Carlisle-Area Perspectives of QPR Game - "United Are Bludgeoned by the Power of Money"

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Carlisle News and Star/Jon Colman - United are bludgeoned by the power of money

Finance 4, Romance 0. Don’t linger on this page if you’re leafing through the paper in search of an inspirational underdog story.

Foot in: Danny Livesey, right, breaks down the move after QPR’s Samuel Di Carmine attempts to race down the touchline Last night Carlisle United were bludgeoned by the power of money and the sophisticated foreign talent it can bring whizzing through customs.

These are sport’s starkest evenings, when a dream is exposed as a delusion just as soon as the rich people turn up, rattling their jewellery. Carlisle matched QPR for effort and enterprise for half this Carling Cup tie. Then the home side’s Argentine maestro found his glittering range, and the illusion went pop.

Fact one: Emmanuel Ledesma, who lanced United with a brilliant second-half hat-trick, chose to move from Genoa to Loftus Road on loan, despite the overtures of several Italian Serie A clubs. Fact two: Daniel Perejo, the Spaniard who created Rangers’ first goal, has been borrowed from Real Madrid. And three: Samuel Di Carmine, the third foreign raider in Iain Dowie’s starting eleven last night, is the property of Fiorentina.

Additional information: QPR’s owners are the billionaire Formula One chums Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, on whose stupefying wealth and renown Dowie is building this shiny new team. Cuffing Carlisle in a second round cup tie registers as the smallest brushstroke on Briatore’s canvas, which he soon expects to be filled with the gaudy colours of Premier League and European football.

No apologies for setting the scene with pound signs. QPR and Carlisle are a division apart but exist in different financial galaxies. The glorious gifts revealed by Ledesma don’t necessarily deserve to be pushed down the page by the sober realities of the balance sheet, but is there another context for what we saw last night?

Fair enough: you should only be allowed to say all this if you can still appreciate the talent which QPR's new riches have provided. There’s no problem here in letting the ink of praise flow for Ledesma, whose three goals were individual entertainment packages that even the most dazed Cumbrian had to applaud.

Reality intruded on this game the moment Damion Stewart beat Ben Williams to Parejo’s whipped corner and bashed home Rangers’ opener. From the 47th minute on, dramatic tension was replaced by Ledesma’s virtuoso performance.

Minute 55: the 20-year-old Argentine accepts the ball with his back to the target, holds off Peter Murphy, spins into shooting space and whacks his first goal into the bottom right of Williams’ net.

Minute 64: QPR push through the middle, Ledesma plays a cute one-two with Parejo, and fires the ball confidently past the diving goalkeeper. And minute 84: the coup de grace, as Colombian substitute Angelo Balanta deftly backheels the ball into Ledesma’s path, and the midfielder sprints forward and clips the ball over the onrushing Williams.

How do you analyse this; how do you begin to criticise the likes of Murphy and Williams for failing to lay a glove on such brilliance? Answer: you don’t, unless you think Carlisle will be confronting players like Ledesma on a regular basis this season. The search to find a more damaging opponent for United’s defenders in League One will be long and futile.

How deceptive that first half now seems. For John Ward’s reshuffled team were going toe-to-toe with their hosts until the interval and might even have claimed a lead, given some sharper finishing and a more observant referee.

Amid an unconvincing flurry of QPR half-chances - the best of which saw Williams superbly tip wide Damien Delaney’s howitzer - the Blues appeared comfortable with the occasion. Gary Madine, who battled admirably against the towering Stewart all night, set up a far-post chance for Michael Bridges after 23 minutes, but the former Premier League man’s stooping header was blocked.

Later, a United cross from the right saw the 18-year-old Madine clatter to the floor under a clumsy-looking Matthew Connolly challenge, but the plausible penalty claims were rejected by referee Keith Hill, who had already batted away Simon Hackney’s insistence that an earlier cross had connected with a QPR arm in the area.

It was a frustrating end to a half notable for QPR’s attractive one-touch passing (which, at the time, seemed to be lacking the attacking focus of an old-fashioned number 9) and United’s defensive persistence and occasional forays led by the pace of Hackney and Cleveland Taylor on respective flanks.

At Carlisle’s end, Lee Cook took unsuccessful aim and then Williams saved well from the roaming Ledesma. At the home end, Hackney scampered towards the area and fed Bridges to the left of goal, only for the striker to slice wastefully wide. At half-time, 8,021 spectators were discussing an even skirmish. Then the myth was dismantled.

QPR, suddenly appearing more vibrant and focused, flew at United moments after the restart. Pereja wriggled free from Murphy then tore away from the Dubliner down the right. A touch too many from the Spaniard allowed Danny Livesey to intervene, but the resulting corner saw Williams leap from his line only to be beaten to the cross by Stewart.

At this point, Ledesma assumed the stage. QPR’s football became quicker and slicker while Carlisle’s attacking influence evaporated, save for some wholehearted running from Taylor which drew more than one heavy challenge from Dowie’s defenders.

