QPR will look to consolidate their position clear at the top of the Championship going into the international break with a victory at struggling Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Crystal Palace (22nd) v QPR (1st)

Npower Championship >>> Saturday, October 2 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Selhurst Park, Croydon

It only seems like last week that we set off to Palace with a pressing need to get 3 points to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle. Warnock was making conciliatory noises to his former employers – to the point of irritating some of the QPR fan base – and whilst we were feeling a lot better about our team, it was one of those ‘big away support/must win/high media attention’ games that QPR can so easily **** up. As it turned out, Warnock’s pre-match off-field tactics, and his modest behaviour on the day, seemed to not only take the steam out of the reception we got, but actually to demoralise the hosts. His on-field tactics got a boost with an unfortunate injury to Damion Stewart that paved the way for Peter Ramage to adopt his true calling as a centre back. That and the arrival of loan full back Tosic from Portsmouth (to replace the hapless Matt Hill) stiffened the defence. One Buzsacky thunderbolt and one towering Gorkss header later and we were celebrating a fine away win and probable Championship survival. Palace, despite the awful Paul Hart at the helm, scraped together enough points to keep them up by garnering a heroic last day draw at the even more disorganised Sheff Wed.

Scroll ahead a few weeks and we are back again as league leaders, almost certainly with even more support in tow and expectations very much higher. Despite the draw against Millwall on Tuesday night and Palace’s excellent away point at Cardiff, this is a game QPR will expect to win in order to consolidate, at the very least, their six-point lead at the top of the league. Having said that, the longer the unbeaten run goes on the more we all seem to expect it to end and Clive’s prediction below reflects some of that sentiment. It is certain that Palace will be ‘up for it’ with the prospect of putting one over former heroes, but QPR have showed a lot more resilience this season and most people will travel in confident mood.

Five minutes on Palace

Recent History: Following Paul Hart into a football club must be a bit like following a fat bloke into the toilets at a curry house. Neil Warnock and George Burley have both had to pick up the pieces from a brief reign by the mythical figure of death in the past six months or so.

Burley’s task at Palace was notably harder. I wrote in the Millwall preview that the Lions seem to have a peak on the field every ten years or so – at the moment Palace seem to have a financial collapse for themselves at roughly the same sort of intervals. One of the fondest memories of meetings with Palace for most of us is the 6-0 victory at Loftus Road that kept us in the league back in 1999. It’s often forgotten that at that time Palace were in financial turmoil and their fans had huge “Goldberg Out” banners in the away end.

Mark Goldberg, a self made millionaire, lost his entire fortune while in charge at Selhurst Park and left the club in a general state after a series of disastrous ideas including appointing Attilio Lombardo and then terry Venables as manager. The club was then taken over by another entrepreneur and Palace fan – Simon Jordan.

The mobile phone mogul seemed the ideal man to turn palace around as a lifelong fan off the club with plenty of money along with a ruthless business streak and no-nonsense attitude. That attitude didn’t do much for his ability to retain managers with five either walking out or being sacked in his first five years in charge. His decision in 2003 to bring in Iain Dowie, a former player who was doing great work in his first managerial position at Oldham in the division below, proved to be a masterstroke.

Palace were in a relegation battle at the time, six months later they were promoted via the play offs after a victory against West Ham at Wembley. They should have stayed there as well – in Andy Johnson Palace had the goals that many newly promoted teams struggle to score and they looked set for survival until a late, late equaliser against them at Charlton on the final day of the season condemned them to the drop.

Dowie infamously later pitched up at Charlton having resigned from Crystal Palace a week earlier to move further north and be with his family. A move that cost him £1m when Jordan sued him. This incident, and several others such as the scandalously low amount of money they were given in a league tribunal when Spurs pinched teenage star John Bostock, led to Jordan falling out of love with football, and pulling his support from Palace last season.

With no potential buyers out there stories of unpaid wages and the like began to circulate. That was a shame for Palace who had recovered from a relegation battle to make the play offs once more in 2007/08, this time after Neil Warnock took over midseason, and had a good squad of players for this level. Administration was inevitable last season, although Warnock fumed about it as it robbed his side of ten point just as they seemed to be pushing on towards the top six. And, it didn’t get the hedge fund they owed money to their cash any faster. Warnock endured a difficult relationship with administrator Brendan Guilfoyle, who employed an agent and paid him a six figure sum to sell Victor Moses despite him being one of the Championship’s most sought after players.

