QPR surged into a surprise 2-0 lead against title chasing Leeds at Loftus Road before being pegged back for a point they'd have taken at lunchtime but perhaps not by mid afternoon.

On Saturday in Shepherd’s Bush the rare phenomenon of two opposing sets of fans dreading the same football game.

For Queens Park Rangers defeats and absentees are mounting. From one loss in 13 games it was seven in nine and four in a row coming into this match. The losses have all been by a single goal, a couple of them could easily have gone the other way, and it has been an undoubtedly tough run of fixtures for a team that has only one victory against a top ten side all season. Those who travelled all the way to Middlesbrough on Tuesday nevertheless got the faint whiff of Mykonos coming off their team with now nine games left to go.

Missing both first choice central midfielders and all but one of the strikers from a squad that already had big issues in those two positions doesn’t help. Nor does a visit from league leading Leeds, who have a goal difference of +51 and have scored more goal than anybody else in the Football League. Even if Rangers had a full-strength team on the pitch this would be a £140m+ payroll playing a £23m one, and a starting eleven that saw Morgan Fox recalled to the defence and Ronnie Edwards pushed into midfield was certainly a long way shy of that.

Red Bull Leeds went off as heavy favourites, but they do not like this fixture, this time of day, or this point in the year. In as much as they do ever struggle at this level, early kick offs do not seem to agree with Daniel Farke’s team – not ideal given our Sky Overlords vandalise Massive Leeds’ fixture list more than any other side.

Farke, dressed like some non-union Indianna Jones equivalent, recently put together an unbeaten run of 17, which is the club’s best since Don Revie was winning titles at Elland Road in the 1970s. But their collapse from automatic promotion into the play-offs and ultimate Wembley heartache last season began around now after an unbeaten sequence of 15.

Leeds can remain lucid and calm for very long periods of time, peeling off positive results as a matter of routine, but when they wobble they really wobble and the four quickfire losses that deprived them of Premier League football a year ago culminated in a 4-0 thrashing at Loftus Road, a ground on which the Whites had lost six of their last seven visits in a variety of comedy circumstances.

In this battle of logic versus vibes it was QPR who sprang all the early surprises. Defending deep and narrow, conceding possession and space out wide in equal measure, they’d needed a Steve Cook header to deny Joel Piroe a tap in almost immediately and a long afternoon stretched out ahead. But the start of their recovery run over the winter came with this style and philosophy and sure enough, at the end of a prolonged pinball session in and around the Leeds box sparked by a Paul Smyth long throw, Koki Saito strode onto Brendan Aaronson’s errant touch and whipped home a fierce third goal of the season to open the scoring.

Hope this might all just be a little bit of history repeating grew exponentially when the hosts, just as they had done here in April, secured a shock two goal lead soon after. Paul Smyth, much maligned by sections of the QPR support but showing exactly why he’s important to this team and a better bet than Yang Min-Hyeok on both sides of the ball here, worked space for a cross in exchange with Lucas Andersen, picked out an unmarked Steve Cook and from no goals all season the veteran skipper made it two in two with a beautifully directed header in off the post.

If you are going to have a weird hex over a team, how wonderful for that team to be Leeds United. The wanker who’d felt emboldened to walk through the home turnstiles and sit in the South Africa Road stand wearing a Leeds United hat now surrounded by all of us having a lovely time. Sun shining, grass green, all right in the world, and Leeds are falling apart again.

Rangers were playing with purpose and intensity. The aggressive three- and four-man rush jobs on any Leeds player in possession were panicking some decent results for the home team. As Portsmouth had shown last week, and QPR in the last meeting here, this Whites side is used to getting things its own way, and doesn’t like it when things get a bit rough and tumble. Good aggression wide left from a much-improved Kenneth Paal. Michi Frey, not much to offer but never stopped offering that. When the press failed Jimmy Dunne swept in with a thick yellow card challenge. And Joe Rodon was moaning and groaning about the weight of the world already. This could be on.

