Excitement — preview Saturday, 3rd May 2014 00:35 by Clive Whittingham QPR have a meaningless game at Barnsley to round off the long, hard 46 game Championship campaign this weekend before their play-off campaign begins on Friday. Barnsley (23rd) v Queens Park Rangers (4th)Old First Division, Old Old Second Division >>> Saturday May 3, 2014 >>> Kick Off 12.15 >>> Oakwell, Barnsley For the forty sixth and final time in the regular season, Harry Redknapp mooched into the side room at QPR’s Harlington training ground — which they rent from a college — and took his seat for what we’re obliged by PR minions all over the country to refer to as the pre-match “presser”. It’s been a long season for Harry who must, on the long bus journeys back from midweek defeats at Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn, have allowed his mind to drift to a parallel universe where he’s preparing England for the World Cup finals in Brazil this summer. Even if QPR had run away with the Championship this season, as they threatened to do by going through the first 12 matches without a single defeat, I’m not sure the job satisfaction would have been there for Rangers’ veteran boss. As it is, he’s faced a hefty amount of criticism for a man who ostensibly turned around a shambolic, relegated outfit and made it one capable of finishing fourth and qualified for the play offs. At times, frequently, Redknapp has appeared bored, both in front of the media and down on the touchline. Part of this is down to a botched knee operation last summer, which will probably need redoing this close season, which prevents him from standing on the sideline and getting animated. However legimate the excuse, when you see Stuart Gray coaxing his Sheff Wed players through every move in a 3-0 win while Redknapp sits on the front row of the main stand with his hands pressed into his pockets it doesn’t look good. The “pressers” have been spent bemoaning bad luck with injuries, talking about how hard a fixture list is in a 46 game season, and building future opponents into potentially the greatest side ever to play the sport based on spurious reasons like “Birmingham were in the Premier League not so long ago” and “I remember Middlesbrough was a tough place to go when they had the Brazilians” and “Huddersfield are one of the famous names of the sport in this country.” But, wait a minute, what’s this? A happy Harry Redknapp, buoyant even, interrupting press officer Ian Taylor’s introduction this morning with a cheerful “good morning boys” to the few press who had turned up to write previews of a match at Barnsley that means nothing to anybody. A month ago Redknapp selected Luke Young for the first time in two years, out of position at centre back, and shrugged off a 2-0 defeat at Blackburn when second place was technically still there to play for. This morning he beamed and smiled his way through the questions and informed everybody that EDS centre half Coll Donaldson will make his senior debut at Oakwell. That’s right, a young prospect that QPR own being given a chance in the first team. Very best of luck Coll, wonderful to see you. It could be that Redknapp has indeed been bored this season, and is only now feeling the fires of passion stoking within him as the play-offs approach. Much as I’ve criticised his management in the second half of the season, I certainly wouldn’t blame him if that was the case. Perhaps I (we) have been spoilt. We’ve had two seasons in the Premier League and going from games against Man City, Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea at Loftus Road to matches with Bournemouth, Barnsley, Birmingham and some God awful teams that don’t begin with the letter B is always going to be a bit of a comedown. The last time Rangers were in this league, in 2010/11, a quite unexpected promotion drive took place led by a mixture of grizzled old pros and maverick talent. QPR were exciting to watch at first, and then just as they were getting to the point where results had be ground out rather than flounced off with, the Ale Faurlin saga kept us all on tenterhooks right to the very end. No wonder this season has seemed dull by comparison. The thing that has hit home to me more than it ever did when QPR played at this level before, is just how little each individual game matters - Hull City lost 15 times last season and were still promoted. When you’re playing 46 times across nine months, only very long sequences of results — QPR’s 19 match unbeaten start in 2010/11, or Leicester’s 21 match run without a defeat this time — actually make a significant difference. Calling turning points, key encounters, must-win-games before the final half a dozen fixtures or so is really like writing a golfer out of a major championship because they missed a putt at the fourteenth on the first day of the tournament. Defeats can feel like the end of the world, and victories like a key moment, but in reality, in this league, very few games actually matter when looked at by themselves. Personally I’ve found that difficult to settle back into, after two years where games were played once a week and mattered to somebody somewhere every time. In the Premier League, going 1-0 up at home to Wolves and losing 2-1 in February feels like a cataclysmic disaster because there are only ten games left and you don’t know when a chance as good as that will come along again. In the Championship there’s no need to worry — there’s another game in three days, and about 18 from the start of February until mid-May. I’ve found the victories hard to get too excited about, and the defeats difficult to be too upset over, because not only has the football been uninspiring, but the results themselves, in isolation, haven’t really mattered that much. It will be a relief to get into the play-off games next week and feel that tight knot in the stomach before and during a game again — assuming, of course, Rangers don’t blow out early in the first leg. Redknapp has given a hint to his back four by saying that Danny Simpson, Clint Hill, Richard Dunne and Benoit Assou Ekotto all have knocks and can’t play at Oakwell. That seems to mean that Nedum Onuoha could be left out of the knock-out games which would be tremendously harsh on one of the form players at the club — somebody who makes us a better team even when he’s playing badly because his pace allows the defence to move higher up the pitch and close down the space. There’s debate too about whether the decision to give Charlie Austin another run out as he recovers from injury is wise or not. Injure him all over again and suddenly Rangers’ promotion hopes sit with Kevin Doyle, Will Keane or — cue demonic music — Mobido chuffin Maiga. But isn’t it nice to be getting passionate about team selection issues rather than just shrugging? Judging by Redknapp’s demeanour on camera this morning he’s feeling it too. Excitement — I’d almost forgotten what that was. Links >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34938/back-qpr-to-f >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34937/time-catches- Profile >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34917/mark-perry%E2 >>> http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34916/wright-takes-
