Post by Nik *QPR* on Oct 27, 2007 21:33:38 GMT -1
...Filled with my thoughts, player ratings, photos and a video.
Will probs be useful for anyone who ever goes to the Valley this season I hope!
Right, here comes a marathon post to sum up today hehe.
Day started well, got to the ground in plenty of time and was watching the R’sss warm up. Team looked a lot more together and as if the team spirit was high, like they was having a laugh out there but warming up well at the same time. Was very very funny when Harford slipped on his backside in front of the R’s fans, Haha.
What’s up with Charlton and them moving that huge flag round their ground before kick off, they ain’t Liverpool!!
To the game, we actually started quite well even though I didn’t know the game had kicked off ‘cos they were still playing the ‘Jump Around’ music and I was looking behind Me, Hehe. The defence was dogged and Campy had to be alert from the start to guide Zheng’s cross cum shot away, already you could see we were defending well, Stewart and Cranie is a great partnership in the centre of defence at the moment, seem to really compliment each other. Barker, who admittedly I have been critical of in the past was also vastly improved early no, only thing lacking was his positional sense and he seemed to have two men on him a lot of the time as Ephraim didn’t really offer much in terms of tackling. We should have had a blatant penalty early on when their player handballed, shame the lino wasn’t on that side of the pitch as surely he would have given it, though why Probert or none of the other linos didn’t give it when 23,000 in the ground saw it. Our fans were quality, it took Charlton ages before they could muster up a pathetic version of ‘Red Army’, we sang ‘We forgot that you were here’ back to them and apparently it was heard on Sky Lol.
First half came and went with us weathering the storm well.
Note to anyone going to the Valley soon, it takes AGES to go to the toilet and get back in time because of the way it’s layed out, the food kiosk is in front of the toilets so you gotta push past everyone queueing up,and in the toilets everyone was smoking so it was smoky as Lol!
Right 2nd half came and we were looking quality, aided by our brilliant fans who outsung more than 20,000 Charlton supporters from first whistle to last. Anyway, after a good start, Rowan Vine made a great run and was hacked down and Probert(Who actually wasn’t too bad) gave the peno. To be fair to Rowly, he hit it well enough, just unlucky it hit the post and stayed OUT, keeper would not have saved it if it was a few inches further to his right.
This brought the Saaaaaaarf Laaahndaaners out of their shell and they started to sing ‘That’s why you’re going down’ which was nice of them, because I was beginning to think I had gone mad and that I was imagining the 20,000 fans sitting there making no noise, thanks for putting my mind at ease!!
We carried on attacking and playing great football though, Stewart nearly scored with what would have probably been the 2nd best goal I’d ever seen at a QPR Match behind Trev’s Vs Barnsley, Backheeling the ball magnificently in the air from a corner and getting it on target only for Weaver to make a good save.
He made another good save a bit later when Vine shot from the edge of the box and he palmed it away. By this stage we were looking so threatening, ‘We’re gonna score any minute’ was song by the R’s fans and it really looked that way. And that moment nearly arrived seconds later as Leggy brilliantly mugged Mills(who is terrible) on the edge of his own box and got through one on one but took the shot on his left and completely scuffed it wide.
But then, the goal we richly deserved came! Ephraim had the ball on the byline and played it back to Barker who put a good deep cross in which Nygaard went up for with the keeper and it fell to Bolder who controlled and just about poked home, was I the only fan there who felt it took about 10 seconds to go in after leaving his foot? Now I know people said this goal was controversial, and I would agree but for different reasons. Having seen the replay, Nygaard did have his hands on the keeper BUT for me , Bolder definitely used his arm to control the ball as well as his chest before firing it in… a bit of richly deserved luck, don’t forget today we hit the crossbar for the 10-11th. Time this season alone!!
Anyway we all went absolutely mental after waiting for a second to make sure it was allowed!
The Charlton fans were even more quiet than before the goal went in(If that’s possible) and we shoved their earlier chants right back in their face by singing ‘That’s why we’re staying UP’! We started defending well, Cranie and Mancienne putting in some great blocks and Camp making a great save from a freekick.
Charlton fans started leaving after only 80 minutes(Queue the chants of ‘cheerio cheerio cheeriooooo’) and one idiot was kicked out even earlier, for something which I didn’t see him do as it was on other side of the stand. I like Harford’s tactic of not sitting back as soon as we score and actually waiting until 80 or so minutes before becoming a bit more cautious, we kept the ball in the corner for most of stoppage time which Charlton didn’t like/couldn’t take, as Fat boy Reid showed when he got booked for dissent, and Danny Mills when he wasn’t exactly impressed with Vine doing it, great skill by Rowan by the way when he went round their 2 players whilst still in the corner.
FINALLY the final whistle went, and all us QPR fans went mental as this video shows:
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Eu9_-NJAw
My Player ratings are as follows:
Everyone deserves an 8 as the whole team was excellent!!
