| Coca Cola Championship | |
| Saturday November 8th | |
|
Queens
Park Rangers 1
|
Cardiff City 0 |
| G.Mahon | |
| D.Purse sent off | |
| M.Comminges sent off | |
Apologies for the
delay again with this match report. This week's excuse is I went
to the new Westfield shopping centre on Sunday followed by seeing
the new Bond film. To be frank I needed some excitement after the
dour match I sat through on Saturday and this match report shouldn't
take long to skim through the highlights. It was another freezing cold day watching QPR at Loftus Road as the rain poured down and those of us in the family stand continued to enjoy the enhanced match day experience which includes getting soaking wet and seeing the food outlets run out of hot drinks whilst a bloody Tiger in a QPR shirt waves at us. There was no pre match team line up announcement that I spotted so as the teams came out we tried to work out who was playing. As ever Rangers made a few changes and with Flavio Briatorie back in the country and watching from the empty posh seats we go back to the question who on earth picked this team. Rangers again stuck
with 4-4-2 at home which means no place for the flair players Parejo
and Buzsaky with Blackstock and Ledesma replacing those two. Peter
Ramage came in for the out of form Delaney and gave the QPR fans
someone to blame for the following 90 minutes. Michael Chopra was making his Cardiff City debut after turning down a move to QPR and well I for one was glad he did as he spent most of the game moaning at the referee and falling over. He's thrown one of his trademark strops long before the end of the game and I think I looked more like scoring than he did. The games main talking point came midway through the half when a poor ball by Stewart was sliced by a defender and Cook ran onto it. Purse came running out and took Cook out. It was a high tackle not sure it was meant as nasty but under the current rules on tackling it is always likely to be a red card, it was certainly worse than leigterwood's red against Birmingham a few weeks back but again a yellow would have probably been a fair decision. The red card did Rangers no real favours as Cardiff continued to look the better side. The ref quickly lost control of the game allowing Cardiff to take over a minute taking a throw in as they had a chat about who was coming off. It was farcical really and was just one of a number of frustrating decisions from the referee. Rangers pushed for an opening goal with Ledesma going close with a long range volley which was well saved but Rangers were struggling to get in behind a well drilled back four and we were failing to keep the ball in midfield. Rangers tried to play out from the back but Connolly's pass to Cook saw the winger under pressure but taking his time as he was dispossessed. Peter Whittingham pounced and smashed a shot just over the bar. It was poor play from rangers and Rowlands made sure he gave Connolly a bollocking and Cook a pat on the back, not sure that was entirely fair on the stand in left back. Cardiff ended the half the stronger side and despite being down to ten men I was pleased to get to half time still level. We really need to step up a gear and try and get Buzsaky on the pitch and in the middle of the park. The second half continued in the same vain though with no one really linking the midfield to the attack and when we got the ball wide the final ball from Cook and Ledesma was pretty poor. When they did get a good ball in the front two looked clueless at where they should be running. It was all very dull and frustrating and Cardiff were having the better of it knocking the ball about well and having a few chances with Johnson shooting wide of the post. Johnson actually had the best chance of the game when a free kick was half cleared to him and in space he fired a shot well wide of the post when he should have scored. Ainsworth then made some changes and they proved to be good ones. Buzsaky came on for Ledesma and was given a free role when attacking and went on the right when defending. He looked bright straight away and began to make things happen starting off a nice move which put Connolly through and he found Di Carmine who shot wide. Lee Cook was having a poor game but he burst into life finally beating his full back on the half way line before beating another man and finding Ramage who wasted the good work lifting a cross straight at the keeper. Ramage was getting in some good positions out wide but rarely found a QPR player with his crosses, the closest he got was when he hit the post with one cross which makes it sound better than it was. Ainsworth made two more changes bringing on Mahon and Agyemang for Di Carmine and Tomassi and this proved to be a match winning change. Agyemang's pace and strength was a constant worry for Cardiff and but he missed a sitter with possibly his first touch. Buzsaky turned his man in midfield and fired ion a brilliant swerving shot which the keeper parried and it fell to Agyemang who had a simple tap in but after composing himself put it wide. A horrendous miss and only the offside flag saved him from the abuse Ramage was getting. Chopra had a chance to break through on goal but instead threw himself on the floor after running into Stewart and from the corner Johnson headed wide when it seemed easier to score. Just as the game looked to be heading for a 0-0 draw Rangers grabbed the lead. A corner was cleared and then Rangers came again finding Buzsaky out wide who cut inside before knocking it back to Ramage. As everyone in the lower loft ducked to our surprise he picked out a brilliant cross to the far post which Mahon rose high to angle a header into the back of the net for his first goal of the season. Rangers celebrated with relief and shock at taking the lead that we hadn't deserved and Ramage finally had an answer to some of the stick he was getting. Cardiff were a different side now, gone
was the time wasting and settling for a point and they rushed everything
as Rangers took it easy. Still Rangers continued to make hard
work of it and during the laughably short two minutes of injury
time Cardiff also drew level as a free kick was crossed to the far
post and Johnsons header was very well saved by Cerny to win us
the three points. This was a pretty poor home performance
with little to no creativity going forward but in the end it was
a very good win against a good Cardiff side. I thought the back
four and goalkeeper again performed well as a unit. Going forward
Ramage continues to struggle but at least looks to get crosses in
rather than stay in him own half and eventually it paid off for
him. The midfield four were all pretty poor
and had games they'd rather forget whilst Blackstock had his worst
game of the season by a long way. Agyemang looked strong when he
came on and continues to be an excellent impact sub and I'm still
baffled as to why Buzsaky is not starting games behind the main
striker rather than out wide or on the bench. In the end though that's three points and a third home win in a row to move us to joint sixth in the table ahead of that trip to Old Trafford where we might have to play a little better if we are to get anything from the game. Man of the Match: Akos Buzsaky Players Ratings: Cerny 7, Ramage 6, Stewart 6, Hall 6, Connolly 7, Ledesma 6 (Buzsaky 8), Tomassi 5 (Mahon 6), Rowlands 5, Cook 5, Di Carmine 6 (Agyemang 7), Blackstock 5 |
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