Di Carmine strike settles QPR's nerves
Flavio Briatore is a man of many talents. As well as running the Renault Formula One team, the Italian businessman is also the chairman and co-owner of Queens Park Rangers. He also owns nightclubs and restaurants — which might explain the money that has been thrown at the fixtures and fittings at Loftus Road, especially in the VIP areas that boast walls of marble and leather — but most of his time recently has been taken up by QPR.
A difference of opinion over team selection led to Iain Dowie, the manager, leaving the club last week and since Briatore started having a more hands-on role in choosing who would play QPR have started to look a team who could be playing in the top flight next season. On Saturday they became the first side to leave the Madejski Stadium with a point this season and last night they produced their best performance of the campaign to beat the Championship leaders despite playing most of the match with ten men.
Despite the off-field drama, most QPR supporters are backing the Briatore’s regime and few were sad to see the back of Dowie. The former Charlton Athletic manager was in charge for only 15 matches, but that was long enough for the chairman to realise that Dowie was not a leather-and-marble kind of manager.
Dowie’s face did not fit because his idea of boutique football — a term coined by Briatore to describe his QPR masterplan — was playing with a lone striker against Blackpool and Swansea City. The Italian wants his team to play with two strikers, especially at home, and the next permanent manager will have to be someone who entertains and wins while taking on board some constructive input and criticism from his employer.
Cynics would say that last night’s QPR team had a distinctly Italian flavour with Damiano Tommasi, the 34-year-old former Italy midfield player, starting for the first time since his summer move from Levante, of Spain. Gareth Ainsworth, the caretaker manager, was in the dugout, but the chairman is in control.
Briatore was shifting uncomfortably in his seat in the directors’ box soon after the kick-off as Birmingham showed why they are top of the table after their best start to a season. Alex McLeish, the Birmingham manager, has an embarrassment of striking riches at this level, demonstrated by the fact that he could switch one Scotland forward, James McFadden, with another when Garry O’Connor was injured during the warm-up. McFadden caught the eye in the first half by drifting into space on the flanks to create chances for Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips.
Radek Cerny, the QPR goalkeeper, had to be at his best to deny Jerome and Phillips during the opening exchanges before QPR got back into the game through long-range efforts from Lee Cook and Martin Rowlands and close-range strikes by Dexter Blackstock and Emmanuel Ledesma.
In the dying minutes of the first half, Mikele Leigertwood, the QPR defender, was sent off for a crude late challenge on Lee Carsley. Stuart Attwell, the referee who was taking charge of his first Championship match since the Watford “ghost goal” controversy, had no option but to show him a red card.
Despite playing with ten men QPR took the lead in the 54th minute through Samuel Di Carmine. The Italian forward beat Maik Taylor with a stunning right-foot strike from 20 yards after Tommasi had won the ball from McFadden. McLeish responded by bringing on two strikers, Marcus Bent and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, but his team were not moving the ball around quickly enough to trouble the home defence.
Phillips could have saved Birmingham’s unbeaten away record when he found space in the six-yard box but Cerny and Mahon kept his close range-strike out before QPR threatened to double their lead through a 25-yard free kick by Emmanuel Ledesma that was saved at full stretch by Taylor.
