Oxford 0-0 QPR

Match Report

I was due to watch this one in a friend of a friend’s box at the Kassam Stadium, but had to stick around in the House of Lords until 7.15pm to propose an amendment I’d tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill. Embarrassingly, I’d asked this distant acquaintance if I could bring my three sons and they were all there, sitting in the box, from the opening whistle. I raced to make it in time for the second half, not least because one of my sons sent me a photograph of a sign saying: “There will be no exit or re-entry 10 minutes after the start of the second half.” Happily, that wasn’t enforced, as I didn’t get there until 15 minutes before the final whistle, having to watch almost the entire game on my phone on the way there.

I was reasonably optimistic ahead of this game, given that Oxford only just survived last season and were sitting 23rd in the table. Having said that, we didn’t fare as well as I’d hoped against the teams beneath us over Christmas, including losing at home to Norwich, then also second from bottom. We’d only won two in the last seven coming into this, whereas the Yellows were unbeaten in the last two.

Julien Stéphan made two changes to the line-up he fielded against Stoke, replacing Rhys Norrington-Davies with Esquerdinha and Rayan Kolli with Daniel Bennie, making his first start for the R’s. That meant we lined up as follows: Joe Walsh in goal; Amadou Mbengue, Jimmy Dunne, Steve Cook and Esquerdinha in the back line; Isaac Hayden, Nicolas Madsen, Karamoko Dembélé and Paul Smyth in midfield; and Bennie and Richard Kone up front.

We dominated for the first 20 minutes or so, with Smyth creating a chance after dispossessing an Oxford defender in front of goal in the 17th minute, laying it off to Bennie, who then had a shot which drifted wide of the far post, with Kone not quite being able to get to it.

That brief passage of play revealed how vulnerable Oxford were at the back, but the R’s proved reluctant to press, with too many backward passes, only to then give it away cheaply. That was a hallmark of the Stoke and West Ham games too, indicating how reliant we’ve become on Rumarn Burrell to look like a convincing attacking team.

They came close in the 28th minute, with a strike from 25 yards out that almost beat Walsh at his far post. That was immediately followed by a QPR attack, with a shot from Esquerdinha needing to be headed away for a corner. Nothing came of it – but, again, the whiff of panic came off the Oxford defenders, who struggled to clear.

Smyth got a good shot off from outside the area in the 34 minute, forcing a decent save out of the keeper that resulted in another corner. That was our fourth of the game, but we showed no more sign of scoring from set pieces here than we have in previous outings.

By my reckoning, we made it into the final third three times in the last 10 minutes of the first half, but all three attacks fizzled out with first Smyth, then Esquerdinha, then Mbengue unable to beat the first man. A poor end to a disappointing 45 minutes, even by QPR’s recent standards. We had one shot on target and an xG of 0.34.

The second half – still watching on my phone – looked a lot more lively, with the hosts dominating for the fist 10 minutes, forcing QPR into some desperate, last ditch defending. But their finishing skills were no better than ours, so we managed to emerge from that spell of pressure without conceding. Shortly after that, Esquerdinha took a nasty knock and had to be stretchered off, replaced by Norrington-Davies.

The game restarted with a free kick being awarded to the Yellows in our half, setting off a series of exchanges that ended with the hosts first shot on target – their only one of the game. Walsh had had very little to do up until that point, but proved equal to the task, puling off an excellent reflex save.

It was then our turn to apply a bit of pressure. Smyth put in a decent cross in the 69th, but Kone was unable to bring it down, thanks to some aggressive manhandling from the Oxford defenders. Having said that, Kone proved a poor target man all game.

Stephan brought on Sam Field for Hayden and Kolli for Kone in the 76th minute, then Harvey Vale for Dembélé in the 85th, and that did give us a bit more in the final third, although not enough to cause the hosts any problems. Smyth had a shot in the 88th minute – our only shot on target in the second half – but it was saved comfortably. Our best chance came in added time, when Kolli curled one in from the right hand side and Bennie almost got a foot to it.

All in, it was a dreadful evening of rainy, Tuesday night football, with neither side showing any quality. In mitigation, most of our first team players are injured, the conditions were poor, the players were exhausted and the Kassam is a terrible stadium – the area behind the away goal is literally a carpark. The atmosphere was suitably subdued, not least because there were only 10,478 fans in the stadium.

We finished the night in 12th place, still three points off the top six and still – just – in the top half of the table. We’re home to Wrexham on Saturday, but I fear we’ll have to do a lot better than this if we’re going to get anything out of that.