On Thursday, the Premier League announced that the game at Loftus Road would go ahead after the question mark over the following the looting and riots that blighted the nation. Arriving into London just before midday, I opted to start the afternoon at Camden market which is a great place to kill an hour or two wandering and browsing and it was good to see normality had returned. From there, I headed down to Shepherds Bush with the intention of having a few beers but instead stumbled across a small festival on the green and sat down down on the grass to enjoy some music and excellent jerk chicken and rice.
Feeling nicely relaxed, I took the 15 minute walk down the road to Loftus Road which is hemmed right in the middle of a residential area. My ticket for this game had cost a whopping £50, a major hike from last season based on owner Flavio Briatori's wish to make them a "boutique club" - the home fans have my sympathy being ripped off in this manner. The ground itself is quite old school in design compared with most Premier League grounds but I liked the compact feel of the 16000 capacity ground which puts the fan right on top of the action. I was also pleasantly surprised to be able to get a pre-match beer as well - the policy on this depends on the anticipated behaviour of the away fans. The match programme was also very good with plenty of good reading material on 84 pages for £3, the research left a little to be desired though - on former Bolton player Sasa Curcic "his legend lives on for Trotters supporters" hmm.
I had felt fairly relaxed about the game, expecting a comfortable result against the newly promoted hosts after a good pre-season showing from the Wanderers but QPR started the game brightly and had the ball in the net in the first minute after debutant DJ Campbell lashed the ball home following a cross from the impressive Taarabt. The home fans celebrated and the inevitable Reachup was played but thankfully linesman had spotted the offside and we were able to wind-up the home fans with our own rendition.
QPR's bad luck continued soon after when another debutant Keiron Dyer was stretchered off, but in spite of this Bolton looked set to continue the poor form that followed last years FA Cup semi final mauling and we unable to make inroads against the solid-looking pairing of Clint Hill and (yet another debutant) Daniel Gabbidon. At the other end they were make a few alarming break throughs down the flanks with Jussi Jaaskelaainen being called into action a couple of times to good affect and Gretar Steinsson doing well to flick a shot off the line with his head. As a rather muted away end looked forward to the half-time break at 0-0, one of our own new boys Chris Eagles intelligently found centre-half Gary Cahill in space outside the penalty area who took one touch before hitting a sweet bending shot into the top corner to great joy and relief.
The goal made all the difference and the confidence the Wanderers came out with in the second half was clear to see as they attacked the end in front of the away fans. The ball was being kept on the ground one of last season's most disappointing player Martin Petrov was starting to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Captain Kevin Davies flicked a header wide before Chris Eagles again supplied the second goal. Davies had cutely won a free-kick out wide with it difficult to see if any contact had been made and Eagles whipped the ball low into the six yard box where it was met by the unfortunate Gabbidon with a real strikers finish into his own net.
The game was up for QPR now and Bolton scented blood, two minutes later the ball fell to Ivan Klasnic who smartly swivelled and fired a deflected shot past the hapless Paddy Kenny. Soon after it was four with the rarest of things, a Fabrice Muamba goal. I'm not his biggist fan, but he had an excellent second half playing with swagger and make some Nolanesque runs from midfield and was rewarded when he got on the end of a Klasnic lay-off to finish smartly from close range. Although the last of the goals had been scored the pain didn't end there for QPR when they lost Hill before the end of bizarrely planting his head into Petrov's chest. It was Bolton's first win here since 1978 and the very first time I've witnessed a win in the capital. A great start to the season and blog for me and a boozy night to follow.
