QPR are back on the road this weekend as they look to build on the promising performance and result at Cardiff with what would be their first win at Barnsley in eight attempts.

Barnsley (19th) v Queens Park Rangers (11th)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday February 28, Kick Off 3pm
Oakwell, Barnsley

When I was a lad (stop playing the Hovis music) I had a book of aerial photographs of football grounds that I would carry around with me in the back of my Dad’s car as we hurtled off to far flung away games. I would helpfully provide directions for him based on the photographs in the book and he would ignore me.

QPR were a Premiership team at this point of course and all I had ever known since birth was Rangers in the top flight. I remember after being relegated from the Premiership in 1996 (I was 11) being most put out that we would no longer be heading off to Old Trafford and St James’ Park and the other impressive pictures in my book. No, no – now it was time for some of the more salubrious parts of the country and I remember looking at the picture of Barnsley’s ramshackle Oakwell ground and not looking forward to it very much.

By the time we arrived there two new stands had been built, although QPR fans were still housed in an old wooden one with a roofless toilet out the back where you pissed against a wall on a slope and watched it run off over the feet of everybody else and, it seemed, out into the street. It was one of our first away games after relegation from the Premiership – a glorious sunny day in South Yorkshire, QPR won 3-1. Even without a manager after the sacking/resignation of Wilkins we looked a cut above Barnsley and so it was something of a surprise to my young mind that come the end of the season it was the Tykes, superbly managed by Danny Wilson who has never done anything of the sort since suggesting it may have been a fluke, that went up and not us.

Barnsley used to be a stick to beat soon to be relegated top flight teams over the head with. “Enjoy Grimsby and Barnsley” we would all say as teams struggled and ultimately failed at the bottom of the Premiership. But for one season the Tykes took unfashionable South Yorkshire grit to the big boys rather than waiting for three of them to come of their own accord each season.

On our last visit to South Yorkshire to play Sheffield Wednesday we were a team with one away win in the league all season and no goals scored in seven road matches. A team being held back from the play offs by its miserable away form. Now we are actually set up for success away from Loftus Road more than we are back in W12 – Wednesday night’s stalemate at Cardiff made it six away league games unbeaten and although four of those were draws we could easily have won all of them.

Despite a winless run in this part of the world stretching back seven matches to that 3-1 win QPR have every right to fell confident coming into this game against a Barnsley side still looking over its shoulder with just over two months of football left in the season.

Five minutes on Barnsley
This division has changed a great deal since Barnsley were promoted from it in 1997. The year the Tykes went up in second place eight of the teams in the First Division were former Premier League members – now 16 are. With parachute payments, half full new stadia and big expectations littering the league it is becoming increasingly hard, even though Barnsley are a former top flight side, for a club of their size and stature to make it out of this division the right way.

Barnsley only lasted one season in the big time you may recall and have not been back since, although they did lose the last ever play off final at the old Wembley when they went down 4-2 against Ipswich Town when Dave Bassett was the manager. The club fell on hard times thereafter - they suffered along with the rest of us when ITV Digital collapsed, went into administration in 2002 and found themselves relegated to the third tier for the 2002/03 season. Barnsley Football Club has spent the vast majority of its existence knocking around the bottom two divisions but with three sides of Oakwell well developed and Premiership football a very recent memory for supporters demotion below the halfway point in the Football League was a hard pill to swallow.

With the club on a more sound financial footing Andy Ritchie hauled it up by its boot laces back into this division with a play off final victory against Swansea in 2006 when they beat the Welsh side on penalties, our former charge Daniel Nardiello to the fore, at the Millennium Stadium. Few people tipped Barnsley for any success at the start of the season and it was a surprise for many that they made the six at all. The game looked to be up when they lost the first leg of the play off 1-0 at home to Huddersfield but they went away in the second leg and won 3-1 to set up a final down in South Wales., Swansea, led in attack by the mercurial Lee Trundle and outnumbering the Barnsley fans two to one, were clear favourites but Ritchie’s men won the day.

You could say therefore that Ritchie may have grounds to feel aggrieved that he was sacked by the club three months into the new season. Ritchie had been discussing a new contract at Oakwell at the time of his dismissal and Barnsley rejected an approach for his services from Sheffield Wednesday a month earlier but bizarrely, with Barnsley in the bottom three, Ritchie was removed because the board wanted to strengthen the team while he wanted to keep faith with the players that had got him into the league. I certainly can’t think of another case where the manager has been pushed for not spending the board’s money.

