LFL: QPR

This was a bad afternoon all round with yet another defeat and confirmation that we’ll be facing Coventry in the play-offs. Our defending was alarming at times and we lacked punch upfront. We’ll have to up our play all over the pitch if we want to get to Wembley.

BEFORE

I'll be glad when this game is out of the way and we can get down to the nitty-gritty next Friday night. The match is of no real importance to either side but of course it would be great if we moved up several gears and banged a few goals in to get us all ready for the play-offs. I'd particularly like to see Isidor get a goal or two and regain his confidence. I suspect, though, that all this won't happen and we'll have another lacklustre cagey performance. I'm more interested, in a way, at how the other results go as the fifth and sixth spots are still up in the air and anything could happen. I have the feeling that Millwall are going to make a very late surge and claim a play-off spot. They're the form team at the moment and I can see fate arranging for us to face up to Alex Neil and our ex-players in their squad. I'm hoping that Boro can manage to beat Coventry away and put them out of the picture. Ultimately, I think that with our full squad we can beat any of the other contenders on the day including Sheffield United. I'll be watching today's game with other members of the London Branch and my match prediction is 1-1.

I got the team-news on my way over to the bar and we were fielding a strong side with Mayenda starting in place of Isidor and Ballard on the bench. Colback was starting for them. When I arrived at 12.15, I couldn’t see any other members of the Faithful but I wasn’t expecting much of a turn-out.

THE MATCH

The opening stages were even enough but in the fifth minute Q.P.R. took the lead when Madsen received a pass in our box from the right and had loads of time and space to pick his spot and slam the ball into the right of the net. Two minutes later Mayenda had a shot blocked for a corner and this immediately led to another corner, which came to nothing. In the twelfth we were moving forward down the left but Le Fee blasted his cross high and wide but a minute later a low O’Nien shot had Walsh in goal diving to his left to push it out for a corner. Elsewhere Burnley and Millwall were drawing 1-1 but there were no goals in the other crucial games. In the twentieth Varane managed to cruise through our defence and put a low cross in from the right but luckily nobody was there to get on the end of it. The way we were defending I could see us conceding at least one more. Shortly after that we were awarded a free-kick near the touchline on our left and it eventually led to a corner on the left. It again resulted in a further corner but we conceded a free-kick and that was that.

As the half-hour mark approached we were doing all the pressing but the visitors’ defenders weren’t looking ruffled. Elsewhere Bristol City had gone one-down at home to Preston. We were stacking up the corners but we couldn’t make any of them count. The game was held up for several minutes when Chair was injured but he managed to continue. Q.P.R. won their first corner after a poor back-pass had set them up. We won another corner in the forty-third but Le Fee’s kick was deflected for yet another on the other side. There were shouts for a penalty but referee Anthony Backhouse wasn’t having it. It remained 0-1 as the half-time whistle went but Coventry had taken the lead and had moved up to fifth spot. Still, anything could happen in the remaining half and it probably would. We might even score…

Q.P.R. had made one change as we kicked off again with Kolli replacing the injured Chair. We had our best chance so far two minutes into the half when a Le Fee cross from the left was headed down by Roberts and it bounced just wide of the angle. I don’t remember seeing Roberts head the ball before. We certainly seemed to have started the half with more purpose and were pressing forward at every opportunity. Blackburn took the lead at Sheffield United and that put them in sixth spot, for a while anyway. A Dunne header from a free-kick wasn’t far wide of our right post in the fifty-seventh. On the hour we brought on Ballard in place of Mepham and then I saw that Bristol City had gone 2-0 down but because Sheffield United had equalised against Blackburn they’d moved back up to sixth. Burnley had also taken the lead against Millwall. Are you following? It was bound to change before long. Anyway, we were still doing nearly all the attacking and I felt an equaliser was coming.

With about twenty minutes left there’d been little flow in the game at all due to a series of injuries but then we made a double change, bringing on Watson and Isidor for Neil and Rigg. I hoped for better things but I didn’t expect much. Meanwhile Bristol City had pulled two goals back to equalise and I was still waiting for Boro to get a goal or two against Coventry. We were awarded a free-kick in a great spot near the right angle of their box in the eightieth but Le Fee’s kick hit their wall. We won another corner in the eighty-fifth and it led to a strong Ballard header that was blocked, our best chance yet. A few of the Faithful had arrived in the bar very late and the atmosphere was building. Time was really running out, though, and unless there was a lot of added-time, it was looking like five defeats in a row. Coventry had gone two-up and that was that. Six minutes of added-time were announced and we won another corner. Nothing of significance happened after that and it ended 0-1.