Tag Archives: Queens Park Rangers

16th August 2025- Championship, Watford v Queens Park Rangers

Watford Observer: Valon Behrami is not interfering with tactical decisions, insists Paulo Pezzolano

Rocco Vata returns as Paulo Pezzolano aims for greater goal threat

Paulo Pezzolano: ‘We are trying to change the short-term culture at Watford’

https://images.gc.watfordfcservices.co.uk/76f1da20-7a71-11f0-b75f-ed7554e2d3c1.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cwyeeypy5x8t#Line-ups
Match Wrap: Watford 2-1 QPR – Watford FCDownload

Watford Observer: RECAP: Watford 2-1 Queens Park Rangers

Five talking points as Kjerrumgaard doubles fires Watford to first win of season

Match report: Watford 2-1 Queens Park Rangers

Paulo Pezzolano on QPR win, his change of system and Kwadwo Baah exclusion

Paulo Pezzolano: ‘Luca Kjerrumgaard is going to be a top striker’

Paulo Pezzolano caught everybody off guard with QPR selection – and it worked a treat

BBC: Luca Kjerrumgaard scored twice as Watford beat QPR to give Paulo Pezzolano his first win as Hornets head coach.

Sky: But the victory was marred when midfielder Imran Louza, on his 100th appearance for Watford, was given a straight red card three minutes into added time for a high tackle on Rangers sub Jonathan Varane.

BHappy: Luca Kjerrumgaard’s hold up play and work off the ball was excellent, his two finishes supremely unfussy. “Everyone’s looking for a centre-forward”. We’ve found one.

Fran’s Watford Blog: It was a very enjoyable start to the Championship season at home. The first half was terrific with the Hornets taking a two-goal lead and completely dominating until Morgan’s goal, which was against the run of play. The second half was more even, and the nerves were shredded by the end, despite the fact that Selvik wasn’t really tested. It was disappointing to see Louza sent off on his 100th appearance, but his impetuous nature is part of what makes him such a good player. He will be missed in the upcoming games. It was great to see Kjerrumgaard on the score sheet, we have seen some good things from him in previous games and now that he has broken his duck, I expect to see many more goals from him. Irankunda had another good game, Kayembe impressed and Sissoko continues to look as though he has had an injection of youth serum during the Summer.

From The Rookery End: Dave, Mike and Jason gathered at the Mad Squirrel after Watford’s 2-1 win over QPR to discuss the Hornets’ first win of the season thanks to a first half brace from big Luca Kjerrumgaard. There was a surprising change of system from Paulo Pezzolano and plenty of encouraging individual performances for us to purr over, with the mood only slightly sullied by Imran Louza’s late and straight red card.

1st January 2025- Championship, Queens Park Rangers 3 Watford 1

WFC.Net goal commentary: 1

Report: QPR 3-1 Watford – Watford FCDownload

BBC: Fit-again Michael Frey marked his first start since October with a goal to set rejuvenated QPR on their way to an impressive Championship win against play-off chasing Watford at Loftus Road.

Sky: Kwadwo Baah struck to briefly restore the visitors’ prospects early in the second half, but less than 60 seconds later Cifuentes’ side picked them off again, Sam Field nodding in Paul Smyth’s cross to seal a deserved victory in west London.

Watford Observer: RECAP: QPR 3 Watford 1

QPR 3 Watford 1 minute-by-minute report

Simply not good enough in either penalty area

Third goal at QPR made Cleverley most angry

The signposts are clear, but what direction will the owner take Watford in?

‘We need people who know the league inside out’

Cleverley acknowledges Sissoko’s dip in form but recognises his leadership

Fran’s Watford Blog: It was another poor performance. We missed Louza again, his control of the midfield brings a calm to proceedings that wasn’t in evidence as we constantly gave the ball away. On the positive side, Baah was excellent, constantly running at the QPR defence, putting in dangerous crosses and taking the chance to shoot. Sadly, having looked solid earlier in the season, the defence was completely porous, conceding goals that they really should have stopped. I think a Robbo masterclass is needed.

From the Rookery End: It was a wet and drab start to Watford’s 2025, but Colin, DCW and Mike made the trip to Loftus Road to see the Hornets go behind early (yes, that’s not going away) and they stay there. With the enforced changes to Tom Cleverly’s starting XI, how did the guys think the team put up with another physical side and another heavy away defeat!

