It had to end sometime
Well it had to come to end at some point didn't it, our first defeat came on Saturday against Burnley which sees them extend their lead at the top of the Championship. Burnley's impressive form continues which saw their eighth consecutive win of the season.
QPR went into the campaign as the only unbeaten team in the league, having made a Championship record with eight consecutive clean sheets prior to the Millwall game and the game on Saturday.
A top of the table clash saw QPR travel to Turf Moor to play Burnley; as I sat at home watching the screen I must admit I could see our first defeat of the season coming, the in form Danny Ings is the Championships top scorer and it was on the cards that he would score; he notched up another two to his tally. Can't really fault him having been left out of the team while Charlie Austin used to be Burnley's main man before his departure to Loftus Road in the summer but after Saturday I can imagine Danny got the last laugh.
After turning to twitter during and throughout the game you would have thought we were a bit like Sheffield Wednesday no wins all season and lying at the foot of the table as people seem to think we 'were not good enough today, and not good enough to go up'. Hang on a moment, we were the only unbeaten team in the league and had just broken a record with the eight clean sheets. Our fans needed to look again at the table.
Admittedly it was frustrating as QPR weren't really at the races from the off, Austin struggled to test the Burnley keeper all day really and trying his best upfront on his own I couldn't really fault him, but again the keyboard bashers were out in force saying Austin isn't good enough.
Austin is easily good enough, if and when we do get promoted, our striker isn't the worry. Charlie Austin is a goal scorer, his work rate is second to none and puts in such a hard shift, it's what he does off the ball which pleases me, the likes of Wayne Rooney and Shane Long may have bad games from time to time but you just have to watch their off the ball play to admire their performances.
I am not going to single out any performances from the Burnley game as there wasn't and isn't much really to talk about. Defensive errors cost us at Millwall but to come away from the Den was a good point in my eyes.
At least we didn't sit down and die at Wigan and in my eyes the Latics keeper should have had an early bath after clearly pulling down Andy Johnson.
Another loss would put us in trouble and morale could have dropped further with the winter months coming thick and fast, and having to play most of the teams in the top half, QPR will look at trying to win their home games and sneak away wins and draws. A tough fixture at home to Derby on Saturday isn't a walk in the park, coming up against the leagues top scorers will be tough so the Rangers back four will have to be on their toes.
Steve Mclaren returns to the club and we would like to thank Steve for his time at QPR but being assistant is never really Steve's forte so we have to respect him, but let's hope he doesn't take the three points on Saturday.
Shaun Bousfield