![]() Sunday, 2nd Jan 2011 19:32 by Clive Whittingham QPR’s fourth game in eight days is on Monday with Bristol City, rivals for promotion the last time Rangers were pushing towards the top of a league, the visitors.
QPR (1st) v Bristol City (7th)Npower Championship >>> Monday, January 3, 2011 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12What we really need now is Brian Tinnion. Despite three defeats in five matches QPR remain well on course for promotion this season. In the last three seasons 81 points would have been good enough to seal the second automatic promotion spot and if that is the case again this season then QPR don’t need to be anywhere near as good in the second half of the season as they were in the first – we’re 34 points shy of 81 at the moment with 22 games left to play which means we could afford to lose as many as ten of our remaining matches and still be promoted. Having only lost three matches in the whole season thus far it doesn’t sound that daunting when you put it like that, but things are rarely that simple in football. Injuries and suspensions are starting to mount again as a hectic Christmas period takes its toll. What Rangers could do with is a little further motivation, something to pin up on the dressing room wall before a game that they can think about when times get tough, something that gives them the determination to summon some extra drive and fight. The last time we were fighting for promotion in 2003/04 Bristol City were one of the three teams chasing the Second Division title with us and when they won an incredible 11 straight games through the Christmas and New Year period, just as QPR started to falter, they looked like the team with it in their hands. Now what managers and players tend to do in such circumstances is get the straight bat out to all interview questions and deliver a series of clichés about taking one game at a time, not really looking at the league table and recognising that there is a long way to go. What Bristol City did, or more accurately what Brian Tinnion did, has gone down in QPR folklore. In an interview with the PFA’s official website the City midfielder said that QPR and Plymouth were “running scared” of his team and that the title could be “all over bar the shouting” in City’s favour by the time the three sides met each other at the end of April. God bless that man. City, who Tinnion said were “well in the driving seat”, promptly lost to Sheff Wed, Stockport, Oldham, Tranmere and Port Vale in a run of seven games that also included a draw with Wycombe. Further dropped points against Swindon, Brighton and Luton coupled with a renewed push from a QPR side that couldn’t believe the audacity of their opposition and understandably used it as motivation meant that even though City beat Rangers at Ashton Gate in April it was still Rangers who went up alongside Plymouth leaving City to crash out of the play offs in hilarious circumstances. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any funnier City sacked Danny Wilson as manager and replaced him with…. Brian Tinnion. With QPR needing to lose 12, or more, of their remaining games to miss out on the top six altogether there shouldn’t be much to worry about around Loftus Road at the moment. But it would be nice if somebody could come out and ‘do a Tinnion’ just to give us that extra push. Five minutes on Bristol CityThe Story So Far: Frankly if Bristol City get out of this campaign with their Championship status intact, as appears likely to be the case, then they should just count their blessings and move on. Anything other than survival will be a massive bonus for the Robins who began the season immersed in a farce our own Flavio Briatore would have been proud to create. City had either stagnated or gone as far as they're ever likely to go under Gary Johnson who left the club towards the end of last season. I happen to think it's the latter and believe City were foolish to get rid of him, and I said that even before disaster befell them. For a club of their size, with their stadium and their average gate then all they are ever likely to be able to achieve is exactly what Johnson had them doing - mid table, with an occasional play off assault if things go really well. City are a very similar club to ourselves in size and support and we all know we wouldn't be where we are today without some serious boardroom backing which City just don't have to the same level. Nevertheless Johnson had been there for a long time and it was perhaps time for a fresh face. The decision to replace him looked to be a shrewd one when former Reading and Palace boss Steve Coppell was appointed as