 Friday, 20th Apr 2012 19:33 by Clive Whittingham Two teams reaching the business end of quests that are vital to their immediate futures clash at Loftus Road this Saturday as QPR host Tottenham Hotspur. QPR (17th) v Tottenham Hotspur (4th)Barclays Premier League >>> Saturday April 21, 2012 >>> Kick Off 5.30pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 >>> Live on ESPN The theme for the April has been "you know it's that time of year when…" It started when I found myself scrambling out of my reclining chair, vaulting the foot stool and bounding across my living room screaming with delight and pumping my fist at a last minute Andy Carroll winner for Liverpool at Blackburn Rovers. Even the neighbours accompanied the customary bang on the ceiling with "you don't even support Liverpool you crazy fuck." I did that night. I was supporting Arsenal on Monday night as well – taking things to another extreme by actually attending the match. As you're no doubt aware that game didn't go quite so well, and LFW photographer (not a salaried position) Neil Dejyothin and I could only look at each other and muster a resigned laugh at full time when the Latics saw through their deserved 2-1 victory. Increasingly it's looking like two from QPR, Bolton and Blackburn although the situation at the bottom of the Premiership is so complex that by 7.30pm on Saturday we could be back above the Wigan, or back in the bottom three. It's that time of the season when the BBC Predictor machine is doing a roaring trade and fans queue up to offer their theory. People are starting to talk about Aston Villa as a serious relegation contender, but given QPR need to win two of their four games and hope Villa do no more than draw two of their five I'd suggest that's unlikely. Hopefully not though. All of which means it will soon be that time of the season when Sky Sports are hunting for scapegoats and footage of fat teenage lads with their shirts off in floods of tears. Which leads me neatly on to this Saturday’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur at Loftus Road which has the potential to be an absolute classic. Here we have two teams wildly erratic form, both with the weight of colossal financial prizes weighing heavily on their shoulders. QPR's finances will look like Nick Leeson’s current account if the club is relegated this season while vultures are circling around Tottenham's manager and best players and are likely to swoop if Champions League football isn't back at White Hart Lane next season. Both teams are plagued by glaring weaknesses that, if exploited correctly on Saturday evening, could make anything up to and including 6-6 a feasible scoreline. ESPN have chosen wisely this weekend. If QPR are to fail in their survival mission I'd like to think we can go without the gnashing of teeth about perceived injustices and shots of hysterical fat boys roaring their eyes out. If we are relegated then goals incorrectly disallowed against West Brom and Bolton, players incorrectly sent off against Norwich and Man Utd, penalties incorrectly awarded against us at Old Trafford and against Aston Villa will all have played a part. But if we go down it’s for no other reason than not being good enough across the season. Poorly prepared in the summer, scrambling ever since and making bad decisions on and off the field. But we’re not down yet. We can pretty much write off our daunting end of season trip to Man City who have won 16 and drawn one of 17 home matches this season and may well still be fighting for the title and it’s taken as read that we need to beat Stoke in our final home match to stand any chance. That leaves two matches this week against Tottenham and Chelsea that, by rights, we should lose comfortably. Next week’s game at Stamford Bridge rather depends on just how much Chelsea have left in the tank after a gruelling semi-final contest with Barcelona sandwiching a league game against Arsenal this weekend. This week could see the QPR supporters play a really key role. ESPN moving this game to 5.30pm is bad news in many ways, as the three teams immediately around us in the league all play a winnable game at 3pm and can really crank up the pressure before we even get onto the field. But I think this is ideally set up for one of those nights under the lights at Loftus Road. Manchester City when Manchester City looked fairly unstoppable came to W12 for a Saturday night match earlier this season and were stunned by what they found. Rangers were committed, fast and awkward on the field, raucous, loud and unforgiving off it. Mancini’s men prevailed 3-2 in a belting match, but they’d been taken all the way by QPR and have altered their approach to away games for the worse from that point up to but not including last weekend’s 6-1 win at Norwich. If you’d struck a match in the Upper Loft that night the whole place would have gone up and I’m expecting a similar alcohol fuelled din this Saturday night. At the business end of this season Tottenham are proving easily unsettled and mentally weak. If QPR can take the physical power and speed of the Bobby Zamora and Djibril Cisse partnership to the heart of their rickety defence and the fans recreate the atmosphere of that Manchester City match we may just pull this off. Perhaps. But I didn’t get the stomach lining of a 54 year old air traffic controller through QPR doing things the easy way. Whatever happens, the next three weeks are going to be horrendous. Buckle in, keep your hands and legs inside the car, and hope for the best. See you on the other side. Links >>> Opposition focus >>> History >>> Tube and Train closures >>> Referee This SaturdayTeam News: QPR welcome striker Djibril Cisse back from a four game ban but Mark Hughes must now decide whether to recall the Frenchman – three goals and two red cards from five QPR appearances so far – which would require a change of system in attack. Other than that he has almost a fully fit squad to pick from with Heidar Helguson returning from his long term absence at West Brom last weekend. Alejandro Faurlin and Kieron Dyer are the long term absentees. As Saturday is a day with a Y in it Ledley King is a doubt for Spurs who will replace him at centre back with Ryan Nelson should he not make it as Younes Kaboul is also ruled out. Occasional midfielder