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, April 28, 2013

(R) QPR..


Reading 0-0 QPR

Although most of us had resigned ourselves to it, this afternoon, QPR's relegation from the Premier League, along with Reading's, was confirmed. A win for either side would have prolonged the agony for one, but an absolute bore fest of a draw sealed both sides fate at the Madjeski.

Yet again, I found myself really struggling to get enthused for this one, especially after myself and Jenson were at Wycombe yesterday to see Gaz Ainsworth pull down the curtain on his 600 game playing career. A very enjoyable and emotional day for one of our former players who gave his all for our club and will always be fondly remembered. Will we be able to say that about any of our current crop? A review of yesterday will appear next week...

Sadly, back to today and myself and Jenson arrived at the Stadium at about midday, discussing the support and that what a state of affairs it must be when we cannot sell a 2,500 allocation to a reasonably local game by a long way, I think about 750 tickets were unsold. Many people that are friends, that I know and that I know off, have simply given up and our refusing to spend any more hard earned money and waste precious time on what has gone on in front of them. It is an extremely sad state of affairs and speaks volumes!!

We were joined in our seats by Lee, Jess, Sam and Luke just before the kick off and even Lee and Sam were struggling to get any enthusiasm for their 'local game'. A hung over PK decided at last knockings to give this a miss, a wise choice I must say.

Onto the game and the banter was pretty good between the two sets of supporters, the highlight being the 'if you're all going to Bournemouth, clap your hands' chant taken up in unison and raising a few smiles. But Reading being Reading, couldn't get through the day without mentioning the 106 points they achieved a few years back. It's a bit similar to going to Forest without hearing the words 'European Cup' mentioned or Leeds being the ??Champions of Europe??. No doubt we will hear them all again next season.



From a QPR point of view, Jermaine Jenas, Granero and Jay Bothroyd all had chances and Adel Taarabt looked like he was staging his very own miss of the season competition. But as mentioned, this was a quite awful game and very much looked a game between the bottom two teams in the league of which there was so little hunger, they looked like they had both, long since given up...

Queens Park Rangers
  • 01 Green
  • 03 Traore
  • 06 Hill
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 19 Bosingwa (Fabio - 73' )
  • 10 Taarabt (Hoilett - 68' )
  • 14 Granero 
  • 16 Jenas
  • 40 M'bia (Mackie - 89' )
  • 18 Remy
  • 37 Bothroyd

Substitutes

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 20 Fabio
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 04 Derry
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 23 Hoilett
  • 12 Mackie
Man of the Match

Quite surprisingly, a few contenders and you couldn't really argue with any of them. Jess went for Traore, with Lee and Jenson going for Nedun Onuoha. But todays winner with 3 votes from myself, Sam and Luke, goes to Jay Bothroyd. PK incidentally, texted through Esteban Granero as his choice and with a 5.30am finish to his night out, he was quite obviously still a bit tipsy..

AwayDay Pie Rating

Expert analysis by myself and Jenson only this time, perhaps due to the fact I actually warned Lee off on his arrival..

Lofty - Steak - what steak? just a view bits of a pretty much gravy filled salty effort. Presented well though - 3/10

Jenson - same as above but Jenson did actually finish his.. 4/10

Giving the Reading Pies a rating of 3.5/10, hardly a Premier League Pie!?!

Well, in summary, well, how can one summarise this? We didn't win the game because we wasn't good enough. We have been relegated because we haven't been good enough. I like the rest of you am gutted enough about this without starting to rant on about why this has happened as I want to actually go to bed this evening, but when I see my club get relegated and then see TV pictures such as this below, I think it shows so much about what is wrong with our Great Club just now...



Lee will return next weekend as the R's take on an in form Arsenal. Let's just hope with the pressure now off it's a game we can sit back and enjoy...

Come on you R'sssssssssss!!!






Saturday, April 20, 2013

No Heart, No Desire, No Chance......


The R's hosted fellow relegation threatened Stoke City in today's that would determine whether our impending relegation would be prolonged or just over so we can look ahead to a season in the Championship and hopefully a chance for us suffering fans to see the R's win a few more games than we have witnessed in the last two seasons.

