QPR were dominant, enterprising, entertaining and ahead for long periods of Saturday’s final home game with Derby County, before succumbing to all of the flaws and failures we knew about already. Next season’s prospects hang on the response.

In game 47 of 48, Queens Park Rangers delivered a comprehensive distillation of all that had gone before. An almost perfect dichotomy of what this team’s good at and where it is flawed. What it could grow to be, and what’s holding it back. If you wanted a summation of 2025/26, bollocks to AI, here it was in a crisp 90-minute form.

Despite the blazing sunshine, and relaxation that comes with being long since safe but also out of the play-off picture, you could forgive the good people of Shepherd’s Bush approaching this one with some apprehension. Their team has once again turned a winning run into four without success. They didn’t look greatly bothered by this, or anything else, in the midweek defeat here to Swansea. Another 90 minutes of tedium like that served up against Bristol City would likely come with a death toll. Dear God, this better be better than last time.

Blessed relief then at what actually transpired. QPR flew out of the traps fit and firing. Passes were popped, shots were shot, and everybody seemed to be having a thoroughly nice time out there. Derby, still in play-off contention, seemed totally taken aback by this new-found vim and vigour in the home team. If they’d been watching tape of the prior games you could forgive them that surprise. The Rams were one down almost immediately when Daniel Bennie reached the byline and cut a clever ball back into the path of Harvey Vale who in turn reversed one back past Zetterström in goal and into the bottom corner. A beautiful footballing goal.

The R’s really should have been one up even before that. Bennie, putting in his best performance in hoops so far, got onto a through ball from the busy Paul Smyth and cut a cross back which Richard Kone really shouldn’t have allowed Zetterström to save. Vale followed in on a rebound which came back into play off the top of the post.

Julien Stéphan, showcasing the new Asda George summer linen range down on the touchline, must have been a good deal happier with what his team was producing here than he had been on Tuesday night and last week at Millwall.

Shots rained down on Zetterström at a persistent rate all afternoon – 12 on target in the end, well past Jackett’s Law of ‘ten shots on target usually means a win’. The Swedish keeper was often unorthodox in his work - improvising saves, getting in the way, beating aside shots – but he kept them out, one way or another, one after the other, and didn’t parry back into trouble much either.

Paul Smyth denied in the bottom corner, and then again from range. Bennie’s cross-shot deflecting into the gloves after Jonathan Varane, looking much more like it, had played forwards with purpose (print it out for Joan). Ben Brereton-Diaz’s horrible first touch on the stroke of half time sent Bennie screaming away into space once more, and his assist was this time struck wide via a deflection by Vale. From that corner Rangers, who are second bottom in the Championship for goals from set pieces, did have the ball in the net, but Zetterström was treated to a foul by referee John Busby. He probably deserved that, even if we didn’t.

The second half started much the same – although Rangers’ attempt at the new trendy kick off where you just wallop the thing straight out of play by the corner flag was typically, farcically, hilarious and two passes later nearly had Derby through on goal at the other end (great plan, Bart). Into the sea with this data-driven bulllshit.

Still, soon Bennie was sailing clean through on the Loft End goal, electing to pass when the shot looked on, and Harvey Vale botched a relatively easy chance from eight yards.

Concerns this profligacy would end up costing the R’s in the final reckoning were allayed rather by Richard Kone brilliantly holding off his marker, manoeuvring an opening in a crowded box, and finishing precisely into the side net for a tenth league goal of the season and 11 in all comps. It’s been four years since QPR finished with a striker in double figures, now they have two. The signing of Kone, plus his obvious growth through the season, has been one of the big positives of 2025/26. Rumarn Burrell has been the subject of the clickbait rumours this week, it’s Kone I think will be blipping on a few radar screens come June.

Chances flowed, and flowed some more.

Matt Clarke was doing all he could to stem the tide, but when grounded in his own box and surrounded by three would-be assailants a goal seemed certain until Zetterström, somehow, scrambled another behind. Vale’s touch to set that whole move in motion to begin with was sex on a plate – like you’ve never had before, steamy, sweat dripping down your back, neighbours pounding on the walls, illegal in 48 States kind of sex.

Paul Smyth - through on goal down the left after Lewis Travis had passed the ball straight to Richard Kone who moved play on intelligently - shot low into the keeper’s legs (should have taken finishing tips from his lad – on which more later). Bennie, learning his lesson, did shoot after a neat cut in, and found the keeper in the way again. Vale sliced inside from a cleared corner and also drew a block with a low drive. Zetterström was starting to really get on my tits.

Ten saves, the Derby keeper made. Ten. Sometimes you have to just hold your hands up don’t you? Fair fucks. Bastard.

