QPR 2:2 Preston North End
It is a real long time since I’ve been as elated with our finish to a game as I was here. A truly remarkable turnaround of events to snatch a point right at the death!
The alarm bells were ringing early doors for us. Lee Camp pulled off a cracking save in the 3rd minute and we should have heeded that warning, but didn’t.
The chance came from a rebound off a Martin Rowlands clearance, although there was an element of luck about how Camp saved his shot. But he was bright, alert, fast off his line and he got down quickly to make the save. He made his own luck and is playing well and showed great handling from corners too. A beautiful through ball found Simon Whaley in the 8th which he also saved well from.
I really liked what I saw of Preston. They played some really attractive attacking football that was tactically efficient. They held the ball around the middle of the pitch ever so well and I was impressed with Neil Mellor’s work rate and loved the way he worked the channels. His performance caught me somewhat by surprise and he really deserved his goal.
I was concerned however with Damion Stewart’s performance. He had a pretty horrible time out there. His timing wasn’t right, so he kept missing tackles or headers and he slipped or fell over an awful lot, which often let his man in. He also switched off once or twice and allowed his man to run in behind him. His distribution wasn’t great either including simple 5 yard passes. All in all, not one of his better days and we’re lucky we weren’t punished further for some of these mistakes.
Fitz Hall isn’t looking too comfortable alongside him either. I’m starting to wonder whether he is really fit. When he’s exposed one on one, and isolated, he’s looking just a tad jittery and not as commanding as he was before he hurt his groin. I suspect there are still some problems there and it may be an idea to make sure he is fully recovered than leave him in the firing line.
Funnily though, the thing I wasn’t impressed with the most with either of them, was their decision to both take shots from 35-40 yards from goal in the second half, which was delusional, even if some crazy folk in the crowd were shouting “shoot”.
Matthew Connolly looked more comfortable at left-back than he did against Ipswich Town, but he still showed a few naive moments that I hadn’t seen from him when he has played at centre-back or even right-back. We missed the balance that Damien Delaney would have brought to the team, but he still did a decent enough job of filling in there. Still, it was a learning experience for Matthew and he won’t let himself get robbed off the ball so easily next time as he did in the moments that led to the corner for Preston’s first goal.
Michael Mancienne on the other hand gave another solid performance. He was the pick of the defenders again and didn’t do a lot wrong out there. He had me right out of my seat at the end of the half when he dribbled through and drilled a shot at goal, which was whiskers away. His crossing was better today too.
In the middle of the park, it didn’t really go for us on the day, especially in the first-half. Gavin Mahon and Mikele Leigertwood didn’t really get on their games. They did a lot of good stuff, but the ball or the flow of play just didn’t go as smooth as they would have liked. They were a little ragged at times, either losing tackles they shouldn’t have, not controlling the ball as well as they wanted or poor passes they could have done better with. They kept plugging away though.
It was hit and miss for Hogan Ephraim. He just couldn’t really get going and his end product let him down. He worked hard though and tracked back nicely a couple of times apart from being totally asleep early on in the game from a defensive throw.
Martin Rowlands played well again. In the opening 10 minutes or so, I was really pleased to see him putting his foot on the ball and changing the pace and tempo of the play. He also came deep once or twice to take the ball off the defenders and I haven’t seen anybody in a Rangers shirt do that for quite a while now. I took that as a big positive and a sign of growing confidence.
Preston were well worth their lead, but it was a bitter blow for them that Mellor had to be replaced at half-time due to an injury he picked up in the first period. I think had he remained on the field, we may not have been so fortunate to find a way back into the game. He was a pivotal part of their success when they came forward.
Our passing on the day was a little bit hit and miss, where sometimes we managed to string a couple of moves together, but the final ball wasn’t quite there or the play was a little forced and broke down.
But we changed to a 4-3-3 system in the second half and despite Preston extending their lead, it suited us a lot better. It wasn’t superb, but it was more effective and provided us with better balance.
Despite the scoreline, I was pleased with the way the players kept going and kept trying to play. They never once threw in the towel or gave up and they have to take a lot of credit for playing to the final whistle.
I was a bit disappointed with Dexter Blackstock’s performance. His timing, especially going for high balls, appeared to be some way off again. He didn’t judge the bounce very well and it just didn’t seem to go for him. I was thinking to myself that if I was a coach though, I’d be really pleased with him for getting into the right positions to score and he still worked hard. That’s all you can ask for when things aren’t going to plan.
He had three chances before he eventually scored, and on another day, all could have been goals. He forced a good save from Andrew Lonergran in the first half, poked one agonisingly wide in the second, and had he been slightly more on his toes and alert from a cross to the back post, he might have been able to squeeze the ball in. Still, I was delighted for him when he scored.
Patrick Agyemang didn’t get any joy in front of goal, but he worked fairly hard and at times, did really well in the channels and coming deep, but at other times, just couldn’t seem to get his touches or passes right. He wasn’t helped by a lack of movement around him though and generally I thought he did okay and as well as he could.
On the other hand, I was very pleased with Angelo Balanta and thought he put in a positive showing from his short time on the pitch. He showed some excellent touches and the right ones at the right time. I was delighted with the way he prevented Preston scoring a killer third when they broke away from a corner right at the depth.
Camp had come up for that one and we lost the ball which led to a counter. We barely had anybody back but Balanta was mature enough to track backwards and aware of what was going on around him. It’s not often I whisper to myself “take him down, take him down”, probably because I didn’t think he was smart enough to close his man at an angle that would stop him from shooting or squaring the ball. In the end, Balanta did superbly to run his man out of play for a throw in to us, which kept our momentum going.
At times, there was a lack of focus and concentration from the players. It’s easy to point the finger and say the season is over and the players are now taking their foot off the pedal, but I don’t think that was quite the case here because Preston did play well.
Then we had that amazing end. Gareth is an amazing man. His cameo role injected enough enthusiasm for us to drive forward and find a way back into the match. He didn’t play particularly well at all but that was expected. He’s not played much football this season and he’s at the wrong end of his career.
There may have been some fortune about his goal too, because it could have gone anywhere, but there wasn’t anything lucky about his excellent delivery for Dexter’s. It was the one and only time that he applied sense and quality to his work. He took his time, took a touch, looked up and played in a peach of a cross. If he’d done more of that in his career, he’d have played at a higher level. Top drawer.
In the end, the players showed a remarkable resilience and character to come away with something from the game. I was utterly over the moon with the finish and to say it was unexpected would be an understatement.
Well done and a big pat on the back to you all - it left me buzzing all evening!
