Having stretched their lead at the top of the table to eight points at the weekend QPR are in a great position heading into Tuesday night’s derby game at Millwall.

Millwall (13th) v QPR (1st)

Timing has never really been a strong suit of QPR’s. They put together a team capable of lofty top flight league finishes and cup final appearances just as English clubs were banned from European competition, then they asset stripped their team of the likes of Andy Sinton, Clive Wilson, Darren Peacock and most crucially Les Ferdinand to inflict a death by a thousand cuts which resulted in relegation from the Premiership just as the really big money was about to be poured into the top flight clubs. Thee £6m we got for Ferdinand was big, big money at the time but the cash the club has lost over the years since by not being in a division that Sir Les used to play such a large part in helping us compete in has dwarfed that - further emphasising the crippling short termist view of the then chairman Richard Thompson.

And so it was all very QPR like last week when, just as it finally looks like we might return to the top flight for the first time since that 1996 relegation, the club decides to enter into takeover talks with an unknown foreign consortium. Knowing our luck this will be Colonel Godaffi looking to further his foreign investment portfolio to boost his media image in this country.

The reasons it has taken us 15 years to get together anything like a side capable of returning us to the top flight are too long and varied to ever possibly comprehensively list but the whole a man who has coached at both Millwall and QPR must bear his share of the responsibility. Nobody could ever have replaced Les Ferdinand, but the £6m we received for him could have been invested into the squad better than it was. Then manager Ray Wilkins brought in Jurgeon Sommer, Gregory Goodridge, Ned Zelic, Simon Osbourn and Mark Hateley with the £6m transfer fee received for Les and it’s no surprise when you look down that list of names that Rangers lasted only nine more months at the highest level and haven’t been back since.

I always hark back to that summer when Ferdinand left and the money was blown, especially when we’re about to play Millwall, because my dad had a shopping list that he wrote down on a scrappy bit of paper and kept in the sun visor of his car and a couple of the players on that list played for Millwall. The idea was we’d follow the players we had decided, on the journey to school each morning, QPR should be looking at and see how they got on when compared to the players we did buy. The great, or as it turned out heartbreaking, thing about the shopping list was that all the players were available, all of them could have been bought for the £6m, and all of them moved elsewhere around the time we were trying to get Mark Hateley fit enough to play.

The players we picked were Kasey Keller and Alex Rae from Millwall, Darren Purse from Leyton Orient and Andy Booth from Huddersfield Town. Keller had been the best keeper in the country for several seasons by the time Leicester picked him up for just over £1m, and infuriatingly he’d been brilliant against Rangers in a couple of cup ties in the 1990s and yet we still persevered with the accident prone Tony Roberts. Rae went on to play in the top flight with Sunderland for many years, Booth may not be everybody’s cup of tea but he led Sheffield Wednesday’s line well in the Premiership and we’ll come onto Purse again shortly as he may well face us for Millwall on Tuesday night.

I don’t think we’d have been relegated with those four players in our team, and chad we really pulled our finger out and signed certainly Keller and Rae the summer before Ferdinand left who knows where that QPR team could have gone because there was always the feeling, with some justification, that we were only really a goalkeeper and one more hard nosed player away from being a team capable of competing for honours at that time.

Fast forward to the present day and how crucial could Neil Warnock being allowed to go out and get all four players on his shopping list in January turn out to be? Sure Pascal Chimbonda has only seen 20 minutes of action but the difference made to our team primarily by Wayne Routledge and Danny Shittu has been immense. Rangers now look back to their best – they haven’t conceded a goal in three matches since Shittu returned to the team and Routledge has married up the attacking skills and assists he brought to us in his first spell at the club with a work ethic not previously on show to become a quality all rounder in this division. Ishmael Miller provides a different dimension, and his late winner against Leicester and the weekend could yet turn out to be crucial.

Five minutes on Millwall

However hard Millwall work at their image most fans, if pushed, will regress to the default memory of 1980s hooliganism when thousands of Millwall fans attempted to raze Kenilworth Road to the ground as an expression of their own frustration and boredom. Being burned to the floor is probably the best thing that could ever happen to Kenilworth Road but it’s probably best not to attempt it when there are other people there and a football match is taking place. The fact is while the majority of Millwall fans are absolutely good as gold, “God bless the Queen Mum”, south east London types, they have a larger minority of idiots than almost anybody else.

