QPR remain unaffected, both in their points total and performance level, by the Alejandro Faurlin controversy and long may that continue with a visit to an unhappy hunting ground on the agenda this weekend.
The disadvantage of writing these match previews on a Thursday night is that it leaves the whole of Friday for some other giant skeleton to come tumbling out of the closet at Loftus Road stinking of Gianni Paladini’s aftershave. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? A plague of locusts wouldn’t surprise me when you look at what is going on at our club and around the world at the moment, but as it stands it seems we have managed to make it through the week without attracting any further undue attention from the authorities.
There has been talk (and by talk I mean the latest load of complete nonsense in the Daily Mail) of some action being taken by the authorities after the bottle throwing incident at the Palace game last week. However as it was the Palace fans doing the throwing, and the FA has already set down a precedent after a similar incident at Millwall a few weeks back that says supporters can throw whatever they like onto the field if they get cross, I’m not overly concerned about that. We’ve managed to injure Wayne Routledge in training, but other than that it’s been a pretty normal week leading up to this trip to Doncaster Rovers – the second of six winnable fixtures we have back to back which could put us out of sight if we can win all of them and would give us a bit of a cushion to play with should the FA decide to get all hardline on us.
I’d normally take great delight in seeing Sir Alex Ferguson hauled over the coals, as he was this week with a five match ban for abuse of match officials. It’s richly deserved, and long overdue, but I hope the FA are in rather more forgiving mood when we end up in front of them – whenever that may be. Nobody has yet seen fit to tell the customers when exactly they might find out if we’re allowed to keep these points we’re paying to see us win but never mind. Whenever we do get our hearing I hope they don’t make some kind of example of us in a similar way.
Last week was a strange one for me. I didn’t enjoy last Saturday despite the result and have just felt miserable and sick since the seven charges relating to the Alejandro Faurlin deal were announced by the FA. I’ve seen a whole range of suggestions since then with some claiming the whole thing would be dealt with by the end of this week and most of the charges are going to be dropped while others anticipate a saga dragging on into next season. Nobody knows anything for sure, but that’s never stopped people on QPR messageboards hencing forth with bile dressed up fact before and a situation such as this is pure gold for those who become aroused at the thought of others believing they have some sort of insider knowledge.
Some of you may have been unlucky to catch sight of me and my receding hairline on LDN news and Late Kick Off last weekend – by far the most miserable person they spoke to, and looking ill according to my parents who have been ringing me on and off all week “just for a chat” which can loosely be translated as “just checking you haven’t killed yourself yet”. I feel now as I did when they spoke to me a week ago – I think we’re in a lot of trouble, I think we’ll have points taken away from us, and it will personally take a lot of getting over if it were to deny us promotion.
The games are secondary in my mind to all of this at the moment which is a bloody shame because I had been thoroughly enjoying the season up to that point and would like to see us romp over the line many points clear with a smile on my face. Sadly it looks like being the case that even if we do crash through the finishing line first there will still be an almighty steward’s enquiry to come. Luckily it seems this wonderful squad and staff of ours are not only able to put it all to the back of their minds and perform, but it actually seems to be galvanising them.
After this Saturday we have a two week international break – and God it would be nice if they could all get their bloody acts together and get this all sorted out in that time. I won’t hold my breath.
The story so far: It's testament to the work that Sean O'Driscoll (and his predecessor Dave Penney) and John Ryan have done at Doncaster Rovers during the last decade that even though they are safely ensconced in the lower mid-table area of the Championship and almost certainly safe from relegation barring an extraordinarily unfortunate set of results I can't help but feel they should have done a little better for themselves this year.
That's partly because I tipped Doncaster in the pre-season to have a really big campaign this year and be the surprise package that may 'do a Blackpool' and gatecrash the top six ahead of other clubs who would probably believe themselves to be bigger, more established and better equipped names than Rovers. I based that prediction on the near relentless progress the club has made in recent years.
Relegated out of the league altogether in 1998 with massive debts, a playing squad that counted it's professionals in single figures, a chairman so corrupt he went to prison for trying to burn down the main stand and collect the insurance money (such was the state of Belle Vue by this stage a big fire may have actually made improvements) it was hard to envisage Rovers coming back so far, so quickly. But Ryan, a Doncaster fan who made his fortune enhancing Melinda Messenger's chest among other fine works of surgery, grabbed the club by the scruff of its neck at its lowest ebb and, with substantial injections of cash but without ever throwing silly money around, has seen them promoted through League's Two and One into the Championship with a few memorable cup runs along the way.
