Though you’d struggle to guess it from the media coverage of the Championship at the moment it’s QPR leading the way with Ipswich Town right behind them and the pair clash at Portman Road on Tuesday.
Npower Championship >>> Tuesday, September 14 >>> Kick off 7.45pm >>> Portman Road, Ipswich
Aren't Cardiff doing well? I mean, seriously, look at Cardiff go. That result on Saturday against a Hull City team still struggling to recover from Phil Brown's incompetence means they're "joint top" of the Championship. They've signed Craig Bellamy as well you know - Welsh international, Man City's best player last season, pace to burn, sure to score at least 52 goals in the league this season. And Jay Bothroyd, goodness he's unplayable at the moment isn't he? And Peter Whittingham - he scored 65 goals in 22 appearances last season and did you see him nutmegging the full back on Saturday with a crafty little turn? Did you see it? Did you? I tell you what I’d like to see it again from this angle, and that angle, and above, and below, and from the back of the stand, and the front of it, and what would that look like if they hung a camera out of the defender's arse as he did it? Amazing. Astonishing really.
Isn't it good to see a well run club finally getting a shot at the Premiership? Well, ok, not quite yet obviously but it's so inevitable I don't know why we're even bothering with all these fixtures, let's just hand it to them now. The really nice thing is Dave Jones says there's a great feel good factor around the place. I mean, it's been nearly a fortnight now since they were last issued with a winding up order. Oooh I bloody love Cardiff me.
Sorry, my apologies, I'm merely trying to fulfil the role of Championship football fan as seen by the BBC, and a few select newspapers with pages left to fill in their Sunday editions. The league is, although you'd be forgiven for not knowing having sat up until the witching hour to watch the Football League Show on Saturday night/Sunday morning, currently being led by Queens Park Rangers. The R's were on fifth on the highlights show - after a crucial battle between Derby, who are to the Championship what potato is to fishcakes i.e. needless stodge, and Sheffield United who often bore themselves into submission. And Cardiff of course, and the endless replays of Whittingham's turn by the corner flag that led to... well it led to nothing, but I sense I'm missing the point.
To be honest I'm quite happy with the situation at the moment. QPR are playing exceptionally well, and opponents are singing our praises after we've torn them asunder, but Cardiff are getting all the attention. Attention brings pressure, it brings televised matches at stupid kick off times, and it brings humiliation when it all goes wrong. Leave that to Cardiff Craig Bellamy City FC and their morally questionable squad building technique of throwing money they don't have at players they can't afford. They're at Leicester tonight in what is sure to be billed as the game of the day. QPR are at third placed Ipswich in what is actually the game of the day and while we'll need to play a good deal better than we did against Derby in the last away game to get anything, here's hoping we continue to quietly sneak in on the blind side.
Recent History: Sitting nicely in third just a couple of points behind QPR are our opponents on Tuesday night Ipswich Town - and they too are enjoying next to no coverage at all despite an impressive start to the season.
They are unbeaten so far with three wins and two draws, which is a far cry from this time last season when they defied their status as pre-season promotion favourites to start the campaign with a run of 14 matches without a victory. The bookies' odds before the kick off were largely based on the appointment of Roy Keane as manager. He had taken over a shambles at Sunderland previously and got them promoted from this league within nine months and some pundits (well yeh ok me) thought that his appointment would bring about immediate success for the Tractor Boys. In my defence they didn't have a bad team on paper when he took over and he had won the final two games of the previous season convincingly after accepting the job.
As it turned out Keane was fortunate to keep his job last season. He made some bizarre moves in the transfer market to begin with - allowing youth team striker Jordan Rhodes to join Huddersfield where he was the roaring success he'd always looked capable of being at Portman Road, and then signing Watford's Tamas Priskin for four times as much on the back of half a good season at Vicarage Road. Priskin had been poor before Brendan Rodgers took over at Watford, and he was rank after joining Town who gave up and loaned him out to QPR halfway through the season - we owe them a good hiding on Tuesday for that if nothing else. With crusty old Colin Healy picked up for £80,000 and basically any random Irishman that Keane caught walking past the ground on a Monday morning quickly roped in and signed up alarm bells should have been ringing.
