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Guardian -Mark Tallentire at Portman Road
Walters takes chance to add to Gregory's problems
Gianni Paladini wandered back to his seat in the directors' box after half-time, alone and deep in thought. After a dreadful month in which his QPR team had dipped back into the bottom three and attracted adverse headlines on front pages as well as back, he would have been entitled to be wondering where it is all going to end.
One down to an Ipswich team who had not scored for eight minutes short of 10 hours was merely the latest in a sequence of trials that include the recent brawl with China's Olympic team but last week's admission by Paladini that he would sell if "some millionaire" wants to take the club forward but "nobody is interested at the moment and I have no choice but to stay", had hardly inspired confidence.
Three new board members were also wheeled out by Paladini last week, all said to be fans and at least two of them property lawyers. Coming so soon after the sighting of Sam Hammam, the man who rendered Wimbledon homeless and ultimately stateless, at their last home match, the club and their Loftus Road stadium are again seen to be under threat.
It is not the best of working environments, then, for the manager, John Gregory, who arrived with the club bottom of the table and inherited a 35-man squad to get on with it. "We've swum the Channel to get this far," he said later. "I'm just looking forward to the summer and sitting down with a blank piece of paper to try to build something constructive.
"I've paid off nine or 10 players and it's not been easy - I've been the bad guy in all of it. But there's people out there trying to destroy the club, people who are close to it. You've got some on the internet message boards slagging everything off and giving out details about financial aspects, which are confidential. A few former employees might be feeding them stuff, spreading a lot of poison. It's quite sad really. "Financially we are restricted and are trying to make the best of what we have got. They are a good bunch but sometimes they are not at it and other weeks they are brilliant. That's the hardest part."
QPR actually started well and pinned Ipswich in their own half but before long the home side were getting out of it on a regular basis. Less than a minute after Alex Bruce saw his header well saved at the foot of a post, Alan Lee headed in a Gareth Roberts cross and after half-time Roberts threaded a pass through for Jon Walters, signed from Chester on a free in January, to knock in his first for the club.
"We can't win with one up front" was the refrain from the QPR fans and the 38-year-old Paul Furlong emerged to hammer home a rebound, after Martin Rowlands hit an upright, and also had a chance to knock in a scarcely deserved equaliser deep into injury-time, when he was impeded and shot high and wide.
Ipswich had introduced Francis Jeffers by then, down on a month's loan from Blackburn. He arrived in the town at 10pm on Friday and showed some good touches. "It's amazing, you bring someone else in and both of your strikers score," said the Ipswich manager, Jim Magilton. It is the sort of thing Paladini and Gregory can only dream about.
Man of the match Owen Garvan (Ipswich)Guardian
FURTHER REPORTS
Clive Whittingham/Rivals - Match Report
Simon Skinner/QPRNet - Match Report
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Monday, March 05, 2007
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