A QPR team that by full time had an average age of just 19 (and that includes a 31-year-old goalkeeper) eventually succumbed to a League Cup exit at Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night having led 2-0 at half time.

Plymouth Argyle made headlines around the world when they knocked champions-elect Liverpool out of the FA Cup at Home Park at the start of this year, but neither they nor the Queens Park Rangers club they faced on Tuesday night are where you’d usually look for a cup win on your coupon.

These two teams have more FA Cup third round exits than any other – QPR 53-50 Plymouth. Argyle don’t get a lot better in the League Cup – they have been eliminated in the first two rounds in each of the last 16 seasons, last reaching the third round in 2007/08. Remarkably they haven’t been beyond round three since 1973/74 when they randomly reached the semi-final. Argyle have been eliminated in the first round of this competition in 23 of the last 31 seasons.

Things didn’t improve when the R’s decided to dip down into the third tier for a bit and try their hand at some FA Cup first round ties instead. They were eliminated immediately three years in a row including the infamous debacle with Vauxhall Motors. The first of those defeats, in November 2001, was a 4-0 hammering at Swansea who at the time were playing in an almost derelict Vetch Field ground and sat second bottom of the Third Division with the very real prospect of non-league football on the horizon. A young Mamady Sidibe ran riot for the Welsh side in front of the Sky cameras and for the Rangers fans behind the goal it was another long old night.

On the way home, however, the club announced Kevin Gallen would be returning to West London to rejoin his boyhood club. The mood lifted instantaneously. By Tuesday Ian Holloway’s side had a 4-0 victory of their own at home to Swindon with Gallen straight onto the scoresheet. Rangers lost only one of the next 11 games, were in the play-off final within 18 months, promoted the season after that and re-established in the Championship for the decade that followed. Gallen ended up with 414 appearances for the club and 104 goals. And we never spoke or thought about Swansea again.

A memory that came flooding back this morning, while sleeping off the after effects of a 3-2 League Cup exit at Plymouth, when I was nudged awake and told I might want to fire the laptop up and give the GWR Wi-Fi a go because the club were about to confirm the signing of Richard Kone from Wycombe. Nothing is guaranteed, QPR have a dire record with strikers, this kid has risen awfully high in a very short period of time, but he looks the real deal and is a tremendously exciting acquisition. If it has the transformational affect on this team that threw second coming of Gallen did, starting this Saturday at Watford, then nobody’s going to be talking about Plymouth in six, 12, 18 weeks’ time.

Which is probably just as well because it was a strange experience at Home Park last night. The first time I can ever really recall being at a game where one of the teams is trying actively not to win it.

That game was many things to many people at QPR: a senior debut for the club for no fewer than eight academy players; a chance to see exactly what we have coming through and test it in men’s football; some minutes into the legs of Harvey Vale, Rayan Kolli and Rumarn Burrell; an exercise in avoiding any more injuries to an already decimated first team squad.

What it absolutely wasn’t was a game QPR had any interest in winning. So if it was a cup tie and a competitive fixture and a chance for progress and potential new grounds or Premier League glamour ties to you standing behind the goal… well, you were to be disappointed.

I’d say it was basically a development squad game - Paul Furlong was down on the bench directing traffic - but we seem bothered about winning those so it wasn’t even that.

To the surprise of most, Rangers did nevertheless lead 2-0 at half time. They had 25% of the ball, spent most of the 45 camped around their own penalty box, and were only in the game at all thanks to a string of saves from Paul Nardi including a one-handed stop from a penalty taken by veteran Jamie Paterson after Tegan Finn was obviously felled in the box by Burrell.

That, and a quickfire double save in stoppage time, was the Frenchman’s shot-stopping at its best. It laid a platform onto which Rangers layered a two-goal lead. They scored literally the first time they went in the Plymouth half when Elijah Dixon-Bonner’s back post cross was headed down by Rumarn Burrell and Daniel Bennie followed in for a simple rebound conversion after Ashby-Hammond in the Plymouth goal spilled the ball into his path. The home goalkeeper was then again found wanting when Harvey Vale swung a short corner routine into what you thought should have been prime catching territory, but with the keeper stuck to his line Rayan Kolli had the simple task of heading in from a foot out at the end of the ground he won the league game here at in January.

The Londoners responded to this by removing Burrell and Emmerson Sutton at half time.

Now that was clearly always the plan for the former, who’d impressed all first half bar the penalty incident with strong, purposeful running, lightning acceleration and a great work ethic which hassled the home defenders throughout. One chance, dragged wide of the post, was entirely of his own making having charged down a lost cause. Plymouth, who tried to sign him from Burton, looked frightened of him.

