Rangers start 2008 with a home game against Leicester. After a dire 2007 QPR fans will no doubt be looking forward to a new year in which great things are promised for our club.

We’ve made it! The transfer window is now officially open and not only have we succeeded in staying in touch with the other strugglers in this league, the main objective with the quality of our team for the first half of the season, but we’re outside the bottom three at the turn of the year.

If we’re still celebrating such meagre achievements when Jools Holland is tuning up his orchestra this time next year then something has gone sadly wrong.

As we look back 2007 was, it’s safe to say, one to forget. “What’s your personal sporting highlight of the year?” they asked on the radio as I journeyed to work last week – the best I could come up with was a hard fought 1-0 win against a terrible Preston side at Loftus Road. You know it’s been a lean year when the best you can come up with is a Tuesday night victory against Preston North End.

This year promises much more. Gavin Mahon may not be the kind of signing that sets the pulses racing straight away but he’s well thought of at Watford and is a Championship player compared to the League One and Two standard of player we have been forced to bring in by our recent financial woes. There’s more to come this month of course with Wigan’s Fitz Hall and Arsenal’s Matthew Connolly due in town shortly to give you tired looking back four a much needed face lift.

Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd says he doesn’t envy us, and our money will bring as many problems as it solves. The fact that 2007 almost saw the end of our club altogether obviously escapes him – there’s a problem it’s solves straight away. Hopefully over the next 12 months QPR will remain QPR – with Hoops, and a cat mascot, and fantastic supporters, at Loftus Road – but with slightly less of the FA Cup defeats at Grimsby Town and packing off the latest youth team product to the first Premiership team that flutters their eyelids at him. It was reassuring that the “1-0 to the billionaires” chant was quickly and fervently replaced with “1-0 to the Superhoops” at Watford on Saturday. The whole Chelsea attitude to being rich, which we’ll get a sickly taste of next weekend, doesn’t sit comfortably with me but I must say I enjoy turning my computer on in the morning and finding out we’ve signed somebody else. Somebody else good.

Onwards and upwards in 2008, happy new year to all readers.

Five minutes on Leicester City
Anybody fancy a bet with me on the first chorus of “thank you Ian Holloway” at Loftus Road tomorrow? Nobody? Thought not. You see over the past 12 months the fondness felt for Holloway for the magnificent job he did at Loftus Road under seriously difficult circumstance has evaporated amidst one snide remark aimed in our direction after another.

Over the past few months Holloway has lost many friends in the game. He blamed the Plymouth fans for not turning up for the club’s lack of clout in the transfer market, he said QPR were paying Scott Sinclair £20k a week to get him on loan from Chelsea which forced Rangers to issue a denial and he’s even blamed us for making him leave Plymouth because we pinched Buzsaky – a transfer the Plymouth chairman said in his Boxing Day programme notes Holloway recommended the board approve.

He told the Plymouth fans rumours about his impending move to Leicester were “poppycock” and only a complete idiot couldn’t see what Plymouth meant to him and expect him to leave it all behind for life under the sharp end of Mandaric’s axe. Three days later he left for Leicester, and did apologise, but said that the Buzsaky transfer (which he approved) and the fact that some Plymouth fans had said some nasty things to his wife in the supermarket made the decision for him.

He hailed the Leicester job as a part in “King Lear” after years of “Eastenders” but just a month into the job he’s already started to talk like a man who walked past the axe shop on Leicester High Street and saw Milan Mandaric and a shop assistant picking items off the shelves and taking practice swings. The players he has are rubbish apparently and he’s going to struggle to replace them because QPR, yeh us again, are saturating the market and offering over the odds. All talk of Leicester’s added financial clout has now been abandoned in favour of Olly’s favourite hard done to line of ‘doesn’t the grass look green over there’.

It’s a tough job he’s taken over at the Walkers Stadium. Sky high expectations from the man doing the hiring and firing, rock bottom ability from the players. Leicester have been struggling in this league for three seasons now, under Craig Levein and then Rob Kelly. Stricken financially following relegation from the Premiership they have, at times, been lucky to escape an unprecedented trip to the third tier but when Milan Mandaric moved in at the end of last season optimism swept around the Walkers Stadium.

Kelly, inevitably, was ushered through the exit door back to the role of assistant manager that he’s much more suited to at Preston. Mandaric welcomed Martin Allen, after a brief but long enough to know what he needed to know spell with Nigel Worthington, and they set about rebuilding Leicester over the summer by raiding Birmingham’s reserve side.

