Queens Park Rangers v Scunthorpe United
@ Loftus Road
Saturday, August 21, 2010
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FULL-TIME: QPR 0 SCUN 2: United have been completely outclassed from about the second minute. I don't think Kenny had to make one difficult save this bleak August afternoon. The Iron might as well have played a Premiership team - the difference in class really was that stark. Joe Murhy did very well though, and I can say with great certainty that if he hadn't have had his seemingly magic gloves on then QPR would've scored a bucket full today.
90 Min: We're into the five minutes of added time now, but this is one of those days where I think a minute would have sufficed really. I can't see United turning this game on its head any more or less than I can see Blackpool winning the Prem. this season.
Sub: Helguson off; Antonio German on.
88 Min: Alejandro Faurlin comes within a whisker of scoring what would have been a certain contender for the goal of the season award. He takes down a high ball just outside the area, turns on it while doing keepy-uppys and then smashes a venemous dipping volley at goal which goes just a little bit wide. That really was something even Wayne Rooney would be proud of.
Sub: The big centre-back Leigertwood comes on for QPR.
85 Min: This game continues to dwindle away. Maybe United will get one goal, but I can't see them getting two. Back to what is actually happening though, and Jamie Mackie has just wedged a shot at goal which Murphy has had to catch.
Sub: Byrne on for McNulty. I won't lie, I was expecting to see a cameo from Trent McClenahan today; but clearly that's not to be.
Sub: Bobby Grant comes on. I'm informed that he has an ability to conjure something up out of nothing, and that'd certainly be useful today - as even though The Iron don't deserve it really, a goal would nevertheless make the last few minutes nervous for QPR. Woolford is the player who leaves the pitch.
75 Min: For the second time today, Forte gets in behind the home defence. In the area he checks onto his left-foot, and tries to pass the ball into the far corner as it were; but Kenny saves. Woolford tries burst in and score the rebound, but Kenny gets to the temporrily loose ball first.
Sub: Taarabt withdrawn: he's done his job and has earned his rest. He gets a standing ovation, and is replaced by Buzsaky.
71 Min: Ephraim accelerates away from O'Connor on the wing (in fairness, O'Connor was busting a gut to get back with him but Ephraim had a head-start). He gets to the byline, and lays it across for Helguson; but Helguson hits over when it would have been easier to score.
67 Min: The United defence is divided into two by a long ball which is planted deep into the box from Hogan Ephraim. It's met at the back post by a free Helguson, but his header is pretty woeful and ends up deeper in the stand than a good few spectators.
64 Min: Michael O'Connor gets the ball in midfield and obviously thinks 'what the heck, I'll have a crack'. He powers a drive at goal which bounces up and down off the greasy surface, and it causes Paddy Kenny a problem or two. In fact, Kenny botches his save, and only manages to get a solitary hand to it which just about turns it behind.
62 Min: QPR win a free-kick about twenty-five or so yards out. It's curled towards Murphy's goal, but he's able to save.
57 Min: Another let off for Scunthorpe after Murphy and Raynes get in a tangle while trying to deal with a deep cross, meaning the ball runs for Helguson to slot home (which actually he doesn't manage - instead he swipes it wide) before the referee brings play back for a foul on Murphy by Helguson.
51 Min: Credit where it's due, United have looked better at the start of this half. As it stands though, QPR still haven't let in a single goal in the Championship this season. They're also highly likely to top the league at full-time, a fact that many of the reporters around here keep tediously repeating during the course of their match commentaries. Oh, and now their fans have started with the chant too ...
47 Min: A smart O'Connor, Woolford and Wright free-kick routine ends in a shot from distance by Martyn Woolford that comes very close to giving United a lifeline in this match. It was heading in from about twenty-five yards, had Paddy Kenny not bounded across his goal to tip it away.
45 Min: Togwell and O'Connor get us back underway. Let's hope for a better second half.
HALF-TIME: QPR 2 SCUN 0: I think that any United fan here today would be happy to see this game end now. There's a song that goes 'Things can only get better'; today has quite the opposite feeling surrounding it. Logic tells me that this is now about damage limitation.QPR have controlled practically every second of this half just gone, and only some fine Murphy goalkeeping means that the deficit is just two.
During half-time, QPR run a crossbar challenege competition, which involves covering the entire mouth of the goal with a plastic sheet so that no balls can fly into it. "United could do with one of them in the second half", someone sat near to me correctly asserts.
ATT: 12,406
45 Min: On a rare United attack, McNulty fizzes a shot wide.
42 Min: There's some confusion when Raynes and Taarabt collide in the box and the referee seems to point to the spot. Then he seems decides that Taarabt actually dived (for the second time today I might add) and after a mass confrontation play resumes with a United free-kick.
GOAL! QPR 2 SCUN 0: Heidar Helguson shows fantastic composure to firstly contol a long ball played into the box for him and then secondly slam it past the oncoming Murphy - and all without letting it touch the floor. Some of the football QPR are playing is a treat to watch.
