QPR 0:3 Southampton
Southampton produced a performance on the day that matched the behaviour of their fans, sublime.
I found it very difficult to write notes on the game. I’ve usually got my notepad out before the match kicks off because I tend to take notes of who is starting in what position and getting a general idea of shape. If we’re kicking off, I note down who started where and where the ball was delivered and similarly I do that if we’re defending the kick off.
My mind however wasn’t on the football and it took me a couple of minutes after the game was under way to realise I didn’t even have my pad out. What prompted me to do that was how Southampton kept putting Bradley Wright-Phillips and Grzegorz Rasiak on Lee Camp whenever he kicked the ball up field from his hands.
I thought that was interesting and wondered whether this was a tactical move? Camp tends to kick the ball directly to a specific area of the pitch, such as towards Dexter Blackstock or whoever is on the wing. It’s actually one of our best methods of attack and retaining the ball up pitch, but as a result, or maybe not, Camp’s kicking was a bit heavy or difficult for the outfield players because he was getting an awful lot of welly behind them.
Blackstock was also struggling to win any headers from these kicks and Southampton managed to retain possession and launch attacks and we failed to hold onto the ball for any length of time.
Mikele Leigertwood was also making his debut and was getting stuck in and about the pitch, I liked what I saw in that regard, but his long range passing was a little bit rushed and therefore his accuracy wasn’t there with his passes. The majority of our passes were very long and Dexter wasn’t able to do anything with them.
Leigertwood however did combine well with Ben Sahar with a neat interchange in the 15th minute and Sahar almost slipped in Blackstock but he over hit his pass. That was encouraging and the first real time in the match that we played the ball around in their half on the deck. It shows that these players can be creative when they look to pass and move to feet.
Just when we played some positive stuff though, we gave away a corner and a great routine from Southampton caused panic in the defence as the ball was played out deep, across the box and then chipped in. I can’t remember who had the effort on goal but Camp saved well and conceded our third corner of the match.
As I looked down to make a note about the corner routine, I looked up to see the ball arriving on Rasiak’s head just 6-yards out and I knew it was going in. He headed high into the net and Camp couldn’t really do anything about it. It was a bitter blow and you just sensed at this point that everybody from the fans to the players were a bit down, low and feeling sorry for themselves.
Still, we tried to respond and Michael Mancienne played in a ball from a wide area from just inside our own half. It was an angled ball at a good height for an attacking player to either take on his chest or bring down and control with their feet. It found Sahar who took the ball well and created half a chance from himself, but his shot was tame and easily saved.
Some minutes after that, Sahar beautifully controlled a long ball up field with his back to goal and was fouled in the process and also found another good position outside the box from another great angled ball in, this time from John Curtis. He laid in Martin Rowlands who ventured into the box and fell over near the byline. There were half-hearted shouts for a penalty but no real genuine protests from our players and the referee pointed for a goal-kick.
Sahar didn’t quite look as sharp as in pre-season and he’s had a couple of weeks off after surgery, but his touch and control is definitely impressive and he found some excellent positions in the hole. We need to make sure we can find him with the right type of ball in there because he could potentially offer us the creativity we need in that area of the pitch. He’s still only 18 though, so we can’t expect him to be our saviour although he did get an extra loud cheer when it was announced he was starting. I thought that was a nice touch.
From the half-hour mark though, Southampton came into their own. For the next 15 minutes you could only sit back and admire how well they played. They were fantastic and and took advantage of our situation. George Burley’s teams are always a real handful and whenever we come up against them, regardless of win, lose or draw, I tend to come away feeling like I wished we could play a bit like that.
The held onto possession for long periods and there was relentless pressure. Damien Stewart misread a Mancienne pass and suddenly all hell broke lose as communications broke down in our defence and Southampton strode through. Camp had to make an excellent stop with his chest from a narrow angle to keep it out.
We got lucky again moments after than when the Saints had us penned into our own box and John Curtis was too slow clearing his lines and playing everybody onside. Nathan Dyer was also exploiting the space he had on the right, up against a Chris Barker who’s not had any first-team action this season. He tore Barker apart, but I was really concerned at how little protection Chris got from the wide players. Martin Rowlands and Hogan Ephraim didn’t do enough to help him out and when it was obvious Dyer was too fast and tricky, they should have realised and done something about it sooner.
