Pierce Charles’ remarkable injury time double save preserved a deserved point for QPR at West Ham on Friday night from a performance that brimmed with potential but was once again undermined by availability issues.

Mark Kennedy. Kyle Walker. Nahki Wells. Give your heart to a loan player, and you invite disappointment into your life. They score and assist, they twist and they turn, they’re so much better than what you have already, or anything that came before, you cannot help but become enraptured and entranced. Draw a boot back from 30 yards out and find the top corner, burn three victims on the outside for pace and find the roof of the net, spin on a dime and rifle one into the bottom corner – you’ve charmed me. And then, almost as soon and suddenly as they arrived, they’re gone again. Marty, the young ones never stay.

In Pierce Charles, Queens Park Rangers might have another live one. An eight in goalkeeper’s clothing. The only time it’s acceptable for an outfield player to be wearing gloves. Have we considered just putting him in midfield and picking the Scottish lad? Edwards and Charles, the centre back and the goalkeeper, across the middle of the park. I can see it.

So very, intensely funny watching West Ham run after him. Big club, big stadium, big expectations; title favourites, favourites for this game, stacked to the rafters with multi-million-pound mediocrity. “Taty” Castellanos. Ooooh. Big stuff. They don’t have to put up with this. Get him pressed, little twat. Who does this Charles think he is? And out he spins with a drop of the shoulder, into the space to his left, reducing the opponent to ten men immediately and then taking another out for good measure with a 40-yard left footed pass into midfield that Glen Kamara shovels onto Boy Kemper. And off we go again. Look at that bow, I tied that.

Nine games in and the Rangers fans are already used to the fact Joe Montana now plays in goal for them. What they haven’t really seen yet is whether he’s a good goalkeeper in the traditional sense. This may be the Championship’s second-best defence, but there haven’t been save saves from Charles. Opponents have developed an unhappy knack of finding the top corner from 30 yards. He’s been almost entirely blameless in the seven league goals conceded – although did rather botch one at home to Millwall in the League Cup. Your goalkeeper can pass, fantastic. Can he catch?

Turns out, yes. With enormous bells on. As West Ham cranked up late pressure on a deadlocked score, Charles turned one round the left post from Joel Piroe, and another wide on the opposite side from Jarrod Bowen. Buoyed by four games and four clean sheets for Northern Ireland in an extended international break, Charles didn’t look in the mood to relinquish a hard-earned point and flung himself hither and thither desperately trying to repel the enemy. Two tipped over the bar either side of the break.

He shouldn’t really have had a choice. A minute into four added to the end of the game and substitute Amadou Mbengue took the situation rather out of his hands - caught wrong side of substitute Pablo and pulling him back so obviously even hapless referee Ruebyn Ricardo couldn’t miss it. With captain, occasional England international and Dani Dyer enthusiast Jarrod Bowen taking the ball in hand that felt like that for the West London side.

Charles, who’d saved a spot kick against Georgia last week, read Bowen correctly to the left and saved the penalty down low in the corner. Not only that but was also up in time to chuck himself high into the night sky and improbably divert the headed rebound out of the top corner, onto the underside of the bar, and back out into play a second time. The first save was good, the second was other worldly, and his teammates mobbed him in celebration and relief. On an evening when the two clubs united in memory of the late Ludek Miklosko, this was a fine tribute.

It would have been incredibly harsh on QPR to lose the game like that.

Their opening goal, also a penalty, was admittedly a gift – rookie ref Ricardo welcoming Thomas Soucek back on his first appearance of the season by incorrectly penalising him for a foul on Paul Smyth in the area while chasing his own error. The Czech international clearly took the ball cleanly. Nicolas Madsen was in unsympathetic mood with a cool finish - though it did help that keeper Mads Hermansen was already halfway to Bow Church by the time his countryman had reached the ball to kick it. For me, though, it was no more than Rangers deserved for a very strong first hour.

It’s been a good week for Julien Stéphan. A strong and purposeful media round, relaxed and engaging – you feel like he’s really settling into the task here confident in what he has at his disposal. “Show ambition or stay at home” he told his players ahead of this toughest of Championship tasks. They certainly did that. Missing six first teamers (Koki Saito and Alfie Lloyd the latest to succumb) they went away to the team sitting second in the table, with 22 goals scored already (three more than the next best side, six more than the third best), 13 points from the last 15 enough for both divisional manager and player of the month awards, and really gave it to them. Wrexham conceded six here, Wolves four, but there rarely looked any danger of Rangers going the same way. The Frenchman talks about his team showing personality, but QPR have talked a lot of talk before. Against a team and club with vastly greater resource at their disposal, they walked some walk on Friday night.

