Shut-out pleases Turner

Shut-out pleases Turner

Published Jan. 6, 2013 6:15 a.m. ET

QPR manager Harry Redknapp admitted that his team were a little fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw from their FA Cup third round tie with West Brom at Loftus Road.

But the R's boss was delighted for Kieron Dyer, who has been plagued by injury during recent seasons but bagged a very late equaliser here, his first goal in top level football since May 2007.

"I tried a few different players today but couldn't really see the goal coming," said Redknapp. "We were a bit short really.

"It was a good finish from Kieron and he got through a full game, which was good. He's kept going and he hasn't played a full game since I don't know when. I'm pleased for him.

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"I didn't want to get beat and the draw today, following the win against Chelsea (on Wednesday), is not bad. Losing is a bad habit.

"West Brom are strong and well organised, with a bit of flair. You can see why they are in the top half of the table.

"Maybe the Chelsea game knocked a bit out of our lads. One or two of them looked a bit tired but, credit to them, they kept going."

Redknapp's new signing Tal Ben Haim made his debut in defence but the manager agreed it was not an unqualified success.

"I played him at left-back and he is a right-sided player," said Redknapp. "He was completely on the wrong side. I knew that but didn't have any left-backs, so that was a problem. It left us with no balance."

And Redknapp also pointed out that football fans seem to be falling out of love with the FA Cup, just 8,984 fans having turned up at Loftus Road.

"You see teams going half-hearted at the FA Cup for some reason, teams that are in the middle of the table," he said.

"People want to see Premier League football I think and maybe the sales were more exciting for them than QPR and West Brom today. You'll find lots of clubs with attendances down."

The Irish striker headed home a right wing free-kick from Kevan Hurst to earn the Shrimpers a 2-2 draw at Roots Hall.

But that came after the Bees defence had rushed out trying to play offside and Rosler felt it should have been disallowed.

"Southend's equalising goal was at least two metres offside," said Rosler. "I went to see the referee after the game because it is not good enough for the linesman to make a decision like that and he should just apologise.

"We are professionals and we expect the referee and his officials to also be professional as well.

"But now we have another game in our already busy schedule which we do not really need at the moment.

"The replay will be hard as well because Southend are a good team. They play clever football which is hard to cope with and Gavin Tomlin up front is an excellent player which makes it even harder for us."

But, early on at Roots Hall, Brentford seemed set for victory. They went in front with a well worked goal in the 29th minute when Tom Adeyemi raced on to a neat flick from Paul Hayes and rolled a low slot in to the bottom left hand corner of the net.

The Bees then doubled their lead nine minutes later when a low right wing cross from Sam Saunders was diverted past his own goalkeeper by Ryan Cresswell at the near post.

However, Southend got back in to the game within 60 seconds when Sean Clohessy's deep cross was the right flank was headed home at the far post by Corr via the underside of the crossbar.

The Shrews fought a rearguard battle at Glanford Park. The visitors failed to muster an effort on target for 80 minutes until substitute Tom Bradshaw finally tested goalkeeper Sam Slocombe from long range.

Although they came close to sneaking a winner in stoppage time when a brilliant effort from Jon Taylor looked destined for the top corner until the ball was tipped away at full stretch by goalkeeper Sam Slocombe.

Turner said: "We've kept clean sheets in the last three games and broken our duck away from home so it's been a pleasing period. It's looking a lot better than it was a couple of months ago.

"The important thing for us was to take something out of the game. We allowed Scunthorpe a little bit too much room at times, but in the last 10 minutes we had some good opportunities.

"It was a fantastic save from their keeper that kept that really well-struck shot out in the last minute from Jon Taylor - I couldn't see how he could get to it.

"A point here, given all the circumstances, is not a bad result."

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