Martin Rowlands came on as a second half sub as Tim Breacker took charge of a 0-0 draw with Worcester City.

Once again the QPR rivals site is providing the best coverage of pre season. Here is a match report from Rivals. Click on the link to go to the rivals site and below that is a match report written by Tracy Stent which was posted on the QPR mailing list and www.qpr.org

http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net/

Youthful R's in Worcester Stalemate
By Simon Skinner

Timmy Breacker took an extremely youthful side to Worcester City last night for a game that turned out to be a damp, or should that be sopping wet, squib for those in attendance. The match was literally men against boys as Rangers fielded a mixture of squad players and U-17's.

The first half was almost constant one-way traffic in favour of Worcester. They seemed to adapt to the blustery conditions far better than the younger Rangers lads and most of the "experienced" players spent a lot of time mopping up errors by their more junior counterparts.

Chris Day was the busier of the two keepers and will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet on his birthday. He probably wasn't so happy about spending his birthday in the pissing rain in the middle of Worcestershire but I am sure he won't have dwelled on that for too long!

It took until five minutes before the break for Rangers to force the Worcester keeper into a save of any note. Richard Pacquette picked the ball up wide on the right and fed a neat ball into the box. Young striker Lee Barnett got in a snapshot on the volley that was well saved.

The second half saw Rangers get into the game more and Pacquette started to dominate in forward areas. He was linking up well with Oli and Daly on the right and despite his defensive tendencies, Marcus Bean tried to link up whenever he could. He was given this freedom by his partner in midfield, who was an absolute animal! Patrick Ada tackled anything that moved and despite being a youth team player, I assume, he didn't mind letting people know he was about. Whilst he is very raw and a little impetuous at the moment, I think there is definitely something there to work with.

Welsh winger Ben Jones, currently on a six-week trial from Merthyr Tydfil, stung the keepers hands with a thirty yard first time drive. In truth he did little else and seemed to be brushed off the ball easily by a fairly sizeable right back.

He made way with twenty minutes left and Martin Rowlands was introduced for his R's debut. He immediately wanted the ball to feet and looked to link up with his front men. He looks a very confident lad and didn't mind taking people on. Towards the end of the game he fired in a left footed shot that was easily saved and also produced a sublime piece of skill to wrong foot one man and nutmeg another in one fluid movement. With a bit more fitness behind him he has the look of a fine addition to the squad.

Things were not all Rangers though and Day still had to be alert to make a number of comfortable saves. There was one moment of panic when he had to go full stretch to palm away a cross but other than that he was rarely tested.

I am not sure the coaching staff will have learnt an awful lot from this game. As I mentioned the lad Ada looks to have promise and right back Chris Mills, a second half substitute, seemed comfortable on the ball. It was a shame for the fair number of R's fan's that made the trip up that there wasn't a chance to see a few more well established names. Those that were there will certainly agree that the 0-0 score line told the tale of the game.

from Tracy Stent
posted on the QPR mailing list at qprfc@yahoogroups.co.uk

I travelled to Worcester with Andrew G and though there's not much to report on really, I thought I'd mention a few things that might be of interest.

The only players with first team experience who started the game were Day, Daly, Bean, Oli and Pacman. The rest of the team comprised of youth teamers and a couple of players I hadn't heard of before.

The first half was mainly Worcester City playing the ball around to each other, and but for some poor final balls, could have sprung a surprise this evening thuogh Marian Ifura, one of our central defenders, looked ok. Daly played at right back with a young lad Daniel Murphy, playing on the left. Wes was his usual robust self, Bean did alright in the middle but we didn't really see much of Oli and Pacman during that first period.

With the sporadic rain showers around, we stayed on the byline just in front of the main stand which was quite well sheltered as half time approached and when the teams went down the tunnel we took note of the players warming up on the pitch during the interval. Or rather that should be we watched Martin Rowlands warm up, as we did during the course of the first part of the second period when he did some warm up's in front of us before coming on with around 20 minutes of the game remaining.

In the meantime, the match had started to even itself out a bit and we even made a couple of surges forward ourselves at this stage :-) Our number 8 (Patrick? didn't catch his surname) was in the thick of the action with some rather rigorous challenges and we began to see a little more of Oli and Pacquette.

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for. Tim Breacker decided to bring Martin Rowlands on, who initially seemed to go on the left wing but then switched over to the right for the remainder of the game. I believe his first touch of the game was a corner kick he took. A good corner it was too with plenty of speed and the right amount of height to it.

He also made a couple of decent crosses into the box and towards the end of the game decided he wanted to take the game by the scruff of the neck because whilst everyone was expecting him to cross the ball after making a run down the right, he cut inside, shrugged off a couple of challenges and shot for goal himself. A bit of a weak shot but it did show a glimpse of what he is capable of.

So the game ended 0-0 and whilst I had a little moan about travelling 130 miles, paying £9 to witness a team comprising of our youth team and reserve team players (I was disappointed that there were no regular first teamers as such, in fact I would imagine the Worcester players and local faithful would have felt a little cheated by this) I was happy enough just to have witnessed Martin Rowlands debut for us (though whether he has actually signed for us for sure I don't know).

Just a little word about Worcester City's ground. A nice little ground with either a pub right next to it, or a social club at the ground to choose from if you fancy a drink beforehand. We opted for the pub, saw and spoke with some familiar faces which was nice, and also spoke with a local who told us that his son currently plays for Worcester, though he had originally been a product of the Aston Villa youth set up.

We told him we'd look out for his son during the game and I ended up watching him for most of the game (until Rowlands came on) because his dad had obviously been so proud of his son. Darren Middleton his name is. Played in central midfield and whilst not doing anything too out of the ordinary he did have a couple of good chances to score during the second half.

MOTM: Wes Daly

That's about it. Roll on Saturday.

Tracy