QPR head to Norwich for midweek test - full match preview
Tuesday, 16th Sep 2008 22:19

A run of three consecutive away games for QPR starts with a tricky lookign trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City on Wednesday night.

Norwich City v Queens Park Rangers
Coca Cola Championship
Wednesday September 17, Kick Off 7.45pm
Carrow Road, Norwich

To think that we were mumbling and grumbling about paying £27 to go to this match when the tickets went on sale – with the news that QPR will charge Norwich fans, and us lot, £40 to see the return fixture emerging yesterday this one seems a snip at that price and Villa next week at £15 almost seems like being let in for free.

It says something about our club’s crass timing and decision making that I’ve started the match preview with a snipe about ticket prices. With a 4-1 win under our belts on Saturday, four games unbeaten and one defeat from the first seven matches, things are really looking up for QPR on the pitch this season and with Ledesma back on Wednesday night and Buzsaky still to return, not to mention Vine, things are only likely to get better you would think and hope.

Against Norwich we find ourselves in a scenario we haven’t faced away from home yet this season. Sheffield United I expect to be challenging for the top two this season and Bristol City the play offs – a thrashing and a creditable draw either side of a change in formation and system. Although Norwich have added intelligently to their side and battered Plymouth at Home Park on Saturday I’d be very surprised if they do any better than a mid table finish.

We’re not going to make the play offs or anything else on home form alone – you have to pick up results on the road and while Norwich are no mugs and Carrow Road is not a happy hunting ground for us this does represent an opportunity if we have serious ambitions this season. Coventry on Saturday is more winnable, but I’d be disappointed to come away from this one with nothing.

To do that Dowie has to get the team selection right. People who read this nonsense on even a semi regular basis know I think he’s making a terrible mistake by not playing Camp, both because he’s better than Cerny and because we risk losing a boy that could keep goal for us for a decade or more as a result, but aside from that there are players he simply has to find a place for a few players not currently in the side.

Martin Rowlands needs to play, I don’t care if he comes into the attacking three positions or the holding roles, he can do both, but he was better than four of the five players picked ahead of him on Sunday and the one who is technically better than him showed all the heart and application of a dead jelly fish. It was only when Rowly came on that we looked anything like on Sunday and if he’s not picked for this one I’ll be surprised and disappointed.

With Buzsaky and Vine still to come, who I’d also want in my team, there are certainly headaches to come, but nice ones to have.

Five minutes on Norwich City
QPR’s September tour of clubs in varying degrees of suffering following relegation from the Premiership arrives in Norwich on Wednesday – another outfit recently in the top flight but now about as far away from making a return to it as they ever have been. Southampton on Sunday looked like what they are – a club in a real mess – and of the 16 members of the Championship who have played in the Premiership at one time or another they look the most likely to tread the Oldham, QPR, Leeds, Forest and Bradford path of further relegation and torment.

Norwich looked pretty close to doing the same this time last year when, under the guidance of the inexperienced and uninspiring Peter Grant, they became the first team in the league to lose to QPR in the opening 12 matches and sunk to the bottom of the table. It all seemed a far cry from the height of Nigel Worthington’s era when a City team containing the likes of Huckerby, Crouch, Francis, McKenzie, Svensson, Mackay and Green reached the Premiership for the first time in just under a decade.

That was a wonderful Norwich side to watch – good football played at high speed by quality players. They made a pretty decent fist of the top flight as well in fairness to them – they were unable to nail Crouchy down to a permanent deal but spent the money to make Huckerby’s loan from Man City permanent and also added Gary Doherty, Thomas Helveg and Youssef Safri to their line up before the season began. Arsenal agreed to let David Bentley spend the campaign on loan at Carrow Road as well so they looked reasonably well set to try and stay in the Premiership.

Too many drawn games cost them early on, they picked up points in single doses eight times from their first 14 matches before finally picking up a win at the first attempt against Southampton. Only one more victory followed before the transfer window but they then went out and signed Dean Ashton from Crewe and although they were five points adrift of safety in mid February they went into the final match of the season at Fulham with it all in their hands – win and stay up.

Man Utd, Newcastle, Charlton and Birmingham were all beaten in the final few weeks of the season but when it came to the crunch they choked – losing 6-0 at Craven Cottage and returning at the first attempt. In the end going through an entire season without an away win proved to be just too much to overcome at home.