his successor in the summer. Coppell's name had been linked with every vacant job that had come up since he left the Madejski Stadium and QPR fans weren't alone in hoping that he may be chosen by their club to take charge at one time or another. Coppell may come across as deeply depressed man lacking in enthusiasm for life but he has been able to achieve great things that no other manager has been able to manage with both Reading and Palace in the past and his teams play attractive, attacking, winning football. His appointment immediately shortened City's promotion odds and they halved again overnight when, after a relatively quiet summer in which Coppell had expressed his frustration at the state of the transfer market, City completed the signings of England goalkeeper David James just back from the World Cup, former QPR Player of the Year Damion Stewart and Bolton Wanderers full back Nicky Hunt. Throw in Sam Vokes on loan from Wolves to play alongside Nicky Maynard who really found his goalscoring feet in this division last season in a mediocre side and City suddenly looked to be set for a tilt at the top six. Suddenly rumours started circulating about outlandish loan moves for the likes of Michael Owen and Bristol City was the club everybody was talking about prior to the big kick off. The problem with Coppell though is sometimes he does more than come across as a deeply depressed man lacking in enthusiasm for life - sometimes he is a deeply depressed man lacking in enthusiasm for life. All was clearly not well as the new look City side crashed to a 3-0 opening day defeat at home to Millwall and City then crashed out of the League Cup losing 3-2 at Southend United, a League Two side. A day later, after just two competitive matches and less than four months in the job, Coppell handed in his notice declaring his intention to retire from the game citing a lack of passion for the sport. Chairmen up and down the country who had considered him for their positions over the previous 12 months breathed a massive sigh of relief while City hastily moved his assistant Keith Millen into the hot seat and then watched with horror as the Robins slipped to the bottom of the Championship by the start of October. Coppell's sudden about turn was an absolute disaster for City. So much of the pre-season optimism surrounding them was based on his appointment and to spend the club's summer budget and then leave right slap bang in the middle of the opening set of fixtures when they should have been setting down a marker for the rest of the season was akin to casting the club off down Shit Creek and then using the paddles to wave them goodbye from the safety of the river bank. No story has ever been published on the real reason for Coppell's withdrawal so soon after taking the job, and there would probably be lawyers all over any newspaper that attempted to hazard a guess. To their credit City have managed to improve their form of late. They looked a far better side than their league position suggested in the first meeting between these two sides live on Sky in October - only Patrick Agyemang's late leveller saved QPR from defeat at Ashton Gate after Jon Stead's blockbuster had opened the scoring in the first half. They were bottom that night but quickly embarked on a run of five wins and a draw from seven matches culminating in Keith Millen being awarded the division's Manager of the Month award for November. They've regressed a little since, with comfortable defeats at Hull and Reading followed by a lucky escape and salvaged point against lowly Crystal Palace and a thrashing of hapless Cardiff, and currently sit nineteenth, four points clear of the relegation zone. It's certainly not what the City fans wanted or expected in the summer, but considering everything that has happened they would be well advised to take the position they're in now and be grateful for it. Manager: Promotion from within when appointing a manager can be a risky business, although with the situation City found themselves in back in August promoting Keith Millen into the hot seat was probably the only sensible thing chairman Steve Lansdown could have done. Keith Millen is to City what Frank Sibley was to QPR – an omnipresent nice fella, useful for caretaker management situations, but perhaps not the best choice for the full time role. The jury remains out. As a player he made the thick end of 500 appearances for Brentford and Watford between 1983 and 1999 before finishing his career with four years at Bristol City where he then went straight into coaching. Millen was made the assistant manager in 2004 when Danny Wilson departed and the club