Sutton was mercy killed before referee John Busby sent him off – two fouls immediately before half time would have seen him red carded 95 times out of 100 in a competitive league game in my opinion, but the referee was in generous spirit with the R’s youngsters.

Those guys, however, were two of the few who looked up to the pace and physicality of the game and, while I’m obviously not going to say a single word against Talla and Dillon their replacements, it did tip this over from a QPR team that stood half a chance of competing into a full blown youth team out of its depth.

Milk and a biscuit at half time, Rangers emerged in their new fourth kit of Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas.

Plymouth wasted no time at all in taking advantage. They were level within ten minutes of the restart. Kolli inadvertently flicked the first Argyle corner of the half beyond his own defenders and goalkeeper allowing Victor Palsson to set up his centre back partner Brendan Wiredu to score from close in. This goal looked offside to me at the time, and on the replay. Soon Benarous was skinning Talla and delivering a deep back post cross that you’d have thought Nardi would have been able to catch in his sleep only for Oseni to steal in and fire into the roof of the net from a tight angle. A certain third was somehow cleared from underneath the crossbar. Bigger boys came. A nice story for Benarous at least – he broke through as a teenager at Bristol City in 2021/22 but was making his first senior start in three years here after consecutive ACL blow outs.

If you’re one of the clubs thinking of buying Paul Nardi this summer then this was a nice encapsulation of what you’ll get. For a guy who’s come back from his break to find himself unceremoniously dumped as the club’s number one, and then asked to go all the way down to Plymouth on a Tuesday night to try and babysit a creche and keep the score respectable, I thought his attitude was first class – encouraging the team right to the end and bringing the youngsters over to the fans at the end encouraging acclaim. He made a string of seriously impressive first half saves to give them a chance of winning the tie. Still, as we know, there’d have to be a pretty significant fire to part that guy from his goalline and as Tom Cleverley’s side started slinging in second half crosses so goals and joy flowed for the Green Army.

Julien Stéphan's response to all this was to make a series of substitutions, adding ever younger and smaller players to his line up. Debuts for Brunson, Trujillo (both 16) and Tarbotton (17). QPR were subsequently overawed, had none of the ball, and barely crossed the halfway line all half bar one poor miss from Kolli off a Vale free kick delivery.

What any of them, particularly Dillon as the lone striker, got out of that experience is open for debate. Julien Stéphan knows more about it than us, of course. What wasn’t in doubt was the result. It’s amazing the visitors got it within 12 minutes of a penalty shootout but sure enough, as time ticked on, Watts crossed for Oseni to score a second with the defenders too busy appealing for offside rather than dealing with the situation themselves. Unlike the first, I think this one was on.

So, out of the cup at the first possible opportunity again, out of the cup to a lower division side again, another defeat for the 1000-odd (very odd) travelling fans to take back with them on the long overnight journey to London. The only thing less surprising than this is the reaction to it among QPR’s online fanbase. All the message board posters and Twitter accounts that you’d expect to think this was some form of smart, shrewd, clever brilliance do indeed think it is some form of smart, shrewd, clever brilliance. All the message board posters and Twitter accounts that you’d expect to think that was shit, embarrassing, insulting to the fans and the traditions of the club do indeed think this was shit, embarrassing, insulting to the fans and the traditions of the club. Two games into the season and viewpoints are entrenched on both sides to almost comedic levels.

Nuance is dead, but let’s try some CPR in any case. This is a joke uncompetitive 11. But also we are full of injuries. Also objectively, for kids, they held up quite well for a chunk of the game. But also we've treated a League Cup game as a friendly. Prepare to drown in a sea of caveats.

I’m very firmly in the old-school camp of believing cup competitions do matter, are important and that our attitude to them as a club is lamentable. I’m not happy about last night at all. I do also recognise that with our squad size and budget much of the success of this season is going to depend on how often we can get our best team on the field. Unfortunately, two games into the season, we’ve already got a list of crocks so long you’d think it was the depths of February and we’re in our third three-game week on the spin. Picking first team players in this comp is of course no guarantee of anything – Middlesbrough were trounced 4-0 at home by Doncaster with a first team out, Ipswich exited at Bromley with a strong team fielded – but it did feel from the first half where Burrell led the line that it would only have needed a smattering more experience and heft to get QPR through here, particularly off the bench. So, then, you bring Mbengue on for the last half hour to see the game through, he pulls his hamstring as Poku did at the weekend and then where are we and what’s the reaction? But, then, they’re getting crocked anyway, cup ties or not. Rayan Kolli, one of the first teamers on show, spent more time second half stretching his hamstrings out than he did upright.

