QPR took 6000 fans to Stamford Bridge last Wednesday for the big League Cup third round derby against Chelsea.

1 – The Match
The same scoreline as when these two sides last met, but a very different match. Where QPR had been happy to soak up pressure and hope for the best in the FA Cup 18 months ago here they were more comfortable on the ball, more ambitious with their possession, and keener to play their normal game rather than worry too much about what Chelsea were doing to them. Chelsea’s players were fitter, more physical, sounder of touch, more aware and better with the ball but Rangers more than matched them for long periods with a performance that was not only hard working as you would expect, but classy and skilful at the same time. The game was settled by a Kalou goal after half time although Rangers were aggrieved that firstly Wayne Routledge wasn’t awarded a free kick and then Kalou wasn’t flagged offside. For all of those positives Hilario only had one serious save to make, denying Buzsaky from long range in the second half. Good quality game between two sides eager to play football the right way.
6/10

2 – QPR Performance
Full of endeavour and commitment, something to be proud of and stand us in good stead for the season ahead, but ultimately not quite good enough. Ben Watson mad the difference at Cardiff on Saturday but he was cup tied here so Faurlin came in and did a good job alongside Rowlands who was excellent again. Gorkss and Stewart coped superbly with the Chelsea forwards, although obviously it would have been different had Anelka and Drogba played, and both full backs had their best games for some time. Heaton was excellent in goal and Simpson powerful and keen in attack, Rowan Vine looked to be back to something like his best as well. Still not quite good enough though.
7/10

3 – QPR Support
Despite all the moans and groans about how the tickets were handed out, and personally I thought the club got it just about right in the way they tried to give those fans that go to the most games the best chance of tickets, QPR sold out their 6000 allocation and packed the Shed End. Those that were there never shut up for the entire game with all the old favourites, and a quarter of an hour at the end mocking John Terry’s mum and her shopping technique which mirrors that of Winona Ryder.
9/10

4 – Atmosphere
Not great for a crowd of 40,000. The QPR fans didn’t shut up a you would expect and the Chelsea fans at the far end of the ground seemed to be a decent voice as well but the sound travelled very poorly between the two, thanks largely to two large side stands packed full of plastic football fans who wouldn’t know a football chant if it walked up and introduced itself to them. I was amused by the sight of Chelsea fans en masse pointing to their seats when QPR asked them “where were you when you were shit” – you weren’t all there were you, simple maths tells us that. I was also amused by the polite applause, under duress, from the home crowd at half time when paul Furlong was paraded around the field – again only the Chelsea fans in the lower tier of the stand at the far end of the ground seemed to know what was going on. Furs got a proper reception from the travelling QPR fans as you would expect.
6/10

5 – The Ground
I may get strung up for this because I know it is Chelsea and we don’t like them and all the rest of it but I actually think Stamford Bridge is a fine football ground. Full of muppets and glory hunters obviously but it’s on the site of the original ground, has maintained decent character, is like no other ground in the country and offers unobstructed views from very close to the pitch and has a bit of character about it. Our seats were superb, right at the front of the upper tier over the corner flag. Give me this over the horrible new grounds springing up on retail parks up and down the land. Tickets were reasonably priced although of course that is not normally the case and the set up with the turnstiles behind the Shed End made for queues and flashpoints of trouble where a better design, organisation and less focus on swanky bars and hotels may prevent that. Overall though very good – dons tin hat.
8/10

6 – Pre-Match
We har originally planned to meet in Mabel’s Tavern near Kings Cross but the postal strikes and QPR’s sensible decision not to send tickets out into the system meant we had to go to Loftus Road to collect tickets when we arrived at about half four and that in turn meant we had our pre-match drinks in our usual Saturday pub The Green. I quite like The Green – the food is passable as long as you stick to burgers, there are plenty of seats and the drinks are of standard price for the area. We use it on Saturday because it has the lunch time match on and although a recent obsession with showing one day cricket instead must be stopped as soon as possible as cricket is a summer sport for screening only when proper sports are not taking place it’s reasonably overall.
6/10

