Queens Park Rangers 2 v Birmingham City 2 - EFL Championship

Saturday 29th February 2020
SkyBet EFL Championship
at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium
Queens Park Rangers (0) 2
Mark Pugh 51, Jordan Hugill 55
Birmingham City (1) 2
Scott Hogan 24, 81
Attendance: 14,113 inc. 2,642 away fans

Last year's Hoops v Blues encounter in west London was a classic goal feast of a game, that saw Birmingham win 3-4, courtesy of a penalty save by Lee Camp, late in the game, after the visitors had led by four goals to nil at one point.
If I recall correctly, that was the afternoon that cheerful repose: "Lee Camp... in the middle of our goal!", to the tune of the Madness song "Our house... in the middle of our street!" was born.

Earlier this season, Rangers won a scrappy game at St. Andrew's 0-2, which was instantly forgettable, apart from Bright Osayi-Samuel's unstoppable shot for the Rs second goal, in the sixty eighth minute, that beat Connal Trueman in the Blues goal all ends up. Though to be fair, if the understudy keeper had had Camp on the line with him and a defender guarding each post, it would still have been a goal.

Loftus Road Stadium, is now formerly known as: the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
Kiyan Prince was a fifteen year-old schoolboy and QPR youth team player, who was fatally wounded, when he was stabbed while trying to protect another boy who was being bullied.
His death led to legislation being passed regarding the carrying of knives and street crime.
Prince’s father, the ex-International IBF and WBO Champion boxer, Mark Prince, founded the Kiyan Prince Foundation in his son's memory. The KBF dedicated to using Kiyan's legacy to combat knife crime and other forms of youth violence.

The foundation's mission statement is:
"To work with young people to increase awareness and address the consequences of gun and knife crime through education. It aims to empower young people by promoting a sense of belonging, self-worth and purpose that can be found outside of gang culture and offending behaviour through providing access to diversionary and preventative activities".
At the end of last season, it was announced that the 'Loftus Road Stadium' would be renamed the 'Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium', following name nominations for the ground from and a vote by QPR supporters.

Mark Warburton's side were unbeaten in their last four games prior to this afternoon (two wins, two draws), and the visitors hadn't lost in their last twelve outings (in all competitions. So this mid-table head to head, was always likely to be a close run thing... and so it proved to be, as both sides remained unbeaten for another game, courtesy of this entertaining 2-2 draw
Rangers began the afternoon in thirteenth place, following their 2-1 home win against Derby County on Tuesday, while Blues arrived at Loftus Road off of the back of a goalless draw at Millwall the following night, in fourteenth. As it happens, the point apiece wasn't enough for either team to climb the table, in fact they both dropped a place as a consequence of Derby County's 1-3 win at Hillsborougfh, against Sheffield Wednesday.

Staying with the subject of the midweek game at Millwall; Kristian Pedersen scored with a well taken strike at the Den, only for David Webb, the match referee, to rule the goal out, for reasons best known only to himself.
Even the remotest chance of any kind of 'these things balance themselves out over the course of a season' equilibrium, in regard to Birmingham getting their fair share of rub of the green to this end, is a ship that has long since sailed far away into the distance, over the course of the current campaign... to the extent that these sort of incidents no longer come as any sort of a surprise anymore.

In fact they've almost become commonplace, to the extent that I'm seriously beginning to wonder how much longer I can continue to justify (even to myself) investing so much time into following Championship football, not to mention the ever growing expense, when the game at this level evidently isn't always being played on a level playing field, so to speak.
In actual fact, my regular football fix is becoming an increasingly frequent source of deep frustration, as a consequence of a disproportionate amount of quite obvious unjust decision making, whereby blatant 'mistakes' by match officials are proving far more costly to certain teams (lets say Birmingham City for example) than others.

Today was to be no exception. Blues should have been awarded a penalty late in the game this afternoon, when Scott Hogan was fouled by Yoann Barbet.
But not according to the match referee: James Linington, even though the on-loan striker was denied a fairly blatant stonewall spot-kick. The in-form striker had attempted to stay on his feet and keep the ball alive as Blues were probing for a late goal, but he was unable to keep his balance and subsequently went down late after the Rangers number 29 had clumsily, but definitely, made contact with him.
Back on the Central Line after the game a young Birmingham fan asked his dad who Blues regular penalty taker was, his father replied: "Don't worry it about it son, we never get any penalties awarded to us anyway".