Jess, Sam and myself arrived at Loftus Road at 2pm and met up with Tony and Alan opposite the club shop before the girls headed to the Springbok to meet Lorna for a few drinks, whilst Tony, Alan and myself went to the Blue and White bar for a swift half before heading out to enjoy the sunshine and have a good catch up.
Whilst we were nattering away we bumped into Bob, Kempy and Kris, as we discussed the rumours that the R's have bid for the Wormwood Scrubs and Linford Christie Stadium plot of land and is the chosen destination of the new R's Stadium, a mere mile or so from where we are currently situated.
Lofty and Jenson then came and met up with us before we headed up to our seats and let football get in the way of a good social.
Unfortunately PK and Luke were not in attendance today due to work commitments and a stag do respectively.

There were five changes to the side that pathetically rolled over at Everton last weekend. Rob Green, Tal Ben Haim, Shaun Derry, Mbia and Taarabt all came in to replace Cesar, Onuoha, Granero, Park and Jenas.

The R's started well as Stoke set up in their usual fashion to frustrate, play long and hurt teams with their physical presence.
The R's looked comfortable as the visitors also looked like they could cause a problem or two.
Rob Green gave the R's faithful a scare as he failed to comfortably catch a routine shot and ended up spilling the ball as it spun just wide of the post as he then collected his own rebound.
Minutes later Green pulled off a good save from former R's striker Crouch when he chested down a high ball before stroking his shot on the volley towards the top right corner.
The R's defensive frailties then come to fruition.
Chris Samba once again failed to deal with an easy ball and was beaten for pace by Cameron Jerome who then ran towards goal and tee'd up Crouch for an easy side foot home from 8 yards. Why Samba didn't just put the ball in row z I'll never know! He's become a liability in recent games!



At half time the concourse was rather depleted as I once again met up with Tony and Alan and also saw Michael for the first time in a few games. Once again the restart of the game got in the way of what was a good social occasion.

The second half really had no talking points as Stoke set out their stall and were physical, organised and limited the R's chances. It wasn't pretty by a long way but Stoke are effective doing this and Rangers' just could not create any clear cut chances.
The game was over on 77 minutes when Clint Hill tripped Crouch. Jon Walters thumped home his first penalty but was asked to retake it. It didn't matter as Walters crashed home the second attempt and sent Stoke another step closer to safety as the trapdoor was all but shut on the R's in the Premier League.
If Aston Villa beat Man United on Monday then both the R's and Reading will be relegated.

All in all a dreadful game for the neutral to watch and Stoke battled away for their win and won in true Stoke style.
The lack of heart and desire displayed by a number of the Rangers' players is disgusting to see and when the final whistle goes you see the likes of Bosingwa just jog off without a care in the world just infuriates me! Why not let a talented Fabio play or even let Nedum Onuoha, who hasn't done anything wrong in the few games he's played recently, get in over that monobrowed waste of space!
I will give credit to the five players that actually stood up and clapped the fans at the end, Rob Green, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry, Jay Bothroyd and Jamie Mackie. I salute them for actually looking like they give a f@ck about us and our club.



Man of the Match, only one vote received this week from Lofty as he gave Loic Remy his vote as he is a player that we enjoy watching and will miss the most next season in the second tier.

Lofty returns next week with his report on the clash between the two bottom clubs as we travel to the fake hoops of Reading.


Queens Park Rangers

  • 01 Green
  • 05 Samba
  • 06 Hill Booked
  • 19 Bosingwa
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 04 Derry
  • 29 Townsend (Mackie - 46' )
  • 40 M'bia
  • 10 Taarabt (Bothroyd - 56' )
  • 18 Remy
  • 23 Hoilett

Substitutes

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 02 Diakite
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 14 Granero
  • 12 Mackie
  • 37 Bothroyd

Stoke City

  • 01 Begovic
  • 04 Huth
  • 12 Wilson (Wilkinson - 61' )
  • 17 Shawcross
  • 30 Shotton
  • 06 Whelan
  • 15 Nzonzi Booked
  • 16 Adam Booked (Whitehead - 69' )
  • 19 Walters
  • 25 Crouch (Cameron - 90' )
  • 33 Jerome

Substitutes

  • 29 Sorensen
  • 02 Cameron
  • 28 Wilkinson
  • 18 Whitehead
  • 21 Kightly
  • 09 Jones
  • 10 Owen
Ref: Foy
Att: 17,391

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Can You Hear the Fat Lady Sing??