The bigger question for me here, as Saturday, is why on earth is our team in such apparently poor physical condition that this is the team we have to field here?

We need to drive the average age of our squad and team down for all the reasons previously discussed and debated around the fans’ forum. It’s no use having a development squad that wins the cup final against Brentford if none of them ever make it, or get given a chance to make it, at first team level. This probably served as a useful experience for the players to some extent understanding the physicality of EFL football. Some of them – Smith, Wilkie, Sutton – looked up to that. Some of them didn’t. So many times they tried to “do” their marker with a touch past them and they just got eaten alive. It’s hopefully instructive for a lot of fans who are pushing for that development squad to just be fast tracked into first team en masse just how big that gap is and how far away a lot of them are from making the leap. There were nice moments – Putman’s big covering sweeps to rescue one situation on 63, Wilkie’s brave back post header to prevent more hell from crosses on 68 – but Plymouth are not a good side. They’re not a side in any kind of form, they also have stacks of injuries and had a load of kids playing themselves here of whom Tegan Finn was probably the pick.

Other than that awakening it is difficult to understand exactly what the kids will have got out of the second half in particular last night. Would it not have been more beneficial for them to have some senior players around so we were at least competitive in the game? Bless them, none of the ball, and couldn’t get out of our half. I wouldn’t criticise any of them, I can’t fault their effort at all, they were deservedly applauded from the field, but I would question to a certain extent why they were put in that situation. A real shame Timothy Akindileni wasn’t available to play– he impressed me over the summer and his height could have been the difference under that second half crossing barrage. But, I don’t understand, for instance, why Alfie Tuck, who had played with the first team in pre-season, was a key part of the development squad success last year, and does look decent whenever I watch him, stayed rooted to the bench throughout here while we’re bringing on 16-year-olds.

I have to say, call me harsh if you like, I thought some of this was entirely performative. Done to say we’ve fielded a team with x average age; done to say we’ve given debuts to 16-year-olds; done to try and inflate their future value by saying they debuted that young. Like when Paul Hall used to boast of 30 graduates to first team, but it included Deshane Dalling. Sounds good when trying to sell our club to other parents, or pitching for other jobs. PowerPoint presentation football. Stat padding, while ignoring the crucial one in the top left corner.

How fair that is on those kids, running on with shorts drooping down over their socks and the betting sponsor covered up, to get physically beasted by Plymouth Argyle… I don’t know. I didn’t feel comfortable watching it, to tell you the truth. It felt like trying to teach your kids to swim by chucking them into Plymouth Harbour. Again, the question is probably why are we already in such a state that we couldn’t dare risk a Sam Field or Steve Cook to come and act as lifeguard. Others thought it was wonderful, proud moment, future is bright…

Each to their own. One thing it wasn’t done for is to win the game, so it succeeded in that at least. Tough to take if you’re a traditionalist, or “mentally ill”, or an “old fart” like me standing behind the goal who dreams of a cup run and thinks you should always try to compete in a competitive game, but apparently all part of the project.

Until next year, then.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

Plymouth: Ashby-Hammond 4; Szucs 7 (Sorinola 66, 6), Wiredu 6, Palsson 6, Benarous 7; Ibrahim 6 (Watts 57, 6), Boateng 7; Finn 7 (Amaechi 65, 6), Paterson 5, Hatch 5 (Mumba 57, 5); Oseni 7 (Pepple 80, -)

Subs not used: Baker, Campbell, Flower, Mwaro

Goals: Wiredu 48 (assisted Palsson), Oseni 54 (assisted Benarous), 78 (assisted Watts)

QPR: Nardi 6; Putman 5 (Brunsun 86, -), Smith 6, Wilkie 6, Vale 6; Sutton 6 (Talla 46, 5), Bennie 5, Dixon-Bonner 5 (Tarbotton 90, -), Pearman 5 (Trujillo, 86, -), Kolli 5; Burrell 7 (Dillon 46, 5)

Subs not used: Leahy, McCann, Salamon, Tuck

Goals: Bennie 21 (unassisted), Kolli 45+2 (assisted Vale)

Yellow Cards: Sutton 38 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Rumarn Burrell 7 His departure basically tipped the balance between a competitive side with half a chance to a youth team out of its depth.

Referee – John Busby (Oxfordshire) 6 Extremely generous and lenient with Emmerson Sutton just before half time.

