 Monday, 10th Mar 2008 23:52 QPR have a final chance to put their Tuesday night hoodoo to bed this season when they face Blackpool at Loftus Road this week Queens Park Rangers (15th) v Blackpool (12th) It’s a bloody silly sport this. Every match one of Tracy, David or myself has to fill in a ‘prediction’ section of these previews and what real hope do we have? How can you predict a sport where one of Barnsley or Cardiff, who’ve impressed nobody in the Championship this season, will be in the FA Cup Final after knocking out three Premiership teams between them? How can you predict QPR matches when we play like we did in the first half hour at Hillsborough and then play like we did in the next hour? Try guessing what’s coming next from a team that can murder Stoke and play so brilliantly and then play like we did at Coventry and Sheff Wed. The simple answer is you can’t – hell QPR are so flaky at the moment that the time and day we play on seems to affect them with a massive difference between the form on a Saturday and that on a Tuesday. Blackpool aren’t much more predictable either. David and myself had them down as relegation candidates in our pre-season Championship Preview and although they started off slowly and looked set for a season of struggle they’ve settled in at this level very well and currently occupy a comfortable midtable position as the season reaches its business end. QPR are slightly worse off than their visitors on Tuesday night – two points and three positions. Depending on which Rangers games you’ve been to lately depends on whether you think we’re lucky to be there, lower than we should be or just plain confused. I’ve written the awayday review for Coventry but it’s on hold at the moment while I try and calm down and write a sensible one. I’ll maybe have another go on the train down to this match tomorrow – but it’s still not likely to be pretty. Coventry and Barnsley were two of the worst football matches I’ve ever been to in my life, Bristol City and Stoke at home were two of the best, and Sheff Wed away was a bit of both. Our performances are up and down like a bride’s nightie. Consistency is the watch word for QPR – not only in performance but in attitude. Why do the likes of Ephraim, Vine and Buzsaky look so vibrant, full of life and running in home games only to turn into stroppy teenagers on the road? If I had a pound for every time one of our forward players had thrown his arms up in the air and given up in the last three away games I’d be as rich as the QPR board and speaking of them, I can’t imagine our performances on the road are impressing them greatly with another transfer window approaching. Are we really the team that won at Southampton, Watford and Burnley either side of Christmas scoring nine goals in the process? The only thing we have been able to predict with any certainty about QPR recently is they are always dire on a Tuesday night. Five defeats from five matches played at Loftus Road on a Tuesday this season, one win from seven midweek games on the road. Rangers lost all but one of their midweek games at Loftus Road last season as well, and it’s just one success from 12 evening kick offs in the Bush now. Whatever happened to those electric midweek nights in W12 that we all looked forward to? Let’s hope they make a return this week – two wins from these two home games and we’re all but safe. Five minutes on Blackpool The former Blackburn, Leicester and Aston Villa full back came in after a disastrous spell in charge from Colin Hendry with the Seasiders staring a return to the bottom division in the face. They should certainly have been used to that after spending the best part of two decades yo-yoing between the bottom two divisions with dramatic play off success and disappointing relegations in equal measure – but Grayson stepped in and saved the day, initially only as caretaker but soon given the job permanently as the dramatic transformation started to take shape. In the 2006/07 season the Pool took the league by storm, going 14 games unbeaten at one stage and reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup after starting in the first. Grayson added proven League One players like Ian Evatt, Andy Morrell, Ben Burgess and Michael Flynn to his line up and got them playing reasonably attractive football. As they say, always back the form team in the play offs and with seven straight victories going in Blackpool were certainly that - they beat Oldham and then Yeovil in the end of season lottery to reach this level for the first time since 1978. With few eye catching summer signings, a small ground offering limited capacity, and a lack of Championship experience both on Grayson’s part and in the playing squad this Championship season looked like a tough one for them. It was down to Grayson to get players like Evatt, Taylor Fletcher, Hoolahan and others reproducing their League One form in the