February 17 2006

Jobi McAnuff

Never has the maxim - a game of two halves, been so evident, writes Simon Pophale.

We dominated the 1st half, while QPR could concede the fact they won the 2nd. Yet the manner of the 2-1 victory was nervous and edgy and towards the end and we were clinging on for the 3 points.

With no AJ, Dowie started with Macken and Morrison up front and while Clinton put in a 5 star performance, the opposite could be said of our other forward, who was clearly uncomfortable and was substituted on 15 minutes.

By which time Morrison had 2 chances and while he missed the first on 2 minutes, shooting wide from 6 yards, he did not make the same mistake 60 seconds later as a fine cross from Gary Borrowdale was met by Morrison and he opened the scoring with a volley.

Freedman replaced Macken and he set up Morrison who again went close to scoring, shooting narrowly over on 22 minutes. With chances having fallen to Micheal Hughes from a free kick, Wayne Andrews and Darren Ward, we were in the ascendancy.

QPR were not able to deal with our attacking threat and we got a 2nd just after the half hour mark. Freedman robbed Ian Evatt of the ball by the main stand touchline and sprinted into the area where his cut back found Jobi McAnuff who made it 2-0, placing it comfortably past Paul Jones.

Gary Waddock changed the formation from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 by bringing on Paul Furlong towards the end of the half and while they did not concede again, we went in 2 goals to the good in total control.

The 2nd half was a totally different story. QPR now looked much more at home in their new formation and forced the early pace with Langley and Furlong having chances to bring their team back into the game.

We were on the back foot and QPR managed to claw one back through Paul Furlong, who met Scott Donnellys’ cross perfectly with a header that left Gabor Kiraly no chance.

We hit back with a Jobi McAnuff 30 yard pile driver the sailed inches over the bar, while Freedman shot over after a pass from TOM SOARES on 71 minutes. However, QPR piled forward in search of an equaliser and nearly got it on 74 minutes.

A Donnelly corner forced Kiraly, under pressure from Furlong, to push the ball onto the bar and then moments later, Furlong went close with another header, but this time could only place it over the bar.

Marc Nygaard, who had been antagonizing our defence all night, was pushed in the box by Emmerson Boyce and while the QPR fans protested, a penalty was not forthcoming.

Morrison again went close 10 minutes from the end, shooting wide after SOARES had played him in and the last minutes of the match became frantic.

Nygaard managed to pass the ball back to Kiraly when it looked easier to score from 3 yards, while Morrison shot into the side netting but at the final whistle, it was another win, although we made very hard work of it.