For the last couple of months April 3rd has been a date set in the diary of all QPR and Bristol City fans. It’s been clear for some time that this would be a crunch game and when the day arrived the nerves were rife between both sets of supporters.

We arrived at Bristol early in t me to see the Man Utd/Arsenal game and were greeted by the police who were going to escort us to a pub. They didn’t so we instead headed to the waterfront and a few drinks in Yates and the Waterfront Pub whilst watching Arsenal cock up the treble. After another cab ride to the ground we were told by police that none of the pubs would let us in so we travelled back to around 15 minutes away from the stadium and found a pub willing to serve us a few beers. You could say Bristol wasn’t the most welcoming of places to QPR fans.

Once we got to the stadium the QPR fans were in good voice and you could feel the tension in the air. As the teams came out we got a surprise upon seeing the starting line up. Richard Edghill and Tony Thorpe were both dropped to the bench with Kevin McLeod and Matthew Rose recalled to the first team. Rose was in to do a marking job on danger man Scott Murray and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one baffled by that decision.

Bristol started as you’d expect from a team who needed the win. They were hungry and fought for every ball with the crowd right behind them. Ian Holloway was getting plenty of stick from the City fans but the main focus was on the pitch where Rangers were struggling early on.

City weren’t much better than Rangers but they appeared to have more desire to be first to the ball and they had us on the back foot. Chances were few and far between though in a tense first half. Bristol were having the better of it and we struggled to make any impression going forward. The two central midfielders were working hard but McLeod and Rowlands were just not in the game. Rowlands come inside to try and get on the ball but this left huge gaps on the left wing and Bignot was stuck having to mark two sometimes three players.

Rowlands was nowhere to be seen as Bell got down the wing and crossed for Peacock to have a free header and he headed back across goal for Roberts but Camp produced a magnificent save to deny the Welshman from scoring. It was a wake up call to Rangers and Camp was furious with his defenders.

Rangers continued in the same way though and Bristol City sensed a goal. The decisive moment came just before half time. Rose was beaten by Scott Murray and the Bristol City hero pout in a good low cross for Roberts. Carlisle was too slow in getting back and Roberts got his foot on the ball to turn it past Camp and make it 1-0.

The ref seemed to stop Roberts coming to the QPR fans but the striker ignored him and stood in front of the QPR fans to goad us. The ref chose not to book Roberts for this and in a heated atmosphere like this one it was a stupid thing for Roberts to do.

The ref did have his yellow card though and booked Rowlands for a late tackle. The ref and linesmen initially ignored the incident but the City fans went mad and Rowlands was booked. Hard to see what happened from the away end but I thought a booking was harsh and he’ll now miss the Stockport and Plymouth games. Not as harsh as Gnohere’s booking a few minutes later when the linesmen flagged for a throw in to us as Gnohere wont he ball and saw his clearance deflect out of play but the ref blew for a foul and booked the defender.

As the half time whistle went a few fans were having a good moan and it was an incredibly frustrating performance to watch. QPR were playing as we usually do in front a big away following and it was a big let down at that stage. Still with 45 minutes left I thought we had enough quality to turn it around.

Holloway made a change straight away with Jamie Cureton coming on for Marcus Bean and Gallen went back into midfield. This seemed to wake Rangers up a bit and we started the half well. We pushed forward down the left and won a corner and it was a chance to put pressure on. Gallen's corners was met by Carlisle but deflected wide as hope began to fill around the away end but despite a few corners in a row we couldn’t test the keeper.

The frustrating was growing as Rangers never really got going and created very little in a dire second half. Things got worse as Richard Johnson was on the end of a bad tackle and was taken off with what looked like an ankle injury. Steve palmer came on much to the disgust of several QPR fans and the decision to take bean off at half time had backfired.

We were still struggling to create anything of note and Bristol City looked the more likely to get the second goal. Murray went on a mazy solo run and Camp did brilliantly to deny him whilst the defence in front of his was crumbling. Corners and free kicks were given away and with time running out the game looked lost.

Holloway made a final change bringing on Tony Thorpe for the disappointing Kevin McLeod. Thorpe was getting loads of stick as was Cureton but we almost had the last laugh. Furlong did brilliantly to hold the ball up and picked out a great pass for Thorpe. The Rangers striker was clean through and a goal looked inevitable but for the third game in a row Thorpe telegraphed his shot and the keeper guessed what Thorpe was going to do and saved well at his feet. Ranger’s fans now knew it wasn’t going to be our day.

A late corner by Gallen missed Gnohere’s head by inches but as the final whistle went it was the City fans celebrating and they deserved the three points.

Gallen made a point of coming over to the disappointed Rangers fans and urged us to get our heads up but he may have been better off saying the same to his team mates who looked very low as they walked off the pitch.

It’s not shock to see Rangers lose this game, we knew automatic promotion would have been in the bag if we had won and QPR never do things that easily. We still stay second though with a game in hand, which makes Tuesdays trip to Tranmere our next biggest game of the season. We still have it all to play for but many more performances like this and we’ll be facing the playoffs again this season.

Man of the Match: Lee Camp

Players Ratings

31. Lee Camp: The only player to come out with any credit. Made several good saves to keep the score down. 8/10

12. Marcus Bignot: Started the game well but struggled in the second half. 6/10

7. Matthew Rose: Gave Murray far too much space in the first half but did better in the second half. 6/10

5. Clarke Carlisle: Once again he was caught out for pace and he is starting to look like a player with one eye on which club he'll be joining in the summer. 6/10

20. Arthur Gnohere: Had a real battle against the big City strikers but not at his best. 6/10

14. Martin Rowlands: Another quiet game from Rowlands who hardly got involved apart from when he got booked. 6/10

17. Marcus Bean: Had a good first half where he won loads of tackles and closed people down and was unlucky to be taken off. 7/10

30. Richard Johnson: Not a good performance from Johnson. His passing was poor and he didn't win as many tackles as he has done recently. 6/10

22. Kevin McLeod: Hardly ever got into the game and was once again very poor. 5/10

10. Kevin Gallen: A quiet game from Gallen. He wasn't upto the job in midfield and I thought he should have been left up front. 6/10

29. Paul Furlong: Worked hard but got very little service. 6/10

Subs

28. Jamie Cureton: Hardly noticed him when he came on. A very disappointing performance. 5/10

4. Steve Palmer: Did his best but his playing days are coming to and end. 6/10

9. Tony Thorpe: Had a great chance to get us a point but is lacking in confidence at the moment. 6/10