Winless Preston come to Shepherd’s Bush on Saturday for a game which could see QPR go top, or suffer an embarrassing home defeat to the bottom side. Neither of which would matter greatly in August of course.
Championship >>>Saturday !!!!! August 20, 2016 >>> Kick Off 15.00 !!!!!!!>>> Weather — Pissing it down. Quite the summer we had in 2016, a little short at three days but there you go >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
If you’re just joining us, or have been joining us while suffering from amnesia, or have been joining us while under the influence of alcohol, or have only been joining us to look at the nice pictures we pay many thousands of pounds to crop badly and scatter randomly through our articles, then welcome. Allow us to recap some running themes.
Firstly, was it always like this? We suspect not. Don Howe won one match out of 14 in 1990/91, losing 11, but it was accepted that his team was beset by injuries and he was allowed to bring in Bobby Gould and add several lower league gems from his little black book — Darren Peacock, Rufus Brevett, Andy Tillson — to drag QPR out of it by losing only three of the last 16 matches. Ian Holloway went on a 12 match winless run in 2002 - including a draw against nine men at Luton, two failed attempts to overcome Vauxhall Motors in the FA Cup, and a 4-0 home thrashing by Cardiff — and was kept on to eventually lead Rangers to a play-off final and then promotion a year later. Both would surely have been sacked these days, not just by QPR but by almost every other club as well. The statistics on managerial sackings and average length of tenure support this.
Secondly, why is this? Increased foreign ownership. An explosion in media coverage and the need for every game, every manager, every player, every shot, every pass to have an angle and a story about it — these 24 hour news cycles don’t fill themselves, and there are times when there is no news where a Conor Wickham Tweet or a manager who hasn’t won in four matches can fill space. Social media offering everybody, including that mouthy bloke with no teeth who sits behind you and has been annoying you for seasons, an equal say which people in power at clubs listen to far more than they should. Expectations inflated by years of QPR big spending (none of which worked). Conviction of one’s belief inflated by several successful stints on Football Manager or FIFA — which are c.o.m.p.u.t.e.r.g.a.m.e.s.
Thirdly, these people who seem to follow QPR, or any other club, despite apparently hating them and everything they do. Arsenal are bad for this too. The prolific Twitter account that regularly interacts with @loftfowords which we won’t embarrass by naming here but hasn’t said a single positive thing about QPR since September 1 last year. Why still go to QPR if they irritate you that much? Do these people still enjoy going to the football? Is the only enjoyment they get from attending QPR the satisfaction of telling everybody they were right on the occasions it goes wrong? "Aren’t I allowed an opinion, where would the fun be if we all agreed?” Where’s the fun in going to watch a team that has apparently given you zero positive feelings in a whole calendar year?
So expect lots of that, basically on a carousel on a weekly basis. Plus, fourthly, the omnipresent moan about Sky Sports moving fixtures to ridiculous days and times, coupled with the Football League’s recent fascination in scheduling the most distant away matches for working weeknights. Two companies completely ignoring that the people who are most inconvenienced by these policies, are their biggest customers.
Yes, Sky pay lots of money for the privilege, and the clubs rely on that money — look how Stockport, Tranmere, Grimsby and others sank without trace from this level when the previous television deal went south. But they don’t need to be such twats about it. Let’s look at the December fixtures now. Do you think they might want to show Norwich v Villa? Burton v Newcastle? Brighton v Leeds? Yeh, me too. Move them now, so the people who buy Sky subscriptions and Football League match tickets can at least avoid that other great rip off in Britain today — train tickets bought within one ice age of the travel date.
And, fifthly, will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark?
