Another victory in London after being behind at half time. The only disappointment being that the previous one was four years ago at Chelsea with a Don Hutchison inspired fight back to win 4-2. Was that really in this lifetime? Well, this one might have been a long time coming. We are now a different club inhabiting a different world. But the red and white army celebrated as loudly and as proudly.
To hell with this “one game at a time”, “there’s still a lot to play” for nonsense. I’m going straight from terrified worry to complacent arrogance – we are going up. This current run reminds me of the 95-96 promotion season when we weren’t doing much (and actually were quite pleased about it – the previous season we thought we were going down). Then suddenly we won 10 games (I think it was) straight off the trot and without realising we were in with a shout, we were promoted. This seven game run has been like that. It just keeps on happening. We haven’t quite settled down from grumbling about the Brighton game and here we are 21 points out of 21. Amazing. Having been on the other end of teams having such runs we know how Wigan and Ipswich supporters must feel about our run. They’ll have seen us 1-0 down at half time and thought “ah-ha, our chance to catch them up”. Seeing the full-time score of 3-1 would make their hearts sink and their minds move on to “OK, it’s between us two for the other promotion place now” (see, I told you I was going for complacent arrogance).
It was a beautiful day in West London. As usual, the red and white army were present in every pub and many were taking the opportunity to drink al fresco. The only downside is that it is a surprisingly long walk from Shepherd’s Bush Common (where a good proportion of us chose to drink) to the away end. It isn’t that far as the crow flies but not many crows had made the trip down from the Northeast. Loftus Road, despite their support not generally being regarded as amongst the most passionate, generates a fantastic atmosphere, being tightly closed in and squeezed right up onto the pitch. We were in the lower tier, second row right over by the corner flag on the left hand (as you looked from the stand) side. Fortunately most things of note happened down our end.
McCartney was out, which I was worried about as Ringo has been playing really well lately. Arca dropped back, which was fine if we were to attack, but I thought this was a game that we might end up doing a decent amount of defending. That meant Welsh played on the left wing. More surprising was that there was no place for Brian Deane on the bench. Afterwards we found out he had a slight strain so one hopes we’ll see him on the bench on Tuesday. Sadly that probably means no place for Bridges as Brown is on fire and can count himself unlucky not to be getting a starting place.
The first half was forgettable. They seemed to have a lot of corners (a feature of the game generally) but on the whole did nowt with them. We were sluggish and weren’t creating much. We had a flicked on corner cleared off the line (well, that is how it looked from my angle – it could have been the edge of the 18 yard box) and Robbo got into a perfect Quinnesque position at the far post to Quinn-like cushion the header back towards the far corner. Did I say far corner? I meant just past the post – but well-done Robbo for getting there. One of their corners Wright (who was otherwise OK) decided to mark their big centre half by running a couple of yards behind him. The ball came over to the centre just outside the six-yard box. Myrhe decided that was way too far out for him and stayed on his line (am I the only one who gets riled by Myrhe doing this? And yes – I do remember what happened when he tried at Wolves a few weeks back). So Shitu (or whatever his name is) got a free header to give QPR a lead they deserved.
Five minutes before half time something happened that we rarely see at this stage of the game – Mick made a tactical (well, at least I think it was) substitution – Brown coming on for Whitley (who had being having a shocker). Good move I thought to try to snatch an undeserved equaliser just as they were relaxing and looking forward to the half-time cup of tea. Of course it didn’t work but never mind. I was fairly happy at half time. I still have the Brighton scars and was worried that if we conceded a second like we did down there we’d not get back into it. As it was we’d played poorly and were only 1-0 down. We could up our game an awful lot. There were a few boos as the lads went off. Free country and everything but always seems counter-productive to me – it’s the manager’s job to kick them up the bottoms. I’ve never felt we could do anything more than try to help by giving vocal support (which generally we did magnificently).
Apparently Mick had a real go at them at half time. It “worked” in as much as we got an equaliser in the first minute that transformed the game. I’d spent half-time saying that Welsh had had an awful half (on the basis that he was the only player I could get a clear view of from where I was). So him scoring was inevitable. Wright floated over a ball Mickey Gray like into the centre of the box. There was Robbo, again doing his Niall Quinn impersonation (very strange but highly commendable). He got the flick on to Welsh in the inside left channel who fired the ball across goal like they tell you to do in coaching manuals. I’ve said before on these pages how much better an away game is when the lads score at our end and so it was here.
The game now took on a different character. They collectively seemed to think “oh god, we are playing Sunderland, who are clear at the top and have won their last six games”. We collectively seemed to think “hold on, we are Sunderland, who are clear at the top and have won our last six games.” We suddenly played with confidence; they played with nerves. The only similarity to the first half was that they still got loads of corners. As before they did little with them.
Our second goal was a lovely move – Stew, I think, threading through for Whitehead, who squared it for Brown, who made a difficult conversion look easy. Then to make us able to relax we got a third. Hmm, this is not the SAFC I know and love. I like to be biting my nails into the last seconds of injury time – often breaking down in despair as we throw away a one-goal lead. An excellent through ball was played for Stew who was racing (honestly! – well OK, moving relatively quickly) down the middle. He took a good first touch to take the ball goalwards. Then for reasons not clear to me, he took a very poor second touch to knock the ball too close to the goalkeeper. I’ve talked before how unimpressed I am by thirty-yard screamers. Leave them for Sky. Real goals are the ones that show the “never say die, never surrender” attitude. This team is not the most skilful. We all know that. But it does display that attitude really well. And no-one more than the reinvigorated Marcus Stewart. Despite knocking the ball too far he continued to go in for it and didn’t allow the keeper to get a proper hold of it. Arca (who was now at left wing – Collins D coming on at left back for Welsh) had also not allowed the misfortune of Stew’s second touch to put him off. As the ball squirmed out, Arca was there to make what other pundits might regard as an “easy” goal but I celebrated as a proper football goal.
Tubby came on for, err… Whitehead, I think – yes it must have been Whitehead. I feel sorry for Sean – he wants to be the dazzling creator but is often having these close the game down cameos. On the other hand it is probably doing a lot for his footballing maturity and I thought he played the role very well.
So, mass celebrations and back down to the pubs round Shepherd’s Bush Common for rousing renditions of a song I hadn’t heard before but I hope catches on over the next few weeks. To the tune of “Show me the way to Amarillo(sp?)”:
“Show me the way to Aston Villa
Man United, the Scum and the Boro
Say goodbye to the Coca Cola
The Premier League waits for me”
(followed of course by the nah, nahs of the original)
Things got even better as we heard Wigan had been beaten at home so we were now 5 points clear of both clubs. And this was all before we got home to see Match of the Day, which included the unscheduled comedy all-in wrestling.