Everton 2-0 QPR

As so many times this season, the football gets in the way of a good day out, as Everton ran out more than comfortable winners at Goodison Park this afternoon.

Well the day started with plenty of amusement - with Jenson missing today due to family commitments and myself and PK's cars, simply not up to the journey, Jenson kindly loaned us the Stadium Wireless car (thanks again, mate). I got a phone call at 9 from PK and immediately I thought something was wrong, but PK was asking how to start the car and as Jenson was sleeping, he didn't want to bother him. With that issue sorted, I joined PK in Wycombe and onto the next issue - getting talksport on the radio. A helpful text from Jenson gave us instructions but we managed to put the car into cruise control. After being thrown back in our seats and starting to fly up the M40 at a rate of knots, we decided to call Jenson who guided us through the procedure. It was plain sailing from there and we met Lee, Jess, Sam and Luke on the M5 services for a coffee and then onto Goodison for arrival at about 2pm.

Shortly after, we thought for a moment we had a contender for Pie of the Season but that took a dramatic twist, more on that later...

Onto the game and Rangers started the game pretty well, Junior Hoilett struck a curler just wide following a good move and Remy forced a fine save out of Howard.  Everton were slowly creeping back into the game and Distin should have done better, slicing wide from close range. But 5 minutes before the break, came the opening goal which probably sums up the luck we have had this season - Mirallas's shot came back into the path of Gibson, who's low drive struck Clint Hill and deflected into the net.



Onto the second half and on 56 minutes, it was 2-0 when Anichebe, who minutes earlier had hit the post, flicked home Distin's knock down from a Baines corner. From here on, Rangers looked a beaten team, a team that had all but given up and a team that looks, sadly, relegated....



Queens Park Rangers

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 05 Samba
  • 06 Hill
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 19 Bosingwa Booked
  • 07 Park Ji-sung (Taarabt - 62' )
  • 14 Granero Booked (Diakite - 74' )
  • 16 Jenas
  • 23 Hoilett
  • 29 Townsend Booked
  • 18 Remy

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 20 Fabio
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 02 Diakite
  • 10 Taarabt
  • 12 Mackie
  • 37 Bothroyd
Man of the Match 

In honesty, it was a real struggle finding this one, Jess went for Andros Townsend, Luke refused to vote and I don't blame him, Sam gave it to the R's support that made the effort today and were superb throughout despite what was going on in front of them. It also spoke volumes from our performance that PK went for Fellaini. But we do actually have a winner, from Lee and myself and the only reason I personally gave the award, is that I have thoroughly enjoyed watching one of the best strikers Rangers have ever had and I will miss him when he goes... Loic Remy

Awayday Pie Rating

As mentioned, after the first few bites, we thought we may have a real contender, but the homemade efforts got the following votes from our experts...

Lee - Steak - excellent flavour but pastry was a tad thick and dry - 8.5

Lofty - Steak - again, good flavour but highlighted the dry pastry - 9

Luke - Steak - far too salty for his liking - 6

Giving Everton an awayday pie rating of 7.8/10

Well it was a long journey home in awful conditions but after a stop at Stafford services with the gang, there is no doubt now that we need no more convincing, we are on our way down and we had started to chat about the various appealing away trips that we will go to next year. The sad thing is, it doesn't even look like we will go down with a fight, more like a whimper, which is so disappointing.

But admittedly, we looked very much a relegated team today...

Lee will return next weekend and with Stoke as unappealing as it would be anyway, it will be interesting to see how this one pans out...

Keep the Faith

&

Come on You R'ssssssssssssss!!!!







Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Dowd Did That Happen???


The relegation six pointer took place on Sunday as the R's hosted Wigan knowing that anything less than three points would put a massive dent in the Superhoops survival hopes.

