of all was the awful 'advantage' he gave when the ball had gone from the edge of their box into our own half. I'd love to know how he could explain how it was more of an advantage to have the ball in our half than a free kick near the penalty box - particularly as, unusually for us - we actually looked dangerous from set pieces on Saturday. But I think what angered me most was his laziness. Twice there were instances where he stopped the game and was in no rush to start it again. Once to give a yellow card to a Bristol coach (why can the fourth official not do that?) - and here, as we pressed for an equaliser, he walked the 20 metres to chat and then issue the card. Why walk? Why? You are a ref, we are not here for you, RUN mate. At the very least jog, or at least appear to be in a hurry. If you're not fit enough, then get out of the job. He then did the same thing with the drop ball, which somehow took about two entire minutes to sort out, this time walking slowly across the entire pitch. RUN, mate. This is a sport. RUN. If a player was being subbed and walked as slowly as he did he'd been in danger of a booking. Just GET ON WITH THE GAME. Utter crap.

4. EZE: People have been saying that Eze is a little out of sorts at the moment, and I think that's probably a fair comment. He's not quite the danger he was earlier in the season, although it's not through lack of trying. One thing I've noticed is that MW seems to be using him more of a playmaker and in recent weeks we've seen him dropping deeper and deeper for the ball and he rarely actually gets inside the box any more. He's a dangerous player, with a good shot, yet you almost never see him run past our striker any more. I just wonder if we're asking too much of him to create and need to give him a bit more license to get in where he can really hurt other teams. Whenever he gets near the box we look dangerous, but too often he seems to be playing his football out by the halfway line.

5. WALLACE: Saturday made me want to mould Wallace and Manning together as one. He seems to have now taken that left back slot as his own and while he did little wrong going forward or back, you did at times wish he had a bit more of Manning's early season guile as we searched for that equaliser. Still, I thought Bristol's goal was an excellent one but other than that I felt we defended well, with only really Diedhiou's overhead kick (which surely should have been a foul for high kicking) causing Kelly much of a problem (although it was Wallace who played Wells onside when he should have secured the game with a header).

6. CLARKE: After enduring the toughest of full debuts, it was great to see him come on and show why Warburton was keen to get him in. Maybe he's just more at home on the left wing. I thought he was superb - kept it simple: beat the man, get a cross in. One cross in particular was an absolute swirling, whipping beauty that could easily have brought an equaliser. Hopefully that'll give him confidence going forward.

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 11:42 - Feb 3 with 2067 viewsconnell10

Can't agree on your point about the crowd, we have been more than patient over the last few years and people pay a lot of hard earned cash to watch this team. Also I only heard a few boos at halftime , most of the game fans just sat in resigned silence. As I said before it felt like a end of season game or a friendly.

AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!!
Poll: best number 10 ever?

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 11:46 - Feb 3 with 2057 viewsPinnerPaul

Yeah agree, no boos at the end and players (few that came over) clapped afterwards
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 11:48 - Feb 3 with 2051 viewsconnell10

Yep they all got clapped at the end.

AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!!
Poll: best number 10 ever?

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 12:14 - Feb 3 with 1975 viewsstevec

At the ground, I can't think of a more tolerant crowd in over 50 years of watching.

I didn't notice any booing, more like some fans trying to gee them up, nothing wrong with that.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 12:24 - Feb 3 with 1937 viewsLongsufferingR

No booing near me, just a lot of simmering frustration at the slow build up play and the ref wasting even more time than the BC players.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 12:52 - Feb 3 with 1864 viewsswisscottage

What particularly frustrated me in that first half though, was that 80% of our passing was behind players.

This means they have to turn, face the wrong way, and gives time for the Oppo players to close them down so the only direction they can then pass is backwards. That's why I was getting verbally frustrated in the first half, and I dare say why others were to.

If someone isn't closely marked pass to their feet or in front of them so they can then continue the way they're facing.... forward.

If someone is marked, then pass to their feet.

If players are constantly having to stop their forward movement, check and take a step back with a turn, then we will never produce any forward momentum … and that was the story of the first half.

