 Tuesday, 28th Sep 2010 08:33 by Clive Whittingham Loftus Road is bracing itself for an electric atmosphere and fine night of Championship football as table topping QPR look to cement their position against London rivals Millwall. QPR (1st) v Millwall (12th)Npower Championship >>> Tuesday, September 28 >>> Kick Off 8pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 Millwall at home on a Tuesday night or the southern coast of Spain? God it seemed like such a straightforward choice three months ago. I can actually remember being quite bored on holiday as a kid. Sure when we went to Disneyland and Universal Studios and all of that stuff and nonsense I was like an over excited house fly, frantically buzzing from one roller coaster to another. But when we went on the two week beach holidays where all there was to do all day was lay in the sun and go in the pool I got quite bored quite quickly. I wanted to play football and go on my Super Nintendo (those were the days kids) and see my friends but my parents just wanted to lay there, read books, and try not to think about how soon it was they had to go back to work. That makes me sound like an ungrateful little bastard, and I wasn’t really – no more so than any other kid growing up and learning the value of time and money anyway. God I see the value in holidays now. On the average working weekday I am in front of a computer screen by 8.30am and except for an hour or so to drive home from work and eat between 6pm and 7pm I’m like that until 11pm at night. Of course on any given day I may have to go to a meeting or out on a job or out to interview somebody that doesn’t want to talk to me so it’s not always a solid day of screen staring – but sometimes it is. I’m writing this last Thursday night, if that makes sense, it’s 9pm at this point and I have been looking at a computer screen for 11 and a half hours straight now with ten minutes for lunch (eaten at my desk) and about 40 minutes to drive home and eat thrown in there somewhere. I’d estimate that I’ve still got three hours of typing, working and researching left to go. I’m not bringing this up for sympathy or nice comments at the end of the article (honestly) I’m just trying to explain how I’ve come to a point where I’m not actually going to be at the Millwall game on Tuesday evening. It takes its toll. You cannot sit in front of computer screen for as long as I do six days a week and not notice the effect it has on your sleep, your general health, your social skills (which my girlfriend assures me are diabolical and getting worse), your diet and, if I’m anything to go by, your hairline. And so a holiday is needed, and as this week is the only time Lindsey and me could get off from work together – this week it is. When it was booked I expected the Millwall game to be just another Tuesday night at Loftus Road. We’d be knocking around tenth, they’d be just in front or just behind, the ground would be half full, the Millwall fans would throw a few bits and pieces around on South Africa Road while the more moronic element of our own support crowds around outside the Springbok goading them as they pass instead of going home and then moaning about the police, or stewards, or Millwall, or life, and we’d probably draw 1-1. If you’d told me in August that the ground would be packed, QPR would be running away at the top of the league, Millwall would be pushing for the play offs, and the game would be billed as one of the biggest in the league campaign so far I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m not as gutted about missing it as I should be, because the hassle Millwall bring with them is not my scene and God knows I need some time away from computers by a pool somewhere, but I am jealous of those of you with tickets because this could genuinely be one of the great nights in the unique atmosphere of Loftus Road in the evening. Five minutes on MillwallRecent History: Oooh Millwawll dahn W12 on a Tuesday night? Pwopah nawty that’s goin to be, some pwopah nawty boys involved. Or something. Play well or I’ll cut you – as Neil Warnock may or may not say to his troops prior to kick off. If anybody does happen to see Danny Dyer hanging around on Tuesday night talking absolute bollocks with a fake speech impediment give him a slap from me. In fairness Millwall have worked on their image as a club over the years and now their fanbase simply has the same gang of overly rowdy middle aged skin heads who are old enough, but sadly too thick, to know better amongst the rest of the decent football watching public like several other clubs. Expect a huge police presence and plenty of scuffles, no doubt in amongst the always pathetic stand off outside the Springbok afterwards, but nothing more than we get when Cardiff, Swansea or Stoke turn up at Loftus Road. On the pitch Millwall seem to have a peak every ten years or so and they may be approaching another one now under former QPR assistant manager Kenny Jackett. Millwall went top of the old (old) First Division with a 3-2 win against QPR at the Old Den back in the 1988/89 season. Tony Cascarino led the line with a young Teddy Sheringham coming through the ranks and Terry Hurlock killing and maiming from further back. QPR fans who were there probably remember the game best for Trevor Francis’ ridiculous one step