As the crow flies, the most devoted of Queens Park Rangers fans have travelled more than 2,000 miles already this season. Take the recommended roads and their journeys extend to 2,490. They have not seen their team pick up a point, let alone a win, as QPR have made the worst league start by any top-flight team away from home for 50 years. Those who witnessed the Capital One Cup defeat to League Two Burton Albion endured a round trip of a further 266 miles. It is little wonder dissent is growing.
Joey Barton, the one Ranger who did discuss a post-match confrontation between a dozen or so supporters and a group of players, said: “A few of the fans were voicing their frustrations at the end which doesn’t help anyone, but it is understood.” Barton was the peacemaker, restraining Clint Hill as the captain looked to bite back. Having left a windswept corner of Turf Moor for the mixed zone, the midfielder saved his stronger words for his team-mates.
“The players have to take the blame,” Barton said after a record-breaking 10th consecutive away defeat. “These are testing times for all of us and there is no hiding place. You have to show a big set of bollocks and pick ourselves up. There is no easy way out of this. It is just a case of head down and graft.”
On a day when Burnley showed the required application and attitude, instead of providing graft, QPR kept offering gifts. “The festive season is over but not the way we are defending at the minute,” Barton said. “Those two goals we gave away were absolutely criminal.” He was one of the culprits, along with Mauricio Isla, Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker, but he alone showed a willingness to address the scale of QPR’s plight.
Dunne and Hill have forged reputations as two of the straighter talkers in the QPR dressing room but both cited a lack of luck to explain an abysmal away record. When Burnley showed greater fortitude, form, physical fitness and even flair, fortune seemed irrelevant to the outcome.
When QPR have seven fewer away points than anyone else, have scored five goals and conceded 24, it seems more than mere chance. “Psychological effects,” said Barton, in a more convincing explanation.
Yet if there is an excuses culture at QPR, perhaps it stems from the top. Harry Redknapp, Barton claimed, “is as pissed off as anyone”. But the manager cited last season’s Championship table, which showed Burnley 13 points ahead of QPR, in mitigation, without mentioning his club’s far-greater investment in signings and wages. Or that Burnley’s starting 11 had the grand total of two international caps between them, whereas QPR’s had 209.
Redknapp offered the familiar blend of obfuscation, exaggeration and attempts to downplay expectations. “I have only got two strikers at the club,” he said, when asked about Adel Taarabt’s surprise recall. What about the debutant Mauro Zárate, borrowed from West Ham? “He’s a little No10,” came the retort. There is also Eduardo Vargas, who scored as a striker when Chile knocked Spain out of the World Cup, but Redknapp prefers to class him as a right-winger. A struggling side needs more than semantics.
The QPR manager insisted his transfer activity will consist of looking for another loan, a claim seasoned Redknapp watchers may take with a pinch of salt.
Burnley have bought, bringing in Michael Keane from Old Trafford after impressing in a short-term stint at Turf Moor. A brief spell at the club has imbued him with Burnley’s trademark positivity. The centre-back has traded in the division’s most glamorous club for its least but argued: “It’s not a step back because I’m playing in the Premier League. It’s actually a step forward.”
While Keane left Manchester United, QPR host Louis van Gaal’s side next. Home form had seemed their salvation but 12th-placed Everton are the lowest-ranked team yet to visit Loftus Road. The risk is that QPR’s record on their own turf deteriorates and their long-suffering travelling fans begin to revolt at home.
Man of the match Danny Ings (Burnley)
