Independent Rs Messageboard

[Steve Russell]

From the Club:

'QPR's squad got valuable match minutes under their belt in a behind-closed-doors friendly with Wycombe Wanderers
at the club’s Heston training ground on Thursday afternoon.

With no fixture this weekend owing to the international break, head coach Martí Cifuentes used the opportunity to give
plenty of his players game time against the Chairboys.

Encouragingly for Rangers, Ilias Chair came through 60 minutes while Morgan Fox played the full game as the pair overcame
injuries which have limited their involvement so far this season.

Chair made his first outing of the season as a late substitute against Hull nine days’ ago while Fox’s first appearance followed
at Derby on Saturday.

The match against Wycombe finished 1-0 to the visitors with Fred Onyedinma scoring the only goal of the game after
16 minutes.

Rangers started the game brightly with Daniel Bennie seeing his early effort fly narrowly over the bar following good work
from Kader Dembélé on the right.

Dembélé was at his creative best again in the eighth minute, picking out Fox with a great ball to the far post, and the defender
was unlucky to see his header hit the crossbar.

Sixty seconds later, again Dembéle was the architect, this time playing a perfectly-weight ball behind the Wycombe backline
for Alfie Lloyd to latch onto.

The R’s striker did well to round visiting keeper Shamal George but was unable to convert from a tight angle.

Joe Walsh pulled off a fine save in the tenth minute but could do nothing to stop Onyedinma scoring the opening goal
of the game just after the quarter-hour mark.

Rangers responded well, with Lloyd forcing another excellent save out of George after Dembélé had once more unlocked
the Wycombe backline.

As the game drew on, Wycombe grew more into the match, and Walsh had to be at his best to stop the Chairboys grabbing
a second, diving full stretch to his left.

Shortly before half-time, Sam Field almost levelled matters but saw his fierce drive from 15 yards brilliantly tipped onto
the bar by George.

Ten minutes after the restart, Kieran Morgan’s powerful low drive was well gathered by George after good work by
Hevertton Santos down the right.

Wycombe enjoyed good periods of possession during the second half and almost finished off an excellent move with a
diving header from eight yards, while Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Jimmy Dunne went close late on for the R’s.

All in all, it was a useful workout for Rangers prior to the blank weekend before preparations continue for the arrival of
Portsmouth to MATRADE Loftus Road on 19th October.

QPR: Walsh; Santos, Cook (Dunne, 46), Fox, Ashby (Friel, 80); Field (Dixon-Bonner, 46), Morgan (Madsen, 61);
Dembélé (Andersen, 61), Chair (Saito, 61), Bennie (Shann, 81); Lloyd (Frey, 61).

[Tommy Cunningham]

Whatever way you look at that game behind closed doors earlier today, the bottom line is it was yet another
defeat.

Looking at the players involved in that game today, I would have expected a positive result with that lineup.

We should be looking at beating any Wycombe Wanderers team we face, unfortunately we have a mentally and
physically weak squad hence the reason we had another poor result.

All this nonsense about players getting minutes in their legs is absolute rubbish, that lineup today was nearly our strongest
team and yet we suffer another loss.

The game today was an opportunity to gain some much needed confidence and get a positive result, but I suppose the
general feeling amongst supporters will be it was only a friendly game.

I get the distinct feeling another long winter awaits us.