 Thursday, 10th Mar 2011 00:22 by Clive Whittingham QPR slipped to a first defeat in 12 matches at Millwall on Tuesday night after goals from Steve Morrison and Liam Trotter. Players often find themselves inspired to reach unprecedented personal heights when making their debut for a new club, or returning to play against a former employer. But then, Danny Shittu never was the most conventional of footballers. QPR fans could have been forgiven for wondering what on earth they’d got themselves into when Shittu, an eye catching figure to say the least, strode out in a Rangers shirt for the first time back in October 2001 at Peterborough. With legs as big as the average human Shittu lolloped around the London Road pitch in a 4-1 QPR defeat that he didn’t quite make it to the end of after inflicting one clumsy tackle too may and finding himself sent off. It remains Shittu’s worst ever performance for QPR, although Tuesday night’s showing at the New Den is probably up there now. The Millwall fans are not a particularly friendly or forgiving bunch – and having given Shittu a chance to resurrect a career that appeared to be going nowhere earlier this season after a poor World Cup and release from Bolton they perhaps felt they deserved more than to have him walk away at the end of his three month contract and join QPR on bigger money with better prospects. Those that weren’t busy picking out black people in the away end and making monkey gestures at them booed Shittu’s name before the kick off, and then heckled his every touch for the 72 minutes he remained on the field before, once again, finding himself sent off. Prior to kick off Shittu had been the key member of a revitalised back four that had secured three consecutive clean sheets. That defence did require a reshuffle prior to this game with Fitz Hall injured yet again and Matthew Connolly presumably spending some time in a padded room after his bouncing ball demons got the better of him against Leicester at the weekend. That meant a recall for Kaspars Gorkss with Clint Hill at left back, Bradley Orr at right back and Paddy Kenny in goal. Shaun Derry, never more under threat of picking up a suspension inducing tenth booking of the season than in this game you would have thought, anchored the midfield with Alejandro Faurlin. Further forward Adel Taaabt, Wayne Routledge and Akos Buzsaky leant support to Heidar Helguson in the lone striking role. Millwall gave a debut to Tottenham winger Andros Townsend who signed on loan on the eve of this game – he was part of the Ipswich side beaten 3-0 at Portman Road by QPR back in September and a similar result here could have stretched QPR’s lead at the top of the table to as much as 11 points. Steve Morrison and Neil Harris were paired in attack by former QPR coach Kenny Jackett to try and ensure that didn’t happen. Referee Mr Tanner set his stall out very early on – everything was a foul, every little contact made, every little niggle, everything. Presumably by blowing up immediately for everything, no matter how minor, it would enable him to control the game by suffocating it and when you look at the card count at the end of the match, and the way it panned out, it probably justified his approach. That didn’t make it any less ball aching though when, after barely a minute, Danny Shittu was penalised for a nothing challenge on Steve Morrison and Millwall were able to pack the box for a free kick which centre back Paul Robinson headed wide at the far post. Although he whistled for everything, our referee elected against getting his yellow card out too early in the game for fear of creating a sending off fest later in the evening. That meant when Alan Dunne put in what Ron Atkinson may have called “a loosener” back in his commentary days on Adel Taarabt, crudely hacking the Moroccan up into the air, he was let off with a warning when a yellow card would have been shown in any other match. The free kick was floated up to the back post by Taarabt and Gorkss saw a powerful header from a narrow angle parried over the bar by Forde in the Millwall goal – Hill headed the resulting corner wide. It is said that by kicking Taarabt you only make him more determined to succeed, and he certainly seemed in the mood for a bi night when he took on an audacious 40 yard lob having presumably caught sight of Forde straying from his goal line as the ball arrived at his feet. It flew well off target, but as he tried a similar effort in the second half too I think it might be a fair assumption that Adel has scored a special goal in training at some point recently. Millwall won their first corner of the game after a quarter of an hour – taken by Townsend and headed wide of the top corner by Dunne with Kenny