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QPR v Sheffield United Match Preview
QPR v Sheffield United Match Preview
Friday, 22nd Feb 2008 14:00

Rangers are back in the Bush after ten days away looking to make up for the Burnley defeat with a victory against Sheffield United.

Queens Park Rangers (17th) v Sheff Utd (16th)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday February 23 2008
Loftus Road, Kick Off 3pm

For sale, one ‘Robson Out’ banner. Painted onto a white double bed spread. Angry young lady threatening spare room treatment if not removed from front of house immediately.

Ahhh there was so much potential for this match. Patrick Agyemang striding magnificently through the United defence and rolling his second, Rangers’ third, past Paddy Kenny in front of the Loft End. Half of the Sheffield United fans head for the exits, the other half stay behind after the whistle to hurl abuse and bits of the stand at their beleaguered manager on the touchline. With the QPR crest clear for all to see in the background Robson faces the media stony faced, as ever, and makes up excuses about not having enough time to put his own side together, lack of support from the fans, injuries, referees – anything but his own incompetence. Meanwhile upstairs the Sheff Utd chairman is just finishing his drink before heading below decks and firing his manager. Sky Sports report that QPR sealed “Captain Marvel’s” fate.

I’ve been dreaming about it for weeks. It would be fair to say, as those who read my preview for our game at Bramall Lane last month will already know, that I don’t have a lot of time for old Robbo. Obviously a world class player, I’ll give you that, but then the list of my grievances begins. The fact he played for Man Utd didn’t help, because I don’t like them, and the way commentators called him Captain Marvel was irritating, because I don’t like biased commentators, and the way he smiled with one side of his mouth in my sticker books grated on me, because he looked smarmy.

That was all childish stuff really – I was a child after all - but then Bryan Robson the manager came along and the fire inside me was stoked once more. Would Bryan Robson have been given another job after relegating one of Middlesbrough’s greatest ever sides, and then needing to be helped from repeating the trick by Terry Venables, if he hadn’t played for Man Utd once? Would he have got another job after relegating Bradford City in his next post if he wasn’t Captain Marvel? Or after he relegated West Brom in his third job? After all of that I could not believe he stepped straight back in last summer. He could well have relegated a perfectly reasonable side once again if he’d been allowed to see out the season in Sheffield. As it turned out, an early sack means his record of relegating every team he’s been in charge of has now gone.

I was so hoping he’d cling to his job for another week so we could be the ones to turn up hammers in hand to finish off his metaphorical coffin, but it wasn’t to be. Playing for 80 minutes against ten men from Scunthorpe without scoring meant the Iron lived out my fantasy a fortnight too soon. A 0-0 draw with West Brom was creditable, but not enough to save him.

What we have now is a problem. It was only Robson holding back what is clearly a talented Sheff Utd team, packed with quality big money players, and they’re now ready to cut loose under a competent gaffer. With James Beattie fit again, more on that shortly, and new manager syndrome probably just kicking in what looked like a banker three points is now in doubt. QPR will certainly have to defend a lot better than they did against Burnley last time out to secure a victory here and keep the Blades below us in the table.

Five minutes on Sheff Utd
So with ‘the captain’ dispatched back to the job centre, surely a permanent move this time, the Blades have turned to Kevin Blackwell to restore some pride this season and build towards a real push for promotion this time next year before the parachute money runs out. As Southampton, Norwich, Coventry, QPR and others have shown those payments ending before you can get back into the top flight can set you up for years of decline and despair. We seem to be coming out of it now, Southampton and Coventry look very much like they’re heading into it.

The 2008/09 campaign looks like a big season for the Blades then, and in Blackwell they have a man who has enjoyed great success at the Lane as a coach. Blackwell was a goalkeeper in his playing days, forging a career as a lower league journeyman with the likes of Huddersfield, Torquay, Notts County and Scarborough. He started coaching, under Neil Warnock, at Huddersfield Town and followed him down to Plymouth, then up to Bury and so on until the pair ended up together at Bramall Lane.

The undoubted high point of the pair’s time together was when they reached the semi finals of both major cup competitions and the play off final in the same season – a 3-0 defeat against Wolves at Cardiff sealed a season of nearly but not quite for the Blades. Still, reputation cemented he moved to Leeds to be a number one for the first time. He made a record number of summer signings at Elland Road as they lurched from one financial disaster to another. In his second season in charge he was allowed to spend a little money on the likes of Rob Hulse and Robbie Blake and he was back at Cardiff come May in the play off final. His side lost, again, 3-0, again. That started another crisis at Elland Road and as they struggled against relegation the season after he was sacked.

His last job before returning to Sheffield was at Luton, where he took over in the summer and started well with but financial problems beset the club and his team was sold from under him resulting in a fall out with the administrator and the sack. No doubt after all of that he’ll be grateful to be in charge of a financially secure outfit for a change.

