Three and Easy for Liverpool...

QPR 0-3 Liverpool

QPR ended a dreadful 2012 in the worst possible fashion, with a simply awful performance and a sound thrashing, with Liverpool running out very comfortable 3-0 winners - Luiz Suarez(2) and Daniel Agger were on target for the Reds.

I met up with what was a rather depleted gang before kick off - Sam, Luke, Lorna, PK and Corp were all in attendance, whilst Lee, Jess and Jenson were all over at Alexandra Palace for the Darts Semi Finals... and what a wise choice they made!!

 

Well, between us, myself and Lee sit here week after week, reviewing the game, giving our thoughts, ranting and moaning if we feel the need and also trying to stay positive. But seriously, after what I have witnessed today, I am going to put as much effort in as a big majority of our players did this evening... I just cannot be bothered. Not taking anything away from Liverpool though who did a decent job and took their chances, although I think they had one of the easiest games they will have all season...

 

Man of the Match - N/A -  but a mention for every QPR fan that was there today and stayed until the end. I left at 87 minutes but in truth, wanted to go at half time.

Queens Park Rangers

• 33 Julio Cesar
• 03 Traore
• 06 Hill
• 15 Onuoha
• 17 Nelsen
• 02 Diakite (Granero - 63' )
• 10 Taarabt
• 11 Wright-Phillips (Fabio - 80' Booked )
• 40 M'bia Booked
• 09 Cisse (Derry - 46' )
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 01 Green
• 05 Ferdinand
• 20 Fabio
• 04 Derry
• 14 Granero
• 32 Faurlin
• 24 Hoillett

Personally and as I have stated earlier on the social networks, I would much rather watch Warnock's Rangers struggle to stay in the Premier League, but at least give their all, rather than sit and watch some of these overpaid mercenaries simply toss it all away and collect their inflated pay cheques each week.

In saying that though, I am glad we have Harry Redknapp. The transfer window is upon us and if there is anyone that can wheel and deal and get what we need for the fight ahead, it's Redknapp - and indeed, boot what we don't need firmly out of the door.

I will be back in a few days as we face the somewhat daunting trip to Stamford Bridge but in the meantime, I would like to wish every single one of you a Very Happy 2013!!! Let's hope it brings us all much more than the seven, yes, seven League wins than the whole of 2012 brought us!?!?

Keep the Faith and Come on You R'ssssssssss!!!

WBA - We're Bottom Again

Following  a lovely Christmas with our families, the gang returned to Loftus Road hoping for a late present with 3 points and another victory to celebrate. In our way were high flying West Brom.

Today I took the journey from Jess' house with her dad Clive and Brother James  making the journey with us. It was an absolute nightmare travelling along the M25 and took to the back roads, making our way through Woking, Addlestone, Chertsey, Staines, Hayes, Southall, Ealing and Acton before finally parking down the Thorpebank Road (hoping to avoid a parking ticket this time!) with half an hour to spare ahead of a delayed 3.15pm kick off due to traffic.
Lofty, Jenson and Lorna were all in the comfort of the Apex Rental box for this game so it was just myself and the returning Corp that were in our usual row, with also Pete behind us to keep us entertained during the game.
Sam and Luke made their own way to the ground as Luke was celebrating his 21st Birthday today, Happy Birthday!!

One change was forced upon Harry Redknapp was Ryan Nelsen falling under the flu bug and was replaced by Armand Traore. The other change made was Granero out for SWP.

The first half was a very dire performance from the R's, with West Brom and Mulumbu in particular running the show without really creating  any clear cut chances, that was until the half hour mark.
Marc Antoine-Fortune's pass found Brunt in space as Taarabt had let him slip two yards in front of him and without breaking his stride the Northern Ireland International whipped his left foot and sent the ball flying past Rob Green into the bottom corner with no chance whatsoever!
This had come just after SWP made excellent progress down the right, beat two defenders (yes it definitely happened!) and delivered to the advancing Mackie, who in turn headed wide when it seemed easier to hit the target.



The 1-0 scoreline was probably a fair reflection on the game as Rangers' were poor for the majority of the half. Only M'bia looked like he could have a positive impact on the game, with the others getting frustrated a being unable to break down a well organised West Brom outfit.