It took until the last day of October and the 15th match for Town to win a game - everybody's banker three points at home Derby County obliged in the end. That run included blowing a 3-2 lead late in the day at Doncaster, and a 3-1 lead in the least 15 minutes at Sheffield United. Keane's response to this was to pick on journalists - lambasting them for leaving their phones on or daring to ask him if he thought the abject signings and piss poor performances on the pitch might cost him his job. Just as when he was a detestable part of the all dominating Man Utd team as a player - never knowingly troubled by doubt that he might actually be the one in the wrong.
The Ipswich board kept faith though, although a cynic may suggest they were more bothered about an expensive contract termination and lack of viable alternatives than showing solidarity with their hapless boss. This is a policy they have followed before and one that has seen them regress from a side that narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification in 2001 to one that was firmly ensconced in the relegation battle for the majority of last season.
George Burley was allowed to continue in charge after relegation from the top flight and subsequent administration, brought about by them extending the finances too far on the likes of Finidi George to try and wage a European and league campaign. His Championship team was a mess but as discussed in the Boro preview last week it’s no good changing managers a couple of months into the season, the new guy stands little chance of turning things around.
Joe Royle initially built a fantastic side that ran out of steam at just the wrong time in 2003/04 and 2004/05 and lost in the play offs when promotion looked a certainty both seasons. Both manager and team suffered a hangover from that and were well off the pace the season after, perhaps with hindsight that summer of 2005 may have been the time to part company. When Royle did eventually stand down in 2006 Ipswich struggled to find a replacement - eventually going for inexperienced player Jim Magilton after chasing Mike Newell (who would have been a disaster) and Billy Davies (who I maintain is one of the best at this level despite his current wibbles at Nottingham Forest).
Magilton initially rebuilt Royle's creaking side quite well but final finishes of 14th, 8th and 9th betray an inability to push Ipswich onto the next level. That inability bred frustration in a manager who we now know to our cost can be a little hot headed (or an absolute 64 carat nut case depending on which story you believe) and he should perhaps have been removed long before he actually was with stories of rows with Dan Harding and numerous other Town players doing the rounds for months prior to his dismissal.
Keane said at the end of last season that he needed to sign five quality players this summer but only succeeded in bringing in Mark Kennedy, Marton Fulop and Jason Scotland of any note during the transfer window, and lost Jon Stead, Jon Walters and Owen Garvan into the bargain. Another season of underachievement beckoned it seemed, but Ipswich remain unbeaten and right up there on our coat tails early on.
With Barnsley, Derby and Sheff Utd set for a season of midtable mediocrity, Scunthorpe bound for League One and Middlesbrough an embarrassing shadow of the team they should be this Tuesday night will represent our toughest test so far this season by some considerable distance. With Leicester to come on Saturday, we'll soon have a much better idea of how good we really are.
The Manager: I remain very surprised that Roy Keane ever went into management. I always thought that once he'd retired he would simply shrink into a life of walking that bloody dog of his four times a day and recalling previous arguments to himself before concluding that he was right in each and every case. Like a sort of harder, more Irish version of Alan Partridge, persistently insisting that he had the last laugh. He just seemed a little bit unhinged to be a manager - not in a Kevin Keegan everybody go upfront, or a Bobby Robson who used to call Shola Ameobi Carl Cort sort of a way but in that slightly worrying way where you wouldn't be surprised to hear there'd been some sort of dressing room massacre after his team had thrown away a two goal lead at Stoke City on a Tuesday night. This is the man who upon moving into his digs at Nottingham Forest painted the floor, walls and ceiling jet black.
