Buoyed by last week's win at Bristol and most definitely putting the Hillsborough non-event down as a training exercise, the Lads took on QPR and gave away a two goal halftime advantage to a couple of late ones by sitting back far too much and leaving too many very tired legs out there for too long.
It was most definitely a shorts and nee coat day (bugger tradition and superstition), and you could almost see the pounds being sweated away as we gathered in the Tree. The mood was definitely upbeat, bairns offering high fives, and nobody moaning about Wednesday on Wednesday. Leaving the building was akin to leaving the airport on a Mediterranean holiday - biffed in the face by a mass of hot cotton wool. Still, mustn't grumble - only 134 days until Christmas.
Patterson
Gooch Batth Ballard Cirkin
Evans Neil
Pritchard Clarke
Simms Stewart
They kicked off, attacking Patto at the North end with another bumper crowd in attendance - we kept bumping into each other. A combination of sea fret and sunshine made for a strange meteorological experience, but not strange enough to excuse the ref for missing the very late hit on Ballard after only two minutes. A lengthy period of treatment followed before he limped off - replaced by O'Nien and we were down to two Dans. Wright would have seemed the obvious choice, but what do I know. On 11 a lovely move out to the left saw Pritchard cross for Stewart to head down to Simms - but the low shot was saved. Simms played it to Stewart, and his shot was blocked before Pritchard whacked an effort over on 13. QPR broke from the goal kick, but could only come up with a bad miss.
With Neil on the right and Pritch on the left, we were releasing the ball quickly - particularly Gooch. He must have been telt. A nice sliding tackle by Gooch on 15 eventually led to our first corner, on the left, thanks to Clarke on 22. It was cleared. Gooch, for once, should have taken another touch and skewed his first time cross for a goal kick on 24. There was a yellow for Clarke chasing back on 25 but nowt for a really late one on Gooch, across at left back, soon after. An advantage after another QPR foul eventually brought them a card on 29. Well done ref.
Persistent fouling preceded a precise effort by Neil from the edge of the box, exposing the gaps in the centre of the visiting defence, which Stewart followed up to plop home on the half hour. Gerrin....and a corner soon followed, which was cleared only as far as Evans who volleyed goalwards and was back in a flash once it was saved.
A corner was awarded to QPR on our left, but it was well taken by Patto. A foul on Stewart on 37 gave us a chance from 25 out in the inside left position - Pritchard territory, but he put it low outside the near post. Lots of boots were being left in late by them, but they got away with 90% of them. Two minutes later, Evans took down the ball to halt a visiting attack, and Simms showed his strength to hold off his marker, run into the box and pop it home. Whoop whoop indeed!
To say we had them rattled in the last five of the half is a bit of an understatement, as Clarke, Pritch, and Cirkin teased and O9 got rid. Four added minutes were announced, but we gave them a couple of runs that required blocks in our box and resulted in a corner on our right - thankfully the loose ball was scooped way over.
One QPR change was made for the second half. On 49 Stewart hit it from the left to Simms but his rather tame shot from the spot was blocked. We were a bit loose in the early stages of the half, invoking memories of that 2-2 in the Easter 1998 snow that put a spoke in our chances of automatic promotion. Liven up, Lads.
On 59 Simms made way for Roberts in an effort to stem QPR's movement down their left, and O9 and Batth swapped sides. The 63rd minute saw Stewart play it to Roberts, who cut inside and saw his low shot saved. The visitors broke at speed, and there was a great tackle by Gooch, but he followed it up with a really loose clearance.
On 70 Clarke got it to Roberts, whose clipped effort didn't curl enough, then
Clarke got it to Neil in the centre but the shot went tamely wide. Another QPR sub arrived as a few of ours took the opportunity to have a stretch, but Neil (A) didn't take the hint and we remained unchanged.
There were a lot of tired legs out there but no subs for us. On 80 another QPR sub came on, so we had a cuppa and Embo made ready for a run out. We needed fresh legs despite defending our box well, with Pritchard spending a lot of time alongside Evans.
A Pritch corner on the left on 84 found Luke under pressure beyond the back post and it went off his shin for a goal kick. QPR broke, and we gave away a free kick central and 25 yards out. It went over the wall and into Patto's top left corner, and memories of 98 cane back. Three minutes to go. Pritchard and Neil went off for Wright and Embo...ten minutes later than they should have appeared.
O9 moved into midfield to try and break up play further up the field, and there was a naughty whack in Stewart's back in our half. Yet another QPR sub- I lost count- came on as 4 added were announced.
There was a corner to them after a great block to end a run down their left - we half cleared it, it came back in and it was 2-2. Inevitably. We hit the bar from a very narrow angle, with their keeper getting the vital touch, leading to a corner that was the last action of the day.
2-0 and you f###ed it up, they sang. And they were right.
Man of Match? A good game, until he vanished for their first goal, from Gooch, but Evans was the foundation of our good stuff this afternoon - he just needed some help in the last fifteen minutes.
On the plus side, we remain unbeaten in the league.
