Lofty Heights... 'Ohhh Bobby Zamooooora!!!'

A look at Queens Park Rangers F.C. through the eyes of the fans - follow us on twitter @loftyheights70, @LoftyQPR and @qprleeroy








Sunday, February 13, 2011

Forest's Fire Dampened...


QPR 1-1 Forest

QPR and the divisions in-form side, Nottingham Forest, could not be seperated as the two sides played out a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road this Sunday lunchtime.












The gang were again slightly depleted today with California Hoop visiting relatives and Jenson, so I am led to believe, just far too drunk/hungover to attend. We all arrived in good time at the Springbok, only to find that some new, stupid regulation is now preventing customers from drinking outside the pub. Those that know the Springbok on a matchday, will know that it gets extremely busy inside, so instead of squeezing ourselves into the bar, we made an unusually early entrance into the ground and had what seemed a long wait for the kick off. We may be forced to find a new pre match haunt before home games now, we shall see...

Onto the game and with Forest chalking up six straight wins and driving themselves quite firmly into the promotion race, this was a much anticipated fixture which was reflected by a near sold out Loftus Road. We did amuse however at the sight of many a new or recently returning fan, wandering around the Loftus Road Upper Stand looking completely lost whilst trying to find their seats before kick off.

Forest started the game well as they normally do and although flagged offside, Tudgay smashed the R's post in the opening minute. But Rangers began to find their feet and on 16 minutes, took the lead when Tommy Smith collected Alejandro Faurlin's pass 35 yards from goal, darted forward to the edge of the area before unleashing a stunning low curler past the outstretched hand of former R's goalkeeper Lee Camp.

It got even worse for Forest 8 minutes later when a two footed lunge on Taarabt from Majewski, saw referee Mark Clattenburg show a straight red card to the Forest man. The away sides fortunes then started to turn when Rangers gave away a soft free kick, 30 yards out - McGugan's powerful free-kick was heading well wide until it hit McGoldrick and flew in the other direction, past the diving Paddy Kenny and into the net. McGoldrick celebrated like he had scored a similar goal to that of Wayne Rooney's yesterday and gave it to the R's fans in the Loft and Ellerslie Road stands. Paddy Kenny had to be at his best just minutes later, saving Cohen's header with his feet and a cheeky effort from Adel Taarabt at the other end went narrowly wide before the half came to a close.

The discussions amongst us at half time, concluded that if Forest were to go out to win the game, then Rangers would win, but if they decided to shut up shop, it could be a very frustrating half. Sadly, it was the latter and it seemed at times as if neither side wanted to lose this one and the game often became quite stale. But it was Rangers that had the chances with Faurlin driving narrowly wide, Bradley Orr seeing his powerful header cleared off the line by Chris Gunter and Petter Vaagan Moen flashing a header past the post in stoppage time.

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Derry, Taarabt, Faurlin (Vaagan Moen 79), Gorkss (Chimbonda 74), Routledge, Connolly, Hulse, Smith (Miller 46). Subs: Cerny, Hall, Helguson, Shittu.

Lofty's Man of the Match
- again, the gang were divided with this one, with myself, going for an extremely solid performance at the back from Matt Connolly. Lee and Corp went for Faurlin, but todays winner with votes from Sam, Jo and Pk, is Shaun Derry.

In summary and a bit of a cliche, but with Forest's current form, I would have taken a point had been offered it before the game, but in saying that, I was confident of another home win. The Forest sending off was probably the worst thing to happen to us today as teams often toughen up and fight their all for the cause. Well, look what happened at Reading last week...

The gang are making the trip to Deepdale next Saturday for the top v bottom clash with Preston...

Come on You R'sssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!

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