Stoke 1 QPR 0 – 23/4/22 3pm
City beat Rangers, riding into the top-half and scuppering the London side’s play off chances. Top scorer Jake Brown waited his turn to shoot & score, making it all look very routine. That’s because it was. Here’s how the game unfolded in real time:
So, without Michael O’Neill on the touchline – his hip operation not withstanding (!) – Joe Bursik gets his goalkeeper’s place back from unlucky Jack Bonham. This could be QPR’s last chance to stay in touch with the playoffs. It could be Stoke’s last chance to stay in touch with the top half of the league! Meanwhile, keeper Keiren Westwood denies he’s actually a singer in Bananarama (Karen Woodward!).
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7.30 Jake Brown’s first call for a penalty. Replay not convincing. Dean Holden (MON’s assistant) waves his arms a bit. Suspect we’ll see a lot of that today.
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14.04 Harwood-Bellis miscontrols a simple enough pass, and almost puts it into his own empty net! It just misses and goes for a corner instead. Phew!
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17.35 Foul by Dion Sanderson. Wonderful to see someone with so much hair, it’s like it’s the 1970s again!! No buns, no pony-tails, pure shaggy! [Can we have more about the football, please? – Ed]. OK, then.
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23.30 Blistering shot by TomSawyers through a crowd of players, but BananaramaMan was ready, the ball ricocheting away.
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41.10 Brown is charged into an advertisement hoarding by Hairman Sanderson, but survives ok. Looked worse than it probably was, particularly as Dion seemed to land on Jake after impact.
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45.00 1-0!!!! Jake Brown blasts home from close range after everyone else has had a go!
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HT City 1 Rangers 0. Who’d have thought?
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Attendance 19251
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63.55 Harwood-Bellis charges through Rangers and his shot curls just wide! Is he playing in the right position??
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68.55 Rangers header clips the post and flapped away by Bursik. Rangers starting to show their teeth.
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75.15 Fletcher comes on for Maja. Like for like. Fletch starts attracting balls from Sawyers and Tymon.
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81.30 Clucas on for Sawyers, who’s had a great game. It’s getting tense as Stoke look to hang on to their lead.
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85.20 Rangers player (McCallum) goes down with Stoke attacking, but admirably Stoke put the ball into touch so he can receive treatment. Eventually, he recovers, but Stoke fans are unimpressed. Hell, it’s their time they’re wasting.
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90+4 Clucas makes some great tackles, & Tyrese comes on for Brown.
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FT Stoke hang on! 1-0!!
