Post by QPR Report on Dec 17, 2008 13:12:42 GMT
What Fitz Hall said after our first game of the season.
Can't recall offhand what was said last season (except when De Canio was away and Briatore gave the pre-match team talk!)
From August Telegraph/Stewart Jackson - Hand of Flavio Briatore evident as QPR start Championship season with a win
Queens Park Rangers opened their campaign with a scrappy 2-1 win over Barnsley, but whether the three points will ease the reported tensions between manager Iain Dowie and his hands-on millionaire chairman, only time will tell.
One thing is sure - Flavio Braitore will continue to get involved with team matters. While Dowie was dodging questions about a row with his boss last week with "I'm still here aren't I?" Braitore was down in the dressing room gently reprimanding match-winner Fitz Hall for missing a penalty.
Centre-half Hall, who was on a hat-trick having scored twice in the first half, said of the new owners: "Flavio asked me what I was doing taking the penalty. He was just having a joke...I think. I doubt I'll ever get another chance to score a hat-trick. I think it went to my head and I was already thinking about my celebration before I took it." </strong>
As unconvincing as the spot-kick was, Hall claimed he was the designated penalty taker. "I was picked last week to take them," he said, "but I think that will be the first and last time they ask me. I've been practising all week in training and didn't miss one. I must have been saving it for today."
After the fireworks - Briatore take note, your manager is not a fan of the pyrotechnics - the cheerleaders and the flag-waving air stewardesses, on-pitch matters for Rangers looked to be heading for damp squib territory for the first half an hour.
In relentless drizzle, the home defence were turned this way and that as Barnsley carved a number of openings, perhaps unfortunate that they registered only Iain Hume's first goal since his £1.2million switch from Leicester.
Having more than matched their hosts, Simon Davey's side found themselves behind before the break thanks to two goals within a minute by Hall.
First a free-kick from Emmanuel Ledesma was parried by Luke Steele, Dexter Blackstock poked the rebound against the bar and Hall was on hand to finish the job. Seconds later the centre-half found enough space at a corner to impressively hook home a volley from 12 yards. He was altogether less comfortable from the same distance in the second half, however.
There was only a cameo from the bench for Daniel Parejo, the much lauded 18-year-old loanee from real Madrid, and his chief contribution was to be on the receiving end of a nasty lunge from Barnsley left-back Peter van Homoet, for which he saw red.
Davey lamented one minute of slack defending at two set pieces that spoilt a good afternoon's work.
"We took the game to them," he said. "QPR have spent a lot of money and I felt we not only had the lion's share, we were actually the better side.
"I'm disappointed with the result but in terms of the performance, there were good things to come out of it and we'll take that and move on. We're a stronger squad than we were last season and we will be a better team."
If there was one man who was a difference between the teams it was Ledesma, a 20-year-old Argentine winger on loan from Genoa who tormented his opponents all afternoon. Rangers fans sense they have a new hero - and he could equally turn out to be a Ronaldo-esque character that opposition fans love to hate.
Quite apart from a few theatrical dives - "I've spoken to him about that," said Dowie - he has a hilarious habit of covering his face as well as his nether regions when lining up in a wall. Such antics will ensure he is a marked man.
Ledesma departed to a standing ovation five minutes from time and was mobbed by autograph hunters outside the stadium. If the rumours are true and Briatore, not Dowie, is overseeing transfers, the chairman's interference may not be such a bad thing after all www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/championship/queensparkrangers/2534481/Hand-of-Flavio-Briatore-evident-as-QPR-start-Championship-season-with-a-win.html