The improvements are clear, the positivity is relentless, and the tank is being emptied on a weekly basis - now what Mr Gareth needs is a real live home win to keep the buy-in coming.

QPR (2-2-4 LLWLDD 19th) v Coventry (1-5-2 DDDDLD 18th)

Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Saturday September 30, 2023 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Sunny, dry >>> Loftus Road, London, W12

Golf’s Ryder Cup will spark different favourite memories for different people depending on which side of the Atlantic they reside - whether it’s Europe’s dramatic comeback from 10-4 down to win at Medinah in 2012, or the Yanks storming the green at Brookline in 1999.

If you’re a QPR fan, perhaps it’s the 2014 European victory at Gleneagles that stands out. Or, more to the point, sitting and listening to the manager of our expensively assembled team happily shooting the breeze through press conferences with the Sky Sports News bots about who he fancied in the four-balls while calmly guiding our club towards relegation. That was the year we spent all summer preparing to play with a back three because a couple of South American teams had done so at the World Cup, only to abandon it a game and a half in and have the manager spend the next six months moaning about “not having a right back” without anybody ever bothering to interrupt all the golf chat to ask where Danny Simpson had got to. And the season we lost our first dozen matches on the road with the only explanation offered - in between opinions on who Paul McGinley should lead off with in the singles - that aways were “bonus games”.

That was the culture at QPR at that time. It was Harry Redknapp FC, with every problem only possibly solvable by spending some more money on three more footballers to cover it up, and every lasting issue persisting in that way because he’d only been allowed to sign two. “You’ll have to ask the chairman”. The media team of the time would be walking across the car park at the end of their Friday to head home, only to find a couple of big beasts from the nationals heading the other way into the building for their latest off the record spell of mutual back scratching. “I didn’t know you lads were coming to see us today?” “Just off to see ‘Arry.” Good players won football games, we didn’t have enough good players so we didn’t win football games. That was that. Barely any point in trying. Away from home, at least, we didn’t.

QPR have never fully recovered from those four years of gross excess and mismanagement, and I suppose one of the few benefits of that is Sky no longer send some tosser down to ask our manager about a fucking golf tournament of a Thursday afternoon. These days it’s Gareth Ainsworth in the big chair, bathed in positivity and Lynx Africa, repeating the same lines week after week around attitude, buy-in and the boys giving him everything. As I’ve written before, reading stuff into these managerial interviews is a route to madness because in general they’re just trying to fulfil obligations without giving too much away. There have always been lines like Mark Warburton’s “first contact, second ball” and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s “it is what it is” to latch onto and take the piss out of. But Ainsworth is so relentlessly repetitive with some of his stock phrases even Nick London on the official has started asking him whether the boys “emptied the tank” tongue in cheek after matches.

Ainsworth straight batted that after Birmingham with an answer in the affirmative, and then came straight back in his Coventry pre-match with the same phrase. Now, LFW bases its whole existence around taking the piss, it’s what we’re basically here for, and we’ll certainly be doing that, but much like Redknapp sitting there wiffling on about golf and bonus games while pissing another £80m of our money up the wall, it does also speak to the situation we’re in and the culture that Ainsworth is trying to invest here that he just keeps on keeping on.

He has been relentlessly consistent with this since he got here. Ethan Laird didn’t work hard enough in defence and tracking back in this fixture with Coventry last season, and so it didn’t matter that he was on loan from Man Utd and rated as one of the best full backs in the league we went to Burnley the week after and picked Aaron Drewe against Anass Zaroury regardless. Chris Willock could, should, be the best player we’ve got, but his attitude, yardage and tracking back hasn’t been where it needs to be for this manager, and he too erred badly in this fixture in April, and so he doesn’t start. Taylor Richards tossed off pre-season in Austria and again at Oxford, isn’t fit enough, doesn’t run enough, and so doesn’t make the bench regardless of how much he cost. Sometimes the decisions look perverse, running entirely at odds to Redknapp’s way of doing things which is just to get the 11 best players you’ve got, sling them out there and see if they’re better than the 11 best players the opposition have got. But that Redknapp culture is never going to work at a club that cannot outspend its rivals, and it proved toxic to the dressing room and the club. Ainsworth’s got absolutely nothing at all to spend, and inherited a disasterclass, so all he can do is stress the importance of team over individual, collective buy-in, team spirit, fitness, positivity, more than the sum of our parts. Stress it over and over and over again. And be completely consistent in his selections and choices based on those ideals.

