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








Thursday, January 31, 2013

Townsend Becomes A Loan Ranger


Andros Townsend is the second arrival from Spurs, with the pacy winger joining the R's on a loan deal until the end of the season.



Townsend is already much traveled with 8 loan spells under his belt already and the R's become the 9th for the 21 year old.
He has gained a reputation of being a fast winger that scares defenders and loves to take them on and provide for the awaiting strikers in the penalty area.

Townsend has earned England honours from the U16s all the way up until the U21s recently and is showing the promise to complete the set by reaching full honours in the future.
This player could be a very exciting signing for us after seeing some encouraging substitute performances fo Spurs this season.

Welcome to Loftus Road Andros, we hope you enjoy your time here playing for the Superhoops.

Jenas To Be A Jem?


Jermaine Jenas has joined the R's from Tottenham on an 18 month deal.

Jenas, a former England International, has been plagued with injury over the last few seasons, however a successful loan spell at Nottingham Forest has seen Jenas seemingly overcome his issues and is now looking to become a regular starter in the Premier League once again.



Jenas started his career at Nottingham Forest as a really promising youngster and gained a a great reputation before moving on to Newcastle and earning England honours whilst in the North-East.

Harry Redknapp knows Jenas well from his time as Spurs and obviously sees Jenas as a midfielder that will become an integral part of the clubs survival plans.
Lets hope that this one goes well!

Welcome to Loftus Road Jermaine, we hope you enjoy a successful period with us. 

Chris Samba Finally Arrives


Today the R's managed to clinch the signing of long term target Chris Samba in an attempt to fill the void left by Ryan Nelsen's departure to Toronto.



Samba was heavily linked with Rangers' in the last January transfer window, however Samba's previous club Blackburn Rovers were reluctant to sell him to a rival relegation rival and instead cashed in on him once Anzhi Makhachkala came in with a £12million bid for the big defender.

Samba has struggled to come with the hostility in Russia and was rumored to want to leave the club in the last transfer window but now the R's have activated his release fee clause in his contract, believed to be between £10-£12million, he finally gets his wish and returns to the Premier League and becomes the clubs record signing just two weeks after the R's paid a record fee for Loic Remy.



Samba has signed a four and a half year deal.

In his previous spell in the Premier League Samba had a reputation of being a no nonsense player on the field and was a leader of men. His big physical presence was often one that many strikers did not like to play against and this will be a strength that is key to him joining the R's. He is excellent in the air and will work well with the likes of Clint Hill as he likes to make himself known on the pitch and will often air his views to other players to get them organised and ready for battle.
Samba also brings something that a lot of our centre backs have lacked in recent years...... goals! He will lay his body on the line to ensure that he gets his head on the end of any attacking corners and will certainly bag a few goals, as well as stop a few at the other end, to really help the R's cause.

Samba will wear the number 5 shirt.

Welcome to Loftus Road Chris, he are looking forward to seeing you help our beloved club climb our way to safety.

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Transfers Begin To Roll In...... And Out


There has been a lot of transfer activity at Loftus Road today.

Firstly South Korean International Yun Suk-Young has joined the R's on a three and a half year deal for an undisclosed fee from Chunnam Dragons

Suk-Young was part of the South Korean Olympic squad that won the Bronze Medal at the London 2012 Games in the summer and had impressed a number of Premier League clubs including Man City and Everton.



The R's have also put the wheels in motion on a deal for Christopher Samba from Anzhi of Russia. Samba is well known in England for his physical presence and no nonsense defending that earned him a great reputation at Blackburn Rovers.
We await developments regarding this one.


On the outgoings front we had a number of players go out on loan yesterday, including Rob Hulse to Millwall and today it looks like another few are on their way out on loan.
Alejandro Faurlin is putting the finishing touches on a six month loan to Palermo, just terms need to be agreed between the player and club.

We will be back in full force tomorrow with updates on the transfers as they happen.

#ThankYouRyanNelsen


Last night the R's faced the daunting task of facings the current Champions of England just days after crashing out of the FA Cup to MK Dons. Could the R's pick themselves back up off the floor or were we going to witness a mauling to City's Superstars?

With this being a midweek game the gang got to Loftus Road at different times. Firstly I met Jess and her brother James at Westfield for a pre game Nandos that was sure to warm us up on a very wet night in W12.
We then made our way down to the ground and we bumped into Lofty who was outside the Loft entrance. Jenson rolled up shortly after with his friend 'Sun Tan'. We made our way round to the Blue and White bar and caught up with our friends Michael, Zach and Bob before Luke and Sam joined us.

