That Zamora

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 May 2014 at Wembley
Result	Derby County 0 QPR 1
Competition	Championship Playoff Final
Hopping	20th visit to the “new” Wembley, and many thanks and an OBE to @cynderness for services to ticket procurement
Pre-match preparation
Everyone in this universe and several parallel ones knows how important this particular game is in the English calendar.  Too close to call.
This match in one sentence
Incredible late drama as Bobby Zamora’s injury-time winner for QPR came from their only shot on target.
So what?
Harry Redknapp takes QPR back into the Premier League, and Steve McClaren is left to rue another day of disappointment at Wembley.
The drama unfolds
This match will have received massive coverage elsewhere.  Briefly, for the record, a cagey first half finished goalless, as is often the case on these occasions.  Derby’s younger side were on top territorially for long periods, but the QPR defence looked strong around Richard Dunne.  The game looked to have turned on the hour, when after a long spell of Derby pressure, QPR’s Gary O’Neil was sent off for a “last man” foul.  Derby wasted the set piece, and despite taking the game to QPR they could not create a clear chance.  The game looked destined for extra time.  With the clock already past 90 minutes, the ball fell nicely for substitute Bobby Zamora to enter QPR and Wembley history with a great shot from the edge of the area.  The stadium polarised in seconds.  Derby had one last desperate attack but this is QPR’s day. The line between success and failure at this level I took a couple of scene-setter clips.  Derby are in white.  The first ends in the 31st minute as fans take part in an organised minute of applause for BBC Derby radio presenter Colin Broomfield, who is ill with cancer. The second clip is from near the end of the first half.
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Huddle Stats
Derby huddled, QPR didn’t.  The gap widens. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 31 15 3 13 48 49 48 1.55 Huddlers 18 6 5 7 20 18 23 1.28 Twin Huddlers 2 0 2 0 3 3 2 1.00 2nd Half Huddlers 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Derby’s Lee Grant was in grey and QPR’s Robert Green was rather disappointingly in blue so we missed a chance for some nominative determinism. 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Purple 1 1 0 0 0 1 8 8.00 Red 3 2 0 1 3 1 8 2.67 Grey 13 7 2 4 14 5 34 2.62 Green 12 6 1 5 16 3 18 1.50 Blue 5 1 1 3 7 1 2 0.40 Yellow 5 1 2 2 9 1 1 0.20 Radioactive Bile 4 2 0 2 7 0 -1 -0.25 Orange 3 1 1 1 6 0 -2 -0.67 Pink 7 1 3 3 16 0 -10 -1.43 Maroon 1 0 0 1 2 0 -2 -2.00
What Next?
Leyton Orient v Rotherham United and then Burton Albion v Fleetwood in the next two days – the playoff finals for Leagues One and Two.