A fantastic late goal from Junior Hoilett couldn’t mask the obvious frustration around Loftus Road on Saturday as a lacklustre first half performance laid a platform from which lowly Blackpool were able to snatch a point.
Only the most callous, embittered football fan would ever wish injury on the players belonging to a rival team — John Terry and Ashley Young excepted of course — but you’d forgive the Loftus Road faithful a little grumble about Burnley’s relative good fortune with fitness this season.
While QPR have said goodbye to Ale Faurlin, Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips and Danny Simpson with long term injuries, and the best part of a dozen others with medium term problems — Andy Johnson, Armand Traore, Jermaine Jenas, Nedum Onuoha amongst them — the Clarets have selected identical starting elevens for half a dozen matches at a time.
It’s impossible not to admire the work done at Turf Moor this season by manager Sean Dyche and a playing squad intelligently assembled by picking off talent from lower divisions and nearby Premier League academies. Financially sound, shrewdly run, well managed, good to watch and seemingly almost certain to be promoted this season. They have, nevertheless, had luck on their side — playing out the entire first half of the season with only two senior strikers on their books with neither Sam Vokes nor Danny Ings getting so much as a flu bug.
That luck may have finally deserted Burnley with a dozen games left to go. Ings and outstanding young full back Kieran Trippier were already ruled out long term prior to Saturday’s showdown with league leaders Leicester and as the regulars at the Crown and Sceptre peered up at the lunchtime kick off Vokes went down on buckled knee as his cruciate knee ligament caved in beneath him — a familiar site for QPR fans who have lost Richard Langley, Clarke Carlisle, Danny Shittu, Ale Faurlin (twice), Martin Rowlands (twice) and several others to an injury that blights the modern footballer.
A tragedy for Vokes, and Burnley, who both deserve promotion so much this season, but nevertheless an opportunity for the chasing pack to run second spot down to the wire with Leicester, who eventually prevailed 2-0, now apparently home and hosed in first.
QPR, with consecutive wins under their belt already this week achieved in circumstances — injury time winner at Middlesbrough, backs-to-the-wall effort against an impressive Wigan side on Tuesday — that suggest the fight, desire and hunger may be present in this group of players after all, had a chance to cut the gap at the top to six points with seven games left with a victory on Saturday afternoon. In their way, Blackpool, a team that until recently hadn’t won in 18 matches and had drawn one and lost 11 of its last 12 away games. Cannon fodder, surely, for QPR regardless of a lengthening injury list.
But, on this evidence, Burnley can sleep soundly in their beds — or, at least, only worry themselves about Derby County’s ongoing surge. QPR weren’t able to get anywhere close to the levels of drive and urgency they’d shown against Wigan on Tuesday night. The R’s conceded after nine minutes, a scrambled effort from a corner by Scottish international David Goodwillie that owed more to the slapdash marking at the far post than any preparation Pool had done with their set pieces, and rarely looked like turning that deficit into a winning position. In fact, had Goodwillie shown more composure when Nedum Onuoha missed a tackle ten minutes before half time and curled the ball into the far corner of the net rather than firing well wide it could have been a good deal worse.
There were several reasons behind this lacklustre display from the home side. Initially the expensively laid new pitch seemed to be to blame — over enthusiastic use of the inbuilt sprinkler system before kick off saw the ball holding up in puddles in the centre of the field early in the first half on the hottest, driest day of the year so far. It slowed the game to a snail’s pace, which suited Pool just fine once they’d taken the lead. Former Rochdale midfielder David Perkins, who always has been a spikey, irritating little git, further disrupted the flow of the game, first deliberately hauling down Ravel Morrison after five minutes, then chopping down Karl Henry after a quarter of an hour — referee Carl Boyeson generously left his yellow card in his pocket on both occasions.
But QPR didn’t help themselves with their team selection. An ever lengthening absentee list must be taken into account — Yossi Benayoun’s suspension and injuries to Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar robbed Harry Redknapp of three starters from the Tuesday Wigan game — but there seemed to be some strange decisions made by the QPR management on Saturday.
