QPR v Hull City

I did not take a pen with me to the game, so I have written nowt down and these are just my responses to what I saw and your comments stoatey @singlespeed northwesthoop ....

Firstly the comment about the weather: It was blustery conditions but those were the same for each team until we resorted to Route 1 near the end, when the conditions did make that (sad) option difficult. I would also add at this point that the officials were really poor, with Hull at one point persuading the ref to issue a yellow card when he had seemingly not intended to, but we should have been able to overcome that.

Secondly, our defence was indeed poor at times. Was it because the Back 4 were staying too far back and leaving themselves exposed? No, it was rather that Hull were far, far better on the day at intercepting passes and moving forward quicker & more effectively.

Thirdly, our strike force (Wells) was often forced to come back as far as our half to help get the ball back. That meant nobody up front, so the ball was being passed around which allowed Hull to organise their defence. To add to our woes, I lost count of the number of half-chances (or better) we squandered in front of their goal. This game was open enough to have been a high-scoring one by BOTH sides, and could easily have been 4-3! Let's not just blame the defence...

Fourthly, Rangel, Leistner, Lynch, Cameron, Freeman, Wszolek and Eze were all guilty of poor ball distribution and/or being 'off-beat'. They looked jaded. In contrast, Luongo, Lumley, Bidwell & Wells worked hard and were better at passing the ball. I have to add here my concern (which is the elephant in the room) that Eze does not get involved in defending enough (which we have said before) and also gets rid of the ball wherever possible to avoid being tackled. I actually felt today he was at times scared of injury or felt he was too important to be involved in midfield battles. During those times we were operating with only 10 players it felt.

Fifthly, this is a reality check for us. We were outrun and outclassed by a side that came with a game plan and stuck to it. OK the time-wasting from the 46 minute was really annoying, but we only have ourselves to blame.

Sixthly(!), the substitutions. Cameron going off was indeed a surprise, and I can only assume McClaren felt he needed to keep the wings fully-manned at that point to get crosses in. If it were me, I would have replaced Freeman or Wszolek with Osayi-Samuel instead at that point (63m), rather than much later in the game. Bringing on Hemed for Rangel did make more sense, as at that point Hull were sitting back and we needed more bodies actually in the goal area; but in all honesty these were desperate measures. Yes, we finally got a second goal as a result of the pressure but, No the substitutions were not that effective. Question: Why was Grant Hall employed as a 'greeter' in the Superstore, rather than on the Subs Bench to replace Cameron if that was so important? This is the first time I have felt that McClaren's substitutions smacked more of desperation than inspiration, and they did not perform either.

Finally, there is always the possibility that I am a jinx.....

Fantastic feedback kingfisher, much appreciated

It sounds like a day when too many players had a off day and the substitutions were the wrong ones at the wrong time for the most part. It does appear to be the consensus that taking Cameron off aided Hull for the 3rd goal as we were vulnerable at the back today anyway.

We conceded early in both the last 2 matches now, we are coming out of the blocks slowly. They surely can't be tired. Yes we've had 3 matches in a week but we had 2 weeks off prior to that!

At least we have a week now to take stock. I imagine McClaren is going to try and go back to being hard to beat, aiming for clean sheets. We certainly need to play better as we face the teams currently 2nd, 5th then 3rd in our next 3 games. Gulp.

Few bad things about this defeat
It's a game we could of done with winning as we have Leeds away next and a heavy defeat there could upset our form and we then go on another bad seasonal run like we always do
Amazing that we could of been 3 points away from play offs and now we're 6 points away
This defeat was purely down to bad defending and we've conceded 7 goals in 3 games and we were the tightest team a few games back as far as letting in goals
Hopefully Mac will rethink how we approach games now and make us less attacking and more defensive and not leave a defence lacking pace wide open