Team: Ikeme, Stewart, Gorkss, Connolly, Hill, Cook, Faurlin, Quashie (Taarabt), Ephraim (Buzsaky), Simpson, Bent (Vine).
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Borrowdale, Balanta, German.
Attendance:10,940
The first half will go down as the worst I have ever seen. It summed up the state of QPR at the moment as in they looked like a bunch of overpaid amateurs who only just turned their hand to playing football. Player power has killed the squads’ chances of progressing and even usually committed players like Connolly and Gorkss looked lost out on the pitch. Until the Board leave I do not see this improving at all. Our reputation as a hard working, honest, family football club has been lost and tarnished. We need to put that right first. The Rangers we all love is still there under the surface as we know the Board don’t do depth, they just paper over the cracks on the cheap and then turn round and tell us how lucky we are to be ripped off and treated like mushrooms. Presently, I don’t mind how the Board depart, I’ll take administration and relegation in a second if that meant they left, but until they do, I can’t see us ever turning this around !
markqpr
If ever there was a game of two halves, this was it. Absolutely dire in the first half (and I know it’s been said before) but that was THE single worst half of football I have ever seen, and I won’t touch on it for long. Cookie was our only real highlight during the match although Hogan had a couple of moments. Bent lasted 9 minutes before being taken off. There was however a rather special moment before the game started when all 9,000 or so fans present (including the Ipswich faithful) stood in complete silence to remember Harold Winton. R.I.P Harold.
Ipswich scored through two, of the half a dozen or so crosses that found a player completely unmarked, but only those two were put away clinically. Shortly before the half-time whistle, there were chants of “Sack the Board”, which originally started in the School End before the Loft joined in. Briatore got up and left, not to return again. Then there were the first chants against Paladini, which are unrepeatable on here.
The second-half arrived and Buzz and Taarabt were introduced for Quashie and an unlucky Ephraim, Buzz , playing in the middle for the first time in far too long, was a better player than we have seen recently and won us a corner just 13 seconds in. We then continued to be on top of Ipswich for the rest of the match. Simpson pulled one back when he lashed the ball home in the 66th minute. We generally lacked the killer touch and you always felt that the visitors had another goal in them (although they didn’t get it). At least the second-half was a lot more promising. Bring on the relegation battle !
Player Ratings:
I’m going to do them a bit differently this time.
First-Half:
Cook: 7 – Looked very tricky at times with the ball and he certainly tried hard.
Ephraim: 6 – Some good moments and not sure why he was taken off over some of the other dross on show ?
Everyone Else: 4 – Utter rubbish !!!
Second-Half:
Ikeme: 4 – Didn’t really save very much and on one occasion came charging out for the ball, then had to quickly retreat. He also looked dodgy on the ball at times.
Connolly: 5/6 – Did better after the interval, but that’s not saying much.
Stewart: 5 – Not at all convincing.
Gorkss: 6 – Went off for 5 minutes or so to get his head bandaged up, played on well.
Hill: 4 – Utter rubbish.
Vine: 5 – Played right wing in the second-half and lost the ball a lot. It got stuck under his feet rather too often. He tried hard to get it back most time though. Faurlin: 6 – Not quite himself but not as bad as some of the others.
Buzsaky: 6/7 – Finally played in the middle again and looked much the better for it.
Taarabt: 5 – Regulars will know my opinion on him. As always, tricky on the ball but slow to release it and track back.
Cook: 6 – Often had Taarabt wandering in front of him and therefore had less influence on the game in this half, but he still put in some decent crosses.
Simpson: 6 – He never looks overly dangerous for me. He pounced in the six yard box to grab his goal well however
Sam Phillipps