A Restricted View Seat At Loftus Road
My seat at Loftus Road was marked Restricted View, but it wasn’t too bad.
A Restricted View Seat At Loftus Road
In fact, the experience was a lot better than last time I came. QPR seemed to have bought some paint and repaired the seats.
Next Season Is Starting To Take Shape
After yesterday, the matches that Ipswich Town will play next season are starting to come into line.
I can start to work out, which matches will be a bit more than an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip.
Looking at Championship promotion and relegation, it looks like the following.
Cardiff are definitely up and although I’ve never been to see Ipswich there, it’ll be one I’m happy to miss. Although, I quite like going to the Welsh capital on the best diesel trains in the world. I must go again to Cardiff or Swansea before the trains are retired from that route.
It looks like the others to go up are one or both from Hull and Watford, and possibly one from Brighton, Crystal Palace, Bolton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester. I would be sad to miss out on the trips to Hull, Watford, Brighton and Nottingham and I’d love to get rid of Leicester, as the ground is so far from the station. I think on balance, I’m prepared to put up with the dump that is Selhurst Park, to see an easy away match. It’s just a pity, that the two to go up can’t be Bolton and Leicester.
Sadly at the other end of the table, three of my favourite away places; Barnsley, Bristol City and Wolves are in line for relegation, along with Peterborough. The only one I’m not bothered about is the latter, as although the ground is one of the worst in the Championship, the city is worth a visit. After my last trip to Wolves, I think that I’ll miss that trip the most.
I’ll deal with who’s coming up first. Doncaster and Bournemouth are definitely up and although, I like Doncaster’s new ground, you have to get a taxi from the station and I would suspect, that Doncaster isn’t the most coeliac-friendly town. But as you go there from Kings Cross, it’s an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip. Bournemouth is an easy trip, the ground is very good and I’d probably fortify myself with a good breakfast at Carluccio’s in Waterloo.
Of the other candidates to possibly come up; Brentford, Yeovil, Sheffield United and Swindon, I’m really only against Yeovil, as that is an almost impossible trip. Brentford would be a low-cost bonus and Sheffield United and Swindon are more easy trips. Although, after my last trip back from Sheffield, I’d prefer one of the others.
The big question is who’s coming down from the Premier League, with Reading and QPR, who seem to me certain to get relegated. It’ll either be Aston Villa, Newcastle or Wigan. I hope it’s not Wigan, as that is a bad ground to travel to. I think I’d prefer Aston Villa to Newcastle, solely on the distance involved.
The team I’m annoyed about, who are coming down is QPR, as they have the worst ground for away supporters, where I’ve ever seen a match. Hopefully, they’ll get promoted or relegated quickly, or perhaps their rich owners, will walk away from their toy and the club will do a Portsmouth.
Since I wrote this post, we’ve seen Reading and QPR commit mutual suicide in a monochrome match. So I’ll just have to put on my strongest underwear and brave a trip to Loftus Road for a season or two.
We’re All QPR Supporters Today!
I’ve been travelling around London today, in my Ipswich Town hat and several have remarked to me, about what a good result Harry got with QPR against Chelsea. It’s here on the BBC.
I think it illustrates how most real football fans have nothing but contempt for clubs like Chelski and are not slow to rub it in when they lose. It was the same when I came back from Bolton a few weeks ago.
QPR Put Up the Prices
It was inevitable, that a higher league would mean higher prices at QPR. The fans are not amused.
Here’s hoping that some of the money raised will be used to remove some of the dereliction and danger at the Away End.
Standing at Football Matches
This old chestnut seems to be resurfacing again.
What is needed is some proper scientifically correct debate on the subject.
I’ve been to quite a few grounds this year and some illustrate the problem and the solution well.
Take the disgrace that is Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers. The away end is dangerous with lots of broken seats and when Ipswich were there every seat was full. Everybody had to stand to get any view of the action. It looks like they will be going up to the Premiership next year and if they don’t do something about it, there might well be a few injuries.
On the other hand there is the Emirates. I had a superb view from my seat without needing to stand at all. But then the seat was slightly laid back and the pitch is laid with large margins, so that everyone can see all the action.
I know we can’t all have stadia as good as Arsenal’s, but some of the medium-sized ones like Middlesbrough, Derby, Burnley, Barnsley and Norwich can give you a pretty good view, with just the occasional standing for things like goals, and applauding.
In my view, those that want standing have got the wrong argument. If we have properly designed grounds, then there is actually no need.
For a start we should send the bulldozers into Loftus Road.
Crushed in at QPR
I said in a previous post that hopefully Ipswich would be lucky to get a draw. And although they played well and had a lot of possession, they lost 2-0.
I enjoyed the match, even if QPR seemed to have squeezed as many supporters as they could into the away end. I asked the stewards to move me as I couldn’t see and all around me were people waving extreme flags.
So thanks to the steward I got a reasonable view, but very inferior to the ones at Sheffield United, Nottingham Forest, Coventry, Barnsley and even Scunthorpe.
QPR should make the Premier League next year, so what the prawn sandwich brigade will make of it all, I don’t know.
I also spoke to a group of cheery police, who said that they’d had the worst pre-match meal in a long time. They hoped there wouldn’t be any trouble, as they’d probably spew it all over everybody in the excitement.
I was also filmed for something called Winkball. I’ll update, if they put it up.
QPR Tonight!
I’m off to see Ipswich at QPR tonight. I think more in hope than anything else, but a draw would be nice.
I checked the QPR web site for directions and they said not to go to Queens Park station, as it is nowhere near the ground. It obviously happens though, otherwise they wouldn’t have put it up. I shall be going to White City, although I could walk to Canonbury and get a direct train to Shepherds Bush, if the North London Line was working.
Policing at QPR
As I walked away from Loftus Road last Tuesday, I was surprised at how many police were on duty.
Obviously, it was because there was a large and angry crowd with a history of violence between the two teams, it was necessary to have this sort of presence of the boys in blue.
But the crowd was 10,000 or so, the Ipswich supporters were their usual well-behaved bunch, everybody seemed to be talking to each other as they walked towards the Tube, I didn’t see anybody who was the least bit drunk and it was all rather cold. Would you really want aggro on a very cold day? Possibly, it would be a way of warming up.
So do the Met just treat all matches the same and send it everything including the kitchen sink and the cavalry, when quite frankly they should be used for something more important than a peaceful football match. Should I for instance report the police to the RSPCA for getting the horses out unnecessarily on a cold night?
The was one unsavoury incident though. The QPR supporters did slag off their club’s owner.
Ipswich at QPR
Last night was the first time this season, that I’d seen Ipswich win. I must admit I was there when they beat Coventry, but I left immediately Coventry equalised, so didn’t actually see the win. I was also at Shrewsbury, when they won in the Carling Cup, but that was on penalties.
I’d never been to Loftus Road before, but I certainly enjoyed the visit. It is a compact ground with good views tucked away behind Shepherd’s Bush. I think though now that the crowd are better behaved than they were years ago, when someone chucked a dummy hand grenade being the opposing goalkeeper. Apparently, he ran very fast.
But as supposedly one of the richest clubs in England, if not the world, the ungrateful crowd really didn’t appreciate the match, giving Flavio Briatore some typical football humour. I’ve just read Briatore’s bio on Wikipedia. I can’t be all true! Can it? Wikipedia doesn’t always get it right.
Note in the pictures, one shows the immaculate minute’s silence for someone who did a lot for QPR.
The Anonymous Widower 