As we knew they would, QPR finished their latest three-game week on a bum note with a dire performance and charitable donation to the hitherto seemingly hopeless cause of Norwich City.

It was QPR playing away in game three of a three game week. It was QPR playing at Carrow Road. It was QPR playing a team five points adrift in the relegation zone with just a single point from eight home games so far. You’re only one headless horseman away from a footballing apocalypse right there, and that’s exactly what Rangers produced.

No team in the Championship over the last ten years regresses as much from their mean as QPR when playing away again after a midweek trip – not many clubs talk about the challenges of this as much as us either, so perhaps it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Few teams have a record as bad as Rangers at Carrow Road – no wins in ten visits here (six defeats) going back to 2008, no wins in eight prior to that going back to 1994, this has been a graveyard for even the very best teams ever to come out of W12. And although every support base thinks this of their club – The Canaries even have a fanzine called Along Come Norwich – our propensity to make charitable donations to needy causes is legendary.

Oxford’s 95th minute equaliser here on Tuesday night made it seven defeats and a draw from eight home league games so far and effectively sealed Rangers’ fate for the weekend. Money was being shovelled in the home team’s direction, and their scoreless-in-13 striker Josh Sargent, in The Coach and Horses before the game. We have simply seen this film too many times before.

Julien Stéphan’s team really wasted no time in fulfilling the narrative. City, who hadn’t won anywhere against anybody in 13 attempts, took just nine minutes to go into the lead when Keystone Cops defending from a corner allowed Emiliano Marcondes two separate free hits at goal from the edge of the six-yard box with inevitable results. The home side had already caught recalled goalkeeper Paul Nardi flapping at the first corner of the afternoon, and sent a sighter over the bar from Amankwah Forson before this. The corner itself was conceded after Jimmy Dunne had to charge across and get a block in on Sargent. The time was still in single figures.

The second, on the half hour, again from a corner, goes down as an Amadou Mbengue own goal and typified the defending on show all afternoon. Every corner felt like it was going to be a goal. Every cross felt like it was going to be a goal. The third, curled into the far corner three minutes later by Forson, did at least take some scoring, but the acres of space through midfield and down QPR’s left, the total lack of physical challenge posed to the opposition, the freedom Norwich had to work with all afternoon, was chronic. It was the first time they’d scored three in a game all season.

Paul Nardi spilled one under pressure on the edge of the box but escaped, then seconds later had to be at full stretch to finger tip a deflected shot that looked for all money like it would loop over the French goalkeeper and into the net. City had a fourth disallowed for offside early in the second half, when there were enough yellow shirts in the picture and time in the situation not to stray, and really should have won this by many, many more goals than they did. Nardi made a smart late save down by his post from yet another abysmally defended corner as substitute Wright hunted a fourth. It was like a Bonnie Blue video – fucked by 11 different men at once.

The Londoners did, briefly, equalise. Rumarn Burrell’s increasingly impressive breakout season at Championship level continued with a sixth goal in nine league games as Dembele collected a part-cleared corner, Sam Field received in the area and squared, and the Jamaican reacted quickest and sharpest to slam in from close range. That should have been a catalyst. Millwall, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Wrexham, West Brom, Bristol City, Hull and Leicester have all won here this season scoring 16 goals between them. Striking back with such an immediate equaliser took the air right out of the home crowd and I think most other teams would – and, indeed, have – gone on to fill their boots from there. Who knows, had Nicolas Madsen not steered a very presentable chance well wide of the post when he had to hit the target after 25 minutes perhaps it all might have been different.

Even in the second half it was all there for QPR if they wanted it. A two-goal deficit is nothing when you’re playing teams in Norwich’s perilous situation. There were palpable nerves around even at 3-1, only in the final minute of normal time did the Barclay’s End start piping up with “we’re going to win at home” sing songs. One more Rangers goal, even late in the day, would have sparked outright panic in a team that has conceded injury time goals in each of its last two home games to turn a draw and a win into a single point haul. Sadly, only really Burrell, and to a lesser extent Ilias Chair and then Paul Smyth from the bench, seemed interested in making that happen. The Moroccan hit one half chance straight at Kovačević and curled another wide of the top corner while Smyth could also only find the gloves with a similarly tame effort. The rest looked resigned to their fate almost from the moment they stepped off the coach.

Stéphan, rightly, said his team lacked intensity and physicality in the first half. Norwich played home and home this week while QPR faced a double away. The home side had 24 hours more recovery time with Rangers playing on Wednesday. And the slog up to Blackburn is one of the more arduous ones on the Championship calendar. Amadou Mbengue, laughably poor at times in this one, was posting Instagram videos from ice baths at the training ground taking place at 3am on Thursday morning after the long bus ride back to the capital. Stéphan said: “We’ve done lots of travelling this week, but I don't want to use that as excuse. It’s probably part of the explanation when you come back at four o'clock in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, and you have to travel again for four hours.”

