An awesome last minute save from Lee Camp won QPR a point against Ipswich at Loftus Road on Saturday.

A good friend of mine collared me on the terrace at Colchester two weeks ago as the U's calmly knocked in their fourth goal of the evening and said: "Do you not think some of these goals are down to Camp?"

I know, having studied my Sunday and University team's league tables for hours on end trying to figure out if I as the keeper could be doing any better, that the first instinct as a goal goes in is to immediately blame yourself for it - if I'd been taller, if I'd set off sooner, if I'd read it better I might have saved that one. If Lee Camp is one for league tables and stats his family may want to take away the sharp objects from his kitchen because at the moment we're bottom, we're conceding more than two goals a game on average and we have the second worst defence in the league.

Yet in my opinion Camp has been almost entirely faultless this season. I'm struggling to recall a goal, apart from the first one we conceded this season at Bristol City, where you can actually blame him for it. I can on the other hand recall seven or eight fantastic saves from the former Derby man that have kept scores respectable or won us points we otherwise would have lost.

Imagine for instance how bad the scoreline would have been at West Brom without Camp, or how heartbreaking it would have been at Ashton Gate if, having forced a late equaliser, City had scored straight from the kick off and we'd lost the game after all. They didn't because Camp launched himself across the six yard box and clawed a goal bound header out of the bottom corner.

He was at it again yesterday. With barely seconds left on the watch Ipswich launched a final attack and when Legwinski's cross found sub Danny Haynes completely unmarked ten yards out from goal the game looked to be up. Haynes met the ball firmly and angled his header nicely into the bottom corner but Camp read his intentions and made a fantastic and crucial save to win us a point. Walking back to the tube station afterwards I overheard a gentleman questioning Camp's positioning for the first goal - easily the best goal we'll concede all season. We're a difficult lot to please.

The man charged with trying to keep us happy at the moment is Mick Harford, still in caretaker charge as gardening leave and political issues at Palermo hold up the arrival of Francesco Guidolin. "He was in that film wasn't he? Captain Correlli's Guidolin? He's stringing us along," said Mick before the game. He thought it was funny and that's all that matters.

Harford made changes to his line up despite winning the last game. Out went Ben Sahar, presumably in disgrace after some rather ill-advised comments he and his Mother made to an Israeli newspaper about how hard it is playing for QPR and how much he regrets coming here. That meant Hogan Ephraim, so impressive on the flanks against Norwich, moved into attack alongside Vine with Rowlands moving from right back to left wing and Michael Mancienne returning to the defence at full back after a six week lay off.

Martin Cranie and Damion Stewart continued their centre half partnership in front of Camp with Chris Barker suitably fit again after his hernia op to keep his place at left back. Leigertwood and Bolder continued in the middle of midfield with Ainsworth wide right.

Ipswich, without a win on the road all season but with awesome home form keeping them in the top half of the table, tried to tighten their leaky defence up with a 4-5-1 formation. Alan Lee was the main man in attack but he was well supported by young Billy Clarke and Jon Walters.

The game started at a good pace in blazing sunshine and the two teams exchanged half chances inside the first five minutes. Alan Lee crossed for Billy Clarke at the Loft end but the Irishman headed straight at Camp then Hogan Ephraim wriggled free down the right flank for QPR and sent a nice cross over which just eluded Martin Rowlands at the back stick.

Clarke skinned Mancienne and set up Miller whose control let him down in the area with Ipswich's next attack but Rangers had a real confidence about their play in the first half hour. They were unlucky not to go in front first through Ainsworth who failed to bundle home Mikele Leigertwood's cross at the back post and then through Vine whose marauding run took him past three opponents before he fired a low shot wide.

Leigertwood had picked up where he left off against Norwich, dominating the midfield, breaking up Ipswich possession and using the ball intelligently when he got it. He's also shown with his goal at Leicester and near miss against Norwich a willingness to push forward when given the opportunity and it was his intelligent run into the area, found brilliantly with a ball down the line by Mancienne, that almost brought the opening goal half an hour in. Ultimately his low cross shot flashed all the way through the six yard box and out for a goal kick.

Certainly from his first few weeks at Loftus Road, when Rangers fans were all too keen to listen to the Sheff Utd faithful slagging him off and join in before seeing him for themselves, he's come on leaps and bounds and looks like a very impressive signing now.

