We are out of the cup!!

On a wet Tuesday night a depleted Lofty Heights crew took to the road on a wet Tuesday night and for once we had no pitch inspection or any worries about a game going ahead due to a day of rain in London.

Due to working commitments the crew were down to just me and Jenson sitting in the Upper Loft whilst many others sat in the lower sections of the ground got soaked.

Neil Warnock fielded a changed side from Saturday's opening win against Barnsley and gave some of the R's fringe players a chance to impress and maybe open the door to challenging for a place in the starting eleven in the near future.

4-2-3-1: Kenny, Orr, Hall, Connolly, Borrowdale; Derry, Leigertwood; Parker, Ephraim, Clarke; Mackie.


Rangers' didn't have the greatest start to the game but they were creating chances for themselves and when Mackie shot straight at the 'keeper after some clever footwork on the right hand side you thought that the R's were just going to go through the gears and slowly turn the screw.
This however wasn't the case and Port Vale opened up the Rangers' midfield and defence all too easily as they used their counter attack very well and this lead to the visitors taking the lead.
Rigg dinked a ball over the top of the Rangers' defence and Richards broke clear, took the ball in his stride and coolly slotted past Paddy Kenny to give Vale the lead.
If that wasn't bad enough then five minutes later Loftus Road was to be left stunned.
Rigg, the maker of the first goal, picked the ball up on the edge of the box and took aim for Paddy Kenny's bottom right hand corner and with the help of a deflection he found the bottom corner of his choosing and gave Vale, what was to be fair, a deserved lead.
Rangers' really should have pulled a goal back just before half time. Fitz Hall's long ball was picked up by Josh Parker and the youngster turned his defender inside out before shooting at the near post but his effort was tipped wide by Tomlinson.

At half time me and Jenson were joined by Michael and we all anticipated the introduction of Alejandro Faurlin as we were lacking his intelligence and movement in midfield because his replacement Mikele Leigertwood wasn't having his best game in the centre of midfield. The general concensus was also that we were glad that we never paid for the game... luckily!!

Unfortunately, well I say unfortunately very lightly, due to being in the blue and white bar finishing off what was a swift pint after meeting Jo G in there, we missed a third Port Vale goal scored by Richards once again. From what I am told Paddy Kenny struggled to keep hold of a low shot and Richards was there to pick up the pieces and effectively finish the game as a contest.
What we then noticed was that Leon Clarke had been taken off during the half time interval and was replaced by Antonio German.
Rangers' then thought they had grabbed a goal back when Matt Connolly headed home a Gary Borrowdale corner but Connolly was adjudged to of unfairly jumped against his marker.
On the hour mark Rangers' got their goal.
Connolly and Mackie exchanged passes before the latter played in German and the substitute smashed a shot against the nearside post before seeing the ball hit the other post and rolling to a defenders foot and cleared the ball... however the linesman was flagging as he felt the ball went over the line before hitting the second post, dubious but it was a slice of luck that was needed!
Romone Rose and Joe Oastler were introduced into the game straight after the goal as they replaced Shaun Derry and Josh Parker.
The substitutions did liven the R's up for the final 25 minutes of the game but unfortunately when a half chance came along we just were not able to capitalise on it.

Another disappointing early exit from the cup for the R's and in all fairness you can't say that Port Vale didn't deserve it because they took their chances and their supporters who travelled down made a fair amount of noise cheering on their charges.

Not much else can be said on the game apart from it was just so disappointing, however we have come up with a positive from the game and this is highlighted as we award our Man of the Match to Jamie Mackie. He showed heart and even with five minutes to go and we were losing 3-1 he was still chasing back and giving his everything for the shirt. Mackie was also by far the best R's player on the pitch and you can definitely see that we have a star in the making with this talented player.

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Derry (Oastler 63), Hall, Leigertwood, Clarke (German 46), Mackie, Connolly, Ephraim, Borrowdale, Parker (Rose 63).

Subs: Cerny, Faurlin, Brown, Ehmer.

Goals: German (62)

Bookings: Hall (33), Mackie (90)

Port Vale: Tomlinson, Yates, Griffith, McCombe, Owen, Loft, M Richards, J Richards (Dodds 83), Collins, Rigg (K Taylor 73), Roberts (Fraser 90).

Subs: Martin, R Taylor, Morsey, Malbon.

Goals: J Richards (30 & 48), Rigg (35)

Referee: Mr G Sutton

Attendance: 6, 619


R's on the Road will be back on Thursday with a preview of Saturday's trip to Sheffield United.