always confident in his angles. Townsend, who would grow into the game more and more as time went past, then took a turn in cynically kicking Taarabt and again there was an immediate free kick but no card from the referee. Millwall seemed a little too respectful of Rangers in the first half to me – as if intimidated by the R’s league position. That would all change in the second half when QPR struggled to clear their own half and just after the 200 minute mark we got taste of what was to com. Bradley Orr gave the ball away cheaply in the Millwall half to bring to a sudden end a minute or so of patient QPR approach work. That gave Morrison a chance to attack some space in the Rangers half and when he clipped a cross up towards Trotter in the penalty area Kenny came swiftly from his line to claim the cross before further damage could be caused. Millwall though won the ball straight back from his clearance, a theme of the second half, and this time Morrison took the shot on himself but drilled straight at the keeper from the edge of the area. QPR responded by taking controlled possession of the football again. Guided round the pitch by the sophisticated midfield presence of Alejandro Faurlin they strung the thick end of 20 passes together, not really going anywhere but working Millwall and probing their shape all the while, until a gap appeared. When it did Orr won a key header wide on the right, Routledge collected the ball on the corner of the penalty area, and his squared pass across the face of the box was skewed wide first time by Akos Buzsaky who has the ability to do much better from the position he found himself in. Townsend had a weak shot from distance that sailed wide as some sort of retaliation but it was QPR who seemed to be growing in confidence and on the half hour Routledge teed up Taarabt in some space on the edge of the box but his powerful, goalbound effort was blocked away to safety by Ward. A further taste of things to come was delivered a minute later when Kaspars Gorkss became the latest QPR centre half to come over all indecisive at a poor moment. The Latvian hopelessly misjudged what seemed to be a simple long ball down the middle of the field and failed to get any contact on it at all allowing the hard working Neil Harris to nip in behind him and volley over the bar from 18 yards out wide on the Millwall right. Rangers had good cause to feel aggrieved with the officials ten minutes before half time as first Heidar Helguson was penalised by an overkeen linesman, who’d probably seen one of his colleagues pelted with bottles on that side of the field in Millwall’s last home game, when he seemed to be more sinned against than sinner himself. That free kick was pumped down the field and then Shittu found himself whistled against for an apparent foul on Morrison on the edge of the area which once again seemed extremely harsh. James Henry, an impressive Lee-Cook-in-his-prime like winger, took the free kick himself but couldn’t find the target. QPR continued to string the passes together with encouraging regularity though and a nice three man move involving Buzsaky, Routledge and finally Faurlin ended with a shot over the bar from distance from the Argentinean. Paddy Kenny saved well with his feet at the near post after Morrison had driven into the area and unloaded a powerful low shot on a Millwall counter attack which had seen him shrug off Bradley Orr like a rag doll a moment before. Then right on the stroke of half time QPR were grateful for a weak piece of refereeing when Helguson won, in every sense of the word, a free kick tight to the right touchline giving the R’s a chance to pick out Wayne Routledge on the far side of the penalty area – he controlled well, cut in and then hit a powerful drive that Mkandawire headed over the bar but he scarcely knew a thing about it. Half time, nil nil, and very little taking place to suggest it would finish anything other than exactly that. That all changed right from the kick off of the second half. QPR gave away possession having taken the kick and Millwall immediately set off on a purposeful attack that ended with a corner. It took them only a split second to get that set piece underway, their short routine conducted in the absence of any opposition whatsoever with QPR minds apparently still back in the dressing room. Alejandro Faurlin headed the resulting cross up into the air, the Wayne Routledge swept it out of the box as far as Townsend who returned it with interest but couldn’t find the target with his shot. The tone was well and truly set though. Initially Rangers responded reasonably well – Routledge got going down the left and sent a devilish cross right through the area to the back post where Bradley