QPR's indifferent pre-season form continued on Friday night as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium. Colin Speller was there for LFW.

I actually like pre-season friendlies – well, some of them anyway. There is something about the mixture of warm weather, fresh grass, idiosyncratic lower-league away grounds, bizarre trialists and the whole ‘what the **** does it matter?’ atmosphere of the things. Unfortunately, it does matter somewhat because a good pre-season programme should be about developing match fitness, looking at the balance of the side, selecting the wheat from the chaff in terms of trialists and fringe players and in every sense building towards the big kick off.

Having failed to put together anything like a decent pre-season programme for the nth year running, the QPR bandwagon rolled into Oxford tonight to lock horns with yet another Conference side, the theory of which presumably being that winning is a habit and if we beat enough technically inferior sides in the pre-season then we should be on the top form required to beat, er, the mighty Blackpool on the opening day. Well, that’s the theory, anyway.

Our little band turned up at the Kassam on a Friday night mainly because it is now my son’s local ground and I happened to be in the area on business anyway. It was also a good chance to meet up with a close friend and ex colleague whose husband is a dyed-in-the-wool U’s man. His choice of the Blackbird in the infamous Blackbird Leys estate for the pre-match drink was interesting, but at least it gave us chance to star in a future edition of the Police Camera Action programmes that my wife spends so much time watching. ‘Look, Mum – that’s Dad there, bashing his head repeatedly against that fat copper’s baton…’ Of course, I am not suggesting mindless Police violence in this scenario, it’s just that I imagined parking my car there and then getting in it and driving it away at some point after the game, but as far as I understand it someone seen doing the latter in Blackbird Leys is usually assumed to be committing an offence. The other risk, of course, was the locals. We’re QPR supporters. We could be argued to be middle class. From Cambridge. In other words, the equivalent of a three-horse accumulator in terms of local pride…

Anyhoo, as it happened we got a lift to the ground itself and after consuming burgers from the burger bar outside we walked through the interesting and delightful estate to the pub which, in spite of its dubious appearance, was surprisingly lively inside. In fact, it was so convivial that we left rather late and made it to our seats just after the kick-off. As we hurried to the ground it did occur to me that it would not be the first time that I had interrupted a good drinking session to hurry off to a bloody awful football match involving QPR.

The Kassam definitely fits the bill of ‘idiosyncratic’ but that is definitely not a euphemism for old and decrepit. It is very new with three splendid stands built to a very high standard overlooking a level, high-quality grass pitch with plenty of space around it. Oh yes, and a brick wall behind one goal separating the open end of the ground from the car park and retail park. Knowing the ability of our lot to hit the target, one assumed the ball boys in the car park would be kept busy. The QPR support – numbering a healthy 893 – was accommodated in one end of one of the side stands, in the corner near the open end. Whilst the stewards had taped off a reasonable number of seats, Oxford United had failed to spot the catering opportunity providing just one hatch for service at half time. The consequent queue was long and slow moving.

It is difficult to summon much energy to write about the game itself. It started with the usual ‘tippy tappy’ (© Ian Holloway) stuff and not much seemed to happen in the initial stages. The R’s started with Cerny in goal behind a back four (described as ‘strong’ on the official site) of Ramage, Hall, Gorkss and Connolly. Rowlands and Mahon patrolled the central midfield with Balanta (carrying the curse that is the Speller shirt sponsorship) on the left and Routledge on the right. Up front we had Agyemang and Vine.

As I was saying, the opening exchanges were pretty tame until in the tenth minute when Balanta, Agyemang and Mahon combined well to open up a clear opportunity for Mahon to score a good goal with a crisp shot. By that point Oxford had showed little and one could have assumed that the R’s were set to build on the lead and take command. Indeed in the next few minutes there were further opportunities for Vine and Routledge to break through but they were stopped by good tackles.

Having said that, it was difficult to avoid the conclusion that QPR were starting to show the characteristics that have been all too evident in recent seasons. Which analogy do you like best? I sometimes see the R’s as playing a game of live ‘pinball’ in which the ball ricochets off players and where you are relying on chance or the balance of probability to create chances and goals. The other option is to see the team as a large mechanical object where the various interconnecting parts aren’t quite joined up properly. Think of a large steam locomotive with the plethora of large moving parts forming the driving motion connecting the cylinders to the wheels. An engine with lots of driving wheels at full speed is a thing of mechanical beauty. The QPR equivalent would be in a siding somewhere with bits hanging off the side, the driver lamenting ‘Well, just north of Potters Bar the Mahon came adrift, that caused the Ramage to jam, then the Routledge broke off completely, we stopped and then went backwards’. Either way, the way the team plays lacks the fluidity of coordinated motion that you see in the best football teams.

