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Once in the ground we took our seats towards the back of the stand, a decent view but no atmosphere at all in the away end. Poor Tommy (the worst linesman in West London according to my old man) was thrown out for singing by the look of it and it was the home fans making all the noise. They had good reason to because they started well and we looked very dodgy at the back. Bara gave away a corner and with the first sign of danger it was 1-0. Usually at this point I feel a mixture of depression and anger but today it was just inevitable we would concede. To be fair to the lads we fought back and played some nice football, Crouch and Thomson went close but we didn't really create to much. Bignot was doing well on the right and one excellent cross by him found Crouch who's header was buried in by Thomson but offside was given. The linesman flagged straight away before Thomson scored so he must have seen something wrong but from my view it looked like nothing was wrong. Half time and we were doing Ok but Pompey looked dangerous coming forward and a couple of good saves by Harper kept us in it. Second half we did Ok again but nothing special. We got a goal back after some excellent work by Leon Knight, his shot was saved and Andy Thomson scored the rebound. At this stage Portsmouth fell apart, they suddenly looked a very poor team but we just couldn't get a second and in truth didn't really deserve one. We had a few chances but needed some pace up front which Crouch and Thomson just couldn't deliver. Wardley was unlucky with two shots but Pompey went close a few times as well. Kevin Harper lost his head as he threw himself on the floor quite a few times looking for free kicks but the ref stayed strong when others would have booked Bignot and given them many more free kicks. One run by Harper saw him fall down as if he's been shot with no QPR player near him, apparently Ready shoved him afterwards but I was looking and the scoreboard at that moment and had lost interest in the game to be honest. Overall a decent point for Rangers against a very poor side, we needed to win so I suppose that's it now unless we win on Monday and results go for us...oh I'm fed up of saying that now. For once I actually enjoyed the day and had a few cold beers on the train back and made plans for Huddersfield next week. The only down side of the day was seeing that Bridget Jones film tonight which was a bit shit. Players Ratings Harper: Made some good saves but not at his best and his kicking was very poor today 6/10 Bara: Decent game at the back but was taken off to give us some more attacking options on the left. 6/10 Bignot: Fast becoming my favourite player and did well again today 7/10 Ready: Defended well at times and at other times was woeful. Typical Karl Ready but you know what you get with him and we needed his physical strength at times. 6/10 Plummer: Same as Ready, has had an excellent season and is playing the best football of his career in my opinion but at times he still makes mistakes which can cost us. 6/10 Rose: Had an OK game, went off injured and probably the last time we'll see him in a QPR shirt 6/10 Peacock: I thought he had a decent game today, well past his best and made lots of cock ups but worked very hard and passed the ball a lot better than he has been. 6/10 Knight: Did OK again, very good with the ball at his feet and running at players but he didn't get much of a chance to do that today. 6/10 Bruce: Got himself in some good positions but his crossing was pretty poor today. 6/10 Crouch: Not wanting to get into one of those arguments about him this week so I'll say he was average and leave it at that 6/10 Thomson: Worked hard up front and took his goal well. He's not a great player but seems to take more chances than any of our other forwards which is crucial for our chances of staying up 6/10 Subs Wardley: Worked hard and was unlucky not to score 6/10 Darlington: Perhaps we should follow the example set in Forest Gump, whenever he takes on three players for the second time all hold up a banner which says "PASS", he can then pass the ball instead of running into trouble.
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A strange away day today. It was a lot more relaxed than usual
probably due to most of us accepting we are going down. Instead
of being nervous before the game I settled down in the pub for
one or two pints relaxed and actually enjoying a day out involving
QPR rather than dreading every minute of it.