Top two finish all square.

Sunday's top of the table clash in the Championship between QPR and Nottingham Forest finished with honours even, although it was the Forest fans that were far happier with the 1-1 score line. A goal down and a man down after 23 minutes, Forest then quickly drew level in somewhat fortuitous circumstances, before displaying impressive steely resolve in preventing Rangers from adding to Tommy Smith's first half strike.

R's manager, Neil Warnock had predicted that this fixture was unlikely to be a "defensive game", and sure enough the game soon evolved into an open, end-to-end encounter. Forest were certainly quicker out of the blocks, with Marcus Tudgay striking the post as early as the first minute, albeit from an offside position. Rangers' mercurially talented Moroccan, Adel Taarabt, was having limited influence on the game, having been well shackled by the Forest rearguard. Indeed, Taarabt had little or no part in the game's opening goal. Following a spell of sustained Rangers pressure, Faurlin found Smith in space with a clever reverse ball, and as the Forest back-four held off, Smith powered towards goal and beat Forest keeper Camp with a precise left foot finish. As Rangers pressed for a second, a moment of madness from Forest's Radislaw Majewski saw referee, Mark Clattenburg, reach for the red card. A bit harsh I thought at the time, a view apparently shared by many fans around me. However, having seen the incident a good few times since, courtesy of Sky TV, the challenge - two footed and studs up- was certainly worthy of a red card. A Rangers win, then, looked a likely result until fate cruelly intervened. Lewis McGugan's driven long-range free kick was heading wide of the goal until David McGoldrick stuck out a leg and succeeded in deflecting the ball past Rangers' keeper Paddy Kenny. This soft goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of QPR, and try as they did to breach the Forest goal in the second half, Forest held firm and ultimately were rewarded for their heroic, if occasionally desperate, defending.


In his post-match interview, Neil Warnock was quick to trot out that oft used observation that it's 'harder to play against ten men'. Be that as it may, I can't help feeling this was a case of two points dropped, points made all the more vital as a result of Saturday's frustrating last gasp victories for all of Rangers' other promotion rivals! This was a sentiment that was clearly shared by QPR fan Trevor, as he explained to WinkBall reporter Tara Manandhar:



However, whilst both Cardiff and Forest now have a great opportunity to reduce QPR's lead at the top by winning their games in hand, a glance at the fixture lists reveals that the R's appear to have the easiest run-in. Add to that the obvious quality and experience of recent squad additions - Miller, Chimbonda, Shittu and Vaagan Moen- and I remain confident that the dream of a return to the promised land of the Premiership is still a very realistic one! This optimism and belief in the manager and the team seems to be wide spread amongst the R's faithful - here's loyal QPR fan John speaking to WinkBall: