With the rest of the Championship starting to really sit up and take note, QPR have another chance to lay down a marker on national television this evening as high flying Leicester City visit Loftus Road.

Queens Park Rangers (7th) v Leicester City (5th)
Coca Cola Championship
Friday October 30, Kick Off 8pm
Loftus Road, London, W12

No, still not going to do it. I will apologise to Jim Magilton, but not yet. “A bottom of the barrel appointment to a poison chalice of a job that nobody else would take,” was just about the sum total of my opinion when magilton was appointed in the summer. A manager that nobody else wanted in a job that nobody in their right mind wanted to take. Like I say, if this continues, I’ll write to the bloke and apologise. Regular readers would of course be able to tell him that I’ve no idea what I’m talking about anyway.

This could still all go wrong. Nothing is guaranteed. We’re not even halfway through the season, and not even in the top six as things stand on this Friday morning. While we may go on and win the league at a canter, we may also crash and burn and miss the play offs altogether. If it’s the latter then I think it will be something we do, rather than anything inflicted on us by the other 23 teams. By that I mean that I do not think there is a team in this division that can live with our current set up. You may be able to stop Routledge, Taarabt, Buzsaky and Simpson - but you’ll do very, very well to stop all four of them, all at the same time, for an entire match.

I do not believe there is a team in this league capable of doing that - although tonight’s opponents Leicester are better placed than most to give it a go judging by their cautious, solid and unadventurous set up against Reading on Monday night. Leicester don’t concede many goals and will certainly be more difficult to break down than our last three opponents who were simply cut to ribbons by a QPR side that should never really have been allowed in the ring with Preston, Reading or Derby such was the scale of the mismatch. Leicester though are chronically short of pace at the back and so again I wonder whether they’ll be able to hang onto the coat tails of Routledge and Taarabt, and if they can whether they’ll then have anybody left to stop Buzsaky and Faurlin pulling the strings in the subsequent space created.

God it’s good to be talking about QPR in this way. Everybody I have spoken to was seriously impressed with us at Derby on saturday night, and some have even said they’re looking forward to seeing us tonight. It could, and probably will, all go tits up at some point and QPR have never been very good on Sky, but the more I see of us the more I think this is all in our own hands - only we can spoil this for ourselves. Keep playing as we are and there’s no stopping us.

Five minutes on Leicester
Recent History:Leicester are one of a plethora of clubs who lived the premiership dream and then paid the price when they were relegated. Feared and difficult to play against at their Filbert Street Ground under Martin O’Neill, who won two League Cups for the Foxes, achieved four consecutive top ten finishes in the Premiership and guided them into Europe, they found the going tougher when he left to take charge at Celtic and was replaced by Peter Taylor who started well but faded badly the more money he spent. He was sacked midway through the 2001/02 season and replaced by a combination of dave Bassett and Mickey Adams. They could not prevent relegation though and their first season at the new, shiny, soulless, horrible Walkers Stadium was played out in the second tier.

Leicester then became a typical Mickey Adams side - effective, difficult to play against and beat but pretty dire to watch. They were promoted despite spending much of the season in administration, an arrangement they controversially exited by paying creditors just 10p in the pound, and facing a lengthy transfer embargo. Their stay back in the top flight was brief, just one year, and Adams resigned in October 2004 after relegation to be replaced by former Hearts boss Craig Levein. Leicester were nevertheless relegated and have not been back, or been close to going back, since.

Administration was exited after a takeover by former player Gary Lineker and his consortium, but was then bought in 2007 by former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric. The Serb was well regarded at Fratton Park where he led the club into the Premiership and kept it there but it is worth remembering that he worked his way through five managers before getting to Harry Redknapp with whom he enjoyed such success and then two further dodgy foreign appointments before patching up his differences with ‘Arry and giving him another shot at the job. His managerial turnover showed no signs of abating at the Walkers Stadium either where Rob Kelly was removed almost as soon as Mandaric’s backside had touched his office chair for the first time and a procession of managers then came and went.

Nigel Worthington was charged with keeping them up at the end of the 2006/07 season, which he did but was not retained. Martin Allen’s promising work at Barnet and Brentford earned him a shot at the 2007/08 season but he was sacked in september and replaced by Gary Megson who then quickly walked out to join Bolton. Ian Holloway was then installed and although Olly seemed very pleased with this, saying it was nice to be in King Lear after years of Eastenders, he made a bit of pig’s ear of a difficult situation and relegated them to the third tier. Holloway is best doing what he is doing now at Blackpool and did before at Bristol Rovers, QPR and Plymouth - small club, small budget, over achieving. At Leicester when presented with some genuine resources he simply returned for the likes of Barry Hayles and Steve Howard who he had always bought anyway.

Relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history Leicester looked like being a Mandaric inspired disaster. However, as he did at Portsmouth, the maverick owner then stumbled across a managerial appointment that really worked. Nigel Pearson has done a fabulous job so far - promoting Leicester at the first attempt and building a side this year that not only looks capable of consolidating but perhaps even pushing on to greater things. As at Portsmouth it suddenly looks like there was some method to Mandaric’s madness with Leicester well placed in fifth going into the Christmas period.

The Manager: Pearson played at centre half for Shrewsbury, Sheff Wed and Middlesbrough and enjoyed a brief spell as manager at Carlisle in the late 1990s – his final match at Brunton Park was the famous Jimmy Glass match against Plymouth when his goalkeeper scored with the last kick of the game to secure their football league status at Scarborough’s expense. Despite that Pearson seemed destined to be a sort of Chris Hughton figure – an excellent coach and assistant manager, but not a manager. He worked with Gary Megson at Stoke, Bryan Robson at West Brom, and Glenn Roeder at Newcastle.

Pearson always strikes me as quite a dour guy, monotone, boring even, certainly not managerial material. However in his last two jobs he has done superbly well and is now one of the hottest properties around. He must have something about him. At Southampton he took over in February and led them to safety against the odds with a point at West Brom and a 3-2 win against play off chasing Sheff Utd after going 1-0 down in the final game. Nevertheless Rupert Lowe, in his wisdom, got rid of him in favour of Jan Poortvliet and his half baked academy merger idea that ultimately saw the Saints relegated just 12 months after Pearson had worked miracles to save them.

Pearson picked himself up, took the job at Leicester City and led them to the League One title at the first attempt. At Portsmouth Milan Mandaric worked his way through several managers before dropping on with Harry Redknapp, after a tumultuous first season with Martin Allen, Gary Megson and Ian Holloway at the Walkers Stadium Mandaric may just have found his magic man again. He has built on last season’s free scoring success by solidying his team for a season of Championship consolidation that could turn out rather better than that if they keep up recent results. A promising young manager whose reputation is growing week by week at the moment.

Three to Watch: Obviously the player everybody has their eye on this season is hot shot striker Matt Fryatt who bagged an astonishing 32 goals in leicester’s promotion season last term and is now being relied upon to fire the goals to consolidate their position in this league. Of course if he gets anything like his total from last year Leicester may well do much more than simply consolidate and the early signs are good with eight goals already and the Foxes lying fifth in the table. Fryatt has played at this level before with Leicester after signing from Walsall in 2006 but struggled badly with injuries and confidence issues so many doubted whether he could make the step back up despite his heroics last year - it’s probably this poor previous spell in the second tier that restricted interest from other clubs in the young forward when he was banging them in last year while clubs went crazy for Simon Cox and Jermaine Beckford who both scored less. Fryatt has failed to score in his last six though since bagging a brace in a 3-3 draw at Watford in September and missed two gilt edged, one on one chances at Reading on Monday night before being substituted on the hour. While QPR have been anything but typical of themselves so far this season how like Rangers it would be to give a striker on a barren run a helping hand with a tame goal.

While Leicester are backed by Milan Mandaric’s money they were relatively quiet in the summer transfer market. Their biggest signing money wise was a very shrewd one - £1m prized Ritchie Wellens away from Doncaster Rovers. QPR fans will remember Wellens from our time in league One where he was always the most impressive member of the Blackpool sides we did battle with. He has been sent off at Loftus Road before, towards the tale end of the infamous 5-0 thrashing of Pool in August 2003, and is a niggly, hard, irritating opponent to play against. The former Man Utd trainee isn’t all hang em and flog em though, he has a range of passing that means he can easily cope with this higher level and an eye for the odd goal as well with 37 in his career so far. He goes box to box and complements the equally solid and dependable Matt Oakley perfectly in City’s midfield. Last year Doncaster Rovers were everybody’s tip to go straight back down and Wellens was a big part of the reason they didn’t, and his departure is the main reason I tipped Rovers to drop this year. For a team first and foremost looking to consolidate at a new higher level this season like Leicester he was a superb buy in the summer and Pearson was right to work so hard to get him.

Although I am meant to avoid repeating words in articles I cannot help but continue to use ‘solid’ and ‘dependable’ to describe our opponents this Friday night. Leicester are difficult to play against, difficult to score against, and difficult to beat. One of the main reasons for that is another shrewd Pearson signing Wayne Brown at centre half. I was impressed with brown when, as a youngster, he came to Rangers during our relegation season on loan from Ipswich. While obviously criminally short of pace, in the Championship he can organise and lead a defence with a calm, no-nonsense attitude. If it needs heading he heads it, if it needs kicking he kicks it - tough, steady, reliable. he’s sort of this decade’s Malky Mackay - the Scot was promoted from this league with Norwich, West Ham and Watford and every time he stepped up a league the pace of the forwards was too much for him so he simply stepped back down again and led another team up from a league he could play in. Brown has struggled badly on the rare occasions he has been used in the Premiership, most recently with Hull, but looked brilliant in this league for the Tigers, Colchester, Watford and now Leicester. Another very shrewd signing and one I’ve always thought we should have made ourselves back in 2001 when he was here.

