A tale of two penalties.

Tonight saw the first league London derby of the season for QPR and this time we played hosts to South Londoners Crystal Palace.

After losing the last home game by an impressive looking Leicester side, we gathered at the Springbok with no real feeling or whether we thought a win, loss or draw was on the cards. Traditionally a draw is usually played between the two teams so that would’ve been the safe bet for any gambler out there.
In attendance for the Lofty Heights crew were Lofty, PK, California Hoop, Jenson, Sam, Justin and Myself. We had two guests with us today, Christian (a Palace fan) and Pete (a Chelsea fan). The Chelsea fan is a good friend of mine and has followed Rangers progress quite closely and having seen us on the box quite recently he asked to come to a game and even decided to miss their game on the box to see us. Corp was also at the game but this time around he was in the comfort of the boxes, true Corp style.
There were two changes from the side that lost on Friday night. Fitz Hall and Ben Watson came into the side for Damion Stewart and Peter Ramage. This meant that Mikele Leigertwood dropped into the right back position.
This also meant that there were five, yes five former Palace players in our starting eleven. Leigertwood, Hall, Borrowdale, Watson and Routledge having played for the Eagles previously.



The game started off pretty evenly and if not for a smart stop by Speroni in the Palace goal from a low drive from Wayne Routledge. Leigertwood soon fired in an effort which was slightly wayward and didn’t trouble the Palace defence.
Those were the two only real chances in the opening 17 minutes of the game, however in the 18th minute we got a great piece of attacking play.
With passes being exchanged between Simpson, Routledge and Taarabt it left the Spurs loanee on the left side of the penalty area and looking to beat the last man, as he played the ball past the defender he was tripped and the referee rightly awarded the R’s a penalty!
Akos Buzsaky stepped up and calmly placed the spot kick in the bottom right corner to put the home side in front.
The R’s were soon on the back foot and had Stern John done better with his effort that hit Cerny’s post it really could and should’ve been 1-1.
Wayne Routledge was then given the opportunity to double Rangers lead. He was through on goal and only had Speroni to beat, he curled his shot around the Palace custodian but the ball agonizingly slipped past the outside of the post.
The rest of the half was pretty evenly matched but it was Rangers that had the better of the chances but couldn’t break down the hard working Palace midfield as we came to the end of the first 45 minutes.

At half time the group gathered up downstairs for the usual talk of how things were going and also laughing at the fact Man United were losing 3-1. We also joined by the birthday girl enjoying the game shortly before her 18th birthday on Saturday. All I can say is that things were a little hyper between a few of them.



We rejoined the second half slightly after the restart but didn’t miss any action.
The first action of the second half came from a Faurlin free kick. His effort ended up only just flying over the bar. Moments later Faurlin found himself 25 yards out and once again fired a curling effort on goal and it looked to be heading for the top corner but somehow Speroni got a fingertip to it and turned it over for a corner.
More fine attacking play followed as Simpson and Buzsaky exchanged passes and then Buzsaky fed in Taarabt down the right side as he cut in as he dinked an effort over Speroni and had the ball heading into the back of the net somehow a Palace defender came in and using his knee he lifted the ball marginally over the crossbar.
The action went up the other end and Freddie Sears was played in, albeit looking slightly offside, and Fitz Hall climbed over the back of him and Palace were awarded the chance to level the scores from the penalty spot. Darren Ambrose disposed of the penalty and drew the South Londoners level.
The final half an hour was an end to end contest with the home side having the better of the chances and when Buzsaky’s free kick and substitute Vine’s drive were both expertly saved by Speroni, you just had the feeling it wasn’t going to be our day today.

QPR: Cerny, Hall, Leigertwood, Routledge, Buzsaky (Ephraim 78), Gorkss, Watson, Faurlin, Simpson (Vine 74), Borrowdale, Taarabt (Agyemang 74).

Subs not used: Heaton, Ramage, Alberti, Ainsworth.

Goals: Buzsaky (pen 18)

Bookings: Routledge (32)

Crystal Palace: Speroni, Hill, Derry, Fonte, Ambrose, Danns (Hills 84), John (Lee 67), Butterfield, Ertl, Davis, N'Diaye (Sears 46).

