QPR Midfielder Marc Bircham has chosen his QPR Dream Team 11 over at Football Icons and has limited himself picking from players he actually saw play, which discounts your QPR legends like Stan Bowles and Gerry Francis.
Birchams QPR Dream Team
goalkeeper - David Seaman
left back - Clive Wilson
centre back - Terry Fenwick
centre back - Paul Parker
right back - David Bardsley
left wing - Andy Sinton
central midfield - Gary Waddock
central midfield - Ray Wilkins
right wing - Ian Holloway
striker - Les Ferdinand
striker - John Byrne
Now, I am glad Bircham put in Clive Willow Wilson at left back seeing that he never saw Ian Gillard.
Seaman as goalie I can live with but surely Tony Roberts plays heheh?
Parker and Fenwick are in central defence, no room for Alan Macdonald, but I reckon the Macca would have stolen in and kept someone out. I won't argue though.
Up front Bircham goes for Sir Les and Johnnie Byrne. I think Furlong must be pushing Byrne hard for the coveted spot next to Ferdinand.. Anyway, I can live with Byrne too.
The midfield though is worrisome. Bircham goes for Sinton at left wing, Waddock and Wilkins in midfield which I won't argue with. My worry is Bircham playing IAN HOLLOWAY at right wing..
No Trevor Sinclair or even Andy Andy Impey Ioh? Shit I think Ainsworth, Rowlands, Barker and the one Wayne Fereday play at right wing before Holloway no?
Even Bircham could play at right midfield better than Holloway would have right?
Birch said of Holloway
You didn't realise how much work he did for the team until he wasn't playing. I always preferred him over Simon Barker. He's also in the team for what he's done for QPR since he became boss. He did so much for me personally, too, bringing me to the club and keeping me here.
Earth Calling Bircham.. Even Holloway would'nt play himself at right wing..
QPR got beat again to make it 5 defeats on the bounce I think. I am starting to lose count, if not hope.
QPR are still competing in matches and are coming out at the end the odd goal down. Today we were all over Crewe but got caught out twice in the first half while in the ascendancy. Second half was all Rangers and we got 1 back via Shittu late on and could have equalised a couple of times, but never. Ian Holloway said
QPR boss Ian Holloway:
"I'm sitting here and I feel like I've been mugged. There is no way that Crewe deserved to win that game - we had 16 shots to their four.
"We looked like we're playing as if we had something to lose today. We were well on top in the first half and then conceded two goals out of nothing.
"One or two of our players were showing a lot of nerves out there and I just won't play them next time."
Plymouth were already 1-0 up from a 13th minute Wootron goal when Graham Coughlan was straight red carded for hacking down Furlong in the 17th. QPR never capitalised with the man advantage though and the ref put paid to that man advantage when he booked Santos twice in 2 minutes near the end of the first half.
Second half and Miller came straight off with Best coming on to partner Furlong. Now Gallen is back in midfield with Bircham? I guess so.
Anyway, we went 2 down after 49, Mickey Evans put a dopey looping header over Day and the ball watching Padula.
5 minutes later Ranger were back in with a squeak when Furlong put home a 30 yard free kick.
Gallen could have equalised soon after, Furlong had another 2 pops at an equaliser. Oh, Furlong had a goal disallowed for offside too.
The youngster on loan from Southampton played well. Outr distict lack of pace made the busy, hardworking and pacey Best look a bit better than he probably is.
QPR have lost 6 on the bounce away from home but Plymouth are in trouble too. Plymouth have only won 1 in their last 6 and are becoming somewhat worried about relegation being 8 points off the bottom 3, whereas Rangers are what ~ 2 or 3 wins from 1st division (championship) safety? QPR Team V Plymouth Line Up
QPR Fans Win Jeff Stelling Sky Sports Football Chant Of The Year Award
Football Chant Of The Year(2004)
"Strawberry blonde? You're having a laugh"
Jeff Stelling said :: I've a lot of time, too, for the humour of Queens Park Rangers Fans They get my award for chant of the season as they serenaded Cardiff City ginger-nut James Collins with 'Strawberry blonde? You're having a laugh!'"
Australian midfielder Richard Johnson has left QPR and has had his contract terminated by mutual consent. Ball winning midfielder Johnson only played 11 times for QPR and is looking for a new challenge.
Well, Johnson is looking for a challenge of any description aside from not playing. Maybe he will go to the MK Dons who he just spent a month or so on loan at.
Johnson ain't even a bad ball winning midfielder actually.
QPR have wished him well on his departure. I actually think he should have stayed at the Ranger and fought for a spot. He only has Bean and Bircham ahead of him as far as ball winner type midfielders go. Matthew Rose has turned himself into a left back for now and Bignot has cemented the right back spot as his own.
Farewell Richard Johnson. You will always be welcome at the Ranger as far as i'm concerned.
Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren refuses to allow defender Andrew Davisto come on loan to the Ranger.
Ian Holloway is after a defender to strengthen the squad for the upcoming busy christmas period, McClaren is thinking along similar lines obviously.
Boro boss McClaren reckons Middlesbrough have too many injuries to allow the bid for Davies to go on loan at the moment.
Andrew Davies has had 11 games for Boro in the premiership and we need a defender quite badly it seems. Anyway, McClaren said no to the Davies loan bid and that's that.
QPR got beat away again at Reading, that is 3 defeats on the bounce now. All funnily enough since Holloway returned from illness. Holloway will get it right though.
I can't be assed to report on the football played in the match. I gather we were unlucky, Cureton was silly and Holloway got the hump.
