Queens Park Rangers kept themselves in touch with their rivals near the bottom of the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Monday Night Football. Charlie Austin scored both goals and is thriving in his role alongside Bobby Zamora, writes Adam Bate.
Tuesday 28 October 2014 16:12, UK
“He has scored goals at every level so he is going to be a handful for Premier League defences. I think he will have a big season.” Harry Redknapp’s summer hopes for Charlie Austin haven’t always looked like coming to fruition but the striker made the difference against Aston Villa on Monday.
The Queens Park Rangers forward opened the scoring with a fine first-half strike and then got across his marker well to seal the points with a crisp finish after the break. Austin now has four goals in eight games – a tally only bettered by seven Premier League players so far.
As Redknapp had suggested, the former Burnley forward has a track record of scoring goals and has openly taken encouragement from the success of Rickie Lambert in making the journey from non-league to Premier League. But the final step is a tough one and there are other more cautionary tales.
In recent years, players from Matej Vydra to Ricardo Vaz Te and from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to Glenn Murray have gone into the Premier League having scored more than Austin’s 19-goal Championship tally, only to fail to net more than three times in their first season.
The early signs for Austin and QPR weren’t overwhelmingly convincing either. There were a couple of goals but that translated into just four points for the team from the first seven games. The striker was struggling to get into matches and provide the link-up play that was needed.
That changed against Liverpool last week when Bobby Zamora made his first start of the season. QPR had a target to hit and Austin had a partner to feed off. The game against the Reds saw Austin have more touches, passes and shots than in any of his previous appearances. There were even two clear opportunities. All that was missing was the goal.
Monday Night Football brought two of them – and once again Zamora played his part. Austin had the awareness to get close to his strike partner to latch onto the set-up and drive the ball beyond Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan for the crucial breakthrough goal.
The two seem to have fashioned a good understanding. Zamora was the player Austin passed to and received the ball from on the most occasions. Indeed, half of all Zamora’s passes found his fellow striker. The experienced target man knows his role. He’s impressing by making his team-mate a better player too.
“The impact of Zamora, not just on his team but on Austin, has been incredible,” said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville on Monday Night Football. “He’s getting involved in the game.
“Austin is someone who needs a partner. He’s proved that in his first few Premier League games where he found it tough. Now he’s getting into business and he looks confident. It’s the power of having the two of them together that’s having a huge impact on Charlie Austin and this QPR team.”
Buoyed by his goal, Austin certainly produced a committed display with the QPR midfield duo of Sandro and Karl Henry the only players on the pitch to cover more ground than the game’s double goalscorer.
With Chelsea and Manchester City up next, maintaining his one-in-two record for the season will be difficult. But for player and club, there is now hope. “I can’t do it without my team-mates. Without my team-mates I wouldn’t score goals,” he told Sky Sports. The difference is that with Zamora now alongside him, there’s a sense that Austin now has a partner to help him do just that.
