Ye Gods, what a way to start 2024. Having won only eight games in 2023, we began the new year with a 1-2 loss to Cardiff at home, conceding both goals from corners. To make matters worse, Sheffield Wednesday beat Hull 3-1, thereby leapfrogging us in the table and consigning us to 23rd place. As I left with Charlie and Freddie, a group of Cardiff fans outside the stadium started chanting, “You’re going down with the Rotherham, down with the Rotherham…” After this performance, who’s to say they’re wrong?
On the subject of accurate predictions, Clive Whittingham nailed it in the final paragraph of his match report about our 0-0 draw at Ipswich on Friday:
If we’d played like this on Boxing Day, we’d have won. If we’d played like this at Hillsborough, we’d have won. If we play like this on New Year’s Day, we will win. We won’t though, and that’s the frustration with this group.
To be fair to Marti Cifuentes, our two most talented players – Ilias Chair and Chris Willock – were both unavailable due to injury, and so, too, was Steve Cook, who is a much better centre-back than Jimmy Dunne, given how the Irishman is playing at the moment. That meant we lined up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows: Asmir Begovic in goal; Reggie Cannon, Dunne, Jake Clarke-Salter and Kenneth Paal in defence; Elija Dixon-Bonner, Sam Field and Andre Dozzell in midfield; and Paul Smyth, Ziyad Larkeche and Lyndon Dykes as the front three.
The visitors looked more up for it than us from the get go, winning two corners in the first 15 minutes. Dimitrios Goutas scored from the second one, which left us looking dejected and resigned for the remainder of the first half. During the entire 45 minutes we only had one shot – a free kick taken by Paal and directed straight at the keeper. That prompted an ironic chant from R block: “We’ve just had a shot, we’ve just had a shot, how shit must you be, we’ve just had a shot.” When the whistle blew for half time, some of the home fans booed, the first time I’ve heard that since Cifuentes took over.
Larkeche, who was repeatedly muscled off the ball in the first half, was replaced by Rayan Kolli after the break. Why not Sinclair Armstrong? It looks as if Cifuentes’ rates Kolli above him. In any event, that change seemed to make a difference – that and the talking-to Cifuentes gave them at the break – since we played with more focus and intent in the second half, at least for the first 20 minutes. That resulted in a goal from Paul Smyth, assisted by Kolli who sent in a great ball over the top that Smyth was able to stick in the back of the net from the far post in the 52nd minute.
Crikey! A goal in front of the loft! We didn’t get many of those in 2023 so perhaps 2024 wasn’t going to be so bad after all. We looked a bit more confident after that, with Smyth dragging a shot just wide two minutes later, and for the next quarter of an hour I thought we might go on to win the game.
But then the visitors scored again from another corner in the 74th minute. Why can’t we defend properly against set pieces? It’s getting to the point that whenever an opponent wins a corner it’s time to start shitting your pants.
Albert Adomah came on for Dixon-Bonner in the 77th minute, with the 36 year-old replacing Smyth on the right and Smyth moving into Dixon-Bonner’s position. Adomah managed a couple of decent runs down the right-hand channel, but he failed to put in any crosses and his interplay with Dykes and Smyth never came to anything. Kolli, who must have picked up a knock, was replaced by Armstrong in the 81st minute, and Clarke-Salter by Morgan Fox.
The closest we came to equalising was in the 90th minute, when a long throw from Smyth – Cifuentes must have given him special permissions to try it, given how desperate we were to get something out of this game – was flicked on by a defender and met by Armstrong on the far stick who headed it goalwards. Unfortunately, Cardiff’s keeper just managed to get a glove to it.
We weren’t quite as bad as we were on Boxing Day – at least, not in the second half – but it was still pretty dismal. We had three shots on target in the entire game, although our xG was higher than Cardiff’s. Our players are either maddeningly inconsistent – Kenneth Paal, for instance – or consistently mediocre. By my reckoning, we need strengthening in all three areas and just bringing in a striker won’t be enough. With no money to spend, I don’t see how Cifuentes is going to do it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to the end of January with just one addition to the squad: another loan spell for Tim Iroegbunam.
We’re going down with the Rotherham.
You can watch the highlights on QPR TV here.