For now we’ll stick to the first three, because there are few better examples of their lunacy than QPR 2016/17. So far we’ve gone from having "no goals at all in the team” to scoring nine in our first four matches to "only scoring at all if we’re awarded a penalty”. We’ve gone from being desperate for a striker, to not entirely sure whether we’d want to sign Charlie Austin given the chance. Less than a year ago Sebastien Polter was a player that QPR supporters hurled (literally screamed in one particular woman’s case) vile abuse - almost entirely related to his nationality - at during a two-minute substitute appearance in a game we’d already lost at Birmingham City. Now he's somebody we’d be very sad to see go to Sporting Lisbon — a ridiculous rumour, made slightly less ridiculous by his fantastic performances and ongoing improvement as a player. We’ve gone from "will we ever concede a goal again?” to shipping three shambolic ones to Barnsley. Jordan Cousins has gone from being one of the steals of the summer to "get that cunt Cousins off” according to one supportive soul at Oakwell on Wednesday. Les Ferdinand goes from club legend doing a great job to Evil Les and his "black mates” (spotted on a message board other than our own) and leader of the "boys club” (still easy to find that one on Twitter) on a game by game basis. Some said the start of this season reminded them of the Neil Warnock promotion season — a season that started with QPR avoiding defeat for 19 matches — because we won our first two. Now we’ve lost one to an enterprising Barnsley team with a collection of very decent players, the sky is falling again.
QPR supporters, or a portion of the online ones at least, are like paranoid schizophrenics, huddled together in a dark room with tin foil hats on checking the media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn for bias, or whether John Inverdale is paying sufficient attention to his interview subject. I suspect every other football club fan base is the same. In fact, I suspect the whole population is the same, hence John Inverdale is a fucking news story now.
Tomorrow QPR are going to play Preston. Preston haven’t won yet, and have only scored one goal in three matches. QPR are at home, and can go top of the league with a win. But this result could go either way, and is actually quite likely to end in a draw. If QPR win 4-0 hooray, we’ll go back to the pub with our friends. If QPR lose 4-0, well it’s not like that time the bloke kidnapped and mutilated your cat is it? Let’s go back to the pub with our friends anyway. Sadly the former will draw further Warnock comparisons, the latter will spark more aggressive bile.
It’s August, it’s game four, this Championship thing goes on for a long, long, long time. Unless you’re winning every single match by loads, or losing them in the same manner, then nobody needs to get fired, nobody needs to be sold, nobody needs to be buying half a dozen new strikers at great expense, nobody needs to be getting too excited or despondent.
If this was a cricket test, we’re barely even padding up. If you think standing in the dressing room and screaming at Alistair Cook for not putting his box in straight, or bursting into tears of pride because he did manage it, is reasonable behaviour then you carry on.
Links >>> Blackstock's wonder goal — History >>> Concerning start — Interview >>> Madley Madley man, I want to be Madley man — Referee >>> Gift of the Gab — Podcast
Do you miss the Adel Taarabt goal videos with excitable Arabic commentary and authentic North African dance music? Us too. So here's a magnificent double from the Moroccan against Preston at Loftus Road in late 2010 set to a track from Now That's What I Call Lebanese Restaurant 46.
Team News: Grant Hall's nightmare final few minutes at Barnsley saw QPR surrender a point, and the player pick up a one match suspension which he serves here. Joel Lynch's luck is out, he's denied a league debut in his place thanks to a muscle injury picked up against Swindon. Expect Chief Onuoha to move infield with James Perch seconded to right back. Ariel Borysiuk and Jamie Mackie are out long term while Ben Gladwin's ankle is too swollen to even scan so the hunt for a new scapegoat must continue apace. Expect the midfield and attack to look much the same as Wednesday, only hopefully with more attacking this time.
Preston are one of only two sides in the Championship without a point, and the other is the Mad Chicken Farmers down the road. Striker Joe Garner's departure to Rangers leaves them light in attack. Paul Huntingdon (gigantism) is unable to fit on the team coach for away games any more.
Elsewhere: Somewhere after midnight in my wildest fantasy, somewhere just beyond my reach there's Huddersfield v Barnsley reaching back for me. Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat, it’s going to take Rotherham v Brentford, to sweep me off my feet.
Childish really, as there are actually some decent games in this eighth round of Championship fixtures to be played this week. A full collection on Saturday, bar the farmer derby between Ipswich and Norwich on Sunday lunchtime.