Orr’s lung busting overlapping run ended with a header that Forde claimed under his cross bar. Millwall had clearly been told to up their game by Kenny Jackett though and they really should have taken the lead with their second corner of the half – this time an inswinging delivery from their right flank from Townsend that dipped viciously under the cross bar and seemed destined to be headed in from all of a yard by Robinson who climbed highest from a clutch of players in the goal mouth but contrived to head over the bar and into the empty lower tier beneath the away fans. Undeterred the Lions continued to hunt and Townsend found more potential for personal gain by loitering around the edge of the QPR penalty area – his fifty second minute shot after an initial long throw had been cleared out to him stung Paddy Kenny’s hands and the keeper needed two attempts to secure the ball in his gloves. The respective attitude of the teams to the second half was summed up a moment later when Kaspars Gorkss again decided to take a risk with a bouncing ball in the penalty area and attempted to shepherd it back to Paddy Kenny. That looked like a doomed mission from the very beginning and sure enough Morrison nipped in between the two of them and only his close proximity to the byline and Kenny’s powers of recovery prevented him from opening the scoring. The R’s meanwhile had only a fine nutmeg on Mkandawire and second ambitious 40 yard attempt of the night from (who else?) Adel Taarabt to show for their increasingly meagre efforts at this stage. On the hour Neil Harris, the latest exponent of that annoying technique where the striker deliberately stands five yards offside for a free kick in a wide area then somehow makes it back on and gets involved without a word to the contrary from the officials, had a header from one such situation deflected agonisingly wide of the post. Millwall loaded the box for the corner again but Mr Tanner reverted back to his no physical contact precedent of the first half and penalised them as soon as the ball was delivered. Having survived that it was unbelievably frustrating to concede from what Neil Warnock has rightly labelled a “Sunday league goal.” Kenny took a fairly weak goal kick that barely reached the halfway line, and was then picking it out of his net within seconds as Trotter headed it straight back down the field behind the QPR defence for Morrison to run onto and then bury with a shot so powerful I could scarcely believe it hadn’t been fired out of some sort of machine. The home fans were in full voice now and QPR, much like they had in defeat at Leeds before Christmas, were starting to look like a team that wanted to be back on the bus. Jackett sent on our former loanee Kevin Lisbie for Neil Harris to up the ante a little and with his first touch the former Charlton trainee skewed horribly wide after Henry had reached the byline and pulled back an inviting looking assist. Rangers forced a couple of corners after the hour but changes were clearly in order and Neil Warnock sent on Tommy Smith and Saturday’s goal hero Ishmael Miller for Akos Buzsaky, and Taarabt who seemed less than pleased to be replaced. The new faces barely had time to settle in before QPR fell further behind. Another long ball in behind the QPR defence, another chance for Morrison to run through on goal, and another fine finish beyond Kenny although this time referee Tanner had been a little hasty with his whistle and Millwall were forced to take a penalty they didn’t need while Shittu trudged off after being sent off for deliberately upending his opponent when obviously the last line of defence apart from the goalkeeper. Liam Trotter slammed in the penalty, and then rather ill advisedly performed some sort of weird and wonderful dance in front of the away fans which brought a hail of coins, and anything else the travelling support could lay its hands on at such short notice. QPR are not a very attentive pupil, as shown with a quarter of an hour left for play when yet another long ball in behind the defence had Henry chasing the ball with a whiff of a third goal in his nostrils. Kenny raced from his area to clear but that left the goal open for Dunne to try his luck from the halfway line and although Kenny was obviously laughing as he retreated to claim the ball with time and space to spare there wasn’t much else to smile about at this point in time for the visitors. Andros Townsend was next to try his luck – cutting into the penalty area from the left flank and forcing Kenny into a leg save at his near post. Townsend left the corner to Henry and his delivery was flicked on at the near post towards Morrison at the far and he should have converted into the empty net from