Brentford v QPR

TEAM NEWS: Same as Tuesday's match, with Subs: Ingram, Lynch (no Kakay), Scowen, Manning, BOS, Hemed, Smith

Scrappy, quiet opening 20 minutes of few openings then on 22 minutes Benrahma is clean through, chips Lumley but it bounces just wide.

No shots on target yet, Brentford with 70% of the ball. Will be interesting to see if that possession stat is the same at full time.

Business as usual after we beat a top team midweek
When are we actually going to win on a saturday
I saw Rotherham and reading won too
That’s my weekend then

London Derby and we put up no fight
Sad to hear we were a bit gutless

The fans were brilliant today and apart from Lumley they were let down by the rest of the team who were poor and showed little or no passion. Brentford were up for the game and dominated whilst we we were on the back foot from the first minute. I cant understand how we can play a derby against our local rivals and show no fighting spirit. We just invited Brentford to attack us and when you have a poor defence and you keep giving the ball away its just a matter of time before they will score.

Our defence was so poor that Wells who is our only real striker was back helping them out and clearing off the line. The team does not have that dominant holding midfielder that is prepared to put his foot in and link the defence to the midfield. We are so reliant on Freeman and Luongo performing that when they get marked out of the game we are on the back foot. Eze is a bit of a luxury for me and will look good when every thing is going well but when the going gets tough he can disappear. I applaud Wells for doing a lot of running and working hard but we need him scoring goals. The fans could see we needed to change things at half time but McClaren seemed oblivious and sent out the same team which meant the inevitable would and did happen.

The 2nd half performance against Leeds masked just how poor we were in the previous 8 games and which was highlighted again today. 

Last season I probably had some false expectation that young players like Eze, Furlong and Smyth would blossom and be shining stars in this campaign. It hasnt happened and I now realise my expectations were greater than their ability. The first 2 have done well in patches and the latter has not been given a chance. Should we lose players like Bidwell and Freeman at the end of this season then our days in this league look numbered because we don't have anyone to replace them.

Whilst we might just survive this season, in reality we are a declining team that apart from 2 or 3 players lacks any in depth quality. We desperately need some investment because as other teams improve we will continue to go backwards.

100% agree stoatey
If we don’t go down this season
It will be next season I’m afraid
We can match teams like Leeds with a bit of luck
But in reality we are a poor team and we will lose wells and Hemed next season and Rangel and Cameron too
If Then Luongo and Freeman go were then left with a league one side on paper
Just when you thought we turned a corner on Tuesday we then get our arse smacked by a average Brentford team the following Saturday
We are not safe from relegation yet and with bottom teams winning today we could easily creep towards the bottom 3,even now
9 points clear with our poor team isn’t a big gap now
Yes Tuesday night was bliss but in reality it still doesn’t hide the fact we haven’t won on a Saturday this year

Thanks for the feedback stoatey and ranger-boy

I don't think anybody can sugar coat that performance, we were simply second best.

1 win in 11 games now will have McClaren under pressure if we continue to head backwards towards the end of the season. There is little hope of progress for the foreseeable future too so it could be a long 15 months ahead.