The second half started a lot better than the first half and had a fantastic chance to level from a Taarabt corner in front of the Loft. The outswinger from the right found M'bia's head and unfortunately his effort from a full three yards out found Taarabt back out at the corner flag, where the Morrocan put another beautiful cross and M'bia was there again, only to put his second header wide!
West Brom went up the other end and doubled their advantage in controversial fashion.
The corner was headed back goalwards by Anton Ferdinand and Rob Green looked in complete control of the situation before Antoine-Fortune backed into Green, causing the R's stopper to flap at the ball and handle the ball into his own net.
How the Referee and Linesman missed this is beyond me! Last week we saw a foul given to West Ham when Everton scored and there was minimal contact on the West Ham goalkeeper, however Green was clearly held yet no foul was given! Where is he consistency in the Refereeing in this country?? It's a complete farce that once again we were on the receiving end of a s#!t decision. But what we didn't know was that there was more of this to come, as you will find out later.
On 65minutes Redknapp made some important changes as we looked to reduce the arrears. Diakite and Hoilett came on for Fabio and Faurlin as the R's changed to a 3-4-3 formation.
Within four minutes the changes had their desired affect.
Some good passing football resulted in M'bia sliding a perfect through ball beyond the West Brom defence and Djibril Cisse poked the ball over Ben Foster and gave the Rangers' faithful something to finally cheer about and give us all some hope.
The final 20minutes were tense as West Brom done all they could to waste time whilst the R's pushed and created chances, with Mackie and Taarabt testin Foster from distance before M'bia put another header wide.
In injury time the R's were denied their equalizing goal when Hill's header was cleared off the line by a combination of Foster and Mulumbu and cleared for another corner.
Rangers' were also denied a clear penalty when M'bia tried to square a header across goal and Ridgewell blocked the ball with his arm, which was above his head, as the ball went for a corner. The linesman was in a fantastic position to give the penalty as he had no obstructions in his way yet somehow failed to spot the infringement. Just about sums up the quality of officiating on show today, also what we have got used to seeing over the last few seasons as time after time decisions just continually go against us! It would be nice to see us get a consistent ref at Loftus Road that officiates a good game because I cannot remember the last time there was a good refereeing performance during one of our games.



Unfortunately for us the second goal really did put ourselves against it today but we did wait until we went 2-0 down to really try to put a shift in and our main grafters of the day were Mackie and M'bia. Neither of these two stopped running all game and M'bia really impressed as he looked to get involved in everything and be at the heart of everything we created.
We have found ourselves left short by a poor piece of managing by our previous manager, leaving us with only 3 strikers in the squad of 25 and we only have one striker scoring for fun at the moment and he is on loan at Ipswich! Once January arrives we can welcome back a striker that will add some energy to our frontline and will bust a b@llock to get us out of trouble.
We also know that Mr Redknapp will also get rid of our underperformers that Hughes brought into the club and put on high wages, draining money out of the club faster than the water coming out of the Evian Mountain Spring! Players like Bosingwa will be pushed out of the club and the forgotten men like Luke Young will be given a chance to prove themselves and add some heart, desire and a will to win which we are so desperately lacking at this club.

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 03 Traore
• 05 Ferdinand
• 06 Hill
• 20 Fabio (Hoilett - 64' )
• 10 Taarabt
• 11 Wright-Phillips
• 32 Faurlin (Diakite - 64' )
• 40 M'bia Booked
• 09 Cisse
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 33 Julio Cesar
• 02 Diakite
• 04 Derry
• 14 Granero
• 18 Dyer
• 28 Ehmer
• 23 Hoilett

West Bromwich Albion

• 01 Foster
• 03 Olsson
• 04 Popov (Ridgewell - 35' )
• 23 McAuley
• 28 Jones
• 07 Morrison (Tamas - 86' )
• 11 Brunt
• 21 Mulumbu
• 22 Gera
• 20 Lukaku (Long - 76' )
• 32 Fortune

Substitutes

• 13 Myhill
• 06 Ridgewell
• 30 Tamas
• 17 Dorrans
• 08 Rosenberg
• 09 Long
• 24 Odemwingie

Our Man of the Match was a tight one this week with Mackie receiving one vote from Clive, Hill receiving two votes from Sam and Luke, however with three votes our winner today is Stephane M'bia.

