What. A. Game.
That’s got to be one of the most entertaining games of football I’ve ever seen at Loftus Road – and how fitting that it should have been played on the night we honoured our very own footballing entertainer, Stanley Bowles.
First we were in the lead, then we were a goal behind, then we came back to level the score. We won a penalty after a handball, failed to score from it, then minutes later should have had a second when a defender used his hand to tip Sam Field’s header over the bar. But no matter because Field scored a brace – equalling the number of goals he’s scored in his previous 65 games (h/t Jack Supple). The winning goal was almost scored by centre back Steve Cook, who executed a perfect bicycle kick from 20 yards out in the 84th minute, only for it to be headed off the line by Darnel Furlong, formerly of this parish. Having missed the pen, Frey went on to score but it was ruled offside. This game had everything!
We were by far the most dominant team. We had 20 shots to their four and 19 corners to their four. Our xG was 2.26; theirs was just 0.15. As Martí Cifuentes said afterwards, the second half performance was the best the team has given since he took over. We really should have won, but no QPR fan will have left the stadium disappointed. This is a team that’s been completely transformed in the last three months. Week in, week out, they’re an absolute joy to watch.
Cifuentes made two changes to the team that beat the league leaders on Saturday, starting Paul Smyth in preference to Chris Willock and Michael Frey instead of Lyndon Dykes. That meant we lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Asmir Begovic in goal; Jimmy Dunne, Cook, Jake Clarke-Salter and Kenneth Paal in the back line; Isaac Hayden and Field in front of them; Lucas Anderson, Ilias Chair and Smyth as the attacking trio; and Frey up top.
We started brightly, not sitting back and inviting them to come on to us, as we had against Leicester, but playing fluid, attacking football. Field, in particular, was playing further forward than he usually does, with him and Anderson completely bossing midfield.
Our first goal began with a long-ranger from Chair in the 17th minute which their keeper, Alex Palmer, managed to stop, but then dropped. Frey was on to it in a flash, but tangled with Palmer, who was trying to retrieve it, and went down, clearly looking for a penalty. The referee, Geoff Eltringham, was having none of it, but it didn’t matter because Anderson got to the ball before anyone else, sent in a cross and an onrushing Field stuck it in the back of the net without breaking stride.
After the goal, some of the venom went out of our attack and we let the visitors get back into it, scoring two goals in as many minutes.
Their first was a wonder strike in the 25th minute by in-form winger Mikey Johnston, who found himself in a bit of space on the edge of the box after skipping past three QPR players. Not much we could do to stop that one.
But the Baggies’ second goal was partly down to poor defending, with our players rooted to the spot like musical statues as the visitors put a string of passes together in front of the Loft, ending with a smart finish by Grady Diangana. From elation to deflation in two short minutes.
Those were the visitors’ only two shots in the first half, whereas we had 11, two of them on target. We also had 11 corners and most of those were taken by Anderson, who has finally taken over set piece duties from Chair. Suddenly, we look capable of scoring from corners. Anderson really is some player.
We came out in the second half full of vim and vinegar and looked as if we might get an equaliser in the first five minutes, with a sustained spell of pressure. Frey headed it just wide in the 48th minute. The first handball – the one that was given – came around the 51st minute, when Anderson’s cross struck the elbow of Adam Reach. The referee didn’t see it, but the linesman did. There then followed a bit of confusion about who was going to take the penalty, with Field putting the ball on the spot, only to hand over duties to Frey. That turned out to be a mistake because he struck it low and not particularly hard, making it a relatively easy save for Palmer. That was the only negative in what was otherwise a strong performance from Frey, who remained on the pitch throughout.
Two minutes later, a bullet header from Field was tipped over the bar in what looked like a brilliant, fingertip save from Palmer. But my son and daughter, one in Manchester, the other in Brazil, were both watching the game on television and they separately texted me, claiming it was a handball. Sure enough, it was Baggies’ defender Cedric Kipre who saved it, not Palmer, but his movement matched the keeper’s so perfectly, and his hand was so close to Palmer’s, no one in the stadium spotted it. Soon, word got around and thereafter every time Kipre got the ball he was greeted with cries of “Cheat!” If the referee had seen it, he would have been given a straight red.
It would have been easy for our heads to go down at this point, but they didn’t. We continued to press for an equaliser, winning corner after corner and raining down shots on their goal, until our efforts were rewarded in 81st minute with a second goal from Field. That move began with a cross from Willock, who’d come on for Anderson in the 71st minute, which found Cook on the far post. The centre back headed the ball back towards the goal, Dunne got his head to it, hit the woodwork, then the ball fell kindly for Field, who nodded it home.
After that it really looked as if we might get the winner, with QPR dominant, and the Baggies stretching every sinew to keep the score level. They’d abandoned all hope of getting another goal and were just playing for the point, running down the clock at every opportunity. The closest we came was a fantastic overhead kick from Cook, which was headed over the bar by Furlong. What a winner that would have been!
In the end, we just came away with a point, but we would have settled for that going in and to get four points from the last two games is a fantastic return, given the quality of our opponents. The Baggies were fifth going into this game and remain in fifth place. We, meanwhile, have dropped from 18th to 19th, but Stoke’s loss to Leeds and Huddersfield’s loss to Cardiff mean we’re now one point clear of the relegation zone. However, it’s still really tight down there. Only two points separate the team in 23rd place (Sheffield Wednesday) from the team in 16th (Plymouth). Had we won today, we would have jumped to 16th.
So, a brilliant game of football and a fitting tribute to Stan Bowles. I’ve said it before, but if we can play like that every week, we will surely survive. Scratch that, we’ll end up finishing in mid-table! Cifuentes is a stone cold genius.
You can watch the highlights on Sky here, but I don’t envy the editor who had to boil this one down to two minutes. It was an electrifying, pulsating game of football from the first minute to the last.
Miracle Marti! What a gaffer. Different world to six months ago. If we play nice entertaining footie, ie on the ground, win and keep the ball, we are frightening going forward. We rip apart other teams.
Know thyself QPR. Be true to the football legacy of Stan?
On the West Brom forum: ‘QPR are the best and worst team we’ve played this season’.
What a turnaround under Marti.