 Friday, 18th Nov 2011 20:24 by Clive Whittingham QPR return to the Britannia Stadium for the first time in three seasons on Saturday hoping to turn the positives from the Tottenham and Man City defeats into points for the league table. Stoke (12th) v QPR (11th)Barclays Premier League >>> Saturday November 19, 2011 >>> Kick off 3pm >>> Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent December looks busy and tough on paper for QPR, but woe betide anybody who complains about it. It cannot just be me who feels like we’ve spent an awful lot of time kicking our heels so far this season. Another international fortnight has just dragged by and here we are at the end of November having played only 12 matches – I’m like a football equivalent of a smack addict, pacing the floors and sweating, watching Newport v Shrewsbury in the FA Cup just to try and stave off the cravings. What also hasn’t helped is since we returned from the victory at Wolves on September 17 we haven’t had a match outside London. We’ve had two free weekends, two home matches and the away fixtures at Fulham and Spurs. It was still summer time the last time we ventured out of London, it feels like I haven’t been on a proper away trip for years. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d look forward to a trip to Stoke but here it is. The recent games with Fulham, Chelsea and Spurs were all billed as ‘London derbies’ and no doubt the New Year’s Eve trip to Arsenal will be as well. If it is literally just the distance between the clubs that makes a derby then technically I suppose they all were but the game at Tottenham, despite only being 12 miles away from Loftus Road, certainly didn’t feel like any kind of derby to me. I’ve never considered Spurs local rivals, we haven’t played them enough recently to build any kind of animosity and they are more bothered about Arsenal and West Ham in the same way that we look to Chelsea and to some extent Fulham for our rivalry. I even struggle to muster any contempt or hatred for the Cottagers, a mile and a half away from Loftus Road, given the lack of competitive matches between the two sides through history. In some parts of the world derbies and rivalries are straight forward – Rangers and Celtic, Liverpool and Everton, Man Utd and Man City, Newcastle and Sunderland, Southampton and Portsmouth, Derby and Forest and so on. One city or area, two teams that play each other reasonably often, lots of animosity and desire for bragging rights. Stoke used to be a part of that, but given Port Vale’s complete collapse and Stoke’s relatively new lofty status I wonder how much of that rivalry is really left any more – they’re currently three divisions apart. But in London the rivalry is weird and often works in food chains. Brentford hate us and we don’t care about them, we hate Chelsea and they don’t (or didn’t until recently) care about us. Same with Millwall, Charlton, West Ham and Spurs. As QPR have been stuck in the division between Chelsea and Brentford for most of the last 16 years or so we’ve cultivated new rivalries and grudge matches to fill the void, and to some extent this weekend’s trip to Stoke is one of those. If a rivalry is all about distance then QPR and Stoke doesn’t exactly stand out – but the sides have met regularly in recent times and several particularly nasty incidents have resulted in a fair amount of animosity between the two. Given that the attendance here for our last visit in 2007 was only just over 11,000 and Stoke now regularly attract more than 28,000 to home matches I dare say there are a lot of their fans who have absolutely no idea about any of this so let’s try and rattle through a brief recent history of the unpleasantness between these two. In 2002 after QPR had won 1-0 on this ground the away fans found a sizeable gang of home hoolies waiting for them outside the away end primed with bits of rock and stone from the large unsurfaced car park to the south of the ground. Two years later and one division higher that stone hurling mob had more than doubled in size and become less fussy about who they were throwing them at after events on the pitch took an ugly turn. Rangers had again won the game 1-0 but that was largely down to the referee sending off Gerry Taggert for sticking one on Marc Bircham – exactly how much he did put into his headbutt and how much Bircham exaggerated the contact incensed the Stoke players to the point where, when Bircham was substituted, Ade Akinbiyi chased him across the field and tried to beat him up. The replays didn’t do Bircham’s case much good, and the anger among the home ranks only increased when Paul Furlong was allowed to remain on the field after a horrific two footed lunge and QPR won the game with a late goal. An hour after the final whistle I was still in the fenced off car park behind the stand with my young cousin, neither of us much fancying running the gauntlet of Stoke fans labouring under the misapprehension that the QPR fans had anything to do with Marc Bircham’s behaviour. A year on and QPR, not learning from past mistakes, dared to win on this