Subs not used: Clyne, Carle, Moses, Scannell.

Goals: Ambrose (pen 62)

Bookings: Davis (78)

Referee: Mr M P Russell

Attendance: 14, 377

When you look back at the game you do feel that this was two points dropped. Speroni in the Palace goal was once again the thorn in Rangers backs having kept them out in previous games and tonight he was exceptional once again.
On paper this is a team we really should be beating but having seen Palace a similar tactic to Leicester in the previous game and stifling our attacking play it remains to be seen if we have been sussed and teams might now know a way to stop our attacking play. We’ll find out at Hillsborough on Saturday.

Finally we go onto Man of the Match. There were a few good performances out there once again. Faurlin once again run the show in centre midfield. Hall, Gorkss and Borrowdale had very good games in the defence but tonight’s award, as selected by Lofty, goes to Adel Taarabt.

Short-Selling: Did It Contribute To The Market's Collapse?

Let's get our bearings here. What is short-selling? NYU Professor of Finance Steven Figlewski can explain:

"You sell the stock with the expectation, the intention, that you're going to buy the stock later. And in order to sell the stock, since you don't own it, you've got to borrow it from somebody."

The short seller intends to profit from the decline in price between the sale and repurchase.
Why do we care about all this market talk? Short-selling is not a new concept, dating back to the 1600s, and playing a part in the 1929 and 1987 crashes. Now, some experts are saying that "shorting" the market contributed in part to the latest global financial crisis, as "it can undermine investor confidence and ... in extreme cases, cause a run on a company's share price." Yikes.
However, just to make it a little more confusing, some bankers think the complete opposite, saying it "enhances liquidity and pricing efficiency in the markets." So who do you believe?
WATCH CNN's look into short-selling:

Let's get our bearings here. What is short-selling? NYU Professor of Finance Steven Figlewski can explain: "You sell the stock with the expectation, the intention, that you're going to buy the stock

Credit where credits due........

In the second televised game of the week Rangers this time played host to Leicester in the attempt to complete a memorable month of results for the team.

It was the turn of the Sky cameras to come down and witness the impressive flowing football that has been on display and even graced our screens on the BBC only last Saturday, usually when we are in good form and Sky come sniffing the form goes out the window and the run down the drain. Would tonight be any different?

The Lofty Heights crew had a night out planned after the game so we all arrived looking a little smarter than usual and congregated at the Springbok before the game for the usual pre-match pint and keenly look forward to the 90 minutes ahead and the night’s activities after the game.

One change was made to the team that won at Derby last Saturday. Gavin Mahon picked up an injury in training on Thursday so Mikele Leigertwood took over in centre midfield and also took the captains armband.

With the TV cameras in attendance all the stops were pulled out of the bag. As the team entered the pitch we were treated to some fireworks and big flames. They coupled with some free plastic rattles that were handed out in the pre-match build up were what the 17,000 plus crowd that made the most of the excellent ticket promotion by the club for a Friday night fixture live on TV.

The game started off really lively with both teams creating chances from the offset. After some good passing from Ramage, Buzsaky and Simpson it left Simpson in a promising position and he fired in a shot from a tight angle which was smothered by Leicester ‘keeper Weale.
Leicester didn’t come to W12 to become another victim of the Rangers free scoring bandwagon. They too were creating chances, but not only that they looked to have a game plan that involved pressuring the home side deep in the R’s midfield and defence that would effectively stop the crisp play that we have been used to seeing over the last month or so.
The ball soon found its way into the net.
Livewire Danny N’Guessan left Ramage for pace and slipped a delightful ball between the defence and Cerny and Matty Fryatt slid in to neatly turn the ball past the R’s ‘keeper. Luckily for Rangers Fryatt was adjudged to of been in an offside position, even though from where I was sitting it looked onside to me.

Shortly after this Faurlin nearly took full advantage of the let off by curling a free kick towards the top left hand corner but saw his effort superbly saved by Weale, much to the Argentinean’s frustration.
We soon had our opening goal of the evening.
Taarabt tried threading in Simpson with a through ball but the ball bounced back off a Leicester defender and fell invitingly to Taarabt near the penalty spot and he slotted home into the bottom left hand corner.



Shortly after the first goal it could’ve been 2-0. It was Taarabt once again with a driven effort but it went just wide of the right hand post.
Four minutes after the opening goal we had our second goal of the evening.
Danny N’Guessan once again provided the threat down the Rangers right hand side and his cross was met by Fryatt, who had the easy job of nodding home from three yards out.
The Rangers defending was poor to say the very least and made it far too easy.

Half time descended on us we for once paid attention to the pitch and the penalty shoot out. The reason we done this was because one of our friends, Jill, was taking a penalty in the half time competition. Having seen a very good penalty being saved previously it was Jill’s turn to step up and have a blast. Her effort was straight at the ‘keeper but was a good effort from someone that was as nervous as she was.
The half time talk with the gang constituted of us just admitting that we were up against an extremely good, well organised side and we really were up against it. Nothing else could be said, criticizing wouldn’t achieve anything we were just playing a team that had done their homework on us.

The second half showed us more of the same, a Leicester side that pressured us high up and that suffocated the supply to our lethal four at the business end of the pitch. It was also evident to see that we were missing Gavin ‘The Goal Machine’ Mahon in the centre of midfield with his hustling technique and bulldog sprit.
The second half was very much Leicester’s for the taking and unfortunately the chance to take the game was handed to them on a plate. From a goal kick Cerny opted to play a short pass to a Ramage that was running away from goal which made it easy for Fryatt to intercept the pass and advance 1 on 1 with Cerny. With still a lot to do to score Fryatt did put away his effort very neatly. It was far from easy to score from the angle he was at but he did do it well.
From there it was an increasing uphill battle for Rangers and the chances to grab an all important equalizer were few and far between but when one did fall, what a chance it was!
Routledge done exceptionally well down the right hand side and centred the ball for Buzsaky. Buz usually hits the target from 10 yards out but this time his effort went high and wide. It was at this point you could just sense it wasn’t going to be our night.

Leicester played the game out to secure themselves a very well earned three points. They had done their homework and executed a perfect game plan, my hat goes off to them.


(Thanks to Sophie McEvoy for the photo)


QPR: Cerny, Ramage (Vine 67), Stewart (Hall 55), Leigertwood, Routledge, Buzsaky, Gorkss, Faurlin, Simpson, Borrowdale, Taarabt (Agyemang 86).

Subs not used: Heaton, Alberti, Ainsworth, Parker.

Goals: Taarabt (33)
Leicester City: Weale, Neilson, Brown, Oakley, King, Fryatt (Gallagher 75), Berner, N'Guessan, Waghorn (McGivern 90), Wellens, Hobbs.

Subs not used: Logan, Morrison, Howard, Dyer, Kermorgant.

Goals: Fryatt (37 & 64)

Bookings: Neilson (73), N'Guessan (81), Oakley (88)

Attendance: 17, 082

Walking away from Loftus Road I can’t say I was disappointed, Leicester were just better prepared and had the hunger to chase for the whole 90 minutes and test our team for the duration of the game.
To criticize individuals would be harsh, although it was evident one or two were not at the races today and they were substituted during the course of the game, with the exception of Taarabt. The run we have been on has been fantastic and had to come to an end at some point, to be fair I’m glad it was against a team like Leicester that fully deserved the victory and not against a team that got lucky.

We move onto Man of the Match. It has once again been pretty hard to pick. Wayne Routledge took a while to get into the game but once he did he proved to be a threat. Gary Borrowdale hardly put a foot wrong compared to the rest of the defence and despite the mix up leading to the winning goal Radek Cerny done well. But for the first half performance put in by this man and his efforts and eventual goal the Man of the Match, as selected by Lofty, has to go to Adel Taarabt.

We then headed into the Bush after the game to enjoy a few beers, except me as I was driving. After enjoying a few pints in The Green we decided to move on to a different pub and despite the time only being midnight we found ourselves without any options as every pub was closing up. It was very strange for every pub in the area to close up at 12-12.30 so we had no choice but to call it a night and head for home. A disappointing end to the evening but nothing always goes the way you expect it to sometimes.

Fair in Pushkar City, India

Hundreds of foreign and domestic have gathered for a five-day long cultural and sporting extravaganza.

