Back down to earth with a thud for QPR after the highs of the weekend win at Hull, as Southampton stuck five through the R’s at St Mary’s on Tuesday night.
Early Saturday afternoon and spring was well and truly sprung in the People’s Republic of Kingston-upon-Hull. Months of ice and sleet blowing in on an ill-wind up to no good, so much darkness and day after day after week after week of rain, finally giving way. Sunlight peeping through scattered clouds, tinkling off the mouth of the Humber. Arms clad in light jackets shielding eyes from the sun – the actual sun – in the away end of the New Boulevard.
New growth, new life, new hope in Queens Park Rangers too. Passes progressed, shots taken, goals scored. A three-score haul on the road for only the second time this season, and first since September. An away victory for the first time in ten attempts over four months. A young prospect putting boot through ball from range and smashing a deadlock into a million pieces. An away end in raptures, a long day on convoluted train work arounds at huge expense justified, strangers hugging. It’s alright, it’s okay.
How do you go from that, to this, in four days?
Some of it is not that deep. QPR are a small market team, with a PSR-restricted budget and wage bill, which always makes them vulnerable to monied parachute payment clubs.
Southampton’s first goal, scored after nine minutes, was set up by Ryan Manning, who left Loftus Road to make more money elsewhere, and curled adeptly into the far corner from range by the game’s outstanding player Finn Azaz, who the Saints paid Middlesbrough £10m for in the summer. Azaz got an assist for the fourth goal, scored by Leo Scienza - who’d already registered a brilliant goal against Rangers in the home fixture - but owing much to the laughable defending of Rhys Norrington-Davies and appalling goalkeeping by Joe Walsh. Still, Scienza cost an estimated £8m from Heidenheim. He won a corner in first half stoppage time from which unmarked Kuryu Matsuki headed in a simple second which rather killed off Rangers hopes.
Hull, in my opinion, are in an artificially high position in the table and were dreadful at the weekend. Southampton, again my opinion, are artificially low and played well here. We said in the match preview it’s getting towards that time of the season where the deeper pockets, wage bills, and squads they provide are starting to tell: Ipswich, Birmingham, Wrexham, Southampton, Sheff Utd all moving into contention after ropey starts; Stoke, Charlton, Preston, Hull and other surprise early contenders starting to slide.
As Julien Stéphan sought to wrestle back some semblance of control in this game he reached for Kealey Adamson, Daniel Bennie, Kieran Morgan and Jonathan Varane. Opposite number Tonda Eckert brought on Shea Charles (£10m), Samuel Edozie (£6m), Ross Stewart (£8m), Tom Fellows (£8m) and Cameron Archer (£15m). That was their bench. Every single one of them would be QPR’s best player, and by a pretty sizeable distance as well. These aren’t fair fights, and if you’re slightly off your best in them you’ll get dragged round the ring and beaten up.
Depleted, relatively inexperienced, side loses in a double away week to a parachute payment club that’s had a double homer. That should not come as a great surprise to anyone, particularly when your rookie goalkeeper has a night like this, and isn’t a need for another existential crisis in Shepherd’s Bush. Throw in QPR’s total aversion to the so-called three game weeks and we almost should have had money on it – our 2-0 defeat prediction in the match preview turned out to be hopelessly optimistic. Cocks set to droop.
There were, however, areas of deep concern. Not least why Rangers are so depleted, again, at this point in a season.
Since New Year’s Day the club has lost Rumarn Burrell, Jonathan Varane, Kwame Poku, Liam Morrison, Koki Saito, Karamoko Dembele and Paul Smyth to injury. New signing Justin Obikwu has barely trained since he got here – now going into week six of his absence and we still haven’t even been told what the problem is. Jake Clarke-Salter has made one brief substitute appearance since December 20. Ilias Chair, who was supposed to be back for Christmas, and supposed to be involved at Hull, is now also out again. Steve Cook hasn’t made the bench for the last two games, "rested”. Richard Kone played at the weekend with a heavily strapped knee.
If somebody cracks through Dembele’s knee and blows his ACL out, as happened against Coventry, there’s little you can do, but most of these are non-contact muscle injuries. Obikwu and Smyth, like Clarke-Salter this time last year, did theirs in training, where Chair has now also suffered his set back. Liam Morrison did his in a warm up.
And now, to add to that list, pulling up off the ball holding the back of his thigh, Nicolas Madsen.
Only 1-0 down at the time, QPR’s hopes of getting something from the game went with the Dane back to the dressing room once the defensively shambolic second had been conceded in the three minutes added on. Stéphan says Madsen will be out for "at least a couple of weeks” which, by the standards of the injury updates provided by the club to its long-suffering support this year, means we’ll see him sometime around Bonfire Night. Quite how we’re going to progress the ball out of midfield without him in the coming games, God only knows – various combinations of Kieran Morgan, Issac Hayden and Jonathan Varane for the final hour here did not inspire a lot of confidence and faith in that regard and Rangers ended the night with a solitary shot on target.