If you judge clubs on stadium size (Doncaster have a shiny new one these days, Belle Vue is a heap of rubble and again it's hard to tell the difference from its former state), average gate and wage bill then Doncaster are probably an upper League One side on paper. And that's where they were when Dave Penney left in 2006, quite rightly believing the club had gone as far as it was ever likely to. The value of having an inspirational manager has since been shown with former Bournemouth man Sean O'Driscoll taking them up another level and consolidating them there.
Doncaster were the nation's favourite team when they beat Leeds United at Wembley in a League One play off final in 2008 but having lost their star midfielder Paul Green on a free transfer to Derby and added very sparingly to their squad in the summer everybody (and I mean everybody) had them down as relegation certainties. O'Driscoll promotes a style of football that has seen Rovers dubbed a mini Arsenal and while that's very admirable and good to watch, his squad had a naive look about it following promotion with very little experience of the league, and very few Shaun Derry like characters to hold it altogether.
They stayed up, impressively with something to spare, but having done so they again allowed their better players to leave for a profit - Matt Mills went to Reading for more than a million, likewise Richie Wellens to Leicester, and again Doncaster were circumspect with their spending in replacing two key players who formed the spine of their team. Those who had tipped them for relegation in their first season did so again last year and were again to be disappointed as Rovers not only survived but moved into an impressive midtable spot.
And so we come to the start of this season when they actually went out and spent a bit of cash of their own for a change. Billy Sharp was the man they targeted, a goal hero at near neighbours Scunthorpe in the league below but a persistent disappointment in this league at Sheffield United. At the time Kevin Blackwell was in charge of the Blades and as we all know his "style" of football consisted of hitting it very hard, very high, very often which wasn't conducive to success at Bramall Lane - the Blades now look set for relegation despite Premiership parachute payments and £30m in compensation payments from West Ham over the Tevez affair. More on their carnage after the international break when they are due at Loftus Road.
It also wasn't conducive to success from Sharp's point of view - he playfully describes himself as a fat lad from Sheffield and it's fair to say his weakness lies in his heading and aerial ability, while his main strengths come alive when the ball is worked low into and around the penalty box. Doncaster did that last season and reaped the benefits with 15 goals in 32 league starts which prompted Rovers to shell out an unprecedented £1.1m to sign him permanently in the summer.
A permanent source of goals secured, and a burgeoning reputation encouraging the likes of Arsenal to send the likes of Jay Emmanuel Thomas here on loan, coupled with their years of progress had me casting glances up the table at the start of this season and wondering just how high they could go. They've shown their potential at times - they beat Hull and Norwich 3-1 at home early in the season, have beaten Burnley and taken Wolves to a replay in the FA Cup since Christmas and taken points from Leeds and most recently Nottingham Forest.
But they've been too soft too. The 6-0 home defeat against Ipswich, admittedly under an injury crisis so enormous they tried to get a subsequent match at Norwich called off, is the headline result but they've also lost 5-2 at Leeds, 5-1 at Leicester, 5-1 at Wolves, 4-3 at Reading, 4-0 at Cardiff and 3-0 at QPR. Their goal difference of -17 is worse than any side outside the bottom four, their 41 goals conceded away from home is the joint worst record in the division with Palace, and their 66 goals conceded overall is matched only by Scunthorpe. Form has fluctuated, often coinciding with hamstring problems suffered by Sharp which hints at too much reliance on their star name.
Overall it seems they've stood still, or perhaps even taken a little step back, for the first time in a long while and the fear must be that the highly rated O'Driscoll will get the same feeling his predecessor did and finally attract the attention of a club with greater resources.
The Manager: It looked very much like Doncaster would be losing their influential manager Sean O’Driscoll last Christmas when Premiership side Burnley came sniffing in the wake of Owen Coyle’s departure. In the end Burnley wouldn’t stump up the required compensation, and went for the cheap option Brian Laws instead - just about the worst decision they could have made in my opinion and one that cemented their position in the Premiership relegation zone last season and will probably cost them any chance of an immediate return this year. O’Driscoll is a managerial appointment waiting to happen for a “bigger” club that wants to lay foundations and be rewarded for patience.
