Dave Jones left feeling sheepish.

Today the R's faithful traveled to Cardiff hoping that the R's could secure three points that would mean that automatic promotion and gain sweet revenge for 2003. Could all our dreams come true in one day? We were about to find out.

The Lofty Heights gang were travelling in numbers once again with two car loads of us making our way to Wales. Jess, Sam, Luke and Iceman all jumped in with me and in Jenson's car was Lofty, PK and Lorna.
My party left at 8.45 and headed straight for a McDonald's for a nice greasy breakfast before hitting the M4 and Wales bound. Jenson's party left slightly later, albeit a tad hungover after a Jenson BBQ ran into the early hours.
After paying the £5.70 toll over the Severn Bridge we stopped at the first available services for a toilet break and then getting back on track and completing our final leg of the journey, getting stuck in traffic just as we were getting off the motorway and waiting just behind the four coach loads of R's fans that had left at 7.30am.
Having rolled up the away car park with an hour to spare before kick off, we had to park just outside of the caged area it had just filled up as we arrived. We waited around outside the ground and bumped into Nik, Gobi and Phill as me and Jess awaited the arrival of the second car as I had Lofty and Jenson's ticket. Luckily enough the gang rolled up to the ground with just under 10 minutes left before kick off.



Neil Warnock named an unchanged side after the team drew 0-0 against Derby on Monday.

From the very start the R's fans were in fine voice and singing loud and proud as we looked to gain our dream result.

Rangers' and Taarabt came out of the traps flying and Taarabt's opening effort only helped liven up an already excited R's following.
However on six minutes the opening blow was dealt..... by Cardiff.
Bothroyd had a first effort blocked from just outside the 18 yard box but his second was superbly curled into the far corner leaving Paddy Kenny with no chance whatsoever of reaching it as the ball hit the post and rustled into the back of the net.
Rangers' went up the other end and continued to pressure the Cardiff defence and were soon on level terms.
Taarabt's corner was only cleared as far as the magical Moroccan and he beautifully curled it over to the far post and found the top corner. Cue mental celebrations!!! The gang went crazy when the goal went in and there was plenty of love being shared amongst us all.
The game then went into deadlock as Cardiff used the exact same tactic as they had previously at Loftus Road, playing in behind Faurlin and off the shoulder of Matt Connolly and the tactic was creating plenty of trouble for Connolly and Gorkss.
It was a deep cross that was the undoing of the R's once more.
Bothroyd crossed from the left hand side and Connolly failed to attack the ball and ended up palming the ball into the path of Bellamy and he sliced his shot into the top corner from six yards out. 2-1 Cardiff.
Rangers' played out the rest of the half and geared themselves up for a Warnock pep talk at half time.



At half time the queues to get to the concourse were so long that it took a while for everyone to get downstairs and do their bits before arriving for the second half a few minutes late. The half time interval was hardly entertaining, would've been nice to see what was said in the BBC studio's.

Having stolen John's inflatable sheep as the half started, Sam and Jess examined the item and found a hole in the back of the sheep and begun to see how many fingers Sam could get up there. That was the entertainment for the opening five minutes of the half before they got bored and Jess instead just kept hold of the sheep and held it for the entire second half.
Cardiff again looked to trouble the R's with their traditional long ball over the top, which in fairness did trouble the R's for a short period but finally we sussed this out and nullified the attacks and the half grew. With this Rangers' started to find their feet and the passing game of ours slowly became more and more effective and the space across the pitch began to open up as Routledge and Taarabt started to work their magic.
With the introduction of Patrick Agyemang, with Tommy Smith making way, there was an imediate impact.
Routledge flicked the ball with the outside of his foot to Taarabt and the R's captain controlled the ball before wriggling free of his defender and then placed the ball into the bottom left corner past the despairing Bywater.
Rangers' piled the pressure on Cardiff after the goal and in the final minute they carved out a great opening.
Taarabt once again was the creator as he drilled a low cross to the back post where Heidar Helguson was arriving with the goal wide open to him....... and his effort dribbled wide and left R's fans wondering what could have been.



In fairness every R's fan would've taken a point at the start of the game, just as long as we didn't lose.
Defensively first half we were all over the place and just needed the confidence and composure to deal with the Cardiff game plan which consisted of balls being played over the top for Bothroyd and Bellamy to chase, once we figured that out and brought Fitz Hall on for Matt Connolly the R's looked like the only team likely to win the game.



Man of the Match today was a unanimous decision but we did have three candidates going into this one. Lorna pointed out Tommy Smith as an outstanding performer and with his hard work. Lofty voted for Bradley Orr, who had probably his best game for the R's to date and has been performing well over the last three or four games. However the majority vote went to the man that scored both goals and was always going to be a danger to the Cardiff backline, Adel Taarabt.

Cardiff City: Bywater, McNaughton, Whittingham, Bothroyd, McPhail, Burke (Emmanuel-Thomas 77), Keinan, Quinn, Olofinjana, Samuel, Bellamy (Chopra 88).

Subs: Heaton, Rae, Hudson, Blake, Matthews.

Goals: Bothroyd (6), Bellamy (35)

Bookings: Whittingham (33), Quinn (67)

QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Derry, Taarabt, Helguson, Faurlin, Gorkss, Routledge, Connolly (Hall 81), Smith (Agyemang 70).

Subs: Cerny, Buzsaky, Hulse, Ephraim, Miller.

Goals: Taarabt (10 & 71)

Referee: Mr L Mason

Attendance: 26,058(2000 QPR)

Having now got home and seen Dave Jones' interview after the game and how Cardiff apparently "took us to the cleaners" I will politely say this to the miserable old git............... YOU'RE GONNA LOSE IN THE PLAY OFFS.........

U R'SSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!