They say you don’t become a bad team overnight but QPR are doing their best to prove that wrong by going from a playoff team to one nervously looking over our shoulders in just ten days. So as predicted on this site yesterday we got a bit of a hiding at Peterborough and slip further down the table.

Holloway made the bold step to drop top scorer Andy Thomson and made several other changes. Richard Pacquette and Karl Connolly started up front whilst Doudou replaced Christer Warren on the left of midfield. Oliver Burgess started on the right and with no Mark Perry new loan signing Shittu made his debut in a 4-4-2 formation.

It all started well for Rangers as we scored from our first attack. A corner from Bruce was poked in by Steve Palmer for his third goal of the season (his highest ever tally in one season). The QPR fans who had made it on time were delighted and those delayed by the trains (well done to Peterborough for delaying the kick off) were just as happy to hear we were 1-0 up.

After that though it was all downhill as Barry Frys men showed why they are in the top six at the moment. Chris Day made a number of excellent saves whilst Leon Mcenzie and Neale Fenn both missed great chances to level the game. It seemed only a matter of time before they scored but it should have been us who went further in front.

Oliver Burgess had a brilliant shot from 25 yards which was heading for the top hand corner but was brilliantly saved by Tyler. Connolly should have done better in space but hit his shot straight at the keeper before the moment we’d all been dreading came. For most of the game our two so called full backs were getting a right roasting.

Matthew Rose and Paul Bruce were all over the place and Peterborough soon worked this out and attacked them (especially Bruce) at will. Tom Williams again beat Bruce five minutes before half time and his cross eventually led to the Farrell scoring past Chris Day. It didn’t take long for number two to go in. A corner was flapped at by Day and former Neale Fenns shot was judged to be over the line and we went in at half time trailing 2-1.

Holloway made some changes at half time with Thomson and Leroy coming on for Dou Dou and Pacquette who received no service at all in the first half. It didn’t have much of an effect as Bruce was again at fault just after the restart as a cross into the box was converted by Leon McKenzie to virtually kill the game off. Despite the scoreline we began to improve although that was more due to Peterborough relaxing than us becoming good again.

Andy Thomson had a goal disallowed for offside, which may have changed the game, but it wasn’t to be and Leroy Griffiths almost grabbed a goal soon after with a good shot which was well saved. It wasn’t anywhere near enough though as Peterborough caught us on the break and Shittu was sent off for his second booking. From the resulting free kick they made it 4-1 to further humiliate us and send us home empty handed.

Peterborough are a decent side but are not exactly the best on the division so a 4-1 defeat here can be seen as another terrible result. The performances are slowly improving but I can’t imagine them ever being as bad as the Yeovil and Northampton games.

Holloway has some serious work to do and some tough decisions to make. Surely though the easiest one to make is to drop Paul Bruce who was awful again and his return to the team has seen us lose four games in a row and he has been targeted as the weak link of the team by the opposition. He is a liability we can ill afford to have at the moment and I’ll be very disappointed if he is still in the team on Saturday.

QPR: Day, Bruce, Palmer, Shittu, Rose, Bignot, Burgess, Connolly, Bonnot, Doudou (Griffiths 46), Pacquette (Thomson 46) Subs not used: Digby , Warren, McEwen.