QPR V MILLWALL 2-2 FT

I felt Ollie got it a bit wrong last night. First of all, I feel like having Smith on from the start might have been a good move. compared to them we looked small and timid, and Smith, although not great at holding up the ball as Helguson once did for us so marvellously, does give us presence in both boxes. Washington worked very hard, as did Mackie, but neither ever got a foothold in the game and, like the rest of the team, a bit too easily bullied in the first half. Clive often points up the tippy-tapy midfield Mark Hughes played against Allardyce's West Ham a few years back, and this felt a bit similar. We did have battlers, but we needed a couple of big bastards too.

And while it seems Onuoha was injured and so Ollie had to protect one of our few fit centre halves, I thought second half we went too narrow for too long. Yes it was right to get Smith and Sylla on quickly, but it took too long to get people wide and stretch them. On one side you had Pav almost playing as an advanced full back at times, with Bidwell on the other. Everything was through the middle, crosses coming from too deep rather than getting behind them. Finally, when Lua Lua came on that did change, and it was then that we looked more threatening. I just think a change in shape, or at least establishing a wider framework high up the pitch, needed to be done a little earlier.