10 Quick thoughts on Saturday

1. Ledesma looks like being a hell of a find, but also a theatrical one if he keeps up his play-acting to win the foul.

2. There weren’t too many trademark Lee Cook runs but wasn’t it great to see him back at Loftus Road in the blue & white.

3. I don’t care what Dowie says; Fitz Hall was not the designated penalty taker!

4. We’ve all done it at other grounds, but wasn’t it weird to look straight up to the top of the School End to catch the replays on the big screen?

5. Lee Camp has got to be one p*ssed off player, harshly dropped.

6. It wasn’t convincing, but it looks like there is plenty more to come from this team.

7. Parejo looked very composed when he came on. Alberti was another positive in his brief cameo, how bloody quick is he?!!

8. When was the last time you got soaked so much on the first day of the season?

9. At least we won. And we still have Rowlands, Vine and Buzsaky to come back.

10. The Euro's and all these pre-season tournaments may give us something to watch, but you can't beat the start of the football season and being back at Loftus Road.

Man of the Match

A lot of the papers gave it to Fitz Hall, which was the easy thing as he imposed himself on the match with his two goals and missed penalty. But for me it had to be Emmanuel Ledesma. He looks like a real find and if the coaching staff can curb some of his theatrical moments he is going to be a real match winner for us on a regular basis. A couple of his deliveries went a stray but the two goals came through him and in one possession he shrugged of two Barnsley men close by before picking out the right man to show he has the skill and also the strength to hold off his marker. He’ll get plenty more tackles thrown his way and two tricky away games this week will quickly get him accustomed to what to expect the rest of the season, but it was a debut of real promise and he fully deserved his standing ovation when he made way for Alberti.

Talking point

Could easily say the whole penalty debacle but away from the headlines of Dowie saying Fitz was the designated man, the talking point for me was the decision to drop Lee Camp. You can’t say he was dropped in the traditional sense after a bad performance and it was more that Dowie preferred Cerny, but Camp hardly put a foot wrong last season and it seems that the bigger name after his Spurs heroics last season won here. Let’s hope for the sake of a Cerny in goal for a few years we don’t lose Camp when he should be our number one long after Cerny has hung up his gloves or moved on.

All eyes on

Daniel Parejo. Had just under 20 minutes to make an impact but showed that he has a lot of talent and his early touches gave a glimpse into what to expect when he gets more minutes and accustomed to life in the Championship. The tackle by Marciano Van Hoemet was certainly that but he dusted him self down and was involved in one of the few good passages of play when he linked with Alberti whose cross almost picked out Blackstock. Won’t be long till he gets a first start and I reckon he will more likely be supporting one of our front men to begin with rather than in the middle as there won’t be much defensive cover with just one of Mahon or Leigertwood providing cover for three attack minded players in Cook, Ledesma and the man from Real Madrid.

Match Reports from the press

Daily Mirror
The Sun
News of the World
The Times
The Guardian
The Independent

This entry was posted on Monday 11 August 2008 at 11:30. You can skip to the end and leave a response.