A superb first half performance from QPR was enough to make it two wins from two games at the start of the Championship season, and cost a true footballing philistine his job in the process.
Never before has the term ‘short term pain for long term gain’ been so applicable to an afternoon of Championship football.
Saturday afternoon was certainly painful for fans of Sheffield United. They came to lambast their former goalkeeper for his disloyalty and cheer his replacement to the rafters, only for Paddy Kenny’s new side to rip them apart in a devastating first half display that brought the visitors three goals, including one gifted to them by United’s new goalkeeper Steve Simonsen. Add in the presence of former United manager Neil Warnock on the touchline and the fact that this was the Blades’ opening home game of the season and the defeat was all the harder to stand
By Saturday evening though the jeers had turned to cheers for the United faithful, thousands of whom walked out well before the final whistle, when the news came through that Kevin Blackwell had been sacked as manager. Ask Blades fans whether they would have preferred to beat QPR 2-1 and Blackwell remain and many of them would say no. Fans of Sheffield United, and football in general, please feel free to form a line down South Africa Road on Monday morning and take turns to thank Neil Warnock and Queens Park Rangers.
Blackwell is to football what a chef’s pubic hair is to your pea soup. A man who shamelessly supports a dire long ball style with four big thugs across the defence, as many big lumps as he can find for his attack, and one afternoon after another of incredibly boring, needlessly aggressive and largely completely ineffective dross. That he has stayed at Bramall Lane for so long is a miracle, and QPR have done those who bought Sheffield United season tickets this summer a huge favour by at least providing the prospect of a new manager who may entertain them once or twice over the next nine months.
They did it in fine style in the first half, and professionally in the second. United’s defence, sporting the worst player to come out of Arsenal since Steve Morrow, Kyle Bartley, alongside Chris Morgan who is now so slow and off the pace it’s almost embarrassing enough to inspire sympathy from Iain Hume, was no match for an impressive attacking foursome of Adel Taarabt, Heidar Helguson, Jamie Mackie and particularly Hogan Ephraim. Up front Richard Cresswell, who miraculously scored four times against QPR last season despite having the footballing ability of a house brick, stood with Ched Evans and attempted to field one long punt down the field after another. Against Kaspars Gorkss and Fitz Hall it was always going to be a losing battle, but Blackwell has never shown any hint of having a different tactic or plan so they kept plugging away. At the start of the second half United got in behind the QPR defence three times in quick succession. Blackwell quickly removed Evans and slung on another target man and any hint of danger was quickly nullified.
QPR were as good as United were bad, Warnock as brilliant as Blackwell was incompetent. As well as that attack, with Helguson at the summit, Rangers had Shaun Derry alongside Ali Faurlin in midfield. Bradley Orr and Clint Hill were the full backs and, of course, Kenny was the goalkeeper.
The first incident of note was the coin toss, which enabled United to change ends and send Paddy Kenny down to the Kop End of the ground for the first half where his reception was hostile to say the least. The R’s dealt with the first corner of the game in the fourth minute easily enough, Bartley was penalised for a foul as the ball was delivered.
Be it through a rare run of good luck, or Neil Warnock’s intimidating presence on the touchline, QPR suddenly seem to be getting the run of the refereeing decisions. Most things went the R’s way on Saturday following Barnsley’s justified complaints at Loftus Road last weekend, and Rangers were especially fortunate to be allowed to run through and score the opening goal of the game after 11 minutes.
A long ball (who would have thought it?) straight down the middle of the QPR side caught Gorkss the wrong side of Evans and Hall the wrong side of Ward. It was Gorkss and Evans who clashed first, the Latvian appearing to wrestle his Welsh counterpart to the ground as the ball bounced between them. Referee Andy Woolmer saw nothing wrong with that, or the subsequent cumbersome hack from Hall that sent Ward sprawling in the penalty area. The first one was a clear foul, the second one was debatable, United had good cause to feel hard done by as Rangers broke down the field. From the moment QPR retook possession though the move was swift, attractive and incisive.
Heidar Helguson intelligently chested Orr’s pass down to Derry who fed it into Taarabt’s feet. The Moroccan turned, instantly saw the big picture, and slipped the perfect through ball in for Hogan Ephraim. United’s square, clumsy and terminally slow back four was like a dog’s hind leg across the field which meant Ephraim was yards onside as he ran through on goal, steadied himself, drew Simonsen, and then slipped the ball calmly into the unguarded net. After a series of chances hit straight at the goalkeeper at the end of last season it was good to see some new found composure and confidence in Ephraim’s game and Rangers were one nil up.
Taarabt will torment better team than Sheffield United this season, and the home team were sufficiently frustrated with him after a quarter of an hour to bring another of Blackwell’s favoured tactics into play – if he’s any good, try and injure him. Nick Montgomery, as limited a central midfielder as you’re ever likely to see, crudely hacked into the back of Taarabt tight to the touchline when he was going nowhere and was rightly yellow carded for a cowardly tackle that may have brought a red card on another day.