7 – Journey
A logistical nightmare. I was coming from Derby, Paul and Owain from Sheffield and Colin from Telford. I had Paul and Owain’s match tickets, Colin’s were at Loftus Road, Paul had his train tickets, Owain had his, Colin had a car to get rid of - all of us were meant to be at work. The plan originally was for me to meet Paul and Owain on the train from Sheffield as it left Derby at 3pm however Owain has all the timekeeping ability of a comatose sloth and missed that so it was just me and Paul, and he was asleep so substantial amounts of beer had to be left under the seat at St Pancras.

Owain meanwhile went for a haircut and missed the next train as well which meant he didn’t have time to meet us in The Green and had to go straight to Earls Court instead. Elsewhere Colin was battling traffic and all manner of hassle to get to Luton and then down to London himself before making the rookie mistake of getting the District Line from Earls Court to West Brompton instead of walking. While Colin was trying to get through that and Owain was trying to catch at least one train Paul and myself went to Loftus Road to collect tickets and then after drinks in The Green got on a ridiculously overcrowded train from Shepherds Bush down to West Brompton. I seemed to be squashing a bloke on that one, but he said my aftershave smelt nice before jumping off just as I thought my luck was in/out.

We met Owain at Earls Court and then walked to the ground through the cemetery which seemed to be closed when we arrived until a nice Polish man opened the gate for us - it did cross our minds that it may be locked at the other end and we would therefore miss the game, and our train home, locked in with the long since dead of West Brompton but we made it out with no Thriller like incidents to report. Owain would simply have revoked the groundsman's passport as part of his day job anyway had he seen us wrong. Ultimately we all managed to get in our seats just about in time for the start of the game – although the multitude of turnstiles and megastores made the final meet up somewhat confusing.

Afterwards we had a steady walk to Earls Court, a steady pint in Mabels and then what turned out to be an all too steady ride back north on the 23.15 train from St Pancras. Usual journey time to Sheffield is just over two hours but once we were nicely settled into our seats we were informed that tonight we would be diverted due to engineering at Bedford and then again after Leicester. This meant we would not be getting to Derby until just before 3am and that only got worse as we sat for a quarter of an hour at Kettering, and Leicester, and Beeston and then ridiculously at Nottingham in the middle of the night.

To make the whole thing even more tortuous we managed to get in the same carriage as one of those teeth grindingly irritating Chelsea fans who talked incessantly about all things Blue since 1997 and insisted on referring to their players by nickname. If I hear the words “Joey Cole” or “JT” again I’m going on the rampage. Apparently the Champions League final defeat was so important to him, he was so angry about losing, that he swore at his television and his dad told him he had to leave the house and calm down. God to be that passionate and committed to QPR – one can only dream. That floppy haired wanker eventually went to sleep before really putting the tin hat on my opinion of him as he got off at Nottingham by describing the situation at Chelsea once Cole is fully fit again as “Boomshakala”. When they stick me on the stand please let them know the murder was just.

Anyway I can’t sleep on trains so while all around me snoozed I first of all acquired a cat on my knee for some time that disappeared as quickly as it appeared – or perhaps I’m going mad. As it leapt off my knee and shot off at Beeston I looked under the seats to see where it had gone and suddenly realised we were on the same train, and the same seats, as the one we had been on coming down. That meant that the spare beers we had to leave behind because Owain didn’t make it and Paul fell asleep were still there. A rare result on a long night. A quick drive back to Sheffield got us in after four and with a 6am start for work there didn’t seem much point in going to bed.
4/10

8 – Police/Stewards
Plenty of hassle outside the Shed End both before and after the match and the police were getting stuck in there. I had no involvement with the police but did have a brief disagreement with a jobsworth steward who at 7.43pm was intending to make me walk right the way round the Fulham Broadway to get to the turnstile queue and the man whose ticket I had in my hand who was standing three feet behind his right shoulder. He relented in the end.
5/10
Total – 51/80

Photo: Action Images

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