It certainly seems to be bringing improvements, at least on where we were when he arrived in February. The performance at Birmingham last Friday was a good one and, like Southampton before, would have added another win to our impressive away form with better finishing. Better still, for me, was the bodies on the line approach to the defending when required – spectacularly from Sam Field, notably from Asmir Begovic, but best of all by Steve Cook. At one stage in the first half three big blocks in a row by players chucking themselves in front of the ball. That simply wasn’t happening last season, when we would have (and in fact did) lost that game and conceded a couple of times.

This week’s arrival of Reggie Cannon looks another step in the right direction. We’ll wait for him to get up to speed and then see what Gareth has in mind. Is this a genuine, authentic, right wing back to play where Paul Smyth has been filling in – very successfully going forwards, less so in defence? If so is Jimmy Dunne looking to replace Osman Kakay on the right of a three, and is that the best use of him? I’d lean towards probably not, but then Ainsworth used the Irishman at right back at West Brom on Easter Monday so you never know. Is Cannon, on the other hand, coming in to replace Kakay, leaving Dunne to compete with Cook for the middle centre back spot he’d seem more suited to? With Jake Clarke-Salter allegedly fit enough to start pushing Morgan Fox (who I’m still unconvinced by) for the LCB role this is genuine competition for places across the defence, which has now kept two clean sheets in two away games after only two in the previous 29 fixtures. A far cry from the Dieng-Dickie-Dunne axis of terror that Ainsworth inherited and saw concede six at lowly Blackpool, and a million miles away from even the opening day of this season where we started with a horrifying flat four of Paal-Gubbins-Fox-Kakay. So far so good for the Ben Williams fitness plan as well, which looked a bit bloody mad when we were out of gas 60 minutes into the early games.

Whether it’s all enough really rather depends on what goes on at the top end of the pitch. Birmingham, like Swansea, Southampton and Ipswich before it, really was a tale of missed chances. John Ruddy was good, but Sam Field and Lyndon Dykes should both have scored at St Andrew’s, as Armstrong should have done against the Swans, Chair and Smyth versus the Saints and so on. Only the standing joke that is Sheff Wed’s class of 2023 (five) have scored fewer than our seven goals so far. That’s not the disaster it was when we had a defence that had basically shipped two goals each game before it had even begun, but it’s still not going to get you a lot of victories as our two from eight and none from four at home suggests.

Ainsworth’s relentless positivity includes the assertion both Dykes and Armstrong will make double figures this season. Coventry at home tomorrow - themselves with only one win so far and nine points surrendered from winning positions as they struggle to adjust from the lethal counter attack style led by the departed Gyokeres and Hamer which carried them all the way to Wembley in May – represents a big opportunity. It’s now one win from 19 at Loftus Road and that cannot sustain if these sunlit uplands Gareth keeps promising are to materialise in 23/24. However relentless the manager, buy in - from players and fans - only lasts so long without results.

Links >>> Stuttering start – Interview >>> Gould resigns in the tunnel – History >>> Championship newbie – Referee >>> Wheeled Cannon – Signing >>> Coventry City — Official Website >>> Coventry Telegraph — Local Press >>> Sky Blues Talk — Forum >>> Sky Blues Blog — Blog >>> Sideways Sammy — Blog >>> The Lonely Season — Blog >>> Sky Blues TV - Classic Match Highlights >>> Access All Areas — Podcast

90s Footballer Conspiracy Theories No.7 In The Series – Former Welsh international goalkeeper Paul Jones says "Mark Dripford's" new 20mph speed limit is part of Jacinda Ardern's woke agenda to further the New Zealand lambing industry at the expense of all rivals.

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Team News: QPR have a fully fit squad to choose from bar Jack Colback who serves game three of his spell on the naughty step. Jimmy Dunne hasn’t played since dislocating his shoulder at Oxford in pre-season but is back in full training and could make the bench here and new signing Reggie Cannon hasn’t played any football since May owing to his disputed separation from Boavista so I wouldn’t be expecting to see too much of him initially. But the presence of those two, and an allegedly fully fit Jake Clarke-Salter, certainly provides competition for places in a defence that, less than two months ago, was starting the opening day at Watford with Joe Gubbins and Morgan Fox as the centre halves. Probably gives Gaz the luxury of using Dunne in a development game or two before thrusting him back into the action.

