Post by Macmoish on Sept 21, 2014 21:28:03 GMT
Harsh/Snide...
Thrills & spills will send QPR fans wild come what may this season
Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp praised his team's come back from a 2-1 deficit against Stoke City.
Only a few weeks in and Queens Park Rangers have already got themselves where it matters at the forefront of the really exciting place in the Premier League -- the relegation zone. Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Geoff Shreeves and the rest of the Sky Sports machine will tell you it's the top of the table where the real excitement is. It's certainly home to all the cash, champagne, Mexican waves, "selfie sticks" and fancy dress. But it's not where grown men cry and that's what it's all about.
- Report: QPR 2-2 Stoke
The snide point QPR nicked off Stoke on Saturday was all well and good but the weekend took a severely downward turn after that. Fellow predicted bottom dwellers Burnley, Hull, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and West Ham all earned a point or more and Leicester City really wrecked the party by smashing five past the same Manchester United that announced their return as a footballing superpower with the 4-0 destruction of QPR at Old Trafford last week.
Now, in the thick of the drop zone, every single second of football is going to be utterly crucial for Rangers. Every rare goal they score will be euphoric, each slapstick effort they concede will be a dagger to their slim survival hopes. The successful starts Southampton, Aston Villa and Swansea have made have almost rendered the remainder of their seasons irrelevant. They're all almost a third of the way to safety after only five games yet they will not be title contenders and they will not fancy qualifying for the Europa League. By February a handful of clubs will have reached that horrible purgatory that is safety.
Not QPR, oh no! Not by a long shot.
The ever-entertaining Rangers have done what comes natural to them. They've sold their best player, Loic Remy, to their most loathed rival for a pittance and done it so late they had no time to replace him. A few of the dedicated old guard -- Richard Dunne, Clint Hill and Danny Simpson -- have been quietly nudged aside, leaving any slight hope of success in the hands of a number of unfamiliar faces, loan signings and short-term deals. It's the perfect set-up for the ultimate escape act.
Once again the club has got itself in a neat little pickle even earlier than expected but the relegation zone is an incredible place that should be revered, not feared. Like being on a first date every weekend where a couple of smart moves could land you a wife and kids and one false move could land you slap.
Not every fixture in the Premier League is a Champions League final; trips to Southampton and West Ham coming up next will almost certainly feature stone last on BBC television's flagship highlights show Match of the Day. The Gaal-acticos along with Mario Balotelli and Alan Pardew's soap opera at Newcastle will grab all the back page headlines until May. QPR fans will almost never see their side up in lights but now they can hang on a knife edge every week, constantly on the cusp of agony or ecstasy.
The upcoming trip to Aston Villa on a wet Monday night, the slog up to Newcastle and the Tuesday night trip to play Swansea sound as boring as sin and they might well be. But with their backs already against the wall, with the chips already stacked against them, with goals almost impossible to come by and a porous defence, every one of QPR's games is the Championship play-off final with Derby at Wembley all over again.
And since when did "lucky" become a derogatory term? "QPR were 'lucky' to get a draw with Stoke," has been echoed around like some great insult. You would have thought they had cheated or lied their way to a point when in fact they bumbled, stumbled and sneaked their way to a share of the spoils. And with luck like that who needs Loic Remy?
www.espnfc.co.uk/club/queens-park-rangers/334/blog/post/2048768/qpr-vs-stoke-post-match-reaction
Thrills & spills will send QPR fans wild come what may this season
Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp praised his team's come back from a 2-1 deficit against Stoke City.
Only a few weeks in and Queens Park Rangers have already got themselves where it matters at the forefront of the really exciting place in the Premier League -- the relegation zone. Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Geoff Shreeves and the rest of the Sky Sports machine will tell you it's the top of the table where the real excitement is. It's certainly home to all the cash, champagne, Mexican waves, "selfie sticks" and fancy dress. But it's not where grown men cry and that's what it's all about.
- Report: QPR 2-2 Stoke
The snide point QPR nicked off Stoke on Saturday was all well and good but the weekend took a severely downward turn after that. Fellow predicted bottom dwellers Burnley, Hull, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and West Ham all earned a point or more and Leicester City really wrecked the party by smashing five past the same Manchester United that announced their return as a footballing superpower with the 4-0 destruction of QPR at Old Trafford last week.
Now, in the thick of the drop zone, every single second of football is going to be utterly crucial for Rangers. Every rare goal they score will be euphoric, each slapstick effort they concede will be a dagger to their slim survival hopes. The successful starts Southampton, Aston Villa and Swansea have made have almost rendered the remainder of their seasons irrelevant. They're all almost a third of the way to safety after only five games yet they will not be title contenders and they will not fancy qualifying for the Europa League. By February a handful of clubs will have reached that horrible purgatory that is safety.
Not QPR, oh no! Not by a long shot.
The ever-entertaining Rangers have done what comes natural to them. They've sold their best player, Loic Remy, to their most loathed rival for a pittance and done it so late they had no time to replace him. A few of the dedicated old guard -- Richard Dunne, Clint Hill and Danny Simpson -- have been quietly nudged aside, leaving any slight hope of success in the hands of a number of unfamiliar faces, loan signings and short-term deals. It's the perfect set-up for the ultimate escape act.
Once again the club has got itself in a neat little pickle even earlier than expected but the relegation zone is an incredible place that should be revered, not feared. Like being on a first date every weekend where a couple of smart moves could land you a wife and kids and one false move could land you slap.
Not every fixture in the Premier League is a Champions League final; trips to Southampton and West Ham coming up next will almost certainly feature stone last on BBC television's flagship highlights show Match of the Day. The Gaal-acticos along with Mario Balotelli and Alan Pardew's soap opera at Newcastle will grab all the back page headlines until May. QPR fans will almost never see their side up in lights but now they can hang on a knife edge every week, constantly on the cusp of agony or ecstasy.
The upcoming trip to Aston Villa on a wet Monday night, the slog up to Newcastle and the Tuesday night trip to play Swansea sound as boring as sin and they might well be. But with their backs already against the wall, with the chips already stacked against them, with goals almost impossible to come by and a porous defence, every one of QPR's games is the Championship play-off final with Derby at Wembley all over again.
And since when did "lucky" become a derogatory term? "QPR were 'lucky' to get a draw with Stoke," has been echoed around like some great insult. You would have thought they had cheated or lied their way to a point when in fact they bumbled, stumbled and sneaked their way to a share of the spoils. And with luck like that who needs Loic Remy?
www.espnfc.co.uk/club/queens-park-rangers/334/blog/post/2048768/qpr-vs-stoke-post-match-reaction