The headline team selection was a shock return from the start for Rayan Kolli, who showed understandable moments of rust and sloppiness on his first start of the season but led the line energetically against an uncompromising centre half pairing of Mavropanos and Kilman – this winter’s chosen models for Chalmer's Big and Tall Men's Shoppe. How on earth an incident where the latter dropped two knees into Kolli’s face while the youngster was pinned to the turf turned only into a yellow card to Glen Kamara for complaining about it only Ricardo can tell you.

In fact, the big call on the night was returning Boy Kemper to left back. The Dutchman picked up a nasty ankle injury in the very first tackle of the season at Portsmouth on day one and had to admit defeat and come off a quarter of an hour later. Not seen since, throwing him into the Championship’s toughest assignment against Jarrod Bowen on only his second ever appearance at the level was a huge roll of the dice. The left back rewarded his manager with a fantastic display made all the more remarkable by an apparent first half injury that left him touching and stretching his groin even more often than some rather younger Boys – I felt sure he wouldn’t come back out for the second half but he put in another 25 minute shift and was wholly dominant down his side. “Wingers won’t like playing against me,” he said when he signed. No shit.

Kemper and Paul Smyth not only pocketed West Ham’s best player for the first hour, but also pinned the home side back down that side going forwards. Poku’s muscular break fed Kolli in one enterprising first half counter which drew a save from Hermansen, and then Smyth really should have had a shot of his own at the end of a lung busting run that carried him deep into the West Ham box after half time. Had Kolli converted right at the start of the second half when a dodgy back pass momentarily had him in on goal and all alone this could have been a very different story.

Set up in a 4-3-3, with Charles able to beat any home press with ease, and Jimmy Dunne with Jake Clarke-Salter a formidable centre back barrier, I thought Rangers looked completely comfortable and largely in charge through the first two thirds of this game. Kealey Adamson, this year’s Madsen-style turnaround story, looked absolutely at home defending down the right side and could be some player once imbued with the confidence/permission to venture further forward when we have the ball (do wish he’d stop randomly chucking throw ins across the pitch to unmarked opponents, mind).

A smart Stéphan set up, that almost completely stunted the previously free-scoring hosts. Returning hero Soucek and Kyle Walker-Peters both hooked at half time. Heard about your England caps, you’ll need more than that tonight. I came away thinking Kamara had been the best midfielder, dodging a FIFA ban for his early return from international break to dominate the middle of the park, but then you look at the stats and the unseen work of his partners Madsen and Edwards shines through a lot more: Madsen nine of 12 tackles/duels won, three interceptions and recoveries; Edwards three out of three aerial duels won, two out of two ground duels won, 100% on tackles, five clearances, two recoveries, and an interception. You look at those two, then remind yourself Engels cost £20m.

The shame, and it is a shame, is QPR don’t currently have enough petrol in the tank to see things like this through. Diesel shortage nationally, lack of warm bodies localised to the West London area. As Kolli went off for Kone, Smyth for Vale, and particularly Kemper for Lamptey, so much of the good the visitors were able to do in repelling West Ham’s potent right side and counter back themselves left with them. Kone looked absolutely miles off it as a lone striker – goodness only knows what’s going on there. Vale obviously couldn’t offer the pace in behind that Smyth does, by the manager’s own post-match admission, but was also too weak in possession and not as forceful as the man he’d replaced had been. I’d have liked us to go more down Kwame Poku’s side in response, but he remained too uninvolved and often tried a flick and trick when a flick and trick was not required.

The big issue though - and it was an issue absolutely immediately - was at left back. Freed of Kemper’s shackles, Bowen went for Lamptey’s throat right away and within 60 seconds had scored by netting his own rebound off a blocked shot. Bowen saw more of the ball, more of the goal, and more chance to run inside, in those 60 seconds, than he had in the entire game to that point under Kemper’s watch. It was West Ham’s first shot in three quarters of an hour. Some question marks over his tackle on Vale which started the whole thing off but I didn’t see a lot wrong with it (though I suspect Dennis Cirkin might like to give a reading). With this referee it could have been a foul and a yellow card one minute or play on the next, we were perhaps just unlucky it fell in the latter time slot.

The pattern of play changed entirely – Rangers now cowed, panicked in possession, and penned in for the first time on the night – and the flow of it went almost entirely left to right into, around and on top of the new QPR left back. Bowen was now absolute bossing and dictating the game. To the surprise of nobody, Lamptey soon pulled up lame and had to hobble around the last ten minutes up front. By the end Kealey Adamson was doubled over with cramp, Jake Clarke-Salter could barely move (though roused himself for a terrific clearing header at the back post a minute from time), Lamptey was a liability, and West Ham were able to attack the QPR box at will in search of a winner – the visitors effectively playing with about eight and a half men at this point. Until the club can solve these fitness and recurring injury problems, it’ll be difficult for manager and team to fulfil their undoubted promise.