Madine and Bridges, who had flickered with promise in the first half, now disappeared from view. There was a brief, late surge from United which twice took them close to a consolation goal, but on both occasions Jeff Smith was denied by Radek Cerny - the Czech ‘keeper turning behind Smith’s first sliding effort, then flying to his left to beat away the substitute’s curling free-kick.

All that these token efforts achieved was to rouse Ledesma into a final, devastating eruption, the Argentine firing an injury-time rocket over Williams’ bar by millimetres, as if assembling a hat-trick for the ages wasn't enough.

By then, Loftus Road cult status had long been conferred on the floppy-haired loanee, whose goals allowed Dowie to complete a personal treble of Carling Cup victories over United, after triumphs with Charlton and Coventry in the two preceding seasons.

For what it’s worth, this was by far the most resounding of the three. What it’s worth, in fact, is a possible third round meeting with a Premier League big cheese, and, more importantly, another modest step in fame’s direction. That’s where QPR are heading, bobbing along a sea of cash.

Carlisle, by cruel contrast, have rarely looked smaller.

BEN WILLIAMS - Made a couple of fine first-half saves but couldn’t lay a glove on Ledesma’s superb finishing.

DAVID RAVEN - Solid enough against the dangerous Cook but United’s defence were eventually overrun.

EVAN HORWOOD - Wholehearted effort at the back and a couple of promising moments in attack, but it wasn’t a good night to be a Blues defender.

DANNY LIVESEY - Didn’t shirk from the challenge but had no answer to the brilliance of Ledesma.

PETER MURPHY - Dowie’s talented strikeforce got the better of the Irish defender for two of the Rangers goals.

MARC BRIDGE-WILKINSON - Industrious but couldn’t conjure anything to unduly concern the hosts.

PAUL THIRLWELL - Got stuck in and embodied Carlisle’s early defiance, but couldn’t stop the Blues being overwhelmed.

SIMON HACKNEY - Was United’s main counter-attacking weapon in the first half but didn’t see much of the ball after the break. 6

CLEVELAND TAYLOR - Made several positive runs down the right, the winger was Carlisle’s most threatening player.

MICHAEL BRIDGES - Unable to profit from a couple of half-chances in the first half, and nothing came his way as QPR began to dominate.

GARY MADINE - Won his share of aerial battles with the towering Stewart and almost set up a goal for Bridges, but the teenager struggled to influence matters in the second half.

Subs: Jeff Smith (for Hackney, 72) - Almost scored on two occasions but by then the game was dead. 7; Grant Smith (for Bridges, 74) - Thankless job for the fit-again midfielder. 6. Not used: Howarth, Graham, Carlton, Keogh, Campion. News and Star


Carlisle News and Star/Jon Colman - We got a tanking - Ward
Argentine wonderkid Emmanuel Ledesma fired a brilliant hat-trick to dump Carlisle United out of the Carling Cup - and boss John Ward admitted: We got a tanking.
Midfield tangle: United’s Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, left, battles with QPR’s Martin Rowlands during the Carling Cup clash at Loftus Road last nightQPR’s summer recruit from Genoa was too hot for the Cumbrians to handle in last night’s 4-0 second round defeat at Loftus Road.
It was a heavy first defeat of the season for Ward’s side and the United manager did not hide from big-spending Rangers’ superiority.

“It’s no disgrace being beaten by a team like that,” said the Blues boss.

“They are a good side who play good football, and in the second half they gave us a tanking. We’ve got to take it. Players at Championship level are faster with the ball and without the ball. He (Ledesma) was the instigator for all that.

“We got close to coming into this division last year, but it’s a massive step looking at that second 45 minutes. We've got a lot to do.”

Ward felt United should have been awarded a penalty when 18-year-old striker Gary Madine appeared to be bundled over in the box near the end of the goalless first half.

But Damion Stewart’s 47th-minute opener triggered a second-half rout with 20-year-old Ledesma scoring superb goals in the 55th, 64th and 84th minutes.

QPR, backed by the billions of Formula One chiefs Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, also fielded impressive Real Madrid loanee Daniel Parejo as they cruised into the third round.

“We did ok in the first half and we had a shout for a penalty,” said Ward. “Iain Dowie was quiet at the time - he didn’t tell me I was wrong to shout for it. But you either get them or you don’t.

“We knew if we could pinch a goal we could give them a problem, but there weren’t many concerns for them after 47 minutes.

“They have always been a massive danger at set plays because their delivery is fantastic. We warned the players about that at half-time, and then within a minute or two we conceded off one.

“The best team has won, end of story. But I don’t regret winning at Shrewsbury in the last round to get this game. It’s better coming here and having this opportunity than going out in the first round and wondering where we might have been.”

Cleveland Taylor, in for the suspended Scott Dobie, earned praise from Ward for his encouraging performance down the right.

And the boss said young Madine - who partnered Michael Bridges in attack with first-choice pair Danny Graham and Danny Carlton rested - would not forget his first start of the season in a hurry.

“Gary will remember that for a long time - but he won’t enjoy it,” said Ward.

The United chief added: “We will be back in on Thursday, we will be strong and we will be ready for Saturday’s match against Yeovil.” News and Star


Read: Earlier Reports and Post Match Comments on QPR's Carlisle Victory