Yet within about ten minutes Mandaric had decided Allen wasn’t the man for him and kicked him into touch. He was replaced, much to the fans’ disdain, by Gary Megson who managed an even shorter spell in charge than Allen before shifting off to Bolton. Honestly two years out of the game with everybody saying you’re a twat, somebody gives you a chance and within a month you’ve left them in the lurch. You’d almost feel sorry for Leicester, if only the feelings they had a lucky escape would subside.

So now they have Holloway, who has started his first ever transfer window with money to spend by capturing two players he always chased when he had none. Barry Hayles has played for Olly at Bristol Rovers and Plymouth and he tried to get him to QPR often enough as well. Steve Howard was another man he chased when at Loftus Road and he’s pitched in from Derby in time to play tomorrow. They look like short term signings to me, but with Mandaric as your box short term signings are the order of the day.

Who to watch out for
Well we may as well start with the two new boys then. It seems strange that after pining for money all these years Holloway then uses it to bring in two thirty somethings that he’s chased when he’s been strapped for cash before. That doesn’t mean they won’t score on their debuts tomorrow of course. Steve Howard signed off with Derby with a penalty miss against Blackburn at the weekend. That would have put Derby 2-0 up but within minutes they were 2-1 behind. It’s the way things have gone for the Rams since promotion, and Howard in particular who has somewhat predictably failed to make an impact on the Premiership in his first season there.

He scored 19 goals in the Championship last season after moving to Derby from Luton but has managed only one, a consolation strike in a 4-1 defeat at Man Utd, since promotion and his move back down to his level is predictable. He scored more than 100 goals for Luton in five years after arriving from Northampton so he’s certainly useless against the likes of us and will need to be watched closely if Leicester managed to get all the paperwork through in time for him to play.

Hayles is another familiar face, Rangers were playing him just days ago at Plymouth, and he’s always a handful. Even with the years advancing he’s still got enough pace and aggression in his game to cause opponents problems, although he does seem a strange signing for Leicester at this stage of his career.

Leicester also have DJ Campbell, former QPR trainee, and Matty Fryatt to pick in attack. And Carl Cort. And Iain Hume. Oh yes Holloway is certainly working hard on his latest collection of strikers. And Elvis Hammond. And Collins John. Dear Lord.

Further back their riches are slightly less embarrassing. Stephen Clemence bagged his first goal for the club against Charlton in the last match and he’s about as good as it gets in a mediocre looking midfield line up. At the back they have Gareth McAuley who I saw a fair bit of at Lincoln and quite liked, and Patrick Kisnorbo who bags the odd goal or two (he averages one in ten for Leicester) from the back.

Overall though it’s got the look of a high scoring game with Leicester boasting any number of strikers but very few quality defensive players and QPR finding their shooting boots in spectacular fashion at Watford last time out.

What happened the last time these teams met?
Rangers secured a point at Leicester earlier this season thanks to a second half thunderbolt from Mikele Leigertwood. This was Gary Megson’s first match in charge of the Foxes and after a sanctimonious address to the crowd before kick off he became the first manager in history to be booed by his own supporters before his team had even kicked a ball. In a dour game that seemed destined for a goalless draw Iain Hume broke the deadlock when Damion Stewart was penalised for a trip in his own area and a penalty was awarded by referee Lee Mason. Leicester were the better team for the first 80 minutes of the game but after taking the lead, and with Nardiello and Ephraim joining the fray in the second period, QPR took over the closing stages, equalising through Leigertwood and going close to a winner on two or three occasions. Nardiello in particular must have wondered what he had to do to score.

