The QPR fans finally turned on their own team in earnest on Sunday as a disastrous season limped towards its conclusion with a 2-1 home defeat by Newcastle.

On a grey day in West London, the luminous blues, yellows and pinks of the most ghastly set of football boots ever warn by one of the worst QPR teams in living memory pierced the gloom. Clown shoes for a circus act.

For Rangers, 2012/13 finished many weeks ago but for their visitors on Sunday, Newcastle United, this was a crucial last chance for easy points to secure their survival and prevent them needing a result from a final day fixture against Arsenal.

QPR were lethargic and careless when there were things at stake this season and have melted into a sloppy dysfunctional mess since the inevitable demotion was confirmed. The Magpies meanwhile have suffered a collapse at just the wrong time with confidence sapping home thrashings by Liverpool and local neighbours Sunderland leaving them spent and devoid of ideas here.

The result of throwing these two rabbles together was a comedic farce. There have been four-hour, 23-a-side, shirts v skins games played in parks on summer days with more shape and quality than this. It was the footballing equivalent of two morbidly obese drunks trying to wrestle.

Jose Bosingwa filled the role of pantomime villain. A laid back approach to his football and recent history with Chelsea was never going to endear him to the Loftus Road faithful but attitude problems, refusal to sit on the substitutes bench in a game with Fulham, and then finally the unfortunate timing of a belly laugh in front of the Sky cameras seconds after Rangers' relegation had been officially confirmed at Reading has made him a pariah. His every touch was booed by a sizeable portion of the home support - almost playfully at first but with increasing venom as his performance deteriorated. By half time Harry Redknapp was in a position where he couldn't send the player out for the second half. He should never have been selected in the first place.

Bosingwa actually started the game reasonably well. A 60 yard pass to play Bobby Zamora into space down the right flank back spun perfectly like a fine golf shot but Zamora did nothing with that, or any other service he was given all afternoon - his role in the team seemed to be, essentially, little more than ballast. Later Yohan Cabaye wheeled away to celebrate after striking a firm shot from close range only to see it rebound away to safety thanks to a fine late lunge from the much maligned Portuguese full back. Within seconds of that though Bosingwa had blotted his copy book once more, foolishly grasping hold of Hatem Ben Arfa’s lively slime green away shirt and twisting it in his fist in the heart of the QPR penalty box in full view of referee Lee Probert. Ben Arfa – one of few Newcastle players with anything about them - lashed the resulting spot kick into the roof of the net.

Probert's decision was technically correct, Bosingwa's actions those of a man so thick it's a miracle he manages to breath in and out in his sleep, but it also fell into that category that wizened old pros like to claim shouldn't be given as penalties for fear of every game finishing with a rugby league score. Some suggested Probert was merely trying to even things up as he'd earlier had a hand in Rangers miraculously taking the lead with their first goal in five matches. Junior Hoilett, who spent another afternoon doing a good impression of somebody who has eaten the real Junior Hoilett and assumed his identity and place in the team, managed to get the ball under control for the first and only time in the game and execute a fine one two with Loic Remy before collapsing on the very edge of the penalty area under meagre contact from Mathieu Debuchy. QPR had missed all three penalties they'd been awarded this season prior to this but Loic Remy – who fluffed the most recent of those in an away game at Fulham – calmly rolled the ball home against the club he spurned to join QPR in January.

The equaliser intensified the crowd's persecution of Bosingwa and the player subsequently fell apart. Played into trouble by a poorly judged and executed pass from goalkeeper Robert Green he returned the favour with a bone idle back pass that never even came close to making it back to the keeper and Guttierez was able to swoop in and tee up Gouffran who rolled the ball into an unguarded goal.

Bosingwa cut an isolated figure by this point. Notably blanked by his team mates to the point where several Newcastle players felt the need to console him during breaks in play soon he was swinging wildly at a loose ball and hacking it accidentally back over his head and into the danger area. The crowd grew louder still, chanting that he wasn't wanted here and imploring Harry Redknapp to remove him from the fray.