The main topic of discussion between us all was the selection of two goalkeepers on the subs bench. The bench was notably missing Jamie Mackie (possibly Stoke bound) and DJ Campbell (late withdrawal with family issues). We all read into this as a clear statement from Harry Redknapp to the board that we needed reinforcements before the Transfer Window slams shut on Thursday. Will it work? We will see!

Well what can I say about the game?
We all knew that we would see a backs to the wall performance, which we also witnessed in our games against Chelsea, Spurs and West Ham. This game was no different at all.
Man City are a team maintain possession very well, are very patient in their build up play and never panic. They often find a moment of magic when you least expect it, and that nearly came in the 22nd minute when David Silva's chip to the penalty spot found Pablo Zabaleta. Zabaleta's precise header beat Cesar however the crossbar came to the aid of the R's defence.
Shortly after that the R's carved out the best chance of the game.
Taarabt run at the City defence and remained unchallenged before he beat Gael Clichy and going one on one with Joe Hart. Taarabt placed his shot the other side of the England number one but Hart managed to stretch his hand back in the direction of the ball and deny the R's a breakaway goal.
Man City were then denied by a piece of excellent goalkeeping by Cesar in the R's goal. Carlos Tevez and Gareth Barry exchanged passes before Barry found himself a yard of space and took aim, only to find the Brazilian International pull of a fantastic save and push the ball around the post for a corner.




The second half we witnessed much more of the same and chances were few and far between.
Cesar pulled off another excellent save, this time from Silva and managed to scramble the ball clear before Aguero managed to get to the ball and tap into an empty net.
Both teams were denied penalty claims during the half. Firstly Loic Remy seemingly got the better of Lescott and as he advanced past the defender he looked a if he was caught by the England International as he fell to the ground. On first viewing we were all convinced that it was a penalty, however after seeing the replay it's clear to see that Remy went down far too easily and should've continued to advance on goal.
At the other end City had a shout turned down as former City defender Onuoha challenged Sinclair and again after seeing replays you can see Nedum get enough contact on the ball and that this was a great decision made by referee Phil Dowd.

Well it was another nail biting night but you have to say that the team spirit on show from the R's was truly superb, to a man you could not fault any of the effort on display from the eleven on the field. I also have to say that the fans last night were on a different level! The atmosphere created, especially in the first half was very much like the atmosphere we created during the latter half of last year during our battle against relegation and we need to keep this kind of intimidating atmosphere going all the way through until the end of the season as we do thrive on playing within that.

Our Man of the Match was a unanimous decision within the gang. W have three mentions to hand out first with Nedum Onuoha, Shaun Derry and Adel Taarabt all receiving plaudits from everyone after some really gritty performances and did not stop working for the team for the whole 90 minutes.
Our selection, with no surprise, is Julio Cesar. Cesar is showing why he has gained such a reputation for being one of the worlds best goalkeepers and has conceded just one goal throughout the whole of January, impressive!



Finally, we have to say a massive thank you to the warrior that is Ryan Nelsen.
He has only been with us for six months and played twenty games for us but the man has been a real hero and a leader for the team when we have needed him. Nelsen has been the star signing from the summer and the free transfer was an absolute bargain for us.
Nelson has been the player of the season for us so far and has worn the hoops with pride.
Words cant describe how much we are going to miss him. The man has made such an impact on our club and we could really do with having him for the rest of the season but when an opportunity of a lifetime arrives you have to take it and we all respect Ryan Nelsen for the decision he has made and I hope that one day we will be able to welcome him back as a visitor and maybe even a future manager if all goes well.
Thank you very much Ryan Nelsen for all your effort, blood, sweat and tears!



I will be back during the Transfer Window tomorrow!

U R'SSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

MK 2 Good 4 Us


Today the R's fans had a rare occasion to enjoy as the FA Cup 4th Round, for once, saw the R's take part. The visitors to Loftus Road were MK Dons in a repeat of last years 3rd Round tie, in which a Danny Gabbidon goal settled the replay at Loftus Road.

The R's have not been in the 5th Round for over 16 years and there was a great sense of optimism around the ground and within the gang that maybe we could venture just a little further and enjoy a little break from our relegation battle in the Premier League.

Jess made a rare appearance in the Loft and took PK's seat for the game today. Joining us in the stands were Lofty, Jenson and Luke. Also in attendance was Tony on his birthday game, along with Alan and Rob.

Redknapp made nine changes from the side that drew at West Ham last week. The line up wasn't our best eleven, however the quality in the side should be enough to see of League 1 opposition.

Rangers' won a corner in the opening 13 seconds and then in the second minute Jay Bothroyd headed back to DJ Campbell and he was happy to despatch the ball into the back of the net. However the linesmans flag was raised and offside was given. Frustratingly enough tv replays have shown that Campbell was onside, another piece of luck that has gone against us.
A minute later and the visitors were in front through a massive slice of luck!
Dean Lewington's corner was wildly met by Armand Traore's swinging leg and the ball sliced into the back of the net. All against the run of play as well.
The R's were knocking the ball around well in midfield but after the early goal we saw MK had 9 players behind the ball, frustrating the R's every time they tried to launch an attack.
The R's should've then had a penalty when Otsemobor pulled down Mackie after the Scottish International beat him in the area, however Mike Dean (one of a number of referees that never gives us any decisions) deemed this as not a foul and the R's continued to chase the game.
Disaster soon struck after one of the worst pieces of defending I've seen this year.
A long ball should have easily been dealt with by Ferdinand but he let the ball drop over his head and allow Ryan Lowe to go one on one with Rob Green and  finished superbly well in all fairness.



At half time the R's were 2-0 down and were at fault for their own downfalls. MK did not offer much in terms of an attacking presence but defended well and took their chances.
The gang had all but given up on the game but it would've been nice to see a bit of grit and determination to get us back into the game during the course of the second half.

Within the first five minutes all that hope had disappeared as another shocking piece of defending saw the team from MK extend their lead.
The offside trap was beaten as Lowe found himself in acres of space and then laid the ball of a plate for substitute Harley to tap into the empty net from three yards out.
Jenson had seen enough and headed straight for the exit. The rest of us were not far behind him as it got even worse five minutes later when Darren Potter slotted home after some awful Rangers' defending from a free kick.

After we left there were two consolation goals from Bothroyd and Fabio. You will have to watch the highlights to see what the goals are like as I haven't a clue.



Well what can I say about today?? We did not play too badly and MK took their chances when they come their way. MK come with a game plan and it worked, that's why they are in the fifth round and we are here wondering what the players on the field were thinking today.
Ji-Sung Park once again showed what an absolute waste of space he is! He is clueless, has no pace, no sense of positioning, cannot pass the ball over 5 yards and continuously falls over. The sooner he is ditched the better!
Anton Ferdinand was hopeless today, his mistake was one you would usually see in League Two! He has been awful for a few months now and if an offer does come in for him then I would not be surprised to see him go.
Ali Faurlin had a dreadful game, somany of his passes were misplaced which is very unusual. I hope that Faurlin picks himself back up from this and comes back stronger.

No Man of the Match will be awarded from today after a result like that, however I have three mentions to give as I feel they deserve it.
Firstly Armand Traore was superb down the left flank today and was largely our biggest threat there with Park leaving him alone down that side. Traore made several great runs and was unlucky not to of gained an assist or two for his efforts.
Tal Ben Haim was easily the better of the two centre backs today and was in control of every situation. With more match fitness we could be seeing a lot more of him before the end of the season.
Jay Bothroyd has received a lot of grief in his short career here but today his effort was there to be seen and was unlucky not to of got an assist from the disallowed Campbell goal in the second minute. He got his goal and fair play to him, at least he showed a lot more heart than some of the useless twats out there today.

We will return on Tuesday as the R's have the daunting task of taking on current Premier League Champions Man City.

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

R's Gain a Point Despite a Second Half Hammer-ing...


West Ham 1-1 QPR

Loic Remy scored on his Premier League debut, as Rangers held on for an extremely hard fought point at a bitterly cold Upton Park this afternoon.


What with the snow hitting the country over the past couple of days, we couldn't help but wonder if this game would go ahead at all? But at about 10am, West Ham confirmed there were no problems so the gang made their way to East London. What with rail replacement services and text messages unable to get through, I arrived first at Upton Park station and waited for the arrival of Lee, Jess, Sam, Luke and Jenson, who arrived at about 1.45 and we headed straight for the away end. We had some refreshments, including the latest instalment of the away day pie rating, of which the result will appear later...

We took our seats in the away section, which included R's Chairman, Tony Fernandes, who would have certainly enjoyed what he saw in the opening half an hour or so..

West Ham went close through Mohamed Diame and Kevin Nolan and had a penalty appeal waved away by Howard Webb, when Chamakh stumbled over after tangling with Wright-Phillips. At the other end, Rangers were using their new found pace with Taarabt linking up well with Remy, but on the first 2 occasions, the clubs record signing was caught offside. But on 14 minutes, he got it spot on, latching on to Taarabt's superb through ball to finish coolly past Jaaskelainen.



Rangers were pretty comfortable for the remainder of the half with the Hammers threatening little and had Taarabt done better just before the break, we may have been going in with a 2 goal half time lead.

Onto the second half and I think it's pretty much fair to say, that West Ham completely battered us. They bombarded the Rangers box with cross after cross and there was goalmouth scramble after goalmouth scramble, with Rangers defending resiliently and Cesar in great form in the R's goal. But on 68 minutes, Rangers finally cracked when, another Jarvis cross found substitute, Carlton Cole, who's header produced another fine save from Cesar, but this time the ball fell to Joe Cole who tapped home the rebound.

The home side continued to press and Winston Reid's fierce goal-bound shot was blocked bravely by Stephane Mbia after a goalmouth scramble, before Joe Cole rounded Cesar only to see his shot turned away by Hill. In truth, Rangers offered little threat going forward and tried to catch West Ham on the break.

Queens Park Rangers

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 06 Hill
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 17 Nelsen
  • 20 Fabio
  • 04 Derry
  • 10 Taarabt (Park Ji-sung - 82' )
  • 11 Wright-Phillips (Traore - 58' )
  • 40 M'bia
  • 12 Mackie (Bothroyd - 67' )
  • 18 Remy

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 03 Traore
  • 05 Ferdinand
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 32 Faurlin
  • 23 Hoilett
  • 37 Bothroyd
In summary, this in the end, was a very good point well earned as Rangers defended for their lives. Heart and passion very much on view yet again. Taarabt and Loic Remy were linking up very well and it is very exciting to see what these two will produce as the weeks go on. If anything, Rangers lost any kind of attacking threat when Remy was moved to the right hand side when Bothroyd came on for Jamie Mackie. Carlton Cole made a massive impact for the home side when he came off the bench.

Man of the Match - almost a clean sweep with Lee picking out Stephane Mbia for his all round battling performance. But for the rest of us, Julio Cesar was  the stand out man for another dominating showing in the R's goal.

Awayday Pie Rating

Lee - Chicken Balti - couldn't fault it, but dropped half a mark just because he can - 9.5/10

Jenson - Steak - could not say enough about it, especially the ample filling - 10/10

Lofty - Chicken Balti - as above, nothing to fault, heated to perfection, well presented and very easy to eat - 10/10

Luke - Cornish Pasty - simply replied - 10/10

Giving the West Ham pies a MASSIVE 9.88/10 (new leaders). Will that be beaten? I very much doubt it...

So after the game, we decided to go away from the crowds and take the long hike to East Ham Station, for what was probably the most entertaining part of the day. As we took our seats on the train, a Gentleman wearing headphones and enjoying his music sat himself next to Lee... and oblivious to all those around him, danced along to what was playing into his ears. There was dance moves aplenty and lots of arm movements, going right across Lee's face if it needed too and at one point, if you would have guessed he was listening to Greased Lightning, you would understand what I meant. After much laughter from us all, often trying to hide it, Lee's simple comment was  - 'I always attract them'...

Lee will return next weekend when we have a rare distraction of an FA CUP 4th Round tie at home to MK Dons.

Until then, Keep the Faith and Come on you R'sssss!!



Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Loic The Relegation Remy-dy


Today the R's have announced the fantastic coup in convincing Loic Remy to join the club and help fight in the relegation dogfight and provided the much needed firepower that Rangers' have been lacking.



Remy, 26, has joined on a four and a half year deal worth a rumored £80,000 a week from Marseille for £8 million.

Harry Redknapp has been a long term admirer of Remy and was chasing his signature during his time at Spurs and was quoted a £20 million price tag at one point.
Remy has been a long term target for Redknapp since he took over the managerial reigns at QPR, yet the deal is being touted as one that we have stolen Remy from under the noses of Newcastle, despite being the first to take an interest in the player.
Over the course of the weekend the dream deal for Harry looked dead and buried as Remy refused to hold talks with the R's, allowing Newcastle to take the initiative and get a fee agreed and flew Remy over to the North-East to conclude a deal. However there was a twist in the tale as Redknapp and Chairman Tony Fernandes did not give up hope of signing the 17 cap French International and went ahead to agree a fee with Marseille, giving us the hope of persuading the pacy front man to join us instead of the North-East giants.
With Newcastle only two points above the relegation zone themselves they did not convince Remy that St. James' Park was the place to be, despite holding an impressive arena for him to play in front of over 50,000 passionate supporters. Instead Harry has used his negotiating skills to land his man and join a club that has plenty ambition, but still has a long way to go until the R's fulfill that ambition.



Remy has been a sought after striker over the last few years and despite having a poor season at Marseille this year, due to lack of playing time and falling out of favour with the manager, this is a defining coup in the R's January transfer window and we are hopeful that he has the impact that Djibril Cisse had on us (without the red cards) and continues this on into the next season (unlike Cisse this year).

With the potential signing on Yann M'vila also due to be concluded on Thursday, this shows that despite the clubs current precarious position in the Premier League, we are able to attract top quality players to Loftus Road and help the club stave off a second relegation battle and push on for a third season in the top flight and cement the R's place in the division.
With the new training ground due to open next season and potential for a new ground to be announced in the coming future, we are seeing real progress being made by the club under the ownership of Tony Fernandes and Amit Bhatia.

We are hearing fans of other clubs saying that we are throwing money around like Portsmouth and the hope that we fold the way that they have, unfortunately what people forget is that many of the teams spent more money than us in the summer and with a total spend of £28 million, this is less than Southampton in the summer (who spent £30 million) and other 'big clubs' like Man United and Chelsea spending well over that figure, how are we throwing money around? The only thing we have done is pay bigger wages because we haven't spent money on big transfer fees and relied on free transfers (such as Green, Bosingwa, Nelsen and more recently Ben Haim).
It's amazing what short memories people have!!

Anyway, enough of me ranting........

Remy will wear the number 18 shirt for the R's.

Welcome to QPR Loic, we are looking forward to seeing you score the goals that lead us to safety!

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

QPR 'Jay' Walk Into Round 4...


WBA 0-1 QPR

QPR's excellent start to 2013 continued this evening as a goal from Jay Bothroyd saw the R's march into the FA Cup 4th round and a home tie versus MK Dons.


Well it was an extremely rare occurrence this evening as LH was not represented at all at the Hawthorns, personally down to Christmas expenses etc. So I looked forward to staying in the warm and watching a live stream. But after 15 mins of frantic searching, texting and looking on Twitter, it seemed there wasn't one available anywhere. So BBC London Radio it had to be, which in the past has been torturous and tonight was no different.

Obviously, it's impossible to bring you all any kind of match report and I am certainly not one to copy and paste from other reports as others seem to do on a regular basis. But from the commentary, it was very complimentary towards the R's and was clear that both Jay Bothroyd and Rob Green had absolute blinders. What I did pick up on from the commentators, was that they absolutely slated Djibrel Cisse throughout the first half, branding him lazy and uninterested and when the half time whistle blew, stated that 10 of the QPR team have put in a great shift. Cisse was then replaced at half time. Extremely disappointing.

But I won't be negative, this was another fantastic result for the R's who are yet to beaten in 2013, winning 2 away games and boasting 3 clean sheets. Long may it continue...

Queens Park Rangers

  • 01 Green
  • 05 Ferdinand
  • 06 Hill
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 21 Ben-Haim Booked
  • 04 Derry
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 32 Faurlin
  • 09 Cisse (Wright-Phillips - 46' )
  • 12 Mackie (Taarabt - 90' )
  • 37 Bothroyd (M'bia - 80' )

Substitutes

  • 26 Murphy
  • 10 Taarabt
  • 11 Wright-Phillips
  • 22 Ephraim
  • 28 Ehmer
  • 40 M'bia
  • 34 Hulse
The headline for the previous cup tie was ' The Irony of the FA Cup'... How's this for a bit more? As provided by Lee shortly after the final whistle..

This was the first Premier League team we have beaten in the FA Cup since 1995, the opponents - West Ham, their Manager - Harry Redknapp.

Rangers take their good form to Upton Park on Saturday as they face West Ham and we all know how Harry loves a London Derby!!! And hopefully, some new faces will be on display for the R's and I will be back with the report over the weekend.

Keep the Faith and Come on You R'sssssssssssss!!!


Saturday, January 12, 2013

Redknapp Denies Former Club


The R's looked to continue their unbeaten run in 2013 in the early kick off against in form Spurs. Could the run carry on or would Tottenham continue their record of scoring in every away Premier League game this season on their way to victory?

With the game being an early kick off there were many unwanted alarms going off to get us all out of bed to get up to Loftus Road in time for the 12.45 kick off. Jess and myself opted for the early arrival and a Nandos before the gameand then made our way to the ground where the rest of the gang assembled in the Lower Loft for the pre match discussions regarding team selection. The buzz was still evident from Lofty, PK, Luke and Jenson, however Sam, Jess and myself were lacking that buzz as we missed out on that memorable night.

Two changes were made to the side that won at Stamford Bridge. Hoilett and Granero missed out through injury and were replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips and the returning Ji-Sung Park, who walked straight back into the R's starting line up after being absent for nearly two months through injury.

Early in the first half the R's survived a scare in the fifth minute when Jermain Defoe's shot was expertly pushed onto the post by Cesar, however the rebound fell at Adebayor's feet and the Togo striker seemingly had an easy chance to open the scoring but found Cesar's cat like reactions too good as Cesar managed to push the ball over the bar.
Spurs continued to push the R's but struggled to break the strong defensive line that was being shielded well by Derry and Mbia, it's a shame that Park was not putting in the same shift as his team mates as he looked unfit, three yards off the pace and like he had eaten too many noodles over the Christmas period. He will only get worse over the next few weeks as Chinese New Year approaches........
SWP created the best chance of the half all on his own when he turned former R's loanee Kyle Walker inside out and advanced into the Spurs penalty area before beating another defender and then scuffing his shot wide. He could've taken the ball further in all honesty but that was more like the SWP that we knew before he signed for us 18 months ago.

Helping hand: Julio Cesar was in inspired form to keep Tottenham out at Loftus Road

At half time the gang gathered on the concourse in a very happy mood and thinking we looked quite solid defensively. The only thing we lacked was attacking creativity but with Spurs being so quick going forwards we had to be cautious with our approach to the second half.

The second half was very much more of the same with Spurs doing the majority of the attacking and Rangers' defending brilliantly in their numbers and were lead by their two leaders at centre back, Ryan Nelsen and Clint Hill.
Spurs had two great chances in the second half. Firstly a free kick from Kyle Walker that fizzed just past the far post and also were denied again by Cesar after Dempsey's shot took a deflection in a busy penalty area.
Five minutes from the end SWP could have won it for the R's as he broke into the Spurs penalty area and just as he was about to shoot the ball was nipped off him and uncharacteristically he took a tumble.

QPR's Harry Redknapp gestures, watched by Tottenham Hotspur manager, André Villas-Boas

It's fair to say that every R's fan would have taken a point from this fixture and after a gutsy performance from Harry's Rangers' we have remained unbeaten and the game plan we are using is definitely working against the stronger and better attacking teams.
We had 10 bravehearts out there today that carried Park through the 90 minutes.The South Korean was slow, chasing around like a headless chicken and letting his team mates down. How he even got into the starting eleven over Faurlin, who has been fit for the last few weeks, needs to be questioned. Park has brought a lot of good marketing and getting a Far East following but he's become a liability on the pitch for us and is lacking in the quality that other players in our squad have. It will be interesting to see if Park is ousted from the team once Harry has completed his transfer dealing during this transfer window. My opinion is that he needs to be removed and be told to train harder to get into the starting eleven.

Our Man of the Match is spread out over a few players today. Two players gaining two votes each are Shaun Derry and Adel Taarabt. Fabio received three votes from Jess, Sam and Luke however with a total of 4,503 votes the man of the match is Ji Sung Park............ only joking, I wouldn't let our Korean fan base get away with that, as they tried to vote Park as our December player of the month without even kicking a ball.
Our Man of the Match is Fabio for an energetic display that involved keeping track of Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale throughout the 90 minutes, whilst also doing his best to support SWP in an attacking presence down the left wing.
Julio Cesar also gets a special mention from the gang for his display in goal today and keeping a second Premier League clean sheet on the spin.



Queens Park Rangers

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 06 Hill
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 17 Nelsen
  • 20 Fabio
  • 04 Derry
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 10 Taarabt
  • 11 Wright-Phillips
  • 40 M'bia Booked
  • 12 Mackie

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 05 Ferdinand
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 32 Faurlin
  • 09 Cisse
  • 37 Bothroyd
  • 39 Campbell

Tottenham Hotspur

  • 25 Lloris
  • 05 Vertonghen
  • 16 Naughton
  • 20 Dawson
  • 28 Walker
  • 07 Lennon (Sigurdsson - 79' )
  • 11 Bale
  • 30 Sandro (Parker - 25' )
  • 10 Adebayor (Dempsey - 69' )
  • 18 Defoe
  • 19 Dembele Booked

Substitutes

  • 24 Friedel
  • 32 Assou-Ekotto
  • 33 Caulker
  • 02 Dempsey
  • 06 Huddlestone
  • 08 Parker
  • 22 Sigurdsson
Ref: Probert
Att: 18,018

There were some excellent exhibitions of diving on show today, but the best was saved to last as PK made his way down the stairs on our exit from the stand and he took a tumble but despite the best efforts of Lofty, Jenson and myself he still ended up taking the fall and ended up laying on top of two chairs and dropped the newspaper he had acquired from the floor and had started reading before falling over himself. A funny way to end the day!!

Lofty will return as the R's travel to across t East London and Upton Park for our visit to West Ham.

