The Tigers' inability to string a run of decent performances together rears its head again as a limited QPR side swot aside a poor City XI.

Report by Ian Thomson.

The news that yesterday's game at Loftus Road would mark the debut of Rangers' coach Jack de Manio set me thinking. Dispatching to the back of my mind the unwelcome memories of the appearance of Mr de Manio on a series of tawdry TV adverts for Green Shield Stamps (who can forget "anyone who doesn't collect them should have their bottom smacked") and thinking instead of his illustrious tenure of the role of anchorman on the Today programme, I started to anticipate the analogies with that august broadcasting institution that Hull City might bring to the party. Would any of our heroes, for example, offer the stern gravitas of John Humphrys, the measured, calm authority of John Timpson, the feisty, venom-tipped probings of Brian Redhead or the patrician elegance of Ed Stourton? Well, it is my unpleasant duty to report to all you Tigchatters that the answer to the above question is a resounding "no". What we had the misfortune to witness instead was the oleaginous, limp-wristed compliant pap of James Naughtie and the ineffectual vacuity of Sarah Montague. Not for nothing is the pairing on air of the latter two individuals known as the "doom team", and that would be a most apt description of City's showing yesterday. The corresponding fixture last season was a complete abomination, but yesterday's was if anything worse, not least because the Hoops, a couple of decent results of late notwithstanding, have been unremittingly shocking this term, whilst we seemed - on the whole - to have improved considerably.

But yesterday really was as grim as anything we served up at any time last season and a deal grimmer than most of it. We were facing no more than a limited if spirited team, not of all whom were, if we are to believe certain sections of the media, especially whelmed about the régime changes that have taken place recently over Shepherd's Bush way, and we should have been capable of administering a sound tonking with power to add. But it was one of those desperately frustrating afternoons when there was simply nothing there. In fact, it was as well that we were playing such a poor team, or else we would have been in danger of a real spanking (in fact, for a time after their second went in it looked as though we would get one anyway).

As has been suggested already on the list, the two central defenders didn't do a great deal wrong, although one has to ask questions about the lack of involvement from either centre-back in taking steps to prevent the QPR goals, the more so because the second goal was identical to the first. The two full-backs had a torrid afternoon, although their plight was exacerbated by the complete failure of the midfield to assist in dealing with the home side's tricky wide men. Marney was stifled for the first 70 minutes for reasons which are explained below, and I don't think Myhill deserves any great criticism: he certainly wasn't to blame for either of the goals.

And that, it is regrettable to say, is the sum total of the positives. On the negative side, we didn't really have a midfield at all yesterday, or at least not one which exerted any measure of positive influence on the game apart from Marney late on. Consequently, City's play consisted largely of square or backward passes by the back or midfield lines, followed by a hoof up the field, usually as the hoofer was about to be closed down by a Hoop. That sort of stuff is fine against the likes of Macclesfield, as such teams will always fail to deal with a couple of the hoofs during the course of the game and concede goals as a result, but gets you nowhere when faced with a moderately-competent defence imbued with Championship-level discipline.

One or two observations about specific players, now. Okocha was either not fit or couldn't be bothered, and whether it was his body or head that was wrong (unless and until we know better we should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the former) but either way it was foolish in the extreme to have selected him, to say nothing of sticking him out wide on the left. Inevitably, and no doubt on instruction, the ball was played out to him time and again, and invariably wasted as a consequence. This in turn had a knock-on effect on Marney, who, until Okocha was substituted, spent the game pretty much spectating, but did enough in the last 20 minutes -albeit that the game was well and truly lost by then - to suggest that, had he not had to play in the City number 44's shadow from the off, he might have done enough actually to allow City to make some sort of mark on the game. The concern has already been expressed by a number of Tigerwatchers in my hearing in the wake of yesterday that the real reason for playing Okocha was the need to justify the cost of his contract. I have no idea whether that was true or not, but what I can say without fear of rational contradiction is that, if that were so much as a consideration in his selection, the person making that decision is unfit to be involved in the management of a professional football club.

