Chris Ramsey took a deep breath and sighed. The QPR manager had just been asked what his team needed to stay in the Premier League and he gave a grim prognosis.
“We need to win two of the four games left and probably draw another,” Ramsey said. On the face of it, seven points from 12 would appear moderately achievable – but then you look at their next two fixtures. A trip to Anfield is followed by a visit to Manchester City. As Ramsey said, they are cup finals but only six points can be earned after that. It is now or never for the west London club.
“They are going to be difficult games,” the manager added. “We have to approach them in the same way we have approached games against other big teams. We’ve held our own against other big teams in the division but,” he conceded, “you end up where you are because of a lack of quality.”
It was a lack of finishing ability that cost them against West Ham United. Much of the consternation was concentrated on Charlie Austin after his 23rd-minute penalty, driven low and hard down the middle, was saved by Adrián but QPR had several decent chances after that to steal a winner. “He’s very disappointed,” Ramsey said of Austin, whose 17 goals have kept QPR in with a fighting chance. “Goalscorers put themselves up any time there is an opportunity to score a goal and he has scored most of his penalties. We wouldn’t have given it to anybody else.” Ramsey also confirmed Austin will take the next one – if there is one to take, of course.
When you consider West Ham’s run – they now have one win in 13 – a point represented a missed opportunity and you would have been easily mistaken for thinking it was a defeat, such was the morose atmosphere at full time. However, Ramsey has no option but to look forward. Livelihoods, including, one would imagine, his own, depend on the coming weeks.
He refused to criticise the referee, Mike Jones, for disallowing Richard Dunne’s second-half goal after Steven Caulker was judged to have impeded Adrián following Matt Phillips’s corner but did use that moment to outline the fine margins when it comes to survival. “I don’t want to go down the route of giving refs stick but I can understand now why managers go so mad when there is an injustice. Some of the decisions they make affect a lot of people – not just on the pitch but the whole club.
“We’ve had a goal that could have been given. That could have given us three points and given us a chance, giving everybody hope of going into the next two games without having to win them both. They need to look at the consequences and how it affects the livelihoods of people around the game.”
There are uncertain futures at West Ham, too. Sam Allardyce, who is still in the dark over his role, was in jokey mood after a game he abruptly described as a “scrappy battle”. Asked what he needed in the summer to move his team from mid-table to pushing for a place in the top seven, Allardyce said “a contract” – before laughing.
Whether he will still be in the dugout next season remains to be seen but their campaign has faded into nothingness with four games to go. If West Ham are to progress, Allardyce said the squad requires more “strength and depth, so bigger challenges are made on a daily basis to play in the team – but that depends on the size of our spend in the summer”. The rest of this campaign looks like a write-off, even if they could still qualify for the Europa League via their disciplinary record and Uefa’s fair play league.
Man of the match Adrián (West Ham)