He’s now in charge of a side with terrific potential. Well managed and financially secure, United were unlucky to be relegated last season – only coming down as a result of West Ham’s questionable behaviour and Neil Warnock’s negative tactics over the closing weeks. They play in the best ground in the Championship and in Beattie, Hendrie, Kilgallon and Kenny have a potential spine to this side that’s superior to anything else at this level.

They’ve under achieved massively this year in what continues to look a poor league – with Stoke on top and thoroughly mediocre sides like Bristol City, Crystal Palace, Watford and Charlton challenging them United fans must be looking at those squads, glancing down the list of their own players and wondering how the hell they’re 19th. To tell you the truth so am I.

Blackwell’s job now is to put some wins on the board to lift United away from the bottom three, and build for a big promotion push next season. They’re well equipped for it, and any set of fans that suffers nine months at the hands of Bryan Robson deserves success at some point so it would be hard to begrudge them it. If we’re to challenge next season, expect this to be one of the big games at the top end next season.

Who to watch out for
Sheff Utd’s main threat is striker James Beattie. He has 13 goals in 26 league starts since a summer move from Everton and obviously that’s excellent but he’s just coming back from an injury and hasn’t scored since the end of December against Blackpool. It’s probably just a coincidence but Beattie does seem to always get injured just as his manager is under pressure only to return to fitness for the new man’s first match – several managers at Southampton played out their final days in charge with Beattie looking over them from the back of the stand. Injuries have stunted what promised to be a hugely successful top flight career when he first arrived on the south coast from Blackburn. Despite the various bumps and bruises he’s a real threat in this league and will need to be handled well by whoever we pick at centre half on Saturday.

The service for Beattie comes primarily from Australian David Carney who has really come into his own over the past few weeks despite the Blades’ poor form. He impressed me in our game in South Yorkshire in January and has three goals in his last six games from midfield. His career path has been a strange one to this point – starting at Everton and moving to Sydney via Halifax and Oldham. He’s certainly making the most of his second chance on these shores. Having said all of that he was only on the bench for their cup match with Boro last week – Jon Stead started on the flank in his place.

On the other side of midfield the Blades have Lee Martin on loan from Man Utd who I seem to be writing about in this column every week. Martin played against QPR for Stoke on the final day of last season and made few friends with a display littered with play acting and simulation that culminated in Sam Timoska being sent off for two bookings. He then turned up at Plymouth before our visit there over Christmas and signed for Sheff Utd the week before we played them in January – he was suspended for our game there though. He’s likely to start this weekend and I’d imagine that if his antics from May aren’t remembered well enough for a rough reception from the home fans, they’ll soon be on his case as he spends most of the match rolling round in the mud. Very good player when he stays on his feet though and could cause us problems.

Who partners Beattie and waits for the crosses from Carney and Martin remains to be seen. United have an embarrassment of riches in attack for a team in this league and it’s even more incredible to see them as low as 19th in the league when you look at the options they have. Billy Sharp, top League One goal scorer for Scunthorpe last season and a £2.5m summer buy, started last week but he’s struggled for a run in the side and goal scoring form this season. It’s 16 games since his last goal, and he doesn’t have a league strike to his name yet, normally this only means one thing for QPR – let’s hope it doesn’t happen again. He may not get a chance to start which would be a relief – Rob Hulse is fit again and came off the bench last weekend in the cup, Luton Shelton is probably the quickest player we’ll see at Loftus Road this season and although he’s no slouch himself, traditional scourge of QPR Danny Webber doesn’t even get a look in these days.

One of Sheff Utd’s main problems this season, apart from the manager, has been a failure to get Lee Hendrie on the pitch for a consistent run of games. A goal against us at Bramall Lane looked like it might kick start his career in the Steel City but he picked up an injury against Watford a week later and hasn’t played since.

At the back Morgan provides the brawn and Kilgallon the brains and distribution from centre half. It’s a good looking partnership at this level, one that hasn’t conceded a goal in three games – although Ugo Ehiogu played for half an hour of the first match in that series. Paddy Kenny is a fine keeper, as Akos Buzsaky will testify to after the first game between these two.

One thing to watch for, other than the individuals named above, is the Blades’ unusual free kick routines. They nearly caught Boro out with one in the FA Cup last weekend when James Beattie rattled the post with a shot when it initially looked like a routine had gone horribly wrong. Manager Kevin Blackwell has warned opponents to expect more unusual antics at set pieces as he stamps his authority on his new side.

Past Meetings
Rangers blew three points that seemed to be there for the taking at Bramall Lane earlier this year. Patrick Agyemang gave QPR a first half lead with his first goal for the club and Akos Buzsaky was twice close to adding what would have been a killer second with the home fans just waiting to turn on Captain Calamity down on the touchline. After half time though the crowd got behind their players, Sheff Utd upped the tempo and QPR spectacularly caved in under the pressure. A Damion Stewart own goal and Lee Hendrie strike after an error by Camp turned the game on its head. Rangers barely had a kick in the second half until Buzsaky struck for goal in injury time – whether Kilgallon headed or punched the ball off the goal line still hasn’t been decided one way or the other. A 50/50 call for the referee, and it went against Rangers which meant a rare win for Robson as United boss, simply delaying his inevitable sacking by a few weeks.