ground for a third time – 2-1 this time with a penalty and another home red card helping their cause. After the match QPR fans heading back to the station on the special bus provided found themselves marooned on a roundabout outside the ground while a gang of home fans set about rocking the bus backwards and forwards and putting the windows in. Meanwhile, out on the pitch, goalkeeper Simon Royce was wrestled into the back of his net and beaten up by two Stoke fans who had invaded the pitch. It took 11 months for the FA to bring any case over that disgraceful incident, that could have ended so much more tragically than it did. When they did, they charged Stoke with ‘failing to prevent supporters from invading the pitch’ – which seemed like one of the easier cases to prosecute given that two fans had indeed invaded the pitch and then spent a full two minutes attacking Simon Royce with only the other QPR players doing anything about it while the stewards stood idly by. Stoke CEO Tony Scholes, an FA Council member at the time, nevertheless said his club had no case to answer and indeed he was right – The FA cleared Stoke of any wrongdoing, setting an interesting precedent. Meanwhile the FA fined QPR £5,000 for failing to control the players who did go to their team mate’s aid. Our Football Association is well known for its total, complete and utter incompetence but that one really took the biscuit. A season later at Loftus Road Stoke had half a sniff of the play offs going into the final match of the season in W12. They sold the away end out in double quick time, and then took the trouble to invade the QPR message boards and boast about how many of them had secured tickets in the home end. One of the worst QPR teams in recent memory scored after two minutes and held them to a draw to deny them their play off place. Well, I laughed. So despite the distance there is a bit of needle in this fixture and although the three seasons without a meeting, and sudden influx of new Stoke fans since their promotion, may well have dulled it somewhat it’s still a game QPR would take more pleasure in taking points from than many. Links >>> Opposition Focus >>> History >>> Travel Info >>> Travel Guide >>> Betting >>> Referee This SaturdayTeam News: Adel Taarabt is again unlikely to be included in QPR’s matchday squad. The Moroccan has been away on international duty and missed the defeat to Man City with a stomach bug, but having been hauled off at half time at Spurs in his last appearance it’s football reasons more than anything else behind his current absence. Elsewhere Rangers have players coming back to fitness: DJ Campbell has had his protective boot removed and is said to be three or four weeks away, Keiron Dyer has started running in his recover, Matthew Connolly and Akos Buzsaky are both back in full training and available this weekend. Fitz Hall should also be fit enough to make the bench. Stoke have defenders Ryan Shawcross and Marc Wilson back in contention after groin and knee injuries respectively but strikers Ricardo Fuller and Mamady Sidibe are still sidelined. It’s form rather than fitness that seems to be affecting Tony Pulis’ thoughts more ahead of this weekend. Stoke fans are keen to see goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, who conceded five last time out for Stoke at Bolton and then shipped six for Bosnia in Portugal during the week, dropped in favour of Thomas Sorensen. They’re similarly unimpressed with the form of centre back Jonathan Woodgate and central midfielder Glenn Whelen. Following the Bolton thrashing Pulis hinted at big team changes but rowed back from that in his pre-match press conference this week saying: “I was desperately disappointed at the time, but I was a little bit tired as well with the journey and then having to prepare the team again. I was grumpy. It was a big call to play Monday, Thursday, Sunday. We’ve been given the short straw with the fixtures.” Elsewhere: Our fellow newly promoted sides Norwich and Swansea both welcome Premiership big guns to their home grounds this weekend. The Canaries are at home to Arsenal in the lunchtime Sky game while Swansea host Man Utd in the tea time ESPN clash. Two of the other top four contenders, Chelsea and Liverpool, meet on Sunday at 4pm and Spurs host Villa in the Monday Night Football. In the Saturday 3pm kicks offs there are three matches between sides who have struggled early on this season. Wigan v Blackburn looks like a real six pointer but Wolves v Everton and Sunderland v Fulham could easily fit into that category as well. Bolton could make up ground on those that drop points in those fixtures if they can beat West Brom away while Man City hav a chance to extend their lead at the top before their nearest rivals play when they host Newcastle who are unbeaten so far this season. Referee: Cheshire referee Mike Jones is in charge of this match, his first Britannia Stadium appointment since a disastrous FA Cup quarter final appearance last season. Stoke prevailed against West Ham, but not before the Hammers had been allowed to take the lead