As QPR fans rub their eyes and wonder if this is all some sort of dream the team travels to Derby, a happy hunting ground in recent years. Could things get even better still?

Derby County (16th) v QPR (1st)

Coca Cola Championship >>> Saturday August 28 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Pride Park, Derby

If you’ve grown weary over the past few years of various idiots bombarding message boards with rumours about potential signings at Loftus Road, rumours that 95 per cent of the time turn out to be works of complete fiction designed to make people with small penises and unfulfilled lives feel important in some way, then rest assured you’re not alone.

If you have a spare five minutes on your lunch break and you haven’t seen it yet treat yourself to Tottenham’s hilarious send up of their “In The Know” brigade on You Tube.

I’ve found myself strangely drawn to Tottenham fans this week. That video started it, brutally ridiculing the exact same situation we face in QPR cyberworld on a daily basis. Then there was Wednesday night’s match with Young Boys which in many ways reminds me of this Saturday’s trip to Derby for QPR. Obviously one was a multi million pound Champions League qualifier while the other is just another league fixture in our dog of a division but in both cases one team was clearly better on paper and most neutrals would quickly pick them out as a clear winner when asked to predict.

Yet the fear was audible in the voices of Tottenham fans on the radio before the game on Wednesday and despite our fine start to the season most QPR fans will, when pushed, mutter something along the lines of “oh we’ll balls it up, we always do” and point to the good fortune we had against Sheff Utd and Barnsley rather than the fine performances we have turned in so far.

In the end Tottenham won 4-0, as anybody with half a brain had said they would before the match. At Derby this Saturday QPR should win as well. They should. Quell your pessimism, hold back from positing abusive comments about me cursing it and tempting fate, and consider this; if Nigel Clough came to Neil Warnock now and offered any of his starting eleven from last Saturday at Coventry in exchange for any QPR players who started against Scunthorpe who would you swap? The answer should, should, be nobody. Or how about this; if QPR had lost their last three matches and were welcoming a side to Loftus Road that boasted players like Adel Taarabt and had played three, won three, conceded none and scored nine would you be tipping us to beat them?

A neutral looking at Tottenham v Young Boys would have said Tottenham should win easily. A neutral looking at the respective starting elevens of QPR and Derby last Saturday would say QPR are better from back to front. Pessimism is a natural state for a football fan - a Derby fan going to this game will say “they’re in great form, and they always get a result here,” while QPR fans will probably get up on Saturday fearing that we’re due a defeat – both at Pride Park and in general.

Football rarely goes by the book, but if it does this weekend our record breaking start to the season will continue.

Five minutes on Derby

Recent History: Oft used LFW phrase #265 in the series – it is the definition of insanity to repeat the same actions and expect different results.

It’s getting on for nine months now since I interviewed Nigel Clough at an out of town shopping complex in South Normanton. It was cold, wet, miserable and we’d both much rather have been elsewhere. I’d been sent by the weekly newspaper I worked on at the time to get “Nigel’s Christmas message for the readers” and he’d been sent as part of Derby’s community commitments to launch some children’s football tournament or other. He was clearly enthusiastic about the task – “all that should be on the press release” he said when I asked him about the initiative in some beige conference room or other.

Clough, in fairness to him, had every right to be fed up. Derby were on a poor run of form, including a 4-2 defeat by QPR at Pride Park that I poked him with a question or two about when I got tired of trying to be nice, and he had been forced to come from their reserve fixture in Sheffield that afternoon down to South Normanton to meet me and then back up to Sheffield to watch Rotherham play that night. That poor run of form, Clough said, was almost entirely down to injuries and was out of his control.

Beside him at the interview sat Chris Porter and Miles Addison, both injured at the time along with a good six or seven other Derby players. They were scratching around in the loan market to try and paper over cracks but overall last season Derby were a mediocre team badly hamstrung by absentees and going nowhere.

One might have thought that on the dreaded drive back up the M1 that night, and back down again after the Rotherham match, Nigel Clough may have resolved to do things a little bit differently when given the chance - to build a squad capable of withstanding injuries, to ship out players who are injury prone, to make sure that come October 2010 he wasn’t making grumpy excuses to some poor trainee hack about why his team continues to persistently disappoint one of the division’s biggest followings.

