Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

When the margins between winning and losing are so tight in the Championship, luck is always a helpful friend to have. Unfortunately QPR's seems to have deserted them, along with the feel-good factor following Neil Warnock's arrival, any defensive stability he had found and much of the goal threat at the opposite end. What was looking like a poor Easter after the Sheffield Wednesday game now appears horrendous following a thrashing at Leicester and also taking into account other results yesterday. It leaves QPR in a position they must have thought was past them when they trounced West Brom in Warnock's first game. They're now three points off the relegation area following Crystal Palace's win over Preston and Watford were also a minute away from beating West Brom. The only saving grace for the Hoops was that Scunthorpe and Wednesday also lost and that they still have a game in hand.

The absence of luck showed up in Leicester's shots on goal to goals scored ratio, though the away side did a lot to help in that respect. The Foxes were one-nil up with their first shot registered in anger through Andy King, but it became much worse when Carl Ikeme, desperate to leave QPR on a high-note, went walkabout just before half-time and gifted Martyn Waghorn a goal. It was at least the equal of Radek Cerny's clanger against the same team at Loftus Road earlier in the season.

Five minutes into the second half, another shot on target, another goal, Waghorn again taking advantage of space on the break to drill the ball past Ikeme. I can only go by the QPR Player commentary here, but Leicester were apparently playing very poorly. Playing poorly and 3-0 up; what will happen if QPR come up against a team high on confidence and in-form before the end of the season?

Steve Howard capped the misery with twelve minutes to go, by which time Rangers were playing Damion Stewart as a centre-forward. His comments after Saturday's game made me question what Warnock looks for in a striker. It would now seem that it is to have spent their career as a centre-back. It is of course important to have a physical presence up front but this smacked of desperation.

Rangers had a few moments of respite - Adel Taarabt struck the post with a typically solo effort and Jay Simpson came close to forcing them back into the game when he beat two players in the second half but could only strike the ball directly at Chris Weale's feet.

Amazingly, things were worse at other grounds where Palace had gone into a 3-1 lead over Preston and Watford were beating second-placed West Brom. Chris Brunt saved their blushes, but at the end of the day, Rangers' five-point cushion had been cut to three.

As messages to the rest of the league go, losing 4-0 to a team which hadn't won in five won't strike fear into the heart of any of the other teams embroiled in the relegation battle. Palace on the other hand defiantly showed that they are unwilling to allow their ten-point deduction to force them down a league. Both teams meet on Saturday in an atmosphere which was already guaranteed to be charged thanks to Warnock's defection from one to the other just over a month ago. Now every stereotype about six-pointers can be thrown at the game, with the winner placed in the driving seat towards safety and the loser perched on the precipice. The commentator for QPR Player said they could now be sucked 'into the relegation vortex' - that is a scary place to be.

The additional consequence of this dismal defeat is that the buzz around Warnock's appointment is now well and truly extinguished. It didn't help that he spoke about wanting to bring in his own players almost from day one. Few will argue that numerous changes aren't needed, but these are still the players he needs to keep QPR up, loan players included and it may not have done wonders for their confidence to have the added pressure of worrying about playing for their shirt next season. It could be easily argued that this should be an added motivation and a reality of football life, but it doesn't seem to be working right now.

Leicester - Weale, Morrison, Brown, Berner, Hobbs, King, Wellens (Adams 80), Spearing, Howard, Waghorn (Vaughan 80), Gallagher

Subs not used - Logan, Neilson, Oakley, N'Guessan, Kermorgant

Goals - King (5), Waghorn (45,50), Howard (78)


QPR - Ikeme, Ramage, Stewart, Gorkss, Hill, Leigertwood, Cook (Buzsaky 55), Faurlin, Ephraim, Taarabt, Simpson (Balanta 77)

Subs not used - Cerny, Tosic, Oastler, Vine, German

Bookings - Ephraim


Referee - T Kettle


Attendance - 22,079