QPR are straight back into action on Tuesday night as they face a League Cup second round tie against League One side Rochdale at Loftus Road.
League Cup, Second Round >>> Tuesday August 23 >>> Kick Off 7.45pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
Last season’s first round defeat against Port Vale at Loftus Road put me in something of an awkward conundrum.
Neil Warnock put out a scratch side that night with Gary Borrowdale, Leon Clarke, and Josh Parker all starting and Antonio German, Romone Rose and Joe Oastler playing at least half an hour of the second half each. Vale made a flying start to last season and topped the table before Mickey Adams left for Sheffield United in an ill fated move that saw the Blades relegated and Vale slip out of the top seven in League Two altogether. Adams returned to Vale Park this summer to try and pick up where he left off.
Warnock didn’t seem too bothered about the defeat publicly, although I can’t imagine he was too complimentary in the dressing room afterwards. In fact as the season went on and QPR stormed away at the top of the Championship he often made reference to how the early exit may have actually helped his players. The Championship is a long, hard slog at the best of times with plenty of weeks where teams are left to play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday games with some long distance travelling thrown in for good measure. While QPR’s title rivals moved through the various rounds of the League Cup, increasing the burden still further, Rangers were able to rest up on a lot of midweek nights and given that we relied so heavily on the ageing legs of people like Heidar Helguson, Shaun Derry and Clint Hill last season that was no bad thing.
But then I’ve always hated this attitude to cup competitions. What do players play the game and supporters follow it for if it’s not to win cup competitions? It does my head in when I see teams like Sunderland, who have very little chance of either getting relegated or pushing on for the European spots in the league, happily surrendering their place in cup competitions by putting a reserve side out in the early rounds. When these players sit down with their grandkids in years to come they surely want to have medals to show them, not some dreary tale about early cup exits paving the way for a solid midtable finish in the league. I know Richard Keys likes to get all moist at the thought of it being the best league in the world, and the latest perceived wisdom is that cup runs affect your chances of staying in it, but surely the game is all about winning things – trophies, medals etc.
Sadly, I fear that Birmingham’s relegation after winning the League Cup last year is only going to make managers more terrified of it, even though in my opinion City’s run to Wembley had nothing to do with their poor showing in the league.
This season, again, maybe I’ll bite my tongue and not get too bothered if we do crash out, either here against Rochdale or in the next round, with a reserve team out. Our squad is currently not good enough to stay in the Premiership on paper so we need all our energy focussed on that league campaign and not a cup run that could bring injuries and suspensions to key players the longer it goes on.
But if we do stay in the Premiership and go on to secure our place at English football’s top table for the next few seasons then sooner rather than later I’d like to see us having a real good crack at both cups. Birmingham may have ended up relegated last season but they did show that these trophies can now be won by clubs like us with the bigger names increasingly focusing attention elsewhere. If you like to look for good omens – Birmingham actually beat Rochdale at this stage last year on their way to Wembley.
Overview: By the time Rochdale finally won promotion into League One at the end of the 2009/10 season they had been in the bottom division for so long fans had even started naming it after them. Rochdale played in the lowest tier of English league football for 36 consecutive years before Keith Hill dragged them kicking and screaming up one level and then consolidated their position there last season. It still seems strange to me to look at the bottom division and see it without Rochdale, or any team from Lincolnshire in there since Boston, Lincoln, Scunthorpe and Grimsby headed off in different directions after previously being mainstays.
Before Hill 19 other managers had tried and failed to achieve that single promotion for Rochdale. On the odd occasion somebody looked like getting close they’d be picked off by a perceived bigger club – Steve Parkin went to manager Barnsley after impressing at Spotland and Keith Hill has now made the same move across the Pennines.
Likewise with players, whenever a good one has come along visiting scouts have quickly snaffled him up for their own clubs making team building in this part of the world somewhat challenging. Hill’s achievements here were all the more remarkable given that he consistently had to sell his best players – Adam le Fondre is now hot property again at Rotherham, Chris Dagnall played in the Championship last season for Scunthorpe and Will Buckley moved for big money this summer from Watford to Brighton. Even David Perkins, who rampaged around Rochdale's failed play off campaign in 2008/09 like a peroxide blonde Bullmastiff, got a six figure move to Colchester.
Given that the 2010 summer after promotion was spent mostly waving goodbye to the players that had got them there Dale were many pundits’ tip for an immediate relegation back from whence they came last season – and in all likelihood another 36 years in the basement.