As a player Keane was undoubtedly brilliant - but he was brilliant in the way that Gary Neville and John Terry are brilliant i.e. brilliant but absolutely impossible to like on any level whatsoever. Arrogant to levels where he would rather come home from the only World Cup of his career than either admit he was wrong or bite his lip, or fall out with the manager that made him what he is rather than leave Man Utd with dignity. He was a twat basically - constantly in the face of referees, team mates and opponents and deliberately causing career ending injuries to players when the mood so took him. Keane won everything there is to win in the domestic game - although I look at his suspension for his one and only Champions League final in 1999 as some sort of karma for the rest of his lamentable behaviour.
After a brief period at the end of his career with Celtic he pitched up in his first managerial position at Sunderland. This was surprising for a couple of reasons – firstly the new Mackems’ chairman Niall Quinn had promised fans a “world class manager” to appease them after a dire start to the season, secondly Quinn and Keane were known to have had several disagreements throughout their career. It turned out to be a match made in heaven. Despite making a wretched start to the season with defeats against Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth, Southend and Bury leaving them bottom of the league and our of the League Cup after just six matches Keane quickly transformed the team. By the end of the season they had been promoted as champions with games to spare, losing only another eight in the entire season.
Keane spent a lot of money to build Sunderland a side for the Premiership. Craig Gordon cost £9m, Michael Chopra and Keiran Richardson £10m between them, Kenwyne Jones £6.5m, Andy Reid £4m, Paul McShane £2.5m and so it went on. Keane spent £43m on players in his first full summer in charge, and still only really kept his side up by the skin of its teeth. In an effort to consolidate the Premiership status of his team Keane then spent another £15m on the likes of Steed Malbranque, David Healy, El Hadji Diouff and most expensively Anton Ferdinand for £8m. When things didn’t start well Keane descended into a sort of permanently dark state of mind where he didn’t appear to be talking to his players, board, fans or anybody. Sunderland sunk down to 18th and Keane walked out, later attributing the departure to a breakdown in relations with Niall Quinn and major shareholder Ellis Short. Presumably he felt they could have done more for him than provide £60m in 18 months for him to piss up the wall on the likes of George McCartney.
Ipswich, cue stereotypes about a family club in sleep Suffolk, seemed like an odd fit when Keane went there in April 2009. Again he had plenty of money to spend last season and again he made odd choices – Tamas Priskin for £1.6m being the worst one – but after riding out the storm he seems to finally be getting it together at Portman Road.
Three to Watch: I always think it’s a bit lazy to simply pick the main goal threats for this section of a match preview but in a break from usual habit I’m going to name three strikers for different reasons - Tamas Priskin, Jason Scotland and Connor Wickham.
Roy Keane says Priskin looks much more relaxed and comfortable at Ipswich this season, and indeed the Hungarian has managed to score twice so far in wins against Middlesbrough and Bristol City. QPR fans will have less than fond memories of Priskin from his loan spell at Rangers last season where he scored just once in 13 starts for the club. As we know the Loftus Road faithful love a boo boy in QPR colours, and Priskin’s languid style, poor performances and rank form in front of goal made him a prime candidate for the role. But while some of the other temporary signings made at around the same time, Marcus Bent most notably, tossed it off and took our club’s money for nothing Priskin did at least play a bit and try his best. Whenever he was fit Neil Warnock picked him, but that was clearly because he had no other striker at the club at that time capable of winning a header rather than anything Priskin really offered. He would only win a ball in the air once or twice in every ten attempts and we have seen this season what a difference having Heidar Helguson up there is making to us.
Priskin has looked decent in this league before – under Brendan Rodgers for Watford and while on loan at Preston during which time he scored against QPR at Loftus Road. It’s hard to envisage him ever justifying the stupid amount Keane paid for him but wouldn’t it be just like Rangers to suffer at the hands of somebody who, let’s be fair, was bloody rubbish for most of his time with us last season?
