I wasn’t intending to go to this one, having passed up the opportunity to get some coach tickets when they were still available on the QPR website. But seeing us hold our own against Norwich on Saturday and knowing what deep doo-doo Stoke are in, I couldn’t resist. A win at the Bet365 Stadium and we’d be out of the relegation zone, regardless of how Huddersfield got on against Sunderland. And it looked like an eminently winnable game. We were unbeaten in four while the Potters had lost their last four. If we could get a draw against Norwich, one of the league’s form sides, how hard would it be to beat Stoke? They hadn’t won at home since last October. We beat them in this stadium under Gareth Ainsworth, for Christ’s sake, and since then we’ve got better while they’ve got worse. Their only win in 2024 had been against Rotherham.
But then, this is QPR we’re talking about, so, of course, we went and lost 1-0. We squandered the opportunity, just like we did in the other two six-pointers against Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield. When survival is within our grasp, we get all jittery and nervous, as though the players don’t believe we deserve to stay up. Or maybe it’s because the stakes are so high that they withdraw into themselves, not wanting to be responsible for the loss. This was our worst performance since Martí Cifuentes took over in spite of all four of the players he’s brought in being involved in the action. With the new blood, it looked like we’d finally lifted the curse, but after a couple of weeks in the dressing room they’ve been afflicted by the same malaise as everyone else. Is there something in the water at Loftus Road?
Cifuentes made one change to the side that drew against Norwich, with Paul Smyth starting instead of Chris Willock. That meant we linked up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Asmir Begovic in goal; Reggie Cannon, Steve Cook, Jack Clarke-Salter and Kenneth Paal in defence; Jack Colback and Isaac Hayden in front of them; Smyth, Joe Hodge and Ilias Chair in attack; and Sam Armstrong up top.
The opening 10 minutes lived up to expectations, with QPR dominant and Stoke looking as if their confidence was completely gone. Chair fizzed a ball across the goal from the left hand side in the opening minute, Smyth got a shot off in the third minute and Armstrong got in behind in the 11th. But as the half wore on, the hosts grew into the game while we began to wilt. Our creative midfielders kept creating chances and Smyth and Armstrong kept squandering them, either shooting wildly from distance, putting in crosses to no one in particular or sticking the ball in the side netting. We only had one shot on target in the first 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Potters started testing Begovic, forcing him to make saves in the 33rd minute, the 36th minute and the 44th minute. It felt like a goal was coming and, sure enough, they scored in the 45th minute. It was from a corner, obviously. In spite of all the improvements Cifuentes has made since he came in, we still can’t defend corners – and we’re not much better at taking them, either.
We showed a bit more fight in the first 10 minutes after the restart, dominating once again. But as in the first half, we couldn’t make this early spell of pressure count and the game began to drift away from us. As Charlie pointed out a couple of weeks ago, we only win when Chair is firing on all cylinders and he was well below his best in this game. Instead of holding on to the ball for too long, his usual fault, he kept releasing it too early. His crosses were wild, his shots off target. Was he discombobulated by seeing Smyth in the starting line-up instead of Willock, his preferred attacking partner? Armstrong too was having a bad day at the office and his frustration boiled over when he eventually got the hook, with the big man punching the corner flag as slouched back to the bench.
Those substitutions, when they came, felt like too little, too late. At around the 65th minute, Michael Frey and Lucas Anderson were ready to come on and it was obvious that Armstrong and Smyth were coming off, but for some reason Cifuentes and his assistants were huddled over a screen, deliberating about God knows what. A fan behind me shouted: “For f***’s sake, Cifuentes, stop looking at your f***ing iPad and bring them on.” He had a point.
Those two substitutions were made a couple of minutes later, but had little impact, and it was the same story when Willock came on for Colback in the 78th minute, followed by Sam Field and Lyndon Dykes for Hayden and Clarke-Salter. Frey didn’t seem to have got the memo about being the target man and loitered on the left wing trying to stick crosses in for Dykes to get his head on. Never a great tactic, that one. Was he trying to reassure the Scotstralian he hasn’t been brought in to replace him? Bizarre.
We did perk up a bit when the fourth official indicated there’d be eight minutes of added time and for most of those the Potters’ goal was under siege. But try as we might, we couldn’t break them down, often because, when we got into goal scoring positions, one of our players helpfully rolled it out for a goal kick. We won several corners, but did nothing with them. As one wag pointed out on X, we’re so useless at taking corners we might as well just pick up the ball, walk it over the opposition keeper and just hand it to him.
What a crushing disappointment. We faced a team in free fall, with the home crowd ready to turn at the drop of a hat, and somehow contrived to play so badly that by the end of the evening they were cheering the players as if they’d won the FA Cup.
After the draw against Norwich, I really thought we might have enough to survive. But if we can’t win easy games like this, how are we going to beat Leicester, West Brom, Leeds and Coventry, all of which loom in our future? We’re now four points from safety, so even if we beat Bristol City on Saturday, we’ll still be in the bottom three. Meanwhile, Huddersfield are pulling away, having won their game against Sunderland – thank you, Micky Beale – and Sheffield Wednesday continue to snap at our heels.
From soaring optimism to despair in four days. It’s emotionally exhausting supporting QPR. You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.
For me the most damning stat for us was Shots On Target...1. That was Smyth in the first half when, in a good position on the right 12 yards out, he blasted the ball as hard as he could (as he always does), with no thought of placement. Result: a fairly straight forward save at a comfortable height for the keeper. He repeated this brilliant tactic shortly afterwards when from almost the same position he blasted the ball into the side netting. Still, he was responsible for 100% of our shots on target - despite playing pretty poorly. In this team at the moment that's virtually a nailed-on MOM performance...
Robert Haines