Thanks to ITV sport we had a midday kick off to look forward to for this years trip to Huddersfield and some torrential rain and a strong wind almost made it a wasted journey with two pitch inspections and upon arriving at the ground it seemed likely the game would not be finished.

The weather conditions were terrible and Huddersfield fans looked like they would rather stay in the pub and watch it on tv than get soaked but as kick off approached the ground began to fill up a bit and the rain stopped. It was a bit strange though to see a midday kick off played under the floodlights and the conditions made it difficult for both sides to play their normal passing game.

Rangers made just one change to the team with Kevin Gallen returning up front to replace Doudou. Richard Langley was again on the bench for us as was Doudou, Connolly and Pacquette as Holloway seemed to go with a very attacking substitutes bench. Shame the starting eleven didn’t want to attack as the first half was pretty forgettable for QPR fans.

Huddersfield made all the early running the match was similar to the trip to Reading earlier in the month. The only difference was they didn’t create as many chances as Reading but Huddersfield did look the better side.

Young Leon Knight was on loan with us last season and looked a quality player and now he is at Huddersfield he looks even better. He has so much skill and pace he frightens teams. He was marked by Danny Shittu which was an amusing sight to see a six foot 16 stone man marking little Leon who looks about twelve years old next to Shittu. Credit to Knight though who stuck at his task and caused us loads of problems with his movement and pace.

We offered absolutely nothing going forward. Gallen continued where he left off at Reading by holding the ball up and keeping possession but his work and Thomsons movement were backed up by a midfield playing far to deep and we rarely got into good attacking positions.

Matthew Rose did his best to get sent off with several poor challenges, he was eventually booked and I thought it was only a matter of time before he was replaced, as a red card looked certain.

Despite the attacking side of our game going missing we didn’t look in to much danger and we were all hoping to hold for a 0-0 at half time and come out a different team after the break. It didn’t work like that though and some very poor defending cost us.

Forbes was slow to react to a ball across goal and allowed Hay to look up and put a cross in but we then had three men marking Andy Booth but he still managed to win the header and put the home side ahead. With Shittu, Palmer and Murphy on Booth it is ridiculous that we didn’t stop him from scoring.

After that Huddersfield looked even more comfortable and should have added to the score. Fraser Digby again came to our rescue after good work by Knight saw Hay put in but Digby got down well to make a good save. They also had one long range shot fly just over and we were hanging on as the ref blew for half time.

It was obvious to those of us who had made the long trip what we had to do. The midfield battle was being lost so we need to add an extra body in there, I felt Langley, Connolly and Doudou should have all been brought on and we could have gone to a 3-4-1-2 formation but the only change made was Doudou for Murphy and we continued with the 4-4-2.

Doudou made an instant impression in the second half though. A ball over the top saw the Huddersfield defenders freeze and Doudou was clean through on the keeper, but he waited to long and the keeper saved his shot only for Thomson to pounce on the rebound but his effort was blocked.

It was better though from Rangers and we finally started to attack. We had a good spell where we had a lot of the ball but we continued to give it away cheaply mainly with long balls down the wing. It wasn’t hard to realise the wind was strong and would blow these balls straight out if we hit it long but it took our players to long to start passing the ball short instead of hoofing.

When we did pass it we looked a better side and Huddersfield seemed a bit worried. The pressure was on and Doudou did well again on the right and his cross found Thomson whose shit was well saved by the keeper. It was a good spell of pressure but Huddersfield always looked dangerous on the break especially with Knight and we had the offside flag to thank for Knight being denied the second goal.

The ref and linesmen were particularly poor again today and it wasn’t all against us. They seemed to get so many offsides wrong for both teams and Matthew Rose escaped a red card after another poorly timed challenge. I don’t want to see QPR players sent off but if those tackles had been made against us we’d be going mad for red cards. How he never got his second yellow card I’ll never know.

Two cracking decisions summed the terrible trio up. Peacock went flying into a tackle and the defender booted the ball into touch. A throw in was given to Huddersfield, now for Peacock to touch that ball and boot it out he would have had to back heel it 30 yards with power and plenty of height. If you did managed that Gav then well played mate that’s pretty impressive.

A few minutes later a long ball from defence saw Knight standing next to Shittu and Danny hesitated allowing Knight to run past him. Offisde was given much to the laughter of our fans as we were again saved by the incompetence of referees. At least they were consistent I suppose as we found out to our cost later. Leroy Griffiths had a half chance when he hit a shot on the volley but the keeper saved it and Gallen closed the keeper down who sliced his kick but again we didn’t take advantage of a good situation.

Karl Connolly was then brought on for Leroy and he gave us more options but never really got involved in the game. With time running out Huddersfield began to have more chances and Knight again was the main cause of our problems with Digby denying him with a good save and the number of times he was brought down by Shittu became ridiculous. Sometimes the fouls were given correctly but you can’t blame Shittu is a bloke half his size just bounces off him.

Then another mad offside decision with Gallen running back a ball over the top saw Connolly and Thomson clean through, they had timed their runs brilliantly but the linesmen seemed to panic and raised his flag again. I suppose that evened up the number of times Knight had been denied a goal with a strange offside decision. With injury time approaching Holloway made the bizarre decision to take off Thomson and bring on Pacquette.

I said at the time we’d regret that and we soon did. Pacquette had one chance and I would have bet my life saving son Thomson scoring it if he had been on the pitch. A ball across the goal mouth was left by the defence and Pacquette couldn’t react in time to turn it in from close range.

He also had a good shot well saved again by the impressive Margetson in goal. That was out last chance as the referee blew and Huddersfield celebrated three points. Our second half performance was much better and we did enough to get a point from the game but if we don’t start attacking till the second half then we are never going to win enough games to get promoted.

Players Ratings:

30. Fraser Digby: Made a few good saves which kept us in the game again. 7/10

17. Terrell Forbes: Not his best game for us but he stuck to his job and tried to get forward in the second half. 6/10

23. Danny Murphy: Not at his best but did his best I tough conditions. 6/10

4. Steve Palmer: His usual game, pretty dependable and got forward well near the end. 7/10

31. Danny Shittu: Had a tough battle with Knight and did well at times and not so well at other times. 6/10

8. Gavin Peacock: Sat deep and passed the ball well and gave everything but we miss the old Peacock who got forward and gave us something extra in that final third. 6/10

11. Marcus Bignot: Looked very good at left back and did his usual job giving everything for the team. 7/10

12. Matthew Rose; was lucky not to be sent off for some poor challenges but had a decent game overall. 7/10

14. Leroy Griffiths: Pretty poor afternoon for Leroy and he gave the ball away too often and didn’t get involved enough. 6/10

27. Andy Thomson: his movement off the ball was excellent again but he wasn’t at his best and looked tired and frustrated towards the end. 6/10

18. Kevin Gallen: We’ve missed him and he showed all his best qualities in linking the play but never looked like scoring. 7/10

Subs

29. Doudou: Helped change the game for us with his pace and skill but wasn’t involved enough to get us a point. 6/10

10. Karl Connolly: He’s either excellent or he come son and does nothing. Sadly this was one of his off days. 6/10

22. Richard Pacquette: Almost got a goal and looks like a player with a lot of potential but I don’t think he is ready for the first team yet. 6/10