Rangers were hammered 3-1 at Watford on Tuesday night. Only Simon Royce kept the scoreline vaguely respectable.
Just over a year ago, in only the second game of our return to the fizzy pop league, we got turned over in front of the Sky cameras in Hertfordshire - something that may have been a blessing in disguise as it rallied the squad together. This season has seen a number of inept performances away from Loftus Road, so this was no fluke result.
Holloway had to make changes after the Derby game, the keeper, back four and midfield remained the same while Moore came in to partner Sturridge while Paul Furlong started his suspension. Cook and Nyggard were on the bench - apparently not ready for the rigours of 90 minutes, alongside Langley, Milanese and Cole.
The team ran out to be greeted by the sight of a packed away end, I doubt few teams will do that at VR this season - but this didn't seem to matter as the team crumbled as the night went on.
Early on Watford looked dangerous going forward, they have plenty of pace in attacking areas and were using this to full effect. King and Young were a handful all evening - and they even had the luxury of Henderson on the bench. The Hornets were also forcing lots of corners. They looked a threat from all dead ball situations and a frenzy of corners followed one after another. McNamee then had a rocket of a shot tipped over the bar by the in-form Simon Royce.
It was a superb save from a man who is in fantastic form at the moment. This was the first of a host of saves he made all evening - if it wasn't for him the score could have been even bigger. Further chances then followed for the Hornets, the first of which fell to Young who wasted a good chance. King then had an excellent opportunity, he turned neatly in the penalty box which left our defenders trailing - but Royce was on hand to save well.
With little over five minutes remaining of the half, Watford took the lead. A high ball into the far post was headed down by King and bundled home by the on-rushing Matthew Spring. Watford has caused problems with diagonal balls which really stretched our defence and this was no different. From the away end it looked as if the ball had actually landed right in front of Royce - but Spring was quick enough to react.
From our point of view we offered little in attacking options. In fact I don't think their keeper was tested in the first half. That fact alone tells its own story really. Too often we took the option of high balls to our strikers. Carlisle was always going to win these balls and it just didn't work. When you've got players like Sturridge and Moore the ball needs to go to their feet, or over the top so Moore can run at players. Not that he did any of that of tonight - disappointingly it was another poor performance from the former Villa man.
Watford had the opportunity to add a second in the final seconds of the first half, Chambers skipped through our defence, but once again Royce was awake to the danger.
When the team ran out for the second half there were two fresh faces in the line-up. Off went Ainsworth and Santos, both virtually non-existent in the first half and on came Cook and Nygaard. The big Dane partnered Sturridge in attack, while Moore switched to the right and Gallen moved into the centre with Doherty. The first fifteen minutes or so there was a definite improvement - we had more shape as a team and started to use the flanks. Unfortunately Cook spent the first five minutes slipping over much to the delight of the home crowd, he then quickly changed his boots.
Nygaard was making a nuisance of himself in attacks. He had one effort (and calling it an 'effort' is very generous!!) when he scuffed a shot which dribbled along the ground from 30 yards out. Not really a shot at such but painfully the closest we had come so far. In fact it was so poor that even the QPR fans joined in with the 'What the f****** hell was that?!' chant.
Still, we continued to press and did start to look more dangerous. Sturridge had our best chance when he had a one on one, but Foster managed to tip the ball over the bar. It took so long for the ball to drop that many thought it had hit the back of the net. After that we forced a few corners without creating a decent goal scoring opportunity, Nygaard had a far poster header easily saved by Foster.
We continued to press forward but Watford added their second on 70 minutes. Holes started to appear in our backline and they exposed them. The ball fell to McNamee who had plenty of space behind Bignot and he put the ball past the on-rushing Royce. Our defence had been dragged out of place and we were caught far too short.
That was basically it for us as the body language of the players showed. Then six minutes later they added their third. Watford picked up a free kick down their left hand side and the free kick made its way unaided through the packed penalty box into the back of the net. It was the sort of goal you see all the time on the round-up of goals on a Sunday morning and you could just see it coming. Then the cocky Ashley Young took great delight in winding up the R's fans down the front of the stand.
By this time if was enough for many and the R's fans starting to trickle out of the stadium in large numbers. Normally I like to stay to the end, but we had enough by this time and made the gloomy walk back to the car. The R's added a consultation goal late on, Shittu heading home a Cook corner. Too little too late though.
Gallen also pulled up injured in the closing stages and with all three subs used he had to sit out the remaining moments of the game. All in all another frustrating evening all round. We don't have seem to have the consistency at the moment to be able to string a run of results together and its painfully obvious we rely on a few players for our attacking contributions.
Did the encouraging performance at Derby take too much out of the players? Well, only they will know. But I just don't buy this idea of us having a small squad, we've signed plenty of players over the last six months but clearly some aren't up to the job yet.
Now we have Reading on Saturday and the fake hoops are flying high at the moment. Yet again the team really have to dig deep to lift spirits once again this season.
Watford: Foster, Doyley, Carlisle, DeMerit, Chambers, Devlin, Mahon, Spring (Bangura 83), McNamee, King, Young.
Subs Not Used: Chamberlain, Stewart, Mackay, Henderson.
Goals: Spring 39, McNamee 70, Young 76.
QPR: Royce 9, Bignot 6, Evatt 7, Shittu 7, Doherty 5, Dyer 5, Santos 5 (Nygaard 45, 6), Ainsworth 5 (Cook 45, 6), Gallen 6, Moore 4 (Langley 74), Sturridge 6.
Subs Not Used: Milanese, Cole.
Goals: Shittu 90.
Att: 16,476.
QPR Man of the Match: Simon Royce - 9 - The keeper is in great form at the moment and if it wasn't for him they could have easily could at least three more. Unfortunately being given precious little protection at the moment.
Ref: M Atkinson: (W Yorkshire) - 8 -A decent performance from the ref, no bookings which was nice to see as well. He let the game flow nicely, this didn't really help us as we didn't string many passes together all evening. But well done anyway.