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Cardiff City lose out to QPR at Loftus Road
Nov 29 2010 by Delme Parfitt, Western Mail
IT was billed as a classic and it almost lived up to it.
If you are one of those who like their football from the old school, you would have appreciated two teams going at each other like rabid dogs, fervent supporters so close they are seemingly on the pitch, floodlights illuminating the chill and the heady scent of Bovril in the air then west London on Saturday was the place to be.
From the very first whistle, Dave Jones’ Bluebirds and Neil Warnock’s Rangers made their intentions clear with the sort of confidence only swapping top spot in the Championship for weeks on end can engender.
There was commitment and passion, there was skill, even some magic, and there were mistakes and controversy too.
There was even comic Bill Bailey tweeting about the bird-life on offer at Loftus Road if the full-throttle action on the pitch wasn’t enough for you, which it should have been.
So, all in all. a very satisfying encounter only marred from a Bluebirds’ perspective by the result.
It would be glib to suggest the man who grabbed the winner to send the Londoners five points clear of Cardiff at the top was the difference between the two sides, but Adel Taarabt was a fascinating proposition throughout.
The Moroccan magician cast a spell at times over the Bluebirds. A fantastic runner with the ball at his feet and with the ability to ghost past opponents, he is the best player this correspondent has seen in the Championship all season.
Indeed, it is quite hard to understand how the midfielder failed to make the grade at Tottenham. It’s all down to attitude apparently, but when playing like this Taarabt could boot my dog in the backside every morning and I’d still play him.
His winner, like much of the game, owed equal measure to error and brilliance.
On 68 minutes. Taarabt broke a Lee Naylor tackle and spirited into the box. The enormity of Naylor’s mistake was put into perspective by a seasoned QPR watcher sat next to me who observed: “Blimey, that’s the first tackle Taarabt has won all season.”
But when faced with a glimmer of goal the rest from Taarabt was pure class. A sexy shimmy and cocky step-over as he passed it into the top corner with Cardiff goalkeeper Tom Heaton mesmerised.
Warnock’s QPR are a class act throughout. mind. Jamie Mackie is another real handful and. for all its creative parts, QPR is also a side forged in the image of its pugnacious boss too.
Cardiff effectively matched their hosts in most departments, although if Taarabt shone some of the Bluebirds’ ‘star’ names perhaps failed to quite step up to the plate again.
You would still want more from Craig Bellamy, for example. A player who covered every inch of the pitch, but whose pedigree keeps telling me he should be grabbing Championship games a bit more by the scruff of the neck.
That said, it was his neatly-timed run which gave Cardiff the perfect start.
On 13 minutes, one-time Cardiff target Kaspars Gorkss slipped and Jay Bothroyd was allowed to feed Bellamy.
One-on-one with Paddy Kenny in the home goal, it wasn’t the most convincing finish from the Bluebirds skipper, but all that mattered was that it hit the back of the net.
That Cardiff held that lead for no longer than five minutes is down to what most people will agree is their most problematic department – central defence.
Jones himself seems less than thrilled with his options, fiddling again, with Gabor Gyepes dropped to the bench now and Darcy Blake freed up to return to the heart of defence.
It was classic second-phase defending which did for Cardiff on 18 minutes. The Bluebirds thought they had cleared the danger when a Gorkss knock-down found the invisible man, but when Tommy Smith hoisted it back into the mix Gorkss was still there to head home.
It was bad defending yet again with Gorkss virtually unmolested as he rose.
It led to much finger-pointing and accusation in the Bluebirds’ defence and probably to Jones making another memo to himself not to forget to look for further centre-half options if given the chance in the January sales.
It was a shame in many ways, but the Bluebirds paid from some below-par showings, particularly in midfield where youngster Danny Drinkwater is surely not fit and Peter Whittingham, the player who the term ‘mercurial’ was coined for, presents his least satisfying aspects.
To be fair though, Cardiff stuck to their task and went for it right to the death despite a hugely inconsequential half hour from Jason Koumas.
Jones left the arrival of Michael Chopra too late, though, and then, for some reason, took off Chris Burke, who was at least providing a threat.
Chopra looked as if he wasn’t sure what his role was by the end, but I suppose his main instruction was: ‘Put the ball in the net’.
And Cardiff had almost done it, with Burke, before his withdrawal, seeing a shot take a deflection and bounce off the fortunate Kenny’s head to safety with the Rangers’ keeper clueless as to how he had saved it.
Then 10 minutes from the end that controversy we were promised arrived.
Bothroyd seemed to edge the ball past Matthew Connolly before the QPR defender stuck out a leg and Bothroyd hit the deck.
It looked about as clear-cut a penalty as you are going to see, even for someone perched at the back of the main stand, so how referee Kevin Friend didn’t give it from just yards away remains a mystery.
It was a decision which quite rightly left the Cardiff players and Jones furious.
But the Bluebirds can take heart from the fact they are not going to face a side of the calibre of Rangers every week, indeed the seemingly much easier prospect of Preston North End at home is their next outing.