The manager did just that at half time, sending on Fabio Da Silva in his place. Stephane Mbia went too, another who'd been jeered by his own fans following last week's bizarre Twitter incident where he railed against the club and asked to return to Marseille before claiming his account had been hacked. Mbia had gone head to head with another knuckle dragger Cheick Tiote in what at times felt like competition to be named the Premier League's least adept midfield player. Fortunately for Newcastle, Tiote had the classy Cabaye for company with Ben Arfa playing wide; sadly for Rangers they had Jermaine the Friendly Ghost floating around very tidily doing nothing very much at all and Hoilett on the wing pisballing around in what seem to be ill-fitting boots. Shaun Derry was a good deal better than both when he came on and Andros Townsend's hard running brought some relief, although Redknapp's insistence on picking him wide right when he's left footed and the subsequent inevitable cutting infield is starting to make him predictable.

The question is, why did Harry Redknapp start either Bosingwa or Mbia? Unless he, like any other person of sound mind, had recognised the potential for a combustible situation to turn properly nasty in the remaining games and sent the pair of them out there as sacrificial lambs to punish them for their respective dreadful campaigns it's hard to see what the manager hoped to achieve by fielding them. They're not enhancing the team or helping its chances of winning by being there, they're not going to be in the team next season, and there's hardly going to be a queue of suitors wanting to take them on in the transfer window on the basis of this performance – if Redknapp was hoping to put them in the shop window then this was more Aldi than Harrods.

Redknapp talks about getting "the right sort" into the club for next season and yet is ignoring exactly that sort of player during this run in. A back four of Harriman, Hill, Onuoha, Traore behind a midfield of Mackie, Derry , Faurlin and Townsend with Taarabt and Remy up front surely would not have done any worse over recent games than the team that has been picked instead and would have started putting the foundations in place for a Championship 11 for next season. Redknapp said in his press conference on Friday that he hasn't been picking his team with one eye on next season – the obvious follow up question to that is surely why not?

After falling behind QPR reverted to type. Papiss Cisse headed into the roof of the net immediately hinting a total capitulation may be in the offing but the two teams decided to stumble their way through a total nonsense of a game for the next hour or so instead.

A corner forced by a deflected Hoilett shot turned round the post by keeper Rob Elliott went untaken for an age while the home players tried to remember whose job it actually was to punt set pieces onto the head of the defender at the near post. A young ball boy stood over the ball awaiting the arrival of a QPR player and at one stage looked like might be tempted to take it himself - he could scarcely have done any worse. When Newcastle swung one of their own over in the second half Zamora contrived to hit his own post with no Newcastle player within five feet.

More wonderful communication and decision making between the hapless Rob Green and another of his full backs, Armand Traore this time, resulted in the keeper picking up a pass back and conceding an indirect free kick which Ben Arfa smashed into the wall. Green inspires confidence for the forthcoming Championship campaign almost as little as Redknapp does. His mistake was so basic it confused referee Lee Probert – another whose mind seemed elsewhere for much of this game – who took an age to award anything when the offence was clear and obvious.

Faced with a chance for a late equaliser Zamora smashed a window at the now sadly abandoned BBC Television Centre.

And yet QPR could not only easily have drawn the match, but arguably should have won it as well. Newcastle were every bit as atrocious as their hosts – using every piece of open play possession to look long for an isolated Papiss Cisse, and every dead ball situation to smack it up towards Championship-standard defender Mike Williamson. Clint Hill and Nedum Onuoha welcomed the approach with open arms. Surely the wisdom of scouting for gems from French and Dutch football and then forcing a style of play unfashionable even in this country since somebody was last foolish enough to employ Peter 'Reidy' Reid will be questioned long and hard by Mike Ashley and the Newcastle board this summer.

Jenas suddenly sprang to life with an energetic run to the byline and cut back that Zamora looked set to convert before being muscled out of the chance. Hoilett, never once with the ball under control, bumbled past three men on the edge of the area and dragged a shot wide.

