[themaclad]

Queens Park Rangers
21/12/2024 15.00hrs

A mere eight months and a day we rock up at the Loftus Road ground hoping to do a bit of Scrooging against the boys in the hooped shirts

https://www.qpr.co.uk/

Manager



FORM GUIDE





There's every chance Freddie might be caught 45 yards from goal as well

QPR 15 PNE 11

Home side in a good run of form, whilst we draw everything, could be an interesting match up

NEWBIES



IN FORM



PREVIOUS



In recent times Rangers have had the upper hand in meeetings.

INTERESTING BITS

Bush Hall is located at 310 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. Originally a dance hall, it is now an independent music venue with a capacity of 400.[1][2][3]

Bush Hall was built in 1904. It was used as a soup kitchen during World War II, in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a bingo hall and rehearsal stage, and finally as a snooker and social club in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2001 it was restored as a music hall by its present owners, Charlie Raworth and Emma Hutchinson.



CHAMPO STUFF





The Fitness Test
Paul Heckingbottom has the privilege of taking a fully-fit squad to London this weekend.

Robbie Brady made his first start since the end of October in North End's last outing and he'll be available for selection again after recovering from an ankle injury.

Andrew Hughes, who has missed the previous two fixtures, is also back in contention.

The Hoops

Queens Park Rangers head into the weekend in new-found form, having won three of their last six matches, with the other three of those being draws.

That run followed a period of 13 without a victory which had supporters worried about their Championship status, as they were last season before head coach Martí Cifuentes came in to lead them to safety.

With the Spaniard at the helm, they’ll be hopeful of their fortunes changing from here and they’ll be looking to build on their positive results of late on home turf following back-to-back wins.

The Officials

Referee: Matthew Donohue
Assistant Referees: Jonathan Hunt and Richard Woodward
Fourth Official: Paul Howard

Matt Donohue has refereed North End on two occasions so far this season and in those two fixtures, three red cards have been shown. Donohue sent off Sam Greenwood and Blackburn Rovers' Owen Beck in a Lancashire derby at Deepdale, and last month dismissed Freddie Woodman at the bet365 Stadium.

In total so far this season, Donohue has shown 50 yellow cards and three reds in 13 matches.

MACS VIEW

Apparently it's kid for a quid day at Loftus Road on Saturday obviously for all those who have been naughty all year, they get to watch us, suffer little children.
7.30 am Coach, journey there and back will be completed in virtual darkness, as previously stated could be an interesting game, between two improving sides.
Probably the worst away seats for anyone over two stone and luckily they have fixed the pavements in South Africa road, gone are the thirty foot drops when you went to stand on the road.

[themaclad]

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom says there’s plenty of internal belief that North End can maintain a certain performance level and pick up a haul of points during the busy festive period.

PNE head to the capital this weekend to take on Queens Park Rangers for the first of five matches in two weeks.

Squad rotation is a phrase often wheeled out at this time of year and that’s something the North End boss is always willing to do, and even more so now he’s got a fully-fit squad at his disposal for the first time.

Hecky said: “We want to use the squad. We want to make sure that we perform well enough to do it.

“It takes a lot of energy, concentration, preparation for us to perform well, but as a rule we have been.

“I think if we maintain that over five games in a short space of time, I'd be expecting us to pick up wins in that spell. I think we internally believe that we've been playing well enough to do that.

“We’ve been frustrated that so many of those draws should have been wins, but we've not been able to make that happen.”

North End head to MATRADE Loftus Road having got a monkey off their back in the last away match, as the win in Cardiff ended the wait for a victory on the road.



That specific stat wasn’t something that distressed the gaffer too much, though, as he wants his side to head into games with the same focus, regardless of where they are.

Hecky said: “I enjoy away wins. There’s a different vibe to away wins. So, yeah, I do enjoy them, but wherever they come, whenever they come, it's no importance to me.

“I don't want us to be different home or away. I want us to approach each game against whoever we're playing in the same way. Listen, there'll be times when you have to win in a different way and you may be in front and you have to defend and make good decisions, and we maybe have to get better at that away from home.

“We did it really well against Cardiff, for example. Apart from that, I want us to be not seeing it as anything different at home or away. I just see it as if we perform well, we're good enough to win.”


The Lilywhites will come up against a QPR side who have had an upturn in form in recent weeks, including back-to-back home wins, against Norwich City and Oxford United respectively.

Martí Cifuentes will be hoping his side can now start to look towards the opposite end of the Championship table.

Hecky said: “They're a team in good form. They're a team who are probably confident. They've changed their style a little bit.

“I know they're playing with real good energy, which would probably stem from that confidence and belief in what they're doing.

“It's going to be a good game, but I believe we can cause them problems as well. So we're looking forward to it. It should be a good game between two teams unbeaten in six.”

[themaclad]

Queens Park Rangers 2 Kolli, Dunne Preston North End 1 Osmajic

Attendance: 15,323 (925 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr M Donohue.





You cannot beat cannot beat nearly nine hours looking through dark skes through coach windows to see your team basically play the game from the safe confines of the team coach. A re run of many of the horrors they have inflicted on the support in the last few years.
Arrived two and a half early and wandered down the roard taking in the scenery, the traditional two fingered salute to the bastionof biasd news coverage who have a television centre in the area. Onto the ground, cash payment only for programmes, it's the future, mind you the digital ticket will have confused some.
The seats in the away end with the lack of space for knees obviously put in when pepole though anyone over the three stone was considered to be morbidly obsese.
Highlight was the steward who spent all afternoon trying to get people to sit in te right seats, all i can say is best of luck with that when Leeds rock up.