In their last home game this reared its head once again when a combination of poor refereeing and the sight of Leroy Lita racing around whirling his shirt over his head (enough to inspire violence in even the Swiss) Millwall fans caused the game to be stopped by throwing plastic bottles at the linesman, the Middlesbrough goalkeeper and anybody who came within striking distance. The referee wanted to stop the game altogether but was persuaded to carry on – afterwards Kenny Jackett said he appreciated the fans’ passion and enthusiasm when, with hindsight, he probably should have just trotted out the usual lines about unacceptable behaviour from a mindless minority spoiling it for everybody else.

Fans arrive at The Den so worried they may leave with a dart in the side of their head, or concerned that they may be forced back to London Bridge train station and onto the Northern Line having originally arrived by car – as was the ludicrous police policy for our last visit here – that the footballing side of Millwall often gets overlooked and in that area they have become an almost identical club to ourselves.

Millwall are now just about at the highest possible level they can ever realistically achieve, and it’s credit to Kenny Jackett for getting them here. Their official website proudly announced today that ticket sales for this game have almost reached 13,000 – roughly what we’d expect to have at Loftus Road for a game such as this were we twelfth in the table. The Den itself has a bit of a look of a modern Loftus Road about it, only without the corners filled in, and Millwall reside in an area of London where the achievements of near neighbours often overshadow their own. They came into this division from the one below largely thanks to the hard work of Kenny Jackett, who played a key role in our own revival, and short of a sugar daddy turning up or them putting together a Blackpool style surprise package they’re only ever likely to be about where they are now at best. Which all sounds terribly familiar too.

Millwall have this season, as we did in 2004/05, consolidated well after their promotion. Their form has peaked and troughed – seven wins and four draws from 14 games though the winter has given way to one win in seven more recently – but they have already done enough to stay in this division and the trick will now to be to build on it this summer. Like the QPR team of 2005 they have a number of very promising players – Paul Robinson, Steve Morison, James Henry – around which a good Championship side can be built. At QPR boardroom wrangles and cash worries meant the likes of Lee Cook, Martin Rowlands and Danny Shittu soon found themselves surrounded by Egutu Oliseh, Adam Czerkas and Nick Ward but the managerial team of Jackett and Joe Gallen look too shrewd to allow that to happen here and I expect some canny transfer acquisitions this summer.

The Manager: There will be two familiar faces in the Millwall dugout on Tuesday night as Kenny Jackett faces his former employers with Joe Gallen as his assistant.

I think it’s fair to say Kenny Jackett has grown into the managerial role after some notable failures early on. As a player he was an integral part of the impressive Watford sides of the 1980s – clocking up well in excess of 350 appearances for the Hornets as a defensive midfield player and winning 31 caps for Wales. His career was curtailed by injury aged just 28.

As so often happens with players forced to retire early Jackett was able to get stuck into coaching from an early age and that is benefitting him now – he has vast coaching and management experience relative to his 48 years. Jackett initially coached under Graham Taylor at Watford and then succeeded him in 1996 after relegation to the third tier. Watford were widely expected to bounce back as one of the bigger names in that league but struggled into 13 the position, as low as they’d been on the league ladder for 20 years.

Bizarrely having succeeded Taylor in 1996 he was then demoted back to assist the former England manager a year later. It seemed to work though as Watford were promoted first from the Second Division in 1997/98 and then into the Premiership a year later.

Ian Holloway once named Kenny Jackett as his best signing at QPR when he persuaded him to come on board as his assistant at Loftus Road in 2001. QPR were in administration and had just eight professionals signed up for the new season – two of them already ruled out for the entire campaign with cruciate knee ligament injuries. Jackett helped Holloway piece the club back together and remained in the dug out at Loftus Road for the next three seasons as Rangers first lost in the play off final against Cardiff and then won automatic promotion at Hillsborough in 2004.

Jackett assisted in bringing the likes of Steve Palmer and Chris Day to the club from Watford and they played a vital role in the renaissance. It was something of a shame therefore that Jackett wasn’t around to see it all come to fruition. The desire to be a manager in his own right burned brightly and he left in April of the promotion season to take over the job at Swansea City, who were about to move into a new stadium and begin a climb from the bottom division to the Championship which Jackett began with promotion in 2005.

Swansea were beaten in the play offs in 2006 and seemed to stagnate a little in 2007 leading to Jackett’s removal and the inspirational appointment of Roberto Martinez at the Liberty Stadium. A spell as reserve team boss at Manchester City followed and aided an education which finally seems to be really paying off for Millwall.