Ainsworth placed great faith in Ben Williams and a reshaped sport science team to keep QPR’s bill of health as clean as possible after the struggles of last year, and he’s going in with a fully fit squad this weekend against one that is missing some key names: Ben Sheaf, Milan van Ewijk and Kasey Palmer are all out for the medium term at Cov. Callum O’Hare was once part of a star trio here with Gus Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres but is the only one who remains with the club and hasn’t played since Boxing Day. He has now returned to full contact training for the first time in nine months but is still weeks away from a return. Good for us, but a real shame for him to be out this long – terrific little player, and given our history with ACLs to fan favourites you can’t help but sympathise and hope his recovery continues to progress.

Elsewhere: It’s been another week of shocks in the Mercantile Credit Trophy.

Ahead of Sheffield Blue Stripe v Sunderland on your tellybox tonight, brace for the news that chairman Derek Chansiri has felt the need to put another statement on the club’s official website. Headlined “Hello to all Sheffield Wednesday fans (but not you bastards saying mean things about my tuna fish)” it runs to a relatively slim 1,464 words this time, each sentence a bigger belter than the last. “I will probably not die here”… “what have you done that is good for your club, why are you trying to harm it? If I am such a bad owner, what are you doing on your side?”… “You have no right to ask me to leave”… “Some fans need to have more respect for owners of clubs and not be so selfish, thinking of their own benefit without doing anything good to the club. This is not acceptable and as a result I am not willing to inject more money while I am being treated unfairly by those fans.” Ticket prices are high because not enough people are coming at £52 for an adult and a slim £45 for a concession in a city of students – holy late-stage capitalism Batman. It’s the way he tells them. Sheff Wed are bottom with two points from eight played.

Stunning development number two has occurred at Birmingham ahead of their Saturday trip to Norwich where Tyler Roberts (#artthroughpain) has suffered a “setback” in the rehabilitation from his two-year calf strain and will now not be seen again for another five to six weeks at least. If only there had been some way for Birmingham to spot the potential for these sorts of issues prior to handing him another nice, chunky four-year contract.

And as if your gast hasn't been flabbered enough, it’s now time to take a health check on Russell Martin’s Southampton who have now lost four in a row conceding 12 in the process having gifted Middlesbrough their first league win in the North East last week. The Saints had 68%, 55%, 59% and 49% of the ball across those games, which of course is the real quiz for the sort of 37-year-old who still wears muscle-fit t-shirts, and having identified the problem against Ipswich as “the reaction when we went behind” the diagnosis against Middlesbrough pinpointed “the reaction to going in front”. So sort that out and they’ll be absolutely laughing. It’s Leeds at home in the early Saturday TV game for them this week.

While our 2-1 loss at St Mary’s, which could easily have been a win with better finishing, looks a worse and worse result with every passing week, our 2-1 win at Cardiff City is starting to look like something of a coup. Erol Bulut has posted four wins from five league games after last week’s impressive 1-0 up at Sunderland, and the one defeat was a narrow 3-2 at red hot Ipswich Town. The Bluebirds have got a great chance to improve further still on an early seventh place in the league when they host Rotherham who are currently nursing the country’s worst away form – five defeats from five this season and no wins from 19 road trips going back to a victory at Sheff Utd last November.

Less surprise around the relentless form of aforementioned Ipswich, who roared back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Wolves in the League Cup during the week. We tipped the Tractor Boys for a second successive promotion in our season preview and they’ve won nine and drawn one of 11 games in all comps so far with two 4-3 wins and two 3-2 successes among them. Striker George Hirst is averaging three points a game from seven apearances. They’re now at Huddersfield this weekend. Little shock either that despite a total overhaul of the squad to the tune of 17 incomers over the summer, Stoke continue to flatline with four successive league defeats prior to this weekend’s trip to Bristol City, calls for the manager’s head, and a sixth straight year in the bottom half of this league apparently in the offing.

Not many would have predicted Stoke’s most recent conquerors Hull (Plymouth H) or Preston Knob End (West Brom H) to figure in the top four at this stage, nor Middlesbrough (Watford A) and Swanselona (Millwall A) to be in the bottom four.

Champions Leicester go to Blackburn on Sunday lunchtime.

Referee: We’re certainly getting our fair share of the new faces early in this campaign, with another of the Championship’s latest intake Tom Nield getting his fourth game at the level at Loftus Road this Saturday. We have previously had him for a League Cup tie mind. Details.