turned to veteran player Brian Tinnion to lead them. We’ve already addressed Tinnion’s credentials once, needless to say it wasn’t a great surprise when Millen had to step into the caretaker role just over a year later with City staring relegation to League Two square in the face. He eventually stayed on to work with Gary Johnson who led a magnificent revival that started with a run of eight defeats and City fans calling him a non-league boss out of his depth, and peaked two and a half years later at Wembley where they were 90 minutes away from the Premiership having reached the play off final. Steve Coppell’s latest meltdown has rather thrust Millen into a difficult job with little experience. The City side that Johnson took to that final has aged or moved on now and Coppell was embarking on a rebuilding programme when his latest suspicious brain explosion occurred. Millen struggled initially but City have rallied recently and still have Nicky Maynard to come back in, and a transfer window in which the new manager may be able to mould the team as he wishes for the first time. Three to watch: From the strange quirk of fate that brought you Dele Adebola and Clinton Morrison comes the emergence of Jon Stead. Every now and again we seem to come up against a mediocre Championship standard forward who just gets the horn whenever he sees our boys trot out in Hoops. Morrison could actually score goals against QPR even when he knew nothing about it and hadn’t intended to – in 2000/01 the ball just flew into the net having struck him – and Adebola was the same. With those two players winding down their careers now the last thing we needed was a replacement for them but in Jon Stead we appear to have found one. He is 9/1 for the first goal tomorrow and you could do a lot worse than invest what little money you have left after Christmas in that particular bet. Stead has never really fulfilled his initial potential. Plucked from Huddersfield Town by Blackburn Rovers as a teenager he was initially a great success and England Under 21 international, only to be frozen out when Mark Hughes took charge and left to meander around the Championship ever since. He’s not a bad player by any means, and averages a goal ever four games or thereabouts through a career that has taken him to Sunderland, Sheff Utd, Derby and Ipswich before Ashton Gate – not a bad average considering he spent time at Bramall Lane and Pride Park playing in a wide roll, and at Sunderland he went through an infamous drought of scoring just once in an entire season when the Mackems were relegated from the Premiership with a miniscule points total. But it’s against QPR where, for whatever reason, he just goes absolutely crazy. His blockbusting opener against us at Ashton Gate earlier this season was easily the best of his goals against us, but it came as no real surprise to the QPR fans who were there and watching at home on television. Stead has scored six goals against QPR in his last five outings against us and literally looks like a different player whenever he faces us. With Peter Ramage out for the season, Matthew Connolly suspended and Clint Hill apparently injured Rangers are running out of men available to deal with him and the idea of Fitz Hall facing him fills me with dread. Stead is joined in attack by former Bournemouth striker Brett Pitman whose emergence as a Championship striker has coincided with City’s improved form since our last meeting. Pitman scored 28 goals for the Cherries last season as they romped to promotion from League Two, and he got 17 the year before for good measure, but when we travelled to Ashton Gate earlier this season he was struggling to make an impact at the higher level and wasn’t even in the team. It took him 11 Championship outings to score his first goal for the Robins, but he has hardly looked back since opening his account in a 2-0 win at home to Leicester. A brace followed in the next game against Sheffield United, and he scored two more in the next game against Derby. He has two goals in two games already this festive period taking him to ten for the season, including three scored for Bournemouth prior to his move. And of course, if selected, we have a chance to welcome Damion Stewart back to Loftus Road for the first time since his surprise move to Bristol in the summer. At the time there was some disquiet about the lack of cover this left QPR with at centre half, and with Connolly, Ramage and potentially Hill all unavailable for this game we may ironically about to suffer from that for the first time this season against the team that Stewart left us to join. QPR had been chasing City’s full back Bradley