penalty miss that would have brought us a 3-3 draw had the silly old sod taken it properly. They flared up again in the mid 1990s as Mick McCarthy successfully cut his managerial teeth. Chelsea and Arsenal felt the sharp end of the Lions’ teeth as they were knocked out of the FA Cup in 1994/95 before that heart stopping, nerve shredding, injury time penalty from Clive Wilson beat them at Loftus Road and sent Rangers to Old Trafford for a cup quarter final tie with Man Utd. That was the day you could only get in The Goldhawk if you knew the secret knock and were on first name terms with Tony the barman. Happy times. The previous year McCarthy had guided his Millwall team, with American international Kasey Keller in goal and the likes of Alex Rae and a young Mark Kennedy to the fore, to the play offs but they were comprehensively beaten over two legs by Derby County. A year later and McCarthy left The Den in February to take over from Jack Charlton as the Republic of Ireland boss. QPR take note Millwall had been top of the league in September of that season, and were 14 points clear of relegation when McCarthy left, but were relegated on goal difference from Portsmouth on the final day of the season after winning just three of their last 20 matches. Administration and a Theo Paphitas takeover followed before the Wall rose again in 2001 with promotion back into this league with Mark McGhee at the helm. This was a Millwall team of Tim Cahill, Paul Ifill, Marc Bircham, Neil Harris and the like and they reached the FA Cup final in 2004 with Dennis Wise at the helm after arriving first as a player and then succeeding McGhee as manager. Paphitis’ departure, closely followed by Wise, in 2005 started another decline from which Millwall are only now recovering. Millwall suddenly developed a knack of appointing awful managers – first Steve Claridge was brought in and then sacked after just 36 days and no competitive games, then Colin Lee and finally David Tuttle to oversee the inevitable relegation. Nigel Spackman (no, really), then Willie Donachie attempted to arrest the slide in League One without success until finally Kenny Jackett became the best move the club had made in a long time in 2007. Jackett took his time rebuilding Millwall. They should really have been here 12 months sooner as a fabulous run of form carried them into a play off final against Scunthorpe where their supporters outnumbered the Iron by six to one at the new Wembley and they were overwhelming favourites to win. A 3-2 defeat could have destroyed Jackett’s hard work, particularly when a late slip up against Tranmere last season meant Leeds were promoted in second place and Millwall had to go through the play offs again. For a club with a history of failure at that stage, and just 12 months after the Scunthorpe heartache, they would have been forgiven for not being mentally strong enough but they calmly disposed of Huddersfield in the semi finals and were too good for Swindon on the big day. Millwall are back, after an absence of four years. The Manager: There will be two familiar faces in the Millwall dugout on Tuesday night as Kenny Jackett returns to Loftus Road with Joe Gallen as his assistant. I think it’s fair to say Kenny Jackett has grown into the managerial role after some notable failures early on. As a player he was an integral part of the impressive Watford sides of the 1980s – clocking up well in excess of 350 appearances for the Hornets as a defensive midfield player and winning 31 caps for Wales. His career was curtailed by injury aged just 28. As so often happens with players forced to retire early Jackett was able to get stuck into coaching from an early age and that is benefitting him now – he has vast coaching and management experience relative to his 48 years. Jackett initially coached under Graham Taylor at Watford and then succeeded him in 1996 after relegation to the third tier. Watford were widely expected to bounce back as one of the bigger names in that league but struggled into 13 the position, as low as they’d been on the league ladder for 20 years. Bizarrely having succeeded Taylor in 1996 he was then demoted back to assist the former England manager a year later. It seemed to work though as Watford were promoted first from the Second Division in 1997/98 and then into the Premiership a year later. Ian Holloway once named Kenny Jackett as his best signing at QPR when he persuaded him to come on board as his assistant at Loftus Road in 2001. QPR were in administration and had just eight professionals signed up for the new season – two of them already ruled out for the entire campaign with cruciate knee ligament injuries. Jackett helped Holloway piece the club back together and remained in the dug out at Loftus Road for the next three seasons as Rangers first lost in the play off final against Cardiff and then won automatic promotion at Hillsborough in 2004. Jackett assisted in bringing the likes of Steve Palmer and Chris Day to the club from Watford and they played a vital role in the renaissance. It was something of a shame therefore that Jackett wasn’t around to see it all come to fruition. The desire to be a manager in his own right burned brightly and he left in April of the promotion season to takeover the job at Swansea City, who were about to move into a new stadium