QPR Club Focus – New signings raise hopes ahead of Wolves clash
Fans of Queens Park Rangers were kept on the edge of their seats for the duration of Monday night’s Premier League clash with Newcastle, in anticipation for the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton and Anton Ferdinand to make their debuts for the club – and they did not disappoint. The game may have finished goalless but, for the R’s at least, there were a lot of positives to be taken ahead of the upcoming match against Wolves. Wright-Phillips was unquestionably the star of the show, troubling the visitors with his trademark runs from the wide position and coming close to scoring on a number of occasions.
Neil Warnock made the decision to give Barton the captain’s armband for fixture in what he described later of BBC Radio Five Live to be a “logistical choice”. There were fears Adel Taarabt and Barton would have a clash of personalities when the midfielder agreed to join the Hoops over the summer, especially as both are now in contention for the armband for the rest of the campaign, though Warnock ensured the Moroccan was completely understanding of his manager’s choice: “I had a chat with Adel last week and he was straight away right about it.”
QPR had enough chances on the night to come away from the match with all three points, though Warnock was not disheartened by the final score and put it down to the unfamiliar line-up: “We should have scored some goals, but you can't ask for everything. To put five or six new players [into the side] in 10 days we couldn't have asked for a better performance and I think the crowd will go home happy.”
The manager can look ahead to Saturday’s match away to Wolves reassured he has the option of starting DJ Campbell in the forward line, after the player managed 10 minutes on Monday following a month off with a viral infection. Speaking to the QPR website Campbell revealed he is fit to travel to Molineux at the weekend where he hopes to offer his assistance to improve QPR’s meagre strike rate: “Unfortunately we didn't manage to take our chances - which we need to do at this level otherwise we'll be punished - but it's looking good for the future.”
Wright-Phillips may have pulled off a performance worthy of the man-of-the-match award on Monday but the 29-year-old insists he still has more to offer his new teammates. The winger was electric out on the wing against the Toon and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, yet the player was far more critical of his own performance: “I feel I'm a bit off [the pace] at the moment. I need a few more games under my belt to get my match fitness and sharpness back.”
Wright-Phillips was also full of compliments about his new club and believes the lack of goals is not something to be concerned about so long as they take onboard the positives from Monday’s display and learn from their missed chances: “I think if we keep creating chances like that then we can get a few goals in the next few games. We need to just concentrate on staying up this year, which I think we're more than capable of doing.”
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