QPR v West Ham United – Too Late the Hero

Team: Cesar, Hill, Onuoha (Hoilett), Nelsen, Mbia, Park (Diakite), Granero, Faurlin, Zamora, Cisse, Wright-Phillips (Taarabt)

Subs Not Used: Green, Ehmer, Mackie, Ephraim

Attendance: 17,363 (including 1,681 away fans)

Many R’s fans began calling for Adel Taarabt, and when he was finally introduced, he immediately made an impact. He started to wave his magic wand without hesitation and he soon scored an outstanding goal in true Taarabt type panache and style. He and Hoilett, should have started the game in my opinion. The midfield is unbalanced, there’s no leadership and as for the defence !

Eight West Ham players were booked for fouling, kicking the ball away and time wasting. Samba Diakite was booked within two minutes of his introduction and then departed 17 minutes later.

Thanks Adel for those wonderful second-half moments.

Steve Russell

A furious and engrossing match saw West Ham insist on a victory that leaves Queen’s Park Rangers at the foot of the table. Their sorrows were added to when the substitute Samba Diakite soon racked up two cautions. If this was an intemperate occasion it was also one that gripped the audience. The authorities must also take an interest, since the winners amassed eight yellow cards. A fine awaits West Ham, but the club will privately applaud the combativeness, even if it often seems uncontrollable.

Disapproval of the recklessness is to be expected but it would be hypocritical not to admit that this frenetic contest was a riveting spectacle. Even the overworked referee, Mark Clattenburg, might have had fleeting moments when he could appreciate the passion generated in a match conducted as if everything depended on the outcome. That was not the case, but the losing manager, Mark Hughes, finds himself under increasing pressure, since the club has only two points.

Elsewhere there was satisfaction and encouragement, Andy Carroll, on loan to West Ham from Liverpool, was in good enough shape to come off the bench. This might well see him involved in the World Cup qualifier with San Marino at Wembley on 12th October despite continuing anxieties about his hamstring troubles. “I’ll give Roy the rundown on his condition,” said the victorious manager, Sam Allardyce.

Hughes can hardly feel comfortable with his situation. “We felt we had improved steadily,” he remarked of some previous showings. “The performance tonight was a step back. West Ham didn’t allow our creative players to get on the ball.” There are many games still to come but, unless QPR are galvanised soon, the manager’s own position will be called into question.

West Ham, by contrast, are in fine fettle. After a delivery from Ricardo Vaz Te in the third minute, Matt Jarvis scored his first goal for West Ham with a floating header. Nothing came conveniently to the opposition. They lost a pair of men as well as two goals before the interval. There was relief when the centre-back Winston Reid eventually recovered after being caught by the elbow of his own goalkeeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, in a goalmouth melee, but he still had to be replaced by James Tomkins in the 23rd minute.

West Ham’s lead was stretched in the 35th minute when Vaz Te scored from a tight angle. The ball ought, however, to have been cleared long before it came to him. QPR had difficulty in maintaining some structure and showing they had a plan to follow.

The fact that a great deal of team re-structuring took place in the summer means, however, that Hughes’ judgment is under review. He put an emphasis on experience, but the wisdom of that policy is impossible to judge so soon in the campaign. The immediate craving was simply for a win, which would thereby bring the team its first league goal at home in this campaign. That did not look easy to achieve when the visitors were Allardyce’s team.

There were periods in the second-half when QPR did show more verve, but it was to be anticipated that Allardyce’s men would have little cause to take risks. QPR did make alterations, with Adel Taarabt producing an instant contribution from the bench. He cut in from the left and put a swerving, dipping drive across and round Jaaskelainen in the 57th minute. There is little to be done in the face of such excellence, but the narrowing of the score added to the excitement.

It is one of the pleasures of the English scene that matches can so often pulsate as if there was a vast reward to be had with a win. The yellow cards were soon to flutter and poise seemed an impossibility. Matters deteriorated further for QPR when Diakite’s foul on Guy Demel brought a second caution. His club’s torment is great.

Kevin McCarra – The Guardian (extract)

Like Norwich, this was a ‘must get something game’, a point at least. Yes they kicked the ball away and so on – the referee should have acted, but when they did, who on the Rangers side stood up to them ? Who was our leader on the pitch who should of done what Nolan did for them ? And that is the issue, no chat, no drive. When Samba Diakite came on and took the booking for stopping their player coming at us, our captain or one of the other Rangers players should have walked over to him and had a word.

The sending off did not change the game and as Tony Fernandes said on Twitter: “We would not have won with eleven men”. We were lucky to still be in the game if you ask me. Our defence melted time and time again and made Cole look like Rambo. He won every header, awful, that to me is a real statement of our problem.

Yes, the West Ham tactics were crude at times and very Sam Allardyce, but you need to stand up to them, beat them and have some pride for the club. When you see the captain taken off, what does that say ?

Adel Taarabt came on and proved that Hughes is a fool for leaving him out since what went on in Manchester. Not to have played him since is beyond stupid. He took three of their players out of the game each time he got the ball.

We need a holding midfielder, go to three centre-backs and use the flanks. We also need to get Zamora and Cisse on the same mindset, but working on their own and not as a pair. Furthermore we have proved in the games against Chelsea and Spurs that we are almost there and then we go and turn in a horror show like that. And again Hughes was out-thought which is starting to be a worry !

Paul Finney