Fans were great, 2000 odd of us outsung their 21,000 fans eeaaaaaaaasily!!
Pictures from today:
Will probs be useful for anyone who ever goes to the Valley this season I hope!
Right, here comes a marathon post to sum up today hehe.
Day started well, got to the ground in plenty of time and was watching the R’sss warm up. Team looked a lot more together and as if the team spirit was high, like they was having a laugh out there but warming up well at the same time. Was very very funny when Harford slipped on his backside in front of the R’s fans, Haha.
What’s up with Charlton and them moving that huge flag round their ground before kick off, they ain’t Liverpool!!
To the game, we actually started quite well even though I didn’t know the game had kicked off ‘cos they were still playing the ‘Jump Around’ music and I was looking behind Me, Hehe. The defence was dogged and Campy had to be alert from the start to guide Zheng’s cross cum shot away, already you could see we were defending well, Stewart and Cranie is a great partnership in the centre of defence at the moment, seem to really compliment each other. Barker, who admittedly I have been critical of in the past was also vastly improved early no, only thing lacking was his positional sense and he seemed to have two men on him a lot of the time as Ephraim didn’t really offer much in terms of tackling. We should have had a blatant penalty early on when their player handballed, shame the lino wasn’t on that side of the pitch as surely he would have given it, though why Probert or none of the other linos didn’t give it when 23,000 in the ground saw it. Our fans were quality, it took Charlton ages before they could muster up a pathetic version of ‘Red Army’, we sang ‘We forgot that you were here’ back to them and apparently it was heard on Sky Lol.
First half came and went with us weathering the storm well.
Note to anyone going to the Valley soon, it takes AGES to go to the toilet and get back in time because of the way it’s layed out, the food kiosk is in front of the toilets so you gotta push past everyone queueing up,and in the toilets everyone was smoking so it was smoky as Lol!
Right 2nd half came and we were looking quality, aided by our brilliant fans who outsung more than 20,000 Charlton supporters from first whistle to last. Anyway, after a good start, Rowan Vine made a great run and was hacked down and Probert(Who actually wasn’t too bad) gave the peno. To be fair to Rowly, he hit it well enough, just unlucky it hit the post and stayed OUT, keeper would not have saved it if it was a few inches further to his right.
This brought the Saaaaaaarf Laaahndaaners out of their shell and they started to sing ‘That’s why you’re going down’ which was nice of them, because I was beginning to think I had gone mad and that I was imagining the 20,000 fans sitting there making no noise, thanks for putting my mind at ease!!
We carried on attacking and playing great football though, Stewart nearly scored with what would have probably been the 2nd best goal I’d ever seen at a QPR Match behind Trev’s Vs Barnsley, Backheeling the ball magnificently in the air from a corner and getting it on target only for Weaver to make a good save.
He made another good save a bit later when Vine shot from the edge of the box and he palmed it away. By this stage we were looking so threatening, ‘We’re gonna score any minute’ was song by the R’s fans and it really looked that way. And that moment nearly arrived seconds later as Leggy brilliantly mugged Mills(who is terrible) on the edge of his own box and got through one on one but took the shot on his left and completely scuffed it wide.
But then, the goal we richly deserved came! Ephraim had the ball on the byline and played it back to Barker who put a good deep cross in which Nygaard went up for with the keeper and it fell to Bolder who controlled and just about poked home, was I the only fan there who felt it took about 10 seconds to go in after leaving his foot? Now I know people said this goal was controversial, and I would agree but for different reasons. Having seen the replay, Nygaard did have his hands on the keeper BUT for me , Bolder definitely used his arm to control the ball as well as his chest before firing it in… a bit of richly deserved luck, don’t forget today we hit the crossbar for the 10-11th. Time this season alone!!
Anyway we all went absolutely mental after waiting for a second to make sure it was allowed!
The Charlton fans were even more quiet than before the goal went in(If that’s possible) and we shoved their earlier chants right back in their face by singing ‘That’s why we’re staying UP’! We started defending well, Cranie and Mancienne putting in some great blocks and Camp making a great save from a freekick.
Charlton fans started leaving after only 80 minutes(Queue the chants of ‘cheerio cheerio cheeriooooo’) and one idiot was kicked out even earlier, for something which I didn’t see him do as it was on other side of the stand. I like Harford’s tactic of not sitting back as soon as we score and actually waiting until 80 or so minutes before becoming a bit more cautious, we kept the ball in the corner for most of stoppage time which Charlton didn’t like/couldn’t take, as Fat boy Reid showed when he got booked for dissent, and Danny Mills when he wasn’t exactly impressed with Vine doing it, great skill by Rowan by the way when he went round their 2 players whilst still in the corner.
FINALLY the final whistle went, and all us QPR fans went mental as this video shows:
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Eu9_-NJAw
My Player ratings are as follows:
Everyone deserves an 8 as the whole team was excellent!!
Fans were great, 2000 odd of us outsung their 21,000 fans eeaaaaaaaasily!!
Pictures from today:
