As Leonard Cohen said: "It seems so long ago." A sunny August day. Everything pristine. An official crowd of nearly 20,000. A Charlton team crucially containing Bauer, Diarra and Kashi with Tony Watt on the bench (for disciplinary reasons). Newly relegated fancy Dans QPR (with their distinctly unfair financial play) ready for the taking. Watt emerges after serving his time and scores within ten minutes. Morgan Fox adds the second with a fine strike past Robert Green. At the end of August we are beaten for the first time but are still in eighth place with two "easy" home games to come. Everything to play for and lots of promise.
By the end of September we are seventeenth and Kashi is out for the season. Both Diarra and Bauer are also to suffer prolonged periods of injury. There are no adequate replacements and it shows. Everything since then has been downhill except maybe the reappointment of Jose Riga, the recruitment of Texeira and Fanni and the emergence of Lookman. But all too little too late. We are now seven points from safety with six to play.
After the team's performance at Ipswich there is every reason to believe they could go to Loftus Road and achieve at least another draw. Mick McCarthy said after the game "Why they are in the bottom three heaven only knows". Two tough away draws in a week would mirror the points gained at Derby and Forest back in August. Very creditable indeed but no longer enough. Only a win will do and even that still leaves us chasing the pack with a very challenging run-in. Jose Riga has already admitted that a miracle is needed and the loss of Diarra is the last thing he needed.
QPR have watched the two teams who came down with them - Hull and Burnley - competing at the top for the whole season while they have dismally underperformed. The appointment of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in mid-season did not spark the expected revival although there has been a slight improvement in the last couple of months. They had won their previous three home games (Birmingham 2-0; Derby 2-0, Brentford 3-0) before Boro brought them down to earth with a 2-3 defeat last time out.
The one disappointing element of the performance at Portman Road on Tuesday was the ineffectiveness of a lacklustre Yaya Sanogo. It seemed almost as if his red card v MKD had made him fearful of showing any aggression and many watching fans were amazed when Callum Harriott rather than Sanogo was replaced by Igor Vetokele. We can only hope that Riga is doing some work with Sanogo on the training ground to help him find the spark he showed against Reading or that he decides to start with a rested Vetokele.
A win would at least make the Derby game interesting, but a draw is more likely.