For now, they leave here with a richly deserved point. Thanks to a loaned goalkeeper. On a flying broomstick. May he stay here forever.

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

West Ham: Hermansen 6; Walker-Peters 5 (Austbo 46, 5), Mavropanos 6, Kilman 6, Morata 5; Soucek 4 (Pablo 46, 6), Engels 5; Bowen 7, Mukasa 5 (Orford 68, 5), Solomon 5 (Piroe 68, 6); Castellanos 5

Subs not used: Areola, Golambeckis, Scarles, Veltman

Goals: Bowen 70 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Engels 17 (scuffing penalty spot), Morata 65 (foul)

QPR: Charles 8; Adamson 7, Dunne 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Kemper 8 (Lamptey 69, 4); Madsen 7, Edwards 7, Kamara 7; Poku 6 (Mbengue 80, -), Kolli 6 (Kone 69, 5), Smyth 7 (Vale 60, 5)

Subs not used: Varane, Morrison, Obikwu, Scarlett, Ward

Goals: Madsen 18 (penalty, won Smyth)

Yellow Cards: Kemper 24 (kicking ball away), Kamara 62 (dissent), Mbengue 90 (foul), Kone 90 (delaying the penalty)

QPR Star Man – Pierce Charles 8 Until stoppage time this was Boy Kemper, who came in for just a second game at the level and a first outing since the opening day and absolutely pocketed Bowen in what is probably the toughest defensive assignment in the Championship. The game changed as soon as the Dutchman went off. You ultimately can’t ignore Charles though, a remarkable ending from a young goalkeeper with no ceiling at all.

Referee - Ruebyn Ricardo (Leicestershire) 4 This was always a punchy appointment. A Friday night, televised, London derby, between the teams 2nd and 6th, in front of 60,000+ people, for a young referee who was officiating Conference football two years ago. The obviously incorrect decision to award QPR a penalty in the first half has sparked (at least in the Twitter cesspool) another debate about VAR in the Championship, with all the usual arguments on both sides of that. It misses several points, one of which is that Ricardo was all over the show with a number of decisions in this game – what was and wasn’t a free kick, or yellow card, varied wildly from one minute to the next.

VAR produces just as many perverse and incorrect outcomes (Man Utd v Man City anyone?) as the analogue system, partly because very few of the decisions are as obvious as this one and you’re often trying to create the binary out of things that are subjective – how many times do pundits, or you and your mates, watch the same replay of an incident and still disagree on what the decision should be? Also because it’s the same inadequate people operating it. Michael Salisbury, Matt Donohue, these people are poor referees – giving them a TV screen to look at doesn’t change that, and so the decisions are every bit as bad as they always were only less forgivable. Another issue, while I'm ranting on, just watch this video of this referee mic'd up in a League One game, and just listen to the sheer volume of completely unnecessary, inane, acronym-heavy, over the top management speak bullshit that is going on in their ears 100% of the time throughout the 90+ minutes. I would strip a lot of that out, and I'd get rid of VAR in its entirety tomorrow.

You would achieve far better outcomes by taking some of the many, many millions of pounds washing around in this grotesque, corrupt sport and putting it into an enormous recruitment and training programme. Premier League referees should be earning big, big money. It should be heavily marketed as a desirable profession, a route into football, a lucrative profession. There should be adverts in every break around games. The money is there for it. There should be a stated aim to recruit tens of thousands of new referees across the country over the next decade and a coherent plan of how we’re going to get there. You then increase the talent pool, raise standards and don’t end up in the situation we have now where any half decent official who does come along has to immediately be fast tracked too high, too fast with inevitable outcomes like this.

The issue here wasn't the lack of a television screen, it was that Ricardo was doing the game at all and this is all we have - he did QPR's last away game as well. He doesn’t look a bad referee to me in general, but he shouldn’t have been anywhere near a game like this at this stage of his career and it showed.

Attendance – 62,140 (3,000 QPR) Not a particularly original point of view, in fact I think I said the same thing las time, but if I had to come here every other week for my football then I’d stop going. I make a big thing about LFW always providing coverage of games by people who are at the game. I think it’s important we’re there, live, covering things for you. If I can’t go, we pay other people (Jamie, Tom) to do it instead rather than report off a feed or TV coverage. This place is the exception. The amount of stuff I’ve had to go back and watch on the recording today, the number of messages we were sending home asking who got booked for what, or whether that was a foul or not, you may as well have been watching the fucking thing from the moon. A hateful, soulless hole. Still, one saving grace, relegation budget cuts appear to have done for the “BrewDog DJ Booth” which is now sans DJ and has reverted to just being your standard shit BrewDog bar.

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