Sheff Utd: Kenny 8, Bromby 6, Kilgallon 7, Armstrong 6, Geary 6 (Gillespie 84, -), Carney 8, Hendrie 8 (Stead 69, 6), Speed 6, Tonge 6, Hulse 6, Sharp 6 (Shelton 90, -)
Subs Not Used: Montgomery, Lucketti
Booked: Hendrie (dissent)
Goals: Stewart 64 og (unassisted), Hendrie 69 (assisted Sharp)

QPR: Camp 5, Connolly 5, Hall 6, Stewart 5, Barker 4 (Blackstock 73, 5) Lee 6, Mahon 7, Buzsaky 7, Rowlands 7, Vine 5, Agyemang 7
Subs Not Used: Bolder, Ainsworth, Walton, Ephraim
Booked: Blackstock (late tackle)
Goals: Agyemang 45 (assisted Connolly)

Match Report

Although United were only in the Premiership for one season it’s going on for three years since they were last at Loftus Road, and the teams have met twice at Bramall Lane in that time notching up a win apiece. Their last visit to the Bush came in August 2005. It was a day that made headlines for incidents off the pitch of course but on the field QPR secured an impressive 2-1 win against the soon to be promoted Blades. A 25 yard pile driver from Marc Bircham got the scoring underway, and Stefan Moore (no seriously) added a second in injury time with a fine finish at the Loft End. Everybody had such high hopes for new boy Moore after that – who’d guess that he’d only score twice more in three years at Loftus Road. A late Kabba consolation for the Blades couldn’t dampen the optimism around the Bush after a fifth, sixth and seventh point from nine at the start of the season – again who would have guessed what was to follow, board room politics and two seasons of teetering on the brink and spending more time in the front end of the papers than the back. It all started in this match, hopefully we can get a thumping good win to really signal the start of a happier era in W12 on Saturday.

Rangers: Royce 7, Bignot 6, Shittu 8, Doherty 7 (Moore 39, 8), Rose 5, Bircham 7, Gallen 7, Ainsworth 6 (Brown 69, 8), Rowlands, 8 (Bean 86, 7), Santos 8, Furlong 7.
Subs: Cole, Shimmin
Scorers: Bircham 56, Moore 90
Bookings: Bircham

Sheffield United: Kenny 6, Bromby 6, Harley 6 (Gillespie 73 6), Morgan 6, Jagielka 6, Ifill 7, Shipperley 5 (Kabba 77, 7), Webber 7, Nalis 6 (Short 73, 6), Kozluk 4, Montgomery 5
Subs: Quinn, Shaw
Scorers: Kabba
Bookings: Bromby, Shipperley, Morgan

Match Report

Head to Head
QPR wins - 15
Draws - 14
Sheff Utd wins - 12

Previous QPR v Sheff Utd results
2007/08 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 1 (Agyemang)
2005/06 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 3 (Nygaard, Morgan og, Furlong)
2005/06 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 1 (Bircham, Moore)
2004/05 Sheff Utd 3 QPR 2 (Rowlands, Gallen)
2004/05 QPR 0 Sheff Utd 1
2003/04 Sheff Utd 0 QPR 2 (Rowlands 2 – League Cup)
2000/01 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 3 (Ngonge)
2000/01 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Koejoe)
1999/00 QPR 3 Sheff Utd 1 (Steiner, Wardley, Breaker)
1999/00 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Beck)
1998/99 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 2 (Peacock pen)
1998/99 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 0
1997/98 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 2 (Sheron, Ready)
1997/98 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 2 (Murray, Morrow)
1996/97 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 0 (Barker pen)
1996/97 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Slade)
1993/94 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Barker)
1993/94 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 1 (Sinclair, Wilson pen)
1992/93 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 2 (Allen, Holloway)
1992/93 QPR 3 Sheff Utd 2 (Ferdinand, Barker, Bailey)

Team News
QPR will be without Akos Buzsaky who serves a one match ban for accumulating five bookings, Kieran Lee is the favourite to replace him wide on the right. Martin Rowlands left the field early against Burnley, and missed training on Tuesday this week but is expected to play. If he does De Canio may decide to move him to the wing in Buzsaky’s place but that would mean Leigertwood and Mahon playing together in the middle of midfield and while both players have excelled for Rangers on their own they’re a bloody nightmare when they play together. Fitz Hall has also returned to training this week after three weeks out with a groin injury – if he’s fit enough to start De Canio will be picking any two from Connolly, Rehman, Mancienne and Hall for the centre back spots