HOLLOWAY’S IN DISNEYLAND AS R’S RIDE OUT AS WINNERS
But it’s worrying times for Canaries
AFTER 18 months of “semi-retirement”, Ian Holloway strapped himself back into the rollercoaster of management last week – but his first game in charge was a relative walk in the park.
Holloway battled his emotions after being warmly welcomed back to Loftus Road, some ten years after leaving the club.
And his players responded by swatting away a Norwich side that are in a worrying funk and only briefly flickered into life in the last 20 minutes.
Holloway said: “To get that welcome I had to steady myself in the tunnel before I came out. I didn’t want to come out there with a tear in my eye.
“I really need to just go and lie down now. Compared to what I was doing, semi-retired, that was about four months work this week.
“I feel like I’ve been on one of those rides at Disneyland and it’s terrific.”
Norwich had conceded eight in their two previous games and their defensive frailties were instantly on show from Jack Robinson’s long throw. Nedum Onuoha bundled the ball in, only for the referee to award a penalty. To the detriment of both sides Martin Olsson was sent off for goal-line handball and Tjaronn Chery drilled the spot-kick wide.
Undeterred, Rangers went ahead through Conor Washington and Sebastian Polter. Norwich responded late with Steven Naismith’s header, but did not look a side who have genuine promotion aspirations.
Holloway added: “I’ve never seen an incident like that so early on. Has he sent him off, has he not? Has he scored, has he not?
“After that I was delighted for a spell. The second goal was a wonderful run and a wonderful ball.
“That third goal was vital. When they scored it, we stopped passing, we stopped using that extra man and no matter what I was shouting at them, we kept going deeper.”
But Canaries boss Alex Neil believes the replays show that the Olsson incident was too inconclusive to warrant red.
“I’ve seen it again on video and I still can’t really make it out,” he said. “When you’re on a bad run these things go against you and we’re on a bad run at the moment. Certainly that decision in the first 30 seconds doesn’t help us.”
Because Norwich were virtually down to ten men from kick-off, it is hard to know how many of the Canaries’ failings were down to numerical disadvantage rather than their recent poor form.
However, they were disordered by the long-throw with a full side and the opening goal’s individual contests were all won by QPR, as Chery’s corner was nodded back across the goal by Polter and Washington turned in at the back post in the 21st minute.
For the R’s second the gap between left-back Robbie Brady
and centre-back Sebastien Bassong was so large that Polter had the freedom of the city to collect Chery’s exquisite through-ball and slot under John Ruddy.
After the break, Norwich eventually gained a foothold. Jacob Murphy, the only Canary to trouble QPR all afternoon, cut in from the left wing and curled a beautiful shot against the crossbar from 30 yards out before his cross was glanced across Alex Smithies by Naismith.
But Neil admitted: “When you lose a man after less than 30 seconds, the work we’ve done all week goes out of the window.
“It then becomes difficult, but we should deal with the first goal better. Regardless of whether we’ve ten men or not, it was individual battles in the box. We lose the first header and don’t pick up the man for the second.”