After returning from a logistically epic road trip with maximum points, QPR can match consecutive win records that have stood for 20 years if they can finally find a way to overcome Sheffield Wednesday and the division’s best manager.

QPR (9-11-8 DWWLWW 10th) v Sheff Wed (10-8-10 LWDDLD 11th)

Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Saturday January 25, 2025 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Cold but clear >>> Loftus Road, London, W12

Well into a ninth hour, and third train, of our attempt to get from Plymouth to Hull last Saturday night, one of the Cross Country hostages absently gazed out of the window and mused “imagine if we’d lost”.

That, for so long, felt like the QPR season we’d signed up for. A decade in the Championship, much of it spent in 16th, various near misses and scrapes, and now, finally, this was it. You’ve tempted the footballing Gods with your six-match losing runs once too often. It’s Port Vale for you next season, wherever the hell that is.

Our day in Leeds was particularly bleak. The sort of cold, grey day where it never gets light. A long, arduous train diversion, eventually approaching Leeds at a walking pace some hour or so late. Can we have a refund? You cannot, because we amended the timetable in advance. The worst away end in the Championship, accessed with the division’s most expensive ticket via a 45-minute walk through an abandoned industrial wilderness and assault course of stewards demanding you remove your hat and let them stuff a dog up your arse in case you’ve got a little something there to take the edge off a game that was lost before it began. Two hours surrounded by the worst kind of cunt. A 2-0 defeat to a team in third gear. And then all the way back again the way we came.

It was proper fuel for the ‘why are we doing this to ourselves?’ fire. What a waste of time, and money, and life. Interminable ball aches like getting to Swansea on Boxing Day, Norwich for a 12.30 kick off between Christmas and New Year or Plymouth and then Hull inside four January days, loomed large. Even the medically unwell amongst us started quietly putting lines through a few. We’ll get Jamie to write that one up…

The turn around from there has been like nothing anybody would ever have dared predict. Rangers were always going to win eventually, however it felt at the time, and sure enough a few ‘accidental’ victories against the likes of Cardiff and Oxford did materialise from poor performances, as well as a success against Norwich aided and abetted by the visitors’ own complete headloss.

The reaction to those was more relief than joy. There is no enjoyment in those situations. You sit there, even at 3-0 up against Norwich with ten left, and you just pray they don’t score. Wouldn’t fancy this if they pull one back. Constantly looking for other results, inflicting further misery on yourself with each blow of a win for Portsmouth or Derby elsewhere. It was like this last season when QPR were playing well and winning games but had tucked themselves up so tight behind the eight ball that even the wins felt traumatic and futile, each final whistle greeted with a huge exhale and immediate panic about what’s coming next rather than any celebration. When you’re down there – and QPR have been down there for the thick end of two-and-a-half years - the whole thing feels like you’re trying to shit a Lego garage.

Standing at the back of the away end at Hull during the second half on Tuesday, I was swept by a rare and unusual emotion. I was enjoying myself. QPR were passing the ball, dominating the game. Alfie Lloyd was charging around, terrorising the locals. Koki Saito was Cody Drameh’s Scary Terry. The midfield, led by Jonathan Varane, was well in control. Handsome Ronnie Edwards was handsome. Morgan Fox was playing well. Morgan Fox! I’d have happily driven that guy to the glue factory even a month ago, here he was playing in a dinner suit.

There was an element of chaos and panic to come. This is QPR, of course there was chaos and panic to come. Having won the game with two substitutes, Marti Cifuentes threatened to lose it with two others. Rangers became slapdash and sloppy, casual and careless in their work. A bit Bertie Big Potatoes. Like they’d made it. Like the game was won. It nearly bit them on the arse, and in those situations people like Jimmy Dunne are vital to seeing you through. He’s playing absolutely out of his skin. Clear and obvious player of the season at this stage.

It meant that much of the online discourse afterwards was strangely negative. More grief for the ailing Nicolas Madsen. That unedifying modern football trend of the digital pile on to Harrison Ashby. Three separate message board threads about both. Guys, we’ve won. Now five home wins in a row and going for six for the first time since 2003/04, now four league wins in a row and going for five for the first time since 2004/05. These are the good old days.