Jackett has shown a canny transfer market ability, which hadn’t always been in evidence at Watford and Swansea, to build a very capable Millwall squad which won promotion to the Championship at the end of last season. The way Jackett was able to pick his team up from the crushing disappointment of the play off final defeat to Scunthorpe, and then keep his nerve when they had to rely on the play offs again last season, is testament to the job he is doing at The Den. Millwall were widely tipped, by LFW and others, to do the worst of the three promoted teams this season after a summer where Jackett struggled to add to his team and although technically it has turned out that way with Norwich and Leeds flying high they’ve certainly exceeded expectations themselves.

Three to Watch: I treated myself to the ‘Yours for a Fiver’ documentary on Leyton Orient again recently for the first time in years. It’s available in its entirety on You Tube if you’re interested and it’s well worth a watch for a number of reasons. One of the main things that sruck me was just how basic it was as a piece of film making – just nine or ten scenes from the season, mostly of manager John Sitton offering his players out in the dressing room (“and you can bring your fucking dinner, because when I’m done with ya you’ll fucking need it”) shot on a hand held cam corder with no voiceover or real narrative structure whatsoever. An amazing film, but one that would look very different if shot today.

Anyway towards the end of the programme, with Orient well relegated and in the throes of a Barry Hearn backed takeover, Sitton turned to some of the club’s juniors to fill his first team and sure enough, all teenage acne and floppy hair, we catch sight of a very young Darren Purse preparing for a game. Now Purse was on my dad’s shopping list for QPR back in 1996 but instead moved to Oxford United for £100k that summer where he excelled, including a man of the match performance against QPR in a televised First Division game at the Manor Ground following our relegation. He was, for a while, an almost complete centre half combining physicality and strength with sound game basics and an ability to skilfully carry or play the ball out from the back. His performances at Oxford didn’t go unnoticed and first Birmingham, then West Brom and then Cardiff all paid three quarters of a million pounds for the player.

Centre halves tend to come into their prime in their late twenties and early thirties but while in South Wales Purse seemed to hit something of a wall. Never really the quickest, he suddenly started to look slower than coastal erosion and started to get caught out both by pacy strikers, and opponents who were just able to nick balls away from him and draw fouls and cards. He looked a poor signing on a free for Sheff Wed last summer and sure enough they were relegated with him in the team. When he then lost his place in Wednesday’s under achieving League One team earlier this season it was a real shock to me that he managed to get another Championship club – Millwall, the club Purse has always supported, brought him in to replace Danny Shittu when he left for QPR.

I can’t imagine Purse is anything other than a short term stop gap measure ahead of some longer term planning in the centre half department this summer and if he does play on Tuesday I’d like to see Routledge, Taarabt, Miller and others isolating him one on one whenever possible.

That’s a situation we need to avoid at the other end with Wall’s top goalscorer Steve Morison who gave our centre backs a torrid time at Loftus Road and was unlucky not to score that night. Morison has 14 goals in his debut Championship season, but none in his last six which is rather ominous for us. League One was awash with quality, goal scoring, strikers last season. Charlie Austin at Swindon, Grant Holt at Norwich, Jermaine Beckford with Leeds, Jordan Rhodes at Huddersfield and Millwall’s Steve Morison all enjoyed 20 goal campaigns with their respective clubs to send scouts flocking to the third tier matches.

Morison got 23 for Millwall after joining in the summer from Conference outfit Stevenage Borough. It took him a while to get going, with just two goals in his first 18 matches and Morison has had a tough career to this point. Released by Northampton Town in 2004/05 he pitched up at Bishop Stortford and worked part time in a paper shredding company where the working day started at 4am – and I think I need a holiday. Three years and 76 goals at Stevenage followed before Millwall took a chance on him but his lacklustre start to the League One campaign last season had many questioning Jackett’s judgement.

A session with the DVD player followed, as Jackett roasted Morison with a blow by blow account of a poor display against Wycombe in a 2-0 home defeat in November. Jackett encouraged Morison to be more aggressive, to hassle defenders more, and to force himself upon games. Six yellow cards in his next 13 appearances followed, but thankfully so did eight goals and he never really looked back. Morison has 14 goals to his name already this season, and has made his debut for Wales, and will provide the chief goal threat to QPR on Tuesday night.

Morrrison’s supply line often comes from the right wing and former Reading winger James Henry. Millwall have had a knack of picking up tidy wingers in the Lee Cook mould in recent times – Dave Martin had a beautiful left footed delivery on him and it’s a shame Wall had to lose him to the ocean of mediocrity at Derby County really. Henry is equally good from the other flank and set up all four goals in a home thrashing of Hull back in August.

