QPR 1:1 Watford
Wait a minute, what’s this? A performance and a point!
I’ve been really busy over the past week putting the final touches on Football Manager 2008 that I’ve barely had a chance to review my notes for the Watford game. I also managed to squeeze in a school reunion on Friday where I was surprised to find a fellow R and old school colleague, Clark Crawley, telling me he’s a fan of this site and my blog.
The praise ended there though, as he promptly told me to get my finger out of my arse and write up the latest entry, as he’s been waiting for it! So Clark this one is just for you seeing as you missed the game and it’s really nice to know that there are actually some people out there reading this blog! 
I was in a positive mood ahead of the match and was expecting us to put on a better showing than the one against Plymouth. I did see positives from that game and it looked like we rolled over some of those positives into this one.
Sam couldn’t make it as it was Caroline’s birthday this weekend, so I invited Gareth along to join me and Leonie. He showed me some photos on his mobile of his new pet snake, and I was sold straight away. I’ve got to get one of those and I asked him if they came in “blue and white”, which I don’t think they do!
I was still clinging to the hope that we were just one goal and win away from igniting our season. It we could pick up a couple of good results from somewhere, we’d soon shoot up the table, but with Watford and West Brom as our next two opponents, it would be a tall order to see where these points would come from in the short-term.
A point from these two matches would do me fine, so long as we picked up something, but today I just wanted to see a good home performance more than anything. The result is obviously relevant, but somehow, we just need to play well and get the fans back onside, so I was more interested in that than the actual result.
We made a worrying start to the match. Within the opening 4 minutes, Watford’s Tommy Smith had created two chances down the right which led to the ball rolling into the path of a Watford midfielder just inside the penalty box and with a clear shooting opportunity. On both occasions however, the efforts were woeful and we got away with it.
Shortly after that, Damion Stewart had to clear over his own bar from an Adam Johnson cross and the resulting corner saw former R’s favourite Danny Shittu header at the back post tipped onto the bar by Lee Camp.
Our first effort came from our usual best route to goal. Lee Camp aimed a goal-kick towards Gareth Ainsworth who won a throw-in. That was quickly taken to Dexter Blackstock and flicked the ball and turned before letting fly with a nice volley that went wide. It was great to have Ainsworth back in the side for this purpose, as otherwise it would be Dexter on the receiving end of every long ball, when really you want him getting into the box nice and early in the hope of getting on the end of something.
The pressure was mounting though and Watford had a succession of corners which we dealt with well. Danny Nardiello was the only player left up field during these corners, and contrary to the Plymouth game, this time he was standing right on the halfway mark rather than being deeper in towards goal, which he did so effectively against Plymouth.
We rode out the early pressure, and after Lee Camp had caught a cross he quickly distributed to Gareth Ainsworth in the 8th minute, and he stormed up the left-wing, skipping a challenge and driving forward to the roar of the crowd. Ainsworth crossed for Nardiello whose effort ended back up with Ainsworth and he fired over when it was perhaps easier to hit the target!
No sooner had we mustered our best chance, Watford were back on the attack. Danny Shittu’s cross-shot flashed across the box and ended up falling to a Watford player just 12 yards from goal, but the shot went wide again. We were close to conceding at this point, but we dug in deep and hung in there.
The defensive line was operating very deep again, just like against Plymouth and to the point that I’m absolutely sure that Danny Cullip was responsible for this. It was the catalyst for the good display at the back, even if there were one or two hairy moments and we seemed to settle down after 10 minutes or so.
Adam Bolder was putting in a more inspired performance in the middle of the park. He got yellowed in the 13th minute for clattering Shittu, and a couple of minutes after that he took care of a dangerous situation when Johnson broke through, but Bolder covered brilliantly and cleaned up the danger. With the defence being so much deeper, he seemed to automatically be in slightly better starting positions to take of problems like this.
I felt Bolder led the team well throughout the match. He drove the team on by geeing them up and he was often leading or starting our attacks when he could, although sometimes he could have done better with his choice of passing when going forward as sometimes he made the wrong pass or choice the wrong option.
Martin Rowlands on the other hand didn’t really get on the ball until the 15th minute, when he picked it up on the left and carried it up the pitch. It was a shame we didn’t get him on the ball more, because it’s so noticeable when he has it at his feet and is bringing others into the game. The encouraging sign however was we were playing fairly well and were well in the game.
Watford however had another chance from the edge of the box from an identical situation to the ones before. This time Sampsa Timoska came to the rescue with a fantastic sliding tackle to take out his man and win the ball in the 21st minute. It was a real dangerous moment for us and he got a great ovation for putting his body on the line and doing what was necessary to keep the score 0-0.