Lofty will return with reports from the Liverpool, Chelsea and West Brom games over the next few weeks and I will be back for the Spurs game.
Until then I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and hopefully 2013 will be a much better one for all us R's fans!!

Keep The Faith!!!!!!!!

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Redknapp's Rangers Defeated

The festive period threw up a nice long journey three days before Christmas and sent the R's to their most northerly fixture of the season at Newcastle. Could the R's build on their fantastic win at home to Fulham last week?

Due to the time of year and the fact that this was a huge journey to make just before Christmas, a rarity occurred, none of the Lofty Heights gang made the trip to Newcastle as we all looked to spend time with our families.
Jess and myself treated ourselves to watching the game via a stream online. The last time we had chosen to do this was for our trip to Wolves last season and ended up missing the best away day of the season, with the R's winning 3-0, gutted!

Three changes where made to the team that won last week. Ferdinand, Fabio and Granero all came in for Onuoha, Traore and Wright-Phillips.

The first half was not exciting at all as no real clear cut chances were created by either side and Newcastle's shooting would of been welcomed down the road at Newcastle Falcons
The home crowd were very vocal and were getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of decisions going their way and in all fairness from what I saw, Clint Hill was doing a great job of man-handling Cisse during the course of the opening 45 minutes.
Rangers' battled away and although they were gaining in confidence throughout the half, it was evident that we were not going to over commit and would hit Newcastle on the break where we possibly could.
The other highlight of the half was that we won a corner!!

The second half was not that much better in terms of quality and the frustration of the home crowd continued to grow and when Gutierrez and Cisse were substituted, with Obertan and Shola Ameobi replacing them both. The Cisse change upset the home fans and the player as the boos began to ring around St James' Park.
From this moment on Newcastle began to take hold of the match and became the most likely to score until the 80th minute.
Ba found Ameobi in space just inside the 18yard box and the big striker turned Fabio and with his next step curled the ball around Rob Green with his left foot and scored his third goal of the season.
Shortly after the breakthrough, Marveaux's free kick slid just wide of the post as the R's were let off.

Chances were few and far between for the R's today and a draw is the result I think we would of been happy with. Obviously it's always disappointing to lose but now we must look to the Boxing Day game against West Brom to build onwards and gain on the teams in front of us. Results have gone our way today with Wigan, Southampton and Reading all losing so there is still plenty to play for in our fight to get out of the relegation places.

Newcastle United

• 01 Krul
• 02 Coloccini
• 03 Santon
• 05 Simpson
• 06 Williamson
• 14 Perch Booked
• 08 Anita
• 18 Gutierrez (Obertan - 60' )
• 24 Tiote Booked (Marveaux - 77' )
• 09 Cisse (Sh Ameobi - 61' Booked )
• 19 Ba

Substitutes

• 37 Harper
• 31 Ferguson
• 20 Bigirimana
• 22 Marveaux
• 25 Obertan
• 23 Sh Ameobi
• 28 Sa Ameobi

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 05 Ferdinand Booked
• 06 Hill Booked
• 17 Nelsen
• 20 Fabio
• 10 Taarabt
• 14 Granero (Wright-Phillips - 56' )
• 32 Faurlin (Derry - 78' )
• 40 M'bia
• 09 Cisse (Hoilett - 64' )
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 26 Murphy
• 03 Traore
• 15 Onuoha
• 02 Diakite
• 04 Derry
• 11 Wright-Phillips
• 23 Hoilett

I will be back after Christmas, so from all of us here at Lofty Heights we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Keep the Faith!!!

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taarabt's Two Good For You

Today saw the R's do battle with local rivals Fulham in a West London derby day that definitely did not share the joy of thanksgiving, it was more a need of taking three points away from your enemy.
Could Rangers' finally get the monkey off their back and record their first win of the season?? The Lofty Heights gang were in attendance in hope!