In Scotland Keane has had another bash at signing a focal point for Ipswich’s attack this season. The powerful Trinidad and Tobago international made his name north of the border with Dundee Utd and S Johnstone first of all, and then in this country with Swansea City where he scored 53 goals in 105 appearances as they rose from League One into the Championship. He’s a strange player to watch at times because he isn’t blessed with searing pace, doesn’t win a lot in the air against people like Kaspars Gorkss, and at times looks a little laboured and lumbering. He started his first season at this level with Swansea slowly scoring just three in his first 16 appearances but he soon stepped up and ended the season with 24 and a move to the Premiership with Wigan when Roberto Martinez decamped there from South Wales. Chris Kamara had led calls for him to be bought by a Premiership side but he was predictably out of his depth up there and now aged 31 he’s back in this division after just two goals in 17 starts and 18 sub appearances for the Latics last season. He has already opened his Ipswich account with one against Bristol City in their last home match.
Waiting in the wings is the highly rated, much sought after teenager Connor Wickham who has a host of Premiership teams wanting to spend big money on him and then bury him out of sight in their giant reserve set ups so nobody else can have him – see John Bostock, Dean Parrett, Scott Sinclair, Kyle Walker, Kyle Naughton etc etc. Wickham, an absolute giant of a man already aged just 17, would be much better served playing first team football at a good Championship club like Ipswich than succumbing to the trappings of the big league too early. He made a sub appearance at Portsmouth on Saturday, his first of the season, and already has six goals in ten starts and 22 sub appearances. His touch is superb for somebody so young and cumbersome looking and he appears to have a big future. Having let Jordan Rhodes go for a stupid price Ipswich will be keen to hang on and get their money’s worth this time.
Links >>> Ipswich Official Website >>> Ipswich Message Board >>> Portman Road Travel Guide
Recent Meetings: QPR turned in one of their worst performances in living memory in the first half of the Loftus Road meeting between these sides last season. First half goals from David Norris and Daryl Murphy put the visitors well in control but Rangers were so abjectly awful that it could have been two or three times as bad. Mick Harford was still in charge at this day and gave starts to Nigel Quashie and Marcus Bent – the latter went off injured after two minutes in typical style, the former probably should have done likewise. A second half rally brought about by the introduction of Taarabt and Buzsaky yielded a goal for Jay Simpson but this was probably the lowest moment of last season overall.
QPR: Ikeme 6, Connolly 4, Stewart 3, Gorkss 4, Hill 2, Ephraim 4 (Buzsaky 46, 6), Quashie 2 (Taarabt 46, 6), Faurlin 4, Cook 6, Bent - (Vine 10, 4), Simpson 6
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Balanta, Borrowdale, German
Booked: Connolly (foul)
Goals: Simpson 66 (assisted Cook)
Ipswich: Lee-Barrett 6, Peters 7, Delaney 7, McAuley 7, Colback 7, Walters 6, Leadbitter 8, Norris 8, Garvan 7 (Rosenior 65, 6), Counago 6 (Healy 65, 6), Daryl Murphy 7 (Stead 85, -)
Subs Not Used: Brian Murphy, Balkestein, Edwards, Quinn
Booked: Norris (foul), Walters (foul)
Goals: Norris 8 (assisted Walters), Daryl Murphy 38 (assisted Colback)
Rangers were soundly beaten at Portman Road over Christmas during the farcically brief Paul Hart reign at QPR. Town scored early when Peter Ramage allowed Jon Walters to run 50 yards into the QPR penalty box and then deflected his shot past Cerny and into the net. The R’s then missed two glorious chances to equalise when Adel Tarrabt first headed and then volleyed high over the bar with gilt edge chances at the back post and they were made to pay in the second half when Jon Stead got his customary goal against us and quickly followed that with another to make it three nil and, in truth, with QPR obviously giving up 20 minutes before the end it could have been far, far worse. After the match Ben Watson was heckled on the pitch during his warm up by QPR fans in the hospitality seats, summing up the dire situation at the time.
