Rangers’ Run Ended by Hungry Hornets

QPR 1 Watford 3

Neil Warnock’s side suffered their first league defeat of the season thanks to a brace from Danny Graham and a Jordan Mutch strike, with ex-Hornet Tommy Smith netting a late consolation at Loftus Road tonight. Malky Mackay, very much at the opposite end of the managerial spectrum to his QPR counterpart, has had to rely on youth around a spine of experience. This is in contrast to the Londoners who have the investment to attract big names, but where Adel Taarabt flopped in front of the cameras, the visitors seemed the team most up for the battle.

One thing that concerned me coming into this game was the similarity in tactics both managers tend to employ; there is always the worry two sides will cancel each other out. In Danny Graham Watford have a mobile frontman, which represents one of the schools of thought on how to play with a lone striker. Rangers have the other, a target man to hold the ball up and flick it on in the now ageing Heidar Helguson. There’s no question who came out on top. The Icelandic international needs support and service because he simply doesn’t have the legs to go looking for the ball and I’ve never rated him as a finisher with his feet.

Graham showed promise early on in his career but has chosen to work his way up through the leagues and to be frank Watford will do well to hold on to him long term. Unlike Helguson he is a goalscorer through and through. He would not look out of place in a top end Championship outfit, maybe even a lower end Premier League club. There can be no doubt he profited from some dubious officiating and atrocious QPR defending tonight but his double turned out to be the difference between the sides. Clint Hill is too old to play left back and I said so when he was at Palace. On the counter or building attacks down the right, the Hornets exploited his lack of pace and his natural tendency to have a centre back’s positioning despite his wide berth.

More worryingly Warnock has made a mistake putting the captain’s armband on a flair player like Taarabt. Just the same as Cristiano Ronaldo with the Portuguese national side it has proven to be inhibiting and has not had the desired effect of turning him into a better team player by placing responsibility on his shoulders. The Moroccan was trying to the run the show by himself. Promotions and success do not come from mavericks. I am struggling to remember a more selfish display by a player, let alone by one wearing the captain’s armband! With one up top end product has to be a demand, not posturing, showboating and delaying crosses and through balls. He was totally ineffective.

Another defensive problem seems to be Matthew Connolly. The Arsenal youth academy product started out his career as a right full back and his conversion to the middle seemed to be working out, but tonight he was exposed. He is still young and hopefully will have taken some pointers from the defeat which will stand him in good stead for improving his game. Out wide I thought Jamie Mackie and Tommy Smith could have given more.

With the experience of Martin Taylor and John Eustace forming a strong spine with highly-rated keeper Scott Loach, who did his stock no harm at all this evening, Mackay has surrounded them with some of their own and youngsters brought in from Scotland and the lower leagues. Lloyd Doyley and Adrian Mariappa are academy garudates, Stephen McGinn and Don Cowie came from north of the border, and Will Buckley joined the Vicarage Road outfit from Rochdale. We mustn’t forget Graham too plied his trade for Carlisle in the division below before signing for the Hornets last summer.

It is a testament to the burgeoning talent of the Scot that these players have stepped up or made the grade from youth and reserve teams. They appear to have a great togetherness and spirit, evidenced on tonight’s outstanding performance by all of the XI. The need for new owners is obvious, but there are more than a few sides that have to worry about avoiding the drop that concern more than Watford. The worry as identified above is losing Graham, with Troy Deeney given limited opportunities to prove himself at a higher level since signing from Walsall.

Rangers scarcely deserved their consolation, though they did look more threatening with Rob Hulse on the pitch. He really does have a lot more about him than Helguson. Leon Clarke was almost absent despite his introduction from the bench along with the former Derby and Leeds centre forward. It seemed a shame that Watford’s clean sheet was ruined and Tommy Smith did not celebrate his eighty-ninth minute goal against one of his former clubs. QPR need to bounce back, not lose sight of their objective and start playing like a team again.