Newcastle were seemingly desperate to make life hard for themselves. Williamson was booked for going over the ball on Mbia and keeper Elliott also saw yellow for kicking the ball away after a free kick had been awarded – although it looked very much like that was a result of his wildly inconsistent kicking than a deliberate attempt to run the clock down. Twenty minutes later the keeper surpassed even the incompetence of the QPR players by running two yards outside his area and catching the ball. Lee Probert seemed stunned and linesman Ceri Richards (known to QPR fans for his shameful part in the Ashley Young controversy at Old Trafford last season) also remained motionless – perhaps the fact that Elliott was protesting his innocence while still standing outside the box with the ball in his hands confused them. Eventually the free kick was awarded, Elliott was dismissed, and Steve Harper clambered from the bench for the last of his rare outings at the very end of a 20 year Newcastle career.

Redknapp finally introduced Adel Taarabt in search of an equaliser and during a fraught three minutes of stoppage time he was involved in an incident that saw Remy's fierce goal bound shot blocked away and Townsend dip a well struck effort a foot over the bar. The visiting fans pleaded for a final whistle.

Children, and one or two people old enough to know better, ran onto the pitch at the end of the game. Armand Traore left wearing just his y-fronts. A surreal end to a strange match. Newcastle , Stoke, Reading and Wigan have all gone up against this Rangers team recently and on every occasion the poor quality of the match has been the abiding memory. QPR though will now deservedly finish last, below all of them.

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QPR: Green 5, Bosingwa 3 (Fabio 46, 6), Onuoha 6, Hill 6, Traore 5, Townsend 6, Jenas 5, Mbia 4 (Derry 46, 6), Hoilett 4 (Taarabt 84, -), Zamora 5, Remy 6

Subs not used: Murphy, Park, Granero, Mackie

Goals: Remy 11 (penalty, won Hoilett)

Bookings: Mbia 36 (foul)

Newcastle: Elliott 5, Debuchy 5, Coloccini 6, Williamson 5, Yanga-M’Biwa 5, Cabaye 6, Tiote 4 (Perch 52, 6), Guttierez 6, Goufran 6 (Obertan 77, 5), Ben Arfa 7 (Harper 82, -), Cisse 5

Subs not used: Simpson, Marveaux, Anita, Campbell

Goals: Ben Arfa 18 (penalty, won Ben Arfa), Gouffran 35 (assisted Bosingwa/Guttierez)

Yellows: Cabaye 10 (dissent), Williamson 29 (foul), Elliott 67 (time wasting), Elliott 80 (handball)

Reds: Elliott 80 (two yellows)

QPR Star Man – Andros Townsend 6 A loan spell that has ended with him being named the club’s Young Player of the Year tells you this wasn’t the first time he was the best of a fairly lousy bunch. Attitude, effort and application are all where it should be which draws attention in this team, even when things don’t quite go his way.

Referee – Lee Probert (Wiltshire) 6 Plenty of big calls in this game and on the whole he got most of them right. Both penalties were the correct decisions as were the pass back and sending off decisions against the two goalkeepers. But there was a lot of guesswork and going off crowd reaction here, particularly with the Elliott dismissal, and he carried himself with the air of somebody whose mind was elsewhere – much like the players.

Attendance 17,278 (1,800 Newcastle approx) A bizarre atmosphere in keeping with the game. Harry Redknapp came out afterwards and said nobody could be expected to play in the atmosphere that blew up around Jose Bosingwa in the first half, but given that he won’t be here next season and isn’t helping now it’s hard to see what Redknapp is getting from selecting him. The manager needs to take some responsibility for what happened on Sunday. The supporters have had their fill this season and it was always going to turn nasty in uncompetitive games if the likes of Bosingwa continued to be pick and perform as they have been doing. Unless he was looking for a deliberate opportunity to humiliate Mbia and Bosingwa here then selecting them from the start was brain dead stuff from Redknapp and he and his players got everything they deserved from the long suffering supporters.