Links >>> Millwall Official Website >>> Millwall Message Board >>> The Den Travel Guide

History

QPR: Kenny 7, Walker 8, Hill 7, Gorkks 7, Connolly 7, Derry 7, Buzsaky 7, (Leigertwood 6), Mackie 7, Taarabt 6, Ephraim 6, (Agyemang 6), Helguson 7

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Rowlands, Smith, Borrowdale, Parker

Booked: Helguson (foul)

Millwall: Forde 7, Dunne 7, Robinson 7, Ward 6, Craig 6, Hackett 6, Mkandawire 7, Ward 6, Barron 6, (Harris 6), Morison 6, Abdou 6

Subs Not Used: Mildenhall, Smith, Henry, Grimes, Laird, Robinson

Booked: Dunne (foul)

Ian Holloway was still in charge of QPR when the teams last met on this ground. Marc Nygaard scored the QPR goal, rising high to head home a fine cross from Lee Cook midway through the first half. But in time honoured fashion Rangers folded in stoppage time and allowed Barry Hayles in to equalise in added time at the end of the first half. A lacklustre second half brought little further action and both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils. By the end of the season Millwall were relegated and Holloway had been replaced in the QPR hot seat by Gary Waddock, who won his first game in charge at Loftus Road against Millwall thanks to another goal from Nygaard.

Millwall: Marshall, Ifil, Lawrence, Williams, Vincent, Wright, Hutchison (May 69), Dunne, Livermore, Asaba, Hayles

Subs Not Used: Phillips, Fangueiro, Braniff, Jones

Booked: Hutchison

Goals: Hayles 45

QPR: Royce 7, Bignot 6, Shittu 7, Santos 6, Dyer 7, Cook 7, Lomas 6, Bircham 7, Langley 7 (Ainsworth 64, 6), Nygaard 8*, Sturridge 6 (Moore 82 N/A)

Subs Not Used: Evatt, Cole, Shimmin

Booked: Shittu

Goals: Nygaard 25

Head to Head >>> Millwall wins 29 >>> Draws 19 >>> QPR wins 19

Previous Results:

2010/11 QPR 0 Millwall 0

2005/06 QPR 1 Millwall 0 (Nygaard)

2005/06 Millwall 1 QPR 1 (Nygaard)

2004/05 Millwall 0 QPR 0

2004/05 QPR 1 Millwall 1 (Furlong)

1994/95 QPR 1 Millwall 0 (Wilson)

1993/94 QPR 3 Millwall 0 (Barker, Ferdinand, Sinclair)

1989/90 Millwall 1 QPR 2 (Barker, Wegerle)

1989/90 QPR 0 Millwall 0

1988/89 QPR 1 Millwall 2 (Falco, pen)

1988/89 Millwall 3 QPR 2 (Francis, Allen)

1987/88 Millwall 0 QPR 0

1987/88 QPR 2 Millwall 1 (Bannister, McDonald)

Links >>> QPR 0 Millwall 0 Match Report >>> QPR 1 Millwall 0 Match Report >>> Millwall 1 QPR 1 Match Report

This Tuesday

Shaun Derry remains one yellow card away from a two match ban, Lee Cook, Jamie Mackie, Patrick Agyemang and Peter Ramage are the long term absentees. Akos Buzsaky was subbed late on against Leicester with cramp, and Adel Taarabt and Wayne Routledge both played on Saturday despite illness, so Tommy Smith stands by to replace any of the three not deemed fit for this game. Likewise goalscorer Ishmael Miller.

Millwall have loaned Tottenham’s Andros Townsend ahead of this game and he goes straight into their squad – Townsend was part of the Ipswich team beaten 3-0 by QPR at Portman Road back in September. Martin Rowlands cannot play for the Lions against Rangers under the terms of his loan agreement from Loftus Road.

Elsewhere: Who can possibly predict the Championship? Having said in this section on Friday that the weekend list looked like it had the potential for everybody to win except QPR, it turned out that the Super Hoops were the only ones who did succeed with a variety of upsets at Forest, Scunthorpe, Cardiff and Norwich going in our favour. Things look more difficult for the chasing pack this Tuesday but who can tell? Norwich, Forest and Cardiff are all away – The Canaries have a tough task at Leicester, Forest will fancy their chances against an ailing Sheffield United, and it really depends which Cardiff side turns up at Selhurst Park against the relegation haunted Eagles. I bet British Transport Police are delighted to be having fans of Millwall, QPR, Cardiff and Palace all using London Bridge station during the evening rush hour. Further back the two teams immediately outside the play offs Hull and Burnley meet at the KC Stadium awaiting a slip by Leeds at Preston – the 6-4 scoreline in the first game between those sides earlier this season rather sums up Leeds’ strengths and weaknesses. At the bottom Scunthorpe can climb out of the bottom three for the first time in months if they win at Barnsley and Palace fail to take anything from Cardiff. Middlesbrough v Derby is a clash of two clubs on the wane who would probably feel they’re entitled to better.

