Right, that’s all from me. It’s been a blast. The result, by the way, means the Championship table remains unchanged – Villa needed to win by three goals to overtake Barnsley, and QPR had to lose by two to drop below Cardiff – so as you were. Bye!
Updated
The match-winner speaks! Using Rudy Gestede as a translator!
We had to bounce back after we lost the last game, so it’s a good win today and a good feeling. We’re not fr away from the play-offs so we have to keep going. The next few games will be very important, so we have to stay strong.
And Mile Jedinak also speaks, without translation:
We’re a team. He’s [Kodjia] been getting them recently. Great to respond from that penalty miss. When he gets chances he puts them away, so he deserves all he gets. I think we let ourselves down the other night, but what a response today. We knew we would be up against it but we showed our quality, especially in that second half.
Final score: QPR 0-1 Aston Villa
90+6 mins: It’s over! A game of much bluster and few chances ends with a Villa victory!
90+5 mins: With QPR searching for the equaliser Gestede finds himself in plenty of space when the ball is played up to him, turns and gets into the penalty area. It’s an excellent chance, but Smithies comes out quickly and well to save.
90+3 mins: Grant Hall shanks a volley hilariously wide, and Bunn’s booked for timewasting as he takes an absolute age over his kick.
90+1 mins: The ball is lifted forward by QPR, and Mackie and Bunn race to reach it first. The goalkeeper wins it, just, and then goes down, partly because Mackie’s arm struck him in the chest, and partly because his side’s winning and there’s only a couple of minutes to go.
90+1 mins: We’re into stoppage time, and there’ll be at least five minutes of it. Sky, the spoilsports, fail to show us how this information was communicated.
90 mins: I’m looking forward to seeing the fourth official hold up his fingers to indicate how much stoppage time to expect.
89 mins: Villa are bringing Ashley Westwood on now. This takes a while, because the fourth official has worked out that his board is broken, and nobody knows that a substitution is about to happen, or who is going off, until people start shouting and gesticulating. Anyway, Gardner’s gone off.
87 mins: A chance for QPR! Shodipo works space on the right and crosses low, and Mackie controls, spins and shoots wide of the near post.
84 mins: Aston Villa’s second substitution sees Gestede come on for Kodjia. The fourth official raises his board to notify the audience of the change, but it isn’t working and no numbers come up. He doesn’t know that, though, because it’s over his head, so he proudly turns to display it to everybody.
82 mins: After Mackie’s cross from the left is headed away from goal the ball lands perfectly for Perch, on the edge of the area, but his low shot trundles harmlessly wide.
81 mins: Luongo gets frustrated, and then booked, after losing the ball on the right wing and then kicking the nearest opponent.
78 mins: QPR’s final change sees Jamie Mackie make his comeback, in place of Chery.
GOAL! QPR 0-1 Aston Villa (Kodjia, 75 mins)
The breakthrough! Kodjia gets the ball on the right, spins past Lynch, races into the penalty area and blasts low towards goal from an acute angle, the shot flying off Smithies’ left ankle and in at the far post!
Updated
74 mins: Bakuna passes infield to Garner, who has all sorts of space on the edge of the D. Nobody all game has had this much space within shooting range of goal. Gardner eventually shoots wide. And also high.
71 mins: Villa make their first change, bringing Agbonlahor on for the peripheral McCormack.
67 mins: Kodjia runs into the QPR penalty from the right, only for a perfectly-timed and really very enjoyable Grant Hall sliding tackle to stop him. The corner that results ends, eventually, with Kodjia attempting to scissor-kick Amavi’s wayward drive into goal. Given the speed at which the ball flew at him he did extremely well to do anything with it at all, and had little chance of directing it on target, and would probably have been given offside if he had. Still, an eye-catching effort.
65 mins: The game has exited decent-start, made its way through got-promise and edged into needs-a-goal.
63 mins: And Shodipo nearly scores with his first touch! It’s a cross from the left and it lands on his foot, 14 yards from goal, totally unmarked! Well, I say he nearly scored. He had a very fine opportunity to score. His shot, though, hit Nathan Baker.
62 mins: Wszolek is coming off.
61 mins: Olamide Shodipo is readying himself on the touchline, about to become QPR’s second substitution.
59 mins: From the corner Grant Hall, marking Jedinak, almost rips the shirt from his opponent’s back in a sustained and very obvious act of aggressive tugging. It was a clear penalty, but not given.