The concept is not difficult. and we did it much better in the 2nd half.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 12:56 - Feb 3 with 1850 views1MoreBrightonR

There was one particular move in the first half that resulted in the ball going back to the keeper and quite a few people either got angry or booed in SA Road. The interesting thing was that Kelly then played it out and it ended with an attack down the left from Chair. Warburton would argue that it shows that the tactic is a success, but quite a few fans will see it differently.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 13:00 - Feb 3 with 1832 viewsAntti_Heinola

My point was that there was impatient booing (while we had the ball) round the 30 minute mark. Yes fans were good at the end - didn't say they weren't and the atmosphere did get better. But I found it bizarre that we were booed so early - I know it was to indicate displeasure at the style we were playing, and I know it was a minority, but it was still audible and mostly around me there was prolonged groaning. My point was - why not turn that frustration into something more positive? That sort of thng used to at least get a 'Come on Rangers, Come on Rangers' chant, not people booing a backward pass.
As for the 'fans have been patient for years' well, if that's the case and it's only now that they're losing patience, with this team, that's some pretty strange fans we have. Why get impatient with this team who have sod all to do with, for example, the pathetic relegations we had in the last decade?

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 13:21 - Feb 3 with 1775 viewsWadR

Totally agree. Also, if it is the passage of play I'm thinking of, the groans came as the ball was played back to Kelly and were immediately followed by us actually getting in behind Bristol City for once precisely because we stretched them by going backwards.

Saturday wasn't great and a lot of the passing was slow and laboured but we have a young likeable team playing possession football and scoring lots of goals. I thought parts of the crowd were remarkably keen to abandon Warbs'/our 'philosophy' at the first sign of resistance.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 14:11 - Feb 3 with 1683 viewsSpaghetti_Hoops

Also agree with Antti. Unfortunately a lot of the crowd these days have an entitled attitude. If they don't get what they want straight away they show their frustration and turn nasty. The idea of being a supporter has for them gone out of the window. Very little verbal encouragement unless we are winning. Too much stick and not enough carrot all round.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 14:11 - Feb 3 with 1680 viewsconnell10

I agree with a lot you say and enjoy reading your views but you do seem to knock the fans alot, maybe it's the people who sit round you but from where I was there was no booing after 30 minutes like you stated! So come on give the fans a break. Maybe next kneejerk you could praise us a tad.

AND WHEN I DREAM , I DREAM ABOUT YOU AND WHEN I SCREAM I SCREAM ABOUT YOU!!!!!
Poll: best number 10 ever?

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 14:34 - Feb 3 with 1634 viewsrobith

dunno about the booing, but get bored of twitter's algorithim showing me tweets from people I don't follow called chaz_qpr complaining we aren't in the champions league places
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 14:42 - Feb 3 with 1601 viewsdannyblue

I remember that move clearly. We struggled to break BC down when they massed behind the ball, but in that move we drew them out which gave us the room to break. It was excellent really, especially as those groans turned to excitement. Some of Kelly's passing was really great.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 15:01 - Feb 3 with 1560 viewskensalriser

There were definitely boos at/before half time.

Not passing into space is really starting to wind me up. As pointed out above sometimes it isn't even to feet, it's behind. We have creative forward players and Bright in particular is pacy, just use the space instead of slowing the tempo by passing to feet.

And I don't mean Shittu's version of passing into space.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 15:23 - Feb 3 with 1519 viewsAntti_Heinola

If you didn't boo it's not aimed at you mate.
And I did a section at the Brentford game praising the fans.
You're right though, there are a lot of negative people round where I sit.

Bare bones.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 15:46 - Feb 3 with 1464 viewspaulparker

There was booing around me in the upper loft and to be fair they deserved it
That first half was so poor and lacklustre, so many passes back to the keeper it just booted into touch, the first goal was a gift but how many times have we done that this season ? To many
Pugh was shocking I don’t see what Warburton does and the air shot was so Sunday league
Clarke was a shining light he was waddle esq the way he had the full back twisting and turning
Eze & Bright seemed to have their minds elsewhere maybe their heads were turned with offers but we didn’t accept them
Ball was trying to keep things ticking over
The full backs were crap
Masterson was playing like Grant Hall was back in2015 while the actual Grant hall looks a shell of the player which is a shame
Ref was Sh1t
I would like to see more of shodipo
Crowd was a sleep its time for a singing section

And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles Brian Moore

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 16:34 - Feb 3 with 1407 viewsPinnerPaul

Think we can guess where at least one boo came from
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 17:11 - Feb 3 with 1338 viewsDWQPR

Firstly with regards to the booing, this team is much more of a passing team, a more thoughtful team and although the ball was being played about towards the back from the front at the time the booing started, the move that followed was in the end the best of the match and almost resulted in an equaliser. Just be a bit more patient. We are a passing team, that is learning, put together on a shoestring, but playing far above our seasons expectations. We've had some great fun this season, loads of goals and generally games have been memorable, even going back to the 3-3 league cup game against Brizzle.