The day started early for Jess and myself as we got to W12 early for some final Christmas shopping and a cheeky Nandos before heading to the ground and meeting up with Sam, Luke and Lofty.
Unfortunately PK was not in the stands today as work once again denied him the chance of being at the game and Jenson could not make it due to spending time with family ahead of the festive period.
This meant that myself and Lofty had five chairs all to ourselves as Lorna also could not make the game.

Three changes was made to the side that drew against Wigan last week. Bosingwa, Derry and Diakite dropped to the bench and were replaced by Onuoha, Faurlin and Cisse.

Rangers' got of to a flying start with Taarabt and Cisse combining well to set Cisse free before he got pulled down by the last Fulham defender but somehow referee Martin Atkinson deemed it as no foul otherwise there would of been a sending off within the first two minutes of the game.
The R's continued to pile on the pressure and really should of been ahead on the 10 minute mark.
Jamie Mackie pounced on a back pass that fell short of Schwarzer and had enough time to pick out a sidefooted shot that dinked over the Fulham 'keeper but unfortunately for us, rolled just inches past the far post.
Schwarzer started the time wasting tactic very early in the game and it became very apparent that Fulham were quite content to play the game into a bore draw and were not even looking like threatening the R's goal.
Despite this there was one scare on the R's goal when Rob Green's clearance fell straight at Berbatov's feet but failed to control the ball and the R's defence were soon back in control.
There was a new found confidence that you could sense on the pitch and every player was playing for one another and we actually looked like a team rather than a bunch of individuals in a team failing to win.
The R's looked comfortable and now we were playing in our familiar 4-2-3-1 formation which gives a lot more flexibility when going forwards and today we had supporting players attacking Fulham, which has been a rarity this season.
The midfield of Faurlin and Mbia where doing a great job of keeping Berbatov quiet and he barely had any influence on the game at all. They were also feeding Taarabt, who in turn was creating havoc for the Fulham defence and enjoyed his best game in a Rangers' shirt this season.

At half time the gang assembled on the concourse extremely happy and positive that we could finally put away a poor Fulham side that were in unchartered territory, they actually had an away following of more than 4 people. It's amazing the effort some teams make for a local game, just goes to show how poor a club the muppets at Fulham are.

The R's started the second half as they did the first, on top and looking like the only side that would go on and win the game. On 52 minutes the deadlock was finally broken!
Taarabt run at the Fulham defence from the half way line and found himself 25 yards out with no real options in front of him and his shot looked to be tamely rolling into the arms of Schwarzer until a wicked deflection off Hangeland and ended up in the back of the net and lift the roof off of Loftus Road.
It was imperative that the R's held firm for the next five minutes after the goal to wipe away the bad memories at Wigan in the previous game and with Mbia and Faurlin battling away in the trenches they ensured that the defence held on and then the R's built on this and gained more confidence before taking control once again and started searching for the send goal to calm the nerves.
With 20 minutes to go that bit of magic that was needed arrived via our Marvellous Moroccan.
Taarabt managed to barge his way through Hangeland and another four Fulham defenders before rolling the ball forwards and then hit an effort with the outside of his foot and rolling into the bottom corner of Schwarzer's goal. Absolutely amazing goal that looked like it had no real pace on the ball but the skill involved to get the ball to nestle in the back of the net from that distance and technique was something else!
This set the R's up to see out the remaining 20 minutes of the game and really could of extended their lead if it wasn't for Schwarzer keeping the R's at bay, whilst Cisse was also very unlucky to not get himself on the scoresheet after his curled effort from 18 yards out evaded the hand of Schwarzer but somehow just crept past the post.
With just two minutes remaining Fulham gave themselves a lifeline and a consolation goal.
Petric was able to get himself a yard of space and hit his effort that took a deflection off of Faurlin and hit the back of the R's net. Game on and the nerves well and truely kicked in.
The R's survived a goal mouth scramble before having a great opportunity to seal the game.
Cisse's pinpoint header looked destined for the top corner but somehow Schwarzer managed to hand to it and keep the game alive from a Fulham perspective. Probably one of the best saves you will see for a very long time.
When Martin Atkinson's final whistle blew the elation and relief around Loftus Road was celebrated and we can finally say we have won a Premier League game this season! Despite all the disappointment of the start of this season and the idiot Welshman that was clueless and could not buy a win for us, we finally got the three points on the board and also climbed off the bottom of the table, with Reading now taking our place down there and they deserve it!!



