Coca Cola Championship
Saturday April 22nd  

Attendance: 16,152

 
   
Queens Park Rangers 1 Watford 2
 
M.Nygaard (pen) A.Young
G.Santos (og)
Marc Nygaard Sent Off
   
   

The final home game of the season is usually a time to celebrate the season and watch QPR win in the sunshine. This year was a bit different though with most of the crowd desperate for this disastrous season to end and many were leaving this one early to get back to the pub and watch the cup semi final.

Watford were the visitors for the final home game and an interesting opposition as much has been made of how Gary Waddock is attempting to do a Watford and turn a shambles into a playoff team over the course of a few months. It was certainly going to be interesting to see just how far away we were from Watford and the end result probably flattered the top three side.

Rangers starting eleven was unchanged but the bench saw young striker Ray Jones involved for the first time whilst Scott Donnelly also returned after a calf injury. In the bright sunshine Rangers started pretty well with former Watford man Lee Cook at the heart of most of our attacks. He caused them a few early problems but his crosses were usually just evading the front two. Steve Lomas had our only decent effort on goal but the Watford keeper didn't have to work too hard to save it.

Youngster Stefan Bailey was struggling in midfield after two impressive performances. he gave the ball away a few times and was losing his tackles which seemed to affect him. Credit to Ainsworth and Nygaard who both went over to talk to Bailey and try and help him get through a difficult afternoon.

Returning Judas Clarke Carlisle was getting plenty of abuse and his header went wide from a curling free kick. Carlisle was clapped by some fans but the majority were still angry at him for leaving to go up north with his family and then ending up at Watford.

Personally I lost all respect for him when he did the easy clap thing in front of the QPR fans at Vicarage Road earlier in the season. He was eventually taken off from this one with an injury and hopefully the rumour that we are looking to bring him back isn't true.

Watford began to get on top and hit the bar direct from a corner whilst Malky Makay missed a sitter unmarked from a few yards out.

All in all though we were defending pretty well with Santos showing his best with some top defending then his worst with some woeful passing. Love him or hate him it's never dull when he plays.

Rangers took the lead before half time through a Marc Nygaard penalty. It came after Cook was brought down in the box and the big Danish striker stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way. He celebrated by taking his shirt off and the booking that followed would end up costing us the game.

We were on top and most of the stadium were then stunned as the game turned in 30 short seconds. Furlong was sent clear and he picked his spot placing a lovely chip over the keeper and it was heading for the middle of the goal. We all celebrated as did Furlong but at the last moment the ball bounced up and hit the bar. To make matters worse as I stopped celebrating wondering why pig bag wasn't playing I looked up to see Ashley Young on the ball and then curling a brilliant shot into the top corner. So from thinking we were 2-0 up it was now 1-1 and the whole season was summed up in 30 seconds.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse in stepped that twat Andy D'ursso to ruin another game. Darius Henderson ran through and clearly caught Shittu in the face with a punch. Shittu went down and the red card was sure to follow but not he only got a yellow.

Milanese, Nygaard and Ainsworth all got stuck in to the afters and the ref decided he'd pick out Nygaard from the line up as he'd already been booked and he had to send someone off. Nygaard was an idiot to get involved but quite how Henderson survived is beyond me.

A few weeks ago Gallen was sent off for raising his hands and we were told that it doesn't matter if he intended to hit the bloke he raised his hands so that's a red card. Perhaps the rules have changed in the last month to make that only a yellow card offence or possibly the referee is a wanker.

Shittu spent the rest of the half looking for a bit of revenge on Henderson before the Watford manager sensibly took off the cheating git at half time. Gary Waddock made a tactical switch changing to a 4-3-2 formation which was quite bold of him.

Ainsworth went up front and the second half saw us start the better side and we were more than matching Watford. The sense of injustice was spurring us on and Ainsworth smashed in a long range shot which flew just over the bar.

Paul Furlong was holding the ball up well whilst Bailey was imprvong as the game wore on. Lee Cook went on one his mazy runs and shot just wide. The crowd were right behind the team but then a few individuals let the whole club down.

A bottle of beer was thrown from the South Africa Road stand and only just missed one of the Watford players. Thank god it did miss but things got worse as the incomptent linesmen continued to give us nothing and coins, pies and more beer bottles were thrown from the R block.

This resulted in one little girl being it on the head and having to be taken out. The police and stewards were roundly booed for trying to help the young QPR fan and for me the rest of the game meant nothing after this and I lost the plot slightly screaming abuse at the scumbags who had thrown things on the pitch and brought more shame on our football club.

Watford wrapped up the points with a comedy own goal. Georges Santos said farewell to Loftus Road as he guided a header back to Jones but the keeper was too far across and the ball bobbled past Jones and into the empty net. Poor old Georges, he'd played so well for most of the game and most of his time at QPR but he'll always be remebered for this sort of cock ups.

Scott Donnelly and Ray Jones came on towards the end but we never really looked like equalising and the game ended with another home defeat. The annual lap of honour was a subdued affair and was probably a final chance to see Marc Bircham and player of the year Dan Shittu at Loftus Road before they are sold in the coming months.

So another season comes to an end with just one game left and a probably hiding at Reading who need a win and 3 goals to break a few records. It's safe to say this hasn't been the best of seasons and one I think most people are happy to see the back of.

This summer will see huge changes at Loftus Road and hopefully next season will be a much better one. The worry is though that we have finished the season so poorly that we look like we have forgotten how to win games and thats not a good way to go into a new season where we'll certianly be one of the favourites to get relegated.

Man of the Match: Lee Cook

Players Ratings: Jones 6, Bignot 6 (Donnelly 6), Milanese 6, Shittu 6, Santos 7, Ainsworth 7, Bailey 6, Lomas 7 (Jones 6), Cook 8, Nygaard 5, Furlong 7