QPR 2-3 Derby

So that’s how our season ends. Not with a bang, but a gut-punch. We led twice, had 23 shots to their 12 and scored twice. Yet, somehow, we contrived to lose 2-3. Maybe it was because we had nothing to play for, whereas Derby needed to win to keep their play-off hopes alive. They duly obliged, courtesy of a late goal when we were down to 10 men after Burrell had gone off injured and we’d used all our substitutes. The stewards formed their familiar cordon at the final whistle, ready for a pitch invasion that was never coming.

Julien Stéphan made six changes to the team he put out against Swansea City. Paul Nardi came in for Joe Walsh in goal; Amadou Mbengue replaced Kealey Adamson at right back; Jake Clarke-Salter took over from Steve Cook at centre back; Jonathan Varane returned in midfield in place of Isaac Hayden; Paul Smyth came in for Kwame Poku on the right wing; and Daniel Bennie started up front instead of Rumarn Burrell. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Nardi between the sticks; Mbengue, Ronnie Edwards, Clarke-Salter and Rhys Norrington-Davies in defence; Harvey Vale, Kieran Morgan, Varane and Smyth in midfield; and Bennie and Richard Kone up front.

Derby, four points off the play-offs going into this, had everything to play for. Unlike us, judging from the line-up – although in fairness, the team Stéphan put out played with considerably more verve than the teams he’d started against Millwall and Swansea.

Inevitably, the chants of “Oh, Bobby Zamora” began almost immediately and we started on the front foot, testing the visitors’ back line from the get-go. Kone had a shot from close range in the 5th minute, getting on the end of a pass from Bennie that rolled invitingly across the goalmouth. Jacob Widell Zetterström, the Rams Keeper, managed to push it away, only for Vale to hit the post with the follow-up.

Mbengue had a long-range effort blocked on nine minutes, then Smyth rolled the ball tamely into Zetterström’s arms when he really should have done better after being teed up by Kone. Still, the intent was there and the goal – when it came – was well deserved.

Vale took the honours in the 13th minute. Kone played in Bennie, the Australian passed it to Vale, and the former Chelsea academy player buried it in the bottom right with his left foot. Beautifully worked goal.

We went on the attack again almost immediately. Morgan, who was having a much better game than he did against Swansea, had a decent effort from the edge of the box go just over shortly afterwards, and Varane – again, better than he has been in the last few games – had a shot that Zetterström tipped on to the bar. We were playing much more progressive, attacking football than we’d managed in the previous two. You could see the players actually enjoying themselves, which makes a change.

Of course, it couldn’t last. Derby equalised in the 25th minute from a corner, with Oscar Fraulo stabbing the ball home from the edge of the area after Max Johnston’s delivery caused confusion. Whether it hit Clarke-Salter as it was goal-bound is unclear, but Nardi gave Fraulo too much room at the near post. It was their first shot on target of the match. They only had three on target today, compared to 12 from us, but they scored every time. Couldn’t Nardi have saved just one?

The rest of the first half belonged to us. Smyth had another effort saved, Varane went close with a right-footer that Zetterström pushed on to the crossbar – the Swedish keeper had a good afternoon – and Vale curled a left-footed shot just wide in added time. At the break, we had 14 shots to Derby’s two, seven on target to their one, and an xG of 1.27 to their 0.06. It should have been more than level.

Mbengue went off at half time – he’d picked up a knock – with Adamson coming on at right back. It disrupted our momentum slightly, though we were still the brighter side in the early exchanges of the second period. Vale had a shot blocked, Bennie had another effort stopped.

To add to the good vibes on a beautiful spring afternoon, the news filtered through that West Ham had gone one-up against Everton, while Tottenham were being held to a draw by Wolves. If those results didn’t change, that meant four points would separate relegation-bound Tottenham from the Irons in 17th place, prompting a chant of: “Tottenham Away/Tottenham Away/Tottenham Away, ole, ole.”

Then Kone scored a lovely goal in the 55th minute. Vale played him in with a deft through ball and the Ivorian flicked it into the bottom right corner – a cheeky, well-taken finish that takes Kone to 11 goals for the season in all competitions, one ahead of Burrell. We were 2–1 up and looking like a team that might actually finish in the top half of the table for the first time in four years.

That feeling lasted about seven minutes before Stéphan made a double substitution in the 62nd minute: Burrell on for Bennie, Nicolas Madsen on for Morgan. Then, in the 68th minute, Kone came off – apparently with a minor knock – and Ilias Chair replaced him. Three changes in six minutes. No reason to think those substitutions would take the momentum out of our attack, but for some reason they did and we never looked like scoring again after that. Derby, meanwhile, gradually grew in confidence, helped by more astute substitutions from John Eustace, the QPR manager that never was.

Derby pulled level on 76 minutes, with Sondre Langås heading home from a corner with Nardi remaining stubbornly on his line. Two goals from two set pieces – why is Nardy so reluctant to come for the ball? He’s better than Walsh in every department apart from claiming crosses and it means we’re vulnerable to conceding every time our opponents have a corner. His performance today underlined just how badly we need to sign a new keeper in the summer.

Smyth went off injured four minutes earlier, replaced by Koki Saito, and Burrell picked up a yellow card for a foul in the 70th minute, then pulled up injured in the 85th. We’d used all our subs by then, so we played the last 10 minutes with 10 men and no striker. Quite extraordinary that four of our first-team players picked up injuries in the penultimate game of the season when we had nothing to play for. Is that inevitable when we start playing intense, progressive football, as we did for the first hour here? Hard not to blame Ben Williams, our Director of Performance, who looks set to keep his job in spite of a very chequered performance himself over the season, as well as the previous one in a “consultative” role.

Jaydon Banel settled it in the 88th minute, cutting in from the left and finding the bottom right hand corner. The Derby fans celebrated like they’d won a cup. For them, a play-off place is still on. For us, another late collapse, another three points squandered. That suggests another priority over the summer will be recruiting some older, more experienced players who have the footballing nous to see out games like this.

Nardi got a rating of 4.4 on FotMob – lower than any other player on the pitch – having made no saves against the three shots that beat him. Zetterström, who made 10 saves, was given 7.9.

In the match as a whole, we had the better of the statistics: 14 shots in the first half, seven on target; nine in the second half, five on target. Our xG was 2.27 to their 0.87. For the first 60 minutes, we were much better than we were in the last two games, playing the fast, attacking football that has characterised our best performances this season. Twice we led, but still, in spite of everything, we were beaten – symptomatic of the lack of character that has been this team’s undoing again and again. Is there a deep-seated, psychological reason why QPR can’t sustain any kind of momentum, whether in individual games, or over the course of the season? It often feels that way, although it may just be youth and inexperience. Bursts of brilliance, an exciting run of games, followed by slop that would shame League One.

The players did their customary lap of honour after the final whistle, some of them holding hands with their kids. But it was hard to feel much warmth towards them after we’d thrown away a 2–1 lead.

This defeat leaves us in 14th place and if Sheffield and Watford win their final games and we lose to Ipswich, which has got to be nailed on, we could end up finishing 16th, one below where we ended last season. Does this mean Stéphan is for the chop? I’ll give my verdict on the Frenchman in my final post, but it’s certainly been a disappointing season, given our summer signings.

You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.