Pictures and analysis of West Brom 0 QPR 1

West Brom have lost their rhythm and now their season has a serious dose of the blues.

Once again, an FA Cup campaign which seemed to promise so much was left wanting – the Baggies beaten in a tepid third round replay last night by one of only two attempts on goal from a struggling Queens Park Rangers team.

That Harry Redknapp's outfit needed some outstanding goalkeeping from the maligned Robert Green to protect their progress to a home tie with Milton Keynes Dons was unquestionable. But the night's lasting impression was obvious.

West Brom are stuttering at the moment – without a win since Boxing Day and now with their one avenue to glory shut down prematurely for a team coursing with better talent than a KO from the Premier League's bottom club suggests.

Grumbles about too much rotation have been aggravated by a glut of injury problems which have conspired to leave a stern-faced Steve Clarke tackling this middle trench of the season with key players either missing or misfiring.

That the Hawthorns barely roused itself for this tie – the ground was not even half-full – will have had as much to do with the Arctic financial climate as much as the freezing temperatures.

Make no mistake, there was genuine and justified optimism that the club's best team since the first Ron Atkinson era could carry a concerted challenge for the FA's prime chunk of silverware.

But this fresh shut-out followed last season's fourth round exit at home to Norwich and, before that, Roberto Di Matteo's fateful misjudgement of a League Cup quarter-final at Ipswich when his West Brom team were in full swing.

From the surface, the club would appear to possess just the sort of squad to reach a final but bringing that perception to reality continues to elude one head coach after another.

QPR's late winner was headed home from a corner by a player football, and possibly even QPR fans, had forgotten.

Jay Bothroyd, once the scorer of a goal to defeat the Baggies in a Black Country derby, came back to haunt them as he rose unchallenged to meet Alejandro Faurlin's 75th-minute corner.

The scourge of the Hawthorns faithful directing his effort low to the left of Boaz Myhill who could not get a strong enough hand on the ball to keep it out. Only after that shock did Clarke's men stir themselves.

From West Brom's only purposeful raid of the first half, Green had distinguished himself by defying Romelu Lukaku at point-blank range after Jerome Thomas and Goran Popov had threaded together the set-up.

But the former England goalkeeper had to produce four more important saves after Bothroyd's goal to clinch the tie. The best was undoubtedly beating away a second consecutive goalbound strike from Markus Rosenburg.

Green had already defied the Swedish forward within a minute of the Rangers goal after the Albion man had made the sweetest of connections to another Popov cross.

That was driven straight at him, however, Rosenburg's second effort which climaxed some robust pressure four minutes later was slightly to the goalkeeper's right and required even more athleticism and reflexes.

Green then crowned his night by keeping out a tracer bullet from Popov, struck with ferocious power from what seemed an impossible range, before tipping over a 20-yard drive from Graham Dorrans.

That flurry left West Brom fans wondering why on earth their team had not raised such a tempo and intent for the rest of the match – which will not be so easily forgiven if they repeat such a docile display against Aston Villa this weekend.

Clarke's squad badly needs to settle again which means, as much as possible, returning to the core players who engineered such a flourishing first half of the campaign.

But it is a pity that we did not see Jerome Thomas and Graham Dorrans build on the bright starts they made to this tie and perhaps re-write the script for their West Brom futures.

George Thorne put in some useful contributions in central midfield, but Albion were again thankful to the probing of James Morrison and power of Lukaku for the few creative moments they mustered.

Billy Jones and Gareth McAuley were excellent again and are turning in splendid seasons and vital contributions, while West Brom wait patiently to get back to full health.

But it was too little, too late, in a competition which must go uncontested by the Baggies for another year.

By Martin Swain