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It has now been 10 years since QPR won their opening two league games and in spite of a performance that deserved better, that run stretches to an eleventh year after this frustrating goalless draw with newly-promoted Bolton Wanderers at Loftus Road. Julien Stéphan made two changes to the team that won at Portsmouth last weekend. Boy Kempner, who picked up a knock at Fratton Park, was replaced by Kealey Adamson at left back, while Richard Kone was up front in place of Rumarn Burrell. (So, presumably, Kone isn’t about to leave for Burnley, or we wouldn’t have risked him.) That meant we lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as follows: Pierce Charles in goal; Amadou Mbengue, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke-Salter and Adamson as the back four; Ronnie Edwards and Harvey Vale sitting in midfield; Kwame Poku, Ilias Chair and Koki Saito, as the attacking trio; and Kone leading the line. The bench looked strong, with Dennis Cirkin, Tariq Lamptey and Nicolas Madsen among the substitutes, though no Glen Kamara, which was disappointing after his excellent debut last weekend. We made the brighter start, with Vale forcing an early save from Jack Bonham inside the first five minutes. On and on we came, racking up eight shots in the first half, six on target. But we couldn’t make the pressure count. Our best chance came when Chair put Kone through on goal in the 26th minute, but his shot was too close to Bonham, who saved comfortably. Chair worked a well-rehearsed free-kick routine in the 33rd minute, but nothing came of the resulting delivery. We couldn’t keep up this relentless pace indefinitely and we slowed down around the 35th minute, which allowed the visitors get their bearings. Not that they did much when we stood off them, managing only one, off-target shot in the first half. Bolton’s best player by a country mile was Bonham, who made nine saves over the course of the game. Bolton brought a decent following – enough to fill the Upper School End – but had no end product and it was QPR pressing for a breakthrough after the restart. Saito went down in the box in the 54th minute after ghosting past two defenders, but the penalty shout was waved away. Two minutes later Vale headed a good chance straight at Bonham after Kone had nodded it into his path, and Poku dragged a wild effort well off target from a corner in the 58th. The closest we came to scoring was when Kone got on the end of a cutback from Mbengue and flicked it goalwards, producing an acrobatic save from Bonham, who tipped it over the bar. Stéphan made a quadruple change just after the hour, sending on Burrell for Kone, Madsen for Poku, and handing debuts to two of our more exciting summer signings: Lamptey and Cirkin in place of Mbengue and Adamson. All did a good job, particularly Lamptey and Cirkin who both looked better going forward than the players they’d replaced. Mbengue has cemented his place at right back, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Cirkin becomes our regular starter at left back. We had another sight of goal in the 68th minute from a free-kick on the edge of the box, but Dunne couldn’t get his header on target. By this point we’d had more than 50% of the possession and, had we managed to win, it would have been our first victory with a majority share of the ball in more than a year. But the rule remained unbroken. Paul Smyth replaced a flagging Saito in the 76th minute, and Chair had a penalty shout waved away in the 82nd after being brought down in the box. Smyth got in behind in stoppage time, but his first touch was too heavy and he lost the ensuing tussle with Bonham, who was there to deny us once again. Nil-nil, then, but we were by far the better side and looked much more likely to score – our xG was 1.97 to the visitors’ 0.13. Overall, we had 17 shots with nine on target. On another day, it could have been 2-0 and if we carry on playing like this we’ll have a good season. But thanks to Bonham’s heroics, the Trotters went home with a point, which the visiting fans celebrated as if it was an FA Cup victory. You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.