Saturday August 17th  

Aylsbury 1

Queens Park Rangers 2

   
  D.Shittu
  C.Carlisle
   

The following is a summary of the game posted by Tony Johnson (Jonno) on the QPR mailing list

We didn't play well, frankly. But when you have two centre backs playing in centre midfield what can you expect?

As soon as I saw Gallen, Bircham and Langley had not changed and were watching the rest warm up from in front of the stand my heart sank. And when I saw the lineup I felt like it was a wasted journey - you just knew that any chance of some decent football was severely restricted.

Rose was appallingly bad in midfield (he certainly wouldn't have got in Aylesbury's side in that position and their no 8 looked the most accomplished player on the pitch in that area, continually making a mug of Rose and Palmer) and without any sort of creative, attacking midfielder in the centre we were never likely to create much.

Although we were clearly the stronger side we were never going to get many goals. The fact that our goals came from set pieces via both centre backs says everything.

Digby made a complete hash of a cross for their goal as well, and Murphy was often caught out of position at left back, although he recovered well on most occasions but against higher quality opposition he won't be given the opportunity, he still has much to learn but you have to admire his desperate enthusiasm.

Pasqual looked OK up front until getting injured, but Thomson was basically wasting his time up front because Rose and Palmer were never going to see his clever runs off the ball. Sidibe came on and looked nowhere near as good as he did against Celtic.

Connolly didn't look particularly interested IMHO. Good points were; Forbes played well at right back - and actually put in a couple of good crosses. Carlisle was excellent at the back, and formed a good partnership with Shittu who still looks raw but powerful.

Oliver Burgess was excellent on the right side of midfield - our best player on the day. He must surely start the season in the first eleven. Even playing with an injury (twisted ankle when he trod on the ball in the first half) he caused the home defence enough problems for them to resort to giving him some rough treatment.

DouDou came on and looked far too good for the opposition at this level. Clarke scored the winner in the last minute from a free kick after DouDou was fouled yet again.