I was concerned at this point at how many times a Watford midfielder was able to latch onto the loose ball near the edge of the box, the players should have heeded the first warning, but it happened about four times!The rest of the first-half was a battle between the defence and attack of either team and I could see why Marlon King and Darius Henderson were so dangerous. King’s movement into the channels was really good as was his hold up play and bringing others into the game. Henderson was also finding some nice intelligent flick-downs for the Hornets midfield players to run onto.
Our defence however held firm and Stewart stuck to King as close he could and Danny Cullip seemed to just grow and grow as the half progressed, seemingly getting the better of Henderson in the air and winning the majority of the important crucial headers.
We also created several good chances for ourselves. Bolder fashioned out two good chances for Blackstock; one a header that flashed wide in the 26th and another in the 32nd that Mart Poom made a great save from. These chances led to a series of Watford goal-kicks too, but Danny Cullip was doing an excellent job today of winning the headers, albeit from very deep starting positions.
The only other point worth mentioning was when Stewart allowed King the time and space to cross the ball into the box in the 38th minute, much to the fury of Lee Camp who gave him a real rollicking over it. Camp himself made a double save from King and then Henderson shortly after, but it was adjudged to have been offside anyway.
The only downside to what was an excellent and enjoyable first-half from both teams was Nardiello having to go off injured in the 40th minute, Rowlands stretching out his calves again, which I spotted and Mikele Leigertwood getting needlessly booked for hacking down Gavin Mahon in stoppage time! I moaned to myself about that and told Leonie and Gareth that I hoped he didn’t pay for that stupidity in the second-half!
When the half-time whistle went, both teams went off to rousing applause, which was nice to hear after the recent booing. Watford though, actually re-emerged early for the second-half; at least a good 5 minutes, maybe more, before our players showed. It was certainly strange and they were warming up for the whole period they were out there. I wondered if Aidy Bothroyd hadn’t been pleased with their performance and that would indicate he wasn’t.
Hogan Ephraim had replaced Nardiello, and Stefan Moore had come on for Gareth Ainsworth at half-time. It was a shame because Ainsworth had played really well and his leadership qualities had certainly added something to our performance on the day.
We didn’t start the second-half well, which is a trait of ours. Watford were straight on the attack and went 1-0 within a matter of minutes. A ball was looped over into the box and not cleared. Chris Barker seemed to hesitate and perhaps think it was going to go out, but instead it went over him and was played back across goal for Johnson to easily nod home and all the good defensive work in the opening 45 minutes had been undone.
To our credit though we pulled ourselves back in the game. We didn’t look beat and heads didn’t go down. We kept on playing the same way and equalised through Stefan Moore in the 59th minute. A cross to the back post, pretty much after a short lull in pressure from any team, saw Blackstock head onto the crossbar and Moore follow up and finish from about 12 yards.
It took me a good few seconds to take it all in. A goal at home and Stefan Moore the scorer and from here on in I got completely absorbed in the action and forgot to take many notes!
We had a period of really good pressure, unlike I’d seen for a while and you could sense Watford were suddenly rattled. We had a couple of attacks and in-between, conceded a couple of corners where we had every single player back. We just couldn’t create that golden opportunity to maybe take the lead.
In the 80th minute though, disaster struck when Leigertwood got sent off for a second yellow card. Watford came close to scoring minutes later when Camp saved well and Moore cleared off the line.
Our players didn’t give in though and in the dying moments, Stefan Moore broke away free down on the right and dribbled into the box, turning his man before firing a shot on goal that hit a Watford defender as it looked to be on its way in. So close but so far!
It was a really good game of football between two teams who looked like they wanted to win the game. There didn’t seem to be a massive gulf between the two, despite being at opposite ends of the table, although Watford clearly had some individuals who could turn a game in their favour, more so than us for sure.
In the end though, when the final whistle went, the QPR fans gave the team a great round of applause and they deserved it. We looked positive and always tried to win the game right up until the last moments where we quite rightly ran down the clock for the point.
I was really pleased with the performance from most of the players and it was certainly something to build on. Although I found it strange that we kept starting so deep, often just outside our penalty area when Poom took goal-kicks or distributed from his hands, you have to give the players credit because it worked and seemed to suit us on the day.
I’m not sure I like the idea that we’re this deep all the time though, as pop shots and through balls can be a danger for us, and getting the ball up top and then having support join the attackers can be tough when you play like this. The midfield though were automatically closer to the defence and this helped build a tighter unit between the central defenders and central midfielders. It didn’t always work, but when it did, it stifled Watford well enough on the day and we were well worth our point in the end.
