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QPR return with narrow Harrow win — full match report
QPR return with narrow Harrow win — full match report
Sunday, 17th Jul 2011 15:35 by Neil Dejyothin

QPR’s title winning team returned to action for the first time since lifting the Championship trophy in May with a scrappy 1-0 win at Harrow Borough. Neil Dejyothin was there for LFW.

Queens Park Rangers kicked off their pre-season campaign on Friday night, a little over a week after returning to training. The Football League Champions were at Earlsmead Stadium, home of Harrow Borough who finished fifth in the Isthmian League Premier Division last time around, making the play-offs but losing 3-2 to Tonbridge Angels.

The match, which has been a fairly regular fixture over the years, was a thank you gesture to the hosts on behalf of Neil Warnock, who pinched striker Troy Hewitt from the club on a free transfer last season. Hewitt, who had been at the club for less than a year, netted an impressive 21 goals in 31 appearances for Borough but is yet to appear in the Hoops.

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Back and ready to go, in bits of old kit they found in a skip on South Africa Road.

The 22-year-old was due to play against his former club, but a calf injury in a training session the night before ruled him out along with his Hungarian international team-mate Akos Buzsaky, who suffered the same fate. Both are expected to return in time for the clubs tour of Cornwall next week.

The R’s came with a strong squad, boasting several first-team players, but also included a few trialists. One of them, Brazilian Bruno Perone, started at centre half alongside Fitz Hall in the first half with Bradley Orr and Clint Hill the two full backs. Radek Cerny started in goal with Paddy Kenny apparently ill. The midfield consisted of another trialist, former Sheffield United and Watford man Danny Webber, on the right, Tommy Smith on the left, Shaun Derry and captain Alejandro Faurlin in the middle. Petter Vaagen Moen operated behind Heidar Helguson who took up the lone striking role.

The usual excessive list of substitutes for a game such as this was made up of Elvijs Putnins, Danny Shittu, Matthew Connolly, Kaspars Gorkss, Pa Kajubi (trialist), Peter Ramage, Michael Doherty, Hogan Ephraim, Patrick Agyemang and Rob Hulse.

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The QPR subs watch on.

Harrow Borough lined up with Nick Jupp in goal, Kwasi Frempong, Ronayne Marsh-Brown, Wayne Walters, Danny Leech, David Ijaha, Jonathan Constant, Danny McGonigle, Kurt Morlese, Scott Oprhanu and Evandro Delgando.

They had James Fraser, George Chanda, David Lawrence, Dean Fenton, Andrew Mensah, Quincy Rowe and Lee Hall, Ricky Pither, and Keita Karamoko on the bench. Rumours of a run out for the home side for Paul Furlong sadly turned out to be unfounded.

Sadly there was no sign of either Keiron Dyer or Jay Bothroyd, nor Adel Taarabt who is attracting interest from elsewhere. Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook, Gary Borrowdale and Leon Clarke, along with youngsters Angelo Balanta, Antonio German and Bruno Andrade, were presumably left out to play at Hampton on Saturday.

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The R’s are back, and drawing the crowds.

For the likes of Cook, Borrowdale, Clarke and Rowlands, who were fringe players last season, on this evidence their omissions suggest the situation hasn’t changed for them.

The match started without much purpose, with neither side really doing anything to take a foothold into the game, but it was the hosts who had the better of the early chances and that was to repeat itself throughout the first-half.

The narrow pitch seemed to cause QPR problems, and they didn’t really adjust to the lack of width or depth properly and I must have counted at least eight or nine times when one of our defenders had to turn around and play it back to Radek Cerny to thump upfield.

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Clint Hill faces up Kurt Morlese.

This percentage based play made it tricky for either side to dominate possession, but as this style is more accustomed to lower league football, it was Harrow Borough who made most of the early running in front of goal.