You can do anything from getting a camel ride to buying handicrafts and competing in unique competitions.

[Rajesh Yadav, Local Official]:
"We have tried our best to make this year’s fair more grand that last year. We have all the arrangements for the tourists and the devotees, this year we have increased the parking facilities."

Hundreds of artisans and weavers from neighboring regions can also be found. They’ve set up stalls selling colorful dresses, house décor (day CORE) items and tribal ornaments.

A camel race and a football match between Indian and foreign tourists were the main attraction of Monday’s events.

"This is very difficult, we are used to play in grass and Belgium is not so hot, so it was very difficult but we had a good team spirit and we believed we could win and may be this time god was on our side."

Until the early 1970s, the fair was largely a rural affair. Back then it was mainly thousands of nomads and cattle owners who came to buy and sell camels. But over the years it evolved into one of India's biggest tourist attractions.

A Preview Of The Crowdsourced Star Wars Remake

Star Wars: Uncut, the brainchild of Casey Pugh, is a massive effort to put together a crowdsourced remake of George Lucas's 1977 classic Star Wars: A New Hope.
Pugh has divvied up the film into 2,161 separate 15-second scenes, and invited fans to each pick one then make it in any style they choose: live action, stop-action, animation, and more.
The scenes assembled thus far feature everything from live action to stop-action film; from computerized special effects to amateur car chases; from dogs dressed in tinfoil to paper bag R2D2s.
According to the Star Wars: Uncut website, over 470 people will ultimately contribute to the remake.
At last count, 1,585 scenes had been taken, 417 had been finished, and 161 were free. Click here to claim one for yourself!

WATCH:

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/emstar-warsuncutem-traile_n_333588.html

Ramesh blames China for poaching in India

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Rome Film Festival

Light show marks 120 years of Eiffel tower

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Four-midable Rangers show true class once again.

This evening saw the first time Rangers took to the field in front of the live cameras and as always the Lofty Heights crew hit the road to see what was in store for us.

Today there was two parties making their way up to Pride Park, Lofty and PK in one car and in the other was Jenson, his wife Kate, a friend and myself. It was a weird feeling for me as I haven’t travelled to an away game without Lofty or PK since Blackpool away last January. We were soon reunited in the Pride Park Harvester and with a few cold beers on our arrival. A man, that I can only describe as a legend, called Iceman joined us for his first R’s game of the season. For those of you that already know Iceman you know exactly what I am talking about.

We were also introduced to a Finnish Rangers fan, Vesa in the Harvester who had travelled over to England this week especially for the game. This week he attended the reserves fixture, which we drew 1-1 courtesy of a Gareth Ainsworth goal, the Watford 4-1 victory over Sheff Weds last night as well as managing to get tickets for tomorrows clash between Liverpool and Man United.
Here he is pictured below...



Jim Magilton was forced into one change this evening, Ben Watson being suspended after his sending off against Reading in midweek, his replacement was also the R’s captain for the night Gavin Mahon.

It was Rangers who got off to the better start and enjoyed the lion share of possession and looked the more threatening.
However on 10 minutes the score line read a different story.
Derby won a free kick just outside the R’s penalty area and Robbie Savage opted to take the kick quickly and fed the ball in the path of Paul Dickov. He made no mistake from 8 yards out and put the home side in front.
It was a stark contrast of what happened on Tuesday night when Ben Watson took a free kick early and earned a booking for his troubles. Whatever the result on this occasion you have to admit it was a genius piece of play by Savage to take advantage of a sleeping R’s defence.
Rangers continued to hold the attacking advantage and looked the more likely to score the second goal. Efforts from Mahon, Faurlin and Buzsaky went close as the search for an equalizer was coming closer and closer to becoming a reality.
On 36 minutes the controversial referee Trevor Kettle, who has a bad record when it comes to officiating Rangers games, awarded a strange looking free kick in the hosts favour after Damion Stewart was adjudged to of been climbing over the Derby striker.
Robbie Savage took the free kick and placed it into the top left hand corner with a beautifully taken effort to give the hosts a 2-0 lead which, in reflection, was extremely harsh on the visitors.
Only three minutes later Rangers were given a free kick just outside the Derby penalty area. Usual free kick taker Akos Buzsaky stepped aside to let Adel Taarabt try his luck. Taarabt curled the free kick into the bottom right corner to grab a well deserved goal for the hard working team.

