The Reds travelled to Loftus Road and played great for three quarters of the game went two nil up yet collapsed in the final fifteen minutes to lose three two. This match just typifies us this season - a host of chances spurned before finally taking the lead only to blow it all away needlessly.
Martin Kelly was ok to keep his place in the team after a slight injury at the weekend whilst Charlie Adam came in to the midfield as we changed to one up top using Suarez.
The Reds were out of the blocks really fast and I lost count of the corners in the first ten minutes of the game. It all just felt like it was Liverpool camped in the QPR area. Like penalties though for us corners are also a useless tool to us these days.
Just three minutes in and Luis Suarez should have opened the scoring but was twice denied by Kenny in the Hoops' goal. What was more annoying is that these kind of misses just kept coming and you always get the nagging feeling at the back of your mind that it will come back and haunt you. That said there was virtually no offering from the home side at all so surely the pressure would pay off at some point.
The half just went on with much one way traffic but no goals. Just past the half hour the Reds were forced to make a change at the back with Martin Kelly coming off and being replaced by Coates. The switch moved Carragher to right back.
The Reds were forced in to a second change at half time as well with Charlie Adam not recovering from a bad knock at the end of the first half.
Just eight minutes in to the second half and the Reds finally took the lead and it was from one of the more unlikely sources. Seb Coates got the goal in stunning fashion. Yet another corner was whipped in and it fell for Downing who hit a shot to the far post. The shot was cleared just ahead of the line but it flew up in the air from Young and from fourteen yards out Coates acrobatically rose to scissor kick the ball superbly in to the back of the net. It was a definite goal of the season contender and hopefully would now really settle us down.
The home side a change just after the hour when Jamie Mackie was sent on from Joey Barton who got that embarrassing cheer at going off. In truth Barton did have a bad game for them but the noise from the home crowd can't do you any favours.
The sub did help QPR but not straight away as the Reds continued to create chances. On seventy two minutes we finally got the second goal to surely put the game to bed. Downing was again heavily involved. Luis Suarez shot on goal and it beat Kenny only to hit the post and come back in to play. For once the rebound was kind and Downing picked the ball up, cut inside two players and then shot but Kenny got a hand to it only for Kuyt to get in first and poke the ball home. It was Kuyt's 200th league game for us and a goal to boot.
At this point everything was fine - yes we should have been about five or six up at this point but we were at least two up and well through the game with virtually no threat to the back line.
On seventy six minutes QPR got a goal back and a lifeline when Shaun Derry was allowed to get a header in at the back post. Two Reds were close to him yet neither put in a true challenge to stop him from scoring and the home crowd really woke up. Only one goal behind the home side now dreamt of a point from a battering.
The game was now far more balanced and the home side in particular suddenly got heart from somewhere. The Reds switched front men with Andy Carroll replacing Luis Suarez up front.
With just four minutes to go Rangers dragged the Reds all out of position before getting a cross in which former Red Djibril Cisse headed home. Skrtel could have put in a better challenge for the cross but he had been left rather exposed as well with the defence all drifting out to the ball.
So here it was that we were now holding on to just a point despite battering them and having a comfortable position. In the first minute of stoppage time it then got worse as Jamie Mackie got in behind the Reds defence with Enrique tying himself in knots. Mackie looked up and with only Reina coming out to him he slotted the ball home and the points were now completely thrown away.
The finish to the game by the Reds was woeful and fifteen minutes made a mockery of the previous seventy five. These are games you are left just despairing at and when you watch the game back again you are left picking holes in all those chances we failed to score with and the goals we conceded.
MotM : Stewart Downing - looks like he is starting to settle down and is finally managing to shoot on target now too - had a hand in both goals.
