Queens Park Rangers 3 v Birmingham City 4 - EFL Championship

"They call it Shepherd's Bush city limits"

Saturday 9th February 2019

SkyBet EFL Championship

at Loftus Road Stadium

Queens Park Rangers (1) 3
Matt Smith 45+1, 48, Jordan Cousins 80

Birmingham City (4) 4
Che Adams 21, 26, 42, Harlee Dean 36

Attendance: 14,234 (inc. 1,774 away fans)

Birmingham fans were only given the top tier of the away stand this afternoon, exactly the same as they were last year, because of an incident that occurred the season previous to that, when a Rangers fan invaded the corner of the pitch and headed to the away support beckoning for someone to come and fight him. Subsequently a Blues supporter joined him pitch side and put the aggressor on his backside with a single punch.

How on earth could anybody ever come back and recover from such an embarrassing and crushing humiliation?
In response to the incident, the Metropolitan Police have decreed that the lower tier must remain closed, when Blues visit, save for the small number of disabled away supporters, who are allowed in and tucked into the side of that level closest to the home supporters, from where the guy who was the root cause of the trouble and his friends sit.
It's a situation that must create a big drop in match day revenue for the home club... even given the over the top pricing of match tickets, and it could easily be resolved, if the 'Met' coppers didn't still react to any visit from Birmingham City to the capital, as if it was still 1986.

Back in September, these two teams played out a dour and goalless stalemate, at St. Andrew's, when both sides were still making a tentative and slow start to the new season.
Today's game was the exact polar opposite of that bloody miserable occasion. I recall that it was one of those games that was so awful to watch, that I almost left at half time, but decided to hang around on the assumption that the second half surely must get better, but it didn't.
The contrast between that complete dirge and today's edge of your seat stuff, that unfolded in such a spectacular, dramatic and crazy fashion, was ginormous to the nth degree... and put the supporters of both teams through the whole range of a wide spectrum of emotions.

I arrived at the ground just over a hour before kick off and waited outside the club shop to meet two (so called) friends I'd picked up tickets for, when this harmless looking enough R's fan approached me and asked: "Excuse me... is your name Rob?" while holding out his hand to shake mine. I confirmed that was indeed my name and he thrust a pen in my hand, while shuffling through a pile of A4 sheets of paper, festooned with signatures, with various dates written across the top of them, he then asked me to sign the one headed: QPR players 1970's. It would have been easy just to scribble something (anything) on the paper and make good my escape, but I didn't want to spoil his painstakingly assembled collection of autographs. So, I tried to explain that I wasn't anybody famous and that he was mistaking me for a.n.other.

But he was a determined little chap... "It doesn't matter if you only played three times, all QPR players are important to me really", he told me before going on to confirm that two men stood inside the shop had pointed me out and told him to ask me for a signature. It later transpired that they had been telling him that I'd played a handful of games for the Loftus Road club in 1976, but only as a substitute, before retiring early from the game to become a cameraman at the nearby BBC studios on Wood Lane, because I knew that I would never be good enough to get a first team place.
Bastards! I knew exactly who had been telling him fibs now and would've happily torn their tickets up there and then if they had already paid me for them.
For the record, I was only thirteen in 1976, but could probably pass for being much older than I actually am these days.

I tried to explain that he was having his leg pulled and pointed out that Andy Sinton was just walking past and that he used to be a real footballer, who played for England n' all that. So the confused soul toddled off after him.
But then he came back! And then started following me. as I briskly paced away down the South Africa Road towards the Queens Tavern, hoping that he'd eventually decide to go away and leave me alone.
I spotted Hardy Harr, the admin of the Tilton Alliance group on Facebook and stopped for a quick chat, telling him about the autograph hunter, at the exact moment that he meandered back into view, diligently clutching his pen and paper. So Hardy raised his voice, just loud enough for my newly acquired stalker to hear him say: "Oh right, so you used to play for Rangers did you!?" Arrgh, no!!!

At least he didn't find me again, as I vanished into the flats behind the aforementioned pub and found a hiding place, until the coast was clear. But I didn't half get some strange looks from the people up on the beer terrace balcony, as I squatted down among the rubbish bags behind a skip.
The turnstiles were open when I returned, so I exchanged the two tickets for their face value with a certain pair of toss pots I have the misfortune to know, and slipped into the ground all stealth like and kept watch from the top of some stairs, while sipping on the most disgusting cup of coffee that it's ever been my misfortune to have ever purchased, until I moved out into the open again to take my seat in readiness for whatever this afternoon had to offer.

I padded out last Saturday's blog, with several hectares worth of laborious text, by way of an overly detailed explanation and overview, pertaining to the game I'd just watched at St. Andrew's, for the benefit of a disgruntled group of homeward bound Nottingham Forest fans, who seemed to be under the completely false impression, that they hadn't been beaten by a tactically superior Blues side, who had actually controlled the shape and pace of proceedings throughout; but were seemingly under the illusion that they had lost the game for themselves, without any help or input from Garry Monk's side, simply by being completely inept.
It was, I felt (quite strongly), only right to put on record, just how much Birmingham City deserve far more credit for the way that they go about things at times like that.

