Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Before discussing this game, below are the highlights from the BBC's Football League show. QPR were top of the billing on Saturday night so you don't have to scroll too far to see a game most R's fans would rather forget (it's only available until Sunday 13th December):

Going into this game, QPR had shown a very soft underbelly at the back which led to just one win in their last five games. After a home drubbing, which taken with the defeat at Doncaster and draw to Coventry serves as a massive wake-up call to the side's promotion ambitions, that underbelly now looks chronically weak and in need of some immediate repair before a bad run turns to a nightmare one.

This was a rare missed game for me at Loftus Road, which considering the circumstances was perhaps not a bad thing, though as Jim Magilton put it after the game, sometimes you can learn as much about a team in defeat as in victory. What, going on the Football League highlights then, did we learn about QPR on Saturday?

Firstly, the defence, which saved the club from an embarrasing league finish last season, seems to be suffering a collective crisis of confidence. Two players, looking at the Boro goals, had particularly torrid games on Saturday - captain Mikele Leigertwood and infrequent starter Fitz Hall. Both looked off the pace and were guilty of backing off players to a dangerous degree.

For the former and going on his own public utterances, right-back is not his preferred position and though that doesn't mean he cannot perform there, it could be time to use a right-back by trade, even if that player is the much-maligned Peter Ramage.

The latter player had a two-month layoff already this season, but on his return, he has been less than commanding at the back and struggled throughout the game to deal with the aggressive forward play of Leroy Lita. It raises another question of why last season's Player of the Year, Damion Stewart, is currently warming the bench.

The game also showed that this midfield is currently lacking in bite, with Gary O'Neil appearing to run the majority of proceedings. The holes left by Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands look bigger by the week, with none of the current midfield crop able to play the defensive role in front of the back four which could provide some much needed stability.

Finally, the side still look woefully short of options up front. The double substitution which brought Rowan Vine and Patrick Agyemang onto the pitch had immediate effect with Vine setting up his strike partner to put QPR back in the game. From then on though, the team looked top-heavy and Boro picked them off with three further goals in the last half-hour. More to the point, can either of these players find the net on a regular basis? If not, Rangers will remain damagingly tied to the performances of Jay Simpson, who is allowed to have the odd off-day considering his age.

Sitting in the stands, it is of course easy to suggest the club has to go straight into the transfer market at the first sign of a bad result. This was more than a bad result though and placed in the context of a poor run, with now just one win in six, suggests some of the team's problems are more than superficial. The club's owners have backed the manager in the loan market but not with any significant permanent buys, barring Alejandro Faurlin (pictured below), who unsurprisingly has been one of the season's top performers. Where could this team go with two or three more players of that quality?


Jim Magilton and John Gorman have a big task now to lift their players before tonight's game with Watford - more on that later. When the dust then settles, they might start identifying a few important reinforcements to try and buy come January.

HIGHS: Good opening spell, took the game to Boro.

LOWS: Inability to close down Boro attacks, more woeful marking on set pieces and a real lack of bite in the midfield.

QPR - Cerny, Hall, Gorkss, Borrowdale, Leigertwood, Routledge (Pellicori 80), Buzsaky (Vine 52), Watson, Faurlin, Taarabt, Simpson (Agyemang 52)

Subs not used - Taylor, Ramage, Stewart, Williams

Scorers - Agyemang (54)

Bookings - Hall

Middlesbrough - Jones, Pogatetz, St. Ledger, Williams, Wheater, Yeates, O'Neil (Digard 79), Arca, Osbourne, Lita, Kitson

Subs not used - Coyne, Hoyte, Riggott, Emnes, McMahon, L. Williams.

Scorers - Kitson (31), Lita (pen 50, 60), O'Neil (75), Yeates (87)

Bookings - Lita, Osbourne

Referee - P Gibbs

Attendance - 13,949