The QPR players celebrate the final whistle at Oakwell in 2011 — Adel Taarabt’s goal in the first minute helped Neil Warnock’s side to a crucial 1-0 win in the promotion race as they bounced back from a surprise 4-1 loss at Scunthorpe three days previous. This SaturdayTeam News: After steadfastly refusing to give any of the club’s younger players a chance in the first team during a largely pointless conclusion to the season — to the point of picking Luke Young for the first time in two years, out of position at centre back, for the away game at Blackburn — Harry Redknapp will finally throw 18-year-old Coll Donaldson in for a senior debut on Saturday, six months after he arrived from Scottish side Livingston. Canadian winger Mike Petrasso is on the bench and is also likely to come on for a first senior appearance for Rangers. That’s because Danny Simpson, Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Richard Dune are all doubtful with knocks and Clint Hill has been ill this week. Charlie Austin and Armand Traore will both start as they search for added match fitness, and there may be a role to play for Andy Johnson after his recent successful comeback from his latest injury in the EDS squad. Ale Faurlin and Matt Phillips have been joined on the long term absentee list by Jermaine Jenas who became the fourth contracted QPR player this season to rupture his cruciate ligaments in training last week. Barnsley, now definitely relegated, are also turning to their younger players for the meaningless end of season game. Wilson has recalled Danny Rose form Bury and added Jordan Clark, Rhys Oates, McCauley Shillito and Brad Abbott to his first team squad from the club’s junior ranks. Elsewhere: Mercifully, it’s all over. Well, not quite, but then the Championship is never all over, it’s an all consuming, monstrous, never-ending dirge that sucks your life and money away for 5,000 matches across nine months and then has a play-off and then starts pre-season training again pretty much immediately after that. It’s a hellish thing and its final regular round takes place at the ungodly hour of 12.15 on Saturday. Some of it still matters. The final play off spot is between Brighton and Reading — the former host already promoted Burnley while Brighton go to Nottingham Trees. Oddly, although they cannot drop out of the top six, The Globetrotters can still be caught by Reading so they potentially need something from a trip to Blackburn who are in with a technical chance if they can win and overturn a seven goal swing on the Royals. So that the fixtures mattering to somebody somewhere — the others mean nothing to anybody. Leeds v Derby and Ipswich v Sheffield Wednesday may as well not take place and save everybody’s effort ad petrol. Referee: QPR may not have a lot to play for in this final fixture of the regular season, but they are protecting an unbeaten record with the referee Kevin Wright from Cambridgeshire. Wright, who last refereed the R’s in a 2-0 home win against Ipswich in February 2011, has refereed Rangers seven times and they’re yet to lose — a run that includes two wins at Derby County. For his full case history with Rangers and his stats for this season please http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/34916/wright-takes- here. FormBarnsley: Ordinarily in a dead rubber like this you’d be pretty safe backing a draw — but only one of the last 16 Barnslet games has finished in a tie — they’ve won five and lost ten of the other 15. The last three wins have come away from home — at Charlton, Yeovil and Reading — and they’ve lost four and drawn one of the last five home matches without scoring a single goal. Since beating Forest 1-0 here at the start of March Barnsley they’ve lost to Leicester (0-3), Bournemouth, Burnley ad Leeds (all 0-1) and drawn 0-0 with Brighton. Overall Danny Wilson’s side have won one and lost five of the last seven. Barnsley have kept six clean sheets in the league this season — the lowest total in the Championship. QPR: Rangers need to tighten up their away form or risk being eliminated from the play-offs before they even get a chance to bring a team back to Loftus Road a week on Monday. The R’s have lost five of their last six games on the road, including the last three, and have only won at Birmingham and Middlesbrough in the last nine. Contrast that with the form at Loftus Road where they have only lost twice all season and are unbeaten in seven, winning four. Of their prospective play-off opponents, QPR have taken four points without conceding a goal in two games against Wigan, taken one point without scoring a goal against Brighton, and one point from a 1-1 dra ad 3-1 home defeat against Reading. Rangers have won their previous two visits to this ground 1-0 having failed to win any of the previous eight. Harry Redknapp’s side have kept 17 clean sheets in the league this season but none in their last seven games. Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion — for another week at least — Mase tells us… “Our forty sixth and final league match entails a dawn-breaking trek up the M1 for a game between two sides who already know their immediate fate. This is as confident a foresight as I've had all year: save the petrol and pennies for the playoff games. “There are pros and cons to both resting or starting our likely playoff first XI‎ and I think Redknapp will fudge it by using a mixture of his squad here. Barnsley have been a combination of weak and unlucky all season, but will want to go out of the division with their heads high. Although improbable, let's go for an entertaining (haha) score draw. Mase’s Prediction: Barnsley 2-2 QPR. First scorer: Yossi Benayoun LFW’s Prediction: Barnsley 0-1 QPR. Scorer: Charlie Austin 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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