Coca Cola Championship
Saturday September 15th  
   
Leicester City 1 Queens Park Rangers 1
I.Hume (pen) M.Leigterwood
   

 

   
Team Line Up
   
         
   
1. Lee Camp
   
           
28. Zesh Rehmann
4. Danny Cullip
25. Damion Stewart
3. Chris Barker
           
18. Stefan Moore
32. Mikele Leigertwood
7. Adam Bolder (c)

14. Martin Rowlands

           
   
17. Ben Sahar
9. Dexter Blackstock
   
Subs          
Danny Nardiello on for Ben Sahar
Hogan Ephraim on for Adam Bolder
Subs Not Used  
Jake Cole
Marcus Bignot
John Curtis  

My first away trip of the season and in recent years the Walkers Stadium has been a good hunting ground for Rangers with two wins in the last two visits so hopes were high that we could get a first win of the season.

We were up against the new manager syndrome though as Gary Megson took charge for the first time at Leicester which doesn't appear to be a popular decision among the fans due to him managing Nottingham Forest a few years ago.

After a few drinks in the town centre we set off on the long walk to the stadium and just made it inside in time to hear the teams being reward out. I have to say it was a bit of a shock to hear the team news.

After the woeful performance against Southampton changes were made but not really the ones I expected. Out went John Curtis and Hogan Ephraim both dropped to the bench and in came the dynamic duo of Stefan Moore and Zesh Rehmann. Danny Cullip was also back in place of the injured Mancienne.

Rangers started the game where they left off against Southampton two weeks ago being second to every ball and camped inside our own half. Levi Porter on the left wing was causing plenty of problems with his pace whilst QPR fan DJ Campbell went close to opening the scoring with a header straight at Camp.

Leicester had plenty of the ball in good positions but didn't create a great deal and Rangers looked a bit better at the back with Cullip organising things. Leicester had a goal disallowed from a long throw as Campbell barged into Camp and tapped it home but it was a clear foul.

Campbell went close again when he broke the offside trap and went round Camp but his shot was cleared off the line by Cullip who had read the danger brilliantly.

Rangers forged a few rare attacks which usually broke down pretty quickly. The midfield weren't really getting forward to support the front two and the only chances we had were a deflected free kick from Rowlands and a shot over the bar from the same man. Ben Sahar worked himself a good opening as well but his shot went away for a throw in.

The game was pretty dire and the only entertainment on view came from Leicester's fat drummer to the left of the QPR fans who had appeared on a TV show about fanatical fans a while ago.

Drummer boy was the cheerleader for Leicester banging away on his drum providing some great laughs. He'd have a few bangs on the drum and then seemed to need a break with his head collapsed on the drum whilst struggling for breath. The QPR fans were merciless in the abuse going towards him with chants of "Fat boys fucked", " Have you ever seen a salad in your life" and my personal favourite "Two bangs and your out of breath"

Full credit to the bloke though who played up to the crowd and must be used to the amount of stick he was getting. I'm sure he got enough stick from his mates after his mum wrote a letter to the match programme about him. Bless him.

In the second half he provided possibly the highlight of the game as he went for it with his banging and played his tune not once, not twice but nine times in a row with plenty of energy and determination.

The QPR fans cheered every one and when he finished he turned to us and raised nine fingers to us as we sang back to him "We want ten". The poor sod looked exhausted after that.

Back to the game and not a great deal was happening as both sides looked equally dire and a million miles away from both owners Premiership ambitions. Rangers went close to opening the scoring when a Rowlands a free kick on the right was curled into the six-yard box and flicked onto the post by Sahar. At half time though 0-0 was a pretty fair reflection of the game.

The second half went on with a similar pattern, Rangers would win the ball and hoof it high and forward and Leicester would come at us but have little idea how to break us down. Gregory made a change taking off Sahar and brining on Nardiello who wanted the ball to feet and would end up with neck ache watching it go over his head.