At half time Iceman, Michael Whelan and I met up on the concourse to discuss the half we had witness and our feelings towards the game. Me and Michael were more than confident that if we continued to press Derby then a victory was imminent and we’d get our just deserves. Funnily enough, in a different conversation, these views were shared Lofty and a few other fans. You could almost sense a confidence in R’s fans that it didn’t really matter what the score was, we were still going to win.
On the way back to our seats a few t-shirts hanging on seats were nicked to give to family members and friends, even though they are pretty worthless.

The second half begun with the R’s continuing in the ascendancy and soon back on level terms.
After some neat build up play it was Taarabt who played a beautiful back post cross to Routledge and he squared to Gavin ‘The Goal Machine’ Mahon to tuck away from inside the six yard box very untidily, but who cares!!

A third goal was soon to follow. Jay Simpson made the most of his chance that he had to work hard to put away. A lovely through ball caused confusion in the Derby defence and he slotted his effort home from 12 yards out into the bottom right hand corner to bag his sixth goal of the season.



Following the goal Peter Ramage may way for Mikele Leigertwood, who has just recovered from a virus.

Rangers really were dominating the second half and when Taarabt was set free down the right hand side with only Bywater in front of him the only words I could hear were coming from Lofty saying “he’s gonna score, he’s gonna score”. Unfortunately the shot was straight at Bywater and was parried away.

Patrick Agyemang and Rowan Vine came on for the final 15 minutes. They replaced the hard working Simpson and the teasing Taarabt.

Further chances from Routledge, Agyemang and Vine fell but didn’t overly test Bywater in the Derby goal.
During the final 10-15 minutes the Derby fans were hurling their free t-shirts, that were given to them upon arrival to their seat, onto the pitch as a show of disgust to their teams inability to cope with a Rangers side that really are something special at this moment in time.

In the final minute of the game Routledge was set free down the right side of the pitch and advanced on goal before being hacked down by the Derby defender. Akos Buzsaky stepped up to slot home his second penalty in as many games and send the R’s fans into pure jubilation and the Derby fans continued to shower the pitch with their free t-shirts.



After a being shocked by going 2-0 down to a side that were second best on the field for all of the first half it was a pretty astounding comeback from a fully confident side that pulled a result out of the bag despite the setbacks we had.
For the third game on the spin Rangers have now scored four goals, so is it now too much to expect another four goal haul in the second televised clash this weeks, this time against Leicester. If the R’s win by three goals then second spot will be ours, albeit for a night at least.

Derby County: Bywater, Connolly, Croft, Savage, Hulse, Teale, Barker, Moxey, Dickov (Davies 68), Stoor (Livermore 63), Hughes (Pearson 68).

Subs not used: Deeney, Buxton, Hendrie, Mills.

Goals: Dickov (10), Savage (36)

Bookings: Connolly (56)

QPR: Cerny, Ramage (Leigertwood 61), Stewart, Mahon, Routledge, Buzsaky, Gorkss, Faurlin, Simpson (Vine 75), Borrowdale, Taarabt (Agyemang 75).

Subs not used: Heaton, Hall, Alberti, Ainsworth.

Goals: Taarabt (39), Mahon (47), Simpson (59), Buzsaky (90)

Attendance: 30, 135 (733 Rangers)

Man of the Match once again proved hard to choose. Iceman was impressed by Taarabt and Routledge, Jenson thought Gorkss was exceptional and PK had Gorkss and Faurlin down as his picks. Lofty’s Man of the Match as decided by Lofty has been awarded to Alessandro Faurlin for the second game running. The young midfielder bossed the middle of the park once again and showed great vision as well as battling away all the way through.

As a victory salute the crew all gathered back at the Harvester where the day all begun to enjoy a sweet tasting beverage before once again going our separate ways for the journey home.

We move onto Leicester at home next on Friday evening. I will apologize for the lateness of that report as the Lofty Heights gang are going out for an after match booze up in Hammersmith that evening. I will endeavour to get a report written ready for late Saturday night for you all.

U RRRRR’SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS