|
Oh no, Bloody Sky had to move the game. Still No need to go, its on the TV save myself £18 but then that little voice comes in your head telling you, "If you stay at home we'll win 5-0 and you'll regret it for ages". So off I went with legs aching from standing for six hours yesterday and throat sore from signing it was Selhurst Park here we come. As I didn't have a ticket I thought it was best to get to the ground early and arrive by 12 o'clock to see a massive number of QPR fans in the Arthur Wait stand, Well about 30 to be honest and I sat with huge embarrassment wondering if this was it. Of course not, the Rangers end filled up nicely and around 1,500 was a decent total for a Sunday lunchtime at Selhurst. Getting to games early means you have to sit bored, especially when you are on your own like I was. (I'm not sad or anything just the only one stupid enough to pay £18 when my family and friends said "Bollocks to that and watched it on Sky"). During the warm up I noticed a few things of little interest to anyone but I am going to waffle on about them anyway. Firstly Lee Harper and Ludo were warming up when Ludo shot past Harper and smacked the ball into some Palace fans face. Ludo made a point of going over to the bloke and made a really nice touch in giving him a pair of his gloves. Top Man Ludo. Another not so interesting incident was the Palace fans unveiling a banner which said "Coppell - Palace Hero". A nice touch but not so nice of the Mr Jobsworth steward to make them take it down before the game started which seemed to cause a few problems among the Palace fans. Anyway on with the match and Rangers came out looking to build on last weeks draw. We made a few changes to the side. Jermaine Darlington was out injured so Mark Perry came into the side and Paul Furlong made his debut in place of Crouch. The Rangers supporters gave a huge cheer for our Legend and hero Jamie Pollock. To be fair to Jamie he clapped the QPR supporters and seemed to take the "Pollock Give us goal" chants in good humour.
Rangers started very brightly and should have gone ahead early. Good work on the left with Peacock and Langley linking well saw us earn a corner and from that Carlisle caused problems in the box and Furlong should have done better with his shot although the Palace keeper recovered well from his flap at the cross. Going forward we looked brighter than last week but the front two were again struggling and not looking to prolific. Mikkell Forssell was impressive and almost scored a superb individual goal as he ran past Steve Morrow and let fly from 25 yards, but his shot deflected off Ready and into the arms of Harper. Carlisle was having trouble coping with Forsell but the young defender got through a tough spell to compose himself and look a quality defender again. We got a few free kicks around the Palace area but did not make enough of them. Our best chance from one came when Langleys ball in found Carlisle whose header went just wide. We were playing well though and Langley was running the midfield and he was unlucky with some long range shots either saved or going over.I was glad to see him having a shot though and shows how much confidence he is playing with. We were playing some good stuff with Ready going mad and showing skills and passes on the left wing and getting forward well. He almost scored but his shot went well wide but it was a big improvement on last week for the Welshman everyone loves to argue about. Chris Kiwomya was having a poor half but should have had a penalty from my viewpoint when he was brought down in the box. This wasn't as clear cut as last week but I will need to see it on TV first before I go mad at the ref. Then came the turning point. Seconds before half time Kiwomya shaped to shoot but Neil Ruddock got an outstanding late tackle in on him and Wardley wa unable to get onto it. Ruddock turned and clenched his fists at the Palace fans as if he had just scored and this got the natives going. Palace broke and Ready was caught ball watching as Forsell broke away from him and unleashed a brilliant shot but Harper produced a great save. The ball wasn't out yet as Clinton Morrison shot was blocked by Carlisle but the ball ran to Simon Rodger whose shot was heading straight at Harper before hitting Forrsell and deflecting into the net. It was devastating for us and the ref blew straight away.