With four minutes to go to half-time, it was wave after wave of attack and pressure from Southampton and the defence were at sixes and sevens and seemed to freeze as Dyer suddenly just ran straight past them and almost in on goal. The ball eventually found it’s way to Rasiak but he blasted high and over when he should probably have done better.
We were desperately hanging on and in the 44th minute we managed to win our first corner of the game to try and relieve some pressure. I was feeling really sorry for the players at this point and I counted four players back in defensive positions. Mancienne and Curtis stayed back, Barker marked Dyer and I think Adam Bolder was nearby too. It was clear to me then, that they were willing on that half-time whistle.
Rowlands fired the corner in but it was cleared at the near post and despite having more players back than normal, Southampton launched a blistering and somewhat stunning counter attack. A flurry of midfield players broke from their box and charged forward in one unit. They moved the ball swiftly forward and cut through the defence who were suddenly outnumbered and John Viafara went through one-on-one with only Camp to beat.
Camp to his credit stormed out and challenged Viafara, taking him out in the process. The referee played an excellent advantage and the ball found it’s way to Rasiak who had the easy job of firing into an empty net. Camp was then booked for his challenge. I didn’t think it was a foul but Sam was adamant it was, and had it not gone in, he’d have seen red instead.
I really admired the way Camp just kept going. He seemed downbeat, and just moments after going 2-0 down, Bradley Wright-Phillips broke through on goal in another one-on-one, but this time Camp got his challenge right, and then he majestically blocked the ball outside the box with his chest as it seemed for a few minutes that he was playing against Southampton by himself. He showed great character in these minutes, despite the hostile reaction from our fans to our team (which was unnecessary).
There was a chorus of boos at half-time, which I thought was distasteful. My mind wasn’t really on the football at all and I didn’t even realise until the second-half was under way that I remembered I hadn’t checked what the other scores were from around the Championship and for once I didn’t care.
By now I was a little bit fed up and feeling like I just wanted to put my arm around our players and pick them up. I didn’t make many more notes in the second-half, but Southampton were 3-0 up after 49 minutes, with Dyer again causing having and crossing for Wright-Phillips to head home from close range.
At this point I just prayed we wouldn’t get done four, five, or six. The players had had a tough enough week as it is, as have we all. Dexter looked really frustrated and unsettled. He wasn’t his usual self and was more frustrated than normal with the service. He looked like a man who had more important things on his mind and you could have said that about one or two of the other players too.
We did manage to hang in there in the end and had a few half chances here and there while Southampton continued to threaten. They probably should have added to their three goals, but in the end they didn’t.
I was annoyed to see Martin Rowlands was having problems with his calves again. In the 80th minute he was stretching them and removing his taping. I was relieved to hear the final whistle and he made it through okay.
At the end of the game I felt sad for the players. They surely would have wanted to have that little bit of extra spark and bite about their play, but it was a step too far. They will feel bitter about not being able to get a goal or a win, but we were up against an excellent footballing side who would have caused us all sorts of problems on our best day.
For this game, it was always going to be far from our best. It’s time to wrap the players in cotton wool and give them the chance to grieve for Ray Jones properly and get it out of their system. We’ve got to do our part as fans too and let them know we’re behind them all the way, because some of the booing and heckling of our own players in a game like this, was deplorable.
Throughout the match, momentarily I kept getting confused because of �Ray Jones� being on the back of the players shirts. A couple of times I kept thinking things like �Oh I thought that was Leigertwood� when he had his back to me, and then realising that it was him and then feeling really stupid and down about it.
How could anyone concentrate properly? When I started the game I was so proud to be a Rangers fan, such was the support and emotion shown prior to kick-off. By the end of the game, I felt sick to the pit of my stomach by the behaviour of some of our own.
We’ve got to do better than that guys, we really do. These players are ours and our family. We need to learn how to pick them up when they’re down.