Orr for some time, and the player seemed keen to come to Loftus Road, but while that transfer dragged on City were able to show interest, make an offer, agree terms and sign Stewart the other way in less than two days. It seemed like one step forward and another backwards for the R’s when Orr did eventually sign because we’d lost Stewart seemingly to smooth the deal through. Damion Stewart was about as raw a footballer as I can ever recall seeing at QPR when he first appeared at Loftus Road under Gary Waddock’s management in 2006. We were denied a sight of him on the pre-season tour of Italy that summer because of visa issues and so it wasn’t until the season began that we really got to have a good look at the big Jamaican who was, whatever the club tried to make out to relive the pressure on him at the time, bought as a replacement for Danny Shittu who left for Watford that same summer. Stewart was quick across the ground and powerful in the air but his positional sense and decision making was a constant menace to his team mates and for the most part of his early time with QPR he was a complete liability. Having only played in the bottom division in this country previously with Bradford City that was perhaps understandable and slowly but surely he grew into the role under John Gregory’s more experienced management. Fast forward to 2008/09 and Stewart was at the peak of his game – a towering colossus of a centre back who was able to outpace most strikers in the league which meant he could cover for the odd mistake he did made by chasing back and executing one of his trademark physical challenges. He was the complete centre half and won the Player of the Year award at Rangers for a campaign that was highlighted by his winning goal and man of the match display in the League Cup at Aston Villa. The Player of the Year award has been something of a curse to QPR players in recent years though. Recipients have been injured, lost form or left the club altogether after winning it and last season Stewart started to suffer with a number of problems. Firstly he was clearly overweight. Now under Jim Magilton that certainly wasn’t unusual, half the team seemed to be carrying excess baggage, but Stewart got stupidly big last season. I can still see him being withdrawn early from a home match against Leicester in which Martyn Waghorn absolutely ripped him apart live on Sky, waddling across the field at the sight of the electronic board like one of the Lilt ladies. That weight doesn’t seem to have been shed this season, and City fans have criticised him for a lack of speed which would have been unthinkable two years ago when he was the quickest player at QPR. Former players often raise their game when returning to an old club but if Stewart is selected I hope he gets a decent reception from the Loft because he was a good servant for us through some difficult times. Links >>> Bristol City Official Website >>> Bristol City Message Board HistoryRecent Meetings: These sides met at Ashton Gate in October for QPR’s first televised fixture of the season. Typically it went like all of QPR’s previous televised fixtures have gone as Rangers, top at the start of play, laboured to a 1-1 draw against a City side that was propping up the rest at the start of play. Whenever QPR play against a side with Jon Stead in it it’s almost like starting a goal down and th lanky striker got his customary goal against the R’s after just a quarter of an hour – making the most of a poor Adel Taarabt free kick to storm down field and batter an unstoppable shot in off the underside of the bar. QPR stuck at it in the second half and with City sinking deeper and deeper into their own half the Hoops were able to grab the equaliser they just about deserved when Agyemang turned in Connolly’s downward header from a corner seven minutes from time. Jamie Mackie had a goal disallowed just after half time that could have given the R’s victory. Bristol City: James 7, Carey 6, Caulker 8, Fontaine 7, McAllister 6, Adomah 6 (Cisse 58, 6), Elliott 6, Johnson 5, Rose 7, Haynes 5, Stead 8 Subs Not Used: Gerken, Hunt, Stewart, Clarkson, Sproule, Pitman Booked: Rose (foul), Elliott (foul) Goals: Stead 16 (unassisted) QPR: Kenny 8, Walker 8, Gorkss 6, Connolly 6, Hill 6, Derry 6, Faurlin 7, Ephraim 5 (Smith 57, 6), Taarabt 5 (Agyemang 78, 7),Helguson 6 (Hulse 64, 6) Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Hall, Mahon Booked: Walker (dissent), Derry (foul), Gorkss (foul), Faurlin (foul) Goals: Agyemang 84 (assisted Smith/Connolly) QPR beat Bristol City the last time the sides met at Loftus Road, but that barely begins to tell the story of the game. The