Wigan Athletic -- 2nd, 43 GP, +42 GD, 82 Points v. QPR -- 12th, 43 GP, -4 GD, 58 Points ------ 23 April 2005 15:00 JJB Stadium ------ Rangers News: No Furlong. No Rowlands. No Ainsworth. No Bircham. No Rose. No hope. Wigan is trying to wrap up automatic promotion to the Premiership. We're trying to field a squad of 11. Anything but a massacre will be a victory for the R's. Generoso Rossi is getting a run-out with the first team today. Should be interesting. QPR starting XI: Rossi; Bignot, Shittu, Santos, Padula; Cureton, Miller, Bean, Cook; Gallen, Baidoo. Bench: Day, Aaron Brown, Edghill, Townsend, Kanyuka.
Very windy at the moment. Rossi made an easy save in the 6th. So far, so good. However, a poor kick by Rossi a few minutes later led to a half-chance by Wigan, but good play by Santos cleared the trouble.
Cureton made a nice pass to Baidoo, Baidoo's attempt to slot it past the keeper forced a defender to clear, and the ball went out for a QPR corner. Best counter of the day for the R's. Corner cleared to Bean, Gallen to Miller, Miller's free header did have any power, so was blocked. Best bit of action for the R's, who have been on their heels thus far. Then, Miller picked off a ball and his shot forced another corner. A bit of life for the R's.
Second half is about to kick off. Match console stats are more even than we'd have thought going in: Goal attempts, 10-5 Wigan but... Attempts on target, 4-4 Corners, 2-1 QPR Possession, 52-48 Wigan
A couple of saves by Rossi as Wigan is having the better of things again. We're under fairly constant threat at the moment. Luke Townsend enters for Shabazz Baidoo in the 55th. We're now in the 61st.
Jason Jarrett out, Gary Teale in for Wigan in the 63rd. Jason Roberts curled one in that went around Rossi and came back off the post a minute or two ago. Whew. We're just hanging on at the moment.
Aaron Brown on for Lee Cook for the R's. Cook had gone down with an injury a few minutes before. Don't get the impression it's serious. Still, Olly probably just wanted to get some fresh legs on and not risk Cook. Later, Nathan Ellington on, Brett Ormerod on for Wigan. Wigan fans boo, as they thought they were bringing on a third forward, but instead swapped forward for forward and are staying 4-4-2.
QPR defending well at the moment. Seem to have regained composure. Cureton just forced a backpass to the keeper. Into the final 10 minutes.
Three minutes of stoppage time to come. Wigan's Ellington just missed high, may have clipped the crossbar.
Wigan 0-0 QPR FULL TIME Nice result for the R's. Wigan seems likely to be a Premiership team next season and we earned 4 points off of them this season. Excellent draw, particularly considering the state of our roster at the moment. Good job Olly and good job R's.
Actually, Ollie wasn't even AT the JJB today, as he was out scouting talent for the promised deeper squad for next season. 0-0 draw without our manager there? I can live with that. Down to 13th in the table on goal differential though.
Thanks for the update -- I hadn't read that Holloway was off scouting. Either way, definitely not a bad result.
It's good to see so many new faces get time, guys like Rossi and Brown especially. Good result considering the lineup. Injuries have sort of forced the R's to throw in the towel on the season, might as well blood some youngsters and new people.