The first real opportunity came in the fifth minute, when Harrow’s lively Evandro Delgado picked up the ball on the right side of the box and looped a decent strike just high of Cerny’s crossbar. The Rs responded to this with a tame Petter Vaagen Moen strike in the thirteenth minute, after the Norwegian linked well with Danny Webber. Webber looked lively in the first-half, like any trialist with a point to prove would be, but he faded in the second as he tired. He also squandered a good opportunity to score later in the half, when he tripped over after looking like he’d got himself through on goal.

A minute later, QPR finally found some decent possession and worked the ball forward well from the back, which Fitz Hall followed through and somehow found himself darting through on goal, but Harrow’s keeper Nick Jupp beat him to it. The keeper collided with Hall that led to the man made of porcelain limping away and had Neil Warnock immediately sending Kaspars Gorkss out for a warm up. This time Hall survived the scare, which was a rarity that the 1,600 strong crowd could go home and tell their friends about afterwards.

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Faurlin, captain for the evening, gets into the action.

Harrow’s Scott Orphanou was getting involved a lot by this point, and was having a good tussle with QPR trialist Bruno Perone. Orphanou was trying to isolate him in the wide areas on the right, but Perone to his credit often came away with the ball, either by winning it in the air with his head or mopping up the danger with his feet. In the nineteenth minute however, despite what looked like a perfectly fair tackle, referee Marvin Thompson awarded the home side a free-kick, much to the bemusement of Clint Hill and Perone himself.

Perone won’t set the world alight, but he took a bit of stick from some of the R’s faithful after that point, which I thought was unfair. He won plenty of headers and tackles and did his job relatively well, albeit if it was a little unspectacular. But maybe there was something in it, as there was always a sense of panic and uncertainty in the tone of Hall and Hill’s voices whenever they spoke to him.

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Mine’s a Perone.

The free-kick resulted in Harrow’s best period of the game, where they put a series of crosses into the box. These were dealt with by a headed clearance from Fitz Hall and a few smart saves by Radek Cerny. The pick of the efforts was from Delgado, whose shot from close range was matched by Cerny. Delgado will be disappointed he didn’t score. Boro’s Jonathan Constant also shot over the bar from the sort of position you see Adel Taarabt curling them in from.

Rangers finally responded in the twenty eighth minute, when Vaagen Moen struck a ball on the volley that sat up nicely for him, after originally flighting in a corner that Harrow failed to clear, and then ghosting himself into a position just outside of the penalty box. His shot dipped quickly forcing Jupp into saving and pushing the ball out for another corner.

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Tommy Smith on the charge.

Despite not really playing great football, the R’s continued to win corners and Fitz Hall headed wide at the near post after Vaagen Moen swung another one in just after the half hour. A few minutes later Hall was back on defensive duty, with a sliding tackle to block Delgado from pouncing just inside the six-yard area.

Then right on half-time came the best chance of the opening period. Tommy Smith lost possession with a sloppy pass on the left, leaving Shaun Derry having to dive in to make a challenge on Delgado who did well to skip away and stay on his feet. He laid the ball back nicely to Morlese who unleashed a great strike from eighteen-yards out that he should have scored with, but Cerny pulled out an outstanding save to keep the scores level. Smith then curled an effort close himself, as the half drew to a close.

A quiet first 45 minutes was perhaps to be expected from a team that’s not been back in training for that long. It was interesting to see how they were sucked into playing a very physical battle, which didn’t suit some of our players and Vaagen Moen struggled with that side of the game. He barely won any aerial balls and looked a bit uncomfortable at times by some of the physicality. When he got into position though his technical skills were fine. We also struggled to really get Heidar Helguson involved enough, but whenever we did, his hold up play was at its usual high standard.

Neil Warnock made sweeping changes at the break, preceded by a team-talk occurring in the middle of the pitch and then the players just sitting around together having a chat. If you ever needed an indication that this was a meaningless kick about, there you had it, but actually Warnock didn’t look that impressed by what he’d seen.

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Not exactly a riot act, but not too impressed either.

Danny Shittu (Hall), Kaspars Gorkss (Perone), trialist Pa Kajubi (Hill), Matthew Connolly (Derry), Hogan Ephraim (Faurlin), Patrick Agyemang (Smith) and Rob Hulse (Helguson) all came on and started the second half, with Gorkss taking over the captaincy.

