A third trip to the Withdean stadium for
me was not exactly one of the most eagerly anticipated of the
season but we made the trip anyway in the hope that Rangers could
build on the two wins we’ve chalked up earlier in the week.
After a long train journey (we worked out it’s quicker to get
from London to Stoke than across London on the tube and then a
Thames link to Brighton) we got to Brighton for a few beers in
the Wetherspoons where plenty of other QPR fans were in good voice.
The police were out in force again outnumbering QPR fans and making
sure they took photos and videos of us walking along a busy high
street. I suppose it gave them a bit of over time.
When we got to Preston Park we found the Preston park Hotel was
closed due to a wedding so we found a decent pub full of Brighton
fans called the Brewery Tap to have a drink in before getting
to the ground just before kick off. Having been before we knew
it was hardly worth getting to the ground early to savor the pre
match atmosphere as their very rarely is one.
As we walked up to the ground we heard the announcer talk about
it being Fair play day and the tone of his voice showed his disgust
at the thought of not cheating to get a win and he even ended
by saying something like not sure we all agree with that but there
you go.
Just as we found our seats near the front of the stand the players
came out and Holloway had pulled a bit of a shock in his starting
line up. Marcus Bean was out injured but instead of the safe option
of playing Richard Johnson he went with Gallen in midfield and
put Cureton up front. It was a bold move by Holloway and set out
intent to win the game rather than come for a point.
A minutes silence was held before the game for the tragic murder
of a 73 year old Brighton fan who had been stabbed to death on
her way home earlier in the week. She sounded like a Brighton
version of Daphne Biggs and the minute’s silence was very well
observed by both sets of fans.
Rangers in the green and white hoops swapped ends to attack the
open park end for the first half. We started well with Gallen
looking to get on the ball as often as possible and the wide players
were enjoying having someone in the middle who could give them
the ball with a bit of quality.
Brighton set their game plan out early by throwing themselves
on the floor from the first minute. Cullip tried to get Furlong
sent off by falling over and holding his face and although the
ref decided it had been a dive he did nothing about it and just
told us to get on with the throw in.
A neat move down the right ended with Bignot whipping over a cross
and Cureton got into space and headed over the bar from just six
yards out. It was a great chance and Cureton looked very angry
with himself. We were getting plenty of joy out wide with Cook
and Padula finding loads of space but the final ball into the
box was unusually poor.
Brighton looked dangerous when they got the ball into the box.
Leon Knight was on the bench with Brighton opting for two big
forwards and this tactic was working as Hinshelwood headed wide
after an excellent cross from Currie.
We were having plenty of the play though and took the lead after
a mistake in the Brighton defence. A cross from Cook was easily
dealt with by Cullip, well it should have been but he made a hash
of it and the ball fell to Gallen who fired into the bottom corner
for his third goal of the season.Well
that’s how it looked on the television this morning, at the time
and without the aid of binoculars I thought Gallen had played
a through ball to Bircham who scored and Mr Fair Play tannoy announcer
never bothered to read out the goal scorers name.
A few people around me got text messages
though saying it was Gallen who’d got the goal so that gave us
an excuse to sing about Kev’s magic hat. Rangers were buzzing
and a third win seemed on the cards with Brighton offering very
little going forward and Furlong almost got a second after a good
turn and shot which went just wide.
With no atmosphere at all in the stadium you can hear the players
and Gallen gave Santos a right bollocking when George tried to
pass his way out from the back rather than launch it. Santos then
spent the rest of the game hoofing it long under Kev's orders
and we kept giving them back possession giving Brighton a chance
to come back in it.
They took the chance well and pushed us back and soon got an equalizer.
Darren Currie did well on the left but I thought Rose and Bignot
really should have made sure he never got a cross in. When the
cross did come it was a poor one almost went in slow motion. Santos
and Padula stopped leaving it to Day to collect but the Rangers
keeper was hesitant and didn’t really come for it or stay on his
line and Adam Hinshelwood scored what will probably be the easiest
goal of his career. Very poor defending by Rangers and we’d gifted
them a way back into the game.
Brighton were well up for it now and with the referee giving some
bizarre free kicks around the box we were struggling. Darren Currie
was looking a threat from them and Day did well to tip one effort
onto the bar.
Padula also cleared a good header from Virgo off the line with
Day beaten as we were nervously looking to hold onto 1-1 before
half time. We almost went into the break with the lead though
as Cureton shot from close range but saw his effort hacked of
the line and cleared.
Gino was then penalsied for high feet and a free kick on the edge
of the box had goal written all over it. Currie had done the same
free kick twice and there was only one place this was going and
that was over the wall into the corner but Day stood right on
the far post and when the inevitable happened he was too far away
to do anything about it. It was reminiscent of Koemans free kick
against England when even Brian Moore was screaming "He's gonna
flick it" and Seaman was the only man in the stadium expecting
him to do something different. Very poor goalkeeping from Day
and after looking in control we were 2-1 down and looking in trouble.