Ipswich: Lee-Barrett 6, Rosenior 6, McAuley 7, Delaney 7, Peters 7, Edwards 6 (Garvan 54, 6), Norris 6 (Colback 55, 6), Leadbitter 8, Walters 7, John 5 (Wickham 75, 7), Stead 8
Subs Not Used: McLoughlin, Bruce, Counago, Brown
Goals: Walters 4 (assisted John), Stead 63 (assisted Garvan), 78 (assisted Colback)
QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Stewart 5, Gorkss 6, Williams 5, Buzsaky 4 (Agyemang 66, 5), Watson 4, Leigertwood 5, Taarabt 6 (Balanta 78, 7), Routledge 6, Simpson 5
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Hall, Connolly, Faurlin, Borrowdale
Head to Head:
Ipswich wins 28 >>> Draws 18 >>> QPR wins 21
Previous Results:
2009/10 QPR 1 Ipswich 2 (Simpson)
2009/10 Ipswich 3 QPR 0
2008/09 QPR 1 Ipswich 3 (Di Carmine)
2008/09 Ipswich 2 QPR 0
2007/08 Ipswich 0 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 1 Ipswich 1 (Nygaard)
2006/07 Ipswich 2 QPR 1 (Furlong)
2006/07 QPR 1 Ipswich 3 (Gallen) 2005/06 QPR 2 Ipswich 1 (Rowlands, Gallen)
2004/05 Ipswich 0 QPR 2 (Furlong, Shittu)
2004/05 QPR 2 Ipswich 4 (Furlong 2)
1999/00 QPR 3 Ipswich 1 (Peacock, Koejoe, Kiwomya)
1999/00 Ipswich 1 QPR 4 (Steiner 2, Peacock, Wardley)
1998/99 Ipswich 3 QPR 1 (Kiwomya)
1998/99 QPR 1 Ipswich 1 (Gallen)
1997/98 QPR 0 Ipswich 0
1997/98 Ipswich 0 QPR 0
1996/97 Ipswich 2 QPR 0
1996/97 QPR 0 Ipswich 1
1994/95 Ipswich 0 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)
1994/95 QPR 1 Ipswich 2 (Ferdinand)
1993/94 Ipswich 1 QPR 3 (Impey 2, Ferdinand)
1993/94 QPR 3 Ipswich 0 (White 2, Barker)
1992/93 Ipswich 1 QPR 1 (White)
1992/93 QPR 0 Ipswich 0
Played for Both Clubs:
Mark Stein >>> QPR 1988-89 >>> Ipswich 1997
Mark and Brain Stein were brothers who were both prolific goal scorers in the late eighties and early nineties. Mark, the younger of the two, followed in his brothers footsteps at Luton Town where he spent four seasons at the club but struggled to become a automatic choice upfront - unlike his elder who went on to be one of Luton’s best strikers. Jim Smith signed him for QPR in the summer of 1988 hoping to beef up his strike-force that already included Marc Falco and Trevor Francis. Stein made his debut for the R’s at Old Trafford of all places coming on as a sub in a 0-0 draw. Although he started to play regularly he never scored prolifically for Rangers and had only struck twice, including a memorable winner at the old Baseball Ground, before Jim Smith left and was replaced by Trevor Francis in December of that season.
Francis gave Stein more chance to express himself but still the goals didn’t come and his stint at Rangers only lasted a season. He enjoyed better times later in his career with Stoke and with Chelsea in the Premier League where he formed a memorable partnership with Paul Furlong. His record of scoring in seven consecutive Premier League matches in 1993 was one that stood until Ruud Van Nistelrooy broke it a decade later. After Chelsea Stein had successful loan spells at Stoke and Ipswich, where he scored two goals in seven games for the Tractor Boys before playing for Bournemouth, Luton and Dagenham and Redbridge. He is now a fully qualified physio working in League Two with Barnet.