Rangers doubled their advantage on 20 minutes, with Ephraim again at the heart of the move. Bradley Orr picked Ephraim out at the back post first of all and with the home defence again affording Rangers all the time and space in the world he had time to bring the ball down, then pick out the perfect cross to the back post where Mackie steamed in unmarked for his second goal of the season. Mackie is already defying the critics who questioned his goals to game ratio when he signed, and Ephraim seems to have added an end product previously missing from his game – it’s three assists and a goal already for the former West Ham junior already this season.
Three minutes later it was three nil, and if the defending was bad for the first two goals it was utterly shambolic for this one. Both Morgan and Bartley were drawn from their centre half positions to attempt to foul Adel Taarabt on halfway and missed. That left United wide open in behind and all Taarabt had to do was slip the ball into the acres of grass for Ephraim to run onto once again. This time he did shoot straight at the goalkeeper, but Simonsen spilled the ball embarrassingly and Heidar Helguson made the most of Morgan and Bartley’s absence by seizing on the rebound and hitting the deck as Simonsen attempted to regather. It was certainly a penalty won, Helguson knew exactly what he was doing by toeing the ball away and waiting for contact, but it was the right decision. Taarabt stepped up, sent Simonsen the wrong way, and made it three nil.
QPR made life rather difficult for themselves at the end of the half. They survived a big penalty appeal, a free kick right on the edge of the area, and a presentable chance for Cresswell in the last five minutes before half time. First Kenny was in flying form to tip Cresswell’s header over the bar after a nice cross from the right by Montgomery – either side of him and it probably would have been a goal. Then Ched Evans got in behind Clint Hill during a fractured piece of play and just as he was about to cross clearly had his legs taken away in the penalty area by the retreating QPR full back. Hill sat on the turf and seemed to fully expect the spot kick to be awarded but referee Woolmer gave nothing, looking for guidance from linesman Amy Fearn who signalled a corner. QPR and Mrs Fearn have history of course, decisions given by the only female to ever referee a Football League game incensed Luton manager Mike Newell back in 2006.
Finally in the second minute of added time at the end of the half Rangers were penalised, and Heidar Helguson booked, for chopping down Ward on the very edge of the penalty area. The diminutive attacker stepped up and drilled the ball straight into the wall that stood firm. In amongst it all there was also a booking for Faurlin who, like Montgomery earlier in the half, could perhaps count himself lucky it was only a yellow after he flew in on Jamie Ward and caught him just below the knee with his studs up.
The fear after half time, as it always is with QPR in such situations, was that the R’s would simply sit back and try to play out time in the second half. That seemed to be proving the case as United came out and had much the better of the play in the first ten minutes of the half. Three times in the first three attacks Blades’ players managed to get in behind Hall and Gorkss at the back. On the first occasion Gorkss got back at Evans in the penalty area and executed a fabulous sliding tackle just as the Welshman was about to shoot. On the second occasion Cresswell hammered the ball high into the upper tier of the stand from inside the area just as it seemed he had got away from Hall. Then on the third occasion Hall, Kenny and Gorkss all combined to crowd Cresswell out in the penalty area but the challenge came at a cost for Hall who pulled up with what looked like his usual groin/hamstring injury and trudged off to be replaced by Peter Ramage.
As I said on LFW a couple of weeks ago when Hall was made captain, he is not a bad player. I didn’t think he had a particularly inspiring game against Barnsley last week and there were mistakes made on Saturday but overall he and Gorkss seemed to be playing well together at Bramall Lane. The problem isn’t his ability, it’s his injury proneness. Let’s presume he’s now out for three weeks, as he tends to be when he gets this injury. That means Ramage or Connolly will now play with Gorkss for the Scunthorpe and Derby games. Then we’ll have an international break and Hall will return for the next match, only to probably do the same thing again three to five games later. This constant chopping and changing of the back four caused by Hall’s injury proneness started the run of results that led to Jim Magilton’ sacking last season and Warnock would do well to learn from those mistakes.
As well as the worrying trend of United players running in behind the QPR defence, they also won another dangerous free kick right on the edge of the box in an identical position to the one at the end of the first half. This time it was Orr that fouled Evans, again Ward stepped up to take it and again he pelted it straight at the wall. Now I like Jamie Ward as a player, but he took every single set piece for Sheff Utd on Saturday and nine times out of ten they were absolutely awful. This one was compounded by Bartley screwing the rebound wide from close range.
QPR’s first attack of the half saw Taarabt feed Ephraim and he teed up Faurlin whose 20 yard thunderbolt looked to be goal bound before it was deflected away by a defender. Heidar Helguson had a weak header at the back post easily saved by Simonsen but having got between Ertl and Bartley to win the ball in the first place Helguson, who is playing very well at the moment, again showed fine aerial ability for somebody of his height.