Niko Kranjcar is also definitely out although it’s unlikely he would have played anyway. Brad Friedel is fit to return in goal. Elsewhere: A strong constitution will be required on Saturday, with QPR’s nearest rivals in the relegation scraps all playing very winnable matches before the R’s even get onto the field at 5.30pm. Wigan, the little steam engine that could, take their miraculous form to Fulham who are due to put the cue on the rack any day now. Bolton face Swansea at home at 3pm having already beaten them at the Reebok Stadium this year in the FA Cup and Blackburn host Norwich. This means that by kick off time on Saturday night Rangers could be third from bottom, level on points with Blackburn and six behind Wigan if things go badly. For those clinging to the idea that Aston Villa may yet reap the benefits of appointing a relegation specialist as manager keep an eye on their match at home to Sunderland, managed by former Villa boss Martin O’Neill. And it’s not like Spurs have nothing to play for either. Should Newcastle beat Stoke at 3pm they will drop out of the Champions League places for the first time in months and they could be as low as sixth should Chelsea win the live lunchtime match at Arsenal. None of the Saturday games have nothing at stake. On Sunday the focus is very much on the title race with Man Utd hosting Everton in the early game and Man City going to Wolves at 4pm. Wins for QPR and Wigan this weekend and a defeat for Terry Connor’s men would make them the first side relegated this season. Liverpool play West Brom on Sunday, the only match all weekend that means nothing to anybody. It doesn’t end there either. One of Bolton’s crucial two games in hand is on Tuesday night at Aston Villa. My word. Referee: If QPR are embroiled in a big match then invariable County Durham official Mark Clattenburg gets the call to referee it, and so it proves again this weekend. Clattenburg refereed our one and only play off semi final win against Oldham in 2003, then a year later took charge of the final game of the season as a 3-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday sealed promotion into the Championship for Ian Holloway’s men. Last year he was back at Loftus Road for the last game of the season as the R’s lifted the league trophy following a game against Leeds and now here he is again for the game that could make or break our bid to stay in the Premiership. For his full QPR case file please click here. FormQPR: QPR have been running a win at home and lose away pattern for seven matches now and can extend that to eight with a victory here. Having won twice at home in the league all season until the middle of March Rangers have now won three home matches on the spin to give themselves a fighting chance of survival. No Premiership team has ever had more players sent off in home matches in a single season than our five this year, and only four in the history of the league have managed more than our current tally of seven reds overall. Rangers are now without a win in 11 away games and with trips to Chelsea and Man City to come continuing the current home form against Spurs and Stoke is going to be crucial to Mark Hughes’ hopes. Spurs: Last season Tottenham won just three of their final 12 matches to miss out on Champions League football and they’re at risk of doing so again with only two wins from their last 11 games – only Wolves have picked up fewer points in the last eight league games. That said they’ve just come off a run of games against Man Utd, Everton, Sunderland, Chelsea, Stoke and Norwich and are now going into games against four of the bottom five followed by Fulham at home. Since winning at Norwich on December 27 they have failed to win in seven away games, drawing three of them 0-0 and not scoring in the last four. Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding tells LFW… The 'clubs who have been wronged by Martin Atkinson' Appreciation Society meet on Saturday tea-time in a massive game at Loftus Road for both sides. I have to say, despite it being mentioned as far back as January on this site by many a 'worried' fan, I believe this is possibly the first real 'must win' game for Rangers this season. Or more to the point, it’s definitely more a 'must not lose'. QPR are currently a best priced 8/11 to be relegated and it is starting to look like a match up between ourselves and Bolton. Wolves, as expected, have sunk like the Titanic and Blackburn have slowly imploded with the behind scenes issues that were always bubbling just under the surface rearing their head again with Gael Givet's outburst this week. A superb performance by Wigan at the Emirates has pulled them clear of what looked like certain relegation a few months back. They say fortune favours the brave, and no manager has been braver than Roberto Martinez in recent weeks. His adoption of attacking wing-backs and a philosophy of taking the game to the opposition, regardless of club stature, has been an extremely successful policy and one to be applauded. It brings me on to the point of QPR. Hughes decided to tweak his team after the excellent Swansea win and bring back Shaun Derry to 'shore up' the midfield. I am a big fan of Derry but I was surprised at this move and I hope he is more positive this week. Spurs are on a downer while we have been decent enough at home in recent weeks. If we are going to go down, let’s go down in a blaze of glory. I hope he recalls Cisse to the starting line up. He can cause an average defence trouble as long as he can stay on the pitch. I can see goals in this game and think it may be more open than expected. I expect both teams to come out flying here and my bet for the match is a goal to be scored prior to the 16th Minute with William Hill at 2/1. Prediction: Much as I’d love to say I can see us taking six points from the remaining four games, I can’t. I think we’ll take four, and I don’t think it will be good enough to save us. That haul will begin with a point here from a frantic, high scoring draw riddled with edge-of-your-seat excitement, crass incompetence and probably a nice big thick slice of controversy as well. 2-2 draw, 16/1 with Blue Square and Ladbrokes. Tweet @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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