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AussieRs added 02:06 - May 14 Clown shoes for a circus act. Simply brilliant stuff Clive. Captured my sentiments perfectly. And also I think most fairly. I really don't think you (or I) are being too hard. And while I have complained about having to get up in the middle of the night to watch on pay tv, at least I have not had to actually pay to go and watch. An utter embarrassment, devoid of any cohesion or just plain skills. Everybody looked like a gumby, probably with the exception of Townsend. I take your point about 'Arry being better to put out an alternative 11 better designed to prepare for life in the Championship. However, from the players you listed, are we really going to rely on Derry and Hill to get us back up? Remy won't be here, nor will Townsend. The futures of Faurlin and Taarabt both quite uncertain too. The problem with next season's team is that I don't think we own it yet. So we are stuck playing the clowns. All over soon. Phew.

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Kaos_Agent added 02:40 - May 14 "A back four of Harriman, Hill, Onuoha, Traore behind a midfield of Mackie, Derry , Faurlin and Townsend with Taarabt and Remy up front surely would not have done any worse over recent games than the team that has been picked instead and would have started putting the foundations in place for a Championship 11 for next season." Agreed. Harry's questionable judgement in team selection and apparently very limited ability to motivate anyone, which I admit it is tough to do in a dead locker room, is not making him look very convincing.

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ozexile added 04:17 - May 14 I don't like seeing any player booed but in those 2 cases I'll make an exception. How dare they disrespect our shirt after taking our hard earned and giving nothing in return. I'd rather we dropped down the divisions and became a non league club than continue to have these players at Loftus rd.
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DesertBoot added 04:56 - May 14 Deservedly we will finish bottom. Christ we he have seen so rubbish teams at Loftus Road this season. An ounce of effort and guile would have reaped rewards but we have had neither against the majority. Not sure Redknapp has contributed a great deal. Next year we will be a travelling circus unless HR gets us off to a flyer. Not confident at all.
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QPRski added 06:06 - May 14 Bosingwa certainly filled the role of pantomime villain, but then the whole season has been a pantomine, farce, Kafka novel or horror story. Take your pick on the analagy. Clive, many thanks for all these brilliant reports as I don't know how you manage to keep up your enthusiasm. However, one can feel your irony and frustration betwen the sentences of your recent reports. Surely next season can only be better?

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stneotsbloke added 06:19 - May 14 As many have said before me, this is quite the most disjointed and utterly useless team I've seen in 45 years of watching Rangers. Bosingwa, M'Bia, Toilet, Granero, Caesar, Bothroyd and of so many more simply have to go. And as for Zamora, what a big useless big lump of nothing he is. I can remember saying a couple of months ago that the biggest thing for our future is to keep Harry, I'm really beginning to have serious doubts about that. The team he selected showed that he's either lost the plot or simply doesn't know what to do next, given that many of them will no doubt be with us next year fills me with dread. He should have shown his intent to the fans and the many useless wasters he selected that things will change and selected some fringe/youth players who would at least have given a fight and given us fans some hope that he actually does want to address the situation. Nothing so obvious., he just picks the same watsers that he says have no future at the Club. Ridiculous. MH clearly sowed the seeds for this dreadful season but HR has had six months to get them sorted but by and large we've actually got worse. He can't keep blaming Hughes !!. I suppose the simple answer is to spend more money and increase the debt even more. Next year is going to be very tough for us hard put on supporters. Having said that, I've just renewed my season ticket and, bizarrely, I'm looking forward to August and life in the Championship......................