58 mins: Ooooh! Again! This time Bakuna cuts in from the right, cuts back onto his right foot and then shoots low and hard across goal from the edge of the area, and Smithies tips wide again!
57 mins: Oooh! Kodjia gets away on the right from a throw-in, cuts inside, shoots into a wall of four defenders, chases down the rebound, turns, shoots again, and this time Smithies tips round the post!
52 mins: A glossary of disappointing deliveries from QPR, as first Wszolek’s low cross is cleared, then Chery’s high cross is overhit.
Updated
51 mins: And Chery’s free kick is bashed over everyone and straight out of play.
50 mins: Ngbakoto sprints infield from the left, and just as he was about to run straight into a couple of defenders he gets shoved in the back and QPR have a free kick, 40 yards out.
46 mins: QPR pump the ball forward and Sylla with his fresh legs nearly gets onto it. But doesn’t.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The second half starts with a Villa kick-off.
Idrissa Sylla is the man coming on, and Conor Washington has stayed in the dressing room.
Nope, there’s a QPR substitution oncoming.
The players are coming back out, and it looks like the same bunch that started the game.
Half time: QPR 0-0 Aston Villa
45+2 mins: The interval is upon us. An entertaining game without great moments of attacking class. The early Wszolek nearly-chance was probably the finest moment. The penalty decision was very generous, and it’s probably for the best, both for the game and the world in general, that it was saved. Overall it’s been fun, but the best is surely to come.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we roll, and there’ll be about two minutes of it.
45 mins: Gardner stings Smithies’ palms with a shot from 20 yards or so, which is pushed clear.
43 mins: Jedinak gets the day’s first booking, for kicking Onuoha in the shin while simultaneously swinging an elbow towards his head. Luckily for him, he only connected with the foot.
40 mins: Onuoha takes the ball from Kodjia just outside the corner of his own penalty area – looked a clear foul, but not spotted – and QPR race down the other end, with Bunn eventually grasping the mishit cross-that-nearly-went-in at the end of the move.
39 mins: Kodjia was also close to converting that cross at the back post, but Ian Holloway will be furious, and concerned, at precisely how unmarked Gardner managed to be there.
38 mins: Amavi crosses from the left, and Gardner’s late run into the box has gone completely unnoticed by any QPR player, but he just fails to reach the ball!
37 mins: “Only one Alex Smithies!” roar the home fans. As well they might.
5 - Alex Smithies has saved five of the last seven penalties he has faced in the Championship for QPR. Dominant.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 18, 2016
36 mins: QPR have had 62% of the possession thus far, but haven’t created a great deal with it. It’s been an entertaining and open game so far, though.
It's saved!
32 mins: Kodjia gets up and takes the penalty himself, sending it low and hard to Smithies’ left, but the keeper reaches it, pushes it away, and McCormack’s follow-up rumbles wide! Excellent stop!
Penalty to Aston Villa!
30 mins: Villa get a free-kick on the right, thump it into the box, Baker wins the header which goes beyond the goal. Kodjia wins the loose ball, spins and then collapses theatrically after a very light brush on the shorts from Wszolek, and the referee points instantly to the spot!
Updated
28 mins: More mild controversy. A long ball from defence sees Kodjia looking to run beyond Lynch, who can’t reach the ball despite a desperate lunge, but who then lands, rolls and trips Kodjia. It looked accidental, given that Lynch was on his stomach and looking the other way at the time, and the referee gives nothing.
25 mins: McCormack plays in Gardner, who runs into the Villa penalty area before feeling a touch in the back from Lynch and collapsing. It could perhaps be defined as a foul, and Gardner looks most grumpy that his ludicrous collapse went unrewarded.
23 mins: Hall and Jedinak compete for the ball in midfield, which ends up with Hall felling Jedinak with a flying knee in the back before landing painfully, and both players requiring attention.
22 mins: QPR could very easily have had a penalty instead of a corner, though, because Washington wasn’t so much tackled as tripped by Amavi before the ball went out of play.
Updated
20 mins: Another QPR corner, this one is properly crossed by Chery, and Hall wins the header at the far post. It’s blocked on the line, lands a couple of yards out, and just before we find out who will get the vital next touch the referee blows his whistle, because Hall pushed his marker before winning the header in the first place.
