Travelling to Cardiff on a Tuesday night to see QPR play is not many peoples idea of a good night out and after last nights entertainment I’d have to agree with the majority.

This was my first visit to Ninian Park and after missing the recent Sheffield United game I opted to go to this one and get another new ground under my belt.

o we set off to Loftus Road at lunchtime to get the coach which would then drive back up the M4 past our house and onto Cardiff. The journey went quite quickly with the film I am legend having fans on the coach almost as baffled as our defence looked an hour later.

Ninian Park was pretty much as I expected and it’s no real surprise that they are looking to move. The stadium looks pretty run down and the facilities in the away were not the best.

One bonus though was that the bar remained open throughout the game and they looked to be doing a roaring trade when the Rangers fans had seen enough of the football on offer.

We stood towards the back of the terrace among the 500 or so QPR fans, as usual nowadays any pre match atmosphere was drowned out by loud music being pumped out but the Cardiff fans to our right were giving it a good go at creating an atmosphere.

The teams came out with Rangers warming up at the other end of the pitch and we started the game attacking towards our own fans. On the way up one of the stewards on the coach (the Al Murray look-alike) read out the team and there was just the one change,. Gavin Mahon replaced Dexter Blackstock as we went back to a 4-4-1-1 formation. Rowlands switched to the right and Buzsacky was back in his free role. I was a bit disappointed to hear Ainsworth was not even on the bench as these kind of tough away games require players like Ainsworth to roll up sleeves and fight.

Cardiff started the game on the front foot and in truth Rangers never really got into the game. Our game plan appeared to be play pretty triangles and work one-twos to open them up. This works well at home against teams sitting on the edge of their own box but against a Cardiff team very much in our faces we were being hassled and harried out of the game very quickly.

Rangers had very little answer to Cardiff who were winning the ball in midfield and using their wingers well. Parry in particular looked a real threat and with Hasselbaink up front it didn’t look good for us with most of the game being played in our half.

Rangers tried a few counter attacks with Vine and Rowlands looking to put Agyemang through but the Cardiff defence were very well drilled and dealt with the danger well.

Chances hard to come by for both sides with the game being played in midfield but after around fifteen minutes the home team began to find a few openings. The impressive Parry found Joe Ledley on the edge of the box who had broke from midfield without anyone following him and his effort was deflected wide of the post.

The QPR fans were making plenty of noise with several songs about how rich we are. At first they were quite funny but soon got a little repetitive and left us looking silly when the rich kids team produced our worst performance since we lost at Blackpool.

Back on the pitch Hasselbaink was denied by a decent save from Camp before we gifted Cardiff the lead.

A poor back pass put Camp under pressure and he had to volley the ball to safety. Delaney did well to keep the ball in but in hindsight he’d have been better letting it go out for a throw in. As Delaney got the ball on the left rather than knock it forward it trued to keep possession and played a ball blindly back in the direction of Camp and Hall but Cardiff had got men forward and Parry intercepted to run through, Connolly ran across to cover the danger but the low cross to the far post found Ledley unmarked to tap past Camp and give his side the lead.

It was no more than the home side deserved and for the next ten minutes they could have run away with it. Rangers were a shambles and had Camp to thank for a series of saves to keep the score down.

First up was the former Chelsea man Hasselbaink who was given space in the box and his shot was palmed away by Camp. He then went on to miss an absolute sitter as a ball across to the far post found him unmarked for a simple tap in but he put it wide.

Camp was back in action to tip away an excellent shot from Whittingham before again denying Hasselbaink a killer second goal. Camp them saved from Johnson after more poor defending from a set piece and the QPR fans in the away were beginning to wonder what was going on and the Cardiff fans sang “Your rich but your fucking shit” and as hard as it was to take they did have a point.

Rangers enjoyed a rare attack when we won a corner on the right in front of the QPR fans. Buzsacky’s ball into the box was cleared as far as Connolly who exchanged passes with Rowlands and the Rangers captain beat his man to break into the box and place a low ball across the face of the goal but Agyemang at the far post could not turn the ball in.

The pressure didn’t last long and before we could finish singing We’re gonna score in a minute, Cardiff had broke to the other end and found Whittingham unmarked in the box but he blazed over the bar.

Rangers were then dealt a blow when Fitz Hall limped off injured for the second game in a row and this time it looks like he could be ruled out for some time. Michael Mancienne came on to replace him with Connolly moving to central defence.

The second goal had been coming for some time and it arrived after more slack defending. Rangers tried to play out of trouble with a neat triangle on the edge of our own box, a hoof up field may have been more useful as Cardiff bad rashed us and won the ball back, it was played out wide to Parry who knocked the ball into the box with the Rangers defence static and allowed Hasselbaink to run through and square it for Ledley to finish it off.

Cardiff then seemed happy to see out of the rest of the half which managed to get worse for Rangers as Connolly went down and was stretched off with a nasty looking injury. I’ve no idea what happened to him though as I was sending a text message when it all happened. Hopefully he’ll be back soon but by the time it took to get him on the stretcher and off it didn’t look promising. Dexter Blackstock replaced him in a move which saw him play just off the main striker with Buzsacky moving to the wing and Rowlands going to right back.

At half time I think most fans were relieved it was only 2-0 and although a few spoke optimistically of a comeback I think we all knew this wasn’t going to be our night.

