Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

The rebirth of QPR as a capable Championship side took a firm back-seat last night when the horrendous form of the last two months reached a new low point with a 5-0 capitulation at the City Ground to promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest.

It marked the second occasion when Rangers have conceded five since the start of December, but at least in the embarrassing 5-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough, they could claim to have offered some form of competition and some degree of attacking play of their own.

By all accounts and I wasn't at this game so I defer to anyone who saw it live, QPR failed to turn up last night, failing to register a shot on target in the first half and being three-nil down in half an hour.

"The players have been told in no uncertain terms that kind of performance is not acceptable," said manager Mick Harford, speaking to the club's website after the game.

"They're professionals.

"They know when they haven't performed, when they've underachieved and when they haven't lived up to their reputation."

That reputation, as a team and as a club, is taking a severe knocking game-by-game and talk on the QPR message boards is especially despondent with many supporters discussing boycotting the next home game.

Paul Hart was booed in only his second home game and though Harford has a degree more cache with Rangers' home fans, it will not take a lot now for them to register their disapproval, especially towards Flavio Briatore whose ill-judged repeated comments about fans who pay £20 being too mouthy have gone down like a lead balloon.

What can be learnt from such a rout then?

1 - This was no team of battlers. With the signings of Nigel Quashie (pictured below) and Matt Hill, two players known for their hard-tackling, competitive natures and with more than a week to train with his players and drill some fighting spirit into them, I wasn't the only person expecting a tough, workmanlike performance from Rangers. Probably not enough to win against an in-form Forest, but enough at least to offer them a challenge and potentially a few scares along the way and I predicted that a draw was far from impossible.

But Harford clearly has his work cut out to reinstil some pride and edge into this set of players.

Forest are clearly a very good side now, playing for each other and with some players in the best form of their careers.

But are they five goals better than QPR? Should they be able to breeze to a three goal lead in half an hour? After some dire away performances at Watford and Ipswich in the last two months, this reached new lows and again, the manager will have his work cut out to prevent it from further damaging morale.

2 - "We need to sign a striker". Not my words, but Harford's after the game. Apparently it was clear from watching that performance that QPR need to buy someone up front. Therein lies the problem with having no continuity in managers or backroom staff. It, only fairly, takes whoever comes in a few weeks to work out what most observers of QPR could have told them straight off. How many points has the club dropped as a result of managers finding their feet, as they have every right to do?

Jim Magilton rightly took a few weeks to settle into his role and find a team and formation he liked and so the club dropped a number of points, especially at home, in the opening weeks. Then on his departure, Paul Hart played a holding game and had no time to think about what reinforcements were needed, hence more dropped points. Finally, Mick Harford steps in and again, rightly, needs a bit of time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the team.

Individually, this would not be a problem. No-one can expect a manager to come straight to a club with a predetermined idea of exactly what needs to be done and it could be detrimental if they did. They need some time to observe, talk to people, assess the mood and style of their players. That is fine.

But if you repeat the same exercise three or four times a season, you accrue a high number of transitional games when the team is not fully competitive and the manager is not aware of all the facts.

Had there been a degree of continuity, it would also mean the club could be further along in their search for a new striker than a few rumours linking them to Rob Hulse and might not have been rejected by Daniel Cousin, Caleb Folan and Dave Kitson (pictured below), as appears to have happened today.


3 - They might need a new defence as well. QPR's defensive woes have garnered the most attention since they last kept a clean sheet, far off in the distant past of last October. Any number of combinations has been tried along the back four to try and block the sluice of goals conceded game-by-game.

Again, the degree of rotation has been far from helpful. Peter Ramage was left on the bench again last night so that another game went by without a tailor-made right-back in that position. When you throw a debutant into the mix, it is unsurprising that they failed to keep out a team bristling with attacking options.

I previously had a look at the relative performances of the club's centre-backs, concluding that Kaspars Gorkss and Matt Connolly would be the safest choice. Both started last night, five goals conceded. I'm out of ideas. Hopefully Mick Harford and Tony Coton aren't.

4 - The promotion race just got interesting. After Newcastle and WBA pulled away from the pack from day one, the automatic spots to go up could have been decided by mid-March. Forest, with this win, reaffirmed that they will push both teams to claim the right to play in the Premiership, whatever Billy Davies says about them not being ready and could even contend for the title.

One more goal last night and they would have gone top on goal difference, so Newcastle had two reasons to thank QPR yesterday after they also sent them the gift of Wayne Routledge.

Further down and as usual, a host of teams will challenge for the play-offs. Cardiff have stormed back into contention, whereas Leicester City have dropped out of the top six. Crystal Palace will be particularly aggrieved to lose ten points as is the likely punishment for dropping into administration yesterday as even they were mounting a surprise challenge.

Talk of QPR being amongst that group is hard to find now though.

Nottingham Forest - Camp, Perch, Morgan (Chambers 72), Wilson, Gunter, Anderson (Tyson 69), Cohen, McKenna, Majewski, Earnshaw, Blackstock (Adebola 80)

Subs not used - Smith, McGugan, Moussi, McGoldrick

Goals - Earnshaw (18,21), Blackstock (pen 32), Cohen (49), Perch (78)

Bookings - McKenna

QPR - Ikeme, Stewart (Ramage 46), Gorkss, Connolly, Hill, Leigertwood, Buzsaky, Quashie, Faurlin (Ephraim 46), Taarabt, Simpson (Vine 69)

Subs not used - Cerny, Hall, Cook, German

Bookings - Buzsaky, Quashie, Taarabt

Referee - E Ilderton

Attendance - 23,293 (Away - 693)