With eyes firmly fixed on next season, QPR need to show they’re progressing beyond regularly coming up short in London derbies as Fulham visit four months after beating the R’s 4-0.

Queens Park Rangers (13th) v Fulham (19th)

Championship >>> Saturday February 13, 2016 >>> Kick Off 12.30 >>> Weather — Pissing it down, and cold, and windy >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 >>> Live on Sky Sports 1

If we are, as we surely must, taking the rest of this season as little more than extended preparation for the next then we must embrace the positive and the negative and reject the neutral as a waste of time.

Teams that have finished in the middle of this division one season do have form for storming to promotion the next — Leicester, Watford, Bournemouth, Neil Warnock’s QPR and others. The fitness work, the experimenting, the pinpointing of strengths and weaknesses that is normally done over a summer can be accomplished early when you’re simply bobbing around in the middle of the Championship and managers can then do shrewd, precise, early work in the summer transfer window and hit the ground running in August.

QPR’s goalkeeper situation is a good for instance. Had Rangers been in or around (copyright Andy Townsend) the play-off places they probably would still be picking Rob Green in goal. Let’s ignore, for a moment, the fact that Rob Green has done more than most players this season to make absolutely sure QPR aren’t within a Cretaceous Period of the play-off places and accept the theory that a team in the second tier would definitely pick an experienced goalkeeper of many Premier League years standing, with a dozen England caps to his name, pretty much regardless of how many times he dropped the ball in the net if they were in contention for something that season.

However, QPR are no longer in contention for anything this season and that, along with Green’s contract situation, means Alex Smithies is now playing in goal. Wouldn’t you just know it, Rangers have ended up with a better, younger goalkeeper all ready and bedded in for next season, earning barely a quarter of what Green gets, before the 2016/17 campaign has even begun.

And we’re seeing these little wins starting to pop up all over the team. The idea that popped up during that mad autumn — and you can make your own minds up whether Tony Fernandes, Neil Warnock or A N Other was responsible for this — that Sandro should be anywhere near the team has thankfully been laid to rest and Massimo Luongo — younger, fitter, cheaper, better future prospect, spot the pattern — is now excelling in that position.

Seb Polter instead of… well, instead of no striker at all, which was a ludicrous idea to begin with and persevered with for a stupidly long period of time, another baby step on the ladder.

But negatives can be a good thing in this situation as well. Let’s say that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has been looking at these players and this set up for a few weeks and has got it in his mind that the whole thing might work well in a back three formation. Better for him to try it now and get done 2-0 at home on Saturday and then 4-1 away on the Tuesday, accept and learn it doesn’t work, than try it next season when presumably it’s serious business again. Certainly better to find that out now than go into next season sure he’s going to play that way, sell his only right back accordingly, then abandon the whole idea because it doesn’t work halfway through the second match. Come back Danny, we miss you.

So in theory, the draw a betting man would be placing his Ford Cortina on as QPR and Fulham face each other at Loftus Road in the early hours of Saturday morning isn’t much use to Hasslebaink or Rangers. What are they to learn from yet another pedestrian-paced draw played out in a tepid atmosphere at a time when you shouldn’t even be awake scheduled at the behest of a television company that knows no fucker is watching but would like to try and clip the audience of its rival’s Premier League match by scheduling this shit against it all the same?

Well, it’s a fair question, but given QPR’s London derby record, a feisty display here that only yields a single point would be at least a pointer towards better things to come.

I wrote the following after we’d lost at Crystal Palace last season (3-0 down at half time) and copied and pasted it after we’d been done 4-0 at Fulham earlier this season (3-0 down at half time).

“Blame Furlong and Yun, blame Phillips and Wright-Phillips, blame Caulker and Onuoha, blame injuries, blame Chris Ramsey, blame who you like really, but consider this… QPR have been in the Premier League for three of the last four seasons. In that time they have played 27 London derbies in league and cup. They’ve lost 18 of those and drawn four. This season they’ve lost seven and drawn one of the games against the other London sides. They’ve conceded 45 goals in those 27 games and scored just 18. On two separate occasions they’ve conceded six goals. This has been under four different managers, with vastly different teams and players. When the going gets a little tougher, the atmosphere gets a little hotter, the intensity increases — QPR cannot live with it.

“There isn’t the quality to match Arsenal and Spurs and there isn’t the attitude, stomach, pragmatism, strength and resolve to match sides like Palace and West Ham. Remember Fulham running riot, remember that Monday night when Sam Allardye bullied Granero and Faurlin with a massive three man midfield? QPR are playing at being a Premier League club and on days like this they’re playing at being a Premier League team, wanting to play with inverse wingers and false nines and young kids and wide open midfields and all of this sort of trendy shit without any sort of foundation or base. It’s naïve and it’s arrogant. Whether Furlong and Yun and Wright-Phillips start or not, whether Ramsey is the manager or somebody else, this will happen again while that attitude persists. It will happen again.”

Sticking a flag in the ground against a team that has only lost once to us in the ten meetings of the modern era would be a sign of some progress. Another poor result and performance in the marginally increased intensity of one of world football’s tamest derby matches and it shows there’s plenty of distance still to cover. A draw? Well a draw does nothing for anybody really. He says, score in hand, rushing to Ladbrokes to back it at 7/4.