To a man today the team were brilliant and worked together, encouraging each other along the way and really put their blood, sweat and tears into that performance today. The defence were solid, Ryan Nelsen and Clint Hill commanded the back line and were supported superbly by Faurlin and Mbia. Mbia was a tank today and really done a great job on keeping Berbatov quiet and also found himself in many attacking positions and could've got himself on the scoresheet on more than one occasion.

Man of the Match really is a no contest, I have only received three of the five possible votes and I can safely say that we have a unanimous decision in giving Adel Taarabt the award. He was completely unplayable today and really can be the person that drives us on and gets up higher in the table and to safety.

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 03 Traore
• 06 Hill
• 15 Onuoha
• 17 Nelsen
• 10 Taarabt Booked
• 11 Wright-Phillips (Fabio - 85' )
• 32 Faurlin
• 40 M'bia
• 09 Cisse (Ferdinand - 90' )
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 33 Julio Cesar
• 05 Ferdinand
• 20 Fabio
• 02 Diakite
• 04 Derry
• 14 Granero
• 23 Hoilett

Fulham

• 01 Schwarzer
• 03 Riise
• 05 Hangeland
• 06 Baird
• 15 Richardson (Petric - 63' )
• 18 Hughes
• 27 Riether (Kelly - 46' )
• 07 Sidwell Booked
• 16 Duff
• 09 Berbatov
• 20 Rodallega (Dejagah - 72' Booked )

Substitutes

• 38 Etheridge
• 02 Kelly
• 04 Senderos
• 14 Karagounis
• 31 Kacaniklic
• 10 Petric
• 24 Dejagah

Well finally we have had a winning report to enjoy and I hope that next week Lofty can follow this up with our first away win at Newcastle!!

Keep the Faith!!!!!

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three Minutes of Happiness...

Wigan 2-2 QPR

A very much unwanted record has now been achieved - Queens Park Rangers have set a new record for the longest winless start to a Premier League following today's draw at the DW Stadium.

The long trip up North was more or less trouble free and myself and Jenson, in the Stadium Wireless car, met up with Lee, Jess, Sam and Luke at Stafford Services, well eventually. Myself and Jenson went in for a coffee and a comfort break and were looking for the others, when Luke appeared and said that he swore blind he saw Kylie Minogue go into the toilet. Admittedly, I thought it was probably someone who looked a bit like her, until the pint sized Aussie and yes, she is VERY small, walked past us with a minder in tow. Our total perversion was somewhat limited as her minder was stopping everyone who even dared breath the same air, but Jenson was very quick to announce to the Twitter world that he had seen Kyle... who must have been the minder ;). Kylie then obliged us by posing for a quick photo, although I am known to tell the occasional little white lie..

We then moved swiftly onto Wigan and managed to grab a couple of free parking spots at the Red Robin pub, of which of course, we were then totally forced in to having a pint. We made our way into the DW at about 2.30 and just in time to sample the Wigan pies and after last season, we were all hopeful of a high rating.

Onto the game and we started quite near the front for a possible Match of the Day appearance, but the drizzling rain forced us much further back. Whilst down the front, the R's had started brightly but when we eventually settled in or new position, Wigan took an undeserved lead - a corner from the left, which wasn't actually a corner at all, was half cleared to McCarthy who drilled the ball home via a deflection off Jamie Mackie.

Rangers fought back and eight minutes later, were level as Ryan Nelsen powered home a header from Taarabt's corner. No more than the R's deserved. In a bitty end to the half, both sides had half chances, Di Santo for Wigan and SWP for the R's.

Onto the 2nd half and Taarabt maybe should have done better but curled an effort harmlessly over the bar. But then it was Rob Green's chance to shine in the Rangers goal, saving superbly from McCarthy, Gomez and Jones. But after surviving the Wigan onslaught, a better connection from Mbia would surely have seen Rangers take the lead on 68 minutes, but Al Habsi pushed his effort away. But 3 minutes later, the Rangers end were in raptures when Mbia capitalised on poor Wigan defending to feed SWP, who cut the ball across to Cisse who side footed the ball home. Could this be it? Our first win of the season finally???