One can only hope this is something of a turning point.
Last season Marti Cifuentes had a squad with no fit centre backs at one point (it’s how Ronnie Edwards ended up here in the first place, not a happy return to St Mary’s for him on Tuesday) and no fit centre forwards at another (it’s how we ended up spending a long day at Stoke watching Dembele play as a target man). Chairman Lee Hoos said straight out right at the top of the accounts that "hampered by injuries, the non-availability of players affected the performance of the team throughout the season.”
At the fans forum in August, however, you were told that while it might be annoying when you want to see your "favourite players play on a Saturday” in actual fact "in the last two seasons we’ve had 91% and 85% respectively. An average 88% availability…” up from 80% previously. What injuries we did get were mostly contact and unlucky. "I don’t think there is something fundamentally wrong with our player health model, it’s improved over the last two seasons has improved on what it was before. We’re looking club wide because our availability has not just been good with the first team, it’s been good across the academy and the women’s. Club wide the job is good and continues to evolve, but I do understand the frustration when the player you want to see isn’t out there. Let’s see how we do this season…”
Leaving aside the somewhat unfortunate tone of those "are you ready for some science” comments, the club’s head of performance Ben Williams has rather made a rod for his own back, and is now positioned as the fall guy. Firstly, and most obviously, "let’s see how we do this season”… terribly. The problem has got worse, which it will do if you don’t acknowledge it’s a problem in the first place. Secondly, whether it’s his fault, or even his responsibility, he is the one who was put forward as the front man and spokesperson for this area of the club at the last couple of forums and therefore is inevitably the one people will alight on with blame now things have gone wrong – as you’re seeing across social media and message boards this week. That might be completely unfair, God knows we love an easy scapegoat at QPR, but something has to change for next season.
We cannot get to January/February 2027 and again be missing this many key players. It’s killing the team on the pitch, which was well in play-off contention until very recently but is now seven points adrift, and it’s killing Christian Nourry’s player development and trading ‘model’, which the recent accounts showed is in need of a sale(s) pretty rapidly. There’s no better example on either count than Madsen. He’s been the team’s best player this season, he’s the single point of failure as the only progressive midfielder we’ve got, he’s been run into the ground playing every minute of every game, and now he’s injured as well. He’s also the poster boy for this regime, the data and analytics recruitment prospect who we all wrote off because he was so poor in year one but then developed into a genuine sellable asset in year two – a great success story for the club, and a ‘ha ha ha we were right all along’ response to the critics. Well, nobody’s buying anybody with a dodgy hammy – well, we might, but that’s besides the point.
The other thing I came away from this thinking about were my comments after we lost 7-1 at Coventry in August which concluded with: "Standards in any team or organisation are set from the top and are the lowest behaviour you’re willing to accept. Once you do accept it, the only guarantee is it will happen again.” QPR now have a 7-1 and a 5-0 on their slate, and they lost 5-0 to Burnley in the penultimate game of last season too. The club has only lost 7-1 three times in 40 years – two of those recently, 2018 and 2025. Tuesday night was the 13th time QPR have conceded 5+ goals in a Championship match since the EFL rebrand in 2004 – only Barnsley (17) have suffered that fate on more occasions in this time in the division.
It’s just an accepted part of the chronically mediocre culture at our organisation – every now and again, two or three times a season, we’re going to fall in a massive hole and leave you 2,000 idiots up in the corner humiliated with the local scrote kids hanging over the barrier making wanker signs at you.
Even if you’re relatively young, let’s say 20, and you’ve been going to QPR with your dad since you were eight, then you’ve seen us lose 7-1 to Coventry, 7-1 to West Brom, 6-0 to Man City, 6-0 to Fulham, 6-0 to Newcastle, 6-1 to Chelsea, 6-1 at Blackpool who ended up relegated, 5-0 to Burnley, 5-0 to Southampton, 5-3 at Barnsley, 4-0 down by half time at Watford, 4-0 at home to Blackburn, 4-0 at home to Forest, 4-0 away to Forest, 4-0 at Norwich, and at Fulham, and at Brighton, and at Spurs... We’ve won eight London derbies in a quarter of a century. And like our appalling FA Cup record - more third round exits than any other club - it’s all just sort of accepted. In fact, it’s beyond accepted now, you even have QPR supporters setting upon other QPR supporters for daring to be upset about it. Go 2-0 up at League One Plymouth, lose 3-2, and if you’re angry about that you’re branded a "dinosaur”. And lo, what keeps happening? Nights like this, of course. Other fanbases would riot. We make excuses for it. And therefore, I repeat, this will happen again.