The Sheffield United revival ended when Evans left the field just after the hour mark. He had missed the Wales game during the week with an injury so presumably this was fitness related again. If it wasn’t it doesn’t reflect well on Blackwell because Daniel Bogdanovic came on and faced with two big lumps up front fielding long balls from the back Ramage and Gorkss could have played in their club suits for the final 25 minutes.
Ward mishit a shot badly wide and Britton also drilled one off target with 20 minutes left to play but you sensed that QPR had already done enough by this stage, and Warnock clearly though so too as he removed Adel Taarabt and gave Leon Clarke a run. The reports back on Leon’s performance against Port Vale in the week were not encouraging but he did a reasonable hold up and lay job during this cameo, and even had the temerity to run at the heart of the United defence, cut inside and drill a shot straight at Simonsen shortly after coming on.
Blackwell sent on Kozluk and Yeates for Taylor and Quinn (how Yeates cannot get in this team is a mystery) and Warnock introduced Leigertwood for Ephraim. Hogan, probably QPR’s best player on the day, had earlier picked up a head injury that required a bandage in an innocuous clash in his own half. Showing worrying naivety Ephraim then stood for two minutes holding his face - not going down for treatment, but not playing on either - and United were able to launch an attack with him playing everybody onside. That and a cynical trip that brought him a rare yellow card, were about the only things he did wrong all day though in his defence.
Woolmer added almost six minutes on at the end of the game, seemingly for no other reason than to prolong the home side’s suffering, but it was played out without incident and QPR’s players were left to celebrate in front of the away end. Meanwhile in the main stand, news filtered through immediately that Blackwell had been fired.
There was much to admire about QPR on Saturday. The attack with Helguson acting as target man with Taarabt, Mackie and Ephraim in support is working an absolute treat at the moment. We need more strikers, because Helguson will not stay fit, but it’s worked far better so far than I ever thought it would. All four of them are playing out of their skins at the moment and linking up so well.
Shaun Derry too is surprising me – as well as the physical, combative stuff you expect of him he’s actually passed the ball sensibly and well in the first two games I have seen him play and he and Faurlin are combining very well in midfield whereas last year Leigertwood wasn’t a good foil for the Argentinean at all. It’s a shame Fitz Hall had to go off (no, really) because the back four looked solid too. Although Ramage played well at the end of last season and will be an able deputy I’m sure. Kenny had his best game to date, and Bradley Orr is proving to be a terrific addition with plenty of quality crosses coming from the right back slot at last.
The only negatives at the end of a near perfect awayday were that we have to wait a week for the next game, Millwall are above us alphabetically, and Sheffield United won’t have Blackwell in charge when we play them next. “We’ve got plenty going for us” said Blackwell listing positives in his programme notes. Clearly, he wasn’t one of them.
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Sheffield United: Simonsen 5, Ertl 5, Morgan 4, Bartley 4, Taylor 5 (Kozluk 76, 5), Britton 6, Taylor (Kozluk 76), Ward 5, Montgomery 5, Quinn 4 (Yeates 76, 6) Cresswell 5, Evans 5 (Bogdanovic 68, 5),
Subs not used: Aksalu, James, Chapell
Bookings: Montgomery 14 (foul), Bartley 47 (foul)
QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 7, Hall 7 (Ramage 50, 6) Gorkss 8, Hill 7, Derry 7, Faurlin 7, Taarabt 8 (Clarke 69, 6) Mackie 7, Ephraim 8 (Leigertwood 82, -) Helguson 7
Subs not used: Cerny, Connolly, German, Parker
Bookings: Faurlin 45 (foul), Helguson 45 (foul), Ephraim 75 (foul)
Goals: Ephraim 11 (assisted Taarabt), Mackie 20 (assisted Ephraim), Taarabt 23 (penalty won Helguson)
QPR Star Man – Hogan Ephraim 8 He certainly has his critics at QPR but Hogan Ephraim seems to be enjoying a new lease of life this season. Two assists last week and a goal and an assist here is a world away from the completely ineffective player we saw last season. He’s working hard as he always did, but on Saturday he really affected the game and looked a good player for the first time, probably since we had him on loan initially.
Referee: Kevin Woolmer 4 Not great. QPR definitely got the rub of the green. Personally I thought our penalty was, although Sheff Utd should certainly have had two of their own. The second you can maybe put down to the linesman as that’s where Woolmer looked for advice. Montgomery and Faurlin could both have gone on another day for bad tackles and he allowed situations to bubble up by not keeping decent control of the game.
Attendance: 22, 651 (800 QPR approx) The United fans were leaving and calling for Blackwell’s head long before the end of the game. In fairness, after two and a half years with that bloke in charge who can blame them? The QPR fans were in good voice, resulting in an amusing incident where a local chav got rather irate with the away end for singing complimentary things about his girlfriend. She was, just like Adel Taarabt, far too good for him.