An injury to Pollock (He must hate us) helped us out as the crowd got going again. We started to attack a bit more and a few crosses were being flapped at by the keeper who was learning from David Seamen a few months ago. Nice to see old Spunky passing on his flapping abilities. This was our best chance to score but Paul Furlong seemed unable to win a ball in the air and Kiwomya was having a very poor game. Finally though a goal came. Good work by Peacock saw his cross but it was cleared to Perry who lobbed in a high ball for Flapper Taylor to well flap at and Clarke Carlisle headed home. The Rangers fans went crazy with relief, jubilation etc. and Clarke capped another impressive display with a goal. Now lets go and win it! Well no, we then sat back for 20 minutes as the defence pushed further and further back, ready started to give away more free kicks and despite not playing that well, Palace looked more likely to win it. Paul Furlong then sprung into action and won his first header of the game against Zhiyi but nothing came of it. A few more corners and Carlisle was again out main threat heading over. Both sides could then have won it, firstly Forssell blasted over after Rodger pulled the ball back after a good move. Then Kiwomya managed to get in front of Mullins but could only nudge the ball into Taylor's arms when he could have done better. Kiwomya and Furlong were taken off at last. Palace then got on top as we looked for the draw. Neil Ruddock's shot was well saved by Harper and Zhiyi's header was cleared off the line by Peacock in injury time. So a 1-1 draw was a fair result, the trip to Palace was worthwhile but the journey home took the usual 2 and a half hours which baffles me as it took less than an hour to get there. Two games, Two points is not a bad start but we must pick up a win soon if we are serious about the playoffs. Man of the Match: Richard Langley PLAYERS RATINGS 13. Lee Harper : Another good game. Did well on crosses and made some good saves to keep us level. Even Inspector Gadget would have had trouble saving that goal. 7/10 24. Mark Perry : We missed Darlington today but that's nothing against Perry. He was good defensively, tried to play his way out of trouble with success but at times was caught out as he pushed forward trying to help in midfield. Move him back in the middle Gerry! 7/10 3. Ian Baraclough : Played well today, got forward whenever he could but like Perry was caught out a few times. Showed his experience at times rarely lets us down. 7/10 5. Karl Ready : Better than last week. He got forward well and defended a better but was caught ball watching for the goal and gave away silly free kicks as the game wore on. Probably his best game for a while though. 7/10 4. Steve Morrow : Didn't really notice him which is a good thing I suppose. Did his job well and is working that offside trap well. 7/10 18. Clarke Carlisle : Had a dodgy few minutes ion the first half but came back well and not only defended brilliantly but was out most dangerous player going forward. A genuine star and in my opinion the best signing Gerry Francis has ever made! 9/10 21. Richard Langley : Superb. He ran the midfield, his tackling was a lesson to others, brilliantly times and clean, his passing was accurate, lets just hop George Graham wasn't watching and that that wave at the end of the game doesn't mean what I think it does. 9/10 8. Gavin Peacock : Worked every hard today and was the only player getting crosses in. Can play better but you always get the feeling should do more. I think that's the best he's played since coming back from his injury last season. 7/10 27. Stuart Wardley : He was poor today and he knew it. Tries hard but the game passed him by and you couldn't help but feel sorry for him. 5/10 33. Paul Furlong : Reminds me of Gary Thompson. Won very little in the air and was off the pace. I am sure he will play better in the future but not a good start. He did make a few good layoffs but nothing special. 6/10 11. Chris Kiwomya : Poor again, tried to run through defenders rather than look for a pass (although he had very few options), got booked for kicking the ball away. 6/10 Subs: 10. Karl Connolly : Was busy when he came on, showed some nice touches. 6/10 28. Peter Crouch : Caused a few problem when he came on but didn't have much time. 6/10
|
||||||||
There
is something about trips to Selhurst that just make it the trip
you just dread every season. This year we have two trips and I
was praising the Lord of the fixture computer when this game was
thrown up. Yes I thought, August 19th, I had tickets for Bon Jovi
at Wembley so I would sadly miss one trip to selhurst.
Also
a quick word on Neil Ruddock, a huge factor in us staying up back
in '98 and he gave the QPR support a clap and a thumbs up which
was nice to see.
The
talk in the toilets at half time (which is where you get the best
analysis, sod Andy Gray and his machines get the bloke pissing
next to you to comment he's always right) was that why do we bother
we never beat Palace here no matter how we play. To be honest
I couldn't se a way back for us. We had played well for 45 minutes
but like last week I couldn't see where a goal was coming from.
I don't think I was alone in thinking this as the support was
a bit quieter second half as the game seemed to get a bit stop
start and we struggled to get back on top.