When half time came the referee and linesmen were booed off after
an incompetent first half from them but we only had ourselves
to blame for being 2-1 down. Holloway didn’t make any changes
at half time but we looked far more positive as the half kicked
off so whatever he said to the team seemed to work.
Lee Cook was looking much sharper and his crossing was vastly
improved on the previous few games. He chased a ball down the
left and whipped the ball in first time for Bircham to run onto
and the Rangers midfielder should have done better but fluffed
the chance tamely heading wide.
We were playing much better now with Gallen pulling the strings
in midfield and Cook looking a real threat out wide. Brighton
seemed happy to sit back and hold on and with over half an hour
left that suited us. The referee though continued to miss so many
fouls it was frightening. I’ve said before than Furlong needs
to be shot to win a free kick and yesterday was ridiculous as
he Danny Cllip spent the game trying to take Furlongs shirt off.
Every free kick saw Cullip wrestling Furlong and despite Furlong
screaming at the ref every time the ref ignored it. One free kick
the ref was starring right at Furlong and Cullip and Furs was
cleared wrestled to the ground for a penalty but he gave nothing.
The lino wasn't much better. One ball over
the top for Furlong had Cullip and Furlong fighting it out again.
The Keeper came out and had a kick at Furlong. Furlong gave him
some back and the keeper went down holding his face and his leg
as if he'd been shot when contact was minimal to say the least.
The lino must have seen it but just ran back to the halfway line
bottling it and the ref just played on instead of booking the
cheat.
The ref was so inconsistent it was ridiculous. He gave Brighton
a free kick to which they scored from in the first half for Gino
raising his feet yet when Bircham got a kick in the head in the
second half he played on.
One good breakaway fro Rangers saw a Brighton player go down after
they lost possession and the ref waited for Cook to get past the
halfway line, beat his man and get ready to cross for the unmarked
Cureton before stopping the play and giving a drop ball.
Chances weren’t really coming for us though and the front two
were restricted to long range efforts, which didn’t really trouble
the keeper. Holloway made his move and a very good one it was
too. Padula came off for Richard Edghill, which was no shock as
the left back had been poor. Martin Rowlands also went off after
another disappointing display and Kevin McLeod came on to play
on the right wing. Many around me questioned that decision but
McLeod was quickly invoked and changed the game for us.
His pace and directness down the right gave us a new option and
Brighton suddenly had someone running at them on both flanks.
An equalizer came soon afterwards much to the relief of us in
the away end.
A long ball by Rose found Cureton who played a neat ball through
to Furlong and one on one with the keeper there was only going
to be one outcome the way Furlong is playing at the moment. He
made it four goals in three games slotting under the keeper.
We now pushed for a winner with McLeod a constant threat on the
right with Cureton looking sharp alongside Furlong. Brighton looked
very poor by this stage and it was a big surprise that Leon Knight
wasn’t brought on, as they were offering nothing up front.
Holloway made one more change with five minutes left much to the
approval of the 756 QPR fans. Dan Shittu was back replacing Lee
Cook for Big Dan's first league appearance since January and the
first time I’d seen him in league action since we beat Brighton
2-1 in January. Mcleod went onto the left wing with Bignot pushing
up on the right and Rose going to right back.
The change worked with Dan winning everything in the air and going
on a surging run forward only for Cureton to lose the ball after
a good pass from Shittu.
McLeod continued his good form with a good run and superb cross
which found Furlong and as we got up to celebrate the Brighton
keeper made a very good save to deny him.
Mark McGhee finally made a change very late on bringing on three
subs including Leon Knight who hasn’t scored yet this season.
An air of inevitability filled the place as QPR fans booed his
every touch but we were to have the last laugh.
A free kick on the right gave us a last chance to grab a deserved
three points. Shittu came up I really thought we'd score and the
buzz of excitement at seeing Dan Shittu in the box was just superb.
Cullip tried his usual and put his arms around Shittu and Big
Dan just pushed him away and screamed "Feck off" or words to that
effect. Cullips bottle went and he went off to mark someone else
and Big Dan screamed at the lino to watch Cullip.
Gallen put the ball in and it fell to Matthew Rose who scored
a quite brilliant goal curling into the top corner to send us
all mental in the away end. Rose showed fantastic composure and
vision to score one of the best goals of his QPR career.
Chants of Leon, Leon what’s the score rang out but they still
had time for one last free kick and a heart in the mouth moment
for us. Nothing came of it though and a bloke behind me told his
mate on the phone we were 3-2 up just as Cureton tried a opportunist
strike from the edge of the box curling got the top corner but
it flew just wide.