The free role afforded to Ephraim often left Vine too isolated up front and really is a system that's going to be much more effective away from home. Having said that Vine's work ethic can paper over many cracks and although he does play like that boy on the playground at school who's better than everybody else but will never pass the ball he did set Rowlands up ten before the break. Rowly could have done better after cutting back onto his right foot and drilling a low shot which Alexander saved comfortably.

After that though Ipswich really started to come back into the game and finished the half very strongly. They lost Tommy Miller to injury and replaced him with Gary Roberts who despite being a target for abuse from his own fans always looks like a steady player to me. Immediately after coming on he sent a cross over which Alan Lee almost turned home. Roberts certainly brought more to the Ipswich performance than Jon Walters but he's the darling of the Ipswich fans and Roberts is the boo boys target. Football fans are a fickle bunch sometimes. In the final few seconds Clarke picked up on lee's flick on but was crowded out in the box.

Ipswich had all the possession and poured forward as the break approached but with Martin Cranie playing superbly at the heart of the QPR defence they failed to create anything really clear cut. That all changed after the oranges and cups of tea as Billy Clarke beat Camp with a low shot but Cranie was in the right place at the right time to execute a goal line clearance. Right place at the right time seems to be a big part of Cranie's game - his reading of the play is exceptional and I lost count of the amount of times one of his team mates lost out to an opponent only to be rescued by Cranie who'd read the situation and swept in behind them. He's particularly good for Barker who, despite improving on recent performances on Saturday, still looks unbelievably slow. In previous games wingers had been spinning past Barker and causing problems but against Ipswich whenever he was skinned Cranie swooped in with a rescue challenge behind him. I'm very impressed with the lad.

Ipswich were well on top although it took a moment of brilliance for them to break the deadlock. There seemed to be little danger when Sylvain Legwinski collected a routine throw in from Garvan 25 yards away from the goal ten minutes into the second half. The Frenchman took one touch to control the ball and then fired an unstoppable, dipping volley over Camp and into the top corner. This is as good a goal as we'll see at Loftus Road all season and although nobody from midfield closed him down quick enough it was difficult to see what QPR could have done to prevent it.

Harford immediately changed things around. Michael Mancienne, still lacking match fitness after six weeks off, was replaced by Marc Nygaard. That meant Martin Rowlands, who'd been unusually poor wide in midfield, moved back to full back where he'd impressed against Norwich. Nygaard joined Vine up front with Ephraim moving to the wing. Ephraim had clearly been given license to roam as a striker but that left Vine too isolated too often and the pair didn't really click as they had done with Ephraim on the wing and Vine up front against Norwich.

Nygaard gave the team a focal point and was soon spreading the play to both flanks with intelligent link up play and heading a cross from Ainsworth a yard or so over the bar. Having said that the first thing he did after coming on was run offside and he struggled to win one header at all despite his superior height. The giant Dane, as ever at Loftus Road, looked nervous of the crowd's reactions to him.

Harford also sent Stefan Moore on instead of the tiring Ainsworth midway through the half and after an impressive cameo against Norwich last week I was hoping that Moore was starting to come out of his shell a bit. Sadly no. He was back to his anonymous worst on Saturday and offered absolutely nothing to the team going forwards or backwards. At one stage he bottled out of a tackle so much I was going to go down there and help him dig a trench to climb into and get out of the way properly.

He's shown against Norwich and Watford this season that with a bit of effort and application he can do a job for us but he just looked so lazy on Saturday that he was worse than useless. His contract expires at the end of this season and at the moment it's hard to see where his next deal is coming from because he's not good enough for this level, not strong enough for the lower leagues and he doesn't make the effort required to cover that up. He really needs to pull his finger out - he could do a lot worse than look at Nygaard who never hides and keeps going even when being subjected to horrific and uncalled for abuse from his own fans.

Things had fallen flat at Loftus Road and it was hard to see where a goal was coming from, in fact Ipswich looked the more likely side to score and Clarke had his head in his hands when he nudged Roberts' assist wide of the post.

Against the run of play Rangers got themselves level in the 73rd minute. Hogan Ephraim cut in from the right wing and carried the ball up to the edge of the area before laying a pass into the feet of Vine who turned the ball into the box with what was either a poor piece of control or a nice back heal. That set up a straight race between Nygaard and keeper Alexander which the Dane won, stretching out a long leg to fire a low shot into the bottom corner.

