I have to admit, it feels like we’re starting pre-season a little bit late and I’ve been thinking about our pre-season friendly matches in some detail.

They start later than in recent years and with pre-season starting today, the players have a whole 19 days of solid intense training under Iain Dowie before we take on the first of our seven scheduled pre-season friendlies against Stevenage Boro on 19th July.

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I went along to Loftus Road with Stephen Dedridge and on behalf of QPR1st to take a look at the refurbishment going on around the stadium.

The club are clearly spending a lot of money tarting the place up but it still remains to be seen whether the majority of fans will really see major improvements to the regular teething issues they face.

Stephen and me managed to get some answers and find out some new information due to our visit, and we’re hopeful of returning in about 4 weeks time to see how things are progressing.

But for now, enjoy photos of Loftus Road as you’ve never seen it before…

I took some photos of the Temporary QPR Club Shop which is situated near the Springbok Public House on South Africa Road and a short distance from the actual Club Shop (which is still undergoing refurbishment).

I browsed around inside and there is a reasonable amount of new crest merchandise on offer as well as some items from last season. I was going to buy a couple of mugs and a t-shirt when I read a sign saying “Cash Only” and I didn’t have any on me. If you’re intending to head down there and buy something be sure to bring more than just your plastic with you!

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A couple of years ago I took my Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Football. I did so for two reasons; one being because I love the game and have always had an interest in coaching and the other due to work. At the time we were creating a new training module in Football Manager and I used the course to provide me with some inspiration.

I passed Level 1 (it’s fairly easy to do) and was encouraged to take Level 2 as soon as possible. However, due to time and work comments, I was never able to find the time to do it and I’ve regretted that ever since.

Fast forward a couple of years and I think I’m now ready. I’m hopeful of squeezing it in this year; either from August or later this year through the London FA and I highly recommend it to anybody with an interest in that side of the game.

I’m going to start by taking a Level 2 Taster course and then do the real thing when the time is right and hopefully that will allow me to explore various other aspects of games in more detail in the future. It takes about 4 months to complete, so my only worry is it may clash with some QPR games!

I have enjoyed it but it’s been tough and for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, then check out the about section.

It’s harder to follow the game when you’re deep into taking notes and you sometimes forget to enjoy the action in front of you.

Writing about them afterwards has not been easy either. First the accounts were like match reports, which wasn’t what I wanted, and then some of the notes didn’t really discuss or explore the topics I thought they might.

I also got lazy sometimes and found it very difficult to write up notes if I’d left it too long or we had actually played well and won! Work commitments were also a problem, because time was sparse during some periods of the year, which didn’t help.

Still, it has been a good experience and something I will continue with. The nice thing about it is the regulars around me leave me to it. I think only one of them asked what an Earth I was doing with a notepad and pen, and taking notes.

I’m not so lucky with the randoms that sit just behind though, because they’re not season ticket holders and I tend to have quite a lot of people talking about why I’m taking notes at matches. Their intrigue and curiosity means they often say it out loud, and make it obvious for me to hear, but they never actually ask me (and continue to chat about it throughout the game).

“Look he’s taking notes”, “What’s he doing?”, “What do you think he’s doing?”, “Do you reckon he’s a scout?”, “He must be a scout!”, “It’s Rafa Benitez” (oh please!)

I suppose I should be more friendly and talk about it, but I am so engrossed by the game that I try to stay focused and concentrate on the action I came to see.

The difficulty with having a pad and pen is when we score goals. I’ve dropped the blasted thing a couple of times (which is a pricey Lamy at £42) and almost lost it completely. I started with a bog standard ballpark pen, but they often stop working or require excessive bloody force to get ink out of them, which is stressful when you’re trying to watch and write at the same time, especially if the action is frantic!

Next season I think I may take it further and draw up some templates for common things I note down. At the moment, I am frantically sketching out the penalty box for all corners and free-kicks, trying my best to get an idea of positioning of players and where they are standing as well as drawing where the ball was kicked and cleared (if it didn’t result in a goal!)

Other potential experiments include noting down pass completion ratios. I like looking at player’s and seeing whether the pass they made got to the person they intended it to get to. It’s little things like that which fascinate me (and there’s a distinction between intent and playing a zonal ball too).