This really was a massive win for us. We played better than this at Hull and left with just a point but results rather than performance are key for us at the moment. I thought from the first minute Portsmouth made it hard for us and could have scored after 30 seconds. They closed us down in packs, it was like watching old school QPR bad rashing all over the place.

We never really got going and after ten minutes I felt we'd do well to get to half time level. Taarabt was never in the game and the ref was very lenient and allowed them to kick, elbow and bully our forward players, I thought the ref should have shown a few yellow cards to stamp that out but once it became clear he wasn't going to book anyone both sides put in some pretty ugly tackles. Derry was lucky not to be sent off for one two footed lunge and I'm not sure how Hreidarsson stayed on for his tackle from behind on Taarabt in the second half. The fact that neither were even booked was incredible.

I thought he did get the Connolly yellow right though as Gorkss was covering so he wasn't the last man and Lawrence did make a bit of a meal of it.

Orr and Connolly were woeful in the first half but to be fair to Orr he was much better in the second half.

We really rode our luck in the first half but second half we seemed to settle down a bit more. Ephraim worked really hard out wide and the switch of Taarbt and Routledge worked well. Faurlin and Derry were excellent but in all honesty I couldn't see us scoring.

The first goal came from nothing, a nice run by Adel and I think everyone called for him to pass but he hit a weak shot which the keeper threw in. You could see the players relax after that once we got the second we perhaps could have scored a few more.

My mate backed us to win 2-0 with Taarabt getting the first goal so he went mental when Kenny made that superb save at the end. If they had got one back it would have been a very nervy finish but it was a job well done in the end.

Thats probably the worst we've played to win a game this season but it was against a good side so we have to be pleased. Forest looks like a key game now next week, a draw at Reading and a win over Forest would be marvellous.

Man of the Match: Alejandro Faurlin

Here are some thoughts from QPR fans on the QPR Yahoo Mailing list

Juzza

1) A visit to the now, rather delightful daarling, Queen Adelaide became an accidental ASB Aulde gits reunion, with Juzza, Woody and Pitbull reminiscing about the team of 96. Yes list you are at least that old, but what a team that was for a bunch of QPR supporting, computer geeks.

2) "Passs the fuckin' baaaaa .... get in there ...... lllllll." My commentary as Adel opened the scoring. He outrageously ignored the clear pass to the right with a man completely unmarked. Anyone else still reeling from nutmeg overload? Amazing stuff!

3) Orr's cross-field half-volley pinpoint pass to Taarabt.

4) Faurlin's several cross-field pinpoint passes. Guy's a genius and if anyone should've been a target in the transfer window, it should've been him.

5) The sign of a good keeper. A Pompey attack withered into nothing as a through ball was played to the edge of the area and Kenny advanced to claim it. Our defence left no less than four Pompey players to chase the ball as they turned their backs on the ball and proceeded to the half-way line, confident that Kenny wouldn't mess-up and would sweep it up behind them. I haven't seen that level of confidence in a keeper of ours for a real long time.Every game he saves at least one certain goal. He's an absolute grade 1 star.

6) Bizarre mid-match convo : Season ticket holder in the seat next door confides he's just been evicted from Britain's got Talent after getting through the first round with his Tommy Cooper impression. Old style comic genius convo takes in Hancock, Dawson, Cooper, Howard and Morecambe & Wise. Get's a bit stuck on Lenny Bruce though.

7) What the f$ck is the TV Middle East expert doing down Loftus Rd watching the Rs, when the Middle East is in the middle of a meltdown? Don't know the name of the guy. but he always gets rolled-out on the TV news channels whenever anything vaguely Arab happens. Middle Eastern chap with a tache. Perhaps he's heard of one A. Taarabt ...

Stephen Hey

Taarabt certainly wasn't going to pass to Ephraim tonight. He'd lost the ball a few minutes earlier, getting himself swamped by defenders rather than move it out to Ephraim who was unmarked out wide. Then for the first goal Ephraim was in a better position than Taarabt. Taarabt shot, the keeper should have held it but deflected it over the line.

Generally I thought we made hard work of it. Portsmouth broke well and created quite a number of chances despite having little possession. We were poor in the first half with lots of long balls up to Miller. The second half was better, Kenny's distribution was more varied and we tried to play it through midfield. The referee was very lenient to both sides and tried to play advantage where he could; I don't think this really helped us.

Tony Johnson

I think you have to give credit to Pompey, they worked very hard in the first half to close us down quickly high up the pitch which forced us to play the ball long more then we would like and played into their hands somewhat.

They couldn't keep that up in the second half though and we started to get time and space in midfield. I thought swapping Taarabt and Routledge was a good move as well, it gave Tarbs a lot of space to work in out wide. I thought we missed Smith badly, Ephraim is certainly no replacement, too lightweight generally and most attacking moves broke down when and if the ball reached him. He tends to have very little impact on games, and personally I don't blame Taarabt for not passing to him; Ephraim wouldn't have scored from where he was and the attack would have most likely have broken down yet again. Faurlin was superb and after a few games where his level has dropped a bit he was back to his best.