33 Min: A mistake from one of the QPR back four gives the ball straight to Dagnall, who wastes little time in putting Forte in one-on-one. Forte buckles however, and when he tries to coolly chip the goalie he sees his effort go over the bar. This sounds really horrible, but it's hard to see United getting a better chance than that against a side as good as QPR.
27 Min: He might be playing for QPR, but Taarabt is simply a joy to watch today. He just received a standing ovation for taking on a couple of Scunny players (which including doing an audacious Cruyff turn around McNulty) before hitting a long shot at goal which deflected out for a corner.
23 Min: My internet has gone really slow again, explaining my lack of recent reportings. Anyhow, since the goal, QPR have dropped down a few gears, but I'd be lying if I said that's given United a way back into the game. To be honest, this feels a lot like Leicester or Sheffield Wednesday away last season (sorry to say it - it's just true). As I'm typing Helguson heads at Murphy from point-blank range. It was both a good save and bad miss.
GOAL! QPR 1 SCUN 0: This place goes mental as QPR finally get the goal that's been coming since the second minute. Taarabt puts in a corner which an unmarked Bradley Orr meets at the near post and manages to glance across the goal and in.
14 Min: In the next attack, Taarabt gets into the box and then goes down all-too-easily under a Woolford challenge. I think they call that penalty-hunting. Forunately the referee realises this, and waves away Taarabt's appeals.
13 Min: That metaphoric hook is very kind to Niall Canavan when he heads back towards his own goal when trying to clear a QPR cross. Instead of flying in though, Canavan is let off the aforementioned hook when Joe Murphy makes a wonderful save and keeps it at 0-0 - for now.
10 Min: Things are not looking all that great at the moment. The home team are spending way too much time on the ball; and United look nervous when in possession. Joe Murphy's taken note of this, and is now taking his time over getting the ball back into play from a goal-kick he has.
8 Min: United are rattled. Taarabt firstly strikes a free-kick towards the bottom corner which Murphy can only palm out for a corner. That's then floated into the box, and it takes seemingly forever for United to get it cleared.
6 Min: Matthew Connolly strikes wide from just outside the box after some good work from Taarabt. All things considered, he should have done better there I feel.
4 Min: Arguably the hottest property outside of the Premier League, Adel Taarabt, hooks a cross into the box. It's caught by Murphy with ease, but still manages to draw one of the most hyperbolic cheers I've ever heard.
2 Min: The Iron have started with a 4-4-2. O'Connor is on the right-wing, and the rest is pretty self-explanitary. United have put QPR under some early pressure too, which the home fans don't appreciate.
KICK-OFF: Is taken by the home side. A chorus of "We are QPR" bellows out from the packed stand behind the goal to my left.
Sam Togwell leads United out; but he's overshadowed just a little bit by the officials, who are wearing the most colourful shirts I've ever seen. They're sort of a blend of red, pink and orange, and they don't half stand out!
Two Championship games have already taken place today, with Leeds beating Millwall 3-1 and Coventry edging out Derby 2-1 at the Ricoh Arena. The kick-off countdown on the (very) big scoreboard says that were just ten minutes away from the game here.
And to make matters worse, there's a fully-grown man wearing a sombrero, waving a flag and blowing a horn right in-front of me (it could be worse I suppose though - at least it's not a vuvuzela); but to re-iterate, these are not good signs ...
The music playing here is getting rather tiring now. Hearing 'Wave your flag' is not a good omen, considering how it links in with what was a pretty woeful World Cup this summer. The speed that the editorial programme for this website is working at isn't doing much to improve my mood either! It's taken me literally forty minutes just to log-in to it!
When we arrived, we overheard some members of the London press talking in the press room, and they described this game as a potential banana-skin. That's positive, but having seen the teams United do look rather depleted: we're without Mirfin, Jones and Thompson (the match-winner here last year) which is not encouraging news in any way, shape or form. Resultantly, Niall Canavan and Michael Raynes will start in the middle of defence - Cliff Byrne is on a six-man bench.
TEAMS:
QPR: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Derry, Taarabt, Helguson, Faurlin, Mackie, Gorkss, Connolly, Ephraim.
Subs: Cerny, Leigertwood, Clarke, Buzsaky, Ramage, German, Parker.
SCUN: Murphy, McNulty, Togwell, Woolford, O'Connor, Dagnall, Raynes, Forte, J. Wright, Nolan.
Subs: Slocombe, A. Wright, Byrne, Grant, Collins, McLenahan.
PREAMBLE
Today's away trip is to QPR, London, so constitutes something of an adventurous day out from us fans point of view. Indeed, many will have got here by way of the Underground and other forms of London public transport, which to me always seem to have an aurora of exciting novelty about them. Of course, we're actually here for a football match though; a game which on paper, does not make reassuring reading for Scunny. The team we're up against, QPR, have made a cracking start in the league, winning two out of two and scoring seven goals without conceding. I guess they'll have to lose sometime though, and when you look at the stats the Iron have tended to do well in the capital in recent times.