O’Driscoll was a player with Fulham and then for 11 years with Bournemouth and comes across as the quiet man of the Championship – although he certainly showed a different side of himself with journalists in a press conference after the recent 6-0 defeat by Ipswich which lasted all of 20 seconds and three questions. Despite his impressive work at Dean Court and the Keepmoat Stadium he is rarely linked with other vacancies, Burnley was the first I can remember but more recently Sheffield United showed an interest before settling on their usual catastrophically no hoper. At Bournemouth he built an attractive, passing side with the likes of Wade Elliott to the fore, and won promotion into what is now League One in 2003 via the play offs when their attractive passing style deservedly won the day over the late Keith Alexander’s physical Lincoln outfit.
He has carried that style, and that success, on at Doncaster, picking up the baton from Dave Penney and moving Rovers to the next level via a 2008 play off final victory against Leeds and a couple of seasons of comfortable consolidation. Having sold his two outstanding performers from last season during the summer a season of struggle seemed to be in order in 2009/10 but by picking up impressive players on a shoe string budget and allowing Billy Sharp to excel in a more attractive passing style he did so much more than that. Far from consolidating in their second season at this level Rovers pushed on into the top half of the table last season and finished twelfth.
People thought Doncaster owner John Ryan was mad for parting company with Dave Penney who had brought such success to the club, but this appointment of O’Driscoll was a well researched master stroke. He is Doncaster’s biggest footballing asset but his biggest challenge may still be to come – moving Rovers on another level still with a meagre budget to work with.
Three to Watch: Ordinarily Billy Sharp would be the focus of this section but a combination of a hernia and a torn groin mean he is unlikely to play again this season, and almost certain to miss this game, so it’s been time to get the programmes and videos out.
Last week at Nottingham Forest O’Driscoll made no secret of the fact that he’d used Nigel Pearson’s cautious but ultimately successful blueprint for nullifying and beating Forest – without Sharp to call on Doncaster managed the stunting but not the slaying part. I wouldn’t be surprised therefore if he has spent this week pouring over the video of our recent defeat at Millwall although such was the importance of Steve Morrison to that performance, and the direct nature of the Millwall play on the night, I’m not sure Rovers have either the personnel or the wherewithal to play that way even if they wanted to.
When they play as they want to Doncaster focus on playing the ball into wide areas very early and then getting low crosses into the penalty area behind a retreating defence that is yet to set itself. Ordinarily Sharp will play as the foremost point of the system on the shoulder of the last defender wherever possible and his boots are likely to be filled this weekend by one time QPR transfer target James Hayter. He came through the ranks at Bournemouth during O’Driscoll’s time there and registered a 22 goal season in 2004/05 for the Cherries in League One. He got 20 the season after as well prompting interest from Ian Holloway at Loftus Road but although Bournemouth are permanently strapped for cash and Rangers were a division higher they could never quite cobble enough together for Hayter and he moved to Doncaster in 2007 instead for £200,000.
He’s played well and scored goals in fits and starts since then – 34 goals in 136 appearances so far – and this season has been a handy little micro example of that. Hayter scored one goal in his first seven appearances this season, then got eight in 11, and comes into this game on a run of just one goal in nine.
The support for Hayeter comes in the form of a five man midfield that all floods forward when Rovers attack. Primarily the attack from deep is led by James Coppinger who once had a loan spell at QPR from Newcastle without ever playing and then finally made his name in the Conference with Exeter. Doncaster picked him up when they were at that level in 2004 and have carried him up through the leagues with him. A fine hat trick against Norwich in September suggested a fine season was in store but he is now without a goal in 17 outings.
In defence, conceding goals has been a problem for Rovers as I have already mentioned. To combat this they have loaned in former Sheff Utd centre half Matt Kilgallon who looks a good signing on paper. He’s been one of those players who is perhaps a bit too good for this level but not good enough for the league above throughout his career. He came through the ranks at Leeds and since then Sheff Utd, West Ham and Sunderland have all tried him in the top flight without conspicuous success. This is his second loan spell of this season after a similar term with Middlesbrough and he is danger of losing his way career wise – unlikely to ever make much of an impact at Sunderland but failing to attract suitors of a sufficient quality for a permanent move into the Championship. Should probably spend less time doing his hair.
Essentially from what I have seen Doncaster will play the ball out from the back to begin with – this could cost them against a QPR side that has shown a willingness this season to hunt in packs high up the field and hassle teams out of possession early on. From there it is worked into Shiels, Martin Wood or Brian Stock and then spread wide to the likes of Coppinger who will look to get a low cross in behind the opposition defence early, before it is set, so that Sharp, or in this case Hayter, can go to work in the box.
