It was Richard Dunne’s late own-goal that gave 10-man Queen’s Park Rangers a 1-1 Premier League draw against Aston Villa at Loftus Road.
Dunne put the ball in his own net in the third minute of stoppage time, after Stephen Warnock’s clearance ricocheted in off the luckless Irishman.
Dunne is the Premier League’s record own-goal scorer, and took his tally to nine with this latest misfortune.
Dunne’s goal cancelled out Barry Bannan’s controversial 58th-minute penalty, which was awarded for a slight shirt-pull by Armand Traore. Traore was to suffer further misery after beings sent off late on for a second bookable offence.
On the whole, a draw was probably a fair result after a highly competitive encounter in which six Villa players were booked.
Warnock flew into a rash challenge a few minutes before half-time, and you did not need to ask who had it was who had suffered from his tackle. Such is Barton’s reputation now, he draws a lot of strong tackles, although Barton is more than capable of dealing with such an attitude.
In fact it was Barton’s arrival at Loftus Road that risked marginalising Adel Taarabt who had already lost the captaincy to the Liverpudlian.
But Taarabt was in lively form, hitting the outside of Shay Given’s post with an audacious banana shot early on.
That set the tone for a long spell of QPR dominance, and it was Taarabt who might have scored when fed inside the box by Shaun Wright-Phillips, but his effort was deflected for a corner.
Jay Bothroyd then put a header wide from a Barton corner. QPR were left wondering what exactly their creativity could do if they had a more effective finisher than Bothroyd.
Villa had a late chance in the first half, as they came close through a superb Bannan free-kick that required all of Paddy Kenny’s effort to prevent a goal.
Villa’s dominance continued after the break, when Fabian Delph saw his effort blocked, and hit just wide after beating the rushing Kenny to a ball at the edge of the box.
As the game progressed, it was referee Michael Oliver who quickly became centre of attention when he penalised Traore for infringing Gabriel Agbonlahor. All in all, the call was a tough one as whilst there was a tug on Gabby’s shirt, it arguably didn’t impede him as far as to draw a penalty.
It was young Barry Bannan who converted the penalty with a low effort into the right corner giving Kenny no chance.
Shaun Wright-Phillips was close to levelling the score after a low shot that brought a brilliant save from Given, before referee Oliver turned down a penalty appeal from QPR after Alan Hutton blocked a goalbound Shaun Derry header with his hand.
Oliver turned down a second penalty appeal for handball against Hutton, not long before Traore saw red for a reckless foul.
Just as Villa were moment away from escaping Loftus Road with all three points, QPR managed an equaliser. Subsitute Heidar Helguson crossed low from the left, and Stephen Warnock’s defensive clearance only managed to rebound off the body of Richard Dunne, which meant an unfortunate own goal from the Irishman.
Conclusion
After a game that was, if you pardon the cliche, very much of two halves, Villa were probably fair value for a point with two penalties claims against full back Alan Hutton. Whilst I, like many fans, were disappointed to concede a late own goal from Richard Dunne’s rebound into the net, on the overall performance, a draw was a fair result.
Of course, we could have done better in the first half, of that there is no doubt, but whatever Alex McLeish said to the team at half time clearly had an effect. Can we lambast McLeish for the poor effort, or his contribution to the first half? I’m not overly sure there given that it is ultimately players who make performances.
This is further evidenced by the fact that the formation was largely the same in the second half, but the performance was much better. How people can somehow suggest that an identical tactic is poor but also yield results down to the manager is a tad beyond me. Whilst McLeish wasn’t even on my list of candidates expected to take the job initially, I think he deserves credit for the team talk. Clearly motivation is something he has excellent ability in, because there was a passion to the team second half.
We should have started the game a lot stronger, but I’m not overly sure that is attributed to the manager, and even if it was, you could argue a very strong case for us putting the feelers out first half to see how our team would compete against a 4-5-1 away from home. Whatever your opinion, few can argue that the second half was full of a lot more energy and effort, where players like Delph and Ireland benefited heavily from the attacking, one touch passing.
Thus I think it will have to be the way forward (our second half performance), because if we are to utilise the creativity of attacking players, we need to be attacking. Including Ireland in a defensive minded team is foolhardy, and bordering on idiotic, as if he isn’t going to attack and use his skillls, he shouldn’t play at all.
We saw glimpses from Ireland today to show what we might actually have in his talent. The future, it would seem, may still be bright even after a series of disappointing draws.
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