| Coca Cola Championship | |
| Saturday November 22nd | |
|
Watford
3
|
Queens Park Rangers 0 |
| T.Smith (pen) | |
| D.Ward | |
| L.Williamson | F.Hall Sent Off |
I usually try and
put a positive spin on defeats but that was bloody awful yesterday.
I've been to Watford 4 times now and my record is 1-3, 0-3, 1-3
and now 0-3. I won't be going again. Apologies for the
shorter than usual match report, to be honest the game was so bad
there is not much more to say about it. Sousa's first game
in charge saw him sit in the stand as Ainsworth picked the side.
Rangers were without Rowlands, Cook and Connolly through injury
whilst new loan signing Heider Helgusson apparently is on his way
back to Bolton ending his loan spell before it got going. Ainsworth brought
back the Mahon/Leigterwood central midfield partnership, Sarcasm
mode on: which has proved so successful in the past. Sarcasm
mode off. Damien Delaney came
in for Connolly with Ledesma in for Cook and Di Carmine was dropped
for Agyemang. I thought we actually started ok and first 20 minutes were just about the better side. Agyemang looked bright, Ephraim was doing ok and Mahon was getting stuck in. Ephraim had a shot from distance which went close whilst Agyemang was denied twice by a late offside flag when he appeared to be the one offside with Blackstock running back in an offside position. The game turned with a penalty which was a farce. A ball into the box was headed out by Leigterwood and a penalty was given for shirt pulling, If that was a penalty then we should have had 4 in the second half and Watford could have 3 more penalties as well. Tommy Smith sent Cerny the wrong way and we may as well have gone home. The goal knocked the stuffing out of us and after that we just gave up and were lucky Watford were shit. Watford battered us for the rest of the half with Cerny made two good saves before a free kick was pushed onto the post by Cerny, the Rangers defence stood and watched as the rebound was put back into the box for Ward to fire in from 12 yards. Abysmal defending but a good finish from Ward. Blackstock had a great chance to pull one back when he got in space in the box but he tried to do a river dance and the ball bounced off him for a goal kick. It summed us up and a third goal came before half time, a good finish this time from Williamson but Rangers were looking a few notches below pathetic. Ainsworth brought on Tomassi for Mahon after the break but nothing changed and Watford should have scored more as they dominated. Parejo and Di Carmine also came on with no real effect. Ephraim had a shot which prompted wild celebrations in the QPR end as pig bag was sung every time we had a shot and ole's were shouted as we put 3 passes together. In the end we were lucky it was only 3-0 and I couldn't
get home quick enough not even stopping for a beer so it must have
been bad. Ramage was the pick of the back four which says it all. Delaney was so bad it was embarrassing, his defensive headers from corners just went straight up in the air and his clearances usually straight to a bright yellow shirt. Stewart and Hall also had one of those days to forget
but I can forgive them that as they have been brilliant the last
few weeks. Mahon was knackered after his booking as he couldn't
make a tackle. It's safe to say his partnership with Leigterwood
doesn't work although we hardly improved after he went off. Ledesma
was embarrassing with his falls on the floor and as much as I like
Blackstock what on earth was he doing with that chance in the first
half when he had space in the box to shoot but seemed to do a river
dance and kick it out of play. Bloody hopeless. I tried to leave at half time but they wouldn't let
us out so we had to sit through the same shit in the second half.
The highlight was us having a shot on goal around 80 minutes into
the game from one of only 4 players who can say they gave it a go.
That was Ephraim who at least didn't give up and him Agyemang, Ramage
and Cerny were also the only ones to come over to the QPR fans at
the end and I felt they didn't deserve the abuse they got. I should add that Parejo played well when he came
on but the game was over as a contest by then. The fans sang we want our rangers back, have to say
it all looked very QPR from where I was and a typical away performance
of the last few years. No fight, no leadership, no creativity and
no idea. Sousa has a hell of a job on and with the games coming
up next month away from home we might start looking over our shoulder
rather than up. We look in a similar position to where Leicester
were this time last year. So another bloody freezing cold away game, another
piss poor performance and still no goals. I'm very fed up of it
all right now and it's off to bloody selhurst next week, why did
I let my mate Phil talk me into going to that one. Man of the Match: Hogan Ephraim Players Ratings: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Stewart 5, Hall 5, Delaney 4, Ledesma 5 (Parejo 6), Mahon 6 (Tomassi 6), Leigterwood 5, Ephraim 6, Blackstock 4 (Di Carmine 6), Agyemang 6 |
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