Ian Holloway said
"I was angry after the game, and I ended up making a total idiot of myself.
I was unprofessional: I was shouting and I wasn't listening to my players, and I accept now that I got it wrong.
Jamie should not have reacted in the way he did, although I would never have done what Sidwell did.
The red card changed it, but I thought we had played well in the second half, and the goal came against the run of play."
Reading Team Hahnemann, Shorey, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Hughes, Little, Sidwell, Harper, Brooker, Kitson (Owusu 55), Morgan (Forster 68).
Subs Not Used: Convey, Newman, Young.
Booked: Kitson, Harper.
QPR Team Day, Bignot, Shittu, Santos, Padula (Best 75), Bircham, Gallen, Rowlands (Cook 85), Miller (Ainsworth 85), Furlong, Cureton.
Subs Not Used: Edghill, Bean.
Sent Off: Cureton (73). Booked: Rowlands, Bircham.
A Quick Note From Frank Simek - It was a really good experience for me. I played five games for them (QPR) and it was good to get out and see what the "real world" was like.
You've got the best of everything at Arsenal (food, facilities, etc.), but it's a lot different at other clubs, as I found out.
Playing in games that really meant something in front of thousands of people was great too. Their manager, Ian Holloway, was terrific and taught me a few things as well.
QPR Blog Comment :: The boy Simek looked like a very nice right full back apparently. Well, I think that is what Holloway said.
QPR 2 Furlong 27, 30 Ipswich 4 De Vos 25, Bent 58, Currie 72, Kuqi 76 Match Attendance 18,231
QPR started on the backfoot, got a leg up then fell over.
A stuttering QPR defence struggled to clear the ball properly for 10 minutes and could have been 4 down. The game settled into a rhythm of Ipswich attack and QPR defend until the boy De Vos put Ipswich ahead in the 25th minute.
QPR woke up after that in dramatic fashion in the guise of Paul Furlong. Furlong's left foot turned into a rifle for a hot couple of minutes or so, wherin he scored with a 25-30 yard barnstormer followed by an accurate shot from the edge of the Ipswich penalty area 2 minutes later.
That was QPR 2-1 up.
Ipswich pressed forward again but really QPR looked more likely to score. Kevin Gallen could have made life much tougher for Ipswich if he had converted 1 of 2 chances that fell nicely enough to him before the break.
The second half started pretty much as the first with Ipswich pouring forward through midfield. Bean was giving passes away and Bircham looked jaded from a knock.
Frankly it became comical really. Enter Ex Rangers Tony Currie's nephew, a Rangers fan I believe, Danny Currie. Currie, a £250,000 recent signing from Brighton proceded to set up Bent to equalise and scored himself to take Ipswich 3-2 up. Currie was again influential and was involved in the move that led to Kuqi's goal that put Ipswich 4-2 up and beyond our reach.
That were it.
Ipswich march on, QPR stay 6th, 1 point ahead of Millwall and Darren Currie will be having a bhuna to celebrate his new "hot stuff" tag. ahem..
QPR Team Day, Bignot, Shittu, Santos, Padula, Miller, Bean (Rowlands 75), Bircham (McLeod 85), Ainsworth (Cureton 75), Gallen, Furlong. QPR Subs Not Used - Cole, Branco.
Ipswich Team Davis, Diallo (Richards 45), De Vos, Naylor, Wilnis, Miller, Magilton, Horlock (Currie 55), Westlake, Bent, Kuqi. Ipswich Subs Not Used - Supple, Counago, Bowditch.
Holloway will revert back to a 442 formation because we are at home. QPR have 4 fit defenders apparently. I guess those to be errm - Gino Padula, Danny Shittu, George Santos and Marcus Bignot I think.
Bircham will be back next to Gallen, Cook left and Ainsworth right midfield. Recent signing and after a fairly impressive debut against Forest, young Adam Miller will drop to the bench. Furlong and Cureton will be up front - probably.
Ipswich are chasing Wigan hard in second. QPR are 6th.
We do not want them to get points here. It would be nice to stay in touch with the leaders through until the new year.
Forest Beat QPR with a 2-1 win on last saturday, I did'nt bother write about it because I had nothing positive to say about playing an alien to us 451 formation.
The Reiger Park Dreamers Football Team are a group of 18 guys in Reiger Park, South Africa, aged 16-19 who play football at their local school, Oosrand Secondary School. They are coached by Errol Jacobs, the pastor of The Evangelical Bible Church in Reiger Park.
We hope to bring the guys over to England in January 2005 for two weeks to play against local football teams, site-see and hopefully meet a premiership/1st division team.
This will be a dream come true for these guys, many of whom come from underprivileged backgrounds. They will not be able to afford to fund themselves so this trip will rely entirely on the generosity of others.
Anyway, <Marc Bircham says Gallen is Holloway's Pet and talks of his bad disciplinary record and of the notion that QPR's decent form is down to Bircham's return to the side...
Excerpt :: On Holloway describing him as the key to QPR's improvement: It was just a coincidence that I came back into the team - we had to start winning sooner or later - and we just did. I was quite happy to be connected with it. Ian was just crawling to me because he knew I would be on Soccer AM sooner or later and he just wanted me to say nice things about him.
Richard Johnson Returns To QPR After MK Dons 1 Month Loan Spell.
Richard Johnson - QPR's Australian defensive midfielder has completed his 1 month loan spell at the Milton Keynes Dons and has returned to QPR.
Johnson got injured while he was at MK Dons with a groin strain, so therefore only got to play in 2 games. Both were defeats I believe, I can't remember for sure right now.