Onto the miserable part of the day, Rangers could have had the match won in the first 15 minutes, Dunne header over, one brilliant save by Woodman and Paal hit the bar from 12 yards he should have scored, we were all over the place.
Out of the blue we lead and having watched them since 1969 can honestly say I've never seen a goal like it.
Can fully understand if the home team and support were a little miffed at the circumstances however Osmajic played to the whistle it didn't come after Cook collapse to the floor, if it had been a head injury then fair enough but it wasn't and believe me that was the only way we were going to score all afternoon.
We managed to survive until the break that soon changed within four minutes of the restart. We had made a baffling substitution at half time at half time actually thouggh Lindsay should have been subbed after his booking in the first period.
Any Rangers level Smyth played into space no one within miles of him, into the ball back to Kolli who scores, think Woodman probably should have done better but considering his heroics all afternoon it was his only lapse.
After that it was only going to go one way, Rangers hit the bar think it was Smyth and then when we looked like escaping with a point which would have been barely deserved we made things harder for ourselves, Lindsay got his sec ond yellow followed by a red, did love the meltdown when Freddie collapsed in pain immediately so we could have a tactical chat. It nearly worked Field missed an absolute sitter, Woodman then produced a double save the second was outstnding but Chair slundg ver a ball to the back stick and Dunne who in my view was the best player on the pitch deservedly got the winner.
Zero complaints .

Lindsay suspended for two games and Whatmough injured down to the bar bones defensively at Chrimbo, HO HO HO

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom admitted he would have been celebrating a point after feeling his side were second-best in many respects in the defeat against Queens Park Rangers.

North End went ahead at MATRADE Loftus Road in the 21st minute, courtesy of a calm finish from Milutin Osmajić.

That lead was wiped off shortly into the second period by Rayan Kolli and, after Liam Lindsay saw red, the hosts won the game through Jimmy Dunne in the 89th minute.



Hecky said: “I'd have been celebrating a point today. Listen, we worked hard. We showed tenacity, we competed, but too many things went against us today.

“We didn't have the same quality at the top end of the pitch as we have been showing. A couple of poor decisions for their goals and a poor refereeing performance. Lots of things went against us, but yet we could have come away with a really hard-earned, hard-fought point and I would have been delighted with that.”

Despite going in at half-time a goal to the good, the manager felt there was more his side could have done and opted to make a switch at the break.


Then in the second, he was left disappointed with the two “very poor” goals conceded.

The gaffer said: “I said before about the habit I want to create and I want us to, even when we're playing a top team, be able to come away with points. Even when we play a full throttle team like QPR were today, dig in and get points away. Away from home it's important to be able to do that.

“Today I would have been delighted because we competed, we fought. We were second-best in lots of areas and that's not being disrespectful to us and our players. I'll be honest about it.

“We weren't helped out in any way, shape or form with the decision and I would have been delighted with the point.”

That’s the action done now this side of Christmas, with a Deepdale double header coming up next, with matches on 26th and 29th.

Hecky said: “From that respect, it's a good time of year. It's more the fallout now. As much as I'm angry with the decision that's cost us a point in this game, it's more the fallout.

“Liam will be missing two games. We'll see how Jack [Whatmough]is now after with his knee. Hughesy (Andrew Hughes) should be fine, but as it stands now, we're missing three centre-backs after having everyone virtually fit.”

MARTI

MARTÍ Cifuentes praised the mental strengths of his players after they came from behind to beat Preston North End 2-1 at MATRADE Loftus Road.
Milutin Osmajić gave the visitors the lead in fortuitous circumstances after R’s defender Steve Cook went down unchallenged with an injury which led to him leaving the action.

But Rangers reacted brilliantly after the break with Rayan Kolli levelling in the 50th minute.

The visitors had Liam Lindsay sent off for a second bookable offence with just seven minutes remaining, and Rangers capitalised with Jimmy Dunne heading an 89th minute winner.


“I am very happy and proud of the performance from the guys because mentally it was not an easy game,” Cifuentes said.

“We started really well, created chances and then suddenly to lose our captain and in the same situation concede a goal, it was difficult.

“The guys showed what they are made of and I am very happy for them because it was a deserved victory, I would say.”

Discussing the closing period of the game which saw Preston finish the match with a man less, Cifuentes explained: “Football is about small edges.

“We have played games in this situation before and unfortunately against Sunderland and against Plymouth it did not help us.

“I felt today even XI against XI, we were creating chances; we hit two crossbars, the one-v-one with Sam Field, this was all at XI-v-XI, so in my opinion the team was performing well but these small edges help mentally as well.”

Kolli scored his third goal in four games with a well-taken strike, and Cifuentes admitted: “He did brilliant and I am very happy for him because it is not easy to play against such physical defenders as Preston has.

“He did really well with the way he linked up the game, the way he held up the ball, the way he ran in behind, it was a very good performance.”

Shutterstock
Cifuentes was also delighted for match-winner Dunne, adding: “I am very happy for Jimmy.

“He is a player that can drive the ball forwards, a player who can use both feet, a player that in the last third is a real threat.

“It was a deserved goal and I am happy for the performances from him.”

The seriousness of Cook’s injury is still to be determined, but Cifuentes explained: “He feels a bit of a muscular issue and we need to take some tests to see how he feels but hopefully he will be ready soon because he is a very important player for us.”

QPR extended their unbeaten run to seven games to move seven points clear of the relegation zone, and Cifuentes said: “We need to be very proud.

“I am happy to turn a very difficult situation but we must remember this is such a long league.

“I have told the guys now to have a little rest before what is coming. The reality is this league is relentless and we cannot afford to drop a yard, we need to keep pushing and need much more points and to keep delivering good performances.

“Our supporters again played a big part and hopefully we can deliver more.”


Just a couple of extra points that's the third game between the sides in various competions this season, we have lost all three and had a player dismissed in all three
Third time we have had Donoghue this season, third of our players he has sent off.