In terms of individuals, I don’t know whether Dexter shook hands with Pat on the way out but if he did I fear he passed on the ‘lack anticipation and stay on your heels’ virus. Routledge moves at speed in almost any direction but his final pass is terrible. Vine’s initial touch of choice is a flick or volleyed pass when often a simple trap and turn would do.

Rowlands looked ok and Mahon was functional, although the latter prompted a cry of ‘it’s the white thing, Mahon’ from a frustrated onlooker in the QPR section at one point. Both have the tendency to play the way they are facing. Mahon is quite the worst in this respect and it must be highly irritating for the back four to pass him the ball only to see him bearing back down onto them with three opposition players in tow. To be fair to him, this is sometimes the result of being given the ball when facing the defence and with three players on his back, but quality of decision making has not been our strongest characteristic for quite some time.

At the back we looked ok although Fitz Hall’s tendency to clear the ball to the sort of area likely to be patrolled by onrushing opposition midfielders is a worry and Ramage is, well, Ramage, really although he did distinguish himself by being caught offside at one point, which said as much about the linesman’s enthusiasm for flagging as it did for Ramage’s tendency to try to overlap Routledge.

Oxford seemed hold their own quite well without creating a lot. Their best chances fell towards the end of the first half. One was a straightforward shot that should have worked the goalkeeper and would have worked the car park ball boy if it had not cannoned off a parked car back into the ground. I imagine somebody had to drive home whilst peering through a smudged Nike tick now permanently etched into his windscreen. The other opportunity was a well executed scissor kick which looked, from our side on perspective, to be on target but which hit Gorkss and sailing out for a corner.

At the other end, Balanta looked the pick of the players with quick feet, some good passes and one curling effort on goal. Routledge disappointed on a number of occasions when having broken through he failed to deliver a good final ball. He also had a good chance that ended in rather a tame shot. Vine looked busy but I have already commented about his tendency to first time everything. Big Pat lumbered around to no real effect, at one point went down rather embarrassingly when he should have held his marker off and on another occasion he delivered the sort of sliced shot that many amateur footballers are inclined to do when the red mist of a chance descends just as they swing their foot at a ball.

Throughout the first half the mood of the faithful remained subdued. There was not much chanting and at times hardly any noise at all. There was, in truth, little to get excited about.

The second half got underway with three QPR changes – Borrowdale for Ramage, with Connolly switching to right back, Alberti for Rowlands and Taarabt for Agyemang.

The game continued in much the same vein – lots of passing around at the back and in midfield but little movement up front for the midfielders to pick out. Taarabt showed many of the touches and tricks that made him so popular in his loan spell, but sadly his shooting has not improved during his time away and his strike in the early stages of the half should have been a lot better than the tame shot that the goalkeeper gathered easily. At the back, Connolly at right back started to show some unsure touches that were a harbinger of what was to follow.

Another team were also starting to come into play – the officials. Barely seven minutes into the half an Oxford player let fly with a powerful shot that struck a QPR body – Gorkss’ to be precise – and in spite of the very close juxtaposition of the person shooting and the one hit, and the absence of any apparent arm flapping on behalf of Gorkss, referee Farries pointed to the spot. The Oxford forward, Green, took the penalty with considerable aplomb and will now presumably be hired by Aldershot to show their man how to do it.

Without doing much to show greater intent, QPR were back in the lead ten minutes later. Oxford, typical of many a Conference side, play a high line and when Taarabt’s first time pass pierced the onrushing wall of defenders, Routledge had practically the whole of the Oxford half to himself as he beat the offside trap. It then became one of those slow motion moments as Routledge bore down on goal and those of us who have been watching QPR for a good few years ran through in our minds the ludicrous number of ‘one on ones’ that we have seen missed. Routledge played to these fears by circumnavigating the goalkeeper so widely that he looked like running out of pitch but he managed to slot the ball in from the tight angle he had created and we were 2-1 up. Cue a chorus of ‘You’re not singing any more’ from the R’s faithful – possibly the most dangerous song in football.

Oxford then had a strike on goal and to cheer the R’s fans up even more Cerny decided to try one of those punches to a ball fired straight at him at pace, when a catch seemed the most sensible option. This one came spinning off his fists and was hooked clear. You could almost sense the wave of nervous tension sweeping around the stand behind us.