However, I am not about to adopt any long winded waffle type approach, to fill out the requisite number of column inches as regards this game today, and the reason for that is: it's way beyond my limited scope of knowledge and comprehension of the intricacies of the game of football, to actually analyse and dissect this game and I don't have the required level of vocabulary or writing skills, to narrate large chunks of what manifested itself, before my disbelieving eyes, out on the field of play, in this bijou and compact corner of Shepherd's Bush.
There were times when I didn't have a bleedin' clue what the effing hell was going on (did anybody really?) but I'll tell you this much, it was bloody great entertainment that got the pulse racing... and lots of fun too. In't football brilliant!!!

Rangers started at a decent enough tempo, but once Blues got going, they were irresistible to watch for spells during the first half, particularly that passage of the game between the twenty first and forty second minute, where they cruised into a four goal lead, during which time the man of the moment, Che Adams, helped himself to a hat trick, to take his goals total for the season to nineteen, by virtue of scoring in his sixth game in a row... take note, the current club record is held by a young player going by the name of Trevor Francis, who found the net in seven consecutive league matches in 1978. Blues are at home on Tuesday night against Bolton Wanderers, tickets for the game are just £10. What more motivation do you want!?
By the way, Trevor Francis also played for (and managed) today's hosts and appeared on the back cover of today's programme, sporting a range of classic Blues home kits.

Gary Gardner fed the ball towards Adams, but Joel Lynch moved fast to get between the striker and the ball, as Joe Lumley advanced from his line, but Adams was back in front of Lynch in a flash, using both his speed and strength to reach the ball, before making himself a yard of space to turn one way, then the other, to shake off his marker, before drilling the ball across Lumley into the far side of his goal, to give  Blues the lead.
A few minutes later Maxime Colin won the ball in the middle of the park and rolled it forward to Jota, who threaded a ball through the R's central defence, to coincide perfectly with Adams blind side run... the prolific marksman motored diagonally past Lumley and rolled the ball into the empty net.
It was nearly 0-3 when Lumley turned the ball round his post at full stretch from (G) Gardner's shot.

But Blues didn't have to wait long until they found the net again, when Jota's right wing corner presented the unmarked Harlee Dean with a free, downward header. Rangers were in disarray and when a quick interchange between Adams, Jacques Maghoma and Jota, including two backheels, presented the latter with a shooting chance, he crashed the ball against the woodwork, but Adams was on hand to stab the ball home on the rebound, while Lumley struggled to find his footing amid the chaos that was unfolding all around him.
Game over! Surely!?
Hmm... perhaps not, eh?
After all, didn't QPR used to have a player around the time of their 1967 League Cup Final and Third Division title triumphs called (Mark) Lazarus? How apt!

So, in first half 'stoppage' time, Matt Smith grabbed what appeared at the the time to mere a mere consolation goal for the hosts, squeezing the ball in by the near post, from Luke Freeman's corner kick delivery from out on the right.
But the complexion of the game changed quite dramatically, when Smith scored again, three minutes into second half 'startage' time. Steve McClaren had instructed Massimo Luongo to keep tabs on Jota after the half time break, while also making a double substitution at the break in an all or nothing chuck of the dice to salvage something out of the wreckage of his side's first half mauling... and his side very nearly succeeded too!
Adams had been the visitors man of the match during the first half, but after the restart, that honour went to Blues (former QPR) goalkeeper, Lee Camp.

Smith was on a mission to grab a hat trick for himself, but Camp had other ideas, denying theHoops striker on three separate occasions and tipping the ball over his bar at full stretch, after another Smith effort had taking a wicked and looping deflection off of Wes Harding as he put his body in the way.
With ten minutes remaining, the ball pinged around Camp's area, as the visitors fought tooth and nail to get it away, but it fell invitingly to Jordan Cousins just inside the area and he crashed home Rangers third goal.
The impetus and momentum was all with McClaren's side by now, but Camp was growing in stature as the second half approached the ninety minute mark and he was called into action once again, turning over Smith's header from Jake Birdwell's cross.

In the last minute of the scheduled ninety, Kerim Mrabti was put through on the R's goal by a well weighted pass from Jota, it would've been the perfect time for the Swede to open his Blues goalscoring account, but Lumley managed to block his shot and the ball cannoned off of him and over the bar..
There was a massive cheers around three sides of the ground,when the fourth official signified that their would be five added minutes. Jesus wept! Has anybody in here got any nerve ends or fingernails left by now?
Rangers were throwing everything into the mix now, even their goalkeeper was in the Birmingham area for set pieces... and with just one minute of added time remaining, Freeman went to ground over a sliding challenge from Craig Gardner and the referee blew up for a penalty.

Lee Camp v Nahki Wells... who dares wins!

Nahki Wells stepped forward and struck his shot low, hard and on target, but Camp went the right way and kept the ball out, by getting his torso in the way, while (G) Gardner dashed forward and hooked the ball away.
Blues survived two even later corner kicks, but held on for the three points.
Wow! What a great afternoon's football entertainment that was.
FT: Queens Park Rangers 3 v Birmingham City 4
I don't like football, oh no!
I LOVE IT!