Warnock upped and left for QPR last spring leaving Palace to fight against relegation with Paul Hart in charge. Now despite the ten point deduction and inevitable damage that does to a squad’s mental state there is no way in the world Palace should have been in any trouble at all last season. They had a good team full of quality players like Speroni, Danns, Ambrose and others. It says something for Hart’s chronic inability to manage his way out of a wet paper bag that it went down to the final day of the season, and a draw at Sheffield Wednesday, before their survival was secured.

Understandably the new board that bought Palace in the summer wanted somebody competent and so they went for George Burley. He had to work under a transfer embargo for the majority of the summer but has held onto most of the club’s better players and has a platform to build on.

The Manager: Burley is something of a nearly man as a manager. He has some notable achievements to his name – mainly at Ipswich who he took into the Premiership and then almost made the Champions League in his first top flight season. They settled for the UEFA Cup, but over extended themselves to compete in it and ended up relegated and in administration a year later.

Other than that it’s always been a case of nearly but not quite for Burley. Ipswich lost in the play offs three times under him before finally getting that promotion, and Southampton were beaten in the end of season knock out in his last job at this level as well. He was beaten in the play offs with Derby and seemed to be running away with the SPL at Hearts until he fell out with fiery owner Vladamir Romanov and got the sack.

Burley is famed for getting his teams to play nice football, and working with younger players. At Ipswich the likes of Darren Ambrose, Kieran Dyer, Titus Bramble, Richard Wright and others came through the ranks while he was there and at Palace he finds a club with an excellent academy set up and the likes of Nathaniel Clyne already key parts of the first team squad.

Palace gives him a chance to rebuild a reputation that was shattered during his time as Scotland manager. Southampton were relegated 18 months after he left for the national job and while it’s fair to say that nobody expects much of the Scots these days his predecessors Alex McLeish and Walter Smith had both taken them close to qualification. Burley fell out with everybody and turned out to be a total disaster. His start at Palace has not been particularly impressive, although having worked under a transfer embargo all summer and coming off the back of the trauma of last season nothing other than a rebuild can be expected of him and them this season.

Three to Watch: The cash situation at Palace in the summer, and sudden rescue, means the three to watch this week could all have been playing for QPR had things turned out very slightly differently.

I dare say most QPR eyes will be on Palace midfielder Darren Ambrose should he recover from injury in time to play in this game. Had Palace’s takeover gone through a few hours later than it did it’s likely that Ambrose would have been lining up for the Hoops in this fixture. He had been to Loftus Road and agreed terms on a £750,000 deal during the summer, money Guilfoyle said he needed to keep Palace afloat, but the takeover was done just before the deal went through and all moves out of Selhurst Park were put on hold. Ultimately Ambrose agreed a new deal with the Eagles and, judging by what he’s said since, that might be for the best as his heart clearly lies with them rather than us.

Ambrose scored 22 goals in his best ever season last year with Palace. Had QPR tried to sign him the previous summer it’ unlikely many of the Loftus Road faithful would have been that happy about it. His big money move to Newcastle as a kid from Ipswich didn’t exactly work out and his career stagnated at Charlton where he failed to impress as they descended down the leagues. Palace picked him up for nothing with little competition from elsewhere – 12 months later he’s one of the division’s hottest properties. Whether it was Palace or Warnock that got Ambrose going will probably only be known when he returns to fitness under his first manager George Burley this season.

Full back Nathaniel Clyne has also been linked with QPR among others since graduating from the Palace academy. Very much like our own Kyle Walker expect to see Clyne overlapping his winger at every possible opportunity. I have to say having heard we were linked with him, and subsequently watching him closely against Aston Villa in the FA Cup last season, I’m not convinced he’s ready for the top level yet, but he’s got lots of potential.

Palace’s best player by some distance in my opinion is goalkeeper Julian Speroni. He always seems to have an absolute blinder against QPR, but unlike some players who save their best performances for against us (Clinton Morrison) he does that well against everybody else as well. The Argentinean goalkeeper, a shot stopper supreme, has been named the Palace fans’ Player of the Year or the last three successive seasons.

