Hitch Cocks It Up For Ipswich..........

This afternoon the R's played host to Mick McCarthy and his Ipswich Town team that have enjoyed an encouraging start to the season after being unlucky to lose to Reading on the opening day and then thrashing Milwall at Portman Road last week. This was certain to be a challenging test for the unbeaten R's.

Due to the M25 being it's usual unreliable self, Jess and myself did not end up arriving at Loftus Road until late and ended up having to park miles away from the ground due to our late arrival. It wasn't until 2.40 that I managed to meet up with Lofty, PK and Jenson along with Pete outside the Blue and White bar as we had a quick catch up before heading to our seats ahead of kick off.

Several changes were made to the team that drew at Huddersfield.
Richard Dunne made his full home debut as SWP and Zamora come in to replace Suk-Young, Granero and the injured Andy Johnson.
Clint Hill captained the side as he made his 100th appearance for the club.

The R's started the game slowly and found it very hard to break down a resolute Ipswich defence, as you would always expect from a Mick McCarthy team.
In fact there were so few chances that PK, Pete and myself were left counting the amount of headers that Zamora was winning during the first half, with minutes 12, 23, 24 and 37 being the four occasions that he managed to get his useless legs off the floor! Even SWP was giving a good account of himself and giving Zamora a good run for his money, winning two headers in the first half alone.
Rangers' finally managed to create a chance on the half hour mark with SWP having his volley charged down and blocked for a corner. There were a few penalty appeals from the players but they were nmore hopeful than anything!
From the resulting corner Nedum Onuoha came close with his header but some more good Ipswich defending prevented the R's getting the opener.
Just a few minutes later the R's counter attacked Ipswich with Charlie Austin running at the Ipswich defence before releasing Simpson, who in turn played a delightful through ball to Austin, as he took aim on the run with a volley and Scott Loach produced an excellent save and concede a corner.
Rangers' didn't have it all their own way and came very close to going behind just before half time.
The dangerous McGoldrick crossed to Cresswell and even though Richard Dunne produced an excellent tackle but the ball rolled straight to Daryl Murphy and his shot was destined for the bottom corner but Rob Green's outstretched arm turned the ball around the post before being cleared to safety. A brilliant save from Green and he rightly received the chants of 'Greeno' from the Loft faithful.

At half time the gang assembled at the bottom of the Loft again as this time Michael and Corinne joined us for a natter as we all felt that although we were unlucky with the great save produced by Loach from Austin, that we were also on the lucky side as we felt Ipswich could've easily taken the lead with their chance. Being level at the half way point was probably a fair result.

On to the second half now and Ipswich started the brighter of the two teams and had a good ten minute spell, putting the R's defence under pressure without creating any clear cut chances.
Injury put paid to Junior Hoilett's game as he pulled up lame when chasing a long ball down the left. He made way for Gary O'Neil as the former West Ham man took his place on the right flank, as SWP switched over to the left.
O'Neil was enjoying an encouraging start to life in a Hooped shirt, showing class and excellent touch that looked of Premier League class.
The R's came close to scoring through Clint Hill's close range header, it looked to be going well over the bar but dipped to hit the top of the bar before falling to Dunne, who fluffed his effort into the side netting.
With ten minutes to go the R's couldn't of come any closer to scoring. SWP played a wonderful ball over the top of the Ipswich defence and found Austin who in turn chested down before throwing his left foot through the ball, only to see it cannon off off the bar!! The bar is still shaking now!
It realy wasn't looking to be the R's day and when Dunne suffered a lapse in concentration and mis-judged his header back to Green and let in McGoldrick. If it wasn't for quick covering from the back line then it could've easily been 1-0 to the visitors.
In the closing minutes Tom Hitchcock was given the final few minutes to show the R's faithful to show what he is about after hearing so much about him from his performances for the EDS squad and Reserves. He replaced the in-effective, as ever, Bobby Zamora.
Hitchcock looked sharp and lively and his moment of glory was about to arrive.
SWP excellently broke down the left before cutting in to lay the ball back to Austin. Charlie's shot was blocked by the Ipswich 'keeper but the ball rolled nicely for Hitchcock to tap home from two yards and grab the headlines!!



I must say my instinct was to look at the linesman as I thought he was offside, we shall see if it was when we see the highlights later! It was just excellent to finally grab a last minute winner, the last time we done so was against Stoke at the end of the 2011/12 season! That feeling has been sorely missed!!!!
Jess has told us that Rob Green's celebrations for the goal and after the final whistle were borderline excessive.... well he was given plenty of stick from the travelling Ipswich fans so who can blame him!

All in all it was a good performance today with plenty of chances being created and the crossbar saving the visitors on two occasions and Scott Loach proving to be a really tough goalkeeper to beat. Ipswich made a good account of themselves and were exceptionally difficult to break down. They will be a tough team for anyone to beat and should easily make the top half of the table.

On to our Man of the Match. Gary O'Neil gets the first mention for a brilliant half an hour after replacing Hoilett, he really could turn out to be a class player for us this year. Two votes from Lofty and Jess go to SWP for his tricky performance and great play in the making of the winning goal. The winner this week with votes from Sam, Luke, PK, Jenson and myself is the brilliant Joey Barton. He was at the heart of everything that was good about the R's play and pulled the strings in the midfield.

Queens Park Rangers

• 01 Green
• 02 Simpson
• 05 Dunne
• 06 Hill
• 15 Onuoha
• 11 Wright-Phillips
• 17 Barton
• 20 Henry (Jenas - 77' )
• 23 Hoilett (O'Neil - 56' )
• 09 Austin
• 25 Zamora (Hitchcock - 83' )

Substitutes

• 26 Murphy
• 13 Suk-Young Yun
• 28 Ehmer
• 16 Jenas
• 36 O'Neil
• 29 Hitchcock
• 34 Shariff

Ipswich Town

• 01 Loach
• 02 Hewitt
• 03 Cresswell
• 04 Chambers
• 05 Smith
• 07 Edwards
• 08 Skuse (Tunnicliffe - 46' )
• 18 Tabb Booked
• 19 Hyam
• 09 Murphy (Taylor - 63' )
• 10 McGoldrick

Substitutes

• 38 Crowe
• 06 Berra
• 20 Veseli
• 11 Anderson
• 16 Tunnicliffe
• 26 Taylor (Nouble - 86' )
• 35 Nouble

Ref: Naylor

Att: 17,075