The final whistle finally arrived at almost 5 o’clock and the
celebrations were brilliant among the 756 QPR fans celebrating
a first ever win at the Withedean Stadium. The players came over
to celebrate with us and Leon Knight didn’t seem to appreciate
being asked what the score was. Big Dan Shittu was the last man
to leave the field after being hugged by Arthur Gnohere. He stood
and basked in the glory and shouted out “I’m Back” with the biggest
smile in football. Shittu is back and so are QPR moving up to
7th place with this win and hopefully ending speculation on Ian
Holloway’s future.
A well earned win for us and a fantastic week for Rangers. We
can play better than this but I'll take another exciting three
points at the moment, which moves u eight points clear of the
relegation zone, a big gap even at this stage of the season.
So after all the doom and gloom the start to the season has been
a bloody good one result wise and really we could and probably
should be even better off having thrown away games against Sheffield
Utd and Sunderland which we should have won. Mid table looks a
very realistic aim now and if we can continue getting good results
we'll be able to blood a few youngsters like Scott Donnelly later
in the season.
Back at the train station after the game the scenes got pretty
ugly but then turned to farce. A few Brighton and QPR morons decided
to have a fight, which was no more than handbags to be honest,
but with loads of people trying to get up the stairs to get on
the train and police overreacting pushing everyone it all turned
quite ugly. We stood away from it all with some Brighton fans
before most of the trouble was cleared up.
Then the sergeant arrived and took control and one of those you
couldn't make it up moments followed. He shouted out "Right, All
QPR fans make yourself known" so a song of "QPR, QPR, QPR" broke
out and Brighton fans booing and laughing at the same time. He'd
lost control but kept trying to show his authority. "Right, you
lot on platform 2" said the man in charge despite protests that
most wanted to go back to Brighton. He then said "All Brighton
fans on my command follow me to platform one for your train" Huge
laughter broke out as he blew his whistle and walked off before
someone had to tell the man in charge that we were already on
platform one.
Even the police around us looked embarrassed for him and hopefully
the Sussex police piss up in a brewery won't be arranged by this
idiot. The police presence did seem very high especially before
the game in the high street where I saw more people shopping than
football fans. They shut most of the pubs when we got back to
Brighton, which was a shame, but nothing could spoil the day for
us and we've finally seen QPR win at the Withdean and got some
value for money.
Three away wins in a row now ahead of a trip to Premiership Aston
Villa on Wednesday.
Man of the Match: Lee Cook
Players Ratings
1. Chris Day: Poor goalkeeping
for the two goals but did make one very good save from a Currie
free kick. 6/10
2. Marcus Bignot: Non-stop effort as ever from Marcus.
He defended well despite one mistake for the first goal and adapted
well to play on the right wing late on. 7/10
3. Gino Padula: Not his best game. Got himself into some
good positions to get crosses in but rarely got it past the first
man. 6/10
7. Matthew Rose: Didn’t cover himself in glory for the
first goal but got better as the game wore on and what a goal
to win us the game. 7/10
23. George Santos: Didn’t play as well as he did on Tuesday
but defended better in the second half after a shaky first period.
7/10
8. Marc Bircham: Continued the patter of his last two games
by having a poor first half and getting better in the second half.
Still not match fit yet but his energy in midfield has helped
in the improvement of our results. 7/10
10. Kevin Gallen: Playing in a position where many fans
want to see more of him and he did a good job. His passing was
good at times as he kept things simple and even got himself a
goal. 7/10
14. Martin Rowlands: Another disappointing performance
and with Ainsworth on his way back from injury he may find himself
on the bench soon. 6/10
17. Lee Cook: Ran his socks off on the left and his crossing
was very good causing problems for the Brighton defence. I think
that’s the best I’ve seen him play and he was a bit unlucky to
be taken off although it turned out to be a good tactical decision.
8/10
15. Jamie Cureton: Looked very sharp and after missing
an good early chance he didn’t let his head go down and kept trying.
Very unlucky not to get on the score sheet and looking more like
the Cureton who played for Reading than the one we saw at QPR
last season. 8/10
29. Paul Furlong: A different class up front again. Scored
another good goal and despite some severe provocation from Danny
Cullip he kept his cool and didn’t react to the nonsense from
Brighton’s defence. 8/10
Subs:
18. Kevin McLeod: Changed the game when he came on. His pace
and direct running worried the home side and his crossing was
also improved. 8/10
4. Richard Edghill: I hardly ever notice Edghill when
he plays which is a good thing. He does things nice and simple
and doesn’t make too many mistakes and he was steady and did his
job when he came on in this game. 7/10
5. Danny Shittu: Great to see him back and he looked very
good during his brief appearance and the look of delight on his
face as he walked off was worth the entrance fee alone. 10/10
