[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.”