Links >>> Official Website >>> Rovers Message Board >>> Travel Guide
QPR: Kenny 8, Walker 8, Connolly 7, Gorkss 8, Hill 8, Derry 8 (Leigertwood 76, 7), Buzsaky 7, Taarabt 6, Ephraim 6, Mackie 6 (Smith 89, -), Helguson 8 (Agyemang 87)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Rowlands, Borrowdale, Parker
Goals: Gorkss 53 (assisted Buzsaky), 88 (assisted Taarabt), Taarabt 81 (penalty won by Helguson)
Doncaster: Sullivan 6, Dumbuya 8, O'Connor 7, Martis 6, Friend 6, Coppinger 7, Gillett 7 (Hayter 79, 6), Oster 7, Martin Woods 7, Shiels 7, Sharp 6
Subs Not Used: Gary Woods, Stock, Lockwood, Wilson, Hird, Fairhurst
Booked: Sharp (foul), Sullivan (penalty concession)
When QPR last travelled to the Keepmoat Stadium they were fourth in the table following a 2-1 away victory at Sheffield Wednesday and had Jim Magilton in charge. During a two week international break Magilton had added (or been presented with) Tommy Williams and Steven Reid on loan and despite the team’s good form and fine performances chose to put both players straight into his starting line up instead of Gavin Mahon who was injured and Gary Borrowdale who was dropped. Adel Taarabt was left out after missing the team coach to South Yorkshire the night before. QPR were hopeless, losing very comfortably 2-0, with Billy Sharp making the most of dire marking from a corner to open the scoring just after half time and Shiels profiting from poor play by Gorkss and Williams in possession to fire home a second ten minutes later. Jay Simpson’s dragged shot wide of the post straight after half time was as good as it ever got for the visitors.
Doncaster: Sullivan 6, Chambers 6, Hird 6, O'Connor 6, Roberts 7, Oster 6 (Spicer 87, -), Fortune 7 (Shackell 72, 6), Gillett 6, Shiels 8 (Mark Wilson 85, -), Coppinger 6, Sharp 7
Subs Not Used: Smith, Hayter, Guy, Heffernan
Goals: Sharp 53 (assisted Shiels), Shiels 65 (unassisted)
QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 6, Connolly 6, Gorkss 5, Williams 5, Routledge 6, Reid 5, Watson 5, Faurlin 7 (Taarabt 46, 6) Buzsaky 5 (Agyemang 63, 5), Simpson 6 (Pellicori 63, 4)
Subs Not Used: McWeeney, Stewart, Ramage, Ephraim
Booked: Leigertwood (foul)
Head to Head >>> Doncaster wins 7 >>> Draws 1 >>> QPR wins 6
Previous Results:
2010/11 QPR 3 Doncaster 0 (Gorkss 2, Taarabt)
2009/10 QPR 2 Doncaster 1 (German, Simpson)
2009/10 Doncaster 2 QPR 0
2008/09 Doncaster 2 QPR 0
2008/09 QPR 2 Doncaster 0 (Blackstock, Ledesma)
1984/85 Doncaster 1 QPR 0 (FA Cup)
1966/67 Doncaster 1 QPR 1 (Keen)
1966/67 QPR 6 Doncaster 0 (R Morgan 2, Keen 2, Sanderson, Marsh)
1958/59 QPR 3 Doncaster 1 (Longbottom, Cameron, Kerrins)
1958/59 Doncaster 2 QPR 0
1951/52 QPR 0 Doncaster 2
1951/52 Doncaster 4 QPR 0
1950/51 Doncaster 0 QPR 2 (Clayton, Smith)
1950/51 QPR 1 Doncaster 2 (Hatton)
Played for Both – Rufus Brevett
Doncaster 1988-1991 >>> QPR 1991-1998
Born in Derby in 1969, Brevett joined Doncaster as a youngster and rose up through the ranks at Rovers before making his debut in 1988. In a three year spell at Belle Vue the left-back became a huge fans favourite and is still regarded as one of the best ever players to come out of the Rovers youth team.
It wasn’t long however before scouts were being spotted watching the talented defender and it was Don Howe who brought Brevett to Loftus Road in March 1991. The £250,000 fee that the R’s paid was a record transfer received for a Donny, a record that remained until very recently when the likes of Matt Mills and Richie Wellens went for big money.
Rufus made his debut for the R’s in a 0-0 draw with Spurs and would go on to help Rangers finish in twelfth place. Two seasons later Brevett was part of the R’s squad that finished in fifth place and as top London club in the inaugural season of the Premier League but he found his first team opportunities limited for the first half of his time with Rangers by the form of Clive Wilson who should really have earned England caps, and would have done had he played for a more fashionable club. When Wilson left for Tottenham in 1995, Brevett became Rangers first choice left back but was unable to prevent their relegation a year later.