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Roller added 06:30 - May 14 Excellent Clive, so much more positive than my effort (which is dropping through the forum like a stone at the moment) and very much fitting in with the feeling in the stands. Where I was there was a lot of humour as we struggled to entertain ourselves. Personally I thought it was very brave of Bosingwa to take the heat off Mbia like that!
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gigiisourgod added 07:33 - May 14 Fantastic report - much appreciated Clive. The thing that annoyed me most (apart from the scandalous team selection) was the fact I didn't see him get off the bench once it started raining. The only time I saw him from the upper loft was puffing his cheeks on the big screen. Now I'm not saying you have to be a shouter or a screamer to make a good manager, but that looked to me like a disgraceful lack of enthusiasm. I hope fat tony has really sussed out whether HR fancies it next season because the signs that I'm seeing are not good. Same as with Hughes, if the manager doesn't really fancy the job then we will have big big problems next season.

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N12Hoop added 07:42 - May 14 Am losing faith in Harry and getting immensely irritated by his constant criticism of the players he will have to work with next season. However, given the bloated squad of wasters we have, I think it will be a much bigger achievement to get us back up text season than to have achieved survival this season.
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R_in_Sweden added 08:00 - May 14 Well done for actually commiting pen to paper after that. The selection of Mbia, Hoilett and Boswinga remains a mystery to me. Unless there was some strange twisted logic about putting them in the shop window for potential buyers. Well now they've ended up at the bottom of the bargain bucket, underneath the VHS cassettes, at the back of the "everything for a pound" shop after their displays on Sunday. At risk of creating a recurring theme, it feels to me as though Fernandes is stuck with Harry as he doesn't really know where else to turn. We are not an attractive proposition to any up and coming manager at the moment. I'm far from convinced about Redknapp, one minute we are staying up, the next we are a bottom half of the table championship side. I just get the feeling that we are supplying a steady wage to a man who's career is rapidly fizzling out. Whereas with Hughes it has become clear that we were totally shafted from the beginning. Let's clear out the rot and work from solid foundations, we need to get the feel good factor back at Loftus Road. We should be realistic and not be looking at an instant return to the Premiership, I think it's far more a case of steadying the ship and avoiding relegation next season. New training ground and youth academy, new manager, overhaul of squad, more passion and fight, more content fans - take it from there.

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MackemR added 08:07 - May 14 On Sunday I watched Danny Graham give a passable impression of an extra from The Walking Dead. I fear on our current record that he will wear blue and white hoops next season.
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shooters47 added 08:17 - May 14 Thanks Clive as I have just read your report and actually have an idea of what the second half was like now as I left at half time. I do not boo any player that plays for us but can understand why fans do as the 2 mentioned deserved everything they got. Good luck to everybody going next Sunday as you all must be stark raving bonkers!! plus if this so called manager we currently have stays with us then god help us.

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londonscottish added 09:23 - May 14 I went on Sunday and wish I hadn't. My feelings of vague optimism for next season have been replaced with deep foreboding. HR's selection of Boswinga and Mbia was always bound to end in dog's abuse from the crowd. The fact that Boswinga ended up bolloxing things up royally was grimly apt. But what really hacked me off was the fact that Fabio and Derry looked so much better than those two when they were subbed at half time. Surelay a massive error of judgement by Harry. Why leave fans with that bitter taste in their mouths at the end of that awful season when it was totally avoidable?

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qprninja added 09:29 - May 14 For all the positives that Sky's money has brought to the English game, it's a shame that it's created so called professional footballers with such bad attitudes as we're currently lumbered with. I don't think I've ever been so out of love with my team and the game as a whole as I am at the moment.
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londonscottish added 09:49 - May 14 I struggle to think of many positives that Sky's money has brought, TBH. To me it's mainly been about greed. The money has split apart the haves and the have not clubs, has created a total lack of governance of team ownership and stewardship, has created a world of players who are effectively multi-millionaires at 17 or 18 and who often start acting like complete tw*ts and has separated the players from the fans. So maybe 5 or 10% of the money has gone to improved grounds and facilities. The rest has gone straight into the pockets of the players, managers, staff and owners. And left the supporters looking like right mugs.