I don't wear a tin-foil hat (not yet), nor do I subscribe to any conspiracy theories, but even though I'm not paranoid enough to ever imagine that referees and the EFL themselves, have an actual vendetta against Blues... it would be remiss of me not to say that seeing is believing, that there might be an ever growing case to answer after all.
Particularly when a large body of evidence is beginning to stack up, to suggest that such a scenario isn't quite as far fetched as it might seem to anybody who hasn't actually witnessed the whole catalogue of apparent 'discrepancies' first hand.

Whilst 'VAR' is proving to be unpopular within the higher echelons of the game, Pep Clotet has gone as far as to suggest that it should be introduced for Championship games too. I'm not fond of the lack of spontaneity that 'Video Assisted Refereeing' creates, but maybe he does have a point as regards using the technology as a means to an end, if it ensures fair play is implemented for EFL fixtures. It would be a drastic measure, but surely anything has got to be better than the current 'FBO' method of controlling games including Birmingham City, because the 'Fuck Blues Over' decision management system has ruined and affected the outcome of far too many games already, especially this season.

One massive plus to have come out of Blues visit to the Den, was the substitute appearance of the influential midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld, for the final eighteen minutes of the game, after 'Dutch Mike' has been sidelined through injury for the last ten months. Quite who he will replace in the team once he gets back up to full match fitness is anyone's guess, especially with Gary Gardner displaying his best form in a royal blue shirt since he joined the club of late. But Blues head coach seems to enjoy chopping, changing and tinkering, or indulging in squad rotation if you prefer to call it that, so having another string to his bow and midfield option, will be a challenge that the Spaniard will no doubt be relishing. Kieftenbeld made a late cameo today too, replacing Danny Crowley who'd run himself to a standstill for the Blues cause.

Sadly, an incident of alleged racism occurred on Wednesday night at the Millwall v Blues game, when a spectator in the home supporters section of the ground, behind the technical area, was reported by Mr Clotet, for shouting racist abuse at Jeremie Bela while he was laying injured on the floor, after having been felled by a stray elbow.
The match referee instigated the first stage of the required protocol, by informing the Lions manager Gary Rowett about the allegations, while the home crowd took to booing Bela every time he subsequently touched the ball.

Whether their vitriol was based around the political aspects of the issue, or they were calling the French winger out, and levelling accusations towards him, that he had been play-acting and making too much of the situation (slow-motion replay footage showed that he hadn't been), is open to conjecture. But at best, it was a thoughtless knee-jerk reaction, given the serious nature of the allegations that had just been made, at worst, well it doesn't even bare thinking about.
Hopefully the matter will be investigated thoroughly... and though I concede that Millwall supporters will all be tarred with the same brush for all eternity, when things like this occur, because of their past reputation for mob violence and lawless behaviour; if the accusations are upheld, the individual concerned needs the book throwing at him and he has to be made an example of.

If the incident merely gets swept under the carpet (and there is a massive chance that it will), it leaves the door of temptation wide open, for any brain-dead clown to behave in a similar way, with impunity and without any fear of reprisal, from within the anonymity of a crowd.
In December, a Chelsea player, Antonio Rudiger, was (allegedly) subjected to similar abuse in a game at Tottenham Hotspur. A month later, the north London club issued a statement saying that they and and the police had "exhausted" all lines of enquiry but could not "corroborate or contradict" the allegation.

Today's weather: subject to change (often).

The matter is now closed... but in the meantime counter allegations were made on social media, saying that Rudiger had made it all up. So on Wednesday night, two months after the original (alleged) incident, a copycat scenario develops across the other side of the capital city.
Whatever your reading of the two wholly unacceptable situations are: let's all hope that some kind of warped precedent hasn't been set. Modern football has enough problems to deal with, without anybody rekindling any of the kind of crap that had seemingly died a death years ago.
For what is is worth, in  my humble opinion, Mahlon Romeo was the man of the match at the Den on Wednesday night, a black Millwall defender of no small standing, who has played internationally for Antigua and Barbuda. You have to wonder how he must feel about such matters occur.