Links >>> Palace Official Website >>> Palace Message Board >>> Selhurst Park Travel Guide

History

Recent Meetings: QPR secured their place in the Championship and condemned Palace to a final day six pointer at Sheffield Wednesday with a comfortable victory at Selhurst Park in April. Palace had Paul Hart in charge while QPR were, by this stage, under the guidance of Neil Warnock who received a warm reception on his first return to his former club. There was no room for sentiment from his team though – QPR were comfortably better than Palace throughout and took the lead early on when Akos Buzsaky lashed home Tamas Priskin’s lay off. The game was put to bed on the hour mark when Kaspars Gorkss headed home Taarabt’s well flighted set piece.

Crystal Palace: Speroni 6, Butterfield 5 (Lee 58, 7 (Ertl 70, 6)), McCarthy 6, Lawrence 6, Hill 6, Ambrose 5, Derry 5, Danns 6, Scannell 6, John 5, Andrew 5 (Clyne 23, 5)

Subs Not Used: Manns, Carle, Hills, Davis

Booked: McCarthy (foul)

QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 8, Stewart - (Simpson 8, 6), Gorkss 7, Tosic 7, Buzsaky 8, Leigertwood 8, Faurlin 8, Ephraim 7, Priskin 7, Taarabt 7 (Parker 90, -)

Subs Not Used: Putnins, Cook, Brown, Oastler, German.

Booked: Tosic (foul)

Goals: Buzsaky 11 (assisted Priskin), Gorkss 60 (assisted Taarabt)

The first game between these sides last season was called off at late notice because of a water logged pitch. At that stage Rangers had only won one of their opening six games, at Scunthorpe, and had been held to disappointing home draws by Blackpool, Peterborough and Forest. There was some talk of pressure starting to mount on Jim Magilton (these were the Briatore days remember) and that the postponement, with the entire board due to be at the game, was no bad thing for the manager. By the time the game was played in November Rangers were absolutely flying after four and five goal wins against Reading, Preston, Derby and Barnsley. But for Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni the Loftus Road fixture could have been another big win for the R’s. The one goal the Argentinean did concede was from a penalty after Adel Taarabt was tripped in the area and Buzsaky tucked the spot kick away. Palace equalised with one of their own in the second half after typically poor defensive play from Fitz Hall allowed Freddy Sears into the area where he promptly bundled him over for a spot kick. Speroni was inspired after that, an amazing one handed save to keep out a fierce shot from Rowan Vine stands out in the memory, and ultimately Rangers had to settle for a single point despite dominating the game.

QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 7, Hall 6, Gorkss 8, Borrowdale 6, Buzsaky 6 (Ephraim 80, -) Watson 5, Faurlin 8, Taarabt 7 (Agyemang 74, 7), Routledge 6, Simpson 5 (Vine 74, 7)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Alberti, Ainsworth

Booked: Routledge (kicking the ball away)

Goals: Buzsaky 19 (penalty)

Crystal Palace: Speroni 9, Hill 5, Fonte 7, Davis 6, Butterfield 6, Ertl 6, Ambrose 7, Derry 6, N'Diaye 6 (Sears 46, 6), Danns 7 (Hills 84, -) John 6 (Lee 67, 6)

Subs Not Used: Clyne, Carle, Moses, Scannell

Booked: Davis (shirt pulling)

Goals: Ambrose 62 (penalty)

Head to Head: Palace wins 29 >>> Draws 29 >>> QPR wins 36

Previous Results:

2009/10 Palace 0 QPR 2 (Buzsaky, Gorkss)

2009/10 QPR 1 Palace 1 (Buzsaky pen)

2008/09 QPR 0 Palace 0

2008/09 Palace 0 QPR 0

2007/08 QPR 1 Palace 2 (Stewart)

2007/08 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Sinclair)

2006/07 Palace 3 QPR 0

2006/07 QPR 4 Palace 2 (Smith 2, Gallen, Lomas)

2005/06 Palace 2 QPR 1 (Furlong)

2005/06 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Ainsworth)

2000/01 QPR 1 Palace 1 (Crouch)

2000/01 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Carlisle)

1999/00 QPR 0 Palace 1

1999/00 Palace 3 QPR 0

1998/99 QPR 6 Palace 0 (Kiwomya 3, Kulscar, Scully, Breaker)

1998/99 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Steiner)

1996/97 QPR 0 Palace 1

1996/97 Palace 3 QPR 0

1994/95 QPR 0 Palace 1

1994/95 Palace 0 QPR 0

1992/93 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Allen)

1992/93 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Penrice)

Played for Both Clubs

Gerry Francis

Crystal Palace 1978-81

One of the Superhoops’ favourite sons, Gerry Francis’ involvement with the club spans more then three decades as player and manager. If anyone is close to having the name Mr QPR then Francis is one of main contenders.

