League Cup Run

11-08-09 , the start of League Cup.I'm not really concern about League Cup simply because getting promotion will be the priority for the club.To move forward and improve the statue of the club, we have to get promotion.No point winning the league cup and sticking at second tier of English Football, right?


For the 1st round of League Cup, Q.P.R were drawn against Northampton, having a slight advantage because the match gonna be played at Home.


Surprisingly, the team managed to win the match with a big score margin.Something unexpected given the bad league run the team had before playing the match.

Salvio scored his 1st goal in English Football but Martin Rowlands beat him for the MOTM award.The captain scored one and provide 2 assists and capped a 9.0 rating performance.

I was expecting the team to score more after Chris McCready was sent off but they only managed to score one more.

In the 2nd round, we were drawn against Bury.Another should-win match.


In this match, however,Salvio failed to score but capped his performance with a 7.5 rating after 90minutes.I was expecting him to score after all Bury are weaker team in League 2(no offence to Bury fans.Sorry) and Salvio should have no problem scoring against them.He lets me down a little but still, his overall performance is good enough.

Few positives to take from the match:
1.Otamendi scored his 1st goal in English Football
2.Another big win for the team.
3.Ben Watson scored 3/3 penalties now, 100% record.


The bad news after the match is, we are going to play against Aston Villa from Premier League.Gosh.

Remember the friendly match against Stoke? The team couldn't even deal with them and how can they beat a team who possibly can break into Top Four? To beat them at Villa Park? Mission Impossible!!!

End of League Cup run maybe? :(

I tried to convince myself that they might be fielding a weaker team and go easy on us.Unfortunately, NO!!!

I almost fainted when I saw their lineup. The whole team were 1st team regulars.There's no way the team can break their defense and score goal. *sigh*

To make things worse, their attacking force was too strong for my poor defense to handle.No way I can win this match.Period.

I made a little change to the team because De Laet is illegible to play in League Cup.Buzsaky is played on the right, replacing the off form Jay Simpson.

For tactics, I set the team mentality to Counter. Instructions given include:
1.Retain Procession
2. Shoot on sight
3.Play Narrower.

The game starts and 8minutes+ into the game, Young already scored the 1st goal past Cerny.Horrible start and I'm not hoping too much.Will be extremely happy if the team lose by a small margin.

But Rowlands scored to level up before Helguson scored another to give us a lead at Half Time.

HT 1-2, we lead.

I was so happy. The captain and vice captain inspired the team to play better football.

But, will this last long?


Like dream,Another surprising result appeared in front of my eyes.We actually managed to score 3 more past Aston Villa at their own ground!

I have no idea what happens to Villa but we won and only that matters! Counter attacking football at its very best.Hah!

However the MOTM award went to Ashley Young.Actually,it matters not as long as we win.

Now, we are progressing to 4th round. It's beyond the board's expectation because they only want the team to proceed to 3rd round.

A day later, a draw was made and I prayed hard so that we can get someone from the same league-Derby, Watford,Middlesbrough and West Brom.Anyone of them will do.

Yet, we get another Premier League club- Birmingham.

I tried to stay positive because looking at the draw, at least 2 of the big clubs will be eliminated.

Tottenham against Man Utd, Arsenal against Man City.This will mean less competition and more chances of progressing because two of these strong teams will be eliminated.

So, what matters now to us is to progress to the next round. Having the match at home is an advantage because we are doing great at home for League Cup matches.


Looking at the scoring chart, Rowlands, Salvio and Helguson have all scored 2 goals in League Cup.Hopefully, their rich vein of form in league cup can carry us forward to the next round.