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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Cup Upset....


QPR 1-0 MK Dons

QPR caused a major cup upset as, for the first time in 11 years, they finally won an F.A.Cup tie, but only just - as a late Danny Gabbidon header saw of the challenge of a spirited MK Dons side at a cold Loftus Road this evening.














With it being a Cup game, midweek, extra money, on TV and extremely cold, many of the gang decided to give this one a miss, with only myself, Jenson, Trevor and California Hoop in attendance. Unfortunately, CH wasn't aware the Upper Loft was open and with 9 workmates, sat in South Africa Road.

After a quick visit to the Club Shop and then the Springbok, we were in our seats in plenty of time to welcome the new Manager, Mark Hughes. That itself, turned into a non event as with photographers aplenty, the Gaffer just came out of the tunnel and took his place in the dugout, very low key indeed.

Onto the game and MK made a very bright start as Rangers continued to look nervous and lacking confidence. Following an MK half chance, it was the 12th minute before the R's created their first chance with a decent effort from Bothroyd. The game continued and MK were certainly having the better of things with chances falling to Smith and top scorer, Macdonald.

Against the run of play, Rangers had the ball in the net on the half hour, Derry heading home Buzsaky's corner, only for the referee to call a foul on the keeper. A text from Lee confirmed that the Rangers midfielder was all over the Dons keeper and it was a clear foul.

From there, the visitors should have taken the lead, but Macdonald dragged his shot wide when it seemed certain he would score. Just before half time and Rangers missed the best chance of the game - Buzsaky played Wright-Phillips through on goal with a cutting through ball, but the keeper saved brilliantly from the Rangers wide man.

Onto the second half which I now believe was completely jinxed by Trevor. At half time, he lumped money on Macheda and Buzsaky to score the first at 6/1 and 14/1 respectively. Cue 62 minutes and the impressive Macheda was replaced by Tommy Smith and on 72 minutes, on the back of a blistering free kick, well saved by the Dons keeper, Buzsaky was replaced by Heidar Helguson. If the first change was confusing, the second was just baffling as both were having very good games. The Buzsaky change also led to some booing at the new Manager from a fair amount of the home crowd.

But low and behold, the boos were soon replaced by cheers as the resulting corner, taken by Shaun Wright-Phillips was headed home by Danny Gabbidon and it came at a time when in all honesty, the only team who looked likely to score were the MK Dons.

Rangers then looked so much more confident, kept the ball well and closed the game out to set up a home tie against Chelsea in 2 weeks time.

QPR: Kenny, Hill, Derry, Gabbidon, Bothroyd (Orr 86), Mackie, Buzsaky (Helguson 72), Young, Wright-Phillips, Macheda (Smith 62), Ferdinand. Subs: Cerny, Hall, Campbell, Ephraim.

Man of the Match - a few choices again for this one as the gang not in attendance were kind enough to text them through. Myself, went for Heidar Helguson who looked every bit a class act when he came off the bench - Macheda and Buzsaky were well in the running before the changes. Jenson and Corp went for Wright-Phillips and Lee and Jess chose Buzsaky. But tonight's winner with 3 votes, from Sam, Luke and PK, was R's goalscorer - Danny Gabbidon

I am going to refrain from being too negative as most of you will agree, this was not great viewing at all and it is clear to see the lack of confidence amongst the players. However, a win is a win and let's keep our fingers crossed that this will help us push forward in the weeks ahead, starting with the massive game against Wigan this coming Saturday.

And finally, I will finish with expressing my disappointment of the Clubs decision to hike up the prices for the Chelsea cup tie a week on Saturday - £50, £40 and £30 is a bit much considering the hike we all had with the season tickets and I am sorry Tony Fernandes and Co, although the vouchers were a nice gesture, it didn't really count for much seeing as they were to be spent at the Club. I along with many others no doubt feel there was no need to do this after everything...

That is all

Come on You R'sssssssss!!!

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