That losing feeling can be a hard one to shake off. QPR lost three of their last four Premier League games as they were relegated in May, finishing bottom of the division, including a 5-1 thrashing on the final day against Leicester. Now starting afresh in the Championship, they came unstuck again and deservedly so, against a Charlton side who grew into this game with impressive assurance.
There were excuses. The QPR manager, Chris Ramsey, was giving debuts to four players, but so was his Charlton counterpart, Guy Luzon. However, QPR were playing with 11 men in name only, as Charlie Austin, the striker sought by Everton and Tottenham, failed to put in a performance worthy of his reputation.
While Austin has become coveted, Charlton have a player striving to become that too, in the shape of Tony Watt. He scored the first goal and supplied the pass for Morgan Fox for the second having started on the substitutes’ bench.
Instead the 17-year-old Karlan Ahearne-Grant was picked to partner Simon Makienok in attack. A dispute between Watt and Luzon’s assistants in training last week meant he had to bide his time. When he replaced Ahearne-Grant at half-time, he took his opportunity within seven minutes.
A hopeful ball found him on the left but he attacked James Perch, cut on to his right foot to get past the right-back and beat Rob Green at the near post from eight yards.
Luzon shed little light on why Watt had to start among the substitutes. The Israeli, delighted with his side’s performance, said: “What happened was between me and him but I know he had the quality to change the game. He accepted my decision, he didn’t have any choice.”
Watt, a Scotland Under-21 international and former Celtic forward, also set up the second goal. His pass picked out Fox, who had made a 40-yard dash to join the attack from left-back, and he beat Green with a low shot from 20 yards.
Five QPR players who started in that game against Leicester began here. Austin was, to the surprise of some, among the quintet. It had been assumed by this stage of the summer he would have left, with the west London club hoping to get £15m. He did not do his highlights reel any favours with this display.
Ramsey said Austin had worked hard and any transfer was out of his hands. “It would be a big loss for us, it’ll be a massive gain for anyone who gets him. I don’t get involved in selling players and if the owners get the right money he’ll be moving on.”
Austin, speaking on the radio afterwards, said he would happily keep playing for QPR until told otherwise. One bicycle kick from short-range and a defensive block represented his best moments. He might want to attribute a shank from 30 yards to summer rust, as the ball trundled out for a throw-in and Ramsey took him off before the end, claiming he had detected a slight injury.
His team-mate Tjaronn Chery, one of the debutants, signed from Groningen for £1.25m, had a better game and with six minutes in the first half remaining, he let fly with a powerful volley, saved by Nick Pope one-handed.
But that shot disguised the balance of play as Charlton gradually found more time on the ball and that trend was confirmed by Watt’s goal. “It took the stuffing out of us,” said Ramsey.
After Fox’s goal, Johann Gudmundsson hit the crossbar with a wonderful, dipping free-kick from 25 yards. But Ramsey did not need that to go in to know he has much work to do, with or without Austin.