So Norwich, like QPR, Southampton, Coventry and an endless string of teams before them, promised to make an immediate return. And failed. Norwich didn’t even get close to the play offs in 2005/06 – finishing some 13 points adrift of sixth place at the close of play despite winning six consecutive home games through February, March and April. Again, it was the away form letting Norwich down. The final win in that sequence came in remarkable circumstances against Queens Park Rangers – a game the Londoners bossed from start to 75th minute sparking protests and steady hand claps among the home fans. Sadly for all concerned Norwich came back to win 3-2 in an amazing turn around and that ensured that Worthington, despite petitions being signed outside the ground for his removal, was in charge when the 2006/07 season started.

As an outsider looking in that killed them as far as I’m concerned. Worthington did a grand job to take them up in the first place but should have kept them there and has never been the most inspiring manager and has endured various failures since. He was clearly never going to repeat his promotion success with Norwich as long as he lived and the fans were right to demand a sacking and new broom for the start of the season. Starting the following campaign with Worthington put them on the back foot right from the word go and although he was finally given the boot after a televised home humiliation by Burnley the season was already pretty much a right off by that stage.

Peter Grant, known to QPR fans for his leg breaking tackle on Paul Murray during his Carrow Road playing career, arrived from West Ham in his first managerial role and steered them to safety and little else. That Norwich stayed in the league owed more to Robert Earnshaw than anybody else and when he was sold to Derby last summer alarm bells started to ring. Grant brought in a number of unknown Scots and foreign players and it all blew up in his face – out of his depth and out of ideas Grant left in mid October after defeat at Loftus Road with the Canaries firmly rooted to the bottom of the table.

In Glenn Roeder Norwich appeared to replace him with another Worthington character – incapable of inspiring his way out of a wet paper bag. They lost his first game, and his second, were lucky to escape the derby with Ipswich with a draw and kept losing. By the time Roeder got his first win against Coventry at the end of November they were six points off everybody else and very firmly in last place.

Roeder added a number of Premiership youngsters to his beleaguered side on loan – Arsenal’s Keiran Gibbs, Chelsea’s Ryan Bertrand, Man City’s Ched Evans and Newcastle’s Matt Pattison among others. The transformation had to be seen to be believed and a run of just one defeat in 16 matches during the winter actually had them eyeing up the play offs at one stage before slipping back a little. In the end they were just glad to secure their safety with another end of season victory against QPR and move on.

Norwich are of course owned by Delia Smith and her husband although for how much longer remains to be seen. Roeder has only been allowed to spend change he finds down the back of his sofa on players and City have only won one of their first six matches. Mid table at best awaits unless some reinforcements are brought in by the current board, or the proposed takeover by billionaire fan Peter Cullum goes ahead.

Either way City are yet another club cast aside and left to rot by Scudamore and his Premier League, apparently without a chance of making a return this season or any other for the foreseeable future. A sad state of affairs.

Men to watch
When we wrote our pre-season preview it was the lack of a quality striker that concerned David and myself most about Norwich ’s chances this season. Their survival last season owed much to the goal scoring exploits of Man City youngster Ched Evans but, as we know ourselves, City were less than keen to allow a potential first teamer to head off again this summer while the upheaval at Eastlands was going on.

At the time their refusal to loan Evans to either us or Norwich seemed to be a bigger blow to the Canaries than us but Glenn Roeder has made a couple of canny signings in attack and Norwich now look well set to better their season of struggle this time around. Top scorer after a month of the season is Italian Arturo Luppoli who has three goals in six games and scored in the victory at Plymouth on Saturday. Luppoli is another of those former Arsenal youngsters dotted around Europe . He made a bit of a name for himself with 12 goals in a season long loan at Derby in 2006/07 but never returned to the Emirates afterwards, choosing a move to Fiorentina in Serie A ahead of further reserve team football in north London or a permanent move to Pride Park . Things haven’t worked out for him in his homeland but he seems to be back on form this season.

Luppoli is only on loan though, like eight of his team mates. Roeder once again making use of the temporary signing market this season. Another loan star is the experienced Antoine Sibierksi who also scored at Plymouth , with a long range free kick, on his full Norwich debut. The Frenchman has enjoyed a good end to his career in this country with Man City , Newcastle and Wigan and looks like he could be a real threat in this division. Our old boy Jamie Cureton waits in the wings of course.

