Tuesday March 4th  

Huddersfield Town 0

Queens Park Rangers 3

P.Furlong (2)
D.Shittu
   

Rangers record at Huddersfield is not the best. In the last few years we have seen our team relegated from division one at the Mcalpine and beaten almost every time we enter the stadium. Shame really as it's a nice ground and a good away trip apart from the inevitable result. With history in mind as well as it being a midweek game I gave this one a miss and decided to listen to it live on BBC London live.

So this report will be based on what I heard on the radio rather than first hand experience. Listening to the build up got the good news that Chris Day was back in goal but it's a shame his return has been clouded by an injury to Nick Culkin, which leaves us without any real cover in goal.

Jake Cole was in the squad but he is fresh out of the under 19's and we'd be in serious trouble if we have to call on him. The rest of the team has just one change with Marcus Bean dropped to the bench and Terrell Forbes came back in at right back.

Holloway made a tactical change putting Richard Langley on the right wing and Steve Palmer in central midfield with Carlisle and Shittu back on the bench together.

As the game kicked off my girlfriend Carly served up the first of many pancakes for me. Can life get any better than pancakes being made for you whilst you listen to QPR taking the lead?

Well life may get better but it was a great moment. As the syrup was poured Paul Furlong was busy opening the scoring for Rangers and making Swindon seem a lifetime ago.

The goal came after good work by Gallen and Furlong has time to finish his chance well for his fifth goal in six games. You could hear the Rangers fans signing on the radio and we sounded like we were on top.

Chris Day found himself under pressure with some dangerous corners but he managed to punch them clear and he sounded back to his confident best. One of his punched clearances was described as being as powerful as a Lennox Lewis right hand and judging by the state Mike Tyson looked last June, that's pretty powerful.

Gary O'Reilly was full of praise for Rangers but felt we needed another gal to make sure and it ended up coming just before half time. Gallen again had a hand in it heading back for Danny Shittu to score from close range and get Rangers back on track in the promotion race.

2-0 away to Huddersfield was sounding like a superb result. Despite their league position they still have some good players and a midweek away trip to Huddersfield is never easy. Lets face it most of us would have taken a point after the Swindon game.

Half time and the only worry was the amount of booking being picked up. Carlisle was booked for kicking the ball away whilst Bircham and Padula were done for late tackles, which sounded fair enough.

Gary O'Reilly was full of abuse for the referee who seemed to get very little right and booked Rangers players for fun whilst Huddersfield were allowed to kick and shirt pull as much as they liked. No need to moan though as during the second half Rangers sounded well on top.

A third goal always seemed on the cards but Ranger seemed happy to just play the game out and make sure we won the game.

It would have been great to get a few more goals but three points was far more important and if we had given one away due to chasing more goals then we may have thrown it away. We stayed solid though and despite chances for Cook, Bircham and Gallen we had to wait until the 90th minute to add to the score.

Good work by Langley on the right set it up as Paul Furlong struck home his second of the night and wrapped up a good nights work for Rangers but Langley picked up a booking for celebrating and like Bircham he is now close to a one match ban.

Hearing the other results made it an even better night as Luton, Oldham and Blackpool all lost whilst Tranmere dropped point. Bristol City won but as they played Oldham it just means that they are both within catching distance and as they are our next two opponents it will be an interesting few weeks ahead for Rangers.

So 36 years to the day since QPR won the league cup at Wembley, QPR mark the anniversary in the best way possible with a bloody good away win.

Man of the Match: Paul Furlong