A product of Rangers’ successful youth team the clever midfielder made his debut for QPR as a 17 year old during a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in 1968 and a year later made his first start in a 3-1 win over Portsmouth - marking the occasion with his first senior goal for the club. Manager Les Allen had tried to ease the youngster into the first-team but by the time Gordon Jago took over, Francis was too good to leave out and was given the number eight shirt. From then on he became a regular fixture in the first team as the main creative spark in midfield, striking up almost telepathic understandings with Stan Bowles and Don Givens. By the 1975/76 season Francis was a pivotal part of Dave Sexton’s free flowing attractive Rangers side. That season Francis and Rangers pushed mighty Liverpool all the way in the title race but agonisingly missed out on the championship by one point to finish second. By now Francis was an established England international too, earning 12 caps and captaining his country on eight occasions.

A back injury the following season then robbed Rangers of their midfield maestro and would only play 24 of Rangers next 84 games, and struggled to discover the kind of form that had made him a Loftus Road hero. In 1979 Francis ended a decade in W12 by moving across London to Crystal Palace . However he never settled at Selhurst Park, and despite making over fifty appearances for the Eagles he soon moved back to QPR. But the back injury was still taking his toll, and he soon moved on again to enjoy spells at Coventry, Exeter, Swansea and Bristol Rovers before moving into management.

Cutting his managerial teeth at Exeter after just a season at St James Park, Francis took over at Bristol Rovers and took a struggling Third Division side into a respected passing side a division above. It wasn’t before long the lure of Loftus Road was too much to ignore and he returned to QPR as manager in 1992 succeeding Don Howe. Having inherited a squad with talent such as Alan McDonald, Andy Sinton and Les Ferdinand, Francis got the best out of Rangers and brought the likes of Gary Penrice, Ian Holloway and Darren Peacock with him to mark his own stamp on the team. All of which paid benefit when he led the R’s to a fifth place finish in the newly created Premier League - their best position for 20 years and as London’s top club. Successive mid-table finishes followed and Francis un-earthed gems like Trevor Sinclair and Bradley Allen and made Ferdinand a Premier League star. Unfortunately a clash with the board over a possible appointment of Rodney Marsh above him led to him leaving Loftus Road in 1994 for Tottenham. At Tottenham he helped the club to seventh spot and an FA Cup semi-final but mid-table finished the following two campaigns saw the Spurs unconvinced as he resigned in November 1997.

A year later though he was back at QPR, who had slumped since his departure and were now in a relegation battle at the bottom of Division One. The Francis effect was enough for Rangers to pull off the great escape that season, sealing it with a 6-0 win over Palace on the last day. But with no money to spend and an ever decreasing quality of squad, he resigned from his post in February 2001 with relegation to the third tier imminent. Some had suggested his heart was no longer in the game and didn’t want to be responsible for relegating his beloved side - even his successor Ian Holloway couldn’t prevent it.

A further spell at Bristol Rovers before Gerry took a long break of seven years from the game. Now currently on the coaching staff at Stoke City and occasionally appearing as a pundit on Sky Sports. – AR

Links >>> Palace 0 QPR 2 Match Report >>> QPR 1 Palace 1 Match Report

This Saturday

Team News: At the time of writing there does not appear to be any change on the injury front with most of those out not expected back until after the international break. Alejandro Faurlin, Bradley Orr and Rob Hulse are still not fit to return, Lee Cook and Peter Ramage are long term absentees and I had actually forgotten about Leon Clarke until Clive mentioned him in the Millwall preview. Whilst Martin Rowlands appears on the bench there seems to be little appetite for sending him onto the pitch, which given the nature of the injury from which he is recovering, seems fair enough.

Palace have James Vaughan suspended following his sending off at Derby. Ambrose did not make the bench at Cardiff and remains a doubt.