Rangers were far brighter in the second with the introduction of Patrick Agyemang sparking them into life. He got on the ball within seconds of the restart and burst his way through to within range of goal before unleashing a strike that forced a good save from Jupp. The Hoops enjoyed far more possession in this period and Harrow’s attacks were immediately a lot fewer and further between through the second half.

In the fiftieth minute, Rob Hulse tried the same trick as Agyemang had earlier, getting on the ball and taking his man on, but his effort was tame and easily scooped up by Jupp. A couple of minutes later, Bradley Orr ventured forward into the box but volley high and wide over from a difficult angle after Pa Kajubi had played him in.

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Agyemang, livening things up as he only he knows how.

Kajubi had been a bit of a live wire up until this point, but was perhaps overly enthusiastic and energetic and his technique was sometimes a little unorthodox and unusual. There were a few times he opted to use the outside of his left boot to pass, when using his instep would have made far more sense, and on occasions he miscued his passes as a result.

But Agyemang was at it again in the fifty-sixth minute, this time bursting down the line on the left, but his cross was just out of Hulse’s reach and Jupp was grateful to scoop the ball up safely before he could pounce.

Then came the crucial moment in the game on the hour. Vaagen Moen was fouled by David Ijaha way out from goal, at least 35 yards. What was interesting about Vaagen Moen in the second, was how he dropped deep and found more time on the ball to dictate the play, which occurred because Harrow became a little more penned back and deeper as they tired. It reminded me of his debut performance against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup last season where he looked a tidy player, and here he skipped past his man and was crudely brought down.

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PVM left in a heap

Just moments before Kajubi had put in a crunching fifty-fifty tackle down the wing and you sensed this guy was just going to bulldozer up to the ball and hit it...and he did. It was an outrageous attempt and it flew high and fast and dipped quickly before nestling into the back of the net before Jupp could even move - a cracking goal that gave Rangers a lead that their dominance probably deserved in terms of their possession and growing control by that point.

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He shoots, he scores, he celebrates. But will we ever see him again?

As happens when you score though, and in typical Rangers style, they completely switched off from the restart and Harrow had a glorious chance to level matters when substitute Dean Fenton found himself unmarked from a cross into the box and was in acres of space with the goal at his mercy, but he failed to connect well enough and Cerny pulled out another magnificent stop.

Hulse responded for Rangers in the sixty-fourth minute though, first winning a header from a long punt upfield and then latching onto the resulting rebound and firing in a crisp strike, similar to Agyemang’s just after half-time that Jupp produced an almost carbon copy save out for a corner.

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Hulse turns his man and gets a shot away to test Jupp.

Danny Shittu rose highest to meet it and thudded his effort towards goal, with Webber close to pouncing on it too, but Jupp made another fine last gasp attempt to keep it out and punched it away for another QPR corner.

It was all Rangers by this point and a switch ball from Vaagen Moen into the right channel of the penalty box saw Webber latch onto it and play a reverse pass into Hogan Ephraim, whose shot was saved yet again by Jupp.

Warnock then made his final changes in the seventy-fifth minute, replacing Orr with Peter Ramage and Webber with Michael Doughty. Ramage was immediately into the action, with a throw to Hulse who did well to force a corner that was fizzed into the box and landed at the feet of Agyemang. From six-yards out should have at the very least hit the target, but blazed horribly over. It was a typical Agyemang sitter, but to be fair to him, he played well in the time that he was on. His direct and aggressive nature set the tone for the second period.

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A fine Agyemang vintage from six yards out.

Jupp was in the thick of it again a few minutes later, saving what was almost an own goal from another corner after being put under pressure by Shittu, but this was to be the last real action of the match as it petered out very quickly and ended with Rangers running out as one-nil victors.

So all in all, this was a good and relatively competitive workout. Harrow Borough will be particularly proud with their performance, because they matched QPR and never looked out of their depth throughout the match. It’s pleasing they didn’t get beaten by a heavier score line despite Rangers dominance in the second, and it’s a shame they couldn’t score themselves, because they probably deserved a goal.