The run could well continue tomorrow against Sheffield Wednesday, who have one win from seven games and have conceded 16 goals in that process. They’ve kept one clean sheet in 11 games amidst a host of defensive injuries and have shipped three goals in each of the last three away games. Or it could come to an end. Danny Rohl is an excellent manager, potentially the best in this league and surely soon set to be poached by a club where he doesn’t have to paddle uphill every single day he comes into work. He’s one of the few who’s had the better of Cifuentes since the Spaniard arrived at Loftus Road, with two wins last season and a 1-1 that was a 1-0 win to all intents and purposes in the first meeting this year. In Barry Bannon and Josh Windass the visitors possess two players who love to play well against QPR.

There’s an element of unpredictable randomness inserted into the Wednesday side of tomorrow’s battle. This a club whose own chairman seems absolutely determined to slam two torpedoes into the side of his own boat whenever things threaten to go even remotely well in S6. Our season preview back in the summer was the usual mix of dreadful calls (Hull and Luton to compete for the play-offs, Blackburn and Watford to struggle against relegation) and clubs called right almost to the place (Stoke, always Stoke). Sheff Wed we got bang on. A terrific manager, but would Derek Chansiri’s ego stand the German being universally loved by the support and credited with the team’s success while he is loathed city-wide?

“Having Derek Chansiri as your chairman is like setting up your family home at the foot of a volcano that has a very recent prolific history of spewing liquified human shit into the air. One minute you’re having a nice time out in the garden, the next second the sky blackens and the bane of your existence hurls another load of Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcast your way. You can never fully relax, you can never truly switch off, with this guy around.

“How do you know Derek’s not going to sack him? How do you know Rohl, now in a position of immense power here, isn’t going to start getting publicly uppity in the last week of the transfer window if he doesn’t get the players he wants, and Chansiri pulls the trigger? How do you know he’s not sitting at home stewing that he’s not the cleverest and most important person in Hillsborough anymore? Rohl’s getting all the credit, you think he likes that? Think it sounds far fetched? You haven’t been paying attention to this guy. The success or failure of this season in S6 will depend on one thing – who’s steering the boat? Potentially the division’s best manager? Or Little Lord Cuntleroy upstairs?”

I strongly suspect there’s a school of thought at QPR that says the annual fans forum is more trouble than it’s worth. Phil Beard found out to his cost what happens when you don’t provide the fans that sort of outlet valve for a long time, but the annual gatherings since have mostly been torturous affairs beset with long drawn out conversations about TicketMaster, stewarding of away coaches, cost of beers and burgers, why has my son been released from the academy, and the ever present danger of the water pressure in the ladies toilets. Frequently they have precipitated a total collapse in the team’s form. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was genuinely asked how he would approach a summer recruitment drive ahead of a Premier League season after winning three of his first five matches. A month later he’d lost 6-0 to Newcastle, been splashed across the front page of the Daily Telegraph, and lost his job. This season Christian Nourry thought he’d cracked it with a series of crowd-pleasing contract announcements, but the ongoing absence of Marti Cifuentes from any such event contributed to a lukewarm reception.

Hold my beer. Sheffield Wednesday’s forum was spread across three parts and almost went seven hours, lasting until almost one in the morning. Derek Chansiri spent much of it coating off Southampton for tapping his manager up. Shea Charles, a star of Wednesday’s first half to the season, is on loan from Southampton. Derek said he wasn’t worried about him being recalled, because he’s a bit shit to get in Southampton’s team. He left the stage just after midnight to take a call. From Southampton. Recalling Charles. He said he’d sell the club, but you’d have to find him a buyer because he wasn’t going to do it (£250m for a 70% stake holding in a heavily loss-making Championship club is the price tag, apparently). Uppity fans were told to not bother coming to matches if they didn’t like it. He came back for part two and apologised for that – head of coms pressing a gun to the base of his spine – and then set off on a different tack entirely. Did we want to know that he and Rohl are no longer speaking? Right, great. No January transfers because the manager won’t speak to him about targets. Not his job to make the first move, ask Danny why he won’t speak to me. Whenever Paul Morrissey wonders if it’s worth all the hassle…

So, Wednesday are wobbling rather, although things have annoyingly been smoothed over with Southampton and Charles just in time for him to play tomorrow. It’ll be intriguing which version of them turns up, and whether QPR have answers to Rohl’s questions at the fourth time of asking.

I’m looking forward to it either way. The league table pressure is off. QPR are playing well, with a well-coached team full of likeable players, a promising assortment of youngsters and the best manager we’ve had down here for a long time.

Two proper old football clubs going head-to-head. A proper 1990’s throwback - sans Gordon Watson. Two of the division’s best tactical coaches pitting their wits against each other. All in front of a packed house - sold out days before the game. We’ll lose 2-0 now, because it’s the QPR thing to do, and because we know what we’re like in game three of a three game week. Nevertheless, this is a world away from even three months ago and it is, whisper it quietly, starting to be quite enjoyable.

Come on you R’s.

Links >>> It was all going so well – Oppo Profile >>> Class of 88 off the mark – History >>> Allison makes Loftus Road bow – Referee >>> Sheff Wed Official Website >>> Sheffield Star — Local Paper >>> London Owls — Blog >>> Owls Talk — Message Board

Below the fold

Team News: Following the highs of his form last spring, a season that never really got started for Jake Clarke-Salter looks to be potentially over after he had surgery on a hip injury sustained in training on Monday. Fortunately the bad news ends there with Steve Cook and Liam Morrison both back to full fitness and availability tomorrow ahead of schedule giving Marti Cifuentes an embarrassment of riches in the centre back position with Ronnie Edwards and Morgan Fox both playing well as cover. Lucas Andersen and long termer Karamoko Dembele should also be back before the end of next month leaving only Zan Celar as a medium term absentee.

Ziyad Larkeche is back to fitness after his hamstring injury but the club have decided against keeping him around as cover for Kenneth Paal and he’s gone back to complete his loan at Dundee. Speaking of loans, after six months and five sub appearances in which they’ve lost every game and scored only one goal, Cambridge United have decided they’d like to send Taylor Richards back. This is, you understand, nothing to do with anything other than the U’s (currently rock bottom of League One) changing approach and tactics - Garry Monk insists Richards is a “great lad” and “good trainer”. Problem is, QPR need to agree to terminate the deal and are currently leaving Cambridge on read.

After all of that fuss and nonsense Sheff Wed have now agreed an extension to Shea Charles’ loan for the second half of the season, and in time to be eligible for tomorrow’s game. Bugger. Wednesday are very light on numbers in defence though, with Dominic Iorfa and Akin Famewo (out since October) already sidelined and Yann Valery forced off in the midweek draw with Bristol City with an ankle injury. Nathaniel Chalobah has only played nine times all season (shock) and is a doubt. Target man Michael Smith is out favour and might be heading off to join the circus (Wrexham). Danny Rohl was highly critical of the substitutes he brought on who surrendered the lead against Bristol City on Tuesday so expect much the same starting 11.

Elsewhere: Tom Cleverley probably qualifies for a carriage clock having completed a year in charge at Watford and to the untrained eye having the Hornets a place and a point outside the play-offs with a squad many tipped for a relegation struggle this year suggests he’s providing good value. However, a few barbed comments about lack of January transfer activity has apparently angered the Pozzos and Spanish Journeyman 6.8 is once more being lined up for the dugout at Vicarage Road. An official statement that Cleverley will be in charge tomorrow at Coventry and anything else is just speculation doesn’t sound like the vote of confidence they think it is.

Plymouth, of course, have already made their managerial change. New man Miron Muslic went semi-viral with his inspirational first talk to the team down at Home Park, but his impact has not been as desired. Three games, all of them at home where Argyle do have a pretty decent record despite their league position, have yielded just one point from a draw against Oxford and both QPR and Burnley were victorious at Home Park last week – the Clarets 5-0 up by half time. Muslic chucked star striker Morgan Whittaker under the bus afterwards saying he was meant to play but didn’t turn up (Swansea and Derby fans will both tell you he’s got form for that when he fancies a move). Not ideal preparation for a daunting length-of-the-country trip to Sunderland. Middlesbrough are said to be leading the chase for £8m Whittaker, they’re away to Preston Knob End.

