I groaned when the board went up with four additional minutes of stoppage time, because I never imagined in a million years witnessing the incredible few minutes of football that was dished up in that period, handing us the most unlikely point and providing an unbelievable end to the game.

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The opening game to the league campaign was marred by a bad injury to youngster Sophie Fogarty five minutes from time, which led to the match having to be abandoned early.

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I had the pleasure of being asked by Clive to do a match report for him over at LoftForWords as he couldn’t make the game, so my thoughts and notes on this game can be found there.

This was pretty much the perfect start to the campaign and we really couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more.

While there were plenty of things that we obviously still need to work on and improve, there were just as many signs that genuine progress has been made since last season and that left me feeling positive as I came away from the game.

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Neil Warnock’s pre-season campaign has been radically different to what we’re used to seeing over the years.

It’s intrigued me and got me thinking about what really is the best preparation in terms of friendly matches?

For a start, we’ve had a lot of friendly games to play this summer, more than I can remember in a while. But, they’ve all been against inferior opposition too.

I like how he says he wants us to have the ball, rather than play against sides who will keep it a lot better than we can. But, does there need to be a bit of balance? How will we cope with sides in the Championship who do keep hold of the ball? Is it important to play teams that are better to challenge the players properly and sharpen them up? Or is it better to ensure we breed a winning mentality, however easy the results are?

I’m not really sure what the answer is and I will be really interested with how we cope with the next couple of weeks, particularly the away fixtures and whether we’re really ready to deal with the home side having the onus and impetus to go out and win the game.

I’ve friends who support both Crystal Palace and Sheffield United, who have felt that Warnock’s teams are never as strong as they should be away from home and I wonder whether this could be related to the type of preparation and mentality set from pre-season?

Nevertheless, in an unusual interpretation, even if we are strong at home and weak away, while that might be irritating it is still probably going to be more consistent than what we’ve seen in previous seasons.

This was a totally unexpected but very nice surprise! The QPR Ladies have won the FA Women’s Premier League’s ‘Best Programme Award’ for the 2009/10 season.

It’s a great achievement and is a great reward for all the hard work that goes into the programme’s produced on match day. At the level the Ladies compete at, the home team must produce a programme and despite such limited resources and funding, a lot of voluntary effort and personal cost from those involved has gone in to creating something really worthwhile and of interest for the games.

I’ve generally provided all the photography for the programme, which is why I get a little mention too.

It’s nice to see the club recognising the achievement here too:
http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2073927,00.html

…that I’m absolutely delighted for Ian Holloway. What a stunning achievement for him and Blackpool!

Whatever anybody thinks about his level of ability, he really does deserve the chance to manage in the Premiership given the hard work he’s put in at many struggling clubs over the years.

He’s always believed and this really makes you realise that you can still achieve beyond your dreams and that it’s not impossible, even in the modern game.

And it’s moments like these that give you that tingle down your spine and reminds you how good football can be too.