For it to be on getting into the break with a 2-0 lead, as happened last time, felt fairly paramount. Unfortunately, whereas previously Marti Cifuentes’ team were able to see out the half and then extend the lead to three right away at the start of the second, here they didn’t manage the game either side of half time at all well.

There’s a debate to be had about whether Jayden Bogle is interfering with play as he went to help a ball that had already struck Morgan Fox and Junior Firpo into the goal, and Rangers had that debate long and loud with referee Tim Robinson and assistant Natalie Aspinall, but I think the officials probably got a very difficult decision about right. The second, eventually tapped into an empty net by Bogle for his second goal against QPR this season after Nardi had saved with his legs from Solomon, was a defensive calamity mostly of Rangers’ making. From four-man rush and hyper high tempo, to all too passive and play out from the back. Rangers had found the keys to the kingdom, and then handed them straight away.

We’ve said it before, but for QPR to win games seems to require a monumental effort. Only at home to Oxford this season have we played poorly and still won the game. Defeats, on the other hand, come naturally. For this team every game is a disaster more or less under control. You felt Rangers had relinquished their grip on this one far too early to see through even a point. The away end was in full voice with their only song, the home fans sat silently and awaited the inevitable, the team looked ready wilt from their heavy early efforts. Leeds improved considerably for the removal of disinterested Aaronson and introduction of Willy Gnonto, though Rodon still looked and behaved like he’d rather be anywhere else and was warned early by Robinson of further consequences if he didn’t shut the fuck up for five minutes (has anyone ever enjoyed playing professional football less?). Half an hour to hold out.

Hold out they did though, and with few other scares or saves for Paul Nardi to make too. Kenneth Paal swooped in with a couple of crucial clearances underneath his own crossbar, Dunne was perhaps fortunate to get away with a stumble over the ball at the back post, but saves by the R’s French goalkeeper remained few and far between. Solomon chucking his toys around because the manager had dared to substitute him hinted all was perhaps not harmoniously well in the visiting camp. Farke, sounding as ever like an American trying to do a German accent, said he picked the wrong team.

Colback, rather than tire, came on stronger still in the final 20 minutes, and his combination with Edwards in midfield turned out to be an unlikely tactical masterstroke. Frey continued to heave himself in front of and through everything he could, up to and including the referee at which point a yellow card became inevitable. A limited footballer, but you can’t fault the endeavour. Liam Morrison’s introduction from the bench meant Rangers didn’t miss a beat for Steve Cook finally succumbing to an injury that’s seemed to be plaguing him for weeks and while the hard-working Smyth wouldn’t have been my choice for a second half sub (particularly as he’d just drawn a yellow card three inches thick from Pascal Struijk) it was actually Rangers pushing occasionally for the winner.

Meslier saved well from Cook on the spin before he was removed, and Jimmy Dunne’s dancing feet and double Cruyff turn in the box threatened to be one of those incredible moments only our club can provide before his snatched shot was crowded out. Every long throw into the box caused Leeds issues. Meslier did, indeed, save well from Cook, but other than that seemed to be actively working against his own side with a succession of flaps, wild clearances and perverse decision making. I wouldn’t for one minute suggest the goalkeeper has bet against his own team in the promotion race, but if he had would it look a lot different to the Frenchman’s contributions to Leeds’ season to this point and this game in particular?

Given that, one would have thought a free kick on halfway three minutes into five added at the end of the game would have provided the absolutely perfect free-hit opportunity to hang one high into the sky and drop it right on top of the visiting goalkeeper with the likes of Morrison, Edwards and Dunne, who’d crawled all over Leeds at the back post all afternoon, closing in with purpose. Kenneth Paal, instead, blotted the copybook of an improved performance with the mindblowing decision to try and play a cute ball down the side of Farke’s defence on the side of the field Dan James calls home. From a chance to put a ball in the opposition penalty area to the division’s fastest winger running at you while your whole defence is committed upfield. A brainfart so potent it incurred a ULEZ charge. Koki Saito tried to rescue the unfolding catastrophe with a professional foul, got it horribly wrong with a studs up hack into the back of James’ calf, Tim Robinson was right on the scene with a red card and, despite the howls of protest from the home crowd, he was right again.

