QPR 1-2 Swansea

There was quite an impressive turnout from the Swansea support last night at Loftus Road, given the tube strike. They managed to fill about two-thirds of the upper School End. Their reward was a deserved victory, leaving us 12th in the table, having been leapfrogged by the visitors. After the 2–0 battering at Millwall on Saturday, we did at least show some fight, although not until we’d conceded the second goal in the 80th minute.

Julien Stéphan made five changes to the team he put out at The Den. Development squad player Kealey Adamson came in for Amadou Mbengue at right back, with Steve Cook in at centre back instead of Jake Clarke-Salter; Isaac Hayden replaced Jonathan Varane in midfield; Rayan Kolli started ahead of Paul Smyth; and Rumarn Burrell replaced Richard Kone up front – Burrell’s first start since returning from injury. Nicolas Madsen, Ilias Chair and Smyth were all on the bench. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Joe Walsh in goal; Adamson, Ronnie Edwards, Cook and Rhys Norrington-Davies in defence; Harvey Vale, Hayden, Kieran Morgan and Kwame Poku in midfield; and Kolli and Burrell up front.

Worth noting, per my son Ludo, that this was Cook’s last game in a QPR shirt – apparently if he plays more than 38 games this season we have to pay him more. He’s been a loyal servant of the club, helping to keep us up in the last two seasons, and got a good send-off when he was substituted in the 60th minute.

The visitors scored within the first three minutes. Adamson gave it away in their half, followed by a defensive error from Cook and Norrington-Davies, who took each other out on the edge of the box as they both went for the ball, leaving Ronald with acres of space in front of goal. The Brazilian winger duly rolled it into the net. He would go on to be a thorn in our side all evening and was named player of the match on FotMob with a rating of 8.6.

This was the second game in a row in which we’d conceded within the first three minutes – not a great way to start a football match. The team was back to playing like it did in February when we got turned over 5–0 by Southampton and 0–4 by Middlesbrough: defensive errors, lots of long balls flying into touch, attacking players seemingly unwilling to chance their arms on a shot.

Burrell is not yet back to his pre-injury best, seeming to lack confidence in front of goal. In the 12th minute, he found himself in the box, with a clear goal-scoring opportunity. But instead of having a go, he passed the ball to Kolli, whose shot was wide of the far post. A defensive header from Cook in the 13th almost became a calamitous own goal, mercifully going out for a corner instead.

A good pass from Adamson in the 25th minute found Hayden in the box. He had a shot that needed saving – our first and only one on target in the entire first half. Poku, meanwhile, went off injured in the 29th minute, replaced by Smyth. He looked distraught, poor man. Let’s hope it’s not serious.

Kolli teed it up for Morgan on the edge of the box in the 33rd minute, but the youngster struck it over the bar. Morgan, who had a shocker last night, badly needs a loan spell next season. Walsh pulled off a double save in the 38th minute to keep us in the game, though he was lucky to save the second after spilling the first at the feet of a Swansea attacker.

At half time, our xG was a paltry 0.10 to their 0.96. We had three shots in total and just one on target, while they had five and – remarkably – put all five on target.

The visitors were first out of the stops in the second half, putting us under pressure immediately. They were a lot sharper, moving the ball faster, and you got the impression their manager Vitor Matos had spotted our league-leading record for conceding in the first ten minutes of the second period and told his players to capitalise. Walsh made diving saves in the 48th and 52nd minutes. It felt like a second goal was coming.

Smyth drew a foul on the edge of the box shortly afterwards. Vale took the resulting free kick and, predictably, put it over the bar – although, to be fair, it wasn’t a million miles away. In the 57th minute, Kolli received the ball in a forward position with a bit of space, but instead of taking a couple of touches and having a shot, he tried to play in Burrell. The pass was under-hit and it was easily intercepted. Typical of how nearly all of our attacks broke down in the final third.

Stéphan made a quadruple substitution in the 60th minute: Ilias Chair came on for Kolli, Tylon Smith for Cook, Nicolas Madsen for Hayden and Richard Kone for Burrell. How Morgan survived that cull, I’ll never know.

Norrington-Davies made a good bursting run down the left in the 70th minute and put in a decent ball, but the keeper intercepted it before any of our attacking players could get to it. Walsh was called into action again in the 75th minute. Then, finally, in the 78th minute, a shot on target! Chair got on the end of a ball from Kone and pulled the trigger. But it was a pea roller that didn’t test the keeper.

Then came the moment that settled the game. A penalty to the visitors in the 80th minute: Smith was adjudged to have fouled on the right-hand edge of the box – the second time he’s given away a penalty in just his second appearance for the club at this level. Looking at it on Sky Sports on our phones in the stadium, the foul was definitely outside the box, which may be of some comfort to the South African youngster, but not to the furious home fans. Žan Vipotnik – the Championship’s highest goalscorer – took it and, of course, scored. Maybe VAR in the Championship, which was ruled out for next season by the EFL yesterday, isn’t such a bad idea after all! (Actually, it is and I’m relieved the EFL has nixed it.)

That poor decision seemed to kick QPR into life and, at last, we started playing some football. A shot from Vale in the 83rd minute that needed saving went out for a corner on the right. The resulting passage of play ended with a shot from Madsen that produced another corner on the left. We were getting closer, with Vale, Madsen and Chair combining to good effect. A great chance fell for Smyth in the 86th minute: Chair put a ball into the box, Smyth got on the end of it, but put it over the bar. He had another opportunity in the 88th minute after some good build-up play with Chair and Madsen pinging it around on the left of the box – but he fluffed it again.

We left it very late to claw one back. In the 90th minute, Edwards put in a lovely pass for Smyth, whose resulting shot bounced off the inside of the crossbar, with Norrington-Davies there to tap it in. That’s the left back’s first goal in a QPR shirt – until tonight, the loanee hadn’t so much as an assist. There were four minutes of added time, but not enough for an equaliser – not least because the referee wasted a minute pulling a ball back for a QPR free kick and then didn’t add it on. Overall, it was a really poor performance from Leigh Doughty, even by the woeful standards of refereeing at this level.

In the second half, we had nine shots and four on target, with an xG of 1.45 – better than the first, but that’s a low bar. Across the 90 minutes, possession was almost perfectly split at 49% to 51%, but the Swans had 17 shots to our 12, with 11 on target to our five. Our overall xG was 1.55 to their 2.61. Too many of our players simply weren’t up to this level tonight. It was a dead rubber at the arse end of the season, but Swansea seemed to want it more than us.

We’re unlikely to hold on to our place in the top half of the table, given that our two remaining games are against Derby and Ipswich. Does that mean it’s curtains for Stéphan? The thought of rolling the dice again, after starting the season with so much hope, is depressing. Yesterday wasn’t a great day to put the 26-27 season tickets on sale, although the video the club released to promote the tickets, narrated by Hoops fan Louis Theroux, is a corker.

It could be worse, I suppose. After their 2–2 draw at Hull last night, Leicester have been relegated to League One. Quite the fall from grace for a team that won the Premier League 10 years ago.

You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.