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Reply | Pompey match thread
at 18:04 27 Dec 2025
Ha ha . Yes that will be annoying .
But it highlights my point in a way that JS has to find another way for us to pose a threat, of some description , on the odd occasion that Burrell is not on the pitch / completely blowing out of his backside.
His all round game yesterday was poor . He looked absolutely spent .
Could we push Smyth up there to threaten getting in behind ?
Not sure , but he would need support from a ‘Kone’ rather than Frey.
We could probably put a shirt on a grandfather clock right now and it contribute as much as Frey is . |
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Reply | Pompey match thread
at 11:15 27 Dec 2025
Hard to give my opinion on yesterday without sounding too negative.
A point away from home isn’t a disaster at all especially with our record but I still think that was a huge chance missed .
Hard to put my finger on exactly what the problem was or is away from home but it seems like multiple things . Do the 2 in midfield sit too deep ? Does this then mean the front 4 can’t press as it’s then too easy for the opponent to get out ?
The difference in ‘the press’ from yesterday to last Saturday was extraordinary.
What is it about playing away from home turns us into horrendous footballers who literally can’t string 2 passes together ? We look dreadful every time we play away recently . Is this mentality or the way we are set up or tactics ?
Not really sure. Maybe all 3 , but we won’t win many games playing like we did in that first half in particular. The worry is it’s becoming the norm away from home .
Those thinking Middlesbrough were some sort of footballing super power should look at their recent results to see that , although they looked very good , we made them look as good as they did .
We were a shambles and we were again yesterday for huge chunks.
We have to try to be more on the front foot against West Brom or we’ll see the same again. I understand he need to be compact , but it has to be a mix . The 2 wide men were horrendous in that first half yesterday , Saito in particular, so I expect to see Smyth start .
Stéphan has to be careful he doesn’t run Burrell into the ground too.
He’s starting to look shattered and his whole game is just starting to dip . JS they need to work out a plan B for when Burrell isn’t playing and it can’t be Frey and Kone under any circumstance. |
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Reply | Merry Xmas to all on Loftforwords
at 09:05 24 Dec 2025
What a player Emmanuel Gearbox was! 😀
Wishing all a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year .
Come on U R’s |
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Reply | 35 years ago today
at 08:46 24 Dec 2025
Mentioned before that I think Tilson was extremely under rated in QPR ‘folklore’ in general.
He would have been close to being an international if he’d been around now .
30 years ahead of his time as a ball playing centre back . Oozed class on the ball which was very rare .
Both he and Darren Peacock became 2 people I really looked up to and held in really high esteem , not just because of their different playing qualities but because 2 more down to earth likeable and approachable footballers you could not find .
Tilson especially was one of the few who would openly come and find you and ask how you are which is and was almost unheard of.
There is a lot to be said for that era of our history but one of the reasons for the success was the mix of established seasoned pros and lower league , down to Earth players that were brought in at the same time . Tilson , Peacock, Holloway, Penrice (to an extent) , Impey , Les (again to an extent) , older pros who were finishing their career like Ray , Garry Thompson, bought a humbleness to the obvious professional football team dressing room.
On the coach to an away game , they were the ones who would choose to sit next someone like me (16 year old apprentice / lackie) rather the card school with Macca , Bards , Barker , Sinton , because they wanted to talk to me and ask how I was .
That stuff stuck with me . [Post edited 24 Dec 8:46]
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Reply | So Cifuentes ?
at 14:23 21 Dec 2025
Agree with most of that although I think sacked in the morning is just football ‘banter’ that we have sung to others too.
I think Marti’s bigger worry is that he clearly has some very very good players , but I’m not sure they are giving him everything.
They weren’t a ‘team’ yesterday .
He had to bring Ayew and James off before they were sent off.
Bunch of entitled spoilt brats who basically didn’t like it up ‘em, who look ready to throw their head coach under the bus.
If he can’t get a grip on that quickly he’ll be gone by January . |
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Reply | Madsen
at 14:02 21 Dec 2025
I like it .
By his own admission he was mostly poor last season so it can’t all be Marti’s fault.
The moment MC (and I ) gave up on him was Hull away . Thought he was shambolic for that cameo .