As predicted in this column, another managerial switch that isn’t working out is Mark Robins at Stoke. Grabbing onto a name as a sure-fire short cut to success was a very Stoke thing to do, but Robins is half the man without Ade Viveash at his side and their fall out was a big part of his eventual downfall after ten years at Coventry. Stoke were easily beaten at Portsmouth this week and have lost star striker Tom Cannon to a loan recall. While they try and get Ipswich’s former Wimbledon forward Ali Al-Hamadi through the door as a replacement, a home game with Oxford probably isn’t what they would have wanted in the meantime – Gary Rowett returning to the club in the opposite dug out, everybody expecting a win because it’s Oxford at home, the U’s absolutely flying with five wins and two draws in seven matches. Cannon, meanwhile, could make his Sheffield Red Stripe debut tonight against Hull.

New Luton manager Matt Bloomfield is attempting to prise Richard Kone out of his former club Wycombe as his big January recruit but - as we saw at Loftus Road with Carlton Morris, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cauley Woodrow and Lamine Fanne already in the building - I’m not sure it’s strikers a team that has lost six of its last seven and conceded another three at Oxford during the week really needs. They’ll have to get moving one way or another, now second bottom of the league ahead of a home game with Millwall who continue to crater under Alex Neil. In between those two Derby are now five defeats in a row and face a crunch six pointer away to improving Cardiff this weekend.

Elsewhere on Saturday there’s a battle between two unlikely play-off chasers in Bristol City and Blackburn, Tony Mowbray’s West Brom homecoming against a Pompey side that is running red hot at Fratton Park but can’t win away, and death by a thousand sideways and backwards passes as Norwich host Swanselona. Bring a good book if you’re going there.

If you’re old enough to remember our Sky Overlords justifying their horrendous schedule changes this season by promising to give supporters loads more notice on fixture changes, you’ll notice that with little more than a month to go we still don’t have our March switches – a month in which we face four of the top seven. You won’t be getting them any time soon either - Sky have said February 8 earliest for those. This has all been structured so they can basically spend the last three months of the season showing every match from the teams competing for the title. You can expect literally every Burnley, Sheff Utd, Leeds and Sunderland game to be on from March to May, which would mean at least two moves for QPR next month. You can start warming up for that glorious extravaganza on Monday as Burnley, now with eight separate 0-0 draws to their name, host Red Bull Leeds.

Referee: Sam Allison hit the headlines this week for a controversial disallowed Sunderland goal at Derby. He makes his Loftus Road debut on Saturday. Details.

Form

QPR: Rangers are flying – since returning from the November international break, QPR have won more points than any other Championship team (28). They’re the only EFL team to have started 2025 with four wins from four league games, and have never won their first five games of a calendar year in club history. They’ve won four Championship games in a row for the first time since December/January 2021/22 and five consecutive home games for the first time since October/November 2013. If they win tomorrow it will be the best run in both those regards since Ian Holloway was reviving the club in the early 2000s. Rangers haven’t won five league games in a row since 2004/05 when a run of seven through September and October (Plymouth H, Brighton A, Crewe A, Leicester H, Coventry H, Stoke A, West Ham H) saved Holloway’s job and propelled an unlikely double promotion bid. They haven’t won six in a row at Loftus Road since early 2004 when Holloway’s promotion chasers went unbeaten at home all season and put eight consecutive wins on the board over the winter (Notts County, Brighton, Rushden, Colchester, Hartlepool, Sheff Wed, Plymouth, Brentford).

Rangers have now lost only one of their last 13 league games. Recurring themes in this at both ends. In defence, despite having to juggle injured centre halves, there have been seven clean sheets in the last 17 games (and that really should have been eight at Hull in the week). That after the R’s went through the first 14 games of the season without one. Apart from the weird collapse at Leicester, Rangers have conceded one goal or fewer in 12 of the last 13 games since a 2-0 defeat at Leeds – the 3-0 loss at Swansea is the anomaly. At the attacking end Kenneth Paal and Koki Saito both got their first goals of the season on Humberside during the week. Michael Frey (six) and Rayan Kolli (five) are modest totals for top scorers, but Rangers have now shared the goals around 17 different players as well as three own goals. Jack Supple tells us that’s our best record since 2020/21 and closing in on the next highest total which was 20 different players in 2017/18.