three yards but seemed preoccupied with not clattering into the goal post before the ball arrived and the chance went begging as a result. There was a further one on one save from Morrison by Kenny during the four minutes of injury time at the end of the game and although QPR had briefly threatened before that – Miller’s rampaging run down the right set up Smith for a shot from the edge of the area that Forde parried nervously out into the danger area and was fortunate no QPR players had the will left in them to chase down a potential rebound. All in all this was another example of how important momentum is in football. QPR were in cruise control in the first half – calmly keeping possession of the ball for 15 or 20 passes at a time on several occasions. They didn’t threaten much with that possession, but that only created the impression that the game was nailed on to finish goalless which is what I predicted beforehand and again at half time. In the second half QPR gave the ball away from the kick off, immediately conceded a corner, and then fell asleep as Millwall were able to play a short one and charge into the area completely unchecked. Pretty much from that point onwards Millwall, unashamedly direct but tremendously effective, hardly left the QPR half with Rangers too willing to try and knock a lazy long ball at Helguson’s head no matter how many times it was tired and failed. Millwall upped their tempo, intensity and work rate in the second half, got the momentum on their side right from the first whistle and never relinquished it. I heard a QPR fan afterwards bemoaning the home team’s style and tactics, saying “if they’re proud of that then good luck to them” and while I can see where he is coming from to be honest I would be quite proud if I was a Millwall fan after this game. They nullified QPR’s attack, hung on successfully when the R’s were dominating, and then won the game comfortably by playing to their strengths perfectly. It was a fine night’s work from them and a fair final score. Let’s be honest though, work commitments and time constraints mean I’m writing this on Wednesday night and for QPR fans at about four o’clock this afternoon the world collapsed. I dare say a fair few had forgotten we even played last night. More to follow on that on LoftforWords later this evening. Links >>> Have Your Say >>> Rate the Players >>> Have Your Say Millwall: Forde 6, Dunne 7, Robinson 7, Ward 7, Craig 7, Henry 8, Trotter 7, Mkandawire 7, Townsend 8, Morison 8, Harri 7 (Lisbie 66, 6) Subs Not Used: Mildenhall, Eastmond, Schofield, Hackett, Barron, McQuoid Goals: Morison 63, Trotter 73 (penalty won Morrison) QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 6, Shittu 4, Gorkss 5, Hill 6, Routledge 6, Derry 6, Faurlin 7, Buzsaky 5 (Miller 71, 6), Taarabt 6 (Smith 70, 6), Helguson 5 (Chimbonda 79) Subs Not Used: Cerny, Hulse, Moen, Ephraim Sent Off: Shittu 72 (professional foul) QPR Star Man – Alejandro Faurlin 7 How ironic with everything that has transpired since. A sophisticated midfield presence in the hustle and bustle of a hard fought Championship game, and one of the only QPR players to maintain a high level of performance through the full 90 minutes of the game. Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset) 7 Clearly set out to whistle for absolutely everything right from the first minute, fearing quite rightly that any over use of the advantage rule could lead to things getting out of hand. This was frustrating at times, because there were some pathetic free kicks for nothing offences awarded, and cost QPR a player because had he let play go on at the penalty incident Morrison had scored anyway and Shittu could have stayed on. Overall though he did a reasonable job of containing a potentially explosive match. Attendance: 14,104 (2,200 QPR) Say whatever you like about them, and to be honest I could say plenty after a spending an evening with a couple of black fellas in front of me who had to spend most of the game watching a gang of Neanderthal pricks in the main stand making monkey gestures at them, but there is a really hostile and intimidating atmosphere at the Den that makes it hard for opposing teams to play. The goal celebrations, particularly in the stand to our left after the first goal, were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Usually throwing of coins, seats and beer cans before, during and after the game. It’s like a little patch of lawlessness this ground, where everything from the smoking ban and prohibition of alcohol in the seating area upwards is completely ignored by police afraid to intervene. Wholly unpleasant. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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