But Marti did bring him back in , to a fair bit of success at the end .
However , clearly we don’t and will never know everything that goes on in a dressing room . Maybe Madsen was being asked to do things that didn’t work . Who knows?
What I like about it is he is showing some , spunk, guts , bollox..whatever you want to call it . Certainly confidence and self belief and that epitomises his performances this season .
His turnaround has been tremendous and he deserves great credit , along with the head coach and staff . [Post edited 21 Dec 14:12]
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Reply | Fantastic win but the Cifuentes Abuse
at 13:37 21 Dec 2025
Yeah heard it in the first couple of minutes of the match and just winced.
Nourry PR machine have really done an amazing job haven’t they . French representatives courted at the club for every home game from early March yet Marti is put on gardening leave for much less . Got to give them credit .
And yes , CN hired people for that job alone . And it shows .
Having said that, nothing wrong with “Marti what’s the score etc”. That’s just to be expected at any football match . Even “sacked in the morning”. Don't really have a problem with that . We’ve sang it to others and as any clubs fans would enjoy winning a football match .
QPR moves on and we are where we are , overall in a better place .
The issue was more the way it was done not so much the decision itself even though I didn’t really agree with it at the time. [Post edited 21 Dec 13:38]
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Reply | (No subject) (n/t)
at 07:52 17 Dec 2025
Can’t say I ever despised a Rangers player . Thought one or two were bellends when I was a youth team player another life ago .
Closest would probably be Barton who has been simply unlikeable since he plopped out onto this planet [Post edited 17 Dec 7:55]
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Reply | It's the NFL..again.
at 15:02 16 Dec 2025
I thought Rivers did ok considering he can’t through further than the length of his arm .
Colts did a brilliant job of protecting him though .
That’s 3 or 4 recent games that the Colts have run out of steam at the end of the 4th quarter |
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Reply | So Cifuentes ?
at 09:29 16 Dec 2025
This thread was always going to polarize as he still does .
Lots of the same voices who wanted shot of him still jumping at the chance to talk about him though. Strange that .
Like many , thought he did well in the circumstances. No point going over ‘the end’ of his time with us . The PR machine has sorted that out quite nicely .
But , quick clap before the game maybe, then I want to beat him desperately.
My concern is more what our head coach does ?
Marti and Xavi will know every weak link and try to expose it . So JS has to show proper nous and experience this weekend , more than any other so far to make sure we win this game .
Madsen clearly has an axe to grind and one or 2 others probably .
Need to use that as fuel and win this football match ! |
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Reply | Fearsomely in-form Boro too hot for QPR to handle – Report
at 10:56 15 Dec 2025
I have to admit this is fairly close to where I am with Saturday too.
I didn’t lose my rag too badly and I went out and forgot about it at around 5.05pm Saturday afternoon.
Maybe because that ‘6 points from 9/ 3 game week blah blah ‘ affected me too in a way.
But as I’ve said elsewhere , Boro were good and would likely have beaten us anyhow.
But we didn’t do the simple , basic , ‘taught when you were a school boy ‘ stuff that if you are to remotely make it harder for your opponents , then as the absolute bare minimum we should be doing .
But we didn’t . We didn’t at Cov and we didn’t at Norwich and it’s becoming a theme and has been pre mentioned , a self fulfilling prophecy inside the club itself .
Very much like cup games now .
I’m not singling him out particularly as I like him a lot , but as an example , the difference in the desire, attitude and work rate between Varane second half on Tuesday and from
Kick off on Saturday …..it’s like a different player and it was by no means just him .
One lousy game we can all accept.
But to keep doing it as a squad means there are questions to asked and answered.
As said before , we will lose games and we have lost games this season where you say ok, it didn’t go our way but you can’t fault the attitude , just maybe a lack of quality .
But if the attitude levels drop then the lack of quality at times is completely laid bare .
I totally agree with you that for the first hour I kept saying.”we look like we’ve never seen a football pitch before “.
We can accept it and say “ho hum, we are doing better than previously” etc etc .
