QPR v Walsall – Capital One Cup 2nd Round

Team: Green, Bosingwa, Fabio, Ferdinand, Nelsen, Park, Faurlin, Wright-Phillips (Traore), Hoilett (Dyer), Johnson, Zamora (Cisse)

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Onuoha, Derry, Mackie

Attendance: 6,129 (including 436 visiting fans)

Great display from Faurlin on Tuesday night and so pleased for the fella. I thought Zamora had a good one as well. And whisper it quietly, but if Kieron Dyer can stay fit this time he could be the big surprise for us this season.

Jbee

How refreshing it was to hear a QPR Manager talking up the League Cup again. Not only did Mark Hughes do that, but he also selected a strong side. In his programme notes he stated: “Make no mistake, this competition is one we will take seriously this term. Over the course of a long, hard season, a good cup run can do wonders for the confidence, as well as acting as a nice distraction from the bread and butter of the Barclays Premier League.”

It took a while for us to get into our rhythm and apart from a bit of scare early in the 2nd half, this was a comfortable (and a very welcome) victory for the R’s. Well done to Alejandro Faurlin and I thought Andy Johnson looked hungry and formed a good partnership with Bobby Zamora.

It was good to be back in the Lower Loft, but why was the Blue & White Bar closed and why was there no access into South Africa Road after the match ?

Steve Russell

Queen’s Park Rangers progressed to the third round thanks to an inspired performance by Bobby Zamora, who scored one and created another as they cruised to a comfortable win. Mark Hughes named a near-full strength starting line-up to face their League One opponents, including Robert Green in goal, who is under pressure with the arrival of Cesar.

The hosts stuck to task well in a muted first-half which had the feeling of a pre-season friendly, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Andy Johnson and Ryan Nelsen had all gone close before the 29th minute goal. Zamora was the creator, threading an inch-perfect pass through for Wright-Phillips to meet with a sliding finish. It was the winger’s first goal since helping Manchester City beat FCU Poli 2-0 in their August 2010 Europa League tie.

Green was a spectator for much of the first-half, although there were ironic jeers from a section of the crowd when he first touched the ball early in the first-half. He was unconvincing when called into his first meaningful action after 59 minutes, spilling Florent Cuvelier’s effort round the post. Dean Holden almost made him pay from the resulting corner, but his header crashed against the crossbar.

But QPR made sure of the victory just past the hour when Zamora scored their second with a sublime chip over David Grof. And there was still time for Jose Bosingwa to punctuate his full debut by adding a third six minutes from time. Given his side’s stuttering Premier League start, Hughes was distinctly aware of how disastrous a defeat to League One Walsall would have been. That fact was reflected in the team he put out.

Declan Taylor – The Telegraph

Faurlin was superb and it was great to see him going into crunching tackles and not flinching. We now have a midfield with some creativity. It was a good run out for him and he’ll need some more matches before he’s fully match fit, my MOTM. Walsall gave a good account of themselves.

ChrisPTenner

I wasn’t too sure how it would go. We sat back and let them come at us and they used the flanks again well which is now three games out of three that our full-backs have been turned over. I thought that as the game went on the whole team done better, won more balls in the right places and did not panic as much as in the two previous games.

Andy Johnson looked decent and has a great understanding with Bobby Zamora. Jose Bosingwa also did well, but the MOTM for me was Alejandro Faurlin. It was great to see him back and he really is a class act no matter who we play. It may of only been Walsall, but it was certainly a win to build on.

Paul Finney