Glad I went yesterday

Given that both the Ms and I had Plague, we very nearly didn't.

I would love to see the stats from that game, because we must have shatem on territory and possession, especially in the first half. I even saw us pass and move (I nearly fell off my seat in shock!). Saffers decided he wanted to play, Shacks was impeccable, and Colin looked like the best footballer on the park. As for Dublin, well...the man was everywhere!

QPR, on the other hand, were very poor and looked like they came for a 0-0 draw. Jurgen Colin ran rings around Lee "I'm a superstar me, I bin on telly an' everyfink" Cook, while Ray "The Next Big Thing" Jones and his mate Paul Furlong looked to be no more than your average big "awkward" (i.e. dirty as f**k) bruisers and were well "Shackelled", although the Doc did his best to f**k things up early on.

Crucially, we started well which got the fans going a bit, which got the players going a bit, which got the fans going, which...

Croft was giving their Jimmy Saville-alike a hard time down the right without quite having the pace to blow past him. Unfortunately, the less said about his delivery the better. We even had an early chance when Dublin nodded a deep ball on to Earnshaw who conspired to miss from all of about 5 yards. Luckily the flag spared his blushes, but it was hard to believe he failed to hit the target. Up the other end, Doherty was having a bit of a nightmare in the first 20 minutes, being caught ballwatching, drifting off his man, and even managing to flatten Drury in the box as neither of them called to make a clearance. Luckily Shackell was outstanding and Doherty gradually got his act together. In the middle, Saffers had decided he wanted to play and distributed the ball very well, aided by some excellent play from Colin.

What a display by Jurgen Colin - quick, very calm on the ball, distributed well and played himself out of trouble, and even overlapped and worked well with Crofty. Both Colin and Safri were greatly helped by our players actually moving off the ball, something I haven't seen in ages. The only real trouble we got ourselves into with a couple of stupidly over-optimistic balls humped back into the middle by Etuhu and Croft.

Hucks, who was having an on/off day, was rightly pissed off at a very late, deliberate hack from a QPR player however Phil Dowd for some reason kept his card in his pocket. Croft could very well have got one for a ludicrously optimistic dive on the edge of the QPR area, before someone (Hucks I think) sold Drury ridiculously short and he had to slide in to clear, catching a set of studs in the face. Hucks was having some joy down the left, but couldn't seem to get away from his marker or the very quick Hannibal Lector lookalike, and wasn't helped by having a poor first touch.

Up front, Dublin was very mobile and won most things in the air. If anything, he put himself about a bit too much, but he held the ball up very well. Earnshaw, a couple of shots aside, was pretty poor in general play. I wouldn't mind his lack of presence so much if he made more of an effort outside the box. Too often he was too far off Dublin to do much useful (20 yards plus), and when our wingers got to the byline, instead of busting his arse to get to the front post, he'd stop and sort of dither on the edge of the penalty area.

The heavens opened just before half time, and out dropped Nick Ward, the Aussie who has also been getting hyped in the press. Basically, he was rubbish and did very little of note - who writes these articles?!

In the second half, we continued to press forward, and Shacks got his head to a couple of Safri corners, both a fraction high for him to do more than head over. Hucks put Etuhu into the box, but having done all the hard work Our Desmond just switched off and QPR got a tackle in. This was fairly typical of Etuhu, who kept popping up with the odd pass or tackle, but seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish.

Colin and Crofty worked a good move down the right, ending with Colin bursting into the box and driving one into the side netting. I suppose you could criticise him for having a go but (Story of the match, really), we didn't have anyone in the box in any position to do any real damage.

Finally, a deep ball from Drury was fluffed by Hannibal Lector, and Earnshaw popped the ball invitingly into Dublin's path for a well-taken and well-deserved goal. This woke QPR up a bit, who realized they'd actually have to do something if they wanted a point, yet City continued to create chances, particularly down the left. Hucks got in some good positions and let himself down with poor first touches, and went on a couple of trademark runs which came to little.

Croft, blowing out of his arse, was replaced by Hughes (Greeted with mutters of "Oh, f**k" by 23,000 people) with 15 to go and surprised the players, the crowd, and possibly even himself with a gem of a ball forward which Earnshaw was just unable to reel in. He then combined with Dublin to set up Huckerby, but a shocking first touch (again) meant that he got his shot away under pressure and well over the bar. With 2 minutes to go Youseff, who was obviously running out of steam, was replaced by the little pink-haired girl from TV show Lazy Town, pushing Hughes into midfield, where he proceeded to make a total balls of things. Firstly he managed to trip over "Stephanie" McVeigh on the wing and give the ball away, and then with 3 City players screaming at him to unload the ball, was caught daydreaming just in front of the left back position with 5 QPR players forward. Luckily, his tackler was so shocked at his generosity that he lumped his cross field ball straight to the rapidly retreating Jurgen Colin and the danger was averted.

Right at the end Earnshaw had a gold-plated invitation to add a second, but having burst forward he dithered on the edge of the box, allowing Hannibal Lector to get a block in. Never mind, 3 points well earned.

So, in summary we played well against a pretty limited QPR side whose supposed stars largely did sod-all. For a change we actually ran the midfield while Shackell and Colin were outstanding at the back. The big worry was our lack of penetration up front. Dublin had a superb game, but I thought Earnshaw was poor, careless with the ball and a bit lazy. We seldom got people into position to really hurt QPR. Our crossing, especially from Crofty and Youseff's corners, was pretty hopeless. Gallacher had little to do but flapped rather alarmingly at anything in the air with other players about.

Ra(n)tings:

Gallacher 6 - One decent save to make, a couple of flaps. Keeps yapping at his back 4, which I like.

Colin 8 - Brilliant game from him, probably technically the best player out there. Worked really well with Safri and Croft.
Doherty 6.5 - Some awful moments early on, but got his act together
Shackell 8 - Strong and commanding. Malky who?
Drury - 6.5 - backed off a bit too much, but that's understandable with no help from his midfielder.

Croft 6.5 - 8 for effort and running at Jimmy Saville, only 5 for his crossing!
Etuhu 6 - Looked good in parts, put in more effort than usual. Switches off far too often
Safri 7.5 - Yay, Youseff's back! One dicky moment and started running out of puff after about 75 minutes, but otherwise a good solid, creative game - like he can do when he wants to.
Hucks 6 - If he had a first touch, he could have played for England. Definitely not as quick as he used to be.

Dublin 8 - Here, there, everywhere. Did everything that could be asked and more, put himself about like a player 10 years younger. MOTM
Earnshaw 6 - Not a good day at the office. Grant's comments after the last match seem to be spot on. I am wondering if he's got a slight calf injury, so don't expect to see him at Tamworth.

Subs
Hughes 5.5 - did OK on the wing, was a disaster infield.
McVeigh 5.5 - did very little, but had little time to do so.

Posted By: Iwan Husarmi, Dec 31, 12:53:49