Danny Rohl is one manager who does seem to have got the better of Marti Cifuentes since the Spaniard took over at Loftus Road. The Owls won both meetings last season, 2-1 at Hillsborough and 2-0 here, and were 1-0 up in a dour first meeting this season before Alfie Lloyd’s chaotic last second equaliser. QPR have won just one of their last six league games against Sheffield Wednesday (D2 L3), a 4-1 home victory in April 2021. Sheffield Wednesday won their last away league game against QPR 2-0 in April and will be looking to win two matches in succession at Loftus Road against the Hoops for the first time since October 2000.

Sheff Wed: Wednesday won five, drew two and lost two of nine games through November/December but have faltered a little of late amidst injuries and boardroom turmoil. They come to Loftus Road with just one win in seven games (that against hapless Derby) after surrendering another lead in a midweek 2-2 at home to Bristol City. A run of three consecutive away wins at Derby, Hull and Oxford through December has given way to four road games without a win immediately prior to this one. Overall they’re 5-2-6 away from Hillsborough.

The problem is pretty obvious – they’re conceding too many goals. The Owls’ last clean sheet was eight games ago at home to a rancid Stoke team, and they’ve conceded 16 times in the eight games since with a number of defenders injured and unavailable. Wednesday have conceded exactly three times in each of their last three away games, losing the last two at Preston and Leeds. Not since March 2021 have the Owls lost three consecutive away matches whilst conceding 3+ goals in each. Wednesday have conceded 45 Championship goals – only Plymouth (60), Luton (47) and Portsmouth (46) have conceded more. Conceded 2+ goals in each of last six league games – longest run of league games conceding two or more goals since eight games between March and May 2014.

Josh Windass has a formidable ten goals from 22 starts in the league to be easily their top scorer this season. Against no side has Windass netted more Championship goals than QPR (three), with each of his last two coming at Loftus Road. Significant money was spent on Iche Ugbo to be that man in the summer but he’s yet to score a Championship goal in 13 starts and 13 sub appearances and put a shambolic penalty high over the bar in the recent 2-2 home draw with Millwall. One of QPR’s charitable donations incoming?

Prediction: In our Prediction League for 2024/25 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. For the first time last year we had joint winners so this season you’ll be hearing from one or both WestonsuperR and SimplyNico in the match previews.

Nico’s Prediction: “I didn’t get to see the Hull game and caught up with the feedback on the game from the match thread and the LFW match report. A good outcome for us: four games won on the spin, results continuing to be ground out and up to tenth in the Championship. Step forward next Sheffield Wednesday. They are an interesting proposition. My concern with them is that Danny Röhl got the better of Marti last season. That said, as their recent fans forum showed, Sheffield Wednesday is not a happy ship with the owner and Röhl not speaking to each other, and they have a number of injuries. Even though they are potentially there for the taking, the run of wins has to come to an end at some point, and I think this is the game.”

Weston’s Call “What a time to be QPR fan, Not sure we are always playing quite as well as our results suggest but a huge improvement from the start of the season. We look organised with a great team spirit. Well done Marti, I never doubted him and credit to the majority fanbase for sticking by him, reaping the rewards now. Sheff Wed have been pretty good this season but I have to wonder (hope) what effect the recent fans forum debacle has on the side. Slight advantage also to have played on a Tuesday rather than Sheffield’s tight match against Bristol 24 hours later. I see no reason why we can’t continue our fine run but expect a close match. With Frey fully rested he is a great pick to score.”

Nico’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Sheff Wed. Scorer – Michi Frey

WestonSuperR’s Prediction: QPR 2-1 Sheff Wed. Scorer – Michi Frey

LFW’s Prediction: QPR 1-1 Sheff Wed. Scorer – Michi Frey

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

062259 added 21:29 - Jan 24 Winnable
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TacticalR added 14:38 - Jan 25 Thanks for your preview. Ah, enjoyment. That was a luxury that we couldn't afford (like strikers). Instead the discussion seemed to be about whether we could hang on for dear life in the Championship, or whether going down would do us a world of good and allow us to rebuild (which I didn't believe for a moment). It would love to think our winning run could continue given Sheffield Wednesday's problems, but it never quite seems to work out like that.

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