QPR v Doncaster Rovers

Team: Ikeme, Ramage (Taarabt), Stewart, Gorkss, Hill, Connolly (Borrowdale), Buzsaky, Faurlin, Cook, Simpson, German (Vine).
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Oastler, Quashie, Balanta.
Attendance: 11,178

I was so pleased that Antonio was starting, well deserved in my opinion. We knew that with the team low on confidence and Doncaster’s reputation as a good footballing side that we were in for a tough encounter. It was a much better atmosphere though which improved even more when Antonio was well placed to put us into the lead. When the visitors equalised, the big question was how were the players going to respond ? Despite a short hold-up with the arrival of a streaker from the Lower Loft, the team battled on and there were wild celebrations when Simpson belted in the winner following a wonderful over the top ball from Buzsaky.

Well done to Mick Harford and the team for such a battling performance which sent us home with a smile on our face. Good to see Eric again, he also had a smile on his face, unlike the two other Aberdeen R’s who had travelled down for games recently only to experience lack lustre defeats.

Steve Russell

The first goal came from a good ball in from the left, via Buzsaky, for Simpson to head straight at Sullivan. Fortunately German was there to tap in the rebound, and boy did he look happy at getting his first professional goal. Donny’s equaliser came from an almost carbon copy of both goals from our previous home game with Ipswich. Stewart was beaten too easily and Gorkss was out of position, leaving a virtually unmarked James Hayter to put in from within six yards. With 15 minutes to go and Paladini hovering in the tunnel for some reason (shortly before a substitution was made ?), Ikeme booted the ball upfield, where German nodded it down to Buzsaky, who then played a wonderful ball over the defence for Simpson to control and smash into the bottom left hand corner.

We had various other chances to score, although I’m sure Doncaster will say the same, in fact, we had 13 attempts in total to their 9. On various occasions we were helped by a whistle happy (for want of a better phrase) linesman who gave 4 or 5 offsides against the visitors. And of course there was the streaker, who provided a bit of entertainment for a couple of minutes and in typical fashion, showed off the security’s unbelievably slow response to someone entering the field of play !

Player Ratings:

Ikeme: 5 – Some incredibly loose clearances, even when under little or no pressure. Not an awful lot to do out of the norm.
Ramage: 5 – He gave the ball away too much.
Gorkss: 5 – A disappointing performance from the usually sturdy Latvian. He was out of position for their goal.
Hill: 4/5 – Disappeared at times and doesn’t really look overly interested either.
Stewart: 5 – Again, disappointing and beaten too easily in the build up to their goal.
Buzsaky: 6/7 – He did alright, better than he has on the right wing previously and claims assists in both goals.
Connolly: 7 – Looked very settled at centre-mid and was certainly better there than Quashie.
Faurlin: 6 – Not his best performance but still a good one.
Cook: 7 – He’s looking more confident again, still pulling out of 50-50 challenges however. Looks set to lose the captaincy to Leigertwood next match.
Simpson: 7 – Played very well with German and took his goal well.
German: 9 – Save the best till last. Great performance and pounced for his goal well. He also headed the ball down to Buzsaky for our second. He looked interested (take note Messrs, Taarabt, Vine and Co.) and deserved his standing ovation.

Sam Phillipps