Loan players boosting numbers at the back as well where Chelsea ’s Ryan Bertrand and Fulham’s Elliot Omozusi make up half of Roeder’s back four. Bertrand was one of those who came in last season to fight against relegation at Carrow Road , Omozusi is new this term. With rigger mortis setting in with Gary Doherty another signing from Fulham, Dejan Stefanovic, has been brought in to add a wise, experienced head to the defence. Stefanovic has almost ten years of premiership experience with Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth and Fulham and he has played in every league game so far this season.

The best signing of the summer appeared to be Wes Hoolahan but he, and fellow former Blackpool team mate Kaspars Gorkss, both appear to be struggling somewhat as small fish in big ponds after being the top men at Bloomfield Road . Hoolahan is yet to get off the mark after a £250,000 summer move. Northern Ireland international Sammy Clingan was another eye catching mover during the summer, arriving on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest.

Previous Meetings
At Carrow Road last season Rangers had one of those days we’d all rather forget. Norwich needed to win to secure their status in the division and came out all guns blazing in front of a full house. QPR had Damion Stewart sent off after five minutes for fouling Ched Evans as he ran through on goal, although Lee Camp looked to have sinned more than the big Jamaican. Evans lashed home an opening goal moments later and goals from Fotheringham and Russell followed as Camp had an eccentric afternoon between the sticks.

Norwich: Marshall 6, Otsemobor 7, Shackell 7, Doherty 7, Bertrand 7, Huckerby 7, Fotheringham 8, Gibbs 8 (Russell 77, 7), Pattison 7 (Chadwick 63, 7), Cureton 7 (Dublin 77, 7), Evans 9
Subs Not Used: Croft, Pearce
Booked: Evans (fighting)
Goals: Evans 7 (assisted Cureton), Fotheringham 56 (unassisted), Russell 83 (unassisted)

QPR: Camp 4, Mancienne 6, Stewart -, Connolly 5, Delaney 5, Ainsworth - (Leigertwood 10, 4), Mahon 5, Rowlands 4, Ephraim - (Rehman 10, 5), Blackstock 5, Balanta 5
Subs Not Used: Crowther, Barker, Lee
Sent Off: Stewart (professional foul)
Booked: Connolly (foul), Rowlands (fighting)

Match Report

QPR beat Norwich 1-0 at Loftus Road in October last year to secure their first win of the season at the 12th attempt. In front of the Sky cameras Martin Rowlands bagged the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after a foul on Rowan Vine – referee Peter Walton had typically waved away two better claims for spot kicks before this. The result was too much for Norwich manager Peter Grant who left a few days later with the Canaries joint bottom with the R’s by the close of play.

QPR: Camp 7, Rowlands 8, Stewart 7, Cranie 8, Barker 6, Ainsworth 7 (Jarrett 86, -), Bolder 6, Leigertwood 8, Ephraim 8 (Timoska 90, -), Sahar 6 (Moore 68, 7), Vine 8
Subs Not Used: Cole, Bignot
Booked: Vine (dissent)
Goals: Rowlands 67 pen (assisted Vine)

Norwich: Marshall 8, Otsemobor 6, Shackell 4, Dublin 7 (Murray 46, 4), Drury 4, Croft 4, Russell 4, Jarvis 5, Lappin 3 (Strihavka 63, 3), Martin 4 (Brown 76, 5), Huckerby 4
Subs Not Used: Gilks, Chadwick
Booked: Dublin (who knows), Croft (foul), Huckerby (foul)

