Team: Green, Isla, Dunne, Caulker, Hill, Vargas, Henry, Barton, Fer, Zamora (Hoilett), Austin
Subs Not Used: McCarthy, Traore, Onuoha, Ferdinand, Mutch, Phillips,
Attendance: 17,729 (including 1,496 away fans)
Historically relegation-bound sides don’t get their fair share of decisions from the officials, never get the run of the ball and also get punished by sides when making defensive errors. Well, if this game is anything to go by our luck has changed and despite the players giving their all and being outplayed for long periods we definitely got the rub of the green.
Greeno’s handball, Swansea’s poor attempts on goal, Wayne Routledge’s red card, Garry Monk taking Sigurdsson off and delaying the introduction of Wilfried Bony.
I know that the ref was poor against us at times, but I would take that kind of fortune for the rest of the season.
Redknapp was gutted after the game and so say all of us but Harry, don’t think for one minute we deserved the three points over the 90 minutes. We need fresh faces, players playing in their right positions and dare I say also, a fresh, new, young manager who plays the modern game.
Last week was ‘Jurassic’ meets the here and now on the park and in the dugouts. It’s going to be another very interesting January!
W12boy
London’s firework reserves were not exhausted in the New Year celebrations. Leroy Fer and Wilfried Bony each launched rockets into the Loftus Road net for their teams as the points were shared in an incendiary Premier League match in which tempers occasionally exploded.
The Swansea City manager, Garry Monk, struggled to keep a lid on his fury, believing, with strong justification that his team were on the wrong end of two critical decisions that could have altered the outcome of the contest.
First the Queen’s Park Rangers goalkeeper, Rob Green, escaped unpunished after handling the ball outside his area in the sixth minute to prevent Wayne Routledge from running around him and then, in the closing minutes, Routledge was sent off after reacting angrily to a dangerous late tackle on him by Karl Henry.
“There was no justice whatsoever in that decision, he didn’t kick out at all,” fumed Monk. “He’s gone from (receiving) a leg-breaker to being sent off. It doesn’t make sense.”
Monk also professed to being “baffled” by the officials’ failure to spot Green’s offence and said he was “losing faith” in Premier League authorities given that these controversies came just a couple of days after Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey was banned for raising his hands to a Liverpool player in a match in which Raheem Sterling committed a similar offence in front of the assistant referee but was not sanctioned because the officials said that they saw it but did not consider it serious.
“The credibility of it is diminished,” said Monk, who confirmed he will ask for Routledge’s red card to be rescinded. “I don’t want to talk about these things but when you’re constantly battling these game-changing decisions you begin to lose faith.”
The QPR manager, Harry Redknapp, was also aggrieved, but not for the same reason. Instead he lamented his team’s concession of a stoppage-time equaliser. “We lost two vital points that we deserved and needed,” he said.
Rangers are two points above the relegation zone and dropping points at home increases the pressure on them to improve their awful away record.
For a long time Rangers seemed on course for victory. They had begun sluggishly and could have been behind before the 20th minute, which is when Fer ran on to an attempted clearance by Federico Fernandez and lashed a ferocious shot into the net from 25 yards. The goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski got a hand to it but could not stop it.
Swansea had chances to draw level in the first-half but Bafetimbi Gomis, whose overall play was neat, was guilty of three weak finishes. The Frenchman was given his fourth league start of the season in place of Bony, who started on the bench amid intense speculation linking him with a January transfer to Chelsea or Manchester City.
Monk said there had been no offers yet for the Ivorian, who, he said, was left out purely because “we needed freshness” at the end of a busy festive period. Asked whether he expects Bony to return to Swansea after this month’s Africa Cup of Nations, Monk replied: “Of course. He will be a Swansea player until he isn’t.”
“After he came on (in the 71st minute) he showed his concentration and focus and respect for this club, so to say his mind is elsewhere is obviously wrong,” added Monk. After he came on Bony also showed why so many clubs covet him.
He forced a fine save from Green from 20 yards shortly after his introduction and then, with Rangers sensing victory, he collected a pass from Ki Sung-yueng before creating space where there seemed to be none and firing a superb shot into the top corner from 16 yards.
“When I came on the pitch I wanted to show (Monk) I should have started,” said Bony. That goal came six minutes after Routledge’s 86th minute dismissal but there was still time for Rangers to threaten an equaliser, Charlie Austin and Joey Barton having shots blocked in a chaotic goalmouth scramble.
Fer, Bobby Zamora and Eduardo Vargas had earlier gone close during a Rangers display that was far more vibrant then the one they had produced in Sunday’s dull draw with Crystal Palace.
But ultimately their reward was the same and it remains to be seen whether two points from these two home games will be enough for a side that has yet to pick up a single Premier League point away.
Man of the Match: Eduardo Vargas.
Paul Doyle – The Guardian
We all looked at each other and then back at the officials, as we feared the worst following the Rob Green incident.
Despite everything it could still have ended up so very different with Junior Hoilett putting the ball wide from such a good position a minute or so before their late equaliser and then those blocks denying us at the very death!
Looking at MOTD and watching the likes of Burnley and Leicester City having a go away from home and seemingly playing well, the need for us to get something from our travels has intensified and crucially it must commence at Turf Moor.
Steve Russell