19 mins: Ngbakoto’s very long-range shot flies off a defender for a corner. QPR try some kind of rehearsed short corner routine, which is easily and embarrassingly intercepted.
16 mins: A good QPR cross from the left is headed out to the edge of the area, where Bidwell runs onto it, in space, but he can’t conjure a shot on target.
13 mins: Villa have done most of the attacking, but that loopy header apart haven’t had any meaningful touches inside QPR’s penalty area. A couple of overhit crosses end in a third being headed out for a corner, which is also overhit.
9 mins: Chance for QPR! Hall is found in space in between midfield and attack, pokes the ball through the backline, and Wszolek times his run perfectly, but for some reason the Pole momentarily stalls his sprint, and as a result Bunn reaches it fractionally first.
7 mins: Chester wins the ball off Luongo, midway in the Villa half, has a quick glance to assess his options and then hammers the ball randomly forward.
5 mins: And Baker hits the bar! From the corner, he wins the header and sends the ball looping into the air, over Smithies flailing arms and gently onto the woodwork, and when it falls it is thumped clear.
5 mins: First shot of the day comes from the right boot of Alan Hutton, but it flicks off Bidwell’s blocking boot for a corner.
3 mins: QPR took the kick-off, but I’m not sure they’ve had a kick in the Villa half yet. Though as I write that Jake Bidwell gets forward, though the ball is quickly worked back into their own half.
1 min: Peeeeeep! We’re on.
This being QPR’s final home fixture of 2016, they are having a minute’s applause pre-match for everyone we’ve lost this year. And then, just as everyone’s feeling poignant, blasting out a good round of this:
The teams are in the tunnel. Action but a couple of minutes away.
The managers have had a pre-match chat with Sky, and Ian Holloway said:
I think we need a goal. What I’ve asked the lads to do is work the ball and get the ball and try and move it, because we’ve got so many attacking players in the squad. I know QPR better than anybody. I needed to change the way they’re behaving and [get them to] behave the way I learned when I was growing up rather than being a modern-day overpaid superstar, which is what we all want to get rid of in football.
Steve Bruce said:
It’s the third game in the week but there’s no excuses today. We’ve made five or six changes to really freshen it up, and let’s hope it works. You play so many games in a short period of time, and that’s the Championship. The big teams in this country they play that regularly, in Europe and the Premier League, and they’ll tell you how difficult it is. We’ve got six or seven games now in a matter of a month. If you can string two or three wins together, it gives you a massive chance.
Meanwhile, the Guardian has finally got round to reviewing this fabulous book that I recommend wholeheartedly. Buy it for yourself this Christmas, and enjoy.
Gary Neville’s currently on Sky Sports’ Sunday Supplement, where he’s trying to argue that written journalism is dead because some of it isn’t very good, while Henry Winter of the Times, Martin Samuels of the Mail and Oliver Holt of the Mail on Sunday, three very fine sports journalists of considerable standing, argue against him. Intriguing stuff, though I don’t think Neville has yet articulated his argument very well.
Last season was a bit of a nightmare to be honest with you. We’ve got great staff here that are really pushing me, which is what I need, so hopefully come the start of the season I’ll be ready to go.
So said Jamie Mackie in July, after an injury-hit campaign when he played just 16 times, missing October, November and December entirely, before an operation on his hamstring ended his participation for good in April. And he hasn’t been seen since. Today, for the first time in eight months, he’s in the matchday squad, after being named on the bench for QPR.
Hello world!
Two stories clubs meet in the second tier for the first time since March 1973, both searching for some kind of encouragement in difficult seasons. Steve Bruce has had a couple of days over two months, and 10 games, in charge of Aston Villa, winning half of them but only one, the first, away from Villa Park; Ian Holloway has had a little over a month, and five games, in charge of QPR, winning one, the first, and losing the last four by an aggregate score of 7-1. This is a fearsomely important game, even if neither team is likely to move more than one place up the table should they win. And the starting XIs look rather like this:
📝 The #QPR team is in!
— QPR FC (@QPRFC) December 18, 2016
See full #QPRAST team news: https://t.co/JOCQWQspgc pic.twitter.com/KZeyyMkgFv
The teams are in! Here’s our starting XI and subs for #QPRAVL… pic.twitter.com/WF3lk67ctA
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) December 18, 2016