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Hogan Ephraim launches an attack.

Rangers blew hot and cold in the first-half, which was to be expected really. It took them a while to really figure out how to adapt to the narrow pitch and once they stopped matching Harrow like-for-like in a physical dual, they settled and let their technical abilities aid their control over proceedings. The second period saw them much more in control and they used the width far better and made use of Bradley Orr down the right well on several occasions in the second, which opened up space and created opportunities.

The likes of Danny Shittu, Kaspars Gorkss and Matthew Connolly had relatively little to do in their time on, as did Peter Ramage and Michael Doughty who were introduced late.

I was impressed by Harrow’s overall fitness levels, not one of their players went down with cramp, but they did start to drop a little deeper as the match went on and there was little response in attack from them by the end. Still, it was a very creditable showing that new manager Dave Anderson will have been delighted by.

As for us, nobody really shone, and the trialists on show still need to prove that they’ve got what it takes. At this stage, I wouldn’t recommend signing either Bruno Perone or Pa Kajubi just yet, although Danny Webber impressed in bursts and has the kind of pace and directness that we’re looking for, with the plus being he does have decent technical ability on the ball too.

So while we huffed and puffed a little bit, this was just a typical pre-season friendly that didn’t tell us a lot and was more of an exercise for the players to work off some of that rust, for which it served its purpose well.

QPR: Cerny 7, Orr 6 (Ramage 6), Hill 6 (Kajubi 6), Hall 6 (Shittu 6), Perone 6 (Gorkss 6), Derry 6 (Connolly 6), Faurlin 6 (Ephraim 6), Smith 6 (Agyemang 6), Webber 6 (Doughty 6), Vaagen Moen 6, Helguson 6 (Hulse 6)

Sub not used: Putnins.

Goal: Kajuba 60 (unassisted)

QPR Star Man - Radek Cerny 7 Simply because he played the entire match, was consistent throughout, his kicking was sound and he really did make a few top drawer saves.

Referee: Mark Thompson 7 He didn't have much to do and was barely noticeable as he allowed the play to generally flow. Called free-kicks at the right time for the most part, often when situations could be dangerous when two players go for an aerial challenge as can happen at non-league level.

Attendance: 1688 (1,200+ QPR) It was dominated by Rangers fans obviously, but both sets of supporters mixed freely and in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. It's really nice that we can help sides like this as the money generated can be critical for their future, although to hear that our club took half the gate receipts from this fixture seems extremely mean spirited.

Full gallery of pictures online here.

Follow @loftforwords on Twitter, let’s all suffer together.

Photo: Action Images



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JonDoeman added 16:07 - Jul 17
Thanks Neil, a good write up and nice pics.
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isawqpratwcity added 16:07 - Jul 17
"...to hear that our club took half the gate receipts from this fixture seems extremely mean spirited."

Good grief, really?

Thanks, Neil, great report; good to hear Cerny had a good'un and looks like a cracking goal (good pics)! One query: 19 blokes out of 20 get sixes?
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Northernr added 16:09 - Jul 17
Should add that I've added that line isawqpratwcity based on numerous message board and twitter postings.
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Neil_SI added 16:22 - Jul 17
One or two players may have had a five or a seven, but that's because they blew hot and cold and most only had 45 minutes. The fives would have been more of a result of not really getting involved enough, but I decided in the end that most of them did what was expected really and nothing more. It was easier to assess Cerny because he played the whole match and was consistent and focused throughout.

p.s. It was hard to keep up while watching through the lens of the camera, and I may have got one or two of the Borough players mixed up on occasion. Hard to keep up with them when you're not entirely sure who is who!
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isawqpratwcity added 23:43 - Jul 17
Call me isaw.

Sounds like BE just can't get enough of that folding stuff.

You called it as you saw it, Neil, cheers.
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ade_qpr added 01:41 - Jul 18
well done Neil great to see QPR have a photographer on the ball great pics even embrassing some one with camera in hand and on computer but I missed the goal??
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