Championship for the first time in their careers. They beat Leicester away on day one, and Huddersfield in the League Cup two days later before drawing with Bristol City. All seemed well in the Blackpool garden but then the step up in level started to catch up with them. Grayson lost half his starting eleven to injury, including both centre halves, and after beating Hull City on Sky in September they went on to collect just one win out of their next 13 games – no guesses as to who that run came to an end against. As much as things change they stay the same. Not only have they excelled in the league, they also went through three rounds of the League Cup before eventually succumbing to defeat at Premiership side Tottenham. It can’t be underestimated just what effect their inhospitable home ground has on their points total. While Blackpool are used to the two sided ground with the wind whipping in off the sea down the pitch southern softie teams like ourselves and Charlton turn up in hats and gloves and play like we don’t want to be there. I remember Grimsby Town over achieving at this level for many years, staying up on their home form alone, as teams took one look at the weather blowing in off the north sea and elected to metaphorically stay on the warm bus. They’ve got just four wins, and 17 of their 47 points achieved so far, on the road. Having said all of that they were still loitering dangerously close to the relegation zone as we entered the winter. They may have ended that run of one from 13 against us but they went another four matches after that before winning again and went into the Christmas period in real trouble. A combination of players returning from injury, and really intelligent signings just when the team needed to kick on – Paul Dickov and Steve McPhee both arrived in January – has seen an upturn in form even greater than the one that’s taken us from bottom to 15th. In the four games over the festive period they beat Coventry, Burnley and Colchester and drew with Sheff Utd. A poor January followed but they have lost just one of their last eight – beating Norwich, Charlton and Leicester in the process. Grayson said after a draw against Southampton at the weekend that he got the team selection wrong and some of his players looked tired – sign of these heady times at Bloomfield Road that Blackpool are not only above Southampton in the league, but disappointed to only draw with the former Premiership mainstays. Also a sign of what a perfectionist Grayson is with more than 60% of the vote on a local newspaper website saying that he actually got the team selection correct. After saving them, promoting them and consolidating them at the new level in his first two and half seasons in the job Grayson has passed every test so far with flying colours. The next one will be to avoid a Colchester style second season syndrome next term – the U’s have struggled as a result of selling all the players that got them so high up the table last season. Grayson will have to continue getting the best out of the players he has, and add to them in the summer, if they’re to become a mainstay at this level. That’s if he’s still there of course, bigger clubs have already had a sniff around and it’s really not hard to see why. Who to watch out for Clearly the Blackpool style of play suits little, niggly goal poachers because partnering Dickov in attack is another diminutive front man who’s enjoying a new lease of life. Stephen McPhee scored two goals at Norwich last week to win them an away game against one of the division’s form sides, and contributed another to the four others they bagged against play off chasing Charlton at Bloomfield Road recently. Three goals in two games there, as many as he’d managed in 22 appearances for Hull City prior to his January transfer window move. McPhee you may remember as the blonde haired pain in the arse that used to terrorise us for Port Vale in our League One days. After coming through the ranks at Coventry and spending time on loan at St Mirren it was at Vale Park that he really made his name with 44 goals in 147 starts. That form was enough to persuade Mick Wadsworth to take him to Portugal as part of his ill-fated Beira Mar experiment – our own Paul Murray also went out there to join him. There things turned a little sour for him with one nasty injury after another and it didn’t improve much for him when he returned to these shores to join Peter Taylor’s Hull City shortly after they won promotion into this league. In two and a half years on Humberside he managed just 18 league starts and 17 off the bench. So a new start required, and Blackpool are looking to provide that for him. He’s a lively little fella who knows where the goal is – if he can keep fit for any length of time he may yet make at this level. Coming off the bench is a striker completely different to both of them – although like McPhee I remember the name of Ben