and begin a climb from the bottom division to the Championship which Jackett began with promotion in 2005. Swansea were beaten in the play offs in 2006 and seemed to stagnate a little in 2007 leading to Jackett’s removal and the inspirational appointment of Roberto Martinez at the Liberty Stadium. A spell as reserve team boss at Manchester City followed and aided an education which finally seems to be really paying off for Millwall. Jackett has shown a canny transfer market ability, which hadn’t always been in evidence at Watford and Swansea, to build a very capable Millwall squad which won promotion to the Championship at the end of last season. The way Jackett was able to pick his team up from the crushing disappointment of the play off final defeat to Scunthorpe, and then keep his nerve when they had to rely on the play offs again last season, is testament to the job he is doing at The Den. Millwall were widely tipped, by LFW and others, to do the worst of the three promoted teams this season after a summer where Jackett struggled to add to his team but it’s so far so good with the Lions sitting ninth. Three to Watch: League One was awash with quality, goal scoring, strikers last season. Charlie Austin at Swindon, Grant Holt at Norwich, Jermaine Beckford with Leeds, Jordan Rhodes at Huddersfield and Millwall’s Steve Morison all enjoyed 20 goal campaigns with their respective clubs to send scouts flocking to the third tier matches. Morison got 23 for Millwall after joining in the summer from Conference outfit Stevenage Borough. It took him a while to get going, with just two goals in his first 18 matches and Morison has had a tough career to this point. Released by Northampton Town in 2004/05 he pitched up at Bishop Stortford and worked part time in a paper shredding company where the working day started at 4am – and I think I need a holiday. Three years and 76 goals at Stevenage followed before Millwall took a chance on him but his lacklustre start to the League One campaign last season had many questioning Jackett’s judgement. A session with the DVD player followed, as Jackett roasted Morison with a blow by blow account of a poor display against Wycombe in a 2-0 home defeat in November. Jackett encouraged Morison to be more aggressive, to hassle defenders more, and to force himself upon games. Six yellow cards in his next 13 appearances followed, but thankfully so did eight goals and he never really looked back. Morison has six goals to his name already this season, and has made his debut for Wales, and will provide the chief goal threat to QPR on Tuesday night. Morrrison’s supply line often comes from the right wing and former Reading winger James Henry. Millwall have had a knack of picking up tidy wingers in the Lee Cook mould in recent times – Dave Martin had a beautiful left footed delivery on him and it’s a shame Wall had to lose him to the ocean of mediocrity at Derby County really. Henry is equally good from the other flank and set up all four goals in a home thrashing of Hull back in August. That wasn’t enough to win him a place in the farcical Championship Team of the Week however which is essentially a list of ten players who scored at the weekend and one who kept a clean sheet. Whether my third ‘one to watch’ will play or not on Tuesday remains to be seen – he’s only made four appearances so far and two of them came in the League Cup. Nevertheless Tamika Mkandawire may be worth keeping an eye on if he starts at the back as QPR were allegedly sniffing around his signature in the summer when he was set to leave Leyton Orient. A tall, leggy defender much in the style of Swindon’s Kevin Amankwaah who used to play for Bristol City, Mkandawire was returned to the starting line up against Ipswich in the cup last Tuesday following the Watford rout. At the time we were linked with him I was disappointed with the Bertie big bollocks attitude of some QPR fans on message boards saying we should be looking for better, simply because he was coming from Leyton Orient. QPR have a fine tradition of picking up rough diamonds from lower divisions and polishing them up, and Glenn Roeder himself actually came from Orient, so to simply suggest we should no long be looking at this source of talent because our board has a bit of money to spend actually annoyed me. On Tuesday we get a look at what we missed out on, and perhaps on this occasion it wasn’t too much, but Morison stands a shining example that there are players worth finding down there if you’re prepared to look for them. Links >>> Millwall Official Website >>> Millwall Message Board HistoryRecent Meetings: The last meeting between these sides was in 2006 – and turned out to be one of Gary Waddock’s rare wins as QPR manager. Waddock had taken over just days before the game after Ian Holloway’s controversial ousting, and was paraded on the pitch with new assistant Alan McDonald before the kick off. Millwall were destined for relegation that season and put up little resistance in a game of poor quality overall. The crucial goal came ten minutes after half time when big Marc Nygaard slammed the ball home from close range after his initial header was blocked on the line. Waddock went on to win just three more of his 24 games in charge. QPR: Jones 7, Bignot 7, Shittu 8, Evatt 7, Milanese 8, Ainsworth 