QPR v. Crystal Palace (Pre-Season Matchday 5) [R]

[Atouk]

QPR
v.
Crystal Palace
------
31 July 2004, 3 p.m.
Loftus Road
------

Rangers News:

Rangers' final pre-season tune-up is tomorrow against newly promoted Crystal Palace.

The R's official site reports (http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~546180,00.html) that Matthew Rose, Richard Johnson, Kevin McLeod, and Gareth Ainsworth will be back in action for tomorrow's final friendly of the pre-season.

Ainsworth saw action on Thursday in a reserve team friendly against an Arsenal U-21 XI that ended in a 1-1 draw.

Marc Bircham's ankle is coming along slower than hoped and he is a doubt for the season opener. Prav's talk on QPR World sounded like Birch was more likely to miss the opener than to make it.

Lee Cook won't play tomorrow, but is expected to be available for the season opener.

The Opponent:

Former QPR player and assistant coach Iain Dowie leads his newly promoted Premiership team into Loftus Road. Palace is coming off of a 1-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon at Selhurst Park. Their friendly before that was a 1-2 loss at Ipswich.

Palace's match preview can be found at this link (http://www.cpfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/MatchPreview/0,,10323~545812,00.html?ptvParm=).

[Atouk]

As we ready for kick-off against Crystal Palace, the R's lineup:
Jake Cole(!!); Padula, Gnohere, Forbes, Bignot; Rowlands, Bean, Johnson, Ainsworth; Thorpe, Gallen.

The bench: Day, Cureton, Furlong, Edghill, McLeod, Hamilton, Daly. Don't think he mentioned Rose. The announcer did say that none of the other trialists are on the bench -- I'm a bit surprised to see no Branco on the bench.

In the first minute, Rowlands went around a defender and got off a shot forcing a save.

[Atouk]

Richard Johnson got off a nice shot a few minutes in after the R's stole the ball in Palace's area.

A lot of back and forth so far, with the R's holding as much possession as Palace through the first 10 minutes.

[Atouk]

Thorpe fell awkwardly after a challenge in the air, bringing the physio on, but he got up rubbing his right shoulder and returned -- looks to be alright.

R's holding some possession in Palace's end at the moment. A Padula corner bounced across the box, the R's kept it alive and a Thorpe shot went over. Good chance for QPR -- commentators think we should have scored.

[Atouk]

Palace's Andy Johnson broke into the box going one-on-one with Jake Cole. Cole made contact with him and Johnson went down a couple of steps later, but the referee waved it off and didn't give a penalty. Sounds a close call -- one of the commentators thought a penalty should be given.

A minute later, an Ainsworth cross gave the R's a good chance in the box, but our shot (unknown player) was blocked out for a corner.

28th minute -- 0-0.

[Atouk]

GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL! 1-0 to the R's!

Palace's Popovic passed the ball straight to Marcus Bean who passed it to Tony Thorpe who put it away! UUUUUURRRRRRRRR's!

[Atouk]

HALF TIME
QPR 1-0 Crystal Palace

[Atouk]

The second half has kicked off.

Palace made one change at the half. Oddly, the Palace team didn't go into the locker room at the half -- all players stayed out on the field running, stretching, etc.

Changes for Rangers: Furlong, Cureton, McLeod, Edghill, Day, Hamilton in; Ainsworth, Cole, Bignot, Padula, Johnson, and Thorpe out.

So, for Rangers it's Day; Edghill, Gnohere, Forbes, Hamilton; McLeod, Bean, Gallen, Rowlands; Furlong, Cureton.

Palace just had a good chance to open the half, they hit the post, and Day tipped it away.

Rangers had a chance a couple of minutes later with Hamilton sending a nice ball in but Furlong was unable to send in a free header about six yards from goal.

[Atouk]

GOAL RANGERS!!

Palace's Wayne Routledge turned the ball over in their own end, Paul Furlong picked it up, saw the keeper a bit out of position, and fired home.

QPR 2-0 Crystal Palace

[Atouk]

Cureton went down, went straight to the bench, and went straight off. Wes Daly came on for Cureton and stepped into the midfield, with Gallen moving back up front. No word yet on what Cureton's injury is.

[Atouk]

Kevin Gallen and Palace's Darren Powell have both gone into the book with a yellow after getting into a bit of a scrap.

Since the second goal, the R's have held most of the possession and are passing it around nicely.

[Atouk]

Both commentators are saying Rangers are dominating the second half. We've got an overwhelming lead in possession since the break. Palace has made a few substitutions throughout the half and are now bringing off Andy Johnson and one other.

76th minute
QPR 2-0 Palace

[Atouk]

GOOOAAAALLL!!

QPR 3-0 Crystal Palace.

Daly passes it to McLeod who pushes up and then sends in a nice cross and Gallen makes no mistake.

[Atouk]

QPR 3-0 Crystal Palace
FULL TIME

Thorpe, Furlong, and Gallen with the goals.

The R's have to feel pretty confident going into the Championship season opener next Saturday on the back of that performance.

[Atouk]

Match reports are online from the official site (http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~546527,00.html), queensparkrangersfc.com (http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/reports/0405/palace.htm), and QPRnet.com (http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=2&stid=8354671).

[Atouk]

Match reports are online from the official site (http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~546527,00.html), queensparkrangersfc.com (http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/reports/0405/palace.htm), and QPRnet.com (http://queensparkrangers.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=2&stid=8354671).Of interest in the match reports is the age-old story of how different people see the same event in different ways. The QueensParkRangersFC.com match report said the first-half Cole/Johnson contact was "a blatant penalty" while the QPRnet.com writer said "The referee saw it as a dive, as did I."

[Atouk]

Other match reports:
The Independent (http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/crystal_palace/story.jsp?story=546814)
"So inferior were Palace that their manager Iain Dowie declined to appear for a post-match chat."
Palace's Official Site (http://www.cpfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10323~546596,00.html?ptvParm=)
"A couple of defensive mistakes gave the home side the opening two goals."
A view from an unofficial Palace site (http://www.palace-echo.net/news.shtml#newsitemEpAEFykFFEUmnEcuEI)
"It does beg the question, if this was only to be treated as a training game, why not schedule some non-league opposition and play it behind closed doors."
BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3942987.stm)
"QPR profited from some poor defending to comfortably defeat Premiership newcomers Crystal Palace."

Match photos from unofficial sites can be found here (http://gallery.cpfc.org/palaceqpr3-0310704), here (http://gallery.cpfc.org/Queens-Park-Rangers?page=1), and here (http://gallery.cpfc.org/cpfc-vs-qpr).

[Atouk]

Kevin, were you able to make it to Loftus Road for this one? Have any comments?

[QPR Kevin H]

Kevin, were you able to make it to Loftus Road for this one? Have any comments?
I didn't actually (figures that I only missed the entertaining pre-season matches). Was out in Cheltenham for cricket and beer. Will be there on Saturday though!