Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

It can't really be considered a result to revitalise QPR's flagging season and the performance was far from convincing as well. But in twice coming from behind to earn a share of the points at Bloomfield Road, a ground where better teams have lost this season, Mick Harford's players did at least show a modicum of spirit and resilience in trying times. With a wonder goal from Matt Connolly (pictured above) to boot. What will the new boss take from this hard-earned draw?

1 - There are signs of life, doctor. Maybe it was a form of winter hibernation, a preservation of energy for the spring when QPR will burst into life. But in the last few weeks, the vast majority of QPR's team have played as if in the deepest of deep slumbers. The less said about their three games against Sheffield United the better, with a limp 3-0 defeat at Ipswich and an uninspiring win over Bristol City sprinkled in amongst those fixtures. Compared to the confident attacking play of October when Rangers scored four goals in three consecutive games, the winter freeze looked to have impaired QPR's footballing faculties.

When they went a goal down within the first ten minutes on Saturday then, it would have been reasonable to expect the worse, especially as Charlie Adam's goal came against a back-line containing four centre-backs and was the result of some shockingly static defending.


A fluky penalty award greatly helped Rangers' fortunes, Adel Taarabt (pictured above) converting from the spot on 64 minutes, only to see his side go behind once more with thirteen minutes remaining, Gary Taylor-Fletcher finishing with a neat flick. Yet somehow, at the end of a week in which their club has been the source of much amusement throughout football, there was still enough within this team to earn a very unlikely draw.

2 - Matt Connolly can make a big, big difference. I'd commented previously that with QPR having such clear problems defensively for much of this season, it was perhaps time to give Matt Connolly a chance where others had failed. I couldn't have predicted how vital his contribution would be on Saturday though and it had little to do with his play at the back (which was hampered by playing in a very experimental back four, with Connolly at left-back and Fitz Hall on the right).

Connolly's intervention came up front in the form of a phenomenal goal, his first in two years with the Hoops. With Rangers struggling to find chances, a nothing ball was chested down by substitute Antonio German to Connolly. Connolly in turn chested the ball, shifted it with his right knee and then calmly lofted a volley from 25 yards over Blackpool's keeper. For any player it would be a special goal, for a centre-back it was frighteningly good. The highlights are still on the BBC's website for UK users, click here and go to 1,23 for his moment of magic.

3 - Mick Harford is his own man. Or Flavio Briatore has started picking the team again. Someone has to explain QPR's line-up on Saturday though. With two perfectly decent if unspectacular full-backs sat on the bench, the new manager chose instead to inject a new level of anxiety into an already petrified defence by playing all four of his centre-backs in a row.

Connolly makes a go of any defensive position he is handed and has enough technique to rarely be embarrassed so he can pass muster at left-back, but Fitz Hall isn't a right-back and doesn't have the pace or agility to play there. QPR have tried nearly every possible combination of defences this season without starting Wayne Routledge at centre-back but this experiment definitely didn't work.

When you consider that top scorer Jay Simpson remained on the bench for the duration of the game as well, this line-up was a definite head-scratcher.

4 - Silence is golden. Flavio Briatore chose to answer his critics in an interview with the Mirror yesterday but would have been better advised to keep quiet (for the full interview, click here.)


He ran once again through the litany of managers who have left under his watch in an attempt to explain how little he had to do with their departures in a tone much closer to a defence lawyer than a football chairman. Do QPR fans really care that technically Paulo Sousa had his contract terminated for 'breach of confidentiality'? How exactly is that different from being sacked?

"Can't say he was fired, Briatore said. It was Sousa's own fault."

Similarly, don't think about classing John Gregory's departure as a sacking.

"Inherited him from a previous regime, Briatore said. Can't say he was fired."

This reeling off of explanations was also apparently initiated by Briatore himself, eager to dissolve himself of any responsibility for QPR having ten managers in two and a half years. In short, it smacks of "nothing to see here guv" as if the way QPR deal with their managers was the most normal, reasonable thing in the world.

Instead of trying to explain why QPR can't keep someone in their dug-out for more than 35 games, Briatore seems more concerned about protecting his image with the club's supporters. Little said here will give them much comfort though. As revealed in the interview, he doesn't intend to sell the club anytime soon, but it didn't suggest he will be changing his management style either.

Blackpool - Rachubka, Crainey, Eardley, Evatt, Baptiste, Southern, Vaughan (Euell 90), Adam, Bannan (Burgess 60), Ormerod, Taylor-Fletcher (Nardiello 89)

Subs not used - Gilks, Edwards, Butler, Martin

Goals - Adam (9), Taylor-Fletcher (77)

Bookings - Adam

QPR - Ikeme, Stewart, Hall (Ramage 79), Gorkss, Connolly, Leigertwood, Routledge, Buzsaky (Ephraim 46), Faurlin (German 81), Taarabt, Agyemang

Subs not used - Cerny, Borrowdale, Balanta, Simpson

Goals - Taarabt (55), Connolly (84)

Bookings - Routledge

Referee - Mr T Kettle

Attendance - 7,600