The second point is Liam Kelly. I am starting to warm to him, he may lack a bit of stature but he is certainly commanding at corners, not scared to come through a crowd to clear or catch. Only had one save to make on Saturday and did that, didn't have a chance with the goal and unlike Lumley knows when to pass out and knows when to lump it. One pass out to Kane on Saturday was an absolute gem.

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 17:34 - Feb 3 with 1302 viewspaulparker

I never boo mate contrary to belief
Although I didn’t hold back when Pugh took an air shot, good job there was no kids near me

And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles Brian Moore

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 17:53 - Feb 3 with 1272 viewsLblock

I didn't hear any boos... certainly murmurs of discontent.

Never boo'd them myself but I certainly dug out a few players.
Marc Poo is a proper let down of a signing and I'm really disappointed in what we've seen of him - he's trying, no doubt, but clearly the legs have gone. If PP was digging him out for that air shot then it was in stereo from the back of the loft where I sit.
My mind is made up on Amos now - weak as a kitten and couldn't tackle a question about his own name. Not seeing what he brings to the table and I would've kept the rat ahead of him, disciplinary and penalties aside.

I agree our crowd has been unbelievably patient with this club over the last few years and Bungle and the boys have had a free pass.
Mediocre is now acceptable under the veil of FFP it seems.

Apart from that... happy days

Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal

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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 19:37 - Feb 3 with 1145 viewsCiderwithRsie

Kinda see both sides of this.

I don't get to games any more, largely through family stuff. My recollection of the 80s, 90s and early Noughties was exactly as Antti says. But back then a game was a few quid to get in, a pint was a quid or so, a tube ticket was peanuts and even the petrol to get to an away game was cheaper.

Right now going to a match and a couple of pints before and after is as expensive as a bloody good restaurant meal or a West End show - which is part of why I don't get to go - and if it's no good people are going to get peed off.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 19:40 - Feb 3 with 1136 viewsfrancisbowles

I have to say Antti, I agree with every word.

It's difficult to be patient and I think some of our fans don't get it and just want us to welly it forward, without any realisation that it is going to come straight back 9 times out of ten.

First half we did struggle a bit and the passing could have been better but as you said Bristol, having taken the lead with a header like none I have seen before, sat in with ten behind the ball and protected their lead.

Thing was though possession was good and we did eventually turn that possession into an attacking threat.

I just hope MW has a lot of patience, not only with the young players but with the club and fans as a whole.

Keep the faith, u Rrrs.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 19:45 - Feb 3 with 1126 viewsdaveB

I didn't hear the booing but there was a lot o frustration at us going backwards so often especially on a windy day when Kelly with the best will in the world wasn't making the halfway line with kicks.

At the end masterson looked genuinely devastated and was apologising to the fans for some reason
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 20:01 - Feb 3 with 1105 viewsnix

Agree with you Antti about the booing. Really don't like it and find it unhelpful. As has been said, I don't think anyone would like it if our customers or colleagues started booing us when we had an off day. And it certainly wouldn't encourage me to do a bette job.

In recent times, I think the only time I've really felt like booing a player was Lynch when he really couldn't be bothered to track back for a ball after having loads of time off with injury/holidays in Dubai. Earlier than that, we've had some shockers who didn't try - Bosingwa etc. But I don't think we've got any of the wrong sort any more. Yet I still heard the Eze is lazy trope trotted out, when he is clearly running on fumes but still doing his best for the ninety minutes he always seems to have to play every week (is it cos he's the only one who can take penalties?)

I really warm to this team, even Clarke who is a loanee was so keen to please he tried to hand over his shirt to some bloke in the crowd who signposted him to the little kid at the end of the row, and completely made his day.
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Antti's Six Knee Jerks: QPR 0 Bristol City 1 on 17:14 - Feb 4 with 764 viewsPinnerPaul

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