So, is that it then? Today’s draw against promotion-chasing Bristol City means we’ve reached the all-important 50-point mark, usually enough for safety in this league – although, as I keep saying, it wasn’t sufficient last season. There’s now an eight-point gap between us and third-from-bottom Cardiff City and with just four games to go it seems unlikely that will be closed. On the contrary, I think we’ll probably pick up some points in the next two games – Preston away next Friday then Swansea at home the following Monday. Hopefully, that will be enough to secure Martí Cifuentes’s safety as well as QPR’s.
Martí made four changes to the starting line-up he fielded against Oxford midweek, replacing Kenneth Paal with Harrison Ashby, moving Madsen into the No.10 role instead of Sam Field, with Koki Saito to the left of him and Karamoko Dembélé on the right instead of Paul Smyth. Yang Min-hyeok started up front in preference to Daniel Bennie. 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 Ashby in the back line; Jack Colback and Jonathan Varane in defensive midfield; Dembélé, Madsen and Saito as the attacking trio; and Min-hyeok leading the line.
Bristol had won their previous two games coming into this one, but we looked the better side for the first 25 minutes, playing fast, attacking football. Afterwards, Martí said he thought it was QPR’s best 25 minutes of the season and it’s hard to disagree. By my reckoning, we had nine shots in the first half hour, four of them on target, compared to just three from the Robins.
I thought Madsen had his best game in a QPR shirt on Wednesday and he was good again today, at least for that early period. It was a cross from him into the box that Dembélé got his head on and scored in the 21st minute – and it needed to be perfectly placed for the midget winger to beat the two defenders towering on either side.
We almost scored before this, with a cross from Dembélé finding Ashby on the far post, but the visiting keeper, Max O’Leary, managed to keep the ball out with his foot, and we almost scored immediately afterwards, with Jimmy Dunne volleying a poor clearance just wide.
Unfortunately, the Robins netted with their one shot on target of the match. A clever through ball in the 30th minute split our defence and George Earthy steered it past Nardi in a mirror image of Min-hyeok’s goal against Oxford.
After the equaliser, we went down a gear, enabling Bristol City to dominate not just the remainder of the first 45 minutes, but the following half as well. Maybe that was inevitable, given how much the players had given in the first 30 minutes, but at least our back line managed to prevent the visitors from scoring a second, with Ronnie Edwards and Liam Morrison deserving most of the credit. Ashby wasn’t terrible, but not great either. We had four shots in the second half, none on target, and the Robins enjoyed 63% of the possession.
The draw means we’re unbeaten in three and it looks as if Cifuentes has steadied the ship after a bad run. Some players are coming back from injury, with Michy Frey on the bench and Rayan Kolli getting a run-out in the final 10 minutes. (He had two chances and fluffed them both.) I quite liked Min-hyeok up front and on a couple of occasions he and Saito combined nicely, creating one good chance that the South Korean wasn’t able to finish.
You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.
Smashing to see The Lord Young smiling.
Nice feeling!
Have a lovely W end!