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R_in_Sweden added 10:12 - May 14 londonscottish You've hit the nail on the head.
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SomersetHoops added 11:06 - May 14 I can only think (and hope) that this selection was made to demonstrate to the QPR board how useless these players are and to justify paying them off. I think Harry has done that before when he came to demonstrate the need to spend money on new players, although that didn't work either. If these were genuine selections then confidence in our manager will be hard to muster and he will need to demonstrate that he and his team can find good players at good value during the summer. My concern is that the skill in assessing players irrespective of cost is something that Harry lacks. He will be demanding millions are spent again and while other clubs have already identified their good value targets Harry will be moaning that he can't afford a £20 million striker because he can't offload the useless players from the wage bill. I see no signs that we have employed any really good scouts to identify the type of players we need and if we rely on Harry's mates and agents to tell us who we want then we will be set for another hopeless season and costs spiralling out of control.

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londonscottish added 11:35 - May 14 If that was Harry's game it was reckless in the extreme. He's blown any goodwill he had from me in one fell swoop. And I'm sure for a huge number of other supporters that were giving him the benefit of the doubt. And apart from taking the piss by taking that massive gamble with the club how do I explain all that booing to my 8 year old?
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QPunkR added 11:37 - May 14 I only feel disappointed that more of the ground didn't take up the chant 'fall over and die, fall over and diiiiiiiiie, Jose Boswanker, fall over and die!' In a tongue-in-cheek fashion, before anyone accuses me of being insensitive..
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londonscottish added 11:46 - May 14 I don't want to sound sanctimonious - after Boswinga's mistakes I was joining in with the Boswinga abuse big time. It's just that 48 hours later, in the cold light of day, the whole scenario feels wrong. Booing your own players feels wrong. Doing it in front of an 8 year old feels wrong. The fact that Harry put him in the starting 11 and created the whole scenrio was wrong. It could only be a massive misjudgement by him or a massively cynical gamble. Either of which is wrong. *sigh*

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snanker added 11:56 - May 14 Dear all yes as Qprski said a real Trial of a season to say the least now all smile you've been caught on candid Kafka alright !! Words can't sum up the shambles. Cant even begin to think where we start to sort things out having signed so many long term waste of space big money muppet's ! ? Talk about pissing the pounds away. Maybe it is the Biggest Loser ! I started looking about 3 months ago who might be three sides worse than us next season in the Championship and guess what I'm still looking !! Sadly in true R's tradition & after 45 years of support I've learnt to fear the worst but hope the end of season sabbatical will clear up everyone's view and some sanity, faith, commitment and thought will return to the club ? And ta Clive very much for putting up with and reporting on this charade over the last ten months with a sense of gallows humour & the inevitable !!!! Roll on the Championship, I think !

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RonisRs added 12:01 - May 14 thanks for the report Clive - I think you should be up for a knighthood, given the pain you must go through writing up the weekly trash that the players and manager give out. While, I am generally a HR fan, I have to wonder what he is trying to do; perhaps it is about making sure that he gets TF to release the purse strings for next season, or in this case about making sure Newcastle win, so we dont have to compete against them next year. or maybe he wants a payoff ??? The talk is that they want AT to stay, so why dont we play him. Like the many comments suggest, I am also confused and worry about the future. looking at the play-offs in Championship, there is so much more passion and skill than our lot - God help us.

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isawqpratwcity added 12:16 - May 14 No way would I have started Bosingwa, and, despite his goal-line save (Derry also did one later), he was culpable as the person more responsible than any other player on the pitch for both Newcastle goals. I have never booed a player, and I wouldn't in this case except maybe HR needed to be told. I didn't think it could get worse after relegation: how wrong was I? Nice report, Clive, thank you.

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JAPRANGERS added 12:34 - May 14 Thanks Clive for all your season's superb reports. They are the only ray of sunshine about this awful season.
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hoops_legend added 12:42 - May 14 True Japrangers and also being the best team in West London We beat Chelsea and Fulham Its been an ok season!
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