The newly promoted sides were a real mixed bag in League One last season with Dagenham relegated, Notts County staying up by the skin of their teeth and Bournemouth almost securing an unlikely second promotion into the Championship before losing in the play offs to Huddersfield. Rochdale’s was a real success story – they finished ninth in the end but were in with a shout of a play off place until very close to the end of the season. They won 2-0 at Southampton who went on to be promoted, and hammered eventual play off finalists Huddersfield 3-0 at home. Points were also taken from Brighton, Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday.
Early on in the season they beat Championship side Barnsley in the League Cup, before later falling victim to a giant killing the other way when FC United beat them in the FA Cup, and that clearly stuck in the minds of the decision makers at Oakwell. When they effectively forced Mark Robins out this summer following an argument over the playing budget they approached Rochdale for Hill’s services. Although he initially rejected the idea and sent the Tykes to Leyton Orient to try for Russell Slade he then had a change of heart and went for the job after all.
In Steve Eyre Rochdale have found an ambitious young coach who fit within their budget, but has never worked with a senior first team as a number on before.
Manager: Clearly, having spent so long in the bottom division of English football, following the man who finally guided Rochdale to a promotion would be no easy task. Rochdale have to compete in a league that contains the likes of Sheffields United and Wednesday but their budget is on a completely different level to most of the division and so they were not able to go out and get a proven boss like Danny Wilson or Gary Megson when Keith Hill up and left during the summer.
Instead they turned to Steve Eyre, a man with no previous experience as a number one at a professional club but somebody who has already clocked up 21 years of coaching in Man City’s famed academy set up despite only being 39. Eyre was a trainee with Burnley and then Wigan as a teenager but made the decision to switch to coaching instead at the age of 19. At City he played a key role in a youth academy that has become known as one of the best in the country since promoting Shaun Wright Phillips into the City first team to initial great effect almost ten years ago. City have regularly made the final of the FA Youth Cup and won the youth league on five separate occasions. They continue to create some talented youngsters, like Micah Richards, although such is life at Eastlands these days most of the football for players like Ben Mee comes out on loan.
Perhaps it was the City connection, and the potential for Dale to grab a slice of that loan player pie, that attracted the board to Eyre most of all. His baptism has been a tough one so far with no wins from his first four league games and a defeat against near neighbours Oldham on the other side of the M62 at the weekend.
Eyre said in the summer: "I'd like to think they look at us as just down the road, somewhere where they will consider us if any young players need developing, but that would be remiss of us not to consider what we have got in our own area and community, our own youth set-up and school of excellence. Obviously the Manchester City link is strong and we have an inside track there. I would probably agree with anybody who said that Manchester City would always be the first place I would look, but certainly not the last."
The difference between the club he left behind and the one he has joined could not be more stark. Figures published last week showed that when you include transfer fees and wages over the length of the contracts the current Man City squad will cost its board of directors £800,000,000 while Dale’s record signing remains Paul Connor who cost £150,000 back in 2001.
Scouting report: Well for the first time in God knows how long we’re playing a side that I actually haven’t seen play 90 minutes recently so for once this section is going to be rather limited.
From the highlights and comments of Dale fans it seems that defender Neil Trotman, sent off in the defeat at Oldham at the weekend, is something of a weak link. That red card at Boundary Park could turn out to be a blessing as Dale have moved to sign Brentford defender Pim Balkestein on loan from Brentford to replace him. The Dutchman was a Jim Magilton signing at Ipswich a couple of years back and didn’t look out of place in the Championship, in fact I can remember being surprised when the former Heerenveen man moved down a division, so he should be a reasonable signing for Dale.
Further forward there seems some doubt as to how long record appearance holder Gary Jones can continue serving a useful purpose to the team. Signed from Swansea in 1998 Jones prospered under the management of Steve Parkin at Spotland and then followed him to Oakwell when he became the Barnsley manager. He was a first team regular in his 18 months in Yorkshire but was allowed to return to Rochdale in 2003 when Parkin was replaced at Barnsley. He has now made 488 performances for Rochdale, comfortably surpassing the previous club record appearance numbers.
QPR fans may remember goalkeeper David Lucas from his time with Sheff Wed, although he is currently playing second fiddle to young Jake Kean who is on loan at the club from Blackburn. Lucas played in the earlier round, the club’s only win so far this season, against Chesterfield so may yet get the nod for this game.
Erratic French forward John-Louis Akpa Akpro carries the goal threat – the former Grimsby man has one in four this season having been used mainly as a substitute since arriving from Grimsby in 2008.
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Slim pickings on the history front for this fixture with just two previous meetings between the sides. In the 1958/59 Third Division season Rangers beat Dale 3-0 at Loftus Road towards the end of the season having drawn 2-2 up in Lancashire before Christmas.