Scout Report: Having sat and watched Leicester at Reading on Monday purposefully to write a scouting report for this match I found myself reaching full time with about five lines written down. Leicester are solid, that’s the best way of describing them. On Monday against Reading they sent almost all of their play through paul Gallagher, the slender former Blackburn striker who has had numerous loan spells in this division and who started wide on the left at the Madejski Stadium. This was a reasonable thing to do as Reading had Jay Tabb at right back who is not a full back and had had an absolute nightmare against QPR in Reading’s previous fixture. Whether Leicester will do that against us remains to be seen, I doubt it somehow. Up front they have Fryatt who likes to play on the shoulder of the last defender and sniff out penalty box chances, he missed two or three great ones against Reading, and Martyn Waghorn who looks too fat to be a professional footballer but buzzes around defenders Paul Dickov style. They brought battering ram Steve Howard off the bench in the second half, he seemed to have been left out to accommodate this idea with Gallagher against Tabb, and against a more physical defence like Gorkss and Stewart may well be used from the start. Waghorn got the only goal of the game, flicking a header home at the near post where Leicester send the majority of their corners. Their midfielders are all quite similar - no real pace, no real out and out defensive or attacking players, just good, hard, steady passers of the ball. At the back they look to be chronically short of pace which should benefit Taarabt and Routledge. Basically don’t expect anything spectacular on this evidence - if the ball is in Leicester’s they hoof it away, any football played is done exclusively in the final third of the pitch where they look to get the ball as quickly as possible rather than build from the back. Out of position watch them quickly set up two banks of four, deep lying in their own half to shield against anybody with pace. A solid and frustrating team to play against.

Links >>> Leicester Official Website >>> Leicester Message Board

History
Recent Meetings:
Ian Holloway was in charge of the visitors the last time Leicester came to Loftus Road, on New Year’s Eve 2007. The Foxes would end the season relegated but at the time of the game it was QPR in serious trouble at the bottom of the table despite a surprise 4-2 Boxing Day win at Watford. Rangers took to the air to make it two wins in as many matches - Damion Stewart and Adam Bolder scored headers in the first half hour before Dexter Blackstock thumped one in from a corner at the Loft End in the second. Iain Hume’s fine free kick reduced the arrears and made the final half hour a somewhat more nervous affair than it needed to be but Rangers were comfortable winners in the end and ultimately avoided relegation with something to spare under popular manager Luigi De Canio.

QPR: Camp 7, Barker 8, Stewart 8, Bolder 7 (Nygaard 74, 6),Blackstock 8 (Walton 90, -), Ainsworth 7 (Mahon 67, 6), Buzsaky 8, Rowlands 8, Malcolm 7, Vine 7, Rehman 7
Subs Not Used: Cole, Balanta
Booked: Bolder (foul)
Goals: Stewart 15 (assist Buzsaky), Bolder 26 (assist Blackstock), Blackstock 56 (assist Vine)

Leicester: Henderson 5, Stearman 5, McAuley 5, Kisnorbo 5,Mattock 5 (Howard 31, 7), James Chambers 5 (Wesolowski 57, 5),N'Gotty 3 (Sheehan 62, 5), Clemence 6, Hume 7, Fryatt 6, Hayles 5
Subs Not Used: Hayes, Kenton
Booked: Wesolowski (dissent), Hayles (foul)
Goals: Hume 59 (assisted Clemence)

John Gregory was still the QPR manager the last time these sides met at the Walkers Stadium. QPR were still searching for their first win of the 2007/08 season but had just been taken over by Flavio Briatore, Lakshmi Mittal and Bernie Ecclestone so optimism was high. Their first signing was Mikele Leigertwood from Sheffield United and he equalised with a fine 25 yard drive eight minutes from time after Iain Hume had converted a generous penalty for the hosts on the hour. Only Danny Nardiello, who never scored during his time with QPR, will know how he failed to convert a winning chance deep into stoppage time.