Links >>> Mike Rigg strikes again — Interview >>> Venables' QPR win league title — History >>> Fight for your right, Khayati — Podcast >>> Robinson's first QPR game — Referee

Adel Taarabt celebrates a classy goal at the Loft End to give QPR a 2-1 victory against Fulham in this fixture back in 2012/13. It was the R's first win of the season at the seventeenth attempt, and needless to say not enough to save them from relegation from the Premier League at the end of the season. Nice goal though.

Saturday

Team News: Alejandro Faurlin is the main doubt, with illness and a tight thigh being compounded by a proper kicking against Ipswich last weekend which saw him removed from harm's way after an hour. Conor Washington also rolled his ankle in that game and is having it rubbed by serving wenches in a similar fashion to Eddie Murphy at the start of Coming to America.

Fulham pair Zakaria Labyad and Michael Madl are set for debuts but Tim Ream, who almost signed for Rangers last summer, has the trots.

Elsewhere: Sky are billing this 3,546th round of Championship sludge as their "derby day revenge weekend spectacular". We;re up first, getting the best china out for Tarquin and Rupert's arrival following a 4-0 reverse earlier this season while the Champions of Europe welcome Boro on Monday night having lost 3-0 at the Riverside earlier in the season. While technically both in Yorkshire, derby match seems to be stretching it a little bit. Wouldn't want to pop from one to the other for a bag of chips.

That leaves ten other fixtures in the much sought-after, rarely achieved Saturday 15.00 kick off time. Among them, some awkward assignments for the promotion chasing teams — Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah at the Mad Chicken Farmers for instance, or Big Spending Burnley away to Waitrose. Sheffield Owls are at home to Abacus.

Bending down to tie their shoelaces is an awkward assignment for the Derby Sheep at the moment, and following the sacking of Paul Clement earlier this week, bizarrely for trying too hard to win promotion, it'll be interesting to see if their meltdown continues at home to Franchise. The bad news for them is fourth-placed Brighton have a gimme at home to Barings Bank so can pull further clear.

Down at the bottom, the eighth annual Neil Warnock farewell tour starts with his Rotherham team hosting Brum. Looking and behaving more like Bette Midler with each passing year, you can't help but feel that for all his protestations about wanting to retire to his farm in Cornwall he'll one day be carried out of a midtable Championship clash in a box.

His arrival is not good news for the other teams down there though, as Rotherham surely now have a wonderful chance of staying up. Of the teams we haven't mentioned so far, Belgium's Finest host the Red Dragons while Bristol City, themselves under the new management of Lee Johnson, are at home to Ipswich.

Wolves and Preston is also taking place, though I'm not sure many people would notice if they didn't bother and simply phoned a draw in from the pub.

Referee: Just as last week with Charles Breakspear, we have a referee making his Loftus Road debut on Saturday with Tim Robinson in the middle. The West Sussex whistler has been on fourth official duty here before but never refereed a game in W12 until now. This is his fourth season on the league list. Stats here.

Form

QPR: Rangers are unbeaten in five going into this match and have lost only one of the last 13 games in the league. Three of those five, and seven of those 13, have been drawn but out of form Fulham and bottom of the table Bolton next week may offer a chance to start turning some of those single points into wins. Famous last words. Only Hull and Forest have won at Loftus Road this season, and both of those victories were heavily Rob Green assisted, but Rangers have only won five of the other 13 with eight draws on their own patch hindering forward progress. Green hadn't kept a clean sheet in five matches prior to being replaced by Alex Smithies who has kept three in four matches since mercifully being promoted to the starting 11.

Fulham: Fulham, four points and three places above the relegation places, are struggling for form home or away at the moment. They've won just one of their last 16, three of their last 22 and three of their last 25 matches in all competitions. They've drawn two of the last three, at home to Derby and away to Huddersfield, but have scored one goal or fewer in five of their last six outings and their goal against Derby last time out went down as an own goal. When they do score, it's often from long range — 12 goals from outside the area is a division high. Notoriously bad travellers, they've won just two of their 14 away matches in the league this season (at basement dwellers Bristol City and Rotherham) and seven of the 37 road trips they've made in the Championship since being relegated 18 months ago. Only Bolton (0) and MK Dons (1) have won fewer away from home this season. We've all seen this one before — Fulham have lost just one of nine meetings with Rangers.

Predictions: Reigning Prediction League champion isawqpratwhitecity tells us…

"I know we'd all like to repay Fulham with interest on the snotting they gave us at Craven Cottage last year. The timing is certainly good. Our form under Jimmy is getting better in gratifying, incremental steps. It feels like we are genuinely building, brick by brick. Fulham's is appalling, genuinely shocking. Since the end of October their record is 1-6-8. Of course that means an upset is on the cards, but let's not be superstitious. I hope someone's been practising getting the ball into the net this week."

Jim's Prediction: QPR 2-1 Fulham. Scorer: Junior Hoilett

LFW's Prediction: QPR 2-1 Fulham. Scorer: Seb Polter

The Twitter @loftforwords

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Burnleyhoop added 11:24 - Feb 13 Excellent read and nails the feeling that progress is finally being made. Will be disappointed not to see Ale or Connor on show as they are key to our newly found dynamic approach. Non the less, the change in belief and application JFH has instilled should see us over the line. JFH is clearly a winner and demands a work rate previously not evident from previous incumbents. It's too late to make an impact this season, but agree that our pre-season starts now and some further experimentation can and should be expected. That's fine by me, but as a fan base we need to remain patient and grounded if it throws up a few poor performances. Roll on a good run for England in the summer and a fully prepared QPR squad at the start of the 2016/2017.

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