QPR have lost 4 games in a row which, if you take Twitter’s word for it, means that the following should happen:

Tony Fernandes, Les Ferdinand and Mark Warburton ought to be sacked and replaced by an army of Neil Warnock clones

We should sign Raheem Sterling back on a 10-year contract using “that bit of money we must have from selling Freeman”

QPR fans young and old should abandon any commitment to the club, and storm out of Loftus Road collectively in protest muttering “don’t even know why I bother with this club, no bloody ambition, what’s the point”

We shouldn’t sell Eze, ever, until we’re paying his old-age home rent instead of his footballing wages

The club should crawl to Bristol on their hands and knees to beg for Nahki Wells’ forgiveness, return, and eternal love

Any disciple of the great Clive Whittingham will be all too familiar with the notion of the “knuckle-draggers” of the @ replies to the QPR FC Twitter account, so it should be no surprise that they’re out in full force following Saturday’s meeting with Huddersfield. Conveniently, though, they’ve forgotten that we put in as good a defensive performance as anything we’ve seen this season, our young players were on decent form, and we’ve just lost our top scorer – God forbid we take any time to rebuild.

Piss weak. — LoftforWords (@LoftforWords) February 8, 2020 Clive’s not immune to a bit of classic QPR Twittering himself, though.

Yes, it’s a “goals business,” yes, it’s a “game of two halves” in which our second half was severely lacking, and yes it would be seriously nice to claim another win, ideally of the sort that made us the highest-scoring club in 2020 for a glorious week or so. Doesn’t mean we need the pitchforks out quite yet though, lads.

Take young Ebere Eze as an example. He’s not been on the greatest of form recently, glittering early-season triumphs fading into moderately solid, run of the mill attacking midfielder stuff. This is down to a few, largely predictable factors – opposing teams very much having his number (marking him as aggressively as 3 men to 1), the inconsistency bound to come with being a promising youth prospect, and the fact that he’s started every league game since the outset of the season. There was the danger that he faded into the background as much as he unfortunately did last season, but on Saturday we got a glimpse of a more mature Eze, placed on the wing by Warburton but very much given the run of the entire pitch. He took a step back from his role of creating and taking his own chances, which works better when he’s underestimated by his opponents, and instead became a playmaker attempting to give service to a slightly clumsy Hugill. Overall, he was back on form, albeit in a slightly different role.

He wasn’t the only player who broadly gave a good showing. The decision not to send Masterson out on loan continues to vindicate itself, and Dom Ball dominated both in attempted and successful tackles, as well as putting in a good shift with his passing and interceptions. Luke Amos looked decent, which bodes well if the late-2019 rumours of him staying in West London in exchange for Eze still hold water. Kelly was the sort of keeper to concede two goals and still manage to look seriously good.

Are you getting the picture yet? Our defence is beginning, slowly, to solidify. Yeah, we Lumley’d it a few times, giving the ball away in our own box and causing a few pulse-raising moments inside of the first few minutes, but surely that’s just par for the course now.

Dominic Ball against Huddersfield:

43 passes (5th on the pitch) with 90,7% accuracy (best on the pitch)

9 succesful tackles, 11 attempted (most for both on the pitch)

3 interceptions (2nd on the pitch)

64 touches (7th on the pitch), map below#QPR pic.twitter.com/OiZXuIOltA — Antti Korpela (@Antti_K_QPR) February 10, 2020 Easy to forget he was a summer signing – he’s got a Scowen-like quiet ever-presence in midfield.

There are a few problems left outstanding, notably that of who gets on the end of our wingers’ goal threats with Hugill floundering and Oteh standing ready, but with a hell of a lot to prove. Osayi-Samuel looked lost without any meaningful service being given to him, and – yes, I know – we did lose the game.

The point is, we’ve been witnessing a season of football that has not only been entertaining but has turned a Costcutter team of young talent into what looked for a while like a meaningful playoff threat. We’ve got a manager who seems to vaguely know what he’s doing, and the recent transfer window has helped us on the road to financial stability on our shoestring budget. Financial stability isn’t sexy, but if we want to progress in the years to come, and avoid the relegation battle that the Twits think we’re already in, then we need it.

Granted, I haven’t been around as long as some, and I haven’t quite had to tolerate the same amount of hope and despair as more seasoned Rs, but I think it’s important to recognise that there were some silver linings in Saturday’s performance, and allowing the Twitter-touted despair to take hold will only make the next few seasons gloomier than they need to be.

We go again against Swansea. It’s become a bit of a recent tradition for us to give Welsh teams a seeing-to at Loftus Road in the middle of otherwise disastrous runs of form, so it would be very QPR to do so again. However, since this has become something of an established practice, it would be even more QPR to screw it up and lose horribly. You RRRRRRs.

That away kit has to go, though.