And now a word about Ashbee. I know that he is the one individual over whom the opinions of the Tiger nation are the most polarised, so I'm about to make up to half of the readers of this report quite cross. Well so be it: I don't set out deliberately to antagonise people but I make no apology. The pro-Ash camp tend to justify his inclusion not so much on the basis of his technical skill with the leather but rather his perceived leadership qualities, using such expressions as "natural leader", "talisman" and "inspirational". Much of this sort of stuff usually comes to the fore after a City victory, and that's the point. Ash is second to none at clapping his hands, shouting and pointing when the chips are up, but where's the inspirational leadership when things aren't going our way, which is the time when true leaders of men really show their mettle? Two games in particular this season, namely Sheffield Wednesday and yesterday, illustrate this point. Both were games which could and should easily have been won despite City going behind, but in neither did our captain offer anything like the leadership which such an outcome would have required. And furthermore, his habit of criticising other players for his own cock-ups cannot be good for morale, as evidenced at one point yesterday when he played the harrassed Delaney into trouble, the pointing and shouting started and the ruddy-cheeked Oirishman reacted with palpable and entirely justified anger. When things are going wrong, he either goes into headless chicken mode and often ends up on the receiving end of a red card, or just goes missing, as he did in the second half yesterday. I don't for one second question his workrate, his commitment to the Club or the fact that he has made important contributions at certain points in certain games, but the idea that he should be an automatic choice in a team of City's resources and buying power, let alone Club captain, frankly borders on the perverse, and adds credence to the voice of those who opine that the reasons for the preferred status that he enjoys are not connected with his footballing ability.

Which brings us on to Deano. A fine servant of the Club, a true Tiger hero, a man whose goals last season consigned the WS to the status of LLS (did you see that they got beat yesterday? Heh!), a Tiger who has no bigger fan than me for all that he has done for the amber and black, but frankly a man who at 39 is visibly struggling to cope with the demands of a 46-game Championship season. At the start of the season, refreshed after the summer break and pre-season training, he was the very epitome of the sparkling, outrageous, rugged and often comical genius that has delighted so many of us, but a third or so of the way into the season, with two games a week still commonplace, more and more he cuts a forlorn, jaded figure despite occasional games in which he shines (e.g. Barnsley) and yesterday was typical of this. It was a brave step to bring him back, and given the current injury list our options are limited at present, but he seems to need two weeks to recover from one game and, all things being equal, the time may have come to consider whether the best use of him over the remainder of his contract might not be in some sort of impact-sub role, where he could probably still be at his most effective.

As far as the game itself is concerned, there isn't a lot to talk about in terms of hard facts as, the goals apart, it was a generally uninspiring and uninspired affair. But the "doom team" lined up in mostly predictable manner:-

Myhill
Ricketts Turner Brown Delaney
Garcia Ashbee Marney Okocha
Windass Campbell

It was a slightly overcast but dry London afternoon as the game started with City in amber and black kicking away from a healthy (maybe 700) muster of Tigerfans huddled in the claustrophobic School End, in an overall crowd of 12 000-plus which fitted easily into the Loftus Road shoebox with tracts of empty seats to spare.

We actually start quite brightly with a corner in the first minute after an Okocha cross is blocked, but the Nigerian then wastes it by taking it short and over-hastily. Turner then heads over from an Okocha free on 3 after Garcia had been fouled. But this is a decent start and the mood is buoyant. Before long, though, the game lapses into formless mode and we cease to look the better side. Just before the quarter hour, Delaney gives away a silly corner, the danger is eventually averted by an Ash clearance, but one of theirs hits a rasping effort from long range which Myhill had to dive to his right to palm away for a corner. The first danger sign of the afternoon.

On 17, we win a free and Windass lays it off to Okocha, whose low, feeble effort is easily pouched by Camp in the home goal.

We are decidedly disjointed now and nothing of note is being created for the front men, but although the Hoops (still with those irritating red numbers that you can't read; can't they design their shirts with a white background under the ruddy things?) are on top now, the centre backs are performing well and long-range efforts apart the City goal shows no sign of being breached, and if we can hit them on the break there's still no reason to believe that there might nit be something in this for us, a view enhanced by the fact that we do create an anxious moment for the home defence on 25 when Delaney curls one up the middle - one of the few genuinely incisive balls played by City all afternoon - and Deano goes to ground in the box under pressure form a defender. Seen 'em given and all that, but referee Tanner is unimpressed.

Any residual optimism gets hurled out of the window seconds later as we concede. The right-back Rowlands hits a sublime crossfield ball to Ephraim, on loan to QPR from West Ham. Ricketts does the right thing and forces him inside, where he will be summarily relieved of the leather. Errr...except that he isn't. Instead, he is allowed to run across the field unchecked until he reaches a shooting position, from where his shot from just over 20 yards out nestles just inside Myhill's left-hand post, possibly with a soupcon of a deflection off a City player's toecap.

"We are the Rangers Boys" rings out around Loftus Road, sounding like it could have been taken from the 60s British B-movie "The Leather Boys", but the exultant home crowd are nearly silenced as we go close on the half-hour when Deano robs a defender and curls one just wide. As far as the rest of the half is concerned there isn't a lot to report, except to say that it was formless. We do put together a proper move though on 34, involving Delaney, Windass, Marney, Okocha and Ash, which ends when Deano's shot takes a deflection and Camp collects. Shortly after this there's a bit of handbags between Ricketts and Ephraim (who looks a cocky little sod) after the former had had the better of a physical encounter between them.