Leicester: Fulop, N'Gotty, Kisnorbo, McAuley, Sheehan, Hume, Clemence, Wesolowski, Porter (Kishishev) Campbell (James Chambers) Cort (De Vries)
Subs not used: Henderson, Newton

QPR: Camp, Cullip, Stewart, Rehman, Barker, Rowlands, Leigertwood, Bolder (Ephraim) Moore, Blackstock, Sahar (Nardiello)
Subs not used: Cole, Bignot, Curtis

Head to Head
QPR wins – 22
Draws – 10
Leicester wins – 18

Past QPR v Leicester Results
2007/08 Leicester 1 QPR 1 (Leigertwood)
2006/07 Leicester 1 QPR 3 (Nygaard 2, Idiakez)
2006/07 QPR 1 Leicester 1 (Rowlands)
2005/06 QPR 2 Leicester 3 (Ainsworth, Shittu)
2005/06 Leicester 1 QPR 2 (Nygaard, Furlong)
2004/05 Leicester 1 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 3 Leicester 2 (Furlong 2, Cook)
1994/95 QPR 2 Leicester 0 (Wilson, McDonald)
1994/95 Leicester 1 QPR 1 (Willis og)

Team News
Rangers are likely to hand a debut to their first signing of the transfer window Gavin Mahon. Akos Buzsaky is also likely to earn a recall in the middle of the park, or possibly supporting a lone striker, and Rowan Vine is also likely to start the last game of his loan spell from Birmingham. Angelo Balanta is likely to be one of those to miss out after a debut that showed promise and naivety in understandably equal measure but as for the others to drop out – your guess is as good as mine. Fitz Hall hasn’t gone for the ‘emergency loan’ option so can’t play, but De Canio may decide to replace Rehman with Walton at the heart of the defence alongside the ever impressive Damion Stewart. It’s also the last game of Bob Malcolm’s loan spell, it remains to be seen if he will be retained – with Kieran Lee ready to come in for the Chelsea game it would be difficult to see the point.

Leicester have two ‘emergency loan’ strikers of their own ready to throw into this six pointer at the bottom of the table. Barry Hayles and Steve Howard both signed in time to play in this match. Fryatt and Colins John were the strikers for the Charlton game last time out, doubt they will be at Loftus Road. Still, plenty of options from the bench. Joe Mattock is almost certainly out, James Wesolowski is almost fit again.

Referee
Rangers have Pat Miller from Bedfordshire for their New Year’s Day clash with Leicester. This is only Miller’s second Championship match of the season and there seems to be a lot of these inexperienced officials knocking around in high profile games this Christmas – we were the victim of a complete lunatic at Plymouth of course. Miller has 43 yellows (2.38 a game) from 18 matches this year and has also sent off four. His last QPR match came at Easter when he stood in for Uriah Rennie in our 1-0 win at Coventry City. This is his first ever Leicester City match.

Mrs Clive will be in a foul mood by the time I meet her on the way home tomorrow night, Ipswich v West Brom is refereed by Trevor Kettle. Whose idea was that? Further down it was probably a wise idea to give a Premiership referee the Leeds v Oldham massacre, although Mark Clattenburg’s form this season has been very poor so that could blow up in his face. Andy Hall has Wycombe v Barnet, commiserations to both sides as always.

What’s going on elsewhere?
We’ve been quite lucky over the past few weeks because while we’ve been playing the likes of Wolves, Plymouth and Watford lots of teams around us have been playing each other which has allowed us to open up a bit of a gap. Colchester have been the big losers in all of this, after their poor home defeat against Blackpool on Saturday we’re five points clear of them. They’re at Charlton tomorrow and things are starting to look bleak for them. Norwich are also in South London, at Crystal Palace. Sheff Wed and Preston are both below us and meet at Hillsborough. Scunthorpe have a winnable game at home to Barnsley while Blackpool will also fancy their chances against Burnley.

Form
QPR are on a bit of a decent run at the moment. The defeat at Plymouth is the only set back in the past six matches and that run has included a much needed wins against Colchester last time out at Loftus Road and Burnley followed by a thumping good win at Watford. They’ve managed to go two home games, against Colchester and Wolves, unbeaten which is something of an achievement bearing in mind how dire our home form has been this campaign.

Leicester have been in poor touch since Ian Holloway took over but did take four points from their two Christmas home games with a 2-0 win against Ipswich and draw with Charlton that would have been another maximum haul but for an injury time goal. Prior to that they’d gone seven games without a win, including four defeats, after a 2-0 win at Ashton Gate in Holloway’s first game.

Prediction
Well I’ve been predicting defeats lately and the lads have obliged with decent results (Plymouth apart). The best thing about being a pessimist is you’re either right or happy and that’s the way it is for me at the moment. I may have gone against the grain and backed us for a win had Leicester not added two wily old forwards to their line up today so I’ll go for another frustrating draw and hope I’m wrong. Come on you R’s, this can be our year.
QPR 1 Leicester 1

Photo: Action Images

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