Oxford 1-3 QPR

Match Report

I didn’t go to this one, annoyingly. Ahead of this match, we’d lost our last six away games and muggins here went to four of those. This precious 1-3 victory against Oxford could have been my reward – and Oxford is only an hour away from London! But no. By the time I got around to buying tickets, the away allocation was sold out. So I had to watch it on the Sky red button in my sitting room. Knickers!

I wasn’t optimistic when I saw the line-up, which was a head-scratcher.

Did this mean Nicolas Madsen was in the No 10 position, with Jonathan Varane out left and Daniel Bennie up front? Or were we looking at a 4-3-3 formation with Jack Colback, Sam Field and Varane in midfield and Madsen, Paul Smyth and Daniel Bennie operating as a front three? Or 4-4-2, with Varane and Madsen joining Colback and Field in defensive midfield, and Smyth and Bennie up front?

The reality was even weirder: Field was in the No 10 role, with Madsen out left. That meant we lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Paul Nardi in goal; Jimmy Dunne, Ronnie Edwards, Liam Morrison and Kenneth Paal in the back line; Colback and Varane in defensive midfield; Smyth, Field and Madsen as the attacking trio; and Bennie leading the line.

With so many players out of position, I was expecting QPR to be overwhelmed by an in-form Oxford team, confidence boosted by their 1-0 victory over Sheffield United on Saturday. The Yellows were on 45 points coming into this game and another three would probably be enough to see them safe. Surely, their manager, Gary Rowett, would tell his players to go for a smash-and-grab early goal, enough to kill off the game against such brittle opposition? And, judging from the line-up, Cifuentes was anticipating just that. His plan, by the looks of it, was to contain Oxford for 60 minutes or so, then bring on some proper attackers, with Karamoko Dembélé, Yang Min-hyeok and Rayan Kolli all on the bench.

But it turned out that wasn’t the game plan. Or if it was, the players decided to junk it. For the first half, we were by far the better team, pressing, attacking and – in the seventh and forty third minutes – scoring.

The first goal came from a Madsen corner, which Edwards got his head on and steered past Jamie Cumming, the Oxford keeper, at his near post. Perhaps Cumming could have done better, but it was still a good effort from the Southampton loanee, chalking up his second of the season.

Our next goal also began with a corner, although it was initially cleared as far as Smyth, who put in a searching cross. Jimmy Dunne got a head to it it on the left-hand side of the goal, sending it into the box, and Field got a touch that Cumming initially stopped, only for it to hit a defender and rebound into their goal. Two-up at half time! Dreamland.

True, they had a decent 15 minute spell between the 25th and 40th minutes and Cameron Brannagan came close to scoring in the 27th, drawing a spectacular save from Nardi. But our back line – unchanged from Saturday – looked pretty solid, with our two centre backs particularly impressive. Paal, too, has seen an uptick in form in the last couple of games, which meant it was a worry when he limped off in the 69th minute, to be replaced by Morgan Fox. Are we going to have to rely on Harrison Ashby at left back for the rest of the season?

The hosts came back into it in the second half, not helped by Sam Field having to leave the pitch with a head injury. Cifuentes didn’t replace him for a few minutes, perhaps hoping he’d be able to come back on, meaning we were down to 10 men for far longer than we should have been. And it was during that interregnum that Oxford scored.

Stanley Mills came on for the hosts in the 61st minute and made an immediate impact, scoring with his head a minute later. After that, the Yellows were rampant and it was an all-hands-to-the-pump situation – the match I had anticipated this being for the first 60 minutes, not the last 30. We had six shots in the first half for their two, but in the second they had 10 to our five, four of them on target. Nardi was called into action repeatedly, demonstrating what a good shot-stopper he is, even if his kicking leaves something to be desired.

Martí didn’t bring on Kolli, not wanting to risk him, given he’s only just back from injury. But he did bring on Yang for Bennie in the 64th minute and Dembélé for Smyth in the 82nd. As in the Cardiff game last Saturday, we seemed to recover in the dying minutes of the game, suddenly starting to attack again after playing for 25 minutes in our half.

The fourth official added 11 minutes and I was fully prepared for them to stretch out for an eternity as we battled to hold on to our lead. But in the 91st minute Dembélé found himself in space in the opposition’s half, travelled about 40 yards and then passed to Yang on the left. Yang’s first touch was a left-footed shot across the goal, with the ball beating Cumming and going in off the far post. That’s the South Korean’s second goal with his weaker foot and, according to Jack Supple, the eighth goal to be scored by a teenager for QPR in all competitions this season.

Does 49 points mean we’re safe? Worth bearing in mind that Birmingham were relegated with 50 last season, but given that there’s now a seven-point cushion between us and third-from-bottom Cardiff, I think we probably are. Indeed, we might even finish higher than we did last season (18th), which would help Martí’s cause. It may feel as though there’s nothing left to play for in the remaining five fixtures of the season, but how we do in those games could be the difference between Cifuentes staying or going. I’m rooting for him, obviously.

It’s Bristol City at Loftus Road up next – a tough proposition, given that they’re currently fifth. But on the plus side, there’s a chance that Field will have recovered, Ilias Chair and Michy Frey will be on the bench and Kolli will be fit enough to start.

You can watch the highlights on Sky here.