Barnsley replaced Ritchie with former Preston player Simon Davey who had been managing their youth team prior to his promotion. The appointment smacked of lacking ambition but Davey has confounded any critics and kept Barnsley in this league ever since. After fighting off relegation in his first year he set about rebuilding his squad with unknown players from far flung corners of the globe. Istvan Ferenczi (Hungary), Miguel Mostto (Peru), Marciano Van Homoet (Holland), Heinz Muller and Dominik Werling (both Germany), Kim Christensen (Denmark), Anderson De Silva and Dennis Souza (both Brazil), Roberto Colace (Argentina), Mounir El Haimour (France), Tininho (Mozambique) and Daniel Bogdanovic (Malta) have all called Barnsley home during Davey’s reign with varying degrees of success. He has mingled this bizarre collection of foreign players in with decent English league signings like Jamal Campbell Ryce, Jon Macken, Iain Hume and Luke Steele.

After watching Gary Waddock fail at QPR in his first managerial role after being promoted from within I did fear for Davey. Waddock too relied on players like Egutu Oliseh, Adam Czerkas, Nick Ward and Armel Tchakounte from warmer parts of the world and lasted barely three months into his first full season in charge. Davey however seems to have a better scouting system set up than Waddock did at Rangers, and more money to spend of course - for all the talk of QPR being a rich club there is only one side playing on Saturday that has spent a million pounds on a player this season and it isn’t us. Sadly we will be deprived of seeing the talented iain Hume this weekend thanks to an act of scandalously unpunished thuggery by professional football hooligan Chris Morgan.

Last season davey not only kept Barnsley up, which seems to be the prime aim each season at the moment for them, but also took his team on an incredible FA Cup run that included victories against Liverpool and Chelsea. The Tykes were unfortunate to lose at the Wembley semi final stage against fellow Championship side Cardiff City.

There has been no cup run this year - they were beaten 3-0 at West Ham in the FA Cup and lowly Crewe did for them in the League’s knockout competition. Nevertheless they look reasonably well equipped to stay in the division again this season despite winning just one of their last eight matches. It is hard to see how they are ever going to progress beyond their current position for any length of time though and certainly a second crack at the Premiership seems a very long way off indeed.

Men to watch
I would like to start this section by talking about Iain Hume but as I said earlier thanks to a serious assault from Sheffield United’s loveable skipper Chris Morgan that resulted in a fractured skull and brain bleed for the Canadian (Morgan got a yellow card, the FA took no further action) he will not be playing on Saturday. Neither will big lump of a target man Kayode Odajeyi, one of those players only earning a living from the game because of his size and awkwardness but we will forgive him that for his goal against Chelsea, who has joined League One Scunthorpe United. The star of last season’s cup run Brain Howard is now with Sheffield United and Jamal Campbell Ryce, always a lively presense in teams against QPR, is suspended.

So what does that leave us with then? Well Maltese striker Michael Mifsud joined on loan from Coventry City in the January transfer window and awaits his first goal for the club. When Coventry won 2-1 at Loftus Road last season Mifsud scored one and was a waspish presense in the City attack all night. His stock could hardly have been higher when he scored twice at Man Utd and Blackburn in cup competitions and bagged 15 goals in the first 23 games of the season. However after the departure of striking partner Dele Adebola things seemed to dry up for him a little. He managed only four goals in the second half of the season and had only scored twice this season for the Sky Blues prior to his move. Admitedly he played a substantial amount of these games wide on the right but the sudden collapse in his form and the way Crystal Palace and Bristol City both pulled out of deals to sign him in the summer straight after meeting him for the first time sets a few alarm bells ringing. I advocated us making a move for him in the summer and still rate him quite highly but it will be interesting to see how he performs against us on saturday compared to that showing when he was in top form with Coventry.

His new partner in attack is fellow countryman Daniel Bogdanovic who scored on his debut against Ipswich at Oakwell. Jon Macken is available as well - he burst onto the scene with preston but never seemed able to cope with the expectations heaped on him following a subsequent £5m move to Man City and has drifted from club to club without any notable success since. Macken’s main problem is his chronic lack of pace.