I buy into this fitness and fatigue thing a lot more than some of the more grizzled, traditional supporters who like to point out Aston Villa won the European Cup using eight players and there only ever used to be one substitute and on first day down t’pit you’d work a 72-hour shift. I was knackered yesterday morning, and I only travelled to Blackburn to watch, so God knows what some of the players felt like. But where our frustrations re-align is why this seems to affect QPR an inordinate amount relative to other teams. It really shouldn’t be beyond the physical capabilities of professional footballers to play two or three games close together, particularly when we’re not even halfway through a season, and Rangers’ defeatist attitude to these situations is starting to grate.

More to the point, you can’t be talking about long coach journeys and 3am ice baths and isn’t that last hour on the A11 just such an absolute fucker, when you had the opportunity to change your team and didn’t take it. Having praised some of Stéphan’s decision making and tactics for the first two games this week, I’m afraid I was back to being rather perplexed by the calls here. In previous three-game weeks he was making half a dozen changes for each game, and of course contrary football fans that we are people moaned about him over rotating and too much tinkering – but how do you go from that to this? Just two outfield subs made during the week, and then all ten players sent back out there again on the Saturday.

Of course had he changed things and lost the game he’d have been slated for altering a winning side, and had he kept things the same and won the game we’d be talking about how shrewd that was. But Rangers were never likely to in this configuration.

There was a moment at Ewood Park on Wednesday right in front of the away end towards the end of the game where Nicolas Madsen pushed forward to try and close the play down and couldn’t get there, he looked like absolute baggage, blowing like an old boiler. I was absolutely staggered to see him and Jonathan Varane picked again together here with no attempt to freshen things up, and rather less surprised with the lousy performances they both produced. Sam Field was a useful horse for a course against a Valerian Ismael side, but Rhys Norrington-Davies is a much more mobile, attacking option and, more to the point, is an actual bloody left back. Why send Field out again to be given an absolute chasing throughout the first half by Forson? A torture which ended in first half stoppage time with a groin injury apparently so severe he didn’t even feel able to stand in the penalty box for another 30 seconds and just provide a warm body to defend a final set play. Koki Saito and Rumarn Burrell were asked to knit silk purses from a succession of sow’s ears pumped high and long in their direction. Shane Duffy’s an absolute liability on and off the pitch these days, but he can stand there and head a ball if that’s what you put in front of him.

Not like we’re short of options either. Steve Cook sent back out into battle while Liam Morrison doesn’t even make the bench. Rayan Kolli, once again, not selected for the matchday squad against an opponent he terrorised last season. Much like Ipswich at home, I felt like the manager got this all very badly wrong.

QPR looked tired and leggy from the first minute. Laboured runs, lazy long balls punted away, slack and slapdash passing, second to every ball, physically beaten up. Even the second half changes brought only Michi Frey into the action, rather than Richard Kone who, as I said during the week, whether he’s playing well or not does get you up the pitch. Frey doesn’t get you anywhere at the moment. I’m amazed he can get himself anywhere without Shopmobility. I had a lot of time for Michael Frey last season and he seems like a decent character, but the way he’s playing currently any involvement beyond being used as a late, time-wasting substitute tells me you’re not serious about winning the game. At one point he had a go at a bicycle kick, in the same way I might have a go at flying the Airbus A380 to Australia – though his risked a far greater death toll. The Swiss forward spent the second half mostly giving away cheap free kicks while Kone remained an unused sub. I’m sorry Julien, je ne comprends pas.

Let’s also not forget new Norwich boss Philippe Clement has been fairly scathing of the standards of fitness he’s found among his new squad. This is not a team that should have been running us off the park to this extent, and it’s not the first time this season I’ve looked at our strength and conditioning and felt something is amiss.

There were so many little, small details in this performance that annoyed me and added up to the richly deserved defeat Rangers suffered. A loose, bouncing ball on the corner of the Norwich penalty box in the first half was weighted a good 60/40 in favour of Kellen Fisher, but if Karamoko Dembele had used his pace to get just a toe to it first then the Norwich player would have cleaned him out for a dangerous free kick or perhaps even a penalty. Dembele pulled out of it entirely, Fisher wanted it more and carried the ball away. You've got to want to get hurt there. Sam Field’s injury looked serious, and painful, but there were 30 seconds to go until half time and Norwich had an attacking set piece – could he not have stayed out there just as an extra body and aerial presence in the box? Did he have to walk off and leave us either with ten men or spending a substitution 30 seconds before the break? Cook was fortunate not to head in a second own goal of the afternoon in that period. Jonathan Varane, in the second half, went down looking for exactly the sort of free kick referee Lewis Smith has made it very clear he’s not going to give, and then spent a good two minutes lying on the floor, limping around, stretching it out, while the game went on around him. If you’re injured, go down, get the game stopped, if you’re not, get up, get on with it. Don’t do this strange, halfway house of neither, walking around stretching while the game is taking place literally ten feet away from you. I’m sure it does hurt, but that’s professional sport.

I don’t know. Old man shouts at cloud. A promising week which QPR have spent a good chunk of trying to blow their own foot off.