We get under way with the Sheffield Owls hosting the Champions of Europe who, after two defeats and a scraped draw with Tarquin and Rupert, are once again rumoured to be considering changing the manager, because that worked so well for them before. Imagine the bits of cake and biscuit spewing forth from Steve Evans' belly laugh when he hears about that one. Tarquers and Rupers, meanwhile, are gallivanting off down to Cardiff this weekend in the old Jag.
Anyway that's the lunchtime Sky game, and our satellite broadcasting overlords then head north for the Derby Chokers v the Aston Villa Train Wreck in what could be the first example of two teams trying all they know not to win a game since that infamous Barbados v Grenada fixture in 1994.
That leaves another six fixtures unmentioned at 15.00 including Newcastle at dark horses Bristol City, early pace setters Brighton at Waitrose and a Midlands derby between Birmingham and Wolves. Forest's new French manager will be feeling the heat if they lose for a third time in a row against Wigan RLFC.
And then there's the Mad Chicken Farmers against Nigel Clough's Burton Albion. I'm sure the locals would take another defeat here calmly and rationally. Their cause has been boosted somewhat after Burton's appeal against the red card for Rovers' serial own gal scorer Shane Duffy at Cardiff during the week was rejected so he will be suspended for this one, denying the visitors at least a one goal start.
Referee: Andy Madley is the man in the middle for this one. Last time he was at Loftus Road, Jordan Cousins scored and QPR won in the last minute, so we'll all happily take a repeat of that this time — particularly as Cousins has swapped sides since then. Details, history and stats here.
QPR: QPR have been awarded, and scored, four penalties in open play already this season including two at Barnsley on Wednesday. Add to the four successful conversions in the shoot-out against Swindon in the League Cup and that's eight from eight in just four matches so far. In the 2010/11 promotion season the R's scored three in the first two matches (against Barnsley and Sheff Utd) and six in the first nine fixtures. Roy Wegerle scored four in the first ten league games in 1990/91, but QPR went a whole eight years after the final one of those (at Aston Villa) before they scored another penalty away from Loftus Road, at Charlton through Gavin Peacock in 1998. Two wins and one defeat in the league so far leaves the R's trailing the top four by one point.
Preston: A worrying start for PNE who struggled to score goals last year with Joe Garner up front and have now lost three from three at the start of this season, scoring just once in the process as Garner packs his bags and heads north of the border. Preston scored 21 times at Deepdale last season (the league's joint worst record with relegated MK Dons) and 24 times away. It didn't stop them climbing into the top half of the table on their first return to the second tier though, thanks to a Bailey Wright inspired back four which kept 17 clean sheets across the campaign. They resulted in eight 0-0 draws, including the tepid meeting between these two on this ground in the autumn — that clean sheet was PNE's sixth in a row at that time.
Betting: Our tame professional odds compiler Alex Rowe has this advice…
"After the Sunday — Wednesday — Sunday - Wednesday slog it’ll be nice to finally be at Loftus Road at 15.00 on a Saturday.
"The match odds look about right to me with QPR 11/10, the draw 12/5 & PNE 11/4. Preston boasted one of the better defensive records in the division last season and looked very well drilled in the goalless draw at LR last season. So it's little surprise to see Under 2.5 goals a best price 4/6 & over 7/5.
"A lack of goals has been a problem since promotion at Preston and the impending departure of Joe Garner will do nothing to do improve the situation before the weekend. I’m sure JFH will demand more from QPR defensively after shipping three soft goals at Oakwell and I fancy the visitors to continue their struggle in front of goal. QPR to keep a clean sheet can be backed at 8/5 (even without Grant Hall).
"We can’t surely keep putting penalties away way can we ? Its 15/2 at PP we do.
"Elsewhere Shrewsbury look destined for a relegation battle in league one and they welcome bright starters Chesterfield, the away win looks over-priced to me at 2/1."
Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion Dylan Pressman says…
"Midweek disappointment will soon be forgotten after a solid 2-0 defeat of Preston at home. Seb Polter to grab one in the first half and Connor Washington the other late in the game."
Dylan's Prediction; QPR 2-0 Preston. Scorer — Seb Polter
LFW's Prediction: QPR 1-0 Preston. Scorer — Tjaronn Chery
The Twitter @loftforwords
Pictures — Action Images