Team: Cerny, Borrowdale, Stewart, Leigertwood, Connolly, Routledge, Watson, Faurlin (Rowlands), Ephraim (Buzsaky), Taarabt (Vine), Simpson.
Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Mahon, Pellicori
Attendance: 11,814
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and opposition that had failed to register a win all season – just what we wanted, right ? Well, less than 12,000 turned up at Loftus Road to cheer on the boys and by the time the game had finished, I wondered if those that stayed away knew something I didn’t ? The pre-match ‘entertainment’ came in the form of the sudden stewarding policy of checking your ticket about 100 times before you sat down ! They claimed that they have a problem with people sitting in the wrong seats – not something I have seen a great deal of and if someone is sitting in your seat you just tell them to move, right ? The attitude of the ‘head’ stewards was awful – “It’s not your season ticket it belongs to QPR”, was a particularly favourite line.
Anyway, matters on the pitch were far less interesting. Tame efforts from Taarabt and Faurlin were the closest the R’s came to threatening the Posh goal in the early stages. Then, true to form, we concede. A terrible pass from Watson was intercepted which let the visitors in and a cross from Williams (yes the ‘Williams’ who forgot to cross the ball at the Millenium Stadium) was headed into the net by McLean. Unfortunately Peterborough continued to press whilst we looked a little lost at times. That was until around 30 minutes into the game when a good run by Taarabt was laid off by Simpson and Routledge fired home from six yards after the ball had gone under the keeper and through the legs of the defender on the line. The rest of the half then petered out with the game getting increasingly stuck in the middle. Watson looked composed if unspectacular and made a saving tackle to make up for his earlier mistake.
The 2nd half began in a similar vein with Watson and Taarabt testing the Posh goal and Mackail-Smith was proving to be a bit of a handful up-front. Changes were made just before the hour mark with Rowlands and Vine joining the fray at the expense of Faurlin and Taarabt (for the second game running, the latter was subbed early into the 2nd half when he was actually one of the better players on the pitch). Routledge continued to press and Simpson didn’t make the most of some of the balls put into him from the wing and at times his first touch let him down badly.
With 20 minutes left, Buzsaky was brought on for Ephraim who I have to say, had an anonymous sort of game. This seemed to spur us on somewhat and the next two minutes saw chances for Routledge, Rowlands and Buzsaky. Unfortunately the Peterborough keeper was not severely tested on any occasion with the R’s seemingly having a problem keeping the ball below the bar. Then with five minutes remaining, Simpson took a great first touch to take it away from his marker but then from eight yards, he fired the ball over the bar. We thought the worst was over but in added time, a shot from 20 odd yards was fumbled by Cerny and the ever alert Mackail-Smith raced in and stuck the ball into the net. Thankfully, the offside flag saved us and to be honest, I thought it was a really harsh decision and Peterborough must of been well miffed.
So another point, a below average performance, again, one up-front at home just isn’t my cup of tea and I hope that we go for it against Palace on Tuesday night.
TheBza