A win at the Den might have seen QPR climb out of the relegation zone. But instead we went down to a 2-0 defeat, giving Millwall their first home win of the season. That means we’ve picked up just one point from a possible 12 in the last four games, three of which were against teams at the bottom of the table. The new manager bounce that followed Marti Cifuentes’s appointment has now well and truly evaporated and we’re back on relegation form.
I hoped we might get at least a point out of this game, having played reasonably well against Southampton. The Saints hadn’t lost in 13 going into that game, whereas Millwall had one only won twice this season. But in typical QPR style, our form dipped when it really mattered. We had the lion’s share of possession – 64% – but spent far too much time passing it backwards and forwards in front of the hosts, only to give the ball away when they applied a bit of pressure. As usual, we lacked firepower in front of goal, producing just one shot on target in 100+ minutes.
Cifuentes made three changes to last Saturday’s starting line-up, bringing in Osman Kakay for Reggie Cannon, Ziyad Larkeche for Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Paul Smyth for Chris Willock. That meant we lined up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows: Asmir Begovic in goal; Kakay, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke-Salter and Larkeche in defence; Kenneth Paal, Andre Dozzell and Sam Field in midfield; and Smyth, Lyndon Dykes and Ilias Chair up front.
Most of the chances in first half fell to the hosts, with the first two coming from defensive errors by Dunne. He fouled a player on the edge of the area in the 9th minute, but the resulting free kick sailed over the bar.
We were awarded the first corner of the game, but Chair took it short – what’s with all the short corners? – and he was offside when it was passed back to him. That pretty much summed up our first half performance, although another contender for that honour went to a bunch of junior hoops in a relay race at half time, with the final runner setting off in the wrong direction just when it looked like we might make a comeback.
Our best chance of the half fell to Jake Clarke-Salter in the 33rd minute, who got on the end of Chair’s corner only to fire it over. We won a free kick in the 44th minute deep into enemy territory, but took it short and bollixed it up so badly we got hit on the counter and would have conceded were it not for some desperate defending.
Millwall’s first goal came in the fourth minute of added time at the end of the first half, with Tom Bradshaw getting a toe on the ball at the far stick and poking it in past Clarke-Salter, who should have done better. That led to a chant from the home supporters that I’m more used to hearing at Loftus Road: “We’re wining at home, we’re winning at home, how shit must you be, we’re winning at home”
They looked so much better than us in the first 10 minutes of the second half, I turned to Charlie and said: “Two nil?” That turned out to be an accurate prediction.
Some poor defending from Paal in the 50th minute led to them getting in behind and a strike that drew a decent save from Begovic.
Our first – and last – shot on target came from Chair in the 62nd minute. He wiggled through the Millwall defence, taking the direct route instead of cutting in from the left. But he scuffed his shot and the Lions’ keeper – Bartosz Bialkowski – had no trouble getting down to stop it.
Cifuentes made two substitutions just after that, replacing Dunne with Cannon and Larkeche with Dixon-Bonner, with Paal dropping to left-back. The fresh legs led to a spell of pressure in the 65th minute, with a chance falling to Lyndon Dykes who then went down too easily after a tackle on the edge of the area. Nothing given.
Albert Adomah came on for Smyth in the 79th minute, but was predictably awful. By my count he only managed two touches. The first was a shot that was well wide of the near post and the second a good defensive header – at least, it would have been good if it had been in front of our goal rather than theirs.
The referee added 10 minutes to the 90, but just when you hoped we might use that time to scrape a point, the Lions scored from a corner. From where I was sitting in the away end, it looked like another example of QPR struggling to defend from a dead ball situation. More derisive chants from the home fans: “You’re fucking shit, you’re fucking shit...”
This was a desultory performance from the R’s, with the confidence the players picked up from the three wins shortly after Marti’s appointment having drained away. It doesn’t seem to matter what style we play in – Brexit football under Ainsworth, or tiki-taka, European football under Cifuentes – we still seem doomed to relegation. Could the answer be some combination of the two? Millwall’s manager, Joe Edwards, hasn’t put many points on the board since taking charge on 6th November, but his more direct approach here – Bialkowski kicking it into the opposition’s half instead of playing it out from the back, exploratory balls over the top, no shortage of long throws – seemed to pay off. Smyth has a long throw, but as the Northern Irish international revealed in a recent Open All Rs podcast, Cifuentes doesn’t like him to use it. I’m not sure whether to praise Marti for his more principled approach or condemn him for being unwilling to win ugly.
We’re back in the mire now, five points from safety, thanks to Huddersfield’s 3-0 victory over Blackburn today. Rotherham also picked up three points, beating Middlesbrough 1-0, so they’re now snapping at our heels along with Sheffield Wednesday. Our next match is away to Ipswich – which we’ll lose, obviously – and after that it’s Cardiff at home before facing off against an in-form Bournemouth in the third round of the FA Cup. If we don’t pick up any players in the transfer window, relegation looks nailed on.
You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.