Nygaard was mobbed by his team mates and suddenly looked a different player. The link up play was still there but he also began to win headers and look a much happier man about himself. He's a real confidence player and if the boo boys could just get behind him rather than barracking him he might be a real asset to us. Certainly the goal gave him a lift and he played very well for the final 20 minutes.

This set up a grand stand finish with neither side happy to settle for a point. Ipswich slung on Counago and Haynes as time ticked on to reinforce their desire to win the game and they went close three times in the closing ten minutes. First the outstanding Cranie denied Lee with a brave block then from the resulting corner De Vos headed wide when it seemed easier to score after being left unmarked. Finally Rowlands denied Lee with a goal line clearance as Ipswich caused problems with another set piece.

At the Loft End Vine sent a first time volley wide from the edge of the area after good work and a nice cross from the right by Ephraim. Vine possibly had time to take a touch but had he connected cleanly and sent the ball into the bottom corner we wouldn't have been complaining. Adam Bolder was denied a penalty in the last QPR attack of the game when he claimed he'd been pulled back but from where I was sitting it looked like he fell over his own feet and went down very easily.

That only left Camp to deny Haynes with his wonder save before the final whistle blew. An entertaining encounter and a fair result on the balance of play. Rangers had the better of the first half an hour, then Ipswich had 30 minutes in the ascendancy and the end of the game saw two honest teams flying at each other looking for a win rather than settling for a point - that's to both manager's credit.

QPR are starting to look a bit more like it, sadly we've given the rest of the division a big head start on us. There are still too many players involved who aren't good enough and are never likely to be, but the spine of the team with Camp, Cranie, Leigertwood and Vine is of a good Championship standard and that will be important as we go into two away games this week. Marc Nygaard may play a crucial role in these matches and hopefully he can take confidence from a decent cameo today and cause Preston some problems on Tuesday night - certainly Ephraim is more effective cutting in from the wing than he is starting up front so another partner for Vine would be good. It's a shame Nardiello isn't fit because he could really prosper with Vine and the style of football we're playing at the moment.

On now to Preston and if we can go there with some confidence about us there's no reason why we can't win the game. PNE were denied a win at Sheff Utd on Saturday by a scandalous decision from my old favourite Jarnail Singh so they'll be chomping at the bit ready to take their frustrations out on somebody - we'll need Leigertwood and Cranie to play like this again and the likes of Bolder, Ephraim and Rowlands to up their performances slightly, but we do have enough about us to win this game. Hope to see you all there.

QPR Camp 7, Mancienne 6 (Nygaard 55, 7), Stewart 7, Cranie 8, Barker 5, Ainsworth 6 (Moore 67, N/A), Bolder 6, Leigertwood 8, Rowlands 6, Ephraim 6, Vine 7.
Subs Not Used: Cole, Bignot, Jarrett
Booked: Vine (foul)
Goals: Nygaard 73 (assisted Vine)

Ipswich Alexander 7, Wright 7, Wilnis 8, De Vos 7, Harding 6, Walters 5, Garvan 6, Legwinski 8, Miller 7 (Roberts 32, 7), Clarke 7 (Haynes 80, 7) Lee 7 (Counago 85, -)
Subs Not Used: Supple, Bruce.
Goals: Legwinski 53 (assisted Garvan)

QPR Star Man - Mikele Leigertwood 8 Another commanding display in the centre of the park. He broke the Ipswich play up very well and used the ball wisely when in possession himself. Also continues to cause problems for teams when he bursts forward. Now he's settled down he's starting to impress. Martin Cranie was also excellent.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire) 6 Kept cards in his pocket and allowed the game to flow where possible but seemed to let Ipswich get away with far more than QPR to such an extent that when we did finally get a free kick right at the end of the game the whole ground cheered the decision. Got the penalty decision right I think, Bolder went over very easily.

Attendance: 13,946 (2700 away fans approx) As usual a large following from Ipswich and they made plenty of noise to back their side. The home support started well but fell flat at the start of the second half when the team needed them the most and only Marc Nygaard's goal brought the ground back to life.

Photo: Action Images

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