Stéphan did also said that six points from the week was a decent return, and there he is right. Take six points from every three games you play and you’ll be in the play-offs. Take six points from every three game week and it’ll be a vast improvement on what went before. Lose at Blackburn and win here I’m sure I’d be sitting here today flowing with positivity and the mood on the message board would be much more upbeat, with the same points haul. But having done the heavy lifting with two wins from the first two, to be handed an opportunity to push on into the play-off picture with a third victory against Norwich in their present state and do this with it was very disappointing.

But, then, the reason we so seldom do push into the play-off picture is because we lose games exactly like this, exactly like this, so often. The cast changes and liberties are taken with the script, but Hamlet always dies in the end. Nobody in that away end on Saturday was coming across as surprised at full time, and it does feel, at least partly, like we talk ourselves into it while also telling ourselves it’s fine because we’ve got six points already this week so this is a bit of a free hit. Never win game three of a three game week, never win at Norwich, always lose to teams in need, but never mind lads we beat Hull City and Blackburn Rovers so it doesn’t really matter. This is what we are, this is our mentality, and this is why we’ve been 16th in the Championship for ten years.

QPR in its purest form. Five minutes of added time at the end, I’d rather have spent five minutes punching my own gooch.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

Norwich: Kovačević 6; Stacey 6 (Duffy 56, 6), McConville 6, Darling 7, Fisher 7; McLean 7, Mattson 8; Forson 8 (Mundle-Smith 66, 6), Marcondes 7 (Wright 66, 6), Schwartau 6 (Jurásek 88, -); Sargent 6 (Kvistgaarden 88, -)

Subs not used: Grimshaw, Medic, Adelusi, Springett

Goals: Marcondes 9 (assisted McConville), Mbengue og 36 (assisted McLean), Forson 39 (assisted Sargent)

Yellow Cards: Mclean 76 (foul), Duffy 80 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 4; Mbengue 3 (Morgan 69, 4), Dunne 4, Cook 4, Field 4 (Norrington-Davies 46, 5) ; Dembele 4 (Frey 46, 3), Madsen 4, Varane 3 (Hayden 62, 4), Chair 5; Saito 3 (Smyth 46, 5), Burrell 5

Subs not used: Poku, Clarke-Salter, Walsh

Goals: Burrell 11 (assisted Field)

Yellow Cards: Burrell 57 (foul), Smyth 87 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Rumarn Burrell 5 Scored.

Referee – Lewis Smith (Wigan) 8 Very good again. Doesn’t stand for a lot of shit.

Attendance 25,571 (1,664 QPR) If you’ve been affected by any of the issues in today’s match report, please call the Samaritans on 116 123.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

Myke added 16:35 - Nov 30 Cracking, report, Clive, sharing all my frustrations. It's the hope... etc etc. This entire game was a blueprint for the LFW glossary. NEGATIVE: One of Stephan's 'strengths' was his ability to 'manage' three game week's. If playing the same team twice in three days is 'strong', I would not like to be privy to his weaknesses. STRENGTHS: Exactly this time last season we WERE Norwich - five points from safety. So I will settle for where we are now, in terms of overall progress.

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derbyhoop added 19:37 - Nov 30 I was hesitating before I made my latest (wrong) prediction between a defeat and a 2-& win for the Rs. Ever hopeful, I came down on the side of an away win. I should have read the preview more carefully. All the pitfalls were itemised and I just ignored them. It was a dreadfully flat performance and at HT I thought Julian could have taken off any of the 5 midfielders. The 2 full backs were almost equally ineffective. 10 minutes into the second half it was obvious we weren't going to come back. Feel sorry for Burrell who was one of the few to come out with any credit.

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Neilj added 23:31 - Nov 30 That last sentence explains why I married a Samaritans volunteer. She helps me through these times.
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extratimeR added 16:07 - Dec 1 Er, 100% Correct Norwich piled down our left from the off, their seemed a large space between Cook and Field? When we do this to other teams they react quickly, (throw some cover onto Field, play a bit narrower), as you say Clive, Norrington Davis would have worked this out instantly as an actual full back, (not criticizing Field, he looked like that knock started early on in the game?). Yes, Madsen looked burnt out early, (not surprising), Varane anonymous. Yes, not sure what Frey could offer. not throwing Kolli in after three game week criminal. Great report as usual Clive, (I remember Swindon all to well) Cheers Clive!

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Wealdon_R added 19:50 - Dec 1 Thought walk-in bath salesman couldn’t be topped but shopmobility proved me wrong. Good to see we rested Poku and JCS, after not playing them Wednesday, and able to keep the availability stats high.
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qprninja added 13:46 - Dec 2 As sure as night follows day....
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TacticalR added 22:35 - Dec 3 Thanks for your report. We looked sluggish. You have described all our shortcomings, and the reasons behind them. We looked incapable of stepping up a gear, even when Burrell brought the game back to 1-1. At that point I noticed that Norwich were playing well (better than us anyway), and the tide turned against us. Madsen's miss. With his technique you would have hoped for something better, and it might have turned the game in our favour (although Norwich had more missed chances than us). We looked weak in midfield and defence and unconvincing in attack. I keep on saying it, but despite our problems elsewhere I feel the key to our reviving our season is reviving our attack. What's happened to Kone?

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