For this game we saw little Jack make a return to the Upper Loft with the gang with us hoping that he would bring us the luck that we needed to secure one of the most important victories of the season. Unfortunately we were missing PK through illness and Sam was at home looking after her twins.
Jack and myself met Lofty, Jenson and Lorna for a pre-match chat before taking our seats ready for the moment of truth.

One change was made to the side that was defeated at Fulham as Junior Hoilett replaced Adel Taarabt.

Rangers' had an early chance but Loic Remy found the post unforgiving after some excellent build up play as the R's looked to hit Wigan on the counter attack.
With the R's looking much the better side and Andros Townsend being at the heart of most of the attacks down the right flank, disaster struck!
Wigan had a throw on the right and Zamora made a challenge on Gomez which was waved on by referee Dowd and play was soon stopped as no advantage was gained by Wigan. As play returned to where the foul was made, referee Dowd decided to have a conversation with his linesman and following that the red card was raised, Rangers were down to ten men!!
I said as soon as Dowd went to the linesman that this could be trouble as we've seen so many times before at Loftus Road and for me it was no surprise to see the outcome following that. What confuses me is why, if the high boot is considered to be dangerous play, that play continued before the sending off occurred.
Having seen the replays it's a definite sending off, however what really got to us in the stands was that play continued, seemingly because the foul was not dangerous. Frustrating!!
The sending off really affected the game and whilst the R's were concentrating on not conceding and hitting Wigan on the counter with Townsend and Remy creating problems for the Wigan defence.



Half time was very quiet as everyone tried to get over the shock in the first half and we all saw photos of Zamora's high boot to confirm that the red card was justified. Now our only wonder was where a goal would come from.

The second half was again rather scrappy and Wigan just passed the ball around midfield whilst not doing any damage and threatening the R's back line. In fact it wasn't until James McArthur's header from six yards out that was excellently saved by Julio Cesar on 75 minutes.
Then out of the blue on 84 minutes the R's took the lead.
Wigan made a mess of a free kick and Mbia charged the ball down before stealing possession and advancing towards the Wigan goal. Remy made a superb run to the right edge of the 18 yard box and Mbia squared to the R's striker, who stroked the ball first time with the side of his foot and the ball flew into the far left of the goal! Absolutely superb and the relief in Loftus Road was lifted. The celebrations reflected how we all felt, this was the goal that led to hope and belief that we really could charge forwards towards safety.
However as we all know with QPR, things are never that easy!
Wigan had an opportunity to level things three minutes into injury time and the resulting free kick ended up going over the bar and many of us thought that would be the last chance of the game. Thirty seconds later and Mbia touched Gomez and he fell in a heap to win Wigan a soft free kick. Shaun Maloney stepped up and curled the ball over the wall and out of reach of the outstretched hand of Cesar to break the R's fans hearts.



Overall it wasn't the greatest game of football but the R's deserved to get three points from the game after battling hard with ten men for seventy minutes of the game and being the team who looked more likely to win the game. Wigan did not offer much for the 100 fans that traveled to W12, I assume the rest of them went to watch the Rugby, one of the worst followings I have seen at Loftus Road!

Man of the Match saw the gang in total agreement once again with our loan star Andros Townsend earning another clean sweep for his industrious performance and he just never stops working all game. It's a shame that he has to leave at the end of the season. Star of the future.



Lofty will return with one of his always entertaining reports when we visit Everton on Saturday.

It's not over yet, keep the faith!!

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Too Little, Too Late at the Cottage...


Fulham 3-2 QPR

Lee, took to Twitter following this game and described it, perfectly, as the R's suffered another painful 3-2 away defeat...

Well we made it difficult for ourselves, nearly redeemed ourselves and then fell marginally short, story of our season...




