hedger_14
ICC Chairman
24th September - QPR v Man Utd - Premier Division
Controversial decisions cost QPR in their mid-week League Cup clash with Everton in a 2-1 defeat. Barton had taken the lead before Everton were given a controversial penalty before Everton scored a late winner, suspicions of offside as well. QPR would have to bounce back to beat Man Utd. They would still be missing Shaun Wright-Phillips, Petter Vaagan Moen and Keiron Dyer through injury along with Danny Gabbidon who was injured against Everton. Man Utd were missing key players as well with Wayne Rooney, Tom Cleverley and Rafael through injury while Anderson was suspended after being sent off against Millwall mid-week.
Man Utd might have been huge favourites going into this match but I don't think they expected to take the lead 5 minutes in, when poor defending led to an easy tap in for Berbatov. Nani made it two after 25 minutes off a 30 yard free kick. QPR were given a lifeline when Patrice Evra brought down Joey Barton inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot and James McFadden made no mistake in converting to score his first league goal for QPR. QPR couldn't find an equaliser before half-time but they would have hopes only a goal down going into the break.
The second half was pretty boring, Armand Traore suffering an injury bringing Luke Young on. After 65 minutes, Hernandez scored but for the second time in the game, it had been disallowed for offside. James McFadden had a good chance to equalise with 7 minutes remaining but his shot went flying over the bar. They couldn't get the equaliser but they really didn't make anything throughout the match and Man Utd took a deserved victory.
Ryan Giggs took the MOTM award for Man Utd, playing a key role. He made 4 key passes, set up Berbatov's goal, completed 3 crosses, won 4 tackles and headers and made 3 runs, but unfortunately couldn't cap his wonderful game with a goal. Nani proved a constant threat to the QPR defence, scoring the free kick while making 10 runs down the right hand side of the field. Matthew Connolly played reasonably well for QPR meanwhile, winning 2/2 tackles, 11 headers including 6 key headers and making 4 interceptions, standing out in a pretty poor performance overall from QPR. Things didn't get any better for QPR though with Anton Ferdinand out for 7 weeks with injury and Traore out for 2 weeks.