Three games into the new season and Derby are now without a striker. Rob Hulse is much sought after by teams at this level, but his recent injury record is abysmal and he is likely to miss out on Saturday again. Chris Porter is injured again, as he has been pretty much since he hit the slab in the maternity ward in Wigan 26 years ago. Tomasz Cywka has fractured a cheekbone which you can’t really legislate for and Luke Varney is out of the team while Derby try and offload his sizeable wages onto our good selves in this transfer window. All of which means just three games into the new season Clough found himself picking a midfielder and a left back up front together at Coventry last week and talking once again about injuries hindering his team.

Derby are currently a club that the word ‘stagnating’ could almost have been created for. They are undoubtedly still suffering from the premature success of Billy Davies, who arrived in 2006 saying he wanted them to be promoted within three seasons then actually took them up within nine months. It was far too soon, and Derby were trounced on a weekly basis in the Premiership – returning with just one win to their name. Davies was allowed to try and build a side capable of surviving and was then sacked. Paul Jewell was allowed to bring in ten players in January, then another ten for the Championship when they were relegated. This left Clough to inherit a rank team being selected from a squad of almost 50 professionals.

As jobs go it certainly wasn’t an easy one. But any initial progress made by Clough in trimming the squad down to a manageable, affordable, size seems now to have given way to nothing very much at all. With everybody fit Derby are a lower midtable side, with the few injuries they’ve picked up they’re relegation candidates. Clough needs Hulse et al back, fit and firing because another season of excuses just isn’t going to cut it with a support base that regularly backs the Rams in huge numbers at Pride Park.

The Manager: In Nigel Clough the Derby board appointed a long term planner for a long term job. It took Clough ten years of progress at Burton Albion to prepare them for the Football League – a decade of tiny steps forward on and off the pitch until the Brewers were topping the Conference in a ground fit for League One at least.

Football managers don’t tend to get ten years in the Football League, although Clough could quite reasonably and justifiably argue that the mess he inherited at Derby could well take that long to correct. It used to be said of Gerry Francis that he spent transfer fees as if it was his own money and Clough is the same. He's much preferred to pick up the likes of Dean Moxey and Jake Buxton from the Conference and lower leagues than follow in the footsteps of his predecessors who spent big money on players like Rob Earnshaw.

Last week he left their defeat at Coventry in stoppage time to fly up the motorway and watch Ben Davies in action for Notts County. Admirable though that may be, watching Derby’s dire and toothless display at the Ricoh against an equally drek Coventry side I couldn’t help but think it will need more than Ben Davies to correct this.

Clough has in many ways done the hard bit at Derby, hacking into the grossly over inflated and over paid squad. Now he has to inject some quality and commitment into his side as part of the rebuild. Chances are, managing a former Premiership club in the Championship, that money is tight and he is working with his hands tied to some extent but to once again be scratching around for cheap signings and loan deals three weeks into a new season with two defeats already under his belt does not exactly scream “progress” to me.

Clough will always be able to trade off his family name after his father’s miraculous success in this part of the world. But if he thinks he’ll get a decade to turn Derby around as he did at Burton he’s very much mistaken.

Three to Watch: Rob Hulse is the man who makes Derby tick. They were so impressive with him in the team at Leeds on day one compared to their lifeless display at Coventry last week. He has an Achilles injury and is said to be out of action until after the international break, although I must confess that listening to Nigel Clough this week I did wonder whether or not he was trying to pull a fast one on us. I wouldn’t be totally surprised to see Hulse stroll out to warm up at about 2.30pm on Saturday.

Assuming he doesn’t, and let’s take Derby at their word for now, then all eyes may well again be on Chris Commons and Dean Moxey who filled in up front last week.

Commons is well known to QPR fans. He has played well against us in the past for Derby and Forest after starting his career at Stoke. He has also been linked with moves to Loftus Road on several occasions down the years. Often mocked for his perceived weight problem, Commons is one of those really good Championship players who just isn’t quite good enough for the top flight. He passes a nice ball and has an eye for a spectacular goal but he is better served pulling the strings from further back than leading the line.

Moxey actually didn’t look too badly out of place on the left of a front three last week, despite coming up through the ranks at Exeter and then joining Derby as a left full back. He scored Derby’s goal at Coventry, dedicating the strike to his former Exeter team mate Adam Stansfield who sadly succumbed to cancer earlier in the week. Moxey cost Derby £300,000 when they bought him from the real St James’ Park but has found his opportunities in the first team limited so far until his impromptu call up last week.