First and foremost, starting with three centre halves — Richard Dunne, Nedum Onuoha and Clint Hill — and two wings backs — Aaron Hughes and Benoit Assou-Ekotto — with defensive midfielder Karl Henry thrown into the bargain just in front of them seemed manifestly excessive against a Blackpool side that showed little attacking intention before they opened the scoring from a set piece, and virtually none afterwards. Perhaps it could be understood if QPR had a couple of flying full backs ready to bomb on and add extra, wide bodies to the attacks, but Aaron Hughes didn’t have that in his game when he was 24 and he certainly doesn’t now ten years later.
This was a shape and system QPR used in a similar match at Blackpool’s fellow strugglers Charlton Athletic last month resulting in a dreadful performance and 1-0 defeat. The desire to return to that set up, bearing in mind what happened at The Valley, shouldn’t exactly have been burning away at Harry Redknapp prior to this one.
Longer term you have to wonder what effect Redknapp’s decision to return Richard Dunne, whose performances have been declining steadily for weeks, straight into the line up, and then recall Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who has been abysmal in both effort and output since a much-tipped January move back to Tottenham failed to material, will have on the club’s playing staff. Yun Suk-Young could scarcely have done any more for the team at Middlesbrough a week ago and was a clear Man of the Match — his reward was to be dropped immediately, first of all to facilitate Dunne’s return against Wigan and then because Assou-Ekotto is still preferred to him. It sends a message that no matter what happens and how you play, Dunne and Assou-Ekotto are Harry’s men and they’ll be picked if they’re fit regardless. Not exactly a way to inspire performances from either the players who are looking for a first team breakthrough, nor, really, those Redknapp is picking who know they’ll be in the team next week however they play. Suk-Young wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t no wondering exactly why he bothered last week at the Riverside Stadium, and he won’t be the only one thinking that in this playing squad either.
Shorter term, the selection and system meant Rangers effectively wrote off the first half here, and needed to make two early substitutions just to get somewhere close to the situation they should have started with at the beginning of the game. Much like at Charlton, Rangers’ sole attacking intent on Saturday seemed to revolve around giving the ball to Ravel Morrison and hoping the West Ham loanee could produce a moment of magic for them — he had a long ranger deflected wide immediately after the Goodwillie goal and another one blocked in the area despite a valiant attempt, through two shoulder drops, to craft space for himself.
Will Keane, in for Benayoun but another whose performances are regressing rather than getting better, struggled with the offside rule once more and dragged a shot wide with the time still in single figures — the natives are massing against him at the moment. As I said after the Brighton game, I don’t think Keane is a lone striker, nor is he somebody who has played a lot of professional matches, so it’s unfair to put him there in a team that creates so few good chances and then criticise him for the results. But there are some basic things he could do to help himself — staying onside for a start, not being afraid to get a little bit physical with his marker for seconds — and at the moment he’s being toughened up by Manchester United on QPR’s time to the detriment of our team. He really has got to find a nasty streak in him and put it about a bit more — or at least do the very basics of the game competently if not.
Redknapp sent on the returning Danny Simpson for Aaron Hughes seven minutes before half time, and then added Junior Hoilett for Onuoha at the break. Suddenly QPR did have some pace and purpose to them — Simpson played like he’d never been away and drew a save from Pool goalkeeper Matt Gilks with a header from Assou-Ekotto’s cross deep in first half stoppage time while Hoilett signalled his intentions with a mazy run and shot wide in the opening minute of the second period.
But it had taken 45 minutes for the home team to spark into any kind of life, and it had needed two of the three available substitutions to do it. Not only that but given that neither Hughes nor Onuoha were withdrawn for tactical reasons — the former has a muscle strain, the latter picked up nasty gash to his head — it’s another two first team bodies to sling into the Harlington morgue.
Nevertheless, the substitutions did make a really positive difference. Rangers dominated the second half completely from start to finish, outshooting The Tangerines 23 to six by the end.
Morrison skipped past two tackles in the fifty fourth minute but shot straight at Gilks, then sent one straight at the Scottish keeper again five minutes later after widening the angle for himself, and later on curled one wide via a slight deflection. A weak penalty appeal just after the hour after he’d turned on the ball and hit the deck under little contact was rightly waved away by Boyeson.