Rufus was well liked by fans at QPR. He was a committed and wholehearted player, and he was tremendously good value whenever a disagreement of any sorts broke out. Following our relegation from the Premiership in 1996 we initially seemed to do little else other than play Huddersfield Town thanks to a cup tie that went to a replay. Familiarity breeds contempt, and there were few more contemptible individuals in the game at the time than Town’s centre half Kevin Gray – who would later go on to shatter Gordon Watson’s legs into so many pieces that the incident resulted in a court case. One of Gray’s typically agricultural challenges on a QPR player at the McAllpine Stadium one evening sparked what Neil Ruddock may have termed “a bit of a dust up” between players. Despite this incident taking place in the QPR right wing area, left back Brevett wasted no time in racing the thick end of 80 yards across the field to land three swift punches before racing back to his position without any of the officials even noticing he’d done it.
Brevett played 153 games for the R’s scoring one goal, and even that looked suspiciously like a Francis Benali own goal against Southampton in 1996, before dropping a division to join the Kevin Keegan revolution at Fulham. At the time Keegan allegedly told Rufus “to leave the little club up the road and join the bigger one” and although we were disgruntled at the time, Brevett’s decision was proved to be a good as he made the Premier League with Fulham and played there successfully for many years while we faffed around with the likes of Houston and Harford in charge.
He later played for West Ham where he suffered another relegation, before spells at Plymouth and Oxford. Following his retirement he has spent his time running a West London tanning salon, completing coaching badges, and some local radio commentary work.
Links >>> QPR 3 Doncaster 0 Match Report >>> QPR 2 Doncaster 1 Match Report >>> Doncaster 2 QPR 0 Match Report >>> Connections and Memories
Doncaster’s injury problems have been so bad of late that they applied to the league to have a recent game at Norwich postponed as they feared they wouldn’t be able to raise a team – they did in the end, and got a draw out of the game for good measure. Billy Sharp has a hernia that cannot be operated on because his groin is torn as well so his season is as good as over. James O’Connor and Adam Lockwood are also out. Shelton Martis, Sam Hird and Mark Wilson all limped off against Forest last week but all have been passed fit to play.
Elsewhere: It’s another one of those lovely weekends where lots of our rivals look like they might drop points – very handy for us nine games away from the end of the season with only 18 more points required to guarantee promotion not withstanding any possible points deduction over the Faurlin affair. The team in third is Swansea – they can only reach 90 points now at most if they win all their remaining games and have an inferior goal difference to us, a home game with sixth placed Nottingham Forest this weekend will not be easy and will result in at least one of our rivals dropping points. The teams in second and fourth, Norwich and Cardiff, have very difficult away games this weekend with the Canaries at Hull and the Bluebirds at in form Millwall. The final team in the top six Leeds go to Sheff Utd. Down at the bottom managerless Scunthorpe go to Ipswich giving Palace a chance to extend their four point gap with a very winnable home game against Derby.
Referee: Phil Gibbs, an assistant headteacher from the West Midlands, is the man in the middle for our trip to the Keepmoat Stadium. He’s a relatively new face on the Championship circuit and has refereed QPR twice before – both games were last season, both ended in defeats. He was the referee for our early season 1-0 defeat at Bristol City at the start of Jim Magilton’s reign, and the 5-1 thrashing at Loftus Road by Middlesbrough towards the end of it. Stuff even his wife didn’t know about him can be found by clicking here.
QPR: Rangers have kept more clean sheets than anybody else (20 so far) on their way to a seven point lead at the top of the Championship table. The R’s have conceded 23 goals this season in 37 matches – the next best record is Nottingham Forest’s 32. Away from home this season Rangers have only lost three times, but were beaten last time out at Millwall. Points deduction not withstanding Rangers now only need 17 more points to be assured of promotion with Swansea in third now only able to reach 90 and possessing a vastly inferior goal difference.
Prediction: Well I got away with predicting a win last week, and I’m afraid I’m going to do so again here. QPR have a poor record in Doncaster but if we can hold the defence together this is a Rovers side without its best player, in poor form at home and liable to concede goals so I expect us to take advantage. Surprisingly you can actually get QPR at odds against to win this one – Sky Bet are offering a Rangers win at 11/10.
QPR 2-0 19/2 with Bwin.com