At one stage Nardiello screamed at Rehmann to play it to hiss feet and even pointed to where he wanted it but Rehmann instead decided a high aimless ball down the right would be a better option. It was painful to watch and only Cullip of the outfield players was doing himself justice. Bolder and Leigertwood were constantly giving the ball away whilst it's hard to recall anything that Stefan Moore did in the entire 90 minutes.

Leicester were having the better of the game but not by much as Campbell had another chance to break the deadlock before Rangers pressed the self destruct button. A ball into the box saw Campbell back into Leigertwood and the Rangers midfielder stuck out a leg and brought down the forward for a clear penalty. It must have been pretty clear-cut, as I don't think anyone of the 1,500 QPR fans in the away end protested the decision. Ian Hume stepped up to take it and never looked like missing sending Camp the wrong way and giving his side the lead.

That should have been that for the home side as Rangers looked low on confidence and short of ideas. Carl Cort had the ball in the back of the net but that was ruled out for offside.

John Gregory made another change taking off Adam Bolder and bringing on Hogan Ephraim. The on loan youngster went to the left and had a decent impact cutting in on his right foot and getting a decent ball in for Blackstock but he couldn't make contact.

Leicester made two strange substitutions taking off DJ Campbell and Levi Porter and bringing on two defensive players. That had clearly decided they had done enough and were going to sit on the 1-0 lead which is a dangerous thing to do even against a side who had looked as poor as we had. That decision came back to haunt them when we nicked an equaliser with just eight minutes to go.

With most fans starting to get a bit vocal in the criticism of Leigertwood, who had been awful, he then popped up with a goal of the season contender. He won the ball on the left and played a nice one two with Rowlands which allowed him to run into space, look up and curl a shot past the keeper into the bottom corner of the net. The away end celebrated with a mixture of relief and shock, I don't think any of us could see Rangers scoring but we'd done it and were back in the game.

Leicester looked stunned and we took advantage playing some excellent stuff for the final ten minutes. It was no shock that when we finally got the ball on the floor and passed it we looked a far better side with the front two now able to get a few chances.

Ephraim and Moore then swapped positions and Hogan looked far more comfortable on the right wing where all our attacks began to spring from. A pass into the box by Rowlands found Nardiello who ran past his man and fired in a low shot but the keeper got down well to save it.

Ephraim then did well on the right getting the ball on the right and sprinting past three defenders into the box and crossed for Blackstock but his effort was cleared at the far post.

Leigertwood was next to create a chance combining well with Ephraim and crossing into the middle for Nardiello but the ball was just inches too high for Nardiello to open his account for the season.

At the other end possibly the best move of the match almost won it for Leicester as Hume left Leigertwood and Moore for dead and played a nice ball to Clemence who curled a great shot past Camp but against the crossbar.

The final whistle then went with the home fans not very happy and a few of them booed the team off whilst Rangers got a decent reception with Cullip punching the air in delight to suggest that was a point they badly needed.

This was a decent result but another poor performance that won't do much to ease the pressure.

With Gregory's job on the line I found it incredible that he started with Moore and Rehmann. I want Gregory to do well but any manager that picks Rehmann ahead of Bignot and Timoska is not going to get great support from me.

The same problems we had against Southampton are still there, we create nothing in midfield and have no real width. Leigertwood had a terrible game he just doesn't look like a midfield player to me and Bolder wasn't much better. The only ray of light was that it's taken a month but we seemed to have worked out Hogan is right footed so when he went on the right wing we created chances again.

We really need to stop playing the long ball all of the time and try and play the ball into feet. We used three strikers at Leicester all of whom are better on the floor than in the air but it took until the last ten minutes before we started playing the ball into their feet and it was no shock that was our best spell of the game. If we continue to play this long ball rubbish on Tuesday in front of Bernie and Falvio then we'll be looking for a new manager sooner rather than later but hopefully the point will give us a bit of confidence and we'll improve from here.

Man of the Match: Danny Cullip

Players Ratings: Camp 6, Rehmann 6, Barker 6, Stewart 6, Cullip 7, Rowlands 6, Bolder 6 (Ephraim 7) , Leigertwood 5, Moore 5, Blackstock 6 , Sahar 6, (Nardiello 6)