With about 20 minutes to go Hall was taken off to be replaced by Stuart, and Pellicori came on for Balanta. Barely had that happened when Oxford were level again, this time gifted the goal by Connolly who elected to try to chest the ball back to Cerny but only succeeded in taking the pace off it and dropping into the path of an Oxford debutant who gleefully steered it home.

Gazza then came on for Vine to huge cheers all round and cries of ‘he’s better than Magilton’ from one or two wags. Gaz threw himself into the fray with his usual enthusiasm and within minutes had one his usual 50:50 challenges which, whilst being rather ‘pre-season’ in terms of force, nevertheless left the Oxford guy wincing and hobbling for a while.

A cross from Ainsworth nearly brought a goal when Pellicori got on the end of it, steered it past the keeper and apparently over the line, only to see it come back into play again, allegedly off a post. The R’s fans were mostly out of their seats celebrating a goal and the fact that it wasn’t brought gleeful jeers from the home faithful. Pellicori also delivered a good header just wide but other than a lot of hustle and bustle the game petered out.

So, what did we learn? Well, I’m buggered if I know to be honest. It gets cold in Oxford when the sun goes down, or at least it has for the last two nights. That perhaps if your team does sink into the Conference, to end up with a smart new ground in an area of the town that allows expansion is a harbinger of better things to come. That the linesman on our side of the pitch in the second half had very little idea of what he was doing when it came to the application of the offside rule. And that given 12 months to think about it we need a pre-season programme that actually has some structure and purpose to it. I know the argument will be ‘we did not have a manager in place’ but hell’s teeth, it isn’t rocket science to put together a programme of fitness building, development of initial match sharpness and then a programme of matches of increasing challenge, hopefully ending with some Premiership opposition.

On the evidence here, and building on the evidence – such as it was – from Aldershot, many of the previous problems we had are still very evident. We lack movement up front and the midfield struggles, therefore, to deliver good balls forward. We do not deliver a good final ball into the box, but on many occasions there is almost nobody there to get on the end of it even if it did arrive. We look ok at the back, but the back four keep being put under pressure by the fact that we don’t press forward hard enough, and to be fair to Hall, Connolly et al., there are just so many times you can clear your lines in a game without risking a cock up.

Of the players on display, Balanta looked sharp and whilst Pellicori did not get much pitch time what he did looked ok. Gawd knows whether he is worth a contract, though but having said that big Pat looked distinctly off the boil and whilst Vine plays well as a link between the midfield and a front man, I would like to think we could field a strong 442 formation when needed and I am not sure that Vine is the sort of guy to play in a conventional two up front.

We have some good players, I don’t doubt that, and we know that on their day individuals and combinations of two or three players will create chances and goals. There is still little evidence, though, that we are working towards true team synergy – something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Oxford United: Clarke, Chapman, Sandwith, Bulman, Creighton, Day, Murray (Potter, 78), Clist, Constable (Silver, 82), Green (Midson, 67), Kelly (Rhodes, 78)
Subs not used: Carruthers, Killock, Deering

QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 6 (Borrowdale, 45 5), Connolly 5, Mahon 6, Hall 5 (Stewart, 66 6), Gorkss 6, Routledge 6, Vine 6 (Ainsworth, 73 7), Balanta 7 (Pellicori, 66 6), Rowlands 6 (Alberti, 46 6), Agyemang 4 (Taarabt, 46 7)
Sub not used: Marshall

QPR Star Man – Angelo Balanta 7 OK, so I sponsor his away shirt but wouldn’t it be good to see him have a run in the side to build confidence to add to his undoubted skill. He showed lots of good touches tonight and seemed genuinely keen.

Referee: John Farries 5 Did not have much to do, which was just as well really because when he was hurried or under pressure he started to call things badly. In all honesty I would have to cite the Wenger/Ferguson Amendment with regard to the penalty and say that I did not have a good view of it, but it seemed harsh. He also struggled with the application of the advantage rule but in truth was not helped by a linesman who had presumably been told that he needed regular exercise in the form of raising his right hand, preferably when carrying the load of something like a flag.

Attendance: 3,246 – 893 QPR A good turnout of R’s fans clearly keen to add a new ground to their list. I am sure that a Saturday kick-off would have added more to this number. The support was pretty subdued throughout and maybe we need a clear pre-season programme for the fans as well, starting with a few cries of ‘You R’s’ at the first game working up to a full rehearsal of all the best songs at the last friendly. Or perhaps not…

Photo: Action Images

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