Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

1 - Things are turning ugly. The photo above was taken at quarter past five on Saturday on South Africa Road, just outside QPR's ground. The team had just succumbed to a ninth league defeat of the season against a newly promoted side who have struggled at the bottom end of the Championship for much of the season. The cordon of police and security officials is in front of the entrance to the director's area of QPR.

The few hundred QPR fans gathered outside were there to voice their displeasure not at the team or the new manager but at the club's current owners, including Bernie Ecclestone but most of all Flavio Briatore. Briatore is increasingly unpopular because of ill-judged comments about supporters who pay £20 to go to games ("People forget very quickly what I did for this club. Some fans, because they pay £20, they want to criticise"), the relentless chopping and changing of managers and now a percieved lack of investment in the playing staff, with a number of players leaving in this transfer window and only loan signings or free transfers coming in.

Angry chants of "We want our Rangers back" and "Flavio is a wanker" were audible from inside the ground, where Gareth Ainsworth was gamely trying to get through a post-match interview on the day he announced he is quitting the club so he can extend his playing career, with an as yet unnamed club (but most likely Wycombe Wanderers, where he already went on loan this season).

I don't know if those supporters actually made an effort to enter that part of the ground or if the cordon was more of a preventative measure. Or if Briatore actually went out that way, though I doubt it very much and I suspect he had to make a backdoor exit, much like Tony Blair following his testimony at the Iraq inquiry (Blair and Briatore are duelling it out for Public Enemy Number One at the moment, at least in west London).

Those fans were certainly angry though after watching their team fall to a dismal 1-0 defeat. The chanting started during the game and though it never spread throughout the stadium (containing 13,000 supporters), small sections of the ground, particularly the corner between the Ellerslie Road stand and Loftus Road End, spent most of the game berating Briatore and it was more than audible from the directors' area, which sits just alongside the press box.

Some waved Bank of Flavio £20 notes (see below, courtesy of QPR's Loyal Supporters' Association)  after the game. The crowd dissipated fairly quickly and left a tiny hardcore to sing most of the players' names when they left the ground (though Adel Taarabt was serenaded with "Why don't you pass the ball?"). But it was the most vocal outpouring of anti-Briatore sentiment yet at Loftus Road and can't be how the Italian thought he would be recieved when he took charge of the club.


2. Ainsworth will be missed. Not so much for his playing contribution, which because of age and injuries was minimal in his last two seasons with QPR. More for his love for the club and willingness to muck in and help Rangers in whatever capacity he could. The contrast between his reception on Saturday when he spoke to the fans at half-time and recieved a standing ovation and Flavio's was marked.


He did it all while at QPR from player to coach to caretaker manager. After the sackings of both Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa, it was Ainsworth who had to quickly pick up the pieces, raise team morale and face the press when the rest of the club turned silent.

Mick Harford suggested Ainsworth would be the club's tea-maker if that was required of him. Harford also mentioned a lack of leaders on the pitch in his current team. He will be disappointed that one off the pitch has now departed.

3. Shaky at the back, toothless up front. Not a good combination. Rangers were far from awful in this game, particularly after the mauling against Nottingham Forest in midweek and Harford was right to commend a lot of their approach play. It's just that they seemed to lack any genuine conviction or desire.

Scunthorpe looked more than happy to take a point from this game, often sitting back in the first half to allow QPR time on the ball. But as the game progressed, they almost collectively realised that their opponents are now chronically weak and it didn't take a massive increase in Scunny's effort to gain the solitary goal which won the game.

4. QPR's best player can't be bothered. Adel Taarabt does have the potential to be a special player. A couple of clipped passes during this game were superb and showed a degree of vision that few, if any, other Rangers' players possess.

But there were also great chunks of this game when he ran into cul-de-sacs only to fall meekly at the first hint of a challenge. Or where his head went down at a misplaced pass or failed attack. The contrast with two subs who came on, Lee Cook and Antonio German, was marked, both eager to get the team going and find a way to break down the Scunthorpe defence. Taarabt is barely doing enough to warrant a starting place at the moment.

QPR - Ikeme, Gorkss, Connolly, Hill, Leigertwood, Buzsaky (Balanta 80), Quashie, Faurlin, Taarabt (Cook 75), Vine (German 75), Simpson

Subs not used - Cerny, Ramage, Stewart, Ephraim

Scunthorpe - Murphy, Williams, Byrne, Jones, Mirfin (Wright 46), Togwell, McCann, Thompson, Woolford (McDermott 46), Hayes, Hooper (Forte 90 + 3)

Subs not used - Lillis, Moloney, O'Connor, Morris

Goals - Thompson (74)

Bookings - McCann

Referee - G Hegley

Attendance - 13,105