‘Home Comforts’

115 days later and we finally have a home win to talk about, and an extremely comprehensive one at that!

It had been coming in the last few weeks, having not lost at the MKM since the return of club football and finally the rewards were reaped by City in convincing fashion against a below-par QPR.

Its fair to say that Aaron Connolly has well and truly silenced any questions that came his way when he signed two weeks ago, with two well taken finishes to get his Tigers career off the mark. Another Irishman who was exceptional on Saturday in Cyrus Christie showed tremendous footwork to get by two or three Rangers defenders before feeding his compatriot who finished superbly. Another impressive thing to note from Connolly is the composure for this finish, having missed a glaring chance just two minutes prior.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally saw the return of Ozan Tufan to the starting lineup, and he didn’t disappoint. I’d touched on this in my previous piece that the Turkish international felt like the proverbial ‘missing piece of the jigsaw’ and it proved to be on Saturday, with a lot more urgency and quicker transitions from defence into attack, often going through Tufan either through his passing or off the ball movement to create more space.

Whilst City were resolute at the back throughout, it was extremely surprising how poor QPR were, especially when you look at the attacking talents at their disposal. Ilias Chair in particular has often been a thorn in our side in the last two or three years, but Christie again dealt with his threats well , as well as the likes of Tyler Roberts, Jamal Lowe and Championship veteran Albert Adomah rarely testing Matt Ingram.

The only time of note where we seemed to be under any slight form pressure was in the opening 10 or so minutes of the second half, but that was soon relinquished. Connolly yet again was at the forefront of the move, releasing Tufan for what would’ve been a certain goal regardless of who it came off. Regardless, an emphatic own goal by Rob Dickie looked to knock the stuffing out of the West Londoners.

That statement would prove to be true just two minutes later, as a gaping defence allowed a sumptuous ball from Jean Michael Seri to be played over the top, with Connolly yet again the coolest man in the MKM Stadium bearing down on goal. Whilst there may be an argument that he was offside, no one seemed to notice at the time as he calmly slotted it past Dieng to make it 3-0.

In recent weeks there has been a lot said about the atmosphere within the MKM Stadium, but the moment this goal went in , there was almost a collective sigh of relief that the home hoodoo was lifted , and in my opinion this was the best we’ve seen our home fans since beating Coventry way back in August.

As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, a home maximum had been coming for a long, long time and the reaction of Liam Rosenior at full time and on radio afterwards was absolutely priceless, and you could fully relate to the emotions coming from him post-match.

A pleasant change at full time was also thinking how far off the play-offs we find ourselves after that result, rather than looking over our shoulders towards the relegation zone. This signifies the remarkable impact that Rosenior has had in recent weeks, having only lost once since the World Cup in a game where we didn’t disgrace ourselves. The belief seems to be back that we are playing towards our full capabilities, and who knows where we may find ourselves in a few weeks time.