When you see Stéphan’s QPR play like this you understand where he, and we, are trying to get to. The inverse wingers make so much more sense when they’re inverting like this. The muscular presence of Kone against a John Eustace centre back pairing of Clarke and our former lunatic Dion Sanderson - which is nothing if not physical - gladdens the heart of a support base that has had to suffer a decade-long no-hopers parade of Lyndon Dykes, Macauley Bonne, Conor Washington and more. Varane, albeit on a nice sunny day with the pressure off, producing the sort of performance where you think, yes, there is a prospect in there. A big, sweeping recovery tackle on 65 minutes was not the work of the chicken we saw clucking around at The Den a week prior. Daniel Bennie superb, Harvey Vale slick and creative, even Koki Saito came on and humiliated his man twice in two seconds with his first two touches just like Happy Koki used to do. Your flesh mother used to bring me pudding.

And yet, QPR lost the game. Best performance for a number of weeks, and a 3-2 defeat. That Wrexham game was just so nice, Rangers felt the need to do it twice.

We lost, in part, through bad luck. Derby scored with their only shot, or meaningful attack, of the first half when Rangers failed to clear a corner and Max Johnston completely shanked a shot inadvertently into the path of Oscar Fraulo who pumped one straight into the Loft End net. First contact, second balls, Nick.

We also lost because of what the opposition did. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be your fault, you can applaud something that was done to you. Zetterström was obviously the star man in the visiting team, but Eustace’s decision to introduce Crystal Palace loanee David Ozoh to the midfield, and Burnley’s Jaydon Banel to a left side at this point being patrolled by Kealey Adamson, flipped the game completely on its head. QPR have often been punished this year for affording too much space to opponents in midfield, and Ozoh took over that part of the pitch completely from the moment he stepped onto the field. Adamson, sadly, I’m a bit concerned about.

The Australian fouled Carlton Morris - who has four career goals against QPR for three different clubs and won the first meeting back in October - wide on the right for a free kick headed in from close range by Sondre Langås on 76 minutes.

Then, with four minutes to play, Banel was allowed to cut in from his wing unchallenged and launched an absolute scorcher (and do use that word) into the far corner to win the game, sending the away end into an explosion of delight and delirium. Dope successfully roped, Eustace's Rams now potentially one point from the play offs if the Wrexham and Hull results fall in their favour next week.

Given they were in League One the season before last, and looked a relegation certainty when losing this fixture 4-0 in Eustace’s first game in charge a year ago, that’s excellent progress from the Rams, another very sound job done by a manager we chose to let go, and sadly another club that has rebuilt itself and gone past us in the time it’s taken QPR to move from 18th to 15th.

We lost, also, because of what Donald Rumsfled would have called our ‘known knowns’. We know we’re weak in the centre of midfield, and that was highlighted again and exploited well by Ozoh. We know we’re poor at full back, and I’m afraid Adamson versus Banel was not a fight the British Boxing Board of Control would ever have consented to. And we know that while other teams have goalkeepers that win them points we have the opposite. Paul Nardi was surprisingly recalled from five months in the cold for a farewell appearance at Loftus Road, and you wouldn’t really have expected him to save goals one and three, but two is a player heading in a cross four or five yards out with the keeper stuck to his line. See Zetterström’s ten saves, and raise you nil and three conceded.

Only really at Charlton this year, where Rangers drew 0-0 in February, and Sheff Utd before Christmas on Ben Hamer’s debut, has a goalkeeper really excelled enough to win QPR points – Charlton, incidentally, the third worst attack in the league. Opta rates Carl Rushworth (8.4 xG prevented), Daniel Iversen (7.8) and Radek Vitek (7.6) the best keepers in this division this year, and that definitely passes the eye test. Joe Walsh (-7.8) is the worst and Paul Nardi (-0.5) is one of 13 keepers judged to have cost their team, rather than saved it. This is harsh, but you need your goalkeeper to make saves they shouldn’t make. Our keepers don’t even save the ones they should.

We lost, again, to a bigger, nastier, more physical side. Without Jimmy Dunne, the defence looked porous, and the first two goals both came from set pieces inadequately dealt with. In a week when QPR bade farewell to Steve Cook, with Michi Frey already gone and Sam Field most of the way out of the door, the squad is haemorrhaging experience, physicality, game smarts, and Championship nous. It will need replacing. We’re not a creche, and the Championship is not soft play. The first half at Millwall last week was instructive, the final half hour here likewise. Bigger boys came, and they’ll be there again next term waiting for us.

Stéphan knows it, hence his comments in the press this week, and his team selections in these dead rubbers which still see the Frenchman making calls like selecting Rhys Norrington Davies – a jobbing emergency loan who will go back to Sheffield next week - ahead of Esquerdinha. The manager knows, for all the hype, most of what the club has in reserve and is desperate to promote isn’t up to the level. Warbs Warburton paid with his job for pointing this out.

And we lost because we can’t defend. If you’re not ruthless with your chances at one end, you need to be nice and solid at the other. QPR have, once again, conceded 70 times this year (75 in all comps). A few of you have made the observation that a lot of the goals are very similar, and they are, but if you concede 75 times in 48 games they are all going to start looking the same. We’ve conceded 12 more goals than we did even in the season that started with Gareth Ainsworth in charge. In the last ten seasons Rangers have conceded 60+ goals on now seven occasions and 70+ on five. Only Sheff Wed have conceded more in the Championship. Oxford are going down conceding 13 fewer, Leicester have conceded two fewer while sitting second bottom.

