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Reading 0 QPR 0: Redknapp and Adkins both sent DOWN after relegation stand-off



Go out with a bang, they say, not with a whimper. Unfortunately, at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday no-one was listening to that sort of thing.

Instead, Reading and QPR exited the Premier League with barely a squeal of angst.

And an abiding impression will be of some QPR personnel, apparently carefree, smiling, enjoying jokes and handshakes as, without embarrassment, they disappeared down the tunnel and into the Championship.

There is much made of the times in which Premier League football lives and the bubble it inhabits.


Chipping in: Queens Park Rangers striker Jay Bothroyd tries a lob over Alex McCarthy



Debate: Referee Kevin Friend (right) remonstrates with Reading's Adrian Mariappa (left)



Grinning: Jose Bosingwa was smiling as he left the pitch after QPR were relegated




MATCH FACTS



Reading: McCarthy, Gunter, Mariappa, Morrison, Kelly (Harte 76), Karacan, McAnuff, Guthrie, Pogrebnyak, McCleary (Le Fondre 64), Blackman (Robson-Kanu 56)


Subs not used: Taylor, Pearce, Daniel Carrico, Hunt

QPR: Green, Traore, Hill, Onuoha, Bosingwa (Fabio 74), Taarabt (Hoilett 68), Granero, Jenas, M'bia (Mackie 89), Remy, Bothroyd

Subs not used: Julio Cesar, Ben-Haim, Derry, Park Ji-sung


Booked: Granero, Fabio


Referee: Kevin Friend

Latest Premier League results, fixtures and table

A lot of this relates to the under-achieving millionaires of QPR.

Chris Samba, ruled out with a virus, has become an emblem of this and did neither himself nor his club any favours by getting the day of this game wrong in a tweet.

For many people that will sum up what’s gone wrong at Loftus Road and beyond.

Yesterday’s disturbingly limp, goalless 90 minutes will only feed disillusion. A win would have kept either side alive for another 24 hours at least. You would not have known. This will be remembered for everything it was not. It was not intense, not vital, not passionate. It was apathetic.

The setting was Premier League, the fixture list confirmed this was the Premier League and both clubs involved belonged to the Premier League — well, they did at kick-off.



Twisting and turning: Nick Blackman tries to find his way past QPR defender Armand Traore (left)



Aerial fight: Reading's Pavel Pogrebnyak (left) tries to take the ball down while being pressured by Clint Hill (right)





Tense: Manager Harry Redknapp (left) and Reading boss Nigel Adkins (right) issue instructions from the bench

But this was a Championship match, a really poor Championship match. It gradually became an exercise in futility.

To return to 1.30 yesterday afternoon, Reading and QPR had the possibility of staying in the Premier League, avoiding relegation and the financial tornado that accompanies it, particularly QPR. Admittedly this was a remote possibility, but it existed.

Trying to set the mood, the Reading manager of four weeks Nigel Adkins signed off his programme notes with the words Carpe Diem. But Adkins had forgotten that not many of his players read Latin.


As for QPR, they would not have known the meaning of Carpe Diem had it been on their team-sheet. Seize The Day? There were phases of this game so loose that even the sarcastic notion that the clubs seized relegation felt flimsy. It had already seized them is clearly what some had felt as they put on their boots.

This must be the explanation as to why there was no sign of trauma from the participants, no sense that something was being lost. Instead, there was an obvious acceptance from the players that there was no way out of the bottom three. And that does not make for a contest.



Probing: Adel Taarabt (right) tries to hold off the challenge of Jobi McAnuff





Battle: Jermaine Jenas (right) holds off the challenge of Chris Gunter





Positive: Armand Traore surges forward from the left back position as Danny Guthrie (left) trails

Nor did the concept of personal pride seem high on a list of priorities. So there would be no images of players sobbing on the pitch and that was matched in the stands. Incredibly, there was the sound of muted applause from seats at the end. What were they applauding?

‘Mundane’ was the description Harry Redknapp found. That was generous. Considering what was at stake, there wasn’t a lack of urgency, there was an absence of urgency.

Redknapp’s tone was not one of heartbreak. He and Adkins were appointed during the season, after plenty of the damage had been done. Each man has get-outs.

Redknapp mentioned the fact that QPR had won none of their first 13 games and had four points when he was installed in late November. He spent January, he said, ‘running around trying to patch up a team and you shouldn’t be doing that’. He sounded as far from emphatic as you can about QPR making an immediate return from the Championship and mentioned the spectre of Wolves.



Scathing: QPR fans held up a banner for their previous banner Mark Hughes



Tumble: Taarabt manages to stray on his feet after Guthrie sticks a leg out to stop the playmaker



Subdued: Redknapp watches from the bench alongside his backroom staff

In the stands, some visiting fans unfurled a banner that read: ‘Mark Hughes ruined our season.’ It might be a bit more complicated than that; it certainly will be more complicated than that in the future.

QPR have no less than 25 senior players on mega-money under contract until June 2014 at the earliest. The night last August when Julio Cesar joined from Inter Milan — on £90,000 a week, allegedly — some who saw a comparison with Portsmouth were ridiculed. Last month QPR took out a £15m loan.

Reading appear to be better equipped on and off the pitch to deal with relegation. Adkins arrived after Brian McDermott’s harsh dismissal and has only been in charge for five games. They have taken two points from those five but he thinks the team have improved.

Adkins was piqued by the general conclusion that this was a limp way to go. ‘The players gave a lot of energy,’ he said. ‘There was maybe a lack of quality.’

Reading almost scored on two occasions, one a 38th-minute goalmouth scramble, the other an 86th- minute header from Sean Morrison.In unison, supporters of both looked forward to next season by singing: ‘If you’re all going to Bournemouth clap your hands.’ What a hoot!



Huddling up: Reading players try to psyche themselves up before the match







Dogfight: Reading manager Nigel Adkins (left) and QPR boss Harry Redknapp (right) during the match






Meeting of minds: Tony Fernandes (left) and Sir John Madejski (right) talk to one another

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