Attendance – 10,884 (986 QPR) A long way to go for that.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

derbyhoop added 21:09 - Aug 13 I'm sure there was a performative element, illustrated by throwing on 2 x 16yos with 5 mins to go. While Tuck keeps a bench warm. But then I must be another old fart.
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NewYorkRanger added 21:12 - Aug 13 Thomas the Tank Engine Pyjamas! :)
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johann28 added 21:52 - Aug 13 'All part of the project. Until next year then.' Yup.
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Patrick added 22:12 - Aug 13 I totally agree. Why was it not possible for 3 or 4 senior players to help those hard working boys over the line. Shocking. I don't normally do angry but decided to join the rest of the human race..
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joolsyp added 23:18 - Aug 13 Old fart here. Excellent, nuanced report on a game I witnessed from my armchair 6,000 km away and summed up by this: "It felt like trying to teach your kids to swim by chucking them into Plymouth Harbour."
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100percent added 23:41 - Aug 13 As done to death last night on the board and rightly pointed out in your incredibly fair, calm and generous report, without doubt performative and for me questioned exactly how much input Julien had in picking that side last night. Yes, we all get the point of blooding youngsters, but exactly what they learn from being beasted physically and mentally is really questionable. There was a complete lack of 2/3/4 experienced players involved to balance the levels - and at the very least, put an arm around the shoulders of player like Talla and Pearman. There was nothing gained from throwing the youngsters to the wolves last night...

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Lofthope added 02:41 - Aug 14 'Nuance is dead' Sadly, we live in the age of the Sound Bite and AI is about to remove the need for any human thinking. I enjoyed and cherish the nuances, long may they continue on here at least, thank you!
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gazza1 added 08:24 - Aug 14 Norf, To put out a team like that in a 1st team fixture, whatever the clubs plans are, is disgraceful. Play some so that they gain experience 1st team football but to put that side out is not accepetable. Even worse playing Dixon Bonner who has been out of the picture fior months - why play him!!! The selection, if they wanted the boys to see 1st team stuff, dresssing rooms, envoronments, matches, etc, etc, should have been to play 3/4 max of the boys with 1st team players - they would have known what a 1st team dressing room was all about and hopefully learnt from it and gone back to the other 18 year old buzzing and said...wow the dressing room was unbelieveable, the players were brilliant, etc, etc. What did they get from the match apart from an embarrassing defeat. It must have been near to a development match. Not for me, i'm afraid!!!.

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Northernr added 09:51 - Aug 14 Beats me Gaz.
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hoops_legend added 12:27 - Aug 14 Great article and well done on bringing some balance to the discussion. I do find it embarrassing that our cup record is so bad and also that we disregard it so badly that we would be better off opting out of it. I also have to slightly criticise the manager here as it’s been laid out above that we needed perhaps 2 senior players to help babysit this one through at a minimum. If we had done that we would have taken the win - got a good feeling going into next week, our manager would have his first win and our kids would have learnt something Now we are in a position of lose the next 3-4 games and manager is already under pressure. Sad but true

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qprbenjamin163 added 15:02 - Aug 14 The team picked gave us the excuse we were looking for on losing. It's a weak mentality. It's been going on for many years now and what I don't get is the benefit to the club. Our utter disregard for the cups coincides neatly with our demise into rock solid second tier relegation candidates. So the idea that somehow bowing out of the cups helps us in the league is ridiculous. Above all else, our attitude to the cups leaves us with literally nothing to dream about as fans, unless dreaming of a 14th place finish is something you dream about. We've totally forgotten what we're all here for. Weak-minded beyond belief. We're simply accepting this every single year now. So disappointing that the new board aren't addressing this as a priority. If CN had said at the fans' forum when asked about targets 'we're going to target a good cup run' it would have spoke volumes. Something tangible we can all get behind, players and fans alike. Instead we continue to avoid the subject altogether. It's just a rubbish attitude and very worrying.

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Burnleyhoop added 21:33 - Aug 14 Some of those boys were tiny. They made our first team midgets look like giants. We really could do with a few meatheads in there!
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TacticalR added 22:11 - Aug 15 Thanks for your report. I am still trying to make sense of what I saw (including not recognising half the players), but at least you have given us an explanation of some of the mitigating factors. Throughout the game Plymouth looked a better side than us, particularly when it came to passing the ball. We were lucky to be 2-0 ahead, as at times we were under siege. Still, having been 2-0 ahead it was disappointing to lose the game, but, when it comes to cups, we should all be used to it by now.

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