It’s part of a set of stats that should concern for next season. QPR will likely finish with four straight defeats. They’ve already lost more games than they did in 2024/25. They’ve lost more than Leicester, who are going to League One. Since Boxing Day, the R’s have quietly won just six of their 24 games played – Oxford, also bound for the division below, have won seven. It’s been largely relegation form since the turn of the year, with a few Coventry-like high points along the way to paper those cracks.

That has owed much to the club’s chronic list of absentees. Having already lost Kwame Poku during the week to what looked like his third (fourth?) hamstring injury of the season, it seemed absolutely insane to me to be placing Ilias Chair, Nicolas Madsen and Rumarn Burrell into harm’s way in a nonsense game like this on their way back from their own respective problems. Play Pearman, play Scarlett, let those senior guys rest up and come back as fit as they can be for a big pre-season. Rayan Kolli, on a third haircut of the week by the second half, remained steadfastly unused beneath us as Burrell collected a yellow card for a nasty tackle on Clarke and then sat down holding the bottom of his hamstring in exactly the same way he had done four months ago against Sheff Wed.

That’s two of our best players, biggest investments, and most sellable assets fucked in two meaningless games now. Amadou Mbengue, who started at right back, appeared for the second half only as far as the dugout on a pair of crutches. Paul Smyth and Richard Kone limped off before time. A second home game this season where multiple members of the team are injured long before the end.

I cannot believe the club are standing for this. Not only standing for it, but trotting out bullshit statistics to try and make out it’s not a problem. It absolutely is a problem; it’s basically our biggest problem. The situations with Poku and Burrell this week I am flabbergasted at. Players who need a good pre-season more than most picking up repeat injuries which may inhibit that while playing in games they’ve no need to play in. All while our so-called development prospects see not a minute of action.

If the club allow it to continue into a third season - for fear of admitting a mistake has been made, damaging an ego, upsetting somebody, firing a friend - they’ll risk it happening again. Once is unlucky, twice is unlucky, three times okay, but for it to be happening like this so often, and so many times players coming back from an injury and suffering the same injury again immediately (Chair, Poku, Burrell) is incompetence.

Rangers couldn’t chase this game because they only had ten men on the field. Derby delighted. We’d punched ourselves out, and after 70 minutes of letting us do it they offered a reading of their own. Clever girl.

This cannot continue. You cannot compete in the Championship, “fine tune our player trading model”, or run a development club, if all of your best prospects are pulling their hamstring over and over again. Over and over and over again. Ruben Gnanalingam, of whom this is costing £2m a month, was in the director’s box on Tuesday, and was there again on Saturday. He must see how ludicrous this is getting. He has to. His investments, his assets, his sales prospects, the whole plan he’s been pitched, undermined and undervalued. Enough now. Enough.

I guess at least you could say it was better than the Bristol City game.

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

QPR: Nardi 5; Mbengue 6, (Adamson 46, 5), Edwards 6, Clarke-Salter 5, Norrington-Davies 6; Vale 7, Varane 6, Morgan 6 (Madsen 62, 6), Smyth 6 (Saito 79, 6); Bennie 7 (Burrell 62, 5), Kone 7 (Chair 68, 6)

Subs not used: Alemayehu, Hamer, Kolli, Esquerdinha

Goals: Vale 13 (assisted Bennie), Kone 55 (assisted Vale)

Yellow Cards: Burrell 70 (foul) (I was certain Smyth got booked with Szmodics for the nonsense on 53 minutes but it hasn’t shown in the official stats yet)

Derby: Zetterström 9; Langas 7, Sanderson 5 (Forsyth 61, 6), Clarke 6, Johnston 5 (Banel 61, 8); Travis 6 (Salvesen 75, 6), Fraulo 6 (Ozoh 61, 8); Ward 6, Szmodics 6 (Batth 91, -), Brereton 5; Morris 6

Subs not used: Allen, Eames, Gordon, Vickers

Goals: Fraulo 25 (assisted Johnston), Langas 76 (assisted Ward 76), Banel 88 (assisted Clarke)

Yellow Cards: Szmodics 53 (handbags), Langas 63 (bad foul), Brereton 81 (poor first touch)

QPR Star Man – Daniel Bennie 7 Best game for the club. Could probably do with being a little more selfish, mind.

Referee – John Busby (Oxfordshire) 5 Very, very Championship indeed.

Attendance – 17,131 (1,748 Derby) More toddler relays please. After the two ‘influencers’ pissing about in the week this loosely contained mayhem was much more ‘us’ for half time. No surprise the winner turned out to be Paul Smyth’s son, Jack, given he never moved anywhere at any less than a sprint and cheated throughout. Love it. Good, wholesome stuff. A new tradition is born. Should be all over the socials this week.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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