Additional Reports on QPR's Southampton Loss

-
Photos from Saturday (from QPR Official Site - Photos)

Mirror - Rangers desperate to find winning formula
QPR PIN HOPES ON F1 BOSS BRIATORE By Ann Gripper 03/09/2007
Ray Jones was always going to be QPR's man of the match on Saturday but his team-mates could not find the performance to live up to his memory.
Every Rangers player had his name on the back of his shirt in memory of 18-year-old Jones, who died in a car crash 10 days ago.
News that the takeover by Formula One bosses Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore had been recommended to shareholders had briefly lifted the spirits at Loftus Road, as Renault head Briatore waved to the crowd from the directors' box.
But the home team's abject performance soon deepened the misery.
Grzegorz Rasiak bagged two for Saints, the first a towering back post header from Youssef Safri's corner, the second an easy finish after John Viafara sliced through any semblance of Rangers resistance before being fouled by keeper Lee Camp, the ball breaking to the Polish striker who saved the keeper from a red card by scoring.
Five minutes after half-time, the unmarked Bradley Wright-Phillips headed a third from Nathan Dyer's cross. And captain Adam Bolder admitted the team had let themselves down.
He said: "It's been a difficult time, but we should have been a lot better. Losing someone affects people in different ways and sometimes you can think you're okay when you're not.
"But I'm not using all that's happened as an excuse for this performance." Promising striker Jones, whose number 31 has been retired by the club, was remembered before kick-off with Puff Daddy and Faith Evans's 'I'll be Missing You' and a moving minute's applause as his family and friends stood on the pitch.
And a week on from being told the dreadful news in their hotel rooms, then making the long five-hour coach journey from Burnley back to London in near silence, Bolder rued not having a victory to dedicate to his former team-mate.
He said: "We all had lumps in our throats when we saw his family walk on to the pitch before kick-off. We knew what a victory would have meant to us, and we're disappointed it didn't happen.
"It was a terrible tragedy, but hopefully this will pull the team closer together."
Saints boss George Burley said: "It was a sad day. The family got an absolutely tremendous reception from everybody in the ground and we really felt for them.
"It was hard seeing all the tributes outside the ground when we arrived, but we are paid to win games and entertain the public and that's exactly what we did." Mirror

The Sun - By PAUL JIGGINS at Loftus Road
ADAM BOLDER insists the death of Ray Jones will make QPR a better team.
Well, they surely cannot get worse. Rangers’ players did not deserve to wear the name of their tragic teenage team-mate on the back of their shirts, as they ended a sad week with a miserable display.
To his credit, skipper Bolder refused to use the death of Jones, killed in a car crash in the early hours of last Saturday morning, as an excuse for this hammering.
The midfielder said: “It has been a difficult time but we should have been a lot better. There was no excuse for that performance.
“We desperately wanted to win for Ray. Had we done so, we would have dedicated the victory to him.
“It was a terrible tragedy, yet I believe it will pull the team closer together and help us this season.”
The only thing Rangers got right was the tribute to Jones, whose heartbroken family stood arm-in-arm on the pitch before kick-off as both sets of fans took part in a minute’s applause and chanted his name. Bolder added: “Ray was a smashing lad. He was one of the young players who always listened to the older pros and I really respected him for that.”
It was one-way traffic for the Saints before and after Grzegorz Rasiak put them in front with a bullet header from Youssef Safri’s 18th-minute corner.
The Pole made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time, tapping into an empty net after Jhon Viafara’s lung-bursting run from the half-way line. Bradley Wright-Phillips completed the scoring four minutes after the break with a header from Nathan Dyer’s cross.
Yet only poor finishing and the heroics of QPR keeper Lee Camp stopped Saints reaching double figures.
Rangers’ new co-owner Flavio Briatore, who has bought the club with fellow Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, would not have been impressed in the directors’ box.
The side’s hapless showing will pile the pressure on boss John Gregory.
It comes to something when a grieving mother can walk on to a football pitch in front of almost 16,000 people but a football manager cannot be bothered to attend a Press conference to explain why his players failed to produce a fitting tribute to her son.
Southampton chief George Burley said: “It was hard seeing all the tributes outside the ground when we arrived. But we are paid to win games and entertain — and we did.”
SUN STAR MAN
NATHAN DYER (Southampton). Jet- heeled winger ran Rangers ragged. The Sun

Also: Previous Reports of QPR's Southampton Loss: QPR-Southampton Match Reports