But the feebleness of our attacking effort is amply illustrated in the closing stages of the first half when Ricketts finds Marney clearly in a shooting position, but instead of having a dig the City number 22 lays it square to a non-existent supporting colleague and the chance goes begging.

After a half-time interval notable only for the observation that the penalty spots were marked with crosses as opposed to spots or circles (oh - and the fact that City were booed off at the start of it), the second half gives every indication of being little better than the first: indeed, we seem even less keen to attack the ball and look for all the world as though we are just going through the motions, so goodness knows what was said at half time in the City dressing room (or why changes were not made). On 48 Myhill puts a shot from the right behind, half the crowd think it's gone in, and we are genuinely under the cosh and all over the place now. On 53 the burly defender Mancienne is booked for fouling Okocha, but this checks the pattern of play not one jot, and it is no surprise when, a minute later, we concede a second. Leigertwood collects the leather on the right, skips past Okocha who makes not the slightest effort to impede (whether by fair means or foul) his progress and, with the cover not bothering to react, cuts inside and curls the leather past Myhill's left hand.

The ineffectual Garcia is subbed for McPhee, whose nose finds itself almost immediately on the receiving end of Barker's flailing arm, thereby earning the QPR man a yellow which some might suggest ought to have been red. Why the home side have to resort to this sort of cynical stuff is a bit of a mystery, leaving aside the entirely plausible explanation that it's force of habit, as they are frankly toying with us by now

Okocha is finally subbed with 20 minutes to go, and almost immediately Marney makes his presence felt by firing just wide after a Deano lay-off. A minute later Featherstone gets a header on target from a corner but it lacks power and Camp saves equally. Turner then gets into a good position on 75, running onto a Delaney ball into a position from where he could have volleyed the ball in just like he did at Norwich last season, but this time he miscues his effort badly and the ball bobbles away.

The mood is sullen in the School End now, the Goole contingent are in grave high dudgeon and the City chavs who were noisily chanting "Phil's Brown Black and Amber Army"(sic) in the early stages have given up watching the game now and are happily occupied pointing at the succession of aircraft heading into Heathrow.

And on the subject of Phil and Brown, can someone PLEASE have a word with our manager about those sodding shoes of his? Under no circumstances should tan shoes be worn with a dark grey suit, and if our leader thinks it's fashionable he's wrong: in fact, it shows our club up in a very shabby light to my way of thinking, makes it look as if we don't know how to conduct ourselves.

We finally get the ball into the net a minute from the end of normal time when McPhee pokes in a Featherstone lob but the effort is quite correctly chalked off for offside. Four minutes of injury time later, that's it, and the City players slink off while the fans are more interested in heading off in the direction of White City tube than showing any recognition of the team's efforts, although a lot of uncomplimentary opinions were being loudly expressed during that particular journey, and indeed at various points on the Tube network and in town as one encountered little pockets of disgruntled City fans heading home

Predictably, the mindless few are calling for Brown's head - probably the same ones who will have been talking about play-off aspirations at five to three yesterday. It's far from that stage yet, but Brown does have to ask himself a few questions in relation to his team selections, both yesterday and in general, which do not to the eyes of many Tiger watchers always seem to be on playing form. Otherwise, with some tough-looking games coming up, we might find ourselves too close to the wrong end of the table for comfort and the pressure will then be well and truly on. If he really can't find the backbone to drop certain players, then he should swallow his pride and get Brian Horton to do it, whom one imagines would have no compunction whatsoever.

Burnley on Tuesday then. When did we last win there? Oh, sh......

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Delaney; Garcia, Ashbee, Marney, Okocha; Windass, Campbell.  Subs: McPhee (for Garcia, 58), Featherstone (for Okocha, 71), Livermore, Dawson, Duke.

Goals: None

Booked: Delaney, Turner

Sent Off: None

QUEENS PARK RANGERS: Camp, Mancienne, Cranie, Stewart, Barker, Rowlands, Ephraim, Leigertwood, Buzsaky, Vine, Nygaard.  Subs: Bolder (for Nygaard, 81), Ainsworth (for Buzsaky, 86), Nardiello (for Vine, 89), Cole, Timoska.

Goals: Ephraim 26; Leigertwood 56

Booked: Barker, Mancienne, Stewart, Vine

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  S Tanner

ATTENDANCE: 12,375