QPR were heavily reliant on Morrison again — to the point where every corner was played short to him, whether the pass was on or not. With seconds remaining and the penalty area full of Hooped shirts they inexplicably went short again and wasted the opportunity. It’s ok guys, sometimes Spain and Barcelona and all of that lot do actually just cross the ball. It’s not a sign of weakness or failure. Not hard to see why the R’s are doing this though — only Troy Deeney and Lewis Grabban have scored more goals than Morrison’s five in march and he tops the division this month for pass completion (91%), successful dribbles (23) and shots on target (17).
The introduction of Mobido Maiga for the tiring Zamora with 26 minutes left didn’t help matters greatly. Although the Malian really got hold of a 20 yarder just after he came on — the ball, sadly, flying just too high to trouble Gilks — he was, once again, complete pony, as he has been from the moment he arrived.
And for all the added pressure, possession domination, and improved attacking intent, shots that forced a genuine save from Gilks were few and far between. Junior Hoilett found an equaliser quite out of the blue, pinging an unstoppable low 20 yarder into the bottom corner with 12 minutes left for play to provide hope that a later turn around could be on.
Twice in the final ten minutes the R’s could have snatched it at the end of decent moves in wide areas. Assou-Ekotto came in late on a right wing cross five minutes from time but could only smash the ball back from whence it came. Then, as time ticked into added minutes at the end, he delivered an exquisite cross into the six yard box that Maiga and Keane really rather seemed to have messed up for each other by challenging each other to get to the ball and head goalwards. The Cameroon full back showed his quality there, but was mostly too lazy and casual again, frustrating supporters and team mates in equal measure.
Gilks had to thrust up an arm and show a strong wrist when Morrison unloaded a fierce drive on goal from the edge of the area - but the game petered out into a draw.
It leaves QPR rather stuck in the middle. Even if the R’s win six of their remaining seven matches, Burnley still only need to find three wins to stay ahead. Likewise, QPR could lose all seven of their remaining games and still make the play offs given the 12-point gap down to seventh. Momentum is key in play-off games — how many times have we seen a team steal into sixth on the last day and then win through against the third placed side which may still be nursing the disappointment of not finishing in the top two? Is a series of essentially dead rubbers, which is what a good few of the R’s remaining games will be, going to hamstring QPR when the going suddenly gets all intense and high speed again in May? Or is the chance to ease the injured players back in slowly, rather than rushing them in, just what the team needed?
One thing is for certain — they’ll have to play a whole lot better than this to achieve anything positive at the business end of the season.
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QPR: Green; Hughes 5 (Simpson 39, 7), Dunne 6, Onuoha 6 (Hoilett 45, 6), Hill 6, Assou-Ekotto 5; Henry 6, Carroll 6; Morrison 7, Keane 5, Zamora 6 (Maiga 65, 5)
Subs not used: Suk-Young, Murphy, Petrasso, O’Neil
Goals: Hoilett 78 (unassisted)
Blackpool: Gilks 7; McMahon 6, Cathcart 6, Mackenzie 7, Robinson 6; Foley 5, Basham 5 (Bishop 55, 6), Perkins 6, Halliday 6 (Martinez 82, -); Goodwillie 6 Vellios 6 (Barkhuizen 67, 6)
Subs not used: Haroun, McGahey, Grandin, Earnshaw
Goals: Goodwillie 9 (assisted Halliday)
Bookings: Basham 34 (foul)
QPR Star Man — Danny Simpson 7 Looked like he’d never been away and made a big difference to Hughes with his ability to bomb on down the right side and join the attacks. A welcome return.
Referee — Carl Boyeson (East Yorkshire) 8 Not a referee fondly remembered by many QPR fans from our previous time in this league, and somewhat generous with David Perkins during the first half, but overall he was fine with few major incidents or talking points to deal with.
16,638 (800 Blackpool approx) A subdued atmosphere, in keeping with the game. Most happy to soak up the warm sunshine as this one drifted off into the annuls of games we'll never remember.
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