Middlesbrough v QPR 17APR21 1 - 2 FT 10th/59pts

It is 12 wins in 20 games for QPR, spread over just 95 days

...A win every 8 days

We only won 12 of the 48 games prior to this run, across a period of 384 days

...A win every 32 days

We've gone from winning once a month (if we are lucky) to winning once a week!

Name me a team anywhere who has turned things around as much as that!

It is not just bipolar performances in different matches - it is also bipolar performances during matches! Do watch the full 90 mins video stoatey and you will see a dominant QPR suddenly fall off the 'conveyor belt to thumping victory' onto the 'spinning waters of the plug-hole'! Fortunately we are more skilful these days and that overrides the bad stuff! You were right about the avatar change too - I felt Dieng deserved the accolade for his efforts on behalf of the team. But for him.... 

I agree the 'Boro player who collected the ball after the foul rather made a mess of what was a golden opportunity, but I felt Dieng's tackle was pretty horrific even without denying a goalscoring opportunity! It was a dangerous, flying, challenge!

They really should have scored when they had 2 on 1 in the first half.

And it was definitely Adomah's slack marking for the first goal. If you pause 5/10 second before the cross, it is clear that Bolasie was Adomah's man to pick up.

I have now watched the game and we were much the better team up until Bolasie was left unmarked to score Boro's goal. The Dickie goal was amazing and I think he was as shocked as anyone when it went in. Wallace has been transformed since January and his first Championship goal was well deserved. In that first 25 minutes Willock and Thomas were causing the Boro defenders all sorts of issues with their movement. When Charlie plays he is a clinical finisher but he needs others to do his running and having the option of Willock and Thomas really does give us another option.

Chair also did well and because he was playing a little bit deeper he got more time on the ball and played a couple of lovely through balls. Overall we were the better team in the first half and whilst Bolasie caused us some issues down our right it was only the same old poor defending issues where we cause ourselves problems that were a concern.
 
We should have conceeded again when Thomas lost the ball in the Boro half and our high press got caught out by a through ball that ended with Dieng getting a smashed nose and Warnock ruing not playing a clinical striker.

The high press can be effective to squeeze the play but with our pedestrian defence we have to rely on Dieng rushing from his goalmouth to clear any ball that goes over or through our defence. Unfortunately, it doesnt always work and early in the 2nd half the defence were too slow and Dieng was too late which caused him to take out the Boro player and as a result he coped for a red card which saw us reduced to 10 men.

For the rest of the match as was to be expected we spent a lot of the time defending in our own half and our substitute goalie, Lumley was playing a blinder and was making saves from Boro players as well as from a Barbet deflection. Dykes seemed to be covering loads of ground as one minute he would be defending and then the next appearing in a rare attack.

Dickie was probably our MotM for his brilliant strike plus some last ditch defending. If Lumley doesn't sign his new contract then somebody is going to pick up a bargain goalkeeper. Willock gets better by the game and I thought he teamed up well with Dykes and Thomas. The defence is so much better when De Wijs is at the heart of things and whilst Kakay did ok he does gets caught out too easily. A good battling performance but defensively we continue to make the same silly mistakes.