Barnsley v QPR - e-Football Flashback

Article by Jeff Mayakovsky

Well the season has finally finished except of course for next weeks play-offs and for the winners a Wembley final and promotion.

At least Rangers finished with an away win at relegated Barnsley, with Charlie Austen scoring his 100th professional goal. His return has proved timely for the team and provides hope for next weeks fixtures against Wigan, which will be no easy contest despite the R's getting the better of them in the league this season with a draw at their place and a 1-0 win at Loftus road.

Rangers were 2-0 up by half time with an own goal from Barnsley's Mvoto adding to Austen's effort. But Barnsley despite being relegated put up a fight and Chris O'Grady pulled one back in the second half only for Yun to make it 3-1 to the R's. The home side scored another with O'Grady getting his second but it was not enough to stop QPR taking all 3 points.

We have finish fourth in the league after a good run of results that had the R's leading at the top of the table in the early part of the season. A run that was to come to a stuttering halt just before Christmas when Leicester came and spoilt the good home form with a 1-0 victory at Loftus road. The Christmas period saw the R's staggering around dropping points left right and centre.

For some this was not really a surprise as we had built our initial success on a tight defence and a sometimes well organised midfield with nothing up front but the lone figure of Charlie Austen. He carried the burden magnificently but it was asking a lot to expect him to provide all our goals. When he was injured we really were exposed for our lack of fire power up front and Redknapp went bulk buying in the post Christmas sales for forwards.

Kevin Doyle on loan from Wolves has done a reasonable job and held the ball up well for the side. The real revelation of the on loan players bought in the January transfer window has been Ravel Morrison, he seems a typical QPR player in terms of his exceptional talent mixed with a 'difficult' character. Though to be honest he has settled in well down the Bush and has put in some good performances and given us the extra dimension that has been lacking since Taarabt left.

So this brings us to the play offs and the promise of Wembley with promotion to the Premiership for the winners. Are we good enough, will the players perform to the level required? Wigan present a stiff test and are a side who know how to handle cup style matches and have played and succeeded at Wembley.

We on the other hand have players who have a great depth of experience mixed with some outstanding talent who have only shown some good all round performances sporadically throughout the season. Many of the victories have been built on solid defensive displays, with the odd goal giving us the advantage. This is not the style of football we have traditionally come to expect at QPR.

Considering how difficult it has proven over the years for relegated teams to bounce back up and to avoid a crisis of confidence within the team, we have done well. Expectations from the fans have been high, some may say unrealistically so considering the mess we were in last year. We are in the play offs and one thing is certain 'the future is not written', anything can happen and next week we will find out what it holds for us.

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