| Queens Park Rangers 1 v 2 Sheffield United EFL Championship Saturday, 1st March 2025 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
Blades' cutting edge too sharp for Rangers' toil and chug - Report Monday, 3rd Mar 2025 08:43 by Clive Whittingham QPR had the effort and endeavour, the ball and the chances, against Sheffield United at Loftus Road on Saturday, but as predicted the sharpness in attack proved to be the difference between the two sides. From the website that told you Luton would be promoted and Blackburn might be relegated (Caulker was a failsafe signing, Clint Hill was old and past it etc etc) it’s important to celebrate the good calls when we make them. This week we told you exactly what the score would be, and why. Unfortunately, the celebration ends there because it means Queens Park Rangers did indeed lose 2-1 to promotion chasing Sheffield United. It was the Blades’ 11th away win of the season already, more than anybody else in the division and almost treble the four QPR have managed on the road this season. Rangers had more of the ball, more of the chances, more of the shots, more of the shots on target. You couldn’t fault them for effort and endeavour. They were in the game right to the death, when substitute Koki Saito soared through the air but headed his chance over the bar at the back post. They were applauded from the field at the end despite a third defeat in four games and fifth in seven. The difference between the sides was the goal that won the game, literally and figuratively. Tyrese Campbell’s spectacular swivel and hit into the top corner of Paul Nardi’s net from long range came just seconds after Michi Frey had miscontrolled and lost a ball on the edge of the penalty box at the other end of the field. I wouldn’t necessarily bash Frey for his afternoon of toil and chug. Sure, one ‘shot’ in the second half which endangered the corner flag on the far side of the field was a bit of a hot mess, but he had a goal disallowed in the first half when Rangers finally isolated Jimmy Dunne over the top of Harrison Burrows and Frey nudged the knock down over the line from an offside position, and he scored the team’s goal in the second when Burrows was penalised for a blatant handball in his own box and Frey converted the penalty after a prolonged discussion/argument with Ilias Chair about who was to take it. Not many who were here for Frey’s last attempt from the spot a year ago against West Brom would have had any money on him to score, but it was a nicely taken kick past the division’s outstanding goalkeeper Michael Cooper.
Nevertheless, as we said in the match preview, the difference between the teams with parachute payments in this league and those without is often felt most acutely in the depth and quality they have in attack. Ben Brereton-Diaz had already scored early on for the visitors – Yang Min-Hyeok naively giving the ball away while Rangers were trying to clear their lines and it really just needed banging down the pitch, Paul Nardi once again rooted to his line when you’d ordinarily expect and certainly want your goalkeeper to be coming to claim a floated cross which was eventually headed in from little more than six yards out by the former Blackburn and Villarreal forward. Rhian Brewster, once a £20m a forward, and hairy Love Islander Trom Cannon, now a £10m striker, both came off the bench in the second half. Kieffer Moore, who’d scored in the first meeting at Bramall Lane, along with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, a talented Crystal Palace winger who QPR made a big play to sign themselves in the summer before (rightly) baulking at the loan fee, were unused subs. Marti Cifuentes has been trying to wrestle his team through a season with Frey and Zan Celar as his only senior strikers, covered by a couple of kids. With Celar out for months and Rayan Kolli now injured too, all he could find by way of alternate strikers here was Alfie Lloyd who seemed to be running his own personal competition for how many braindead free kicks he could give away. Our centre forward miscontrols a simple hold up and lay off on the edge of their box, ten seconds later theirs swivels immaculately 30 yards out and top corners his shot. That’s the game, that’s the division.
This certainly isn’t me asking for any sympathy for poor, little QPR. This a club with billionaire owners that spent several years financially doping themselves into the Premier League to the extent of a world record fine for their egregious breach of the league’s financial fair play rules in 2013/14 – a season that ended at Wembley with a £14m wage bill playing an £82m one. That year QPR started with Charlie Austin, Bobby Zamora and Andy Johnson as their forwards, and would later add Javier Chevanton, Kevin Doyle, Mobido Maiga, Will Keane, Ravel Morrison and Champions League winner Yossi Benayoun to that. And that was just the forwards. Twice they went to the Premier League, twice they were in receipt of parachute payments, every time they mismanaged it, and now they are where they are. Entirely of their own doing. I’m simply saying that now, a decade on, in the Championship as it stands in 2025, this is their situation. Games like this one, and next week’s homer with Leeds, are tall orders. There was a lot to like in the way the home side went about their task. They lost by the odd goal in three, both goals were highly preventable (by Min-Hyeok and Nardi in the first instance, Frey and Edwards in the second), could easily have equalised on numerous occasions, and played reasonably well. Cooper saved well from Min-Hyeok through a crowd in the first half, then made an even better stop in his bottom corner to deny Chair. Morgan’s nicely shaped cross caused confusion, Min Hyeok dragged the loose ball past the post. Varane shot wide from the edge of the box when he might have done better, Morgan took on a shot and botched it when there was an obvious square pass on to a team mate. QPR had gone back to the midfield three with a recall for Morgan and welcome return by Jack Colback, and produced a steady flow of reasonably presentable chances. Nardi, meanwhile, was only really called upon once to slide under two opponents on a Sheff Utd counter. You could pick faults, certainly. We’re too slow – too slow as a team, too slow to move the ball, a lack of pacey players. I felt it odd in form Koki Saito was left out while Min-Hyeok played – don’t leave both of the quick players you do have on the bench when your team is this glacial overall. Morgan didn’t have his best game, albeit against tough opposition. Many came away raving about Varane but I was again frustrated with his unwillingness to ever look forward in his passing or movement, and his gentle jog out and failure to support Min-Hyeok in possession prior to the first goal brought a stiff rebuke from his manager on the touchline. If he could just open up his body slightly it would make a world of difference. Steve Cook still looks well short post injury and it was interesting that Liam Morrison remained an unused sub while Morgan Fox was brought on – albeit to provide a left footer in a back three, and executor of a terrific tackle in stoppage time to prevent a third United goal. Jimmy Dunne, playing against the club he almost joined on deadline day, was booked for a big reducer challenge on Gustavo Hamer to prevent a breakaway after Chair and Min-Hyeok had unfortunately got in each other’s way.