Leicester: Fulop 7, N'Gotty 6, Kisnorbo 8, McAuley 7, Sheehan 7, Hume 8, Clemence 7, Wesolowski 7, Porter 8 (Kishishev 78, 5), Campbell 7 (Chambers 73, 5), Cort 5 (De Vries 90, -)
Subs Not Used: Henderson, Newton
Booked: McAuley (foul)
Goals: Hume 63 pen (assisted Campbell)

QPR: Camp 7, Cullip 8, Stewart 6, Rehman 5, Barker 5, Rowlands 5, Leigertwood 6, Bolder 5 (Ephraim 72, 8), Moore 3, Blackstock 6, Sahar 5 (Nardiello 46, 7)
Subs Not Used: Cole, Bignot, Curtis
Booked: Leigertwood (foul)
Goals: Leigertwood 82 (assisted Rowlands)

Head to Head:
QPR wins – 23
Draws – 10
Leicester wins – 18

Previous Results:
2007/08 QPR 3 Leicester 1 (Stewart, Bolder, Blackstock)
2007/08 Leicester 1 QPR 1 (Leigertwood)
2006/07 Leicester 1 QPR 3 (Nygaard 2, Idiakez)
2006/07 QPR 1 Leicester 1 (Rowlands)
2005/06 QPR 2 Leicester 3 (Ainsworth, Shittu)
2005/06 Leicester 1 QPR 2 (Nygaard, Furlong)
2004/05 Leicester 1 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 3 Leicester 2 (Furlong 2, Cook)
1994/95 QPR 2 Leicester 0 (Wilson, McDonald)
1994/95 Leicester 1 QPR 1 (Willis og)

Links >>> QPR 3 Leicester 1 Match Report >>> Leicester 1 QPR 1 Match Report >>> Match Report Archive

This Friday
Team News: Jim Magilton is highly likely to stick with the same team that came from two down to vanquish Derby last Saturday. Ben Watson is serving the second game of his ban for the ridiculous sending off against Reading so mahon and Faurlin will continue as the only practicle solution in the middle of midfield. The only real choice for the manager to make is whether or not to pick Ramage or Leigertwood at right back. Lee Cook, Matt Connolly and Martin Rowlands are long term absentees.

Leicester boss Nigel Pearson is also unlikely to make many changes following Monday night’s win at Reading although Steve Howard and DJ Campbell, both second half subs at the Madejski, will push Paul Gallagher, Matty Fryatt and Martyn Waghorn all the way for their starting places in attack. Aleksandar Tunchev is the only injury, he is recovering from knee surgery.

Elsewhere: QPR are first up this weekend and can go third with a win, second with a three goal success. The other two headline acts appear to be the Sunday fixture between in form Cardiff and Nottingham Forest who are both in the play off places, and then Monday night’s televised match between Sheffield United who have slipped a little of late and Newcastle United who have had another tumultuous week. On saturday the stand out fixtures are West Brom hosting this season’s surprise package Watford, and two of the teams struggling at the bottom when many expected better Ipswich and Derby meeting at Portman Road.

Referee: After the infuriating displays of our last two referees it is something of a relief to see Jon Moss and Mike Russell listed for our next two matches - two referees who normally like to give a game every chance to progress without inteference or red cards for taking quick free kicks. Moss, a school teacher from West Yorkshire, is first up on Friday night - he refereed QPR twice last season, click below for details.

Links >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List >>> Arthur Gnohere Discipline Counter  >>> Tony's Championship Preview >>> Moss referees Leicester game >>> Referee League

Form
QPR: Rangers are absolutely flying at the moment. They have won their last three games, scoring four goals in each in the process. Last week at derby they picked up their third away win of the campaign, as manay as they managed in the whole of last season, by coming from two goals down to beat Derby 4-2 - the same Derby team that had drawn 0-0 with Leicester the week before. Nobody has won at Loftus Road yet this season with Preston, Reading, Accrington and Barnsley beaten, and 15 goals scored in the process, and Forest, peterborough and Blackpool getting away with 1-1 draws before the team really clicked. Nobody has won here since Norwich in March some 13 matches ago.

Leicester: Despite the goals flying in for Rangers their slow start to the season continues to hold them back. Leicester have been consistently decent since minute one and come to Loftus Road with a proud away record of just one defeat from seven away games in the Championship so far. That came at newcastle, where they were unlucky not to get a point, and they have won at Middlesbrough and Reading since then in a run of four road trips without defeat. The Foxes are unbeaten in five overall since a 2-1 home defeat by Preston. Only Swansea have conceded less than their six on the road this season, and they have shipped just 11 overall. Last season’s 32 goal hero striker Matty Fryatt is without a goal in six appearances.

Prediction: I know I get told off but it is hard to predict anything other than QPR wins at the moment such is the style, quality and confidence being displayed by our team. I’ve read message board postyings form leicester fans describing this as their biggest test so far and fearing the worst a little. I really can’t see another whitewash, and I actually think money on a draw wouldn’t be a bad bet with Leicester posing a very solid obstacle to overcome but, ultimately, I think we may just have enough to do it.
QPR by one


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