A bit of stability

Queens Park Rangers 1 West Bromwich Albion 1

Queens Park Rangers 0 Tottenham Hotspur 0

Memories of the Chelsea match are still so fresh in my mind as I write this week's blog post. And despite still being at the bottom of the table, I am feeling happy and rather content about being a QPR supporter. I can proudly say that we are still unbeaten in 2013, which was not what I thought we would be when I walked out half way through our match against Liverpool.

It  feels as if it's been ages since I have written a blog post, as Santa has been in action this New Year. And I must say I do feel as if I can't really top his reply to me. So today's blog post is a pretty straightforward one. My view on how the last two matches have gone, and some random musings on food and entertainment related to football.

Let's start with the our FA Cup draw at home against West Brom. Like many other fans I felt that the ticket pricing was ridiculous, but unlike many others I actually bought a ticket. Why oh why, does the club not make it a tenner for adults, and free for kids in matches like this that have such low interest? And low interest was really the name of the game that day as both teams didn't look like they were particularly  bothered about winning the match. It's a real shame that some draws bring about these attitudes from the club and from players. I can't for the life of me understand why they don't try to fill the place up. A draw was probably the worst result we could have hoped for, as a replay away in the middle of important league fixtures is not quite what we need. On the other hand, isn't it better not to lose? And I was really pleased that Dyer had scored the goal, only to be disappointed that we released him a few days later. I know we can't afford a liability like Kieron given the situation we are in but the softy inside me was hoping we could keep him on a pay as you play deal. I suppose we just aren't in that luxurious position. We can't afford passengers.

So, tomorrow we face them again and I just wonder whether we will actually get through to the next round. I would be AMAZED. But if it is a home draw, please please QPR sort out the ticket prices.

Our match against Spurs was largely a dour affair as well, but dour for the right reasons. We parked the bus and made it difficult for them. I was a little disappointed that we did not bring on another striker towards the end of the match, but Harry was probably right. We couldn't get greedy and even for ten minutes open up a gap. But please, Harry...if Park is having a bad game, take him off. There's something really inconsistent about him at the moment.

The match was also a lesson for me, in just how civilised QPR fans are. I was sat in my usual ST seat, and behind me I noticed at least 3 Spurs fans. One fan was with a group of QPR supporting friends, and another right behind me was sat in one of the 'non-ST' seats that were up for general sale. I'm not entirely against people sitting in opposing fan sections. However, I do expect that those people keep their opinions to a minimum. I was shocked to be hearing all sorts of remonstrations if Spurs weren't playing well, and lots of cheering when Parker had the ball. I don't have a particularly violent streak but I was quite close to lamping him one at one stage. I knew that would obviously not be the sensible thing to do, so I just very vocally shouted my outrage at this fan's obvious outbursts. The chaps sitting next to me simply laughed at me. They thought I was hilarious...but I was so wound up. Am I the only one who would get wound up? Does anyone feel the same way I do? I'd love to hear people's opinions on this matter. So feel free to comment on this blog or tweet me on this subject.

And on that note, this weekend I have foregone my ticket at the away end at Upton Park to sit with a pal who is a West Ham fan. I am told I must be very careful and not even pretend to be a West Ham fan because apparently they are very aggressive. This is something I am obviously not used to (see above), so I am rather nervous. But yet again it absolutely confirms everything I have learned about QPR over the years. We are a family club and by and large we're a pretty pleasant and civil lot.

This can be supported by the fact that we went for a bit of a boogie post-match at the 'bok' last Saturday along with several QPR fans, and one Spurs fan. It is my understanding that he thought it was one of the best bars in West London (he having lived in the area for several years and having never been there before). Perhaps we can yet turn him in to a Rangers supporter?

Perhaps not.

In other news, I wanted to draw your attention to a fantastically funny article I read this morning in today's Metro about the fact that Premier League club kitchens have been tested by H&S and Manchester Utd and Chelsea have come up as two of the worst clubs in the country. Old Trafford is 'riddled with rats' (YUK), and apparently Stamford Bridge is serving pies that are out of date (I knew that cheese and onion pasty didn't sit well with me). Check out the article on Sportsmole to find out more.

Anyway, my hope is that I feel as upbeat as I do about QPR in the coming weeks: win, lose or draw. So far, while we haven't quite 'offloaded' a load of players, my LEAST favourite player Bosingwa is now nowhere to be found, and I'm seeing a bit of passion and pride on the pitch.

This is all I ever asked Santa for, and so far he's doing his job.

Wishing all the QPR fans a great start to the New Year.