Overall, though, I didn’t think this was too bad against a good side. They haven’t won 11 away games by accident, Wilder knows what he’s doing at this level and has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal to execute that plan this season. QPR were also without midfield stalwart Sam Field too who by all accounts is basically done for the season now and in a protective boot – slipped on the stairs at the library presumably. The R’s might have fared better had they been given the half hour against ten men they could easily have had with a different referee. Given what was riding on it for the visitors, I thought this looked a pretty punchy appointment for a League One/Two referee who’d only done four Championship games this season and nine before in his life. So it proved for young Thomas Kirk, who barely clung on to this match by his finger nails. Not exactly helped by the linesman on the Ellerslie Road side of the ground, who seemed determined to be as contrary as he possibly could even with some of the most basic and rudimentary offsides you could hope to adjudicate on, but also barely in control of a game in which he allowed himself to be frequently brow-beaten and played by two groups of far more experienced players. When you’re waving a QPR advantage while simultaneously awarding a Sheffield United throw you’ve fucked up. Chris Wilder said the officiating had both sets of coaching staff scratching their heads, and he was right. Kirk couldn’t have done a lot worse than just give the whistle to Hamza Choudhury and be done with it. The loaned Leicester midfielder was pressed into service at right back by injuries to Alfie Gilchrist and Harry Clarke and after an aggy first ten minutes was soon yellow carded for a deliberate shirt pull. It was incredibly frustrating from a QPR point of view that we didn’t repeatedly run and target the out of position player after that, though once United had taken the lead he spent his time deliberately taking his time over every throw in, walking to the wrong place to take it, laughing at the referee, walking back, laughing at the referee again and so on. Anel Ahmedhodzic did see yellow for time wasting in the second half, Choudhury did not and you can draw your own conclusion as to why. When Koki Saito was introduced down that wing in the second half Choudhury had a big problem and, sure enough, was soon lunging into a foul when well beaten by the Japanese winger. An obvious yellow card foul, Kirk didn’t even speak to the player, and Wilder was allowed to swiftly substitute him. Saito then did exactly the same thing to Brereton-Diaz, who also fouled him, and was booked. What was a yellow card and wasn’t seemed to vary wildly depending on whether you’d already had one or not. There’s incompetence in refereeing, and there’s outright cowardice. Kirk didn’t have the stones for this match. He was scared to send somebody off, Choudhury knew it, and played the game to perfection. I was astonished when referee and linesman awarded the QPR penalty between them, and it needed a handball that obvious to get it. You can’t moan about opposition time wasting and then give away free kicks as dumb as Lloyd’s four minutes from time that brought him a long overdue yellow. And Morgan Fox throwing the ball over Smyth straight to an opponent as the winger jogged across to take it long was painfully thick. But I thought Rangers were okay on Saturday and perhaps a little unlucky not to take a point. March was always a tough month with the fixtures we’ve got. A run of Sheff Utd and Leeds at home, West Brom and Boro is highly likely to be a run of defeats. There was enough here to suggest we might pick up a result here or there, but more importantly we’ll likely need a few points from the supposedly more winnable games on the other side of that if the next couple of weeks are indeed going to go that way. It’s important both team and crowd hold their nerve and belief through this difficult spell. Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread QPR: Nardi 5; Dunne 6, Cook 5 (Fox 81, -), Edwards 6, Paal 6 (Smyth 67, 6); Varane 6; Mink-Hyeok 5 (Lloyd 67, 4), Morgan 5 (Saito 57, 7), Colback 6 (Dembele 81, -), Chair 6; Frey 5 Subs not used: Ashby, Morrison, Andersen, Walsh Goals: Frey 72 (penalty, handball) Yellow Cards: Dunne 49 (foul), Colback 78 (foul), Lloyd 86 (foul) Sheff Utd: Cooper 7; Choudhury 5 (Seriki 64, 6), Ahmedhodzic 7, Robinson 6, Burrows 5; Peck 6, Souza 7; Brereton 6 (Holding 85, -), O’Hare 6 (McCallum 74, 5), Hamer 6 (Brewster 64, 5); Campbell 7 (Cannon 73, 5) Subs not used: Brooks, Davies, Moore, Rak-Sakyi Goals: Brereton 10 (assisted Souza), Campbell 54 (assisted Brereton) Yellow Cards: Choudhury 14 (foul), Ahmedhodzoc 62 (time wasting), Brereton 75 (foul) QPR Star Man – Koki Saito 7 Strange decision to leave him out, biggest threat we had off the bench. Referee – Hamza Choudhury (Leicester) 4 Got absolutely played. Attendance – 17,346 (1,800 Sheff Utd approx.) If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures - Ian Randall Photography Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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