Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Not my words, but those of Neil Warnock, though it would be hard to disagree with his assessment of Mikele Leigertwood's bullet drive which earned QPR a 1-0 win over Barnsley on Saturday in a fairly tedious, end of season encounter.

"Mikele's quite capable of that and he produces a strike like that every now and then," said the manager.

That is certainly true. Leigertwood's goals come at fairly intermittent intervals but when they do, they tend to be in a similar vein, at least this season in which he has found the net on five occasions. Cutting in from the wing and steadying himself before shooting, the midfielder has produced more than one rocket into the opposition's net and when few of QPR's strikers can provide healthy goal returns, it can be an important weapon when games are tight.

"We were right behind it in the technical area and it was always going in from the moment he took aim," said Warnock.

I questioned to what extent Warnock would juggle his team around in these final games, especially as QPR only have respectability to now play for, but he is sticking to his word of ending the season in a professional manner and his starting line-up was as strong as it possibly could be, with the exception of Antonio German starting ahead of Jay Simpson and Josh Parker being handed his full debut at right-back. Adel Taarabt wasn't in the match-day squad due to an ankle injury and it could be that the Moroccan loanee has played his final game for the Hoops.

Peter Ramage also retained his place at centre-back and Radek Cerny continued his run in goal following Carl Ikeme's return to Wolves and though it could be simplistic reasoning, QPR have now managed three clean sheets in their last four games and were ten minutes away from achieving the same against Cardiff. Cerny in particular was instrumental in maintaining that record against Barnsley, expertly tipping a low drive from Iain Hume onto the post when the game was in its infancy.

Unfortunately for Antonio German, he was unable to make as big an impact in a rare start, failing to make a telling connection on a well-worked cross by left-back Dusko Tosic in the first half. As German has himself acknowledged though, there is plenty more work to go into his game and he deserves many more opportunities to add to his goal tally in the near future.

"It was a typical end of season affair," said the manager.

"It was very scrappy at times, but we stuck at it and the attitude of the players was very good. The goal came at a time when we were dominating, so it was perfect for us.

"I thought we were a bit sloppy in the first half defensively, but we tightened up and got the clean sheet we were craving."

Beyond the three points, that is undoubtedly the most pleasing aspect of this victory for the R's and Cerny, Ramage and even Gorkss are making a late bid to be regularly selected next season and Tosic is putting in the type of appearances to earn a permanent move to Loftus Road.

A final chance to cement their case comes next Sunday with the home game against champions Newcastle, a match with no significance for the league but an occasion supporters will enjoy all the same. After that, theories on how much QPR are going to spend this summer can take flight. The tabloids must be getting excited already.

Barnsley - Steele, Hassell, Moore, Colace, Foster, Hume, Butterfield, Macken, Potter (Dickinson 69), Hammill (Devaney 40), Doyle (Taylor 81)

Subs not used - Kozluk, Preece, Adam, Shotton

Bookings - Potter, Doyle

QPR - Cerny, Ramage, Leigertwood, Buzsaky, Gorkss, Faurlin, Ephraim (Cook 81), Tosic, German (Simpson 56), Parker, Priskin (Brown 90)

Subs not used - Vine, Balanta, Oastler, Putnins

Goals - Leigertwood (27)

Bookings - Buzsaky

Referee - Mr R Booth

Attendance - 11,944