30th November 2024- Championship, Watford 0 Queens Park Rangers 0

Report: Watford 0-0 QPR – Watford FCDownload

BBC: Watford extended their unbeaten home run to 15 matches as they played out a goalless draw with struggling QPR at Vicarage Road.

Sky: The hosts made it 15 home games without defeat to equal the run set by Graham Taylor’s side in 1997, but missed an opportunity to close in on the Championship automatic-promotion places.

Watford Observer: RECAP: Watford 0 QPR 0

Watford 0 QPR 0 minute-by-minute match report

Five talking points: Not finding a way, another clean sheet and points progress

Cleverley: ‘I thought the result was a fair one’

Why Watford need to prevent the ice from forming this winter

Pollock says players ‘gutted and frustrated’ after QPR draw

Lack of quality in final third was rare off-day for forwards says Cleverley

BHappy: It’s a scruffy, hurtly, rattly game of football with all of the discipline and control of a wasp stuck in an overturned glass – and similar impotence.  This was Andrew Kitchen’s third irritating refereeing of a Watford game this season; he’s officiated three of the five games in which we’ve failed to score which is surely pure coincidence.  The irritating bit isn’t though and  it’s clear fairly quickly that he’s going to blow up every time anyone hits the deck.  QPR’s Japanese winger Saito skittles along at high speed and is going to win decisions as a consequence, any contact will send him over – though the highlights suggest a greater degree of cynicism on his part in this regard than we afforded him on our way back up Occupation Road afterwards.

Fran’s Watford Blog: It had been a much better half for the Hornets but, if the visitors had been able to shoot, they would have had 3 or 4. I guess that explains their league position. It was a frustrating afternoon. Chakvetadze has had a couple of disappointing games. He is so desperate to score that he repeatedly runs into defenders and loses possession. Louza continues to impress and looks as if he is enjoying his football again. Vata was a breath of fresh air when he came on, running for everything and the cheeky ball around Smyth was a thing of beauty. Also, it was lovely to see Ngakia back on the pitch after so long out with injury. One other thing of note during the game was Pollock standing in front of the opposition keeper when he was trying to set up the wall at a free kick. It was an annoying distraction and an interesting idea.

From The Rookery End: Were Watford held 0-0 at home to QPR or did the Golden Boys allow it? Jon, DCW, Paul from Denver and Adam Drury disucss the game. They also discuss how it might only be worth turning up at half time, how Tom Cleverley might still be searching for his best starting XI and when should we openly start saying the p word…. Play-offs?

14th January 2024- Championship, Queens Park Rangers 1 Watford 2

https://www.skysports.com/football/queens-park-rangers-vs-watford/teams/484708

WFC.net Jon Marks Goal Commentary: 1  2

Sky: Jake Livermore scored twice from outside of the area as Watford came from under the cosh to dash QPR’s hopes of easing their relegation fears with a 2-1 win at Loftus Road.

BBC: Sinclair Armstrong carried the main threat for Rangers but it was Lyndon Dykes who reduced the deficit when he poked in substitute Paul Smyth’s cross from close range. They could not, though, find an equaliser – as Ben Hamer brilliantly denied Jimmy Dunne – and remain next to bottom of the table, while Watford climb five places to eighth, just one point short of the play-off spots.

Watford Observer: RECAP: QPR 1 Watford 2

Jake’s match-winning double leaves Watford fans wanting Liver-more

It wasn’t just Watford fans who wanted to see more goal attempts at QPR . . .