We started the second half brightly though wining a few corners which Blackstock went close to scoring from so the noise level and the hope began to rise among us travelling few. That didn’t last though and with Cardiff’s first real attack of the second half they killed the game off.

Hasselbaink was again involved when he played through our offside trap for Parry to run clean through and finish well past Camp. Rowlands went mad at the linesmen asking for offside but really we should have played to the whistle and tracked the runner.

After that it was a case of how many Cardiff would get and Parry had another chance when he ran clear of the defence but Camp was quick off his line and blocked the danger whilst flattening Parry at the same time. Cardiff claimed a handball and wanted Camp sent off and whilst Parry was receiving treatment Camp was getting plenty of stick from the Cardiff fans. Camp responded by blowing them a kiss and he was then called a rent boy by the Cardiff fans every time he touched the ball.

De Canio made another change when Buzsacky made way for Ephraim which seemed a smart move as Buzsacky was having a very quiet game out wide.

Rangers got a goal back with one of the most bizarre goals I’ve ever seen. Hogan got the ball on the right as the fans screamed have a shot, he crossed to the near post and from where I was it looked like a simple save for the keeper. Not one person in the away end reacted, most were just chatting or looking away and the players walked away as if nothing had happened.

One bloke then jumped up and down saying we’d scored and we all looked at him as if he was mad. It quickly became apparent though that we had scored despite none of us seeing it go over the line. Vine put the ball on the centre spot and it was 3-1. It turned out that Agyemang got the goal for his third in his three games.

So it was game on now, well it could have been if we’d taken our chances as Delaney’s header from a corner hit the top of the bar and then Blackstock fired straight at the keeper from close range.

We had six minutes of injury time and although we were playing better now I don’t think anyone thought we were seriously going to make a comeback. We had one late chance to get back in the game when a good ball into the middle by Vine found Leigterwood unmarked from eight yards out but he placed a header straight at the keeper. A goal then and the six minutes injury time may have been interesting but we missed and stoppage time proved to be uneventful.

So a 3-1 defeat and a long coach journey back to Loftus Road gave fans the chance to calm down after a very poor display.

Games like last night make you wonder why you bother. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone on the coach for a game miles away and spent the 3 hour journey home watching a shit film wondering what on earth I am doing. It was a typical Tuesday night away following QPR, plenty of optimism and then a piss poor performance.

I thought De Canio got the team selection wrong. I’m happy with the 4-4-1-1 formation away from home but you can’t play that with two holding midfield players, it meant when we did have a rare break we had just Buzsacky supporting Agyemang and it was easy to defend against.

I’d have played Rowlands in the middle with Mahon and Ainsworth out wide. I know Ainsworth is not perfect but when you go away on a Tuesday night to places like Cardiff and Stoke you need one player in that team who will roll his sleeve up and fight. There is a time for pretty triangles and a time for Ainsworth’s head and last night was the later.

In the first half it was all so predictable, Leigterwood got the ball in the middle, dummied to go to the right and played a pass through the middle straight to the four Cardiff players who read it every time.

The defensive midfielders offered no protection to the back four and Vine may as well have come and stood with us such was the impact he was making.

That not excuse for some of the basic defensive errors we made.

The offside trap did not work and several times we stopped with arms in the air whilst they ran through on goal. That’s how the second goal went in and our failure to play to the whistle hurt us. Our inability to mark a man, deal with runners from midfield and handle movement didn’t help either. I’m sure Delaney will be the fall guy and as good as he was on his debut he was awful last night.

I wouldn’t put all the blame on him though, Fitz Hall was dire and Stewart was back to his old self. His performance was best summed up in the second half when a long punt forward came towards him, he flexed his neck muscles and aimed his head at the ball to head it clear only for the ball to bounce two yards behind him, it was like watching really bad playground football. Seconds after that cock up he recovered well and won the ball back to clear it.

He is so infuriating, one minute he plays like an absolute clown then he’ll look assured again. With the injuries to Connolly and Hall though he’s going to be a key player for us now. Wonder if Zesh will return.

Cardiff look the kind of side who will make the playoffs though, well organised and have a goal threat. That’s twice this season they have beaten us comfortably and they should have beaten us by several more goals.

It was good to see Agyemang get his third goal in as many games but he was very poor leading the line.

At the end once again there was a lack of acknowledgment from the players, with only Rowlands, Agyemang, Camp, Ephraim and Blackstock coming over to thanks us for travelling to Cardiff on a Tuesday night, the rest couldn’t get down the tunnel quickly enough.

It’s a game we need to put behind us quickly but learn from our mistakes, we badly need to mix our game up. The football is all very nice but at times you need to get stuck in and we don’t seem capable of doing that, we won’t win many games on the road playing like this. Not every team is going to do a Barnsley and sit back and let us play, we still have a few tough midweek games to come and on this evidence we’ll struggle in those.

Bristol City are next for Rangers and we really need to play better than this if we are to get anything out of the game.

Man of the Match: Lee Camp

Players Ratings: Camp 7, Connolly 5 (Blackstock 6), Hall 5 (Mancienne 6), Stewart 5, Vine 6, Buzsacky 5 (Ephraim 6), Rowlands 6, Leigterwood 5, Mahon 5, Agyemang 5