7, Bircham 8 (Langley 88, N/A), Lomas 7, Cook 8, Furlong 7, Nygaard 7 (Baidoo 78, 7) Subs Not Used: Thomas, Rose, Donnelly Booked: Milanese, Ainsworth Goal: Nygaard 56 Millwall: Marshall, Paul Robinson, Lawrence, Whitbread, Craig, Dunne, Elliott, Livermore, Cogan (Dyer 81), Powel (May 50), Braniff (Williams 60) Subs Not Used: Doyle, Morris Sent Off: Dunne (76) Booked: Dunne, Elliott, Paul Robinson Attendance: 12,355 Ian Holloway was still in charge when the teams met earlier that season at The Den. Again it was Nygaard on target, rising high to head home a fine cross from Lee Cook midway through the first half. But in time honoured fashion Rangers folded in stoppage time and allowed Barry Hayles in to equalise in added time at the end of the first half. A lacklustre second half brought little further action and both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils. Millwall: Marshall, Ifil, Lawrence, Williams, Vincent, Wright, Hutchison (May 69), Dunne, Livermore, Asaba, Hayles Subs Not Used: Phillips, Fangueiro, Braniff, Jones Booked: Hutchison Goals: Hayles 45 QPR: Royce 7, Bignot 6, Shittu 7, Santos 6, Dyer 7, Cook 7, Lomas 6, Bircham 7, Langley 7 (Ainsworth 64, 6), Nygaard 8*, Sturridge 6 (Moore 82 N/A) Subs Not Used: Evatt, Cole, Shimmin Booked: Shittu Goals: Nygaard 25 Head to Head: QPR wins 19 >>> Draws 18 >>> Millwall wins 29 Previous Results: 2005/06 QPR 1 Millwall 0 (Nygaard) 2005/06 Millwall 1 QPR 1 (Nygaard) 2004/05 Millwall 0 QPR 0 2004/05 QPR 1 Millwall 1 (Furlong) 1994/95 QPR 1 Millwall 0 (Wilson) 1993/94 QPR 3 Millwall 0 (Barker, Ferdinand, Sinclair) 1989/90 Millwall 1 QPR 2 (Barker, Wegerle) 1989/90 QPR 0 Millwall 0 1988/89 QPR 1 Millwall 2 (Falco, pen) 1988/89 Millwall 3 QPR 2 (Francis, Allen) 1987/88 Millwall 0 QPR 0 1987/88 QPR 2 Millwall 1 (Bannister, McDonald) Links >>> QPR 1 Millwall 0 Match Report >>> Millwall 1 QPR 1 Match Report This TuesdayTeam News: Problems are mounting for Neil Warnock who may be missing the influential Shaun Derry after he limped out of Saturday’s win against Doncaster. Alejandro Faurlin, Bradley Orr and Rob Hulse are still not fit to return, Lee Cook and Peter Ramage are long term absentees and Leon Clarke seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Millwall has Liam Trotter sent off at Cardiff on Saturday so he will be suspended here. Strikers Kevin Lisbie and Theo Robinson returned for the defeat in South Wales, Jimmy Abdou has recovered from an ankle injury. Elsewhere: There are few stand out fixtures from a run of the mill Championship Tuesday list. Reading have made a slow start but can take a notable scalp with the visit of Ipswich. Burnley and Hull meet in what was a highly controversial Premiership game last season while Nottingham Forest welcome Sheffield United and it would be fair to say all four sides probably anticipated making better starts than they have actually managed. David James makes his first return to Portsmouth with Bristol City – his former club is yet to win this season and is rooted to the foot of the table. Referee: Lee Probert has mellowed somewhat in recent years, but then he could hardly have got any more extreme. This is the man who in six crazy months with QPR allowed our game at Wolves to finish under four feet of water because the home side was 2-0 up, sent off Jude the Cat because he looked too much like Paul Furlong and was confusing him, and awarded a ridiculous injury time penalty against us in a 3-2 defeat at Sheffield United. We have since had happier times with him, at Charlton in particular, but he is prone to absolute moments of crass incompetence and he’s a risky appointment for this game. Click here to read more. FormQPR: Rangers have won their last four matches without conceding a goal – they have scored 11 goals in that time. The R’s are unbeaten in the league this season with seven wins and a draw from eight matches. QPR have only conceded two goals in the league so far, both in the same game at Derby, which means seven clean sheets in eight matches so far. They are currently top of the league by six points from Cardiff and have a goal difference of 20. QPR have won all four games at home this season in the league without conceding a goal. Millwall: The Lions are suddenly in a little bit of a trough form wise after making a good start to the season. Millwall haven’t won in their last five and have lost their last three. They do invariably score – only once in 11 matches this season have they failed – but they’ve only managed one in each of the last five. Away from home this season they have won at Bristol City and Wycombe, lost at Leeds and Cardiff and drawn at Nottingham Forest. Prediction: I began the week by saying we’d win one, draw one and lose one of the three games we have prior to the international break and after easing past Doncaster on Saturday I think this may well be the drawn game. Millwall have started reasonably but need to get back on track after a couple of poor results and will be super organised and keen to make a mark here. QPR won’t want to give up their proud unbeaten record in a London derby and will be full of confidence. I expect a tasty, highly physical and closely fought encounter with honours even at the end. 1-1 Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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