Livermore is a ‘great example to our young players’ says Ismael

Bhappy: The game, the ball, the noise…. all of the second half’s madness was blown around the interior of the stadium’s cramped, enclosed space like a carrier bag in a gale.  Fitting, then, that the calmest head in this and so many other matches produced the one clear, true note above the carnage.  The ball came to Jake Livermore twenty-five yards out…  in all honesty he should have been closed down, Rangers had gotten bodies in the way of so much else but if you’re going to give anyone a free hit Livermore’s not a bad pick on previous evidence.  Here, instead, his clipped stroke was that of an artist, a flourish of the right foot reminiscent of Marco Cassetti’s poised ball for Matej Vydra in the Leicester play off eleven years ago except that this one required no further contribution, curling across the face of goal and bending inside the post past a helpless Begović.  The goalscorer’s reaction was almost comically relaxed, theatrical, raising his arms aloft in sanguine fashion as the yellow shirts converged.  Behind the goal there was pandemonium which had scarcely abated five minutes later, despite a wasted QPR chance in the interim, when on receiving the ball in a similar position Livermore dispatched again in a more brutal, industrial manner, hard and low, to sweep up the remains of the match that had been going on and replace it with a brand new one.

5th August 2023- Championship, Watford 4 Queens Park Rangers 0

https://www.skysports.com/football/watford-vs-queens-park-rangers/teams/485024
https://www.watfordfc.com/match-report/match-report-watford-4-0-qpr

BBC: Watford eased to a dominant win over sorry Queens Park Rangers in Valerien Ismael’s first Championship game in charge of the Hornets.

Sky: The red-hot Hornets produced a swashbuckling first-half display which saw them score all their goals inside 43 minutes as Rangers showed why many have tipped them to struggle to stay up this season under Gareth Ainsworth.

Guardian: Even as Watford eased off in anticipation of the final whistle, the contrast between the two teams was stark: one with a weight off their shoulders, playing neat one-twos, and the other labouring under some invisible burden. “We made the perfect first step, but it’s nothing more than the first step,” said Ismaël.

Watford Observer: Live Feed Match Report

BHappy: Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first off.  QPR are terrible.  They were expected to be terrible, and they do not disappoint.  There are manifold reasons for this, and far from all of them lie at the feet of Gareth Ainsworth.  Many of these involve money, or rather the absence of it;  the sight of erstwhile director of football Les Ferdinand quietly letting himself out of the back door over the summer was ominous in the extreme.  So too was seeing Gareth Ainsworth, who had deplored the lack of fight in his charges at the tail end of last season whilst vocally anticipating a rebuild, finding himself in charge of largely the same bunch three months on, minus goalkeeper Samy Dieng and key centre-back Rob Dickie.  Two further senior centre-backs are missing here, which means we face a pairing of two left-sided defenders, one of whom reportedly half fit and the other making his full debut.

Fran’s Watford Blog: That performance was just what we needed.  The Hornets were completely dominant.  They clearly had a plan and executed it.  They looked like a team rather than the group of individuals that we saw all too often last season.  All of the players worked hard, and they looked a lot fitter than they did last season.  It was pleasing that nobody ran out of steam after an hour.  Sierralta’s move to a midfield position had been met with some scepticism, but he was excellent, breaking up play when needed, but also contributing going forward culminating in an assist for Bayo’s goal.  It was great to see Tom Dele-Bashiru back from injury.  He looked really sharp, did well for his goal and almost scored a second.  Ngakia has also come back this season with something to prove after an injury-plagued season last time out and he was instrumental in a lot of the forward play.  Louza looked back to his best.  And the new man, Chakvetadze contributed a very encouraging cameo.  He is going to be fun. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66345298

11th March 2023- Championship, Queens Park Rangers 1 Watford 0

Attendance: 17,247

BBC Sport: Queens Park Rangers earned their first victory under boss Gareth Ainsworth and ended a 13-game winless run by condemning Watford to defeat in Chris Wilder’s first match in charge.

Sky Sports: Iroegbunam strode forward, rode a weak challenge from Hamza Choudhury and fired a shot beyond Watford keeper Daniel Bachmann and into the bottom corner of the net.

BHappy: This is a monumentally terrible game of football.  The hosts play a full and effective role in this outcome, for all that they deservedly win it…  indeed, it’s not stretching the truth too much to suggest that for all of our failure to look remotely threatening (again), it could have gone a very different way had it been us that pulled a goal out of nowhere rather than Rangers.  Arguing that “If we’d scored and they hadn’t we’d have won the game” doesn’t add much in terms of insight admittedly but… Tim Iroegbunam’s fine finish, abetted fully by hapless non-challenges from Choudhury and Porteous and perhaps by Bachmann’s positioning, was a startling outbreak of competence on an afternoon distinctly lacking in similar from either side.