Who’s conceded the most headed goals in the Championship? QPR, 15, four more than anybody else. What also happened again here? Straight out after half time and concede another goal. Now 13 of our 52 goals conceded this year in minutes 46-55, and two more at Plymouth in the cup as well. Who’s got the division’s worst record in double aways and three game weeks? Of course. Known problems are just allowed to continue unchecked at our club, because it’s QPR and it’s what we do and those 1,771 fools turn up and pay their money regardless. Saturday, again, heading for a sell-out.
The team was obviously not helped by the number of absentees, the schedule which again has us going from one end of the country to the other in double quick time, and the unfathomable decision to once again go in against a red and white striped home team in camouflage which resulted in us passing the ball straight to opposition players even more than we normally do.
Our team’s hopes were also unfortunately undermined by the performance of its goalkeeper. Joe Walsh continues to veer from three good performances into one horrendous one. His hopeless flap for Matsuki’s first goal, parry back into traffic for the Japanese midfielder’s second straight after half time and horrendous non-save for Scienza’s dribbler made the scoreline far worse than it needed to be. He couldn’t do much about the fifth, volleyed well past him into the corner by James Bree after substitute Esquerdinha decided to try dribbling the ball around the edge of his own box with predictable results, but the amount of times Walsh simply slipped over under no pressure was incredibly disconcerting. Perhaps not used to the sight of a pitch with some grass on it?
It’s just… the manner of these performances and these results. Southampton away, difficult game, fine. But Charlton got a point here at the weekend, Millwall got a point here on New Year’s Day, Hull won here last month, it’s not impossible, is it? We just looked so limp, so defeated, so defeatist.
This could have been worse still. Southampton hit the inside of the post in the first half and had a big penalty appeal waved away in the second. Do the RNLI do house calls?
Look at Isaac Hayden’s defending for the first goal. He’s standing next to Finn Azaz at the start of that, and by the time the Irish midfielder curls the ball into the corner of the net Hayden is still where he was to start with while Azaz is taking a free shot ten yards away. Look at Norrington Davies for the second Matsuki goal, and the hilarious effort to stop Scienza scoring. These are senior players. Quick wave of apology to the away end at the final whistle, few words with fans down the front, and off we all go home. Julien says if we win on Saturday that’s six points and a good week.
Bah. I’m boring myself now. Sorry.
"And it was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show as Rangers bowed out of the FA Cup, at Southampton.” Turns out we make bad memories here, as well as good.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in today’s match report, there’s a number you can call..
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Southampton: Peretz N/A; Bree 7, Harwood-Bellis 7, Stephens 7, Manning 7; Downes 7 (Charles 82, -), Jander 7; Matsuki 8 (Fellows 75, 6), Azaz 9 (Stewart 68, 6), Scienza 9 (Edozie 75, 6); Larin 7 (Archer 68, 6)
Subs not used: Bragg, Jelert, Long, Wood-Gordon
Goals: Azaz 9 (assisted Manning), Matsuki 45+2 (assisted Scienza), 50 (unassisted), Scienza 59 (assisted Azaz), Bree 70 (unassisted)
Yellow Cards: Jander 16 (foul)
QPR: Walsh 2; Mbengue 3, Dunne 3, Edwards 3, Norrington-Davies 2 (Esquerdinha 61, 3); Vale 4 (Adamson 60, 4), Hayden 3, Madsen 5 (Morgan 31, 3), Saito 3; Kone 3 (Varane 67, 4), Kolli 3 (Bennie 46, 4)
Subs not used: Alemayehu, Clarke-Salter, Hamer, Smith
QPR Star Man – N/A Absolutely not.
Referee – Oliver Langford (West Midlands) 5 I mean there was nothing to referee here was there? QPR didn’t get within five yards of Southampton to even attempt a tackle all night. It does feel like Langford is coming towards the end of his time at this level though – there was a Harvey Vale shot in the first half (I know, I was surprised too) that smacked into a defender and went bobbling off in the opposite direction for a corner which he gave as a goal kick which, given how obvious it was an his proximity to it, was an incredible decision to see live. Amadou Mbengue looked to be fouled on his way into the area after a couple of minutes, that wasn’t even given as a free kick – I’m not sure these two really get on. Added five minutes to the end as well which was just outright cruel.
Attendance 26,422 (1,722 QPR) The full and frank exchange of views between Amadou Mbengue, Isaac Hayden, Jimmy Dunne and what few supporters had stayed until full time didn’t warrant the "shocking moment former Newcastle star confronts own fans in heated exchange” headlines that some rag has gone with this morning. Hayden obviously didn’t agree with what was being said but stayed, listened, responded, all seemed fairly respectfully to me. Still, second time this season the home and awayers have felt the need to let the players know exactly what they thought at full time.
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