Match Report

Head to Head:
Norwich wins – 41
Draws – 32
QPR wins – 37

Previous Norwich v QPR results:
2007/08 Norwich 3 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 1 Norwich 0 (Rowlands)
2006/07 Norwich 1 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 3 Norwich 3 (Rowlands 2, Smith)
2005/06 Norwich 3 QPR 2 (Ainsworth, Cook)
2005/06 QPR 3 Norwich 0 (Furlong, Santos, Nygaard)
2000/01 Norwich 1 QPR 0
2000/01 QPR 2 Norwich 3 (Carlisle, Wardley)
1999/00 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Kiwomya 2)
1999/00 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Wardley)
1998/99 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Murray, Peacock)
1998/99 Norwich 4 QPR 2 (Sheron, Peacock)
1997/98 Norwich 0 QPR 0
1997/98 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Peacock)
1996/97 QPR 3 Norwich 2 (Peacock, Dichio, McDermott)
1996/97 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Impey)
1994/95 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Ferdinand, Gallen)
1994/95 Norwich 4 QPR 2 (Barker, Gallen)
1993/94 Norwich 3 QPR 4 (Barker, Penrice, Peacock, White)
1993/94 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Sinclair, Ferdinand)
1992/93 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Ferdinand 2, Wilson)
1992/93 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Allen)
1991/92 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Bailey)
1991/92 QPR 0 Norwich 2

Team News
The big news is the return of Emmanuel Ledesma after he missed the Southampton game with a one match ban. You’d think he will replace Hogan Ephraim in the attacking three behind Blackstock but where that leaves Rowlands and Agyemang who were both excellent and turned the game back towards QPR after coming on during Sunday’s game is anybody’s guess. I’d certainly have Rowlands in, possibly at the expense of Leigertwood although Gavin Mahon hardly covered himself in glory at the weekend. Fitz Hall is still nursing a groin injury so expect Stewart and Connolly to continue at the heart of the defence – Stewart was sent off on this ground after just five minutes last season. Buzsaky and Vine remain long term absentees although both are nearing a return.

Darel Russell came through 89 minutes on Saturday after a double hernia op and is available for selection again on Wednesday. Summer signing Sammy Clingan is ruled out with a shoulder injury. Two former Luton men David Bell and Gary Doherty are both also out.
Injury List

Referee
Very little by way of moaning, groaning and pointing to previous precedence this week because Rob Shoebridge of Derbyshire is taking charge of QPR for the very first time. He replaces Kevin Wright of Cambridgeshire who was the original appointment for this game. Shoebridge was in charge of Norwich’s 2-1 home defeat by Blackpool last season.
Details

Elsewhere
All but one of this round of games took place last night, Ipswich travel to struggling Southampton in the only other game of Wednesday evening. The eye catching result on Tuesday night was Reading’s hammering of Sheffield Wednesday but Plymouth’s win at Watford in what I consider to be a relegation six pointer interested me more. Barnsley lost at home again so I’d expect a sacking there. All three teams above QPR at the start of play won, Birmingham at Bristol City, Wolves at home to Palace and Preston against Forest. Reading go above us then but we have a game in hand on all around us.

Form
Sunday’s flattering 4-1 win against Southampton lifted QPR briefly to fourth in the table with one defeat, one draw and three wins from the first five league matches. Add two League Cup wins to that and it’s clear that we’re in pretty decent touch at the moment. Having said that we’re without a league win on the road for nine matches stretching back to another victory against Southampton in February. In those matches we’ve actually held the lead on six occasions without winning games – although admittedly only one of those occasions was this season, at Bristol City. We’re averaging more than two and a half goals a game in all competitions as well, with Dexter Blackstock already bagging five of the 16 we’ve scored, and that’s the target Dowie set his team when speaking to the media after taking the job.

In contrast Norwich have had a sluggish start and only recorded their first win of the season at the sixth attempt on Saturday at Plymouth – probably no coincidence that it was the first game played by Antoine Sibierski because the Canaries started the season looking light in attack and indeed only scored once in their first three matches. That problem now seems to have been addressed with Sibierksi and Arturo Lupoli forming a tidy looking partnership. So far Blackpool and Birmingham have both left Norwich with a 1-1 draw, although the latter can consider themselves fortunate to have held onto that. Norwich’s last home win was of course against us on the penultimate weekend of last season.
Form Guide

Prediction
I thought when he arrived that Dowie would make us organised and hard to beat and although Sheffield United blew that away quite conclusively the draw at Bristol City where we had ten men for a long period of time suggests he’s starting to do just that. As a consequence I’ll be backing us for a lot of draws away from home this season starting with this game – although we certainly have the players to go and win, Deexter Blackstock chief amongst them after a terrific performance and two goal haul at the weekend. I’ll go for 1-1 with Blackstock first goal although I am wary that Norwich seem to have finally put in place a very decent strike force that could cause us many problems.
Norwich 1 QPR 1

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