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Burnley had made no changes from the fantastic 3-2 win away at Wolves last Saturday night on Sky Sports. The first half started with Burnley looking to get a good start by putting early pressure on the QPR defence but without really causing trouble.
Turf Moor was in fine voice as one of the goal scorers at Wolves Kyle Lafferty tried to show his attacking qualities on the left hand side of midfield but without producing anything of real quality.
Chelsea loan star Scott Sinclair looked a tricky customer for Jon Harley as QPR tried to test Gabor Kiraly, but never did with some really poor attempts on goal.
Burnley themselves produced very little as both sides seemed unable to string a sequence of passes together. We did create a couple of half chances though, with a decent Wade Elliott cross being headed away from Chris McCann as he looked to head it into the net. QPR created few chances with Marc Nygaard heading miles wide, however one real chance of the first half fell to Rowan Vine who put over when he was just one on one with Gabor Kiraly, after that Burnley looked like they may have woken up as Alan Mahon twice hit over the bar before crashing a low drive against the post and out.
The half time whistle sounded with a huge sigh of disappointment as it was a really dull first half, and it was a huge shame as the Turf Moor faithful expected so much more from a team a win away from 4th spot in the Championship.
The second half started in the completely wrong way we had hoped, with QPR making some early attacks, but for the time being anyway Burnley's defence was coping until Clarke Carlisle was forced to be substituted due to injury. Joey Gudjonsson replaced him meaning Chris McCann slotted in at centre back, a position he had played in before under Steve Cotterill.
Unfortunately just like the first half Burnley were never really able to get going with some poor passes and just plain wastefulness, and it almost cost the Clarets as QPR kept putting the pressure on.
Scott Sinclair played a neat one two with Rowan Vine only for Gabor Kiraly to produce a great save to stop Sinclair scoring. Minutes later QPR could have had another goal with first David Unsworth blocking the cross and then somehow a Rangers player having a shot blocked for a corner from just two yards.
I thought we had got away with it, but how wrong I was as straight from the corner Damion Stewart was left completely unmarked to head the ball into the back of the net. Burnley 0-1 QPR! It was just plain poor defending as no one picked him up and to be fair they deserved it with their second half display.
Burnley reacted by taking both Robbie Blake and Alan Mahon off for Steve Jones and James O'Connor meaning Kyle Lafferty would play as a striker for the rest of the half with Jones on the wing. The goal it self seemed to have woken the Clarets up as a flood of chances fell to Burnley with Graham Alexander having a shot well blocked and then Kyle Lafferty's shot was well saved after it had been deflected. Many shouted for hand ball but this referee who had been truly poor all night was never going to give anything.
The chances kept coming with first James O'Connor having a shot well punched wide for a corner, Joey Gudjonsson then went close as his shot just went wide.
Unfortunately any hopes of a come back where dashed in the 90th minute as the Burnley goal was completely open with Gabor Kiraly running up for a corner, QPR broke away and Rowan Vine scored the easiest goal he will ever score as he passed the ball into the empty net as the Burnley players tried to catch him.
It had been a truly awful night from Burnley; we have seen some poor games at home this season vs. the likes of Southampton and Hull to name a few, but this one is up with them and we have got to get it right on Saturday in the Lancashire Derby vs. Preston North End who went bottom of the league last night with QPR winning. It is too big a game to not perform in and I just hope we don't get let down again!