I've always said that this blog will never feature politics of any persuasion, but some issues transcend such a template and invade a space set aside for the difference between right and wrong.
People who look the other way and claim that because they're not indulging in such hatred towards fellow human beings, it's got nothing to do with them and as such are reluctant to comment, are effectively shirking their responsibilities and in doing so are as much to blame as anybody else, for the perpetuation of this ongoing problem.
It is not always practical, or even safe, to challenge people face to face, or even report them to a nearby steward for fear of reprisal. But the old adage of: "Ignore it and it'll go away" doesn't work. The problem has been ignored and it hasn't gone anywhere... not by any stretch of the imagination.

Rangers thought that they had taken the lead in the twentieth minute, when Angel Rangel took the ball round Kristian Pedersen, but took a fraction too long before delivering a cross for Jordan Hugill, who had by then run into an offside position, though their wasn't a great deal in it.
Just minutes after the narrowest of margins had thwarted the home side, they were undone, when Maxime Colin knocked a dipping ball into the path of Hogan, who had already started to sprint towards the Rangers goal, leaving Barbet his wake... Liam Kelly advanced from his line, but the Blues striker nudged a bouncing shot past him, that nestled just inside the right hand upright, moments before Barbet caught up with his man and pole-axed him.

The visitors were still in front by the solitary goal at half time time and looked lively at the outset of the second period too, but the Rs had upped the tempo too and six minutes after the restart, they scored twice in quick succession to put themselves on the front foot.
Pedersen conceded a free-kick out the right, was tussling for the ball with Bright Osayi-Samuel.
England Under 21 international Ebere Eze, took the resulting free-kick towards Hugill who had peeled away from the goalmouth huddle before heading the ball down for Mark Pugh, who stroked it past Lee Camp to level things up. Osayi-Samuel then combined with Eze before crossing to Hugill who diverted the ball inside the right hand upright.

Blues misery was compounded when the lively Jeremie Bela was kicked out of the game, as Pugh caught him with a late, studs up challenge out on the right hand side touchline.
After a long stoppage, Bela left the pitch on a stretcher with an apparent hamstring injury.
Amazingly, the referee didn't show a possible red or even a yellow card to Pugh, but Mr Linington didn't get his cards out all afternoon, in spite of a few industrial strength challenges flying in from both sides across the course of the afternoon. I guess you shouldn't criticise an official who wants to keep the game flowing and has a word with players about curbing their reactions instead of dishing out cautions willy-nilly, but I'm actually more inclined to think that he'd forgotten to bring his cards with him.

It's a goal!

The 'Superhoops' (look, don't blame me, that's what Wikipedia says they're called), were pushing forward with menace, but the visitors defence were playing hard to get and soaking up everything that Rangers were throwing at them.

But in the last ten minutes (plus the eight minutes of injury time), Blues switched back into attacking mode and made a proper fight of salvaging a draw... and then even went in search of a winner after they pulled level.

Mark Roberts long throw unsettled Rangers defence and as Lukas Jutkiewicz flicked the ball on to Pedersen, Liam Kelly did well to make the save that preserved his side's lead.

But with six minutes left to go, Gary Gardner met Crowley's corner kick with a towering header towards Hogan who stooped to conquer and nodded the ball into Kelly's net from close range.

My phone's camera evidently doesn't have a sunlight filter.

Besides the aforementioned Blues penalty appeal, there was still plenty of other action to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats, not least when Camp stretched to reach a lob by Eze that was otherwise destine for the roof of his net... and when the ball was only half cleared as far as Osayi-Samuel, who smashed the ball towards Blues goal at full-tilt, there was Camp again, doing a passable

impression of Spiderman to somehow keep out.

Camp was rested earlier in the season, but since his return, thirteen games ago, Birmingham haven't lost a single game... go figure!

FT: Queens Park Rangers 2 v Birmingham City 2

Right lads.
Nobody is going home until we find Mr Linington's contact lenses.

Blues are back in action again on Wednesday night, when they visit Premier League side Leicester City in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, then Reading visit St. Andrew's for a Championship fixture next weekend.

Rangers have a blank midweek before they travel up to Lancashire, for PNE v QPR at Deepdale on Saturday.