Keep the faith!!

U R'SSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, January 06, 2013

The Irony of the FA Cup


QPR 1-1 West Brom

The irony being that an injury time goal from injury prone, Kieron Dyer, kept QPR in the hat for today's fourth round draw, following a 1-1 draw with West Brom, in what was a 'Dyer' game at Loftus Road yesterday. Did you see what I did there... ;)



With it being only myself and Jenson from the gang that attended yesterdays game, I feel it's high time I had a rant - Obviously not learning their lesson from last season, this game was priced at £25 for adults, £20 for concessions and £10 for under 16's. Have the club learned  nothing from, over pricing the Chelsea cup tie last year? Obviously not. £25 was too much for many and the attendance of just short of 9,000 was testament to that. I appreciate that the structure is different for the FA Cup and that both clubs have to agree, but surely, 10-15 pounds a seat and maybe a kids free offer would have put bums on seats and filled the stadium, of which food, drink and club shop sales would surely have benefitted? As it was, most kiosks were closed so the few that did turn up, faced long queues. Another PR disaster from the club that's for sure and I am also sure it won't be the last.... anyway, rant over.

Onto the game, which as already mentioned as wasn't much of one at all and little reward for the fans that did make the game. To be honest, both sides looked tired and like the FA Cup was hardly high on their priority lists. Being refereed by Mark Clattenburg hardly helped either.

But with 12 minutes to go, it looked as though an FA Cup run was over as Shane Long put the Baggies ahead with a shot deflecting in off Nedum Onuoha, wrong footing Cesar. But the R's kept going and with virtually the last kick off the game, Bothroyd found Dyer on the left hand side who finished coolly into the bottom corner to set up a replay at the Hawthorns.

Queens Park Rangers

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 06 Hill
  • 17 Nelsen (Onuoha - 71' )
  • 21 Ben-Haim
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 10 Taarabt
  • 14 Granero (Bothroyd - 46' )
  • 18 Dyer
  • 40 M'bia
  • 12 Mackie
  • 39 Campbell

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 05 Ferdinand
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 04 Derry
  • 32 Faurlin
  • 09 Cisse
  • 37 Bothroyd
Man of the Match - unanimous despite only myself and Jenson voting - Adel Taarabt

Well, to summarise, it was probably a case of this game being an After the Lord Mayor's Show affair after the stunning victory at the Bridge. Plenty of positives though as we didn't give up the ghost, Ben Haim had a half decent debut and Adel Taarabt looked head and shoulders above anyone on the pitch at times, it just was one of those days... and of course, we are still unbeaten in 2013.

As mentioned, we were of course in the hat for the 4th Round draw and if we beat WBA at the Hawthorns, then it's a home tie versus Sheffield Wednesday or MK Dons.

Lee will return on Saturday as we entertain the very much in form Tottenham Hotspur at Loftus Road. But until then...

Keep the Faith and Come on you R'ssssssssssssssssssss!!!!

Friday, January 04, 2013

Harry Makes Signing Number 1


Today QPR announced Harry Redknapp's first signing under his guidance, with Tal Ben Haim signing for the club on a contract until the end of the season.



Ben Haim comes to the R's with a vast amount of Premier League experience having had spells at Bolton, Chelsea, Manchester City, Sunderland(loan), Portsmouth and West Ham(loan).
He made an excellent impact on the English game during his time at Bolton but has not performed to those high standards for a few years now, so hopefully he will flourish under Harry and help us out if and when needed.
Ben Haim can play across the back four, so his versatility could be key for the R's over the next six months.

I have to be honest and say that I am not overly enthusiastic about the signing, but then most of u were the same when Ryan Nelsen signed in the summer and look at how he's proved us wrong so far!
Hopefully Ben Haim will come in and want to prove himself in the Premier League once again and get himself playing in the top league for the first time in nearly three years.


Thursday, January 03, 2013

All Wright on the Night...


Chelsea 0-1 QPR

QPR pulled off one of the results of the season at Stamford Bridge last night, with a late goal from Shaun Wright-Phillips that brought home 3 precious points against our bitter rivals.

Happy New Year to you all!!



I was that fed up after the Liverpool game last weekend that I could barely write any sort of report at all, but what a difference a few days makes as I have been looking forward to this one all day...

Sadly, due to Christmas expenses etc and very high ticket prices, Sam, Lee and Jess were unable to attend the game. Due to location, I travelled alone to the Bridge and battled through a line of about 50 stewards to get to the turnstile, complete and utter overkill. When I finally got in and after a quick word with Jack and Luke, I met PK and Jenson who arrived just as I was finishing what was the worst Pie of the season so far, more on that later...