In midfield Davey has added Liverpool youngster Adam Hammill to his arsenal on loan. hammill enjoyed successful stints with Southampton at the end of last season and Blackpool at the start of the current one as he continues his footballing education. Winger Martin Devaney has been linked with a move to QPR in the past, and almost joined Blackpool last summer, but only made the bench in their last match against Charlton as davey went with an exotic midfield four of Campbell-Ryce, Colace, De Silva and Teymourian. You would think with JCR suspended that davey will turn to either Hammill or Devaney to fill the gap. Diego Leon and Anderson De Silva alwys impress me when I see Barnsley play.

A reshuffle is required at the back as well where darren Moore is suspended. That’s actually more of a blow to us than it is to Barnsley - Moore is always good for a needless penalty concession and really looking his age these days. The other centre half is captain Stephen Foster who I have never really rated either but he won the Barnsley Player of the Year award last year ahead of brian Howard and Campbell Ryce so he must have something about him. German Heinz Muller is the current number one ahead of last season’s cup hero Luke Steele.

Previous Meetings
QPR opened this season with a narrow 2-1 victory against Barnsley at Loftus Road. With the ground developments, new shirt, new badge and new signings it was hailed as the start of a new era. For all the talk of ‘money bags’ QPR it was Barnsley that possessed the most expensive player on the pitch with Iain Hume costing them £1m from Leicester during the summer – it took Hume just five minutes to open his Tykes’ account as QPR started abysmally. In truth Barnsley should have been three up inside the first ten minutes. Rangers drew level against the run of play when Fitz Hall bundled one in from close range and then took the lead when the same man hooked home a fine goal from a corner. Hall had a chance for an unlikely hat trick in the second half but saw a penalty kick saved by Luke Steele. Any potential Barnsley come back was nipped in the bud by the late sending off of Van Homoet for a bad foul on Daniel Parejo.

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Hall 7, Gorkss 6, Delaney 6, Ledesma 7 (Alberti 83, -), Mahon 7, Leigertwood 6, Cook 6, Agyemang 5 (Parejo 72, 7), Blackstock 5
Subs Not Used: Camp, Connolly, Balanta
Booked: Cook (foul)
Goals: Hall 29 (assisted Ledesma), 31 (assisted Cook)

Barnsley: Steele 7, Devaney 7, Moore 6, Foster 6, Hassell 6 (Leon 85, -), De Silva 6, Howard 6, Van Homoet 6, Hume 7, Macken 4 (Odejayi 85, -), El Haimour 5 (Rigters 75, 6)
Subs Not Used: Kozluk, Mostto
Sent Off: Van Homoet (83) (serious foul play)
Goals: Hume 5 (assisted Howard)

Match Report

These sides produced a turgid affair at Oakwell last season when only an earthquake centred on Market Rasen later in the evening could stir those unlucky enough to be present from the comatose state brought on by this load of absolute crap. Considering how easily Rangers had brushed aside Barnsley at Loftus Road it was a shame to see us go to Oakwell with absolutely no ambition at all, although admittedly the Tykes were riding high after an FA Cup win at Liverpool three days before. Barnsley had the better of the chances with Ferenczi missing a couple of sitters but in the end the scoreline was no more than the game, played in near gale force winds, deserved.

Barnsley: Steele 7, Foster 6, Nyatanga 7, Souza 7, Van Homoet 7, Campbell-Ryce 8, Hassell, 7, Howard 7, Devaney 6 (Leon 68, 7), Macken 6, Ferenczi 4 (Odejayi 60, 6)
Subs Not Used: Togwell, Ricketts, Potter

QPR: Camp 7, Delaney 6, Hall 7, Mancienne 7, Connolly 7, Buzsaky 5 (Stewart 90, -), Rowlands 8, Leigertwood 4, Balanta 7 (Ephraim 62, 6), Blackstock 5 (Vine 78, 5), Agyemang 6
Subs Not Used: Pickens, Lee
Booked: Hall (foul), Delaney (foul)