match between the sides at Loftus Road on Boxing Day proved to be one of only five with Paul Hart in the QPR managerial hot seat, and the only one he won. Things looked good when goals by Jay Simpson and Mikele Leigertwood gave Rangers a comfortable 2-0 half time lead but things turned very sour after the break. First Nicky Maynard controlled, teed up and smacked home a genuinely world class goal into the roof of the School End net from the edge of the area. Then, faced with half an hour to hang on, Hart incurred the wrath of the Loftus Road crowd by removing the attacking players from an already negative formation and introducing two more full backs and a further holding midfielder to form a formation so negative even Craig Levein would balk at playing it. There followed half an hour of QPR lining up on the edge of their box with a flat back eight and simply launching the ball downfield into an empty half of the field every time they got it. Many left before the end, those that stayed booed the team off despite the result. Hart was gone within a fortnight. QPR: Cerny, Hall, Ramage, Gorkss, Williams, Leigertwood, Routledge, Watson, Buzsaky (Borrowdale, 83 ) , Faurlin (Agyemang, 62 ) , Simpson (Connolly, 83 ) Subs not used: Taarabt, Balanta, Taylor, Pellicori Goals: Simpson 30, Leigertwood 41 Bristol C: Gerken, Orr, Fontaine, McAllister, Carey, Williams ( Clarkson, 70 ) , Skuse, Hartley, Maynard, Haynes ( Sproule, 82 ) , Saborio ( Sno, 70 Subs not used: Elliott, Nyatanga, Henderson, Edwards Goals: Maynard (57) Bookings: Haynes , Maynard , Sno Head to Head: >>> QPR wins 31 >>> Draws 23 >>> Bristol City wins 25 Previous Results: 2010/11 Bristol City 1 QPR 1 (Agyemang) 2009/10 QPR 2 Bristol City 1 (Simpson, Leigertwood) 2009/10 Bristol City 1 QPR 0 2008/09 QPR 2 Bristol City 1 (Taarabt, Lopez) 2008/09 Bristol City 1 QPR 1 (Blackstock) 2007/08 QPR 3 Bristol City 0 (Agyemang 2, Buzsaky) 2007/08 Bristol City 2 QPR 2 (Blackstock, Stewart) 2003/04 Bristol City 1 QPR 0 2003/04 QPR 1 Bristol City 1 (Padula) 2002/03 QPR 1 Bristol City 0 (Gallen pen) 2002/03 QPR 0 Bristol City 0 (Vans trophy, City won 5-4 on pens) 2002/03 Bristol City 1 QPR 3 (Connolly 2, Gallen) 2001/02 Bristol City 2 QPR 0 2001/02 QPR 0 Bristol City 0 1998/99 Bristol City 0 QPR 0 1998/99 QPR 1 Bristol City 1 (Ready) Played for both clubs: Tommy Doherty Bristol City 1996-2006 >>> QPR 2005-2009 Born and bred in Bristol, the Doc made his debut for the red side of the city in September 1997 in a 3-0 win over Luton Town. Over the next nine seasons he would become an integral part of the City team constantly battling for promotion from League One, captaining the side in his last two seasons at the club. In all, the competitive midfielder played just over 200 games for City in his spell before Ian Holloway come calling in the summer of 2005. Rangers and Holloway had frequently been linked with Doherty, a player that wasn’t unlike Ollie back in his playing days for the club, and the R’s boss finally got his man for an undisclosed fee. Doc’s time at W12 didn’t get off to the best start as he was sent off in a pre-season game and there were constant complaints that he looked unfit. However Tommy started the season with a place in the R’s midfield and would go onto play the first seven games of the season. His sending off against Luton, where he hoisted Kevin Nicholls into the air by the throat, and then niggling injuries meant that the he struggled to get another run in the first-team and doubts were again raised over weight and fitness, apparently due to too many cigarettes and too much alcohol on his days off. When Gary Waddock was placed in charge Doc found himself out of the first-team picture altogether and hardly furthered his cause with another red card for fighting in a pre-season friendly game at Lewes. He was farmed out on loan to Yeovil Town for the remainder of the season. Tommy never played another game for the R’s after that joining Wycombe first on loan then permanently and was named their player of the year in 2007. Now playing for Bradford City in League Two which is a criminal waste of a talent which was sadly let down by his temper and appalling lifestyle off the pitch. Links >>> Bristol City 1 QPR 1 >>> Bristol City 1 QPR 0 Match Report >>> Connections and Memories This MondayTeam News: Battered and bruised QPR prepare for a fourth game in a week with several selection headaches. Matthew Connolly is suspended for two matches following his second red card of the season at Norwich on Saturday so either Clint Hill will move to centre half with Walker and Orr at full back or Fitz Hall will be recalled. Hill left the Norwich game at