It is safe to say that myself and other R's fans, thought of nothing else but certain defeat and why would we think otherwise with Chelsea coming into the game on the back of 5 straight wins and scoring 8 against Villa in their last home game. Even the bookies price of 18/1 at some, wasn't enough to tempt many..

The game kicked off and the 3,000 odd Rangers fans were in fine voice and if nothing else tonight, would outshout their rivals. Chelsea should have been down to ten men after just 4 minutes when Marin committed a dreadful high tackle on Mbia, but the consistently bad, Lee Mason saw this possible leg breaker only worthy of a yellow.

Rangers, to a man were working their socks off and never gave Chelsea anytime on the ball, reducing them to long range efforts and there were half chances for Luiz and Moses. At the other end, Taarabt was pulling the strings but was twice frustrated by SWP (on for the injured Hoilett) failing to latch onto his through balls. SWP later got on the end of Granero's ball but shot harmlessly wide. The best chance of the half however, fell to Chelsea, when Oscar's low drive was deflected off Granero but saved brilliantly by the legs of Cesar.

We stayed in our seats at half time and sadly had to listen to the over amplified sound of the complete pillock that is the Stadium Announcer, who couldn't resist mentioning the fact that Chelsea were Champions of Europe. The Rangers end swiftly reminded him that they were already out of the competition.

Onto the second half and Chelsea put the R's straight under pressure and forced a succession of corners. Ivanovic's header went just over before Cesar pulled off a wonder save close range from Torres. Rangers held firm and were starting to put on pressure of their own, with Mackie almost going clear on goal and Granero fizzing a shot straight at Turnbull. Shaun Derry then arrived unmarked from a corner but again, found the Chelsea keeper well positioned. It was going end to end now and Moses hit a rasping drive just over Cesar's bar.

Lampard had the ball in the R's net on 66 minutes but was correctly adjudged offside by the linesman and with time ticking on, the away end were becoming ever hopeful off getting an unlikely point.

On 78 minutes, Rangers forced a corner which Granero took and the ball was headed out to Taarabt and with a superb lay off, found the oncoming Shaun Wright-Phillips who smashed a low drive into the corner of the net to cause absolute bedlam in the away end. Nobody could quite believe just what was happening out there..


The next 15 minutes were perhaps the longest that R's fans would ever endure as Chelsea threw everything at us, but Rangers continued to stand their ground and when the ball was thrown into play on 93 minutes, Mason blew the final whistle on a night R's fans will NEVER forget!!


Queens Park Rangers

  • 33 Julio Cesar
  • 06 Hill Booked
  • 15 Onuoha
  • 17 Nelsen
  • 20 Fabio
  • 04 Derry
  • 10 Taarabt (Dyer - 90' )
  • 14 Granero (Park Ji-sung - 90' )
  • 40 M'bia
  • 12 Mackie
  • 23 Hoilett (Wright-Phillips - 15' )

Substitutes

  • 01 Green
  • 05 Ferdinand
  • 07 Park Ji-sung
  • 11 Wright-Phillips
  • 18 Dyer
  • 32 Faurlin
  • 09 Cisse
Man of the Match - could quite simply be given to the entire team for a superb display full of heart, desire and passion and what R's fans have been crying out for. We do though have a winner, with Jess's vote going to Clint Hill, but the rest of us singling out Adel Taarabt.

Awayday Pie Rating

With just myself taking part and arriving early, I chose the beef and onion which was highly priced at £3.80 but was presented well in a carton. But, it was so hot it was burning the tongue and was almost impossible to eat and when it did eventually cool down, it crumbled everywhere after every bite. The very messy empty carton was dumped under my very expensive seat.

Chelsea Pie Rating - 2/10

How can I begin to summarise what was an unforgettable night for QPR fans everywhere!! So many highlights - the 'Champions of Europe, you're already out' and 'Ashley Cole, you're John Terry's bitch' chant as he warmed up in front of us, that goal, the celebrations, the final whistle... everything!! It has certainly put smiles back upon the faces of QPR fans and what a great way to start 2013!!!

Personally and as much as I cannot believe I am saying this after the season so far, Rangers got the 3 points last night because they wanted it more!!

There is certainly a long way to go and more performances like that are required - heart, desire and passion was in abundance last night and if that hasn't given you just the slightest bit of hope, nothing will. But whatever happens, it was an unforgettable night!!

I will return at the weekend to see if we can progress into the 4th Round of the FA Cup and continue this winning habit...

Keep the Faith and Come on you R'ssssssssssss!!!

Many thanks to Jess for the headline...