Lofty Heights... 'Ohhh Bobby Zamooooora!!!'

A look at Queens Park Rangers F.C. through the eyes of the fans - follow us on twitter @loftyheights70, @LoftyQPR and @qprleeroy








Saturday, October 18, 2008

Friends Reunited as QPR beat Forest...


QPR 2-1 Nottingham Forest

After the much welcome International break, QPR returned with a welcome three points in what was a narrow, but deserved victory at Loftus Road.




Well, over the past few season, the gang of friends which have been very much an influence to what gets written on these pages, has dwindled somewhat for various reasons and many new friends have been happily found along the way. But today seemed very much like the old days as Paul, Darren and Billy returned to join us all and when we all met up at the Springbok before the game, it was like they had never been away. I only hope they continue to come back as the reunion continued at the British Queen after the game and a great time was certainly had by all!

Onto the game and as previously written, I had never before looked forward to an International break as much as I have the one just past and two good results and dare I say, performances from England made it even better. But we returned today for a fixture that I guess most were dreading, for the simple fact that it had a 'QPR' factor written all over it. Forest came into the game, bottom of the table, without an away win all season and without a goal in four. There could only be one result, surely? Confidence was not at all restored with the name of 'Andy Cole' being on the Forest team sheet and I don't think anyone needs reminding of Cole's last visit to Loftus Road...

After a largely forgettable first half, Rangers went ahead three minutes after half-time when Fitz Hall's long throw was headed on by Damien Delaney and Balanta's volley went in off the underside of the bar. It was 2-0 on the hour mark and again a Hall throw proved to be Forest's undoing. This time the defender's delivery from the right was cleared only as far as Buzsaky, who fired home from the edge of the penalty area.




The impressive Buzsaky sent another cracking shot inches over, before Cerny tipped away Nathan Tyson's 25-yard drive. Rangers at least kept loyal to one of their unfortunate traditions as Lewis McGugan pulled a goal back for Forest with a brilliant 30-yard free-kick, which made it an unnecessary, nervy final seven minutes.

QPR: Cerny, Delaney, Stewart, Hall (Connolly 64), Leigertwood, Blackstock, Buzsaky (Mahon 90), Rowlands, Ramage, Cook, Balanta (Di Carmine 75). Subs: Camp, Ledesma.

Lofty's Man of the Match - 2 main contenders today, with the superb Buzsaky being one of them, but today's award goes to Fitz Hall, as depite leaving the game on 64 minutes, had in my opinion, his best game in a R's shirt to date.

In summary, this was an important win for QPR with two tough away games coming up next. With the recent dip in form, you could see that the confidence was lacking in the first half, but despite the narrow scoreline, Rangers dominated the second half. But to those disappointed with the progress so far - the win today has put us 6th in the table. This time last year, we were rock bottom with just one win and seven points...

4 Comments:

  • At 11:43 pm, Blogger bobo said…

    The international break was definitely welcome after watching England and Belarus. It was amazing to watch Rooney play up to his incredible potential while wearing an England shirt. They have a lot of confidence and have such a deep squad of players that can cause other teams trouble.

    I'm sure there was a big celebration in the owners box today, not just for the win. I've heard they are big fans of Balanta so it was nice to see him get one.

    Say Lofty, what do you think of all the talk about keepers? Camp is free to go apparently and there are reports every day about the Rs being interested in somebody new.

    Glad to have you back with such good news to report. Thank you!

     
  • At 7:33 am, Blogger LOFTY said…

    Thanks Bobo!

    As for the keeper situation, Cerny is a good keeper in my opinion but I think because Camp is so popular with R's fans, everything Cerny does is under immense scrutiny and every mistake, however small has a minority of fans leaping out of their seats to barrack him! He made two absolute world class saves yesterday that I have no doubt people have forgotten since the R's got the three points.

    As for Camp, well, as good a keeper as he is, certain issues have got me thinking... it seemed Derby could not wait to get rid of him, when on loan at Norwich, his loan spell was cut short and he was promptly sent back and now there is a 'reported' bust up with Dowie? What also has me thinking is the fact that no club as yet have exactly been banging the Loftus Road doors down to redeem his services?...

     
  • At 6:22 pm, Blogger Bob said…

    Wow... just as we were talking Forest must have "busted down the door" after liking the way Lee looked on the bench. I hope he is able to play a lot there and keep developing as a player.

    Bobo

     
  • At 8:14 pm, Blogger LOFTY said…

    good luck to him, only hope he has been taken there to play...

     

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