You RRRRRRSsssss.

Kryptonite

West Bromwich Albion 1 Queens Park Rangers 0

A worrying result yesterday which wasn't really reflective of the overall performance. Towards the end of the game we were hoping for that elusive goal that would salvage a precious point. But for all the effort it never came.

We were hoping that a win yesterday would mean another climb further up the table, alleviating a bit of pressure. But now as always, Queens Park Rangers does things the hard way, and I fear for the health of the fans supporting them as we begin the final month before the season closes.

I watched from home. I just couldn't afford another hundred quid to watch the Rs away so far from home having already having booked tickets for the Chelsea game. This time yesterday fans were really hopeful. What was a decent damage limitation effort at Old Trafford the week before, had given us hope that our poor form away from home would no longer be. It was perhaps wrong to use such a match as an example as nothing ever goes the way it should at that ground. But I have to say that I felt some of the comments coming in from the travelling fans on twitter made us look poorer than we were in the second half. I am sure that this is in part a natural reaction given the effort expended to travel to the Hawthorns. But West Brom showed great determination not to concede under the pressure we were putting them under and it was one of those matches where you could say we didn't actually deserve to lose (unlike most others away this season). Unfortunately, we just can't afford to have those kinds of matches now. And we've now got a frightening four left to go.

At every level, supporting this club over the this next month will be extremely tough for us all. Not just at the matches themselves, but outside them too as we do our calculations and pray that other teams are failing more miserably than we are.

I jest a little about the 'health' thing, and have never truly tested it but I am quite sure my heart rate suffers through violent ups and downs during a match, increasing significantly during moments when we need the Rs defence to simply t*** the ball out of the box. And in between matches I suspect Rs fans will be doing all sorts of things that could be construed as a little crazy such as repeatedly using the BBC Premier League Predictor assessing all possible combinations, watching or not watching MOTD depending on the result, actually supporting other teams in order to save our own, continuing our elaborate rituals and superstitions (lucky shaves, not washing clobber etc etc - see Home Sweet Home post), arguing with other fans on twitter about what's required to beat the drop thereby feeding an obsession that is likely to alienate our non-supporting friends from us further. Some of us have even started to think that Joey Barton using twitter was our very own version of Kryptonite and we were perhaps the other Kryptonians who were impacted by his pitiful display.    

How wrong could we be? In today's Observer,  Joey Barton has revealed plans to launch his own website. The link is already live although the full website is yet to follow on www.joeybarton.com. It seems the young man has now matured from just using 'twitter' where 140 characters is not always enough to make a point without 'being misconstrued', and feels this new site will allow people to interact more visibly (he says that on twitter  'beause of the sheer number of people it's sometimes difficult to see them'). But what exactly is he maturing into? It is obvious that Barton understands that for better or worse, he is a brand. From the perspective of building a 'website' he is also extremely fortunate in that he has an opinion on everything and therefore he will not lack for content. But the interesting part about his plans is that he expects that others will also want to interact with him and with other like-minded people on this site. He has recognised that over 1.3m people want to engage with him on twitter, and it seems that he believes that they will want to take it to another level on a site that is owned by him. I do wonder whether even the mighty Joey Barton will be able to compete against big media brands like twitter or facebook as a place for people to 'socially network' - in terms of functionality and in terms of reaching the critical mass required for it to work. He does say that this is not a money-making exercise and it will not sell advertising space but nor were twitter and facebook to begin with! So you wonder why he doesn't simply manage his social media portfolio more carefully - facebook, twitter and other social channels (some more niche than others) do allow brands and celebrities to interact with their fans in all kinds of ways. Has Barton recognised a gap in the market for a product which currently doesn't exist? Or is he simply fed up of not being able to control what people say to him? At the end of the day if he owns this 'website' he can ultimately have full moderating control. But I will be extremely impressed if this turns out to be something more sophisticated than a forum or a simple 'audience with Joey Barton' and his 'fans'.

So...life really does go on for Joey and for the rest of us off the pitch and away from the game. 

As for me, I haven't watched the highlights or read any reports yet as I am afraid to hear what they have to say. I am hoping for a small miracle and that we only only need 4 more points to stay up. Unlikely. But could we do it with just one win and one draw, or even four draws...?

Supporting a football club is like a religion. And supporting QPR, well you'd have to be mad anyway, so what's just a few more rituals to keep us going until May 13th? Given what has been a poor team performance this season we do need a bit of silliness to lift us out of the mire.

Superman & Kryptonite (Action/DC Comics)