Referee: One gets the feeling a strong referee may be required for this game, and the league has plumped for Steve Tanner. This is the referee who sent Bradley Orr off before half time in our 3-1 home victory over Reading before Christmas and somebody who once showed eight yellows and a red in a Boxing Day game between us and Plymouth so he doesn’t hang about in awarding cards. He was dropped from the Premiership list in 2008. Click here for more information.

Form

QPR: Rangers have not lost in the league since New Year’s Day – 11 league matches ago. They have won their last three, the first time they have won three consecutive games since September when they did it against the same three opponents – Leicester, Middlesbrough and Ipswich. Those six games have yielded 18 points, 14 goals scored and none conceded and form the backbone of this terrific season. Millwall brought an end to that four match winning run back then with a 0-0 draw at Loftus Road and that might not be a bad bet here – Rangers have been tight at the back of late, keeping three consecutive clean sheets prior to this game, conceding just two goals in their last eight matches, and shipping only two in the last eight away matches. On the road this season QPR have only lost at Leeds and Norwich, while the 3-0 win at Middlesbrough in the last away game was their seventh on the road this season. QPR have only won 19 games between these two sides compared to Millwall’s record of 29 but the R’s are unbeaten in nine meetings and have only conceded once in the last four. Rangers have the best defensive record in the four main English divisions – just 20 goals conceded this season.

Prediction: It’s becoming a bit of a farce this section because although I thought we stood a good chance of winning on Saturday and I was sure we’d win at Middlesbrough I’m almost forbidden from stating it here for fear of being bombarded with comments about cursing us. Well there will be plenty of time to destroy my soul with that nonsense on Friday because I’m backing us for a win against Palace and to hell with any mystic consequences that may come our way. For now though I’m happy to stick with the formula and go for a draw – a scoreless one, which would suit both camps and the police.

0-0, 9/1 with Stan James

1-1

Photo: Action Images

DylanP added 03:00 - Mar 8 Great article Clive. Thanks. You feel the pressure of fate against predicting a win. I don't. 2-0 to the Superhoops!!
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Kiwi76 added 04:48 - Mar 8 Clive - hate reliving the sale of Les - all our football was played through him as outlet and finisher and at least enjoyed being in UK and seeing him in his QPR prime. Loved Wilkins the player at QPR but that pile of pants he invested the funds into cost us dear... Good tough game coming up.
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headhoops added 09:02 - Mar 8 fantastic line - slower than coastal erosion. (still quicker than the pelican!). Sneaky feeling it will be 1-1 with Morison and Routeledge on the scoresheet.
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SomersetHoops added 09:14 - Mar 8 I continue to believe Ray Wilkins was the worse manager we ever had in my lifetime. He vetoed any player who threatened his position on the pitch in his early days as manager even though by that time his playing level was not good enough and as you say his player purchases were pretty dire. His judgement of where his team stood in relation to others in the league was stupidly optimistic until it was too late to prevent disaster. I rated him as a player at his height and it seems he can do a good job as assistant, but I think he is best at spouting on the TV with the sound off. In the opposite way Kenny Jacket has proved himself to be a competent manager. I just wish he would be more honest about dealing with the Milwall thug element that will always limit the apeal of Milwall as a football team. I really hope for a win, but this is just the kind of game that could provide a slip-up.

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NorwayRanger16 added 10:41 - Mar 8 I predict this one will end with a winner. Our success/failure will depend upon which central partnership we line up with in defence tonight. Good luck NW, tough choice. Surely we are due a loss soon??? Hate to be nagative, but i'm just trying to appease my own feel good factor at the moment :-)
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Monahoop added 14:31 - Mar 8 Great article as per usual Clive. I rated Millwall as relegation fodder at the start of the season as did many others however they have proved me and the detractors wrong and have aquitted themselves well at this level. Like Leicester they are a hard side to predict, but they are on a ropey run of form lately and look content to bed themselves down in mid table. Having said that, I feel we are in for another tough encounter. The Leicester game had draw written all over it until Mr Miller thankfully intervened but tonight I feel it will definately be a draw. 1-1.

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DesertBoot added 17:12 - Mar 8 Nothing like a local derby against the table toppers to help you find your form again. A cagey first half with our quality eventually bagging all three points is what I'm anticipating.
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