Pre Season Friendly
Monday July 14th  

Aylesbury United 0

Queens Park Rangers 2

  G.Ainsworth
  E.Sabin
   

QPR made it two games unbeaten so far in pre season with a 2-0 win over Aylesbury last night.

Although the performance wasn't the best by Rangers the RAF training in 80 degree heat earlier the day may have played a factor. Here are two match reports from QPR fans who went to the game both taken from the Internet.

The first is written by John McCooke from the QPR Mailing list.

Signed back up for the QPR list at the end of the week in the hope of some trivial summer nonsense and what do I get but all you lot harping on about QPR as usual.

If you can't beat them join them so myself and Travis got the train up to Aylesbury for the game.

I have no idea what happened in the first 10 minutes as we decided a pint was more of a priority, indeed finding a National Trust pub in the town centre. It looked great in the courtyard, from which you could easily transport yourself back to medieval times but the inside was as horrible as your average boozer.

At Aylesbury they shut the bar whilst the game was on (unusual in my limited experience) so we watched the match from behind the Aylesbury goal.

Nobody really stood out as good or bad I thought but felt the criticism of Newey was a tad harsh in Simon Skinner's report and it was indeed he whose blistering cross couldn't be handled by the keeper presenting Ainsworth with his goal.That said I was standing with Simon and he was paying more attention than me.

The bar at Aylesbury is massive, very old school looking and they probably do bingo, wedding receptions etc there regularly. In the second half we got out a bit late and went round to the other goal to give the keeper some cheek.

We were almost playing with 4 up front with Oli in usually advanced positions on the right wing, Sabin and the trialist in the middle and Pacquette on the left but coming into the centre regularly. They contrived more to get in each other way than anything else until Sabin nearly made a shambles of walking the ball into the net.

We copied a couple of kid's example and climbed the perimeter fence to sit directly behind the goal but some Ken Bates lookalike groundsman ruined our fun after about 5 minutes and once we were back he warned us we could be fined a thousand pounds. Naturally the response was a big "wooooooooooh".

After the game not many people made the bar as most folks seemed to have been driving to there so we went across the road to the "Jockey and Horse" for one. A rotten boozer and as the cab from there got us to the station so early we decided on another one at the Hogshead in town.

A short cut back to the station ended up in us getting lost and so having to get the stop everywhere train that got back to London at 1am. Still we had a great game of hangman with a young Malaysian lady. Who said Englishmen are only interested in ale and football eh?

The second report is take from the excellent QPR rivals web site which can be found at http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net/

Debut Goals For Sabin and Ainsworth
By Simon Skinner

Rangers notched their first pre-season win with a 2-0 victory over Aylesbury United. The goals came courtesy of the new boys, Gareth Ainsworth and Eric Sabin.

The game in truth was the usual scrappy pre-season affair with mistakes vastly outnumbering flashes of skill. Match Report By Simon Skinner There was another chance to have a look at trialists Clive Delaney and Tom Newey. Delaney shone once again at centre back and I think one more decent performance from him will see a contract offered.

Newey on the other hand started on the left of midfield and looked poor. He didn't improve in the second half when he went to left back. I assume he must have taken a knock as Kevin Gallen replaced him at left back for the last fifteen minutes. Sadly, he actually looked more accomplished than the previous incumbent.

Paul Furlong brought a save from the decidedly shaky looking Aylesbury keeper after a neat exchange with Gallen on the edge of the box. Furs also smashed a further effort well out of the ground after a rare cut back from Newey.

The opening goal was hardly one for the highlight reel but it was very welcome when it arrived. A ball from the left managed to find its way across the box to the feet of Ainsworth. His rather ungainly looking left footed swipe at the ball saw his shin come into play to bobble the ball home. He seemed as surprised as anyone that he had managed to get one with the swinger!

As predicted halftime saw the usual flurry of changes with seven players being replaced. This brought a chance for another trialist, Marvin Robinson, to impress the boss. You may remember him scoring for Tranmere against us at Loftus Road last season. He did little to impress on this occasion.

Unfortunately there was no action for our other two named subs, Ian Gillard and Simon Stainrod. Probably because they weren't there (obviously!). I think someone had a little joke with the geriatric PA announcer and he fell for it!

The second goal came from Eric Sabin and made up for a shocking miss minutes after the break when he shanked a good Dennis Oli cross well wide. His goal was almost fluffed as well. A Daly cross from the right was headed back across goal and Sabin managed to smash high into the net after his first effort seemed to go straight up in the air.

The score line could have been more flattering to Aylesbury had they taken any of the number of half chances they created. Whilst neither Day in the first half or Culkin in the second had a notable save to make, there were a few that flew just wide.

Rangers winning margin may have been wider had the referee not chosen to ignore a clear-cut penalty. Sabin was brought down in the box and the ref somehow awarded a freekick against him. This was keeping with his performance throughout the evening, which had been nothing short of shambolic. Remember the name Iain Williamson and if you see it on a programme before the game, save yourself the heartache and just go home!

In two games now we have seen two very poor refereeing performances and I think I know why. It seems that referees assume that because a player is semi-pro, he will not be as able as a pro to commit a normal challenge etc. As a result, they get away with murder whilst the pro gets pulled up for every minor and often non-existent transgression. Lets hope that the officiating gets better when the season kicks off in earnest.

On now to Kettering and I would expect that having been to boot camp this week the players should have an extra edge to their fitness and I am expecting a much improved showing all round