Ccoca Cola Championship
Saturday September 10th
Attendance: 25,744

Southampton 1	Queens Park Rangers 1

D.Higgingbottom	D.Shittu

Due to the exciting finish to the Ashes series I was unable or more to the point couldn’t be arsed to write a match report for the Southampton game until today. Apologies for the brief report but it’s better than nothing.

Rangers first trip to St Mary’s was one many fans were looking forward to and we sold out the away allocation pretty quickly. The journey to the game was marred by some idiot killing themselves by jumping in front of a train meaning we were delayed by an hour and a half. Luckily we’d left plenty of time so we still managed to arrive in time to have a few beers in the varsity pub before going to the game.

Being my first view of St Mary’s I was impressed overall> most new grounds tend to look alike but this was a nice ground and the view from the back of the away end was excellent. The atmosphere wasn’t all that but to be honest the game never really got going enough to excite either set of fans.

Rangers made a couple of changes after the Wolves defeat. Lee Cook was back to full fitness replacing Ian Evatt. This allowed the back four to play in their normal positions. Kevin Gallen picked up an injury in training so for the first time in two and a half seasons he wasn’t starting a QPR game. Dean Sturridge replaced him in the Rangers attack.

Southampton started the better of the two sides looking to build on a decent start to the season. Nigel Quashie looked impressive foe the Saints and the pace and power of Fuller and Jones caused a few early panics in the Rangers back line.

Rangers star man though was on hand to keep the scores level. Royce was in top form and made some excellent early saves from Jones and Fuller. The Saints were on top but not really creating much as we looked to hit them on the break with the pace of Moore and Cook out wide. It wasn’t really working to be honest as we didn’t look like scoring but at least we looked more solid at the back in this game after three abysmal defensive displays on the road in recent weeks.

With half an hour gone the only excitement had been watching the subs warm up. Richard Langley got a big cheer as did Steve Lomas before Dennis Wise ran towards us and got booed but he seemed to love all the attention.

Then a shock as Rangers not only put in a decent corner but took the lead. Lee Cook whipped over a lovely cross from the set piece and Shittu was totally unmarked to head home the first goal against Southampton at St Mary’s this season. The celebrations were great and good old Shittu won me £26 for first goal scorer.

The lead didn’t last long after a poor decision by the referee. Santos was penalised for a foul when the Southampton forward didn’t even jump for the ball. The free kick was as good as a penalty right on the edge of the box. We really should have put a man on the line but paid for that as Higginbottom smashed it low through the wall and into the bottom corner.

Royce made sure we went in at half time level with an excellent save which he did well to hold onto.

After the break it was a backs to the wall job as we looked to hold on for a point. Bignot cleared an early chance off the line but after that chances were few and far between. Southampton had plenty of possession but never really looked like scoring.

Dean Sturridge was taken off after an hour with Marc Nygaard coming on but the big striker didn’t really impress looking clumsy on the ball and a little sluggish. Lee Cook was having a decent game and got the better of his man to whip in a lovely cross but Nygaards header was a weak one.

Rangers held on and in truth never looked in much trouble. Shittu and Santos were solid and Royce only had one more save to make from a Powel header and he made it look easy.

Steve Lomas replaced Doherty towards the end and looked impressive whilst Langley came on in injury time to waste a few seconds and received a mixed reception from the QPR fans with a few boos from his own fans. Not a nice way to greet a new signing.

So a point was a good result especially after the previous few disasters on the road. We were solid at the back with all defenders playing well. In midfield we worked hard and didn’t create much but Lee Cook caused them problems. It was good to see Dean Sturridge back who did ok but again Furlong looked well below his best form.

On this evidence this is unlikely to be our last trip to St Mary’s as I can’t see them troubling the top two of this division with their front two.

Man of the Match: Simon Royce
Players Ratings: Royce 8, Bignot 7, Milanese 7, Shittu 8, Santos 7, Moore 7, Bircham 7, Doherty 7 (Lomas 7), Cook 7, Sturridge 7, Furlong 6 (Langley 6)