Form

QPR: Two draws in a row now for Rangers against Swansea (1-1) and Birmingham (0-0) after just two in the prior 23 fixtures. QPR were only involved in three goalless games last term (Stoke H, Norwich A, Cardiff A) and the stalemate at St Andrew’s last Friday was the first in 32 games. It was a second clean sheet in consecutive away games following the 2-0 victory at Boro prior to the international break having only kept two clean sheets in the previous 29 fixtures in total and 15 away from home.

Goals at the other end continue to be a problem. Only Sheff Wed (five) have scored fewer than our seven. Rangers have scored one goal or fewer in six of their nine so far and have failed to score on four occasions. That continues the chronic problem of last season and means it’s now one goal or fewer scored in 34 of the club’s last 40 games and on 18 of those occasions they’ve failed to score at all – a run that includes both most recent meetings with Coventry. The problem is particularly acute at home where the R’s are on a club record run of one win from 19 games, with no wins and just two draws from the last nine at Loftus Road. They haven’t beaten anybody in W12 since Watford in March. They haven’t scored more than one goal at home against anybody since beating Wigan 2-1 here last October, 20 matches ago, and haven’t scored three goals in any game since the match before that when they beat Cardiff 3-0 on this ground – 41 matches ago home and away in all comps. Lyndon Dykes’ late equaliser against Swansea was a first goal at the Loft End in ten games.

Coventry comfortably beat QPR twice last season – 2-0 at theirs when we were still on the you vs yourself journey with Honest Mick, and 3-0 at ours when relegation seemed almost certain. That extended Mark Robins’ unbeaten record over Gareth Ainsworth – he’s now won seven and drawn one of their eight managerial encounters having brough a 6-1-0 record across from Wycombe. That paid back Rangers for the double they’d done in these fixtures the previous year – 2-0 at Loftus Road, 2-1 in Cov. It was Coventry’s first double in the fixture since 2005/06 when we lost 3-0 at the opening of the Ricoh Arena and 1-0 in W12 over Christmas. Rangers had been unbeaten in this fixture in five meetings prior to April’s defeat.

Coventry: With 12 players out including two of the best in the Championship, as well as five loans returning, and another 11 incoming including four playing in the country for the first time, it’s perhaps inevitable that last season’s play-off finalists are struggling to hit the heights in the new campaign.

It’s one win from nine for the Sky Blues so far, a run extended by conceding with the final kick of Monday night’s home 1-1 with Huddersfield. On the other hand, with five draws in the last six and the win against Boro before that it’s also only one defeat from seven matches. City are four points better off than they were at this point a year ago when they also won one of their first nine – again against Middlesbrough. There have been seven goals in the last five minutes of Cov games already, three for and four against including Helik’s equaliser on Monday. That’s a continuation of last season when Sunderland, Stoke and Coventry scored more injury time goals than any other side in the division – six each. Away from home it’s three defeats and two draws from five games in league and cup. They have lost at Leicester, Wimbledon (both 2-1) and Cardiff (3-2) and drawn 1-1 at Swansea and Hull. Coventry were leading all of those games apart from the one at Cardiff - Mark Robins’ side to a hefty nine points lost from winning positions already.

Draws were something of a theme last year as well. Cov finished fifth but only won seven times away from home – the joint lowest total in the top ten and the same total as QPR in 20th and Cardiff in 21st. They drew nine times on the road – only Hull ten and Rotherham 11 drew more aways. This of course means that only Sunderland and promoted pair Luton and Burnley lost fewer than their seven away defeats.

Prediction: We’re once again indebted to The Art of Football for agreeing to sponsor our Prediction League and provide prizes. You can get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. What’s our reigning champion Aston got for us this week…

“I haven't had a chance to see Coventry this season yet but they have had an indifferent start, the same as last year. Obviously losing Gyokeres is a big blow and I think now might be a good time to get into them.”

Aston’s Prediction: QPR 2-0 Coventry. Scorer – Ilias Chair

LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Coventry. Scorer – Ilias Chair

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TacticalR added 14:03 - Sep 30 Thanks for your preview. There is usually very little to be gleaned from managerial interviews. To me the remorseless positivity of Ainsworth's interviews makes perfect sense - they are just not that entertaining to listen to. Ainsworth's positivity (and the consistency you described) also seems to have had a big effect on certain players like Kakay and Dozzell. Yes, home wins. Whatever happened to them?

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