Match Report

Head to Head:
Barnsley wins – 13
Draws – 10
QPR wins – 20

Previous Barnsley v QPR Results:
2008/09 QPR 2 Barnsley 1 (Hall 2)
2007/08 Barnsley 0 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 2 Barnsley 0 (Agyemang, Vine)
2006/07 Barnsley 2 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 1 Barnsley 0 (Rowlands)
2003/04 Barnsley 3 QPR 3 (Furlong 2, Kay og)
2003/04 QPR 4 Barnsley 0 (Gallen, Rowlands, Ainsworth, Thorpe)
2002/03 QPR 1 Barnsley 0 (Pacquette)
2002/03 Barnsley 1 QPR 0
2000/01 QPR 2 Barnsley 0 (Kiwomya, Crouch)
2000/01 Barnsley 4 QPR 2 (Kiwomya 2)
1999/00 Barnsley 1 QPR 1 (Rose)
1999/00 QPR 2 Barnsley 2 (Darlington, Steiner)
1998/99 Barnsley 1 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 2 Barnsley 1 (Langley, Gallen)
1996/97 QPR 3 Barnsley 2 (Peacock, Spencer, Sinclair)
1996/97 QPR 3 Barnsley 1 (Spencer 3)
1996/97 Barnsley 1 QPR 3 (Perry, Barker, Dichio)

Team News
As previously stated Barnsley are without Iain Hume with a fractured skull and Jamal Cambell Ruyce and Darren Moore through suspension. Diego Leon and Michael Coulson are both definitely out but Stephen Foster has responded well to treatment on an injured groin following an earlier hernia operation.

QPR, you would think, are likely to stick with the same starting eleven that did such a good job at Cardiff on Wednesday night. Martin Rowlands, Akos Buzsaky and Patrick Agyemang are long term absentees while news on a definite return date for Rowan Vine is hard to come by. Jordi Lopez is pushing for his first QPR appearance. This is the last point in the season at which you can be suspended for accumulating five yellow cards - Wayne Routledge, Matteo Alberti and Heidar Helguson are our only players currently on four.
Injury List

Referee
For the second time this season QPR have Derbyshire official Rob Shoebridge in charge of one of their away games. Before Christmas Shoebridge sent off Matt Connolly but gave Martin Rowlands three cracks at a free kick because of wall encroachment resulting in a goal in a 1-0 win at Norwich. Connolly could have few complaints with his sending off and Shoebridge’s card average is encouragingly low but he was marked poorly at Carrow Road and we must hope for better from him this Saturday with hopefully the same result.
Details

Elsewhere
The Championship kicks off on Friday night as two teams lower down the table, but nevertheless in great form, meet at the Keepmoat Stadium – Doncaster v Derby. On Saturday play off chasers Bristol City and Swansea will be confident of success with home games against struggling Blackpool and League One bound Charlton respectively. Sheffield United v Birmingham on Sunday is clearly the game of the weekend.
Tony’s Championship prevew

Form
QPR are quickly turning into the draw specialists of the Championship. The R’s are without a win in four games since a 3-0 success at Blackpool but have only lost one of those games. Rangers are also unbeaten in six away league games but have only won two of those. The R’s have three draws and four defeats in their last seven visits to Barnsley since winning here 3-1 in their first season outside the Premiership. Rangers are the joint lowest scorers at home in the top half of the table and only Plymouth have scored less than our 12 away goals this season. Ipswich, directly above us in the table, have scored 25 away from Portman Road, more than twice as many as we have managed.

Barnsley enjoyed a good Christmas, taking seven points from Plymouth, Burnley and Preston during the festivities. Since then though things have gone a little awry with five consecutive defeats against West Ham, Southampton, Norwich, Ipswich and Bristol City. That rot was stopped with a 1-0 victory at Hillsborough last week but they were held to a goalless draw by lowly Charlton at Oakwell on Saturday. At home this season they have won six and drawn four of 16 matches. The six teams to leave here with a win are Ipswich, Southampton, Reading, Sheff Utd, Cardiff and Coventry. Since beating Plymouth here before Christmas they have not won in four attempts.
Form Guide

Prediction
Hold the front page, stop the clocks, alert the authroriites - I am backing us for a win. Normally that means we slump to an inglorious defeat so if it happens I apologise but I think with the suspensions Barnsley have and the way we are playing away from home we are good value for a victory here. If we play like we did at cardiff we should be good enough to sneak it by the odd goal. Sorry!
Barnsley 0 QPR 1

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