half time himself, as did Heidar Helguson, so both must be doubtful for this game. Lee Cook, Peter Ramage and Akos Buzsaky are the long term absentees. The Tommy Smith farce rumbled on at Norwich on Saturday when the game fell between his separate loan spells so he missed out. I believed that would be the case on Monday as well but Portsmouth say they have today completed the signing of Liam Lawrence from Stoke and intend to play him tomorrow, so presumably Smith is available as well. We shall see. Norway international Petter Vaagen Moen is available for the first time after completing his free transfer from Brann. City, inevitably with the fixtures the way they are, have injury problems of their own. Defenders Liam Fontaine (ankle) and Jamie McAllister (calf) both miss out, although such is McAllister’s propensity to play like a Conference North standard defender against Rangers that might actually be worse news for us than it is for them. Cole Skuse is also added to the absentee list after leaving the win against Cardiff early and Nicky Maynard is a long term absentee. Captain Louis Carey has recovered from illness and a torn calf muscle and may travel. Elsewhere: The football keeps on coming – another full programme of Championship action on Monday, with another exceptionally interesting clash on Tuesday to look forward to. That sees Leeds travel to a Cardiff side in the middle of its annual collapse so from a QPR point of view at least one of them will be dropping more points there. Norwich and Swansea are the latest sides to string a few results together and make a play for the top of the table – the Canaries go to Middlesbrough this Monday while Swansea travel to Leicester and neither game can be described as a gimme. At the other end Palace meet Preston in a battle between the bottom two sides, neither of whom have a manager at present. With Portsmouth v Hull a battle between two sides tipped for surges in the second half of the season, Reading meeting Burnley, Derby and Millwall there are intriguing battles between sides close to each other in the table all over the place. Referee: Fred Graham is the man in the middle for this game – a referee who is known for only blowing his whistle when there is a murder, and even then he’s unlikely to produce a yellow card. He has three previous QPR appointments to his name, all at Loftus Road, ending in a win, a draw and a defeat. He was in charge of our home game with Ipswich last season, one of the worst QPR performances in living memory. More details here. FormQPR: It’s either been one thing or the other for QPR in the last four games with two victories and clean sheets coupled with two defeats without scoring. With four tough games in such a short period of time over Christmas four victories were always going to be unlikely, but the R’s have taken six points from nine so far which is hugely creditable and has kept them four points clear of second and five of third in the table. Rangers have won four of their last five games at home, scoring 13 goals in the process, and hammered second placed Swansea 4-0 in W12 on Boxing Day. Only Burnley have scored more than the R’s at home this season (27 to our 26) and only Swansea have conceded less (five to our seven). Nobody has a home record that can match our own eight wins and three draws from 12 matches. The R’s are unbeaten in ten home games against Bristol City but come into this game nursing injuries and with three defeats from their last five games. Bristol City: City won at second placed Swansea earlier this season and vanquished another promotion hopeful Cardiff 3-0 on Saturday so have nothing to fear from this fixture. However that win at Swansea in November was the last of their three away wins this season and they have lost at Leeds, Hull and Reading conceding nine goals in the process since then. The victory against Cardiff was their first in four games but their form overall has improved markedly since we last met – they had won just two of their 13 games prior to that match against the R’s and sat bottom, they have since won six of 11 to climb to seventeenth. Prediction: Well I’ll do my bit for the cause and not tip us to win. Stead is bound to score and QPR cannot help but show signs of a Christmas period where they have played 270 minutes of football in six days, including 100 of those with just ten men on the field. Any sort of win will do here but I’ll predict a draw and hope I’m wrong. Half time Bristol City/full time draw 18/1, Jon Stead to score first 10/1 both with Victor Chandler Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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