Elsewhere:With no televised action from the second tier this weekend it’s a full programme of Saturday 3pm kick offs – of which Ipswich at home to Leeds looks like the pick of the games this Saturday apart from our own. Leicester will tackle their home match with Scunthorpe United, now managed by former QPR and Leicester man Ian Barraclough, without the just-sacked Paulo Sousa. Reading have suddenly started to shoot up the table after a poor start but they will be less confident of an away victory at lowly Preston after the latter’s miraculous (and hilarious) recovery at Leeds on Tuesday. Millwall v Burnley catches the eye, revitalised Portsmouth could be dangerous opponents for a fragile Middlesbrough side, with Gordon Strachan in line to take Sousa’s place in the favourite’s stall at the sack race. Malky Mackay will look to get the division’s surprise package, Watford, back on track at Sheffield United who, despite a point on Tuesday, are struggling badly.

Referee:Oh dear – it’s Kevin Friend and it’s a situation that evokes thoughts of a recovering alcoholic turning up to run a bar. The stats for this season are not good – three games, 14 yellow cards and two reds (last year 34 games, 133 yellows, 7 reds). Included in this season’s stats is his one and only Championship game where the ludicrous second yellow card for Billy Jones of Preston for time-wasting saw the wheels come off Preston’s 3-1 lead at Burnley. They lost 4-3 and Darren Ferguson, Preston manager, gave Friend a junior version of the Ferguson hair dryer treatment in the tunnel. Ferguson has a three-match touchline ban as a result and Friend, having ‘dropped down’ to the Championship for that game in an apparent attempt to recover some form, seems to have had three weeks off since. Let’s hope he hasn’t spent that time practising drawing his cards and pointing towards an imaginary dressing room whilst cackling wildly. He produced a rant similar to Ferguson’s from Avram Grant when he was at Portsmouth earlier this year at half time in a game that saw three of his seven red cards for the season. Given Grant’s generally phlegmatic manner it shows that Friend’s capacity to induce rage is in the highest league even if he currently isn’t. It’s nice to know that we are next in line! It’s also a shame that Clive isn’t here to write the referee review – it would be a bit of a ‘fill your boots’ moment for him, but sadly I don’t have access to his previous rants on the matter.

Assistants >>> Stuart Burt (Northamptonshire) and Stephen Child (Kent)

Fourth official >>> Graham Horwood (Bedfordshire)

Form

Palace: Burley has won twice since taking over at Palace – both at home. They beat Portsmouth 4-1 in the middle of September and Leicester 3-2 on the opening day, although as the latter was 3-0 at one stage they probably feel like that could have ended up a lot better than it did. Those victories have been surrounded by some big defeats – they were beaten 5-0 at Derby after having a man sent off early last week and have been beaten by Barnsley, Ipswich, Scunthorpe and Reading as well – conceding nine goals in the process. They recovered well from the Derby defeat to pick up a point at Cardiff in a game they could have actually won. Rangers were one of ten sides to win at Selhurst Park last season.

QPR: Rangers remain unbeaten this season following Tuesday’s draw with Millwall. They have conceded just two goals and kept eight clean sheets in nine matches. They have a goal difference of plus 20 and have scored 22 times this season. Away from home QPR have won at Leicester, Ipswich and Sheffield United without conceding, and drawn 2-2 at Derby. Last season’s win at Palace was one of just six away wins in the whole campaign but currently forms part of a run of six away games without defeat – five of them victories with clean sheets – dating back to Easter.

Prediction: I said at the start of the week I thought we’d take four points from three games before the start of the international break and having done that already I have to therefore go for a defeat here. We’re not going to go through the whole season unbeaten, we have injuries mounting up and Palace will be very keen to get one over on Warnock, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry etc. They would have been keen to do likewise last season, but Paul Hart being your manager should work like a golf handicap so that’s a bit of a write off. Hopefully I’ll be wrong but, in the interest of sticking to my guns...

Palace by one.

Photo: Action Images

Lofthope added 23:05 - Oct 1 The pressure on Paulo Sousa eased a bit with their form-table-upsetting win at Watford on Tuesday ......surely Swansea won at Watfor? not Leicester who were busy being cooked by Delia's mob?
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QPRCambs added 09:15 - Oct 2 Apologies. In my haste to complete the article I experienced a minor Agyemang (as it is now known in physics), i.e. a short tear in the fabric of reality that took my brain back to last year when Sousa was Swansea manager. I had recovered by yesterday, spotted the error and the revised version was probably being uploaded just as you noted it. It is worth noting that the work involved in merely finishing a half-written match preview just underlines the amount of effort that Clive puts in to his excellent articles on this site.

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