March really felt like the month when QPR’s dream of a promotion push this season started to die away, so pity Steve Hardy for having to write this month’s review.
I don’t think March, along with February, went anywhere near how we were expecting it to. After preaching that a month with less fixtures should see us improve it has seen us get predominantly worse and ultimately left us scratching our heads as to how it has all unravelled to this extent this fast. With that in mind let’s get the autopsy for a woeful March, which consisted of three abject defeats and one fluky victory, out of the way.
When I write these articles I always find it interesting casting my mind back to beginning of the month and trying to remember the mood at the time. I vividly remember writing in my last article about the benefit of this month only having four fixtures and allowing us greater time on the training pitch and initially it looked like it was paying off during the Cardiff home match.
After taking the lead through Andre Gray it is safe to say that we looked comfortable and had we scored the second goal that our first half performance had deserved then we win that game, but ultimately we didn’t and as we came to find out again later in the month a one goal lead for us currently feels like a very fragile specimen. Especially when you are deciding now is the time to start altering the personnel and positions of our defence. I say all this but if we had had a goalkeeper that had human hands as opposed to two slices of Weetabix in goal that day then, again, we win the game regardless of the solitary goal scored. This is all if and buts though which it now seems will be the story of our season come May.
Post Cardiff capitulation we then moved on to Luton away and a game that I’m sure a lot of us were dreading, especially when you arrived in Luton to find near on every police officer in Bedfordshire working overtime coupled with a unique atmosphere it made for a rather pleasant walk to the ground. This was a strange game really as I felt Luton could have been out of sight come half time but we certainly grew as the second half went on, especially after Hendrick was removed for Amos, and the longer the game went on the more it felt like we would win. Coming out of the ground that day you hoped that we’d turned a corner, certainly after beating such an in form side, however it ultimately just turned out to be a false dawn.
One quick word on Nathan Jones though, can anyone explain his absolute hatred of us to me? There is obviously the ridiculous hypocrisy of a man who jumps in the crowd after beating Swansea in a midweek January game claiming that we were over celebrating but I don’t get his constant gripes that we have spent loads of money when in reality we haven’t and we actually have one of the lower budgets in the division. Not as small as Luton’s mind but he always seems to mention us in the same breath as clubs such as Nottingham Forest and West Brom and I just find it very strange that he has such a disliking for us. Clearly a very good manager but he has a chip on his shoulder the size of a 15-year-old spoilt child.
Following that fortuitous victory in Bedfordshire we headed up the M1 in a monsoon to face another form side in Notts Forest. I remember thinking to myself driving up that the weather was so bad that it could genuinely be called off and call me a boring bastard but looking at the state of the pitch on our side/corner of the ground it couldn’t have been far off that outcome especially when the ball was refusing to bounce for most of the game. Maybe the weather and pitch became a bit of a leveller as I did feel that we played very well in the first half at The City Ground, with good energy, pressing high and keeping Forest penned back in their half for large periods of time, as opposed to playing 4,000 passes along the edge of our own area. So, it was frustrating to walk away from the ground having lost 3-1 after such a good start, although saying that Forest did look good and as soon as they got that equaliser with the crowd behind them there was only going to be one winner, especially with those substitutions and a refusal to leave our own half for the last thirty minutes. Still, we only had bottom of the league Peterborough at home on the Sunday. Win that and we finish the month in the play-off places heading into the final international break of the season. Always seems so simple in your head.
I don’t think there is more that I can add to the Peterborough fiasco, especially after Clive’s superb match report covered exactly how we were and still are all feeling. What I will say though is that if you lose three times, and fairly comfortably each time at that, in one season to the worst team in your league then you aren’t good enough to be competing at the top end of the division.
Again, similar to the Cardiff game, the whole life seemed to get sucked out of the place with that second half performance. It was a real sickener and the crowd had every right to be as angry as they were as we know we’re miles better than this. One thing that did stand out to me in this game though was just how slow we generally look. Other than Amos there didn’t appear to be anyone with pace or energy in the team and when this is the case it allows the opposition to play so much higher up the pitch, at one point the Peterborough defence were playing on the half way line. Maybe it’s just one of those things you only pick up on when you’re on a bad run but as crestfallen as I was leaving the ground on Sunday it just left me wondering where that energy in our team has gone, everything and everyone just looks so laboured and unhappy at the minute. It really is such a crying shame when you consider where we are now to where we were at the end of January after such a fantastic 12 months and it felt as if players and fans were together as one, and now everything just seems so flat.
