Rangers surrendered meekly to a fourth straight defeat as PNE strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win at Loftus Road on Tuesday.
Holloway played an attacking formation on paper, one which was pretty much forced upon him through injury. Royce started in goal behind the usual back four of Bignot, Shittu, Evatt and Dyer. The midfield consisted of Ainsworth and Cook wide with Langley and Rowlands in the centre. Meanwhile Captain Kevin Gallen and young striker Shabazz Baidoo started up front.
Worryingly the midfield and attack lacked a big man in there who would stand up to what Preston had to offer, only Gareth Ainsworth really would be the one who you would say could win a header or fight back for the ball. This wasn't to say that the return of Rowlands was a bad thing, in fact he can put a tackle in and considering his lack of matches he put he in a decent performance.
Upon arriving at the ground ten minutes before kick-off, rarely had a stadium looked so devoid of atmosphere or people. The measly crowd of 10,901 proved this and Loftus Road really did look a bit sorry for itself. It didn't get much better either.
We had ample possession in the first half but had trouble actually bringing a save out of the keeper. Preston clearly had a game-plan and wanted to stick to it. Fair enough - we were all expecting that but it was our job to break them down. Lee Cook had the first chance of the evening when his shot was easily caught by Carlo Nash.
We then had a goal disallowed - which pretty much summed the evening up. A neat move found Kevin Gallen with the ball at his feet; he cut inside on the left and shot from outside the box. It looked to take a deflecti0on and bundled into the back of the net. The lino didn't see anything wrong with it, but unfortunately Dermot Gallagher did and he ruled the goal out with pigbag blasting out around LR.
It would have been just the luck we needed but it set the tone for the rest of the game. Shortly after we had our best move of the game. We picked the ball up in our own half and after a quick exchange between Rowlands and Langley the ball was swept out wide to Lee Cook. He found Dyer on the overlap and his pace took him past the man and a neat cross into the box found Baidoo. His slight touch was then turned behind by Nash. It was by far the best move of the game and we all hoped for more encouraging signs.
Half time was quickly upon us and predictably the Loftus Road crowd let the players know what they thought. Was it harsh? Maybe slightly - but people were frustrated and fed up watching that in the freezing cold. It was interesting to see Simon Royce trudging off and raising his arms to the crowd as if to say 'Come on we need your support' - it probably fell on deaf ears but he was right the team needed the crowd badly and vice versa.
After the break we again saw plenty of the ball but could do little with it. Preston, had done little to trouble Royce but Agyemang was a constant threat with his pace and power. Our centre half pairing of Shittu and Evatt certainly had an off night. Neither seemed to be quite on the ball and Evatt's lack of pace has been badly found out at this level. Also Shittu had a few mad momentstrying to clear his lines.
In midfield, Ainsworth was industrious but there was little quality in the final ball. Cook had the very odd glimpse of a decent touch but he again spent most of his evening sliding around the Loftus Road turf and not making much of an effort to close opponents down. Rowlands didn't look fully fit, but seemed to be playing a very reserved game. He rarely burst forward and was the one of the midfield four to stay slightly deeper. Langley had a poor game all round and will be disappointed by his efforts.
After Preston bought Nugent on you could literally see it coming. The man entered the field after 58 minutes and within two minutes had scored. Dyer completely misjudged a ball down the right and the ball was centred for Nugent to force home. Our defence had gone to sleep and by the time they had woken up it was far too late. But it would be the first of two individual errors which cost us on the night.
It was over from that moment forward really. It was always going to be a goal like that to kill the game off and we rarely looked dangerous. Preston continued to keep a steady back line and five minutes from full-time they added another second. Bignot, normally Mr. Steady, misjudged a ball and lost possession, Callum Davidson then had the easy task of firing past Royce.
In between their goals Holloway made three substitutions. The first was Stefan Moore for Lee Cook who has been hopelessly ineffective all evening. He is not a winger though and many would have seen Dyer as the one to move forward with Milanese at full back. Santos was then thrown on for the young Shabazz Baidoo who received a good reception from the crowd. He worked hard all evening but was really out-fought by a stronger centre half. He did close the centre halves down and was a threat with his constant running and pace. It must be tremendously difficult anyway to make the step up but even more so when playing in a losing side.
Everyone knew the Santos substitution was coming but it's still completely counter-productive for some people in the crowd to boo Santos when he came on. Just let the man get on with his job.
Then a minute later Ainsworth was off and Bean on. Strangely Bean took up a position more of to the right of the midfield - which seemed very peculiar. We now basically had three at the back and were going for it. Santos won a few balls in the air and had one shot go over the bar but there was little else.
The body language of the players said everything really. As soon as the first went in they knew it was gone and it was painfully evident. Right now we aren't showing any signs of improvement and are worryingly in the middle of a terrible patch.
Finding the back of the net is the biggest problem and we just can't find any rhythm in our play at moment. At the back Shittu and Evatt look out of sorts and the opposition all have a game plan against them.
The club as a whole seems to have come to a stand-still and unless we are very careful we are going to start going backwards again. And we all know what happened last time that occurred in W12 don't we?
QPR: Royce 7, Bignot 6, Evatt 5, Shittu 6, Dyer 5, Ainsworth 6 (Bean 77, 6), Rowlands 7*, Langley 5, Cook 5 (Moore 69, 6), Gallen 7, Baidoo 7 (Santos 76, 6).
Subs Not Used: Cole, Milanese.
Booked: Dyer.
Preston: Nash, Alexander, Davis, Lucketti, Hill, Sedgwick, O'Neil (Mawene 84), McKenna, Davidson, Agyemang (Dichio 79), Nowland (Nugent 58).
Subs Not Used: Ward, Jones.
Booked: Hill.
Goals: Nugent 60, Davidson 85.
Att: 10,901
QPR Man of the Match: Rowlands - Welcome back. Was nowhere near his best, but he was the best of a bad bunch really. Showed some nice touches and sprayed the ball around. Made one fantastic last ditch tackle which would have surely resulted in another goal.
Ref: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire). - 6 - Disallowed the Kevin Gallen effort and one of our only chances on goal. He obviously saw something wrong but what we don't quite know. He was assisted by two linesmen who were poor to say the least. But too be honest they are the least of our worries right now.