Links >>> QPR 1 Ipswich 2 Match Report >>> Ipswich 3 QPR 0 >>> Connections and Memories
Team News: Neil Warnock seems to have dealt with his first selection headache of the season quite well. Rangers lost Bradley Orr to injury against Middlesbrough on Saturday and then his replacement at right back Peter Ramage picked up a knock straight away himself. Although Mikele Leigertwood can play there Rangers have moved quickly to sign Tottenham full back Kyle Walker on loan and he is set to make his debut here. Other than that it’s highly likely to be the same team that beat Boro on Saturday. Martin Rowlands and Lee Cook are long term absentees, Rob Hulse has an Achilles problem that continues to hold up his debut. The only doubt is over Fitz Hall who has a hamstring injury and didn’t make the bench on Saturday.
Ipswich’s main doubt is over Celtic loan defender Darren O’Dea who injured himself colliding with the goal post at Portsmouth on Saturday. Roy Keane has former QPR men Damien Delaney and Mark Kennedy on their way back from their own injuries who could replace him in the defence. Luciano Civelli is a long term absentee but should be able t play for the reserves as part of his comeback on Wednesday.
Elsewhere: In a bizarre little twist of the fixture list QPR face Ipswich tonight and Cardiff play Leicester, then on Saturday it’s Rangers v the Foxes while Town tackle Dave Jones’ men. Scunthorpe begin life without Nigel Adkins with a trip to Sheffield United while on the other side of the M1 expect thousands of Leeds fans to make the trip to Barnsley for a Yorkshire derby. High flying Millwall hosting Reading is an eye catching fixture while Middlesbrough’s poor start to the season could well continue against the weekend comeback kings Burnley. Preston surrendered a 3-1 lead with five minutes to go against the Clarets on Saturday evening, they will hope to bounce back against Nottingham Forest at home.
Referee: Keith Stroud from Hampshire is the man in the middle for this game. He has been a regular at QPR games over the past few seasons – taking charge of the R’s on seven occasions. It’s rare for us to have him away from home, six of the games he has refereed with us have been at Loftus Road, but we have never lost with him in charge – including a 2-1 home win against Ipswich in 2005. His last Ipswich fixture was a 2-1 home win against Reading last season when the visitors had a man sent off in the first half. More details here.
Ipswich: The Tractor Boys have become something of a bogey side for Rangers in recent times – QPR have not beaten Ipswich in nine attempts and have lost the last four in a row. The last time QPR won here they did so in a green and white hooped away shirt that has made a comeback this season – perhaps Tuesday night may be a time to give it an airing. After waiting 15 games to record their first win last season Ipswich had wasted no time in making an impact this time around with three wins and two draws from their first five league games. At home they’ve beaten Bristol City and drawn with Burnley. Saturday’s away draw at Portsmouth made it three away matches unbeaten having already won at Boro and Palace, and the Tractor Boys haven’t conceded in their last three matches if you include an extra time Carling Cup win at Crewe. Despite their poor season last year Ipswich were only beaten four times at home in the league – Palace, Newcastle, Plymouth and Sheff Utd the teams to profit.
QPR: It was 1947 when Rangers won last won their first three matches of the season, and not since 1987 when Jim Smith was in charge have the R’s come out of the blocks quite as quickly as this. Although Rangers were somewhat fortunate to get anything from Derby in the last away game it did stretch the number of road games without a defeat to four – three of those wins – looking back into last season. Rangers have been poor away from home in recent years but won their last two road games last season in a total of six for the campaign. The last time we won here Furlong and Shittu scored in a 2-0 win in 2005, prior to that it was the memorable 1999 4-1 win with goals from Steiner (2), Peacock and Wardley.
Prediction: This is our toughest game of the season so far and to be honest I said in the pub on Saturday that I thought we’d beat Middlesbrough, draw with Leicester and probably lose against Ipswich. That said it was impossible not to be impressed by Rangers on Saturday and with the gap at right back closed almost quickly as it opened it would be a tough man to back against QPR at the moment. We will come unstuck somewhere, it could quite possibly be here, but hopefully we can keep the run going. You can actually get Rangers at 2/1 odds against with Blue Square and several others which seems excellent value but a better performance than we produced at Derby is a must.
Desmond 2-2, 14/1 with Stan James and various others