No..

Just 3 whole minutes later and McCarthy, with 5 R's defenders around him, managed to stab the ball past the excellent Rob Green and the scores were level. At this point and as the game became somewhat tense, I feel we just must mention something that amused us throughout the half - a gentleman in the QPR end literally goaded Wigan fans constantly and seem to be picking out certain individuals of which to be honest and after looking carefully, we could not see anyone in the Wigan section to the right that was taking a blind bit of notice of him. Even the stewards didn't see fit to even bother wasting their time with him. This bloke was acting like and is best described as Apollo Creed in the first Rocky film taunting Rocky and the crowd with 'I WANT YOU!!!'.Amusing or worrying, I'm not overly sure...

Anyway, back to the game and right at the death, Rob Green had to be at his best again at full stretch to deny Gomez with a superb one handed save. That was the last action of the afternoon and unfortunately, the winless run continues...

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 03 Traore
• 06 Hill
• 17 Nelsen
• 19 Bosingwa (Fabio - 84' )
• 02 Diakite (Granero - 77' )
• 04 Derry
• 10 Taarabt Booked (Cisse - 58' )
• 11 Wright-Phillips
• 40 M'bia
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 26 Murphy
• 05 Ferdinand
• 20 Fabio
• 14 Granero
• 32 Faurlin
• 09 Cisse
• 23 Hoilett

Man of the Match - Only 2 real contenders today with Ryan Nelsen leading by example with another commanding performance at the centre of the R's defence and was Sam's choice. But from the rest of us and with 5 votes, the clear winner today for a superb goalkeeping display, is Rob Green.

Awayday Pie Rating

Lofty - Chunky Steak - excellent, good filling but lacked that little something in flavour - 9
Jenson - Chunky Steak - decent pie but perhaps pastry was too salty - 8
Lee - Chunky Steak - again good, but a bit of pepper may have brought the filling flavour to perfection - 8.5
Sam and Luke - Meat and Potato - filling FAR too HOT which burnt tastebuds!! perhaps the potato keeping the heat. Both voted 4.

Wigan Pie Rating  - 6.7/10

In summary, I think it's safe to say that despite a point away from home, the feeling is of disappointment once again. It was another winnable game that has now passed us by and the run goes onto 16 games. You can take positives that things have improved and we have 3 points in 3 games under Redknapp instead of 4 in 13 under Hughes. But I would hope by the time we take on Fulham next week, that Harry will have seen that Boswinga is just not up to the task and also, that he doesn't actually give a shit. Also, SWP, who I have rated and backed in the past, is just not doing it. Whether it's his heart or confidence, I don't know but he looked lightweight and pulled out of too many tackles too often this afternoon and at at time where the players need to stand up and be counted, sorry Shaun, but you just seem to be shying well away from it.

It has been discussed amongst us of just who will get the pleasure of writing the first winning report and hopefully, it will be Lee next week as we take on local rivals, Fulham.

Keep the Faith and Come on you R'ssssssssssssss!!!

Redknapp's Rangers' Frustrated Once Again.......

Today opened a new chapter as Harry Redknapp took charge of his first home game of the season against fellow Premier League strugglers Aston Villa. Could Redknapp's Rangers' get their first win of the season? We were about to find out.

The gang assembled slowly at Loftus Road and we all ensured that we parked within a parking space today as the trigger happy Hammersmith and Fulham Council had issued two parking tickets to myself and Jenson. They have now changed the reasoning as to why we were handed tickets and still expect us to pay the fine, think again you muppets!!
The gang were in full attendance as Lofty, Jenson and I were joined by the late arrivals of PK and Lorna, whilst Sam and Luke were in their usual position and Jess was situated in the West Paddock.

One change was made to the side that drew at Sunderland on Tuesday. Cisse dropped to the bench as SWP was restored to the starting 11.