With black November behind them now, a month which has inflicted three defeats on Cardiff, they still lie in second and, even in defeat, should take positives from the role they played in this scintillating encounter
Cardiff City lose out to QPR at Loftus Road
Nov 29 2010 by Delme Parfitt, Western Mail
IT was billed as a classic and it almost lived up to it.
If you are one of those who like their football from the old school, you would have appreciated two teams going at each other like rabid dogs, fervent supporters so close they are seemingly on the pitch, floodlights illuminating the chill and the heady scent of Bovril in the air then west London on Saturday was the place to be.
From the very first whistle, Dave Jones’ Bluebirds and Neil Warnock’s Rangers made their intentions clear with the sort of confidence only swapping top spot in the Championship for weeks on end can engender.
There was commitment and passion, there was skill, even some magic, and there were mistakes and controversy too.
There was even comic Bill Bailey tweeting about the bird-life on offer at Loftus Road if the full-throttle action on the pitch wasn’t enough for you, which it should have been.
So, all in all. a very satisfying encounter only marred from a Bluebirds’ perspective by the result.
It would be glib to suggest the man who grabbed the winner to send the Londoners five points clear of Cardiff at the top was the difference between the two sides, but Adel Taarabt was a fascinating proposition throughout.
The Moroccan magician cast a spell at times over the Bluebirds. A fantastic runner with the ball at his feet and with the ability to ghost past opponents, he is the best player this correspondent has seen in the Championship all season.
Indeed, it is quite hard to understand how the midfielder failed to make the grade at Tottenham. It’s all down to attitude apparently, but when playing like this Taarabt could boot my dog in the backside every morning and I’d still play him.
His winner, like much of the game, owed equal measure to error and brilliance.
On 68 minutes. Taarabt broke a Lee Naylor tackle and spirited into the box. The enormity of Naylor’s mistake was put into perspective by a seasoned QPR watcher sat next to me who observed: “Blimey, that’s the first tackle Taarabt has won all season.”
But when faced with a glimmer of goal the rest from Taarabt was pure class. A sexy shimmy and cocky step-over as he passed it into the top corner with Cardiff goalkeeper Tom Heaton mesmerised.
Warnock’s QPR are a class act throughout. mind. Jamie Mackie is another real handful and. for all its creative parts, QPR is also a side forged in the image of its pugnacious boss too.
Cardiff effectively matched their hosts in most departments, although if Taarabt shone some of the Bluebirds’ ‘star’ names perhaps failed to quite step up to the plate again.
You would still want more from Craig Bellamy, for example. A player who covered every inch of the pitch, but whose pedigree keeps telling me he should be grabbing Championship games a bit more by the scruff of the neck.
That said, it was his neatly-timed run which gave Cardiff the perfect start.
On 13 minutes, one-time Cardiff target Kaspars Gorkss slipped and Jay Bothroyd was allowed to feed Bellamy.
One-on-one with Paddy Kenny in the home goal, it wasn’t the most convincing finish from the Bluebirds skipper, but all that mattered was that it hit the back of the net.
That Cardiff held that lead for no longer than five minutes is down to what most people will agree is their most problematic department – central defence.
Jones himself seems less than thrilled with his options, fiddling again, with Gabor Gyepes dropped to the bench now and Darcy Blake freed up to return to the heart of defence.
It was classic second-phase defending which did for Cardiff on 18 minutes. The Bluebirds thought they had cleared the danger when a Gorkss knock-down found the invisible man, but when Tommy Smith hoisted it back into the mix Gorkss was still there to head home.
It was bad defending yet again with Gorkss virtually unmolested as he rose.
It led to much finger-pointing and accusation in the Bluebirds’ defence and probably to Jones making another memo to himself not to forget to look for further centre-half options if given the chance in the January sales.
It was a shame in many ways, but the Bluebirds paid from some below-par showings, particularly in midfield where youngster Danny Drinkwater is surely not fit and Peter Whittingham, the player who the term ‘mercurial’ was coined for, presents his least satisfying aspects.
To be fair though, Cardiff stuck to their task and went for it right to the death despite a hugely inconsequential half hour from Jason Koumas.
Jones left the arrival of Michael Chopra too late, though, and then, for some reason, took off Chris Burke, who was at least providing a threat.
Chopra looked as if he wasn’t sure what his role was by the end, but I suppose his main instruction was: ‘Put the ball in the net’.
And Cardiff had almost done it, with Burke, before his withdrawal, seeing a shot take a deflection and bounce off the fortunate Kenny’s head to safety with the Rangers’ keeper clueless as to how he had saved it.
Then 10 minutes from the end that controversy we were promised arrived.
Bothroyd seemed to edge the ball past Matthew Connolly before the QPR defender stuck out a leg and Bothroyd hit the deck.
It looked about as clear-cut a penalty as you are going to see, even for someone perched at the back of the main stand, so how referee Kevin Friend didn’t give it from just yards away remains a mystery.
It was a decision which quite rightly left the Cardiff players and Jones furious.
But the Bluebirds can take heart from the fact they are not going to face a side of the calibre of Rangers every week, indeed the seemingly much easier prospect of Preston North End at home is their next outing.
With black November behind them now, a month which has inflicted three defeats on Cardiff, they still lie in second and, even in defeat, should take positives from the role they played in this scintillating encounter
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