Young Blues dumped out by QPR

Just seen that our youth team has been knocked out of the FA Youth Cup by QPR. The problem? Just like the first team - not being able to score. Unsurprisingly after ten years in charge,it seems that the David Moyes approach to playing football now pervades the whole club. A shitty present and the future doesn't look too good either. Thanks Davey

I left early from Loftus Road through cold and boredom. The U18 cup match offered very little. Barkley and Green were absent so the crowd of 1500+ were denied Everton?s finest. We have a guy in the middle that you?d back in a street fight, and a number 6 who could earn himself a career on free kicks alone. Nothing else of note.

The score with 20 minutes to play was 1-0 to The Rs as a run went unchecked through the middle and free shot found the corner of the net. Leaving, I remembered why I found the final of the Premier League Championship match at Craven Cottage so dull in the spring. No player showed any individuality or character. Its all been trained out of them and they all seemed so interchangeable ? bar the bean pole of elegance at the back.

The team played with some neat interchanging for the first twenty and QPR looked sure for a loss, but the game descended into two teams cancelling each other out with closing down and self-inflicted ineptitude.

There are no Rooneys coming through, no more £20m saviours for our overdraft. The highlight of the evening was spotting Denis Wise and Martin Keown outside. Though I would have been more chuffed at seeing Kevin Sheedy for the first time but from a distance it was either him or a female Nigel Worthington impersonator.

Sod?s law I?ve missed something amazing, but as far as I know I spent a fiver on being cold and uninspired by these potential millionaires, though if Anichebe quality is what you want then you've got some candidates.

Up the Blues.

Largely agree with you Nick. We bossed much of the game, yet there seemed to be no player capable of taking the initiative in and around the QPR box.

Our neat passing was often spoilt by eagerness to play it long too early and lose possession. The player who made the difference was Andrade, the stand-out player in a very average QPR team. He has a great shot from distance and almost scored in the 1st half. The defence allowed him another chance early in the 2nd half and that was that. QPR were hardly a threat from then on, but we still couldn't score!

We did hit the post 1st half and their keeper made a great save from a Higgins free-kick in the second, but there were so many missed chances in the second, I lost count. A great run to the byline by Tyias Browning was spoilt by a cut back to the penalty spot with nobody there - but 3 players had run on to the six yard line! Forrester had an open goal to head into in the second half and chose to head across goal instead...

Lundstram was good in the 1st half, ineffective in the 2nd, but he was the only one to show any class in midfield. Hope was playing too deep or wide for most of the game to be effective up front and played his best football in midfield. Hammar at the back was commanding, until he had to go off (replaced by Dier) after a dreadful red card tackle 15 mins from the end (his shin pad ended up 10 feet away!). Even then, with an extra man, we still hit too many panic long balls.

Who of them might make it to the 1st team squad? Lundstram, Hammar, Hope perhaps....the rest are a work in progress still.

You missed a straight red for a wild lunge on our number 5, Johann Hammar, Nick (it literally took his boot off!). So QPR went down to 10 with 15 minutes to play but we struggled to convert long spells of concerted pressure into real meaningful chances, even with the man advantage (much like the senior side, eh?). I was a bit underwhelmed by Hallam Hope who didn't offer much and had to drop very deep to find any space, just didn't cause them any problems all night. On the plus side, Lundstram could be a smart player. He's a sort of deep-lying playmaker displaying a real range of accurate passes and moving the ball quickly. Also, Conor Grant impressed me, he has a silky touch and proved hard to disposess all game so any play that went through him seemed pretty neat. Spotted Stubbsy in the Press box, too, and would've happily paid the £5 admission fee to cheer the back of Kevin Sheedy's head.. so, not all bad.

i thought they played really well to be honest, QPR hardly had a sniff. they passed and moved really well, particularly around the box, and it was the moments when we forgot that and began pumping the ball upfield where we suffered. we hit the post, hit the bar and were a little wasteful in front of goal but that is a rarity from our strikers at this level. Forrester and Chris Long (who was injured tonight) have been scoring for fun this season. It just wasn't our night, nothing to get too down about. there's plenty of talent in that side

I thought we looked much better than QPR in terms of quality but got done by a moment of quality from their lad "Bruno", who has played for their first team. Accounting for the fact they are U-18 therefore still developing and prone to mistakes or choosing the difficult option vice the easy one, they played some good stuff.

Sheedy called it right; some good delivery in particular from the right back in the second half but the runs into the box were mistimed (over-eager youthfulness to get forward perhaps?).

Players that stood out for me were Hope (good feet and strong), Forrester and pick of the bunch on the night Lundstram, who signed a 2-year pro contract in the summer and has featured for the reserves. Encouraging to see a midfielder hungry for the ball.

Despite the result (not necessarily important in youth football), in the main I came away positive although we did seem to suffer from "first-team-itis" around their penalty box!!!!!