Apart from one, results pretty much went with us as we all had to wait an extra 2 days for our game and a massive away following made it's way to Craven Cottage on a cold Bank Holiday Monday night. I joined Jenson and PK in Hillingdon and arrived early to take advantage of the free Bus lane parking. We took a short walk to the away end and were joined by Sam and Luke then later by Lee and Jess whilst on the concourse, for an Easter catch up. As we entered the stand, David 'Diddy' Hamilton was whipping up the home crowd by telling them to use the free 'clappers' that were given to them, sadly, most did..
What followed, was one of the worst first half performances of the season with some of the most shambolic defending ever witnessed. It was quite simply, a total shambles...


On 8 minutes, with Samba failing to clear from the annoying Berbatov, Dejagah collected the ball just inside the box and nicked it past Samba, who stretched out a leg and brought him down. A clear penalty in which Berbatov stroked home with ease.


It was 2 just twelve minutes later with Samba, sadly at fault once more - trying to dribble his way out of trouble, was put under pressure by Duff, Berbatov nicked the ball, cut onto his right foot and poked the ball home - too easy.

It was effectively curtains just 4 minutes before the break - a back heel from their centre half in the box??.. found Riise who easily brushed Samba aside, got to the byeline then crossed hard, straight onto the arm of Clint Hill and into the net.

I have to be honest, this was so shambolic, the gang and I were seriously discussing a half time exit and an early night, until Adel Taarabt ran at goal on 43 minutes, held off Hangeland and fired his shot into the far corner of Mark Schwarzer's goal from the edge of the area. A great goal and it certainly kept us all in the stadium for the second half...

..and it was a half that Rangers started like a train. They had nothing to lose and it was refreshing to see that they were going to go for it. Remy forced Schwarzer into a fine save and got a great chance to reduce the deficit moments later, when Karagounis clumsily tripped Taarabt inside the area. Heartbreak followed as Schwarzer superbly saved Remy's penalty to his right hand side.

Moments later, Remy did find the net, latching onto Mbia's lobbed pass to smash his effort into the roof of the net. The Rangers end went beserk and could really start to believe that it may, just maybe our night after all.




 It was all Rangers now and a drive from Andros Townsend was pushed aside by Schwarzer before Samba controlled the ball in the area but dragged his left-footed shot wide. Remy sliced a shot after twisting past Hangeland and Zamora forced another fine save from Schwarzer with a fierce drive. But the all important third goal was just not going in...

With 12 minutes to go, Fulham went down to ten men after Sidwell's quite dreadful tackle on Traore, finally got him his deserved marching orders, despite his best attempts to get out of it by staying down injured himself. But from here, Rangers went more direct and Fulham packed men behind the ball and the breakthrough, sadly, didn't come...


Queens Park Rangers


  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 03 Traore (Mackie - 83' )
  • 05 Samba
  • 06 Hill Booked (Onuoha - 46' )
  • 19 Bosingwa
  • 10 Taarabt (Hoilett - 74' )
  • 16 Jenas
  • 29 Townsend
  • 40 M'bia
  • 18 Remy
  • 25 Zamora

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 14 Granero
  • 23 Hoilett
  • 12 Mackie

Man of the Match 

Almost a clean sweep with only myself letting the side down somewhat, going for Townsend for his second half performance, I seem to have completely wiped the first half from my mind altogether. But a deserved award from the rest of the gang, this week goes to Stephane Mbia.

Awayday Pie Rating

With most of our expert analysts having eaten before the game, only myself and Jenson sampled the goods this time out, and both opted for something a bit different - the Craven Cottage Pie, which was basically, a cottage pie. (With the catering staff hardly selling us a normal chicken or meat pie, and that was exactly how it was described.)

It was warm, reasonably tasty but somewhat burnt when you got to the bottom, but all in all, pretty good and a firm 8/10 from both of us.

In summary, we have all probably had our rants by now and we have all seen Chris Samba's, decent and fair apology on the social networks, but the fact remains is that this is another game gone and a game we simply threw away. That first half was simply not good enough and you will lose every week if you don't start playing until 43 minutes...

Yes, results went with us, but we made up no ground at all and the games are running out. Every game is massive now and we know what we have to do and it is , all about us, not the teams around us.

Lee will return following Sunday's HUGE game at home to Wigan, but until then...

KEEP THE FAITH!!!

&

COME ON YOU R'SSSSSSSSSS!!!