Coventry City v QPR

Team: Ikeme, Ramage, Stewart, Gorkss, Hill, Buzsaky (Taarabt), Connolly, Faurlin, Cook, Simpson, Priskin (German).
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Borrowdale, Vine, Quashie, Balanta.
Attendance: 15,247

Poor atmosphere and a poor crowd gave for a poor match. At times, the silence was deafening and it was two sides who deserved a share of the points. We started the game looking like losers and ended it finally with at least some sort of urgency. There is an air of total disillusion from fans at the moment and sadly rightly so. It seems like the penny has finally dropped….how many years does it take ? As for the game, we seemed to be playing with fear and resorting at times to ale house football. When we did manage to get it on the ground, at least we showed what we are capable of. Lee Cook did ok but he had to play far too deep much of the time to have any real impact. I’m a big fan of Connolly, but he was out of his depth today. Buzsaky continues to disappoint and Faurlin takes forever to get into a game which is not good enough. Ramage and Hill are not even close at this level. Gorkss and Stewart were solid enough although Gorkss did make two serious errors. Upfront I thought Simpson did alright and should have scored late on but as for Priskin….best not go there ! Taarabt should have started although made little impact when he came on. German did more than ok and now is the time to give him a run in the side. Good trip with young Russell.

jjcolls

My namesake needs to learn to beat the first defender when crossing the ball. One corner apart when the keeper palmed the ball over the bar, otherwise it was shocking. The team needs to learn that the structure at the end of the pitch with netting attached is called a goal. If you try and kick the ball towards it and the ball actually crosses the white line, you may have a chance of coming away with3 points. I say ‘may’, but as we know at the other end its Keystone Cops time when we defend. 21 games since a clean sheet, tells its own sorry tale. Last season we actually managed 21 clean sheets in all games, 11 of which were 0-0. I think we would give our right arms for a 0-0 these days, but that’s how low we have sunk !!! Buzsaky can do one for all I care along with all the loanees bar Simpson.

Leecookspieandmash

Once again, I was very disappointed that Antonio German didn’t start. He deserves it and as for Priskin, so far, he certainly hasn’t done it for me. The experiment with Connolly didn’t really work. I would prefer to see him as centre back or with the terrible on-going fullback situation, perhaps filling in there. I would also of liked to have seen Taarabt start. We know that often he doesn’t release the ball and there was an occasion when he broke forward and limply shot at goal when there was a man in space in a good position. Buzsaky is such a talent as we all know, but apart from his second-half performance in the last home game, he’s been a big disappointment for me in recent months. At times yesterday, he just didn’t look interested. Coventry were very fortunate to score in the 10th minute. With Ikeme stranded, the ball took a wicked deflection past him and into bottom left-hand corner of the net. The home side hardly troubled him after that. There was an audacious lob from 40 yards or so in the second-half which he easily swallowed up. We twice went so incredibly close after the interval, firstly when the ball came off of the head of either Stewart or one of their defenders which had the keeper diving low and just tipping it round the post as it was virtually on the goal-line. Then good work from German when he put a great ball across the 6 yard box which the in-coming Simpson missed by inches as he slid in. Looking at the stats, I see that Rangers amazingly had 63% of the possession. Coventry had three shots on target and we had nine corners to their two. 586 R’s fans turned out and it was good to meet Derbyhoop again. I was surprised to see Brian Nicholas on the pitch. They got his name wrong at first but when they added that he was also ex-Rangers, I realised who it was. At 76, he looked in fine fettle. Thanks to Jimmy for the lift.

Steve Russell