But as a club, we should be demanding more from our players than rolling over in tough away games just because “we are doing better than before “
Or the next self fulfilling prophecy on the checklist …finishing 16th , becomes eternal until we finally drop out the wrong way [Post edited 15 Dec 10:58]
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Reply | Middlesbrough F.C V Queens Park Rangers Match Thread.
at 14:33 14 Dec 2025
Yes I find the JCS choices and timings odd.
I understand managing his playing time , especially with his record, but he won’t get up to speed if he only plays an hour a fortnight .
Truth is we are being hampered by keep switching the back 4 where we are managing 3 of the 6 defenders playing time . With that in mind, Morrison is worryingly completely out of favour .
I also completely understand the notion that Middlesbrough are a good side and a better side who would have had joy against everyone in the championship yesterday .
But if you do the basics and simple things correct and do all the things that, as a team you can control, then at least you can frustrate the opposition and make it hard for them.
Only my view , but I thought we sat off, backed off, let them totally do what they wanted and when we did find ourselves in decent positions, we lacked any sort of quality or care to get ourselves truly back in the game.
Difficult to be too critical as we are doing ok in general . I can see improvements of course .
But we need to stop choosing when we show fight determination (usually at home) and then pick certain difficult away games (preceded by very good results ) to really metaphorically ‘have a breather’.
Thats got a whiff of the Redknapps about it. [Post edited 14 Dec 14:35]
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Reply | Slowly improving.
at 10:55 14 Dec 2025
I think ‘slowly improving’ is a fair assessment of where we are at .
Lots to be encouraged about and lots of work still to do . |
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Reply | Alan Barnes in Hospital
at 10:52 14 Dec 2025
Yes that is sad news and I too often look down from my seat in JU to see if he is there . I did last Saturday (I think it was last Saturday ) but didn’t do it Tuesday for whatever reason so didn’t notice.
Has had a terrible time recently so let’s hope he gets well soon |
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Reply | Middlesbrough F.C V Queens Park Rangers Match Thread.
at 10:24 14 Dec 2025
Not been able to post as it’s taken me until now to navigate past the cookie blockage as I’m an absolute tech idiot . Had to get my wife to do it 😆
Not read through this to see what people were / are thinking about yesterday but will try to catch up later .
My basic take was that I feel that the completely overhyped and over discussed ‘3rd game of a 3 game week ‘ has now become a complete self fulfilling prophecy .
As at Norwich the players looked beaten before they kicked off . Played with no intensity, no purpose or drive , no quality and on the outside not much of a care . Now I’m sure that’s not true but that’s how it looked on the tv.
The complete opposite of Tuesday .
It’s about how the coaching staff and club turn that around now as for me it’s clearly an issue .
Of course , we will lose games , but it’s the manor of how you lose games and yesterday was almost a carbon copy of Norwich . That can’t be a coincidence.
Let’s be fair, Middlesbrough took their foot of the pedal in the last 30 minutes allowing us to look a little better but I thought almost to a man, we looked way below par .
On the plus side, we got ourselves into quite a few promising positions during the game . We just need to be so much better , especially away at decent teams like Middlesbrough.
Overall nothing to throw the toys out of the pram about , but as a club, playing and coaching staff , we can’t keep tossing games off because “we’ ve already got 6 points this week “.
Middlesbrough are a good team so we might well have lost anyway , but 17% possession after 40 mins is just unacceptable .
That’s throwing in the towel and the frustration comes from actually, that we are better than that . And the fans that travelled up there deserve better than that . [Post edited 14 Dec 10:36]
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Reply | Any Roofers out there
at 08:44 11 Dec 2025
Great shout that . Felt exactly the same . Refused to believe until that moment |
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Reply | A Morgasm – Report
at 08:08 11 Dec 2025
Wonderful description of a crazy and wonderful evening .
That complete elation we all share together at these moments is why we do it and described brilliantly Clive . Young children, middle aged men and women , OAP’s and everybody in between in complete ecstatic disbelief.
Joyous
“Yellow Cards: Morgan 90+7 (getting undressed in a public place), Mbengue 90+7 (lunacy)”
This made me really chuckle |
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Site Scores| Prediction League: | 12 | | TOTAL: | 12 |
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