All the words of caution uttered before the match were seemingly ignored both on and off the pitch as QPR like Newcastle last week played Saints perfectly to take the three points.
In the pre match previews I warned of the vitriol directed against Harry Redknapp continuing too far into the game and affecting the support for the team, sadly no one seemed to take notice of this, certainly not in the Northam End who when QPR scored in the 14th minute had barely paused for breath in singing anti Redknapp songs.
On the pitch it was Newcastle repeated, only on tis occasion there was no early goal from Saints, for the first 14 minutes the home side dominated the game and pushed Rangers further and further back without really punishing them, then with just about their first attack the visitors took the lead, like last week it was a long through ball forward which caught Saints on the hop and this is really something we need to start dealing with otherwise we might be in real trouble in the coming weeks.
But the game veered back towards Saints on the break, with Adam Lallana having to go off injured on came Jay Rodriguez and Saits benefitted from his more direct approach, the first half had seen far too much passing and not enough troubling of Cesar in the QPR goal, Rodriguez changed all that, he won the ball 30 yards out took a few strides and then cracked a shot off which Cesar couldnt hold and there was Ramirez to daintily chip it over the keeper as he scrambled to recover his error, a minute later and Rodriguez tried the same trick again sadly Cesar held on this time and the game went into the break evens.
The second half saw more Saints domination, but you felt that QPR had a game plan, Harry edknapp was content to soak up the pressure and go on the break at speed and it was this that again caused our downfall, a quick break down the left saw us caught out and Boothroyd put in the resulting cross from close range.
Saints nearly got an equaliser but Robert Green on as a sub goalie pulled off a couple of smart saves, one of them World class to keep out Yoshida and that was that QPR had a rare win and Saints are left looking nervously over their shoulders.
Saints didnt play bad in this game, but the fact is that in the January transfer window we failed to make improvements to the team in key areas and we are paying the price for it week in week out, perhaps the two goals that won the game for Rangers were not as much down to individual error as last week, but truthfully the defending was unacceptably sloppy.
This season should still end in us keeping our Premier league place, but its far from certain now after two straight defeats to teams who were below us in the table at the time of playing them, call me negative if you want but I want this club to prosper and somewhere along the line something is not being run properly on the footballing side of things, this is not a direct criticism of our Chairman, he has people in place to advise him, at them moment some of that advise is looking decidedly risky.