Of course no column about Derby County would be complete without a mention of Robbie Savage. He’s the Derby club captain these days, and he doesn’t go about the job quietly. Last season he twice had spats with radio presenter Colin Gibson live on air – although having suffered Gibson on BBC Radio Derby while working in the are for the last four years I actually found myself in the unusual position of siding with Savage over those arguments. He also boasted of having Adel Taarabt “in his pocket” after the game at Loftus Road last season – while Savage undoubtedly did a good job on him and is likely to be detailed in a similar role on Saturday, Taarabt did actually set up the QPR goal in fine style that night.

Savage will annoy you on Saturday. He’ll annoy you because at some point he will smash through the back of one of our players in an unbridled act of thuggery that could well cause one of our boys serious injury. He’ll then get up, walk away with a hand up in apology, and the referee will laugh and let him off with a warning because of who he is. He’ll annoy you because he’ll dive about, and moan at the referee, and moan at our players. And he’ll annoy you because if he plays well you won’t want to see him again for a while and yet he’ll pop up on every television and radio programme next week. He’s annoying, but he’s still very capable of doing a job and with Hulse injured Derby really would be in trouble without him.

Links >>> Derby Official Website >>> Derby Message Board >>> Travel Guide

History

Recent Meetings: QPR and Derby shared the spoils in a dire encounter towards the end of last season at Loftus Road. Both sides were just about safe in the league, while still casting nervous glances over their respective shoulders, and in the end a draw was a more than fair result after a dour spectacle. QPR took the lead in first half injury time when Adel Taarabt escaped the clutches of his man marker Robbie Savage to set up Lee Cook for his one and only goal of last season. QPR were well below par though and Derby deserved their equaliser which came in the form of a fine individual goal by defender Shaun Barker just over 20 minutes from time.

QPR: Ikeme 7, Ramage 7, Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Connolly 8 (Hill 33, 6), Faurlin 5, Leigertwood 5, Cook 6 (German 59, 7), Taarabt 7, Vine 6, Simpson 6 (Ephraim 78, -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Buzsaky, Balanta, Priskin

Booked: Faurlin (foul)

Goals: Cook 45+2 (assisted Taarabt)

Derby: Bywater, Anderson, Barker, Hunt (Davies 61), McEveley,Tonge, Pearson, Savage, Green, Sunu (Leacock 46),Porter (Hulse 82)

Subs Not Used: David Martin, Teale, Moxey, Dave Martin

Booked: Leacock (time wasting)

Goals: Barker 67 (unassisted)

QPR have never lost at Pride Park and kept up that record in spectacular fashion back in October 2009. Live on BBC television the Rams surged into a two goal lead as slack defensive play from Gorkss allowed Dickov to steal in for a soft opener, then Robbie Savage curled home a brilliant free kick. However the R’s came roaring back with a fine Adel Taarabt free kick halving the deficit before half time and Gavin Mahon equalising straight after the break after some superb approach work. There was only one team in it for the last hour of the game – Jay Simpson slammed in a third and Akos Buzsaky bagged a late penalty. It was the third time in as many games that Rangers had hit four goals and at that stage it looked like nothing would stop us.

Derby: Bywater 5, Stoor 6 (Livermore 62, 6), Connolly 6, Barker 7, Moxey 5, Croft 6, Savage 7, Hughes 6 (Pearson 68, 7), Teale 6, Dickov 6 (Davies 68, 7),Hulse 6

Subs Not Used: Deeney, Buxton, Hendrie, Mills

Booked: Connolly

Goals: Dickov 10 (assisted Savage), Savage 36 (free kick)

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 7 (Leigertwood 60, 8), Gorkss 7, Stewart 7, Borrowdale 7, Routledge 8, Faurlin 8, Mahon 8, Buzsaky 8, Taarabt 8 (Agyemang 75, 6), Simpson 7 (Vine 75, 7)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Hall, Alberti, Ainsworth

Goals: Taarabt 40 (free kick), Mahon 47 (assisted Routledge), Simpson 59 (assisted Buzsaky), Buzsaky 90 (penalty)

Head to Head:

Derby wins – 16

Draws – 16

QPR wins – 12

Previous Results:

2009/10 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Cook)

2009/10 Derby 2 QPR 4 (Taarabt, Mahon, Simpson, Buzsaky pen)

2008/09 Derby 0 QPR 2 (Routledge, Leigertwood)

2008/09 QPR 0 Derby 2

2006/07 Derby 1 QPR 1 (Rowlands)

2006/07 QPR 1 Derby 2 (Smith)

2005/06 QPR 1 Derby 1 (Nygaard)

2005/06 Derby 1 QPR 2 (Ainsworth, Gallen)

2004/05 Derby 0 QPR 0

2004/05 QPR 0 Derby 2

Played for both clubs:

Once at Pride Park though he found it difficult to ever get a consistent run in the team and loan spells followed first at Nottingham Forest then QPR. Beck played 11 times for Gerry Francis’ men in a three month stint scoring four goals but spent most of the time on the floor whenever a Championship defender went within a mile radius of him. A permanent transfer to W12 seem to be on the cards before Derby re-called the striker before eventually he eventually went back to Denmark with Aalborg. Beck finished his career with Lille in France before becoming a player agent. – AR

Links >>> QPR 1 Derby 1 Match Report >>> Derby 2 QPR 4 Match Report >>> >>> Connections and Memories

This Saturday

Team News: Both teams have been frustrated in their attempts to strengthen their squads this week with the transfer window looming, so it’s likely to be pretty much as you were last weekend for both managers. That’s is somewhat better news for Neil Warnock than it is for Nigel Clough. QPR are likely to be unchanged with Matt Connolly continuing to deputise for the injured Fitz Hall at centre half and Heidar Helguson’s knees still standing up to the rigours of regular first team football so far. Martin Rowlands played half an hour for the reserve during the week but he’s still a few weeks away yet, Lee Cook scored the last time these sides met but is now a long term absentee.

Derby lost at Coventry last week with an attack made up of two midfielders and a left back. With Luke Varney’s protracted departure to another club, strongly rumoured to be QPR or Blackpool, preventing him from taking part and Rob Hulse struggling with an Achilles injury that could well be the case again this Saturday. Midfielder Kris Commons and left back Dean Moxey were charged with finding goals last weekend. Clough may decide to risk striker Tomasz Cywka who fractured his cheekbone in the last home game against Cardiff but came on at Coventry wearing a protective mask, but the always injured Chris Porter is doubtful with a hip injury.

Elsewhere: Sky may be regretting not picking a QPR game to televise until October the way things are going. Rangers have only shone briefly in recent seasons so it might all be over by the time we travel to Ashton Gate for our only pre-Christmas television date. Leicester v Reading is the live offering this week – two teams tipped by many for the top six this season but without a league win between them in six attempts so far, perhaps something will give at the Walkers Stadium on Saturday evening. No doubt all the media eyes will be on Portsmouth with Cardiff the visitors – both clubs are said to be financially stricken, both are adding big Premiership names to their squads, morals will be in short supply in that 3pm kick off. Forest v Norwich and Ipswich v Bristol City are attractive looking fixtures but for me the most intriguing game of the weekend is Doncaster at home to Hull. I went against the grain and predicted the former to have a good campaign while the latter falters this season before the kick off and this will give us a bit of a clue whether that will be the case. Hull have been soft on their travels so far, beaten heavily at Millwall and embarrassingly at Brentford in the cup.

Referee: Mark Haywood is in charge of this fixture for the second season running. The league seems keen to give matches to referees who know the dynamics of them well, a technique that has worked well in British Rugby League in the past, although both teams will be hoping Haywood does substantially better than he did last season. For more details on how he fared last time, and his previous QPR and Derby appointments, click here.

Form

Derby: The Rams looked good in victory at Leeds on the opening day of the season, but their squad is paper thin and they’ve been poor since losing to Rob Hulse through injury. They have lost their last three games, against Cardiff here, Coventry away and Crewe in the League Cup. Last season they were beaten eight times at home in the league, only five Championship teams lost more on their own patch and three of those were relegated. They have won three of their last nine matches in all competitions.

