Away games continue at QPR

Last updated : 03 February 2007 By Tony Scholes
Lee Cook
There's no doubt we are getting used to travelling, and this will be six out of seven games away from home, with a trip to Reading for a postponement to add to that. Reading is the only one of these games where we have even scored a goal. It is six league games without a goal now, and the last time we had that poor a run was at the start of the 1997/98 Chris Waddle season.

For QPR it has been a strange sort of season and a bit of a struggle, but that's what was always predicted for them. Having finally got Ian Holloway out of the club they started the season with Gary Waddock formally in charge, but with only eight league games played he lost his job, and subsequently left the club after initially accepting a coaching role.

His replacement was John Gregory who had been out of the game for three and a half years after being sacked at Derby. Rangers couldn't drop any further, they were bottom of the league with just the one victory against Southend.

Gregory started with two wins and by mid-November saw his side climb to thirteenth in the table following a 1-0 win against Cardiff at Ninian Park with a late goal from Ray Jones. Things have not gone quite so well since and they have won just twice in twelve games, losing the other ten. Those wins, both at home and both 1-0, came against Barnsley and Colchester.

With the transfer window closed when he arrived, Gregory was only able to strengthen the squad with loan signings and he did that by borrowing two young players from near neighbours Chelsea. Within a week of becoming manager he signed now 20-year-old midfielder Jimmy Smith and a month later he signed Michael Mancienne, a defender who has just past his nineteenth birthday.

January has allowed him to make further changes to his squad. Four players – Tommy Doherty, Sean Thomas, Kevin Gallen and Nick Ward – have all gone out on loan and he's added three new permanent signings. The first of these, right at the beginning of the month is Finnish defender Sampsa Timoska from MyPa-47.

It looked as though that would be it, but then in the last three days before the window closed he added two more players with experience at this level. On Monday he signed Derby midfielder Adam Bolder, and on the last day of the month added central defender Danny Cullip who has been with Nottingham Forest for the last season and a half. Timoska and Bolder have already played for their new club, Cullip awaits his debut against the Clarets.

Last time out, on Tuesday, they were beaten 2-0 by Barnsley and that meant the two clubs changing places and QPR dropping back into the relegation positions. The win in Gregory's first game took them out of the bottom three, and this is the first time they have been back there.

Click HERE to see all QPR's results this season.

Team News

John Gregory has something of a stronger squad to select from than he did at Barnsley on Tuesday. Besides adding Danny Cullip on Wednesday he is also likely to be able to call on Gareth Ainsworth and possibly Martin Rowlands who are both returning from injury.

Rowlands will probably have to settle for a place on the bench whilst they will definitely be without both Marc Bircham (injured) and Stefan Bailey (suspended). Up front 38-year-old veteran Paul Furlong partnered Dexter Blackstock at Barnsley but he's expected to be replaced by Ray Jones.

Their expected line up is: Simon Royce, Michael Mancienne, Danny Cullip, Damion Stewart, Mauro Milanese, Gareth Ainsworth, Adam Bolder, Jimmy Smith, Lee Cook, Ray Jones, Dexter Blackstock. Subs from: Jake Cole, Zesh Rehman, Sampsa Timoska, Steve Lomas, Patrick Kanyuka, Paul Furlong, Marc Nygaard.

Click HERE to see the full QPR squad.

Steve Cotterill might well be counting the walking wounded before he names his side. Besides long term injury victim Andy Gray we are likely to also be without Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas and Steve Jones, all injured, and we will definitely not be able to call on Eric Djemba-Djemba who is serving a one match suspension after being sent off by Riley on Tuesday.

That would see us reduced to a squad of eighteen, and that includes three goalkeepers and new signing Steve Caldwell who hasn't played since the last Saturday of last year and may well not be risked in this game.

I suspect that could leave the Burnley team looking something like: Mike Pollitt, Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, James O'Connor, Alan Mahon, Kyle Lafferty, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs: Danny Coyne, Chris McCann, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Graham Branch.

Last Meeting

I still find it difficult to believe we didn't win this game. We went into our first game of 2006 at Loftus Road after losing the two previous games against Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday. A late penalty (our very last one) against Wednesday had not been enough to earn us a point and we needed to get a result at QPR.

Our first half display was as good as anything we had produced all season. We went in front with one of the best goals of the season from Chris McCann, who was celebrating having signed his first professional contract.

Whilst Brian Jensen was having a quiet afternoon at one end of the ground, Simon Royce was keeping his team in it at the other, and no more so than when he made a stunning save from Ade Akinbiyi just before half time. Perhaps Ade should have scored, but it was a superb reflex save and a minute later he made another top save to deny James O'Connor with a header.

As we entered the third and last minute of stoppage time at the end of the half it was hard to accept that we were only a goal in front, but then things suddenly got worse. One aimless punt upfield led to Gareth Ainsworth getting above Jon Harley to head towards goal from only just inside the penalty box in the left hand corner. Jensen had started to come out, stopped, was caught in no mans land, and the ball sailed over him and in for 1-1.

The second half was nothing like the first, we were never able to get on top of the game and much of the play was towards our goal, and in the end we were thankful to keep them out and get a point from a 1-1 draw.

The teams were;

QPR: Simon Royce, Marcus Bignot, Danny Shittu, Matthew Rose (Georges Santos 75), Mauro Milanese, Gareth Ainsworth, Richard Langley (Scott Donnelly 75), Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook, Shabazz Baidoo, Marc Nygaard (Paul Furlong 13). Subs not used: Jake Cole, Stefan Moore.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Wayne Thomas 81), James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Garreth O'Connor (Graham Branch 69), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Danny Karbassiyoon, John Spicer.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

2000/01

1

a

1-0

11,427

Mullin

..

h

2-1

14,018

Smith Taylor

2004/05

C

a

0-3

15,638

.

.

.

h

2-0

10,396

Akinbiyi(2)

2005/06

C

a

1-1

12,565

McCann

..

h

1-0

11,247

Gray

2006/07

C

h

2-0

12,190

Jones(2)

Click HERE to see all our results against QPR beginning with an FA Cup win in our record breaking championship season of 1920/21.