Rangers' started the game well and had a sense of purpose and energy about them.
Mackie was starting as the lone striker, a position that he has been vying for since he joined the club over two and a half seasons ago and looked determined to impress his new manager.
Despite the good start Rangers' fell 1-0 behind after 8 minutes. The R's failed to clear on several occasions and Taaabt failed to stay with Brett Holman and he managed to get two yards of space and hit a fierce drive that Rob Green managed to get a hand on but the shot was so good that it still hit the back of the net.
Despite the set back the R's still looked to probe the Villa defence and were duly rewarded in the 18th minute. Bosingwa and Diakite combined well down the right before the latter whipped in a delightful ball and Mackie was on hand to head home and get the hosts back on level terms. A true centre forwards goal!
On 29 minutes the R's were dealt a hammer blow as Stephane Mbia was left in quite some pain after an accidental collision with Agbonlahor on the halfway line. I didn't see what happened but Jess did say that he was in a bad way as he was stretchered past her and was in the concourse until 10 minutes into the half time interval and left via ambulance.



Mbia was replaced by Shaun Derry.
Once Mbia had come off we looked like we lost our rhythm and started to misplace a lot more passes, with Taarabt becoming very sloppy and conceded easy possession to Villa.
SWP had two glorious chances to put the R's in front. His first effort when one on one with Guzan was placed right at the Villa goalkeeper. His second chance, again when one on one with Guzan, this time SWP decided to hit the ball on the half volley and somehow the ball hit the inside of the post and bounced clear. He done everything right and was so unlucky to of not scored!

At half time we were all feeling very positive about what potential outcome we would see and thought that if we continued to play the same way then we would create enough chances to win the game.

The second half started with one change being made. Park replaced the out of sorts Granero.
Rangers' started the second half as they finished the first and were probing the Villa defence, however the final ball was always lacking and we were too slow to get sufficient bodies in the box to present any danger to Guzan's goal.
The closest the R's came to a goal in the second half was a Clint Hill header that came off the top of the bar.
The final 20 minutes were very nervy as Villa began to stamp their authority on the game and retained possession very well, frustrating the home crowd but were very effective.
Benteke looked like he was going to win it right at the end but did not manage to hit the target.

Today looked very promising from the outset and despite falling a goal behind the fight and passion managed to get us back in the game. We really lost momentum when Mbia went off injured and struggled to really get back to that level of performance. If only SWP had taken one of his two great chances then we would be speaking about this game in a very different light, however this is the second draw in a week against teams that are in the mini league of sides that are looking like they are in the relegation battle and we need to pick up wins against them in order to drag them closer to us and give ourselves a chance of crawling out of the mess we are in. We need to start this sequence of wins next week in what is going to be an extremely tough encounter at the DW Stadium.

Today's Man of the Match is a clear choice from the gang. Luke gave his vote for a good performance from SWP, Jess' vote went to the greatly improved Bosingwa and his best game in a Rangers' shirt. With the remaining votes this meant that our Man of the Match for his tireless efforts and a great goal is Jamie Mackie.

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 03 Traore
• 06 Hill
• 17 Nelsen
• 19 Bosingwa
• 02 Diakite (Hoilett - 69' )
• 10 Taarabt
• 11 Wright-Phillips
• 14 Granero (Park Ji-sung - 46' )
• 40 M'bia (Derry - 39' Booked )
• 12 Mackie

Substitutes

• 26 Murphy
• 05 Ferdinand
• 20 Fabio
• 04 Derry
• 07 Park Ji-sung
• 09 Cisse
• 23 Hoilett

Aston Villa

• 22 Guzan
• 06 Clark
• 30 Lichaj
• 32 Baker Booked
• 34 Lowton Booked
• 15 Westwood
• 25 Bannan (Delph - 67' )
• 31 Herd (Williams - 65' )
• 11 Agbonlahor
• 14 Holman (El Ahmadi - 70' )
• 20 Benteke

Substitutes

• 01 Given
• 37 Williams
• 07 Ireland
• 08 El Ahmadi
• 16 Delph
• 09 Bent
• 26 Weimann

Ref: H Webb

Att: 17,387

Next week we travel to the DW Stadium for our important game against Wigan.

Will Lofty get the first report were we can give you news of our first win?? I really hope so!!!

Keep The Faith!!!!!!!