Rock and a hard place - preview Tuesday, 8th Apr 2014 11:38 by LFW With Saturday's defeat at Bournemouth leaving QPR facing half a dozen largely meaningless games before the play offs, Harry Redknapp's attitude to team selection will say a lot about the club's direction beyond May. Blackburn Rovers (11th) v Queens Park Rangers (3rd)Old First Division, Old Old Second Division >>> Tuesday April 8, 2014 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Ewood Park, Blackburn You would think after all these years in management that Harry Redknapp would be somewhat immune to the criticism by now. It must be exasperating for him to have picked a side up from the mess QPR were in at the end of last season, totally restructured and restaffed it in one summer, got it to third in the league despite all its best players having long term injuries at one time or another, and still be getting grief from the crowd despite sitting third in the league. But after 30 years in the management game what does the opinion of a mug punter count for anyway? That exasperation has shown through once or twice though — once the cameras were off at a recent pre-match press conference following the defeat at Charlton he forcibly ran through all he’d had to deal with this season and made his point about what a decent job he’s done in the circumstances. So it is getting to him, and for that reason he must have winced slightly to find that while Mobido Maiga — his, expensive, signing — turned in his latest shambolic performance up front in a poor defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday, Tom Hitchcock — who scored on the only occasion Redknapp gave him a first team chance and has never been near the side since — was bagging a 30 minute hat trick for Rotherham at Gillingham. Hitchcock has been a convenient stick to beat Redknapp with this season — scoring goals regularly for Crewe and Rotherham while out on loan in the league below, while Ranger struggle to find anybody who isn’t Charlie Austin to score goals at all for them. There is a danger that the thirst to see a young player come through the ranks at QPR — only Richard Langley has done so with any sustained success in the last 15 years — is putting Hitchcock up on a pedestal. He’s not a kid — well into his 20s now — he was released by Blackburn and he has zero Championship experience. Harry Redknapp has seen him every day in training and decreed that he’d be better off out on loan somewhere, and in fact at Rotherham he’s more super sub than starter. So we’re not, it would seem, in the Ipswich Town situation quite yet — where they repeatedly loaned Jordan Rhodes out and then flogged him for a song while spending four times as much on Tamas Priskin — but to see Hitchock beautifully pull a ball out of the air with one delicate touch and then exquisitely flick it over the Gillingham goalkeeper with his second while QPR persist with Maiga and Will Keane in attack did stick in the craw somewhat. Maiga won’t score a goal like that as long as he’s got a hole in his arse. QPR don’t currently look like a team that’s going to be promoted this season. We’re running the risk here of getting to the start of next season having given Maiga a run for West Ham, given Keane some experience for Man Utd, while leaving players we actually own on the shelf, so next season we’ll be once again loaning them out for experience and loaning others in to play for our first team. It’s classic Redknapp management, and very in keeping with the way QPR have gone about their business since the money arrived back in 2007. The bigger shame for me was loaning in Oguchi Onyewu, and then later Aaron Hughes, when Max Ehmer is waiting in the wings for his chance. He’s plenty good enough for Championship level, and quite what he gained from another three months in League One with Carlisle — a division where he’s already spent a season and a half with Yeovil, two separate spells with Stevenage and a few months with Preston is beyond me. And that was when QPR were playing for automatic promotion. Having passed up the opportunity to close the gap on suddenly-injury-hit Burnley to five points with poor results against Blackpool and Bournemouth, the R’s are now in a strange position of having nothing to aim at ahead of them, and little threatening them further back, over the remaining games this season. Barring an extreme collapse, and extraordinary run from the chasing pack, QPR will be in the play offs in May regardless of what they do. It seems an ideal opportunity to do a couple of things. Firstly, rest important players who have had a long, hard season. Richard Dunne has been regressing slowly from a formidable start to his season to the point on Saturday where he looked badly exposed against a striker as limited as Yann Kermorgant. Clint Hill, too, has made tired mistakes in recent games. And the purpose of rushing Charlie Austin back into action with more strapping around his shoulder than your average linebacker is completely lost on me as well. Secondly, start blooding players who will definitely be here next season, and Hitchcock is certainly one of them along with Mike Petrasso. Certainly in their cases, the form of the loan players being selected ahead of them, suggests it might actually improve our team in the short term as well, even disregarding the long term benefits. Links >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34694/wardley-and-g >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34695/league-declin Profile >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34693/adcock-in-cha TuesdayTeam News: So it remains to be seen whether Charlie Austin will feature again after a run out in the defeat at Dean Court. The R’s goalscorer at the weekend Armand Traore, typically, limped off towards the end of the game so probably won’t feature here. Aaron Hughes (hamstring), Nedum Onuoha (calf) and Joey Barton (thigh) are all out. Blackburn midfielder Corry Evans injured his groin in the 2-0 win over Ipswich and is unlikely to feature. Fellow midfielder Jason Lowe (ankle) has returned to full training and could play, but winger Ben Marshall and full-back Adam Henley remain sidelined. Elsewhere: Barnsley v Burnley Bournemouth v Reading Charlton v Yeovil Doncaster v Bolton Huddersfield v Ipswich Leicester v Brighton Middlesbrough v Birmingham Forest v Sheffield Wednesday Watford v Leeds Wigan v Millwall Blackpool v Derby Referee: James Adcock takes charge of QPR for the second time in his career at Ewood Park on Tuesday. Previously he booked seven, five from QPR, in a reasonably even tempered game at Bolton back in August which the R’s won 1-0. For more details on that, and his recent stats, please http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34693/adcock-in-cha here. FormBlackburn: These sides played out a goalless draw at Loftus Road in December. Blackburn are unbeaten in the past seven meetings in all competitions, winning four. QPR's last win was 2-0 at Ewood Park in the old Division One in October 1999. Blackburn are unbeaten in the past four meetings at Ewood Park in all competitions, winning the past three. Blackburn are unbeaten in their past six games, winning two. Their last defeat was 1-0 against Bournemouth at home on 12 March. The 2-0 win against Ipswich on Saturday is their only win in their past five games at Ewood Park. QPR: QPR have not won either of their last two games, after winning three of their previous four. Rangers have kept 17 clean sheets in the league so far this season - only Brighton have kept more. They have won only two of their past seven away games, losing the other five. Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion Mase tells us… “Well the excitement as we build toward is just overwhelming, isn't it? Our early season 'form' is sustaining us in this miserable subsidence into play-off also-rans and where better to continue that than at a third-full Ewood Park on a Tuesday night? I am starting to think we exhausted any remaining vim and fortune against Wigan last month. This is another of those "don't really care, will check out the result later" sort of games. I think the players will adopt the same attitude unfortunately, and give 'draw-happy' Blackburn all the encouragement they need to get another point and cement that top-half finish that means so little in the grand scheme of things. Only the prospect of Charlie Austin featuring is keeping me from predicting another defeat. If this game comes too quickly for him I will be changing my entry accordingly.” Mase’s Prediction: Blackburn 1-1 QPR. Scorer — Charlie Austin LFW Prediction: Blackburn 2-0 QPR. No Scorer. The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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