QPR 1 - Gillingham 1
April 07, 2005

The BBC report is here.

Disappointing game this - we looked jaded in the first half, with Dan Shittu and Matthew Rose both looking particularly shaky, and leaving Davies exposed quite a few times.

We badly missed some of the injured players, particularly Ainsworth and Rowlands. Miller started on the right, and although I like the look of him, I thought that he was a bit out of his depth there at times, and perhaps could have been better positionally. He had a few good efforts though - and his touch and passing are generally excellent. I’d like to see him playing in the middle some time.

The second half was better, but still not great, despite Holloway saying that he thought we “played really well”! I’m getting that which-game-was-he-watching feeling again…

Santos was chucked up front for some reason. To be fair, I think he caused less damage to us that way, but is must be pretty depressing if you are Cureton or Baidoo sitting on the bench and you see the boss prefer Santos up front.

We somehow got a goal back, although it was blatantly offside, and we could have had a winner but for a great save from Brown.

To cap it all, Furlong had to hobble off. It looked like a knee problem, so I hope it’s not serious. Jamie Cureton replaced him, but didn’t manage much.

Bizarrely, Holloway chose the 90th minute to waste some time by putting Baidoo on, even though we were the ones looking like we might nick the game. I’m all for putting the youngsters on the bench, but if we’re going to do that we might as well at least give them 10 minutes; Baidoo didn’t even get a kick of the ball before the game finished, which can’t have been the most inspiring of debuts.

All in all, a draw was fair. They were poor, we were poor, and I think that our hopes of making the play-offs are gone.

The thing to bear in mind though is how far we’ve come. At the beginning of the season I would have happily settled for finishing one place above the relegation zone, as would most realistic QPR fans. What Ollie and the players have achieved with no money is magnificent, and they deserve credit. To move forward next season though, we need a bit more quality - and there are players in the current squad who just aren’t good enough.