Sunday 23 August 2015

Connections

Charlton Athletic 2 Queens Park Rangers 0
Yeovil Town 0 Queens Park Rangers 3
Queens Park Rangers 2 Cardiff City 2
Wolves 2 Queens Park Rangers 3
Queens Park Rangers 4  Rotherham Utd 2


For most of my life I have been very conscious of my mixed heritage. My experiences living in the UK, Hong Kong and the Philippines have very much made me who I am affected how I feel about things.  I think there are others who feel the same way.  Back in 2010, a woman who was schooled in Hong Kong released a book called The Eurasian Nation. This book is a collection of thoughts and photographs from people of combined Asian and Western ancestry. Reading through some of the examples, you can see that every experience and every person is unique. It reminds me that we simply can't generalise about human connections, but that in life, connections mean everything.

This is a comfort as I continue to write this blog and share my thoughts on the ups and downs at QPR and all the connections that we make as we support our team. And as I glance at the results so far, it looks like we are, as always, in for a roller-coaster ride. I am not sure that we're going to be challenging for a play off spot (especially with the potential departure of Phillips and Austin), but I don't think many of us expect or want that. Conversely, we're too good to be struggling in the dregs of the bottom of the table (even if they do go). Our roller-coaster this season is going to be something to do with getting to grips with a new ethos and a new team. The kind of team most of us fans have been begging for for 3-4 years! We're in (to use an often used business term), the 'forming' phase of group development (of which there are four). And we're in it when there are pressures and targets that need to be achieved at least once, if not three or four times a week! We haven't even hit the 'storming' or 'norming' phase...we might not get there until the end of the season. Oh, to one day reach the 'performing' stage...

We simply have be realistic and honest about what is to come.

It seems to me, amongst of all of this, that our first problem to solve, is the number of goals we're leaking in. Never one to claim any tactical expertise, I'd be open to hearing what's at the heart of this problem. Is it our overall attacking approach, or it is specific individuals or specific positions? Having not had a single clean sheet in the league is a major concern. I don't remember it being like this at all two seasons ago. It's almost like we've got two different teams within a team, with the defenders totally unconnected to the forwards.

Nonetheless, yesterday was one of those few moments in a season where everything seemed to come together and prove to me that it's still a club worth being involved in. Credit must be given to those at the club who very quickly started to plan Stan Bowles Day after hearing the news about his Alzheimer's diagnosis. And by the looks of it, the club did everything it possibly could that day to drive awareness of the condition, raise money for Alzheimer's Society and for Stan himself. It was great to see him smiling and the atmosphere in the ground was fantastic. Many people there, including myself are simply not old enough or were born early enough to remember Stan Bowles playing. But that was irrelevant on a day which was all about connections: All of the fans with Stan, Stan with the club and with Loftus Road, the younger with the older generation of QPR fans, the players with the history of this club, and all of us together with our friends enjoying the icing on the cake in the form of a 4-2 win.

Please donate to the two causes if you can:

Stan Bowles- personal Go Fund Me  page to help support his care

Alzheimer's Sociery - special Stan Bowles  Fund Raising Page



Saturday 8 August 2015

Clichés

Preview- QPR- Season 2015-2016

I need to start getting it out of my head that my life works in three year cycles: three years of good and three years of bad. Especially on this important first day of the football season. But it's been hard. It's been an extremely tough year. The football fizzled out and I didn't even write a final 'report'. In my personal life I had bad news after bad news.Now I am hoping my quota for bad news this year is full and I can now move on and look forward to better things.

I kept up to date a little with the summer goings-on at QPR, but haven't been immersed in it. Not as much as last year. I've made some big changes in my life that have controlled where I am focused. But I did go to the friendly on my own at the Hive against Dundee. It was a bright summer's evening in London that reminded me of why I love this country so very much. And then I smiled a lot watching a game of football, and that included savouring every moment of Charlie playing...thinking perhaps he would disappear before deservedly moving to a bigger and better club than ours.

Today I have my ticket in-hand for Charlton away and I am looking out of my window to what looks like a beautiful warm day ahead. I am thinking of my football friends who I hope I'll see, and I'm trying to remember that every moment counts and to be in the present. And when I think of that, and think of the great little report on  the LFW site, I realise just how apt such a mantra is in relation to how we support this club.

My brother said the other day something like 'Forget the past it's gone, don't worry about the future, it isn't here yet...live for the present'. Perhaps this post is full of clichés but I suppose there is a reason why they exist. And for QPR, we've got to stop moaning about what has happened before- with existing and old owners, with our overpaid and under-delivering players, with the ground move - or not a ground move, with our issues on the family stand or the freaking PR policy. And while we can worry about the future (which at this very point is really open to the elements), what is it that most of us hardcore fans remember at the very end of the day when it comes to supporting our team? I remember my friends, the days out and experiences up and down the country, the joy of finding a new crazy item for my 'borrowed' dog at the 'Superstore', or singing a ridiculous song when we are playing really badly. Sometimes, if we are lucky, there are pieces of sublime football that can cap a day off superbly.

Our joy in life, and our joy in QPR is simply in our own hands. So I wish everyone a joyful season and a wonderful result today.