QPR: Having equalled their best start to a season since 1947 with a third consecutive league win last weekend, QPR still have some way to go to beat that. The R’s won their first five fixtures at the start of the 1947/48 season so the current crop will need to win here and against Middlesbrough on the other side of the international break to send me scurrying back to the record books. Pride Park is a happy hunting ground for the R’s – Rangers have never lost here, winning three and drawing two of five visits. Last season’s win here was one of six on the road across the whole campaign, the 2-0 win the previous year when Leigertwood and Routledge scored was one of only three road wins that year. Rangers have actually won their last three away games on the bounce without conceding a goal – this season’s 3-0 win at Sheffield United following a 1-0 win at Barnsley and a 2-0 win at Palace at the end of last season. In fact since losing 4-0 at Leicester at the beginning of April Rangers have kept six clean sheets and conceded only two goals in eight matches.

Prediction: I cannot predict anything other than a QPR win for this one. Rangers are in great form, Derby have lost their last three. QPR have an in form attack, Derby are playing a left back up front. QPR have yet to concede a goal in the league this season, Derby have already lost three times. Everything points to an away win. It would be typical of QPR not to manage it, and it must be said that we were somewhat fortunate against both Sheff Utd and Barnsley which should be seen as a warning shot across the bows, but if we play as we have been doing we shall win here.

Away win 7/4

Photo: Action Images

MonaghanR added 09:16 - Aug 27 Clive, another great match preview. Always look forward to the reports and previews. Keep up the good work as it is much appreciated over this side of the Irish sea.
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enfieldargh added 09:53 - Aug 27 great preview. Trying to convince enfield jnr that we will win. He is certain our bubble will burst and has vowed not to go to any away matches this season. You should have seen him jumping for joy 3 times at Bramall Lane last week!!! Of course if we loose its all my fault and I'll be getting a tongue lashing all the way back down the M1. Also bringing my daughter to her first away match who has never witnessed a qpr defeat.

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SheffieldSteve added 10:07 - Aug 27 Always a great read Clive, and a daring tip, but, despite us always saying 'we're due a loss' 'same old Rangers, bound to lose now' etc etc., we ARE the best of the 2 teams at the moment, and I haven't lost faith in Colin yet...Oh, sorry, I've just been reading a Derby site where they are predicting a 2-2 draw... Only WE should be allowed to call him Colin! Neil Warnock, a revelation really, he's not done anything I'd have expected him to, other than keep promising to bring in another striker.. Fitzall captain? Adel captain? Who would have guessed either, but a great start. So where was I in this waffling? Oh yes, like you, I have to travel miles to see QPR (and I'll always remember with thanks that 2-0 away win at Burnley that you drove me to, we got there in time for a couple of pints + saw the comical goal of the year), anyway, 2 home games and 2 away games at the beginning of this season, 'away' at Loftus Road for 2 great wins, and 'home' at the Blades for an even better win that had sheepish colleagues congratulating me on getting rid of their manager for them (as though I've ever played for Rangers) and laughing Owls slapping me on the back, and now Derby (well, nearly home), a city I love for it's superb range of pubs and some great history and architecture amongst the 20th century rubble, and of course, Pride Park, my favourite away ground (only hope I can still say that at 17.00 hours on Saturday). I'll likely drink in Derby centre before the match and do a pub crawl to the ground, if only to be served quicker. Oh yes! Your prediction... Spot on! Great stuff Clive, keep it up, we've been watching a team develop over just a few matches into a great side to watch, Buzz and Rowlands to return and Neil's 2 more strikers, and you never know where this season may end up. I'm really looking forward to Watford away, long may that continue...

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Juzzie added 13:52 - Aug 27 We haven't lost at Derby in the last 5 games, pleeease make it 6 tomorrow!
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Charlie1 added 14:35 - Aug 27 For Savage remember we have Derry. He's been mightly impressive so far this season and will keep an eye on savage influencing the ref. It will be a tough game but I think we will edge it, 2 1?!!!
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BrixtonRanger added 16:35 - Aug 27 I'm going for one-nil to QPR, for no other reason that it completes the sequence of us winning by one fewer goals, each time out this season, in the league.
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themodfather added 17:13 - Aug 27 don masson played for both gary micklewhite john gregory??
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AshteadR added 20:22 - Aug 27 Great preview - let's hope Tarbs can find his way out of Savage's pocket! I remember going to the Baseball Ground many years ago but it's my first visit to Pride Park - R's to win 2-0
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