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 1 >>> Draws 1 >>> Rochdale wins 0
Previous Results:
1958/59 QPR 3 Rochdale 0 (Angell, Longbottom, Whitelaw)
1958/59 Rochdale 2 QPR 2 (Cameron, Tomkys)
Team News: QPR lost 3-1 to Port Vale in the first round of this competition last year with almost a complete reserve side out, and are likely to field the second string again this year as Neil Warnock prioritises the league campaign. Expect a mixture of youngsters trying to impress, unwanted senior pros hoping to catch the eye of scouts, and those on the cusp of the 25 man squad playing for their places. Clint Hill is suspended, Kieron Dyer has a cracked bone in his foot and several players are suffering with a virus that ruled DJ Campbell out of the weekend trip to Everton. It would be a brave man who says he can predict the QPR starting 11 for this game.
Rochdale will be forced into a reshuffle by a one match suspension for defender Neil Trotman who was sent off at Oldham at the weekend. Expect loaned Brentford defender Pim Balkestein to take his place.
Elsewhere: After a pretty lifeless first round where Sky inexplicably televised Sheff Wed Reserves v Blackpool Reserves in front of an empty stadium instead of the Nottm Forest v Notts County thriller from the City ground there are thankfully some intriguing ties and big pay days for smaller clubs among the second round fixtures. The televised games are on Wednesday and Thursday night with Liverpool travelling to Exeter first and then Newcastle going to League One Scunthorpe.
Remember teams involved in European competition don’t come in until the next round and there are several first round ties that were postponed because of the rioting earlier this month still to be played – Palace v Crawley is a new local derby for the competition and is the pick of those rearranged fixtures. There are awkward trips for Sunderland, Wolves and Swansea who face Brighton, Northampton and Shrewsbury away respectively. Championship sides Leicester, Reading and Forest also won’t be relishing their respective trips to Bury, Charlton and Wycombe.
Referee: Young Oliver Langford is our referee for this game, the second time in his fledgling career he has taken charge of a game at Loftus Road. Previously he was in the middle for a 1-1 draw with Peterborough in W12 during Jim Magilton’s brief reign at the club. LFW awarded him a high mark of eight out of ten on that occasion and said: “Very little to referee in his first ever Championship match but he seemed calm, in control and willing to give the game every chance to flow. Very few complaints about his performance at all.” Click here for a match report. Langford has already taken charge of five matches this season, including Derby’s 3-0 win against Doncaster at the weekend, and has shown ten yellow cards and no reds so far. Last season he booked 78 (2.23 a game) and sent off four in 35 games – his busiest afternoon by far was a six yellow and two red match between Swindon and Plymouth in League One. He has refereed Rochdale three times before – a 2-2 draw at Crewe and 1-0 home defeat by Darlington in League Two in 2008/09 and a 3-0 home win against Barnet the season before.
QPR: While QPR’s form in the FA Cup is becoming the stuff of legend – no win of any sort for 11 years, the worst run of any team at any level in the country – they have fared only marginally better in the League Cup. Last year’s 3-1 home defeat by League Two side Port Vale was the fourth time in six seasons the R’s had been beaten by a lower division team in this competition, and the third time it had happened in the first round with previous disasters against Orient and Northampton still reasonably fresh in the memory. That said in 2007/08 and 2008/09 Rangers twice won through the first two rounds against lower division sides to win trips to face first Man Utd and then Chelsea where they lost 1-0 on both occasions. Rangers, who count the League Cup win in 1967 as their only major trophy success, have won one and lost one of their two games at the start of the season.
Rochdale: Dale’s new manager Steve Eyre has endured a tough start to life as a number one and their 3-2 victory at home to Chesterfield in the first round of this competition remains their only win of the season so far. In the league that have lost two and drawn two of their four games played so far but haven’t scored in the last two games against Carlisle and Oldham. Last season in this competition they upset the odds to win away at Championship side Barnsley in the first round before losing narrowly to eventual winners Birmingham at this stage of the competition – a questionable penalty decision helped the Premiership side to a scarcely deserved victory that night. Rochdale haven’t been further than the second round of the League Cup since 1962 when they reached the final as a Fourth Division side and they have lost at the first possible opportunity in seven of the last nine seasons.
Prediction: As it’s almost impossible to say what players QPR will be putting out in this match trying to predict the score is even more futile than it usually is for me (two incorrect guesses from two games so far this season). Rochdale ran Birmingham very close at this stage of the competition last year but that was under previous manager Keith Hill and his replacement Steve Eyre has made a slow start to life as a number one at Spotland. It will depend on attitude and commitment – if we put a strongish side out and those things are right then we’ll be fine. If we don’t and/or they’re not then expect a long night.
QPR win 3-0, 10/1 with Sky Bet