It's at this point that I usually ask where this leaves but I think it’s now fairly safe to say that our season will be finished on May 7 and we’ll be playing Championship football next season, as looking at those fixtures there is no way that we’re winning five or six of those, although it would be very QPR to do so. So, I suppose ultimately I should be asking how it has come to this and to be honest there isn’t a straight forward answer. I’m finding this complete cliff dive that we have embarked on way more heart-breaking than any of the relegations I have witnessed in my time supporting this club I think the reason for this is because we have been screaming out for years for a squad like the one we have built, they’re an honest hard working bunch and up until February at least they were all in it together, playing for each other, as close knit a squad as you want really. I still remember that full time at Coventry and how it really seemed that we were on the cusp of something special and I compare that to the player’s body language during that Peterborough game and it’s chalk and cheese.
We all want this team to do well because we love the club and that’s the life of the football fan, you want your team to win, but to see this team that seemed to be so well scouted and intricately assembled and developed other the last 15 months just crumble so quickly is soul destroying and personally I am finding it really hard to stomach. Maybe it’s the cynic in me but the fact that there are still eight games to go is worrying as I can’t see things improving which will only add to negative atmosphere at games, however I pray the players don’t feel the way I do and can turn this around somehow.
So, what exactly has gone wrong then? It seems that everyone has their own theory at the minute and I think I will throw mine out there and please bare in mine that everything I write is all with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Warburton recently spoke very honestly and thoughtfully on the Open All R’s podcast about our January transfer window activity and the importance of squad harmony and not upsetting the equilibrium. If I remember correctly he mentioned about not getting another striker because we already have three in the squad and the squad is a close bunch and to bring in another striker could risk the morale within the camp. Was it then not a tiny bit hypocritical to bring in Jeff Hendrick when we already have players like Dom Ball, George Thomas and Andre Dozzell not able to get a game? Like I say this is all being said with the benefit of hindsight but I, like the majority of supporters, struggle to see what Hendrick brings to this team other than not being able to pass the ball four yards and I know Dom Ball has his limitations but he has always been available when asked during his time with this club including playing in multiple positions and he’s never given anything other than 100% for the team. I thought it was an unnecessary at the time and it looks even more that with every passing game and if you’re telling me that signing hasn’t upset the squad in some way then I think you have blinkers on. Without getting too deep into a conspiracy theory here but where are all those happy photo bundles we used to get each week of the squad training? A quick scroll back through the clubs Instagram account and the last bit of content showing any form of training was on 18th February, like I say most likely it will be a coincidence but it does all seem strange that the wheels have come completely pretty much since the end of the transfer window.
I can remember either seeing an interview or reading an article with Warburton about his time at Brentford and where he mentioned if he had agreed to the signings they wanted in the January of that season then he would more than likely still be their manager now. At the time he was at Brentford he kept faith with the squad he had, they ended up making the play offs but did not progress past Middlesbrough. I do think that it could be this experience that maybe had him swaying towards making signings in January even if, as we now know, they were ultimately unnecessary. Whatever the answer we all have theories in our own head as to how this has gone so wrong and with the news that Chris Willock is now out for the remainder of the season the only thing that seems to have ever increasing certainty is that we’ll be booking our holidays for the middle of May.
I can imagine this article has come across as very depressing but ultimately that is how I feel and it was hard work raking over the wounds of the last two months. We do still have a puncher’s chance though, I just hope the players don’t feel half as low as I currently do. Fulham up next though, great.
March grade - E
Links >>> Follow Steve’s match-by-match reviews on Instagram >>> August 18 >>> September 18 >>> October 18 >>> November 18 >>> December 18 >>> January 19 >>> February 19 >>> March 19 >>> April 19 >>> 18/19 Season Review >>> August 19 >>> September 19 >>> October 19 >>> November 19 >>> December 19 >>> January 20 >>> February 20 >>> March 20 >>> April 20 >>> May 20 >>> June 20 >>> July 20 >>> September 20 >>> October 20 >>> November 20 >>> December 20 >>> January 21 >>> February 21 >>> March 21 >>> April/May 21 >>> August 21 >>> September 21 >>> October 21 >>> November 21 >>> December 21 >>> January 22 >>> February 22
The Instagram - @sph_1985
Pictures - Action Images