with a goal that should have been ruled out for handball. Jones then evened things out by awarding Stoke a ludicrously soft penalty and all in all his performance left plenty to be desired. This isn’t his first Stoke game since then, he booked eight and awarded Swansea a penalty in a 2-0 defeat for Tony Pulis’ men at the Liberty Stadium earlier this season. According to the QPR Stats Twitter account 12 of the last 14 red cards shown by Jones have gone to away players. His last QPR appointment was a 0-0 draw at Burnley back in January but he has been a regular face at QPR games for the last decade – click here for a full case file. FormStoke: Stoke didn’t receive a kind draw for their Europa League campaign, with trips to the Ukraine and Israel included, and to top that off they’ve been lumbered with an away trip more often than not upon their return. They’ve won one, drawn two and lost four of the matches played immediately after European trips, including bad defeats at teams they would hope to finish well above Sunderland, Swansea and Bolton. In the Premiership they’ve won just one of their last seven matches, and lost their last three, and they have already clocked up 21 matches this season compared to QPR’s 12. They lost 3-1 here to Newcastle last time out and Liverpool 2-1 the week before but prior to that they were unbeaten in eight home matches in all competitions including draws with Man Utd and Chelsea. Three quarters of their goals have been scored from set pieces, a league high, but they have the division’s worst record of half time scores. If you’re behind the goals in the warm ups, watch out. Stoke (35%) have the worst shot accuracy in the division, QPR have the second worst. Only Wigan (seven) have scored less league goals than Stoke. QPR: Rangers seem to slowly be leaving their goalscoring problems behind them. Having failed to score in five of their first eight league games, and registered just one own goal in the first four home matches, they’ve now scored in six of the last seven games and put two through champions elect Man City last time out. Still, ten goals in 12 games requires work and only Jay Bothroyd and Heidar Helguson have scored in the last six matches. December looks like a key month – games against Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal don’t look like points fests at first glance but Rangers must recover from any defeats quickly for important fixtures with West Brom, Sunderland and Swansea. Rangers have won three of the last four meetings on this ground, but this fixture has a history of bad blood on and off the field and on four of the last six meetings one team has had a man sent off. Betting: Professional odds compiler and expert tipper Owen Goulding says… Rangers travel to 'Fortress' Britannia after the international Break. It is fair to say QPR really didn't want an international break and Stoke were praying for one. I refer to it as 'Fortress' Britannia but in truth, statistics show this trend is starting to slide. Teams are wise to dealing with Delap Throw-ins and the physical nature of Stoke's play seems less effective week after week. Stoke have conceded 11 goals in their last three league games, a worrying stat when you consider two of the opponents were Newcastle and Bolton and in truth, I think they are due to concede more on Saturday. Defender/midfielder/nooneknowshisbestposition Marc Wilson is a player looking lost at left back. He concedes too much possession, has little pace and is prone to making the wrong decision more often than not. I can see SWP having a field day up against him if he plays. The alternative will be Pulis playing yet another centre back at right back and playing Wilkinson at left back - again giving SWP a free run in the candy store. Therefore my bet of the weekend is SWP to score at anytime @ 5/1 (Paddy Power or William Hill). It won’t be easy, but I think it could be a good day for the away following. Prediction: For me a big part of playing Stoke away is being mentally right for the challenge. Go there fearing a physical contest and their set piece prowess and you will indeed find yourself pummelled into a defeat. But Newcastle provided a blue-print for visiting sides on their recent trip to the Britannia Stadium and QPR are very well equipped to follow Alan Pardew’s successful formula with two hard working, quick wingers in Jamie Mackie and Shaun Wright Phillips who can double up with Luke Young and Armand Traore to take Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant out of the game. If that is achieved successfully Stoke are reduced to a hulking troglodyte of a team that QPR’s better players in should be able to take advantage of. They’re weak at full back too so Mackie and Wright Phillips really are the key men this weekend. I’ll stop short of predicting a win, but it’s there for the taking if we execute the correct game plan. 1-1, best price 13/2 with William Hill, Jay Bothroyd 9/1 to score first with Bet 365 Tweet @loftforwords Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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