Burgess was one we looked for on team sheets in the league below with some trepidation. He scored at Bloomfield Road earlier in the season of course so needs no introduction – he’s big, awkward and hairy. Dangerous from set pieces and decent crosses. Supplying the chances for those three are Wes Hoolahan and Gary Taylor Fletcher. Hoolahan has been the subject of a protracted transfer saga between Pool and Livingstone and with FIFA involved it’s been a real problem trying to figure out just who owns him. He’s playing for Blackpool though and very happy to have him they are as well. He’s a pacy, tricky winger and a really difficult player to play against on his day. He’s fantastic to watch and it’s been no surprise to see supposedly bigger clubs like Sheffield United chasing him this season. The minefield of just who they’d have to pay the transfer fee to seems to have put them off thus far but whether that will still apply over the summer remains to be seen – he’s certainly a player I’d love to see in Hoops. Five goals this season, but none in his last 16 matches – he’s certainly due. Taylor Fletcher on the hand is not a player I’m convinced with at this level. He’s spent his career to date on forlorn chases to the play offs in the lower leagues with Huddersfield and Lincoln City. He has three goals from wide in his last four games, including two in the demolition of Charlton, but I’d be disappointed if we can’t deal with him to be honest. Same goes for Andy Morrell, who failed to impress in this division with Coventry before dropping back down. At the back the uncompromising pairing of Ian Evatt and Kaspars Gorkss will attempt to keep our forwards at bay. You’ll struggle to find a taller centre half pairing with them both measuring six foot three, and that makes them a threat from attacking set pieces as well – Gorkss has five goals to his name this season including one at the weekend against Southampton. Gorkss is enjoying his first season in British football since moving from his homeland Latvia. Evatt on the other hand will be more than familiar to QPR fans after an unsuccessful spell at Loftus Road. If he stays same to the form he showed with us, any kind of pace on the turn will cause him serious problems and it would be good to see Agyemang launch a foot race with him at the first possible opportunity. Past Meetings Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Barker 7, Jackson 7, Gorkss 7, Crainey 7, Welsh 6 (Taylor-Fletcher 59, 6), Southern - (Fox 12, 6), Jorgensen 6, Hoolahan 8, Burgess 8, Slusarski 6 (Morrell 54, 7) QPR: Camp 8, Malcolm 6, Stewart 7, Leigertwood 7, Barker 6, Rowlands 6, Buzsaky 6 (Moore 75, 5), Bolder 5, Sinclair 6, Vine 7 (Ainsworth 68, 5),Sahar 4 (Nygaard 46, 4) The last time the teams met at Loftus Road the game was the exact opposite of the meeting between the sides this season. The weather was gorgeous, well over 100 degrees at pitch side, and with Blackpool ridiculously turning up to play in an all black kit Rangers set about Steve McMahon’s side right from the off. Gareth Ainsworth scored twice on his debut and with Gallen, Palmer and Langley also getting on the score sheet we were off and running for the 2003/04 season with a 5-0 victory. QPR: Day, Forbes, Padula, Carlisle, Shittu, Langley, Ainsworth (Rowlands) Palmer, Bircham, Gallen (Williams) Furlong (Sabin) Blackpool: Barnes, Grayson (Richardson) Hilton, Flynn (Clarke) Davis, Coid (Douglas) Bullock, Wellens, Danns, Sheron, Scott Taylor Head to Head: Previous QPR v Blackpool results: Team News Blackpool have no injury worries after their draw with Southampton at the weekend however manager Simon Grayson has since admitted he picked the wrong team for the match and said that some of his players looked tired after three games in a week. One of the men taken off early in that game was Paul Dickov, replaced by Ben Burgess, so it remains to be seen whether that is a change made from the start for this game. Referee What’s going on elsewhere? Form Blackpool come into this game in good touch with just one defeat in their last eight matches and a victory in their last away game at Norwich. The 2-2 draw with Southampton on Saturday was their fourth game without defeat since a narrow 2-1 set back against Ipswich at Portman Road. Of course if you’re looking for positives then only three of those eight games have been won by Blackpool with a defeat and four draws also included in the run. Only 17 points out of the 47 they’ve picked up so far have come away from home, wins at Norwich, Colchester, Preston, Leicester on day one and five draws are all they have to show for their efforts on the road this season – a very similar record to ourselves and we all know how crap we’ve been when travelling this season. In London so far this season they have a draw at Watford and a 4-1 defeat at Charlton behind them. Prediction
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