With first team mainstays Jake Clarke-Salter, Ilias Chair and Sam Field already ruled out for the season, Jonathan Varane disappearing into thin air with no word on a reason or return, Steve Cook finally giving into what’s been pretty obvious for weeks, and Saito now banned for three games, QPR are fast running out of players for their supposedly more winnable fixtures to come. A couple of wins they are still going to need as news of Derby’s late winner furrowed brows back at The Crown & Sceptre.

For now the main frustration is if Rangers had played with this level of intensity on Tuesday night in Middlesbrough they’d have won that game.

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QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 7, Cook 7 (Morrison 74, 6), Fox 6, Paal 6; Colback 8, Edwards 8; Smyth 7 (Dembele 74, 6), Andersen 6 (Madsen 84, -), Saito 6; Frey 6

Subs not used: Ashby, Bennie, Morgan, Petrie, Walsh, Min-Hyeok

Goals: Saito 17 (unassisted), Cook 30 (assisted Smyth)

Red Cards: Saito 90+3 (serious foul play)

Yellow Cards: Dunne 21 (foul), Paal 60 (foul), Frey 82 (foul)

Leeds: Meslier 4; Bogle 7, Rodon 5, Struijk 6, Firpo 7; Tanaka 6, Rothwell 6; James 7, Aaronson 4 (Gnonto 46, 7), Solomon 6 (Ramazani 84, -); Piroe 6

Subs not used: Guilavogui, Byram, Darlow, Debayo, Gruev, Joseph, Schmidt

Goals: Fox og 40 (unassisted), Bogle 51 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Struijk 72 (foul), Gnonto 75 (dissent), Bogle 90+4 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Jack Colback 8 Best performance of the season alongside Ronnie Edwards who stepped seamlessly into the midfield. The protection those two provided the back four, positionally excellent and constantly in Leeds’ passing lanes, was key to getting something from the game.

Referee – Tim Robinson (Sussex) 7 Controversial maybe looking at the reaction to his performance online, but the first Leeds goal is a difficult decision to get right and the officials successfully assessed what had gone on between them, and the Koki Saito red card is a sending off that could easily have been given as a yellow. One or two bits you could moan about but overall I thought he was very good and well in control of an awkward game.

Attendance – 17,457 (1,800 Leeds approx.) We’ve all gone behind enemy lines and sat in the odd home end from time to time down the years. There’s an etiquette to it, partly because you don’t want your head stoved in, but also out of respect. The lad and dad happily breezing into South Africa Road Upper ten minutes before kick off in Leeds United hats is an absolute piss take, born out of Man Utd-in-the-90s-style big club arrogance. Can’t get an away end ticket, managed to blag one in the home end, fine, I get it, we’ve all been there. But don’t walk in wearing a fucking hat. If I’d done that at Elland Road I’d have expected a slap and almost certainly got one. Our stewards should have been wise to that and intervened as well, not busying themselves frisking QPR season ticket holders in case somebody dares to bring a bottle of Diet Coke in.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

062259 added 10:41 - Mar 17 Valiant
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francisbowles added 11:15 - Mar 17 Mrs FB and myself were on holiday, so put our seats on the clubs official resale site almost two weeks before the game. They were snapped up in minutes. I hope it wasn't ours in F block. What happened, did it kick off? The back row is quite Aggy and I can't imagine it would have gone down well.
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NewBee added 16:05 - Mar 17 "A couple of wins they are still going to need as news of Derby’s late winner furrowed brows back at The Crown & Sceptre." Seriously doubt it - one win or a couple of draws will defo see you safe. For Derby are still 7 points adrift (+ GD) even after 3 wins on the trot - they'll revert to the mean. While not all of Cardiff (7 points from their last 18), Stoke (4/18), Hull (11/18), Oxford (4/18), Pompey (9/18) or Swans (7/18) will also get enough points to overtake you as well. I'd say you're already pretty safe on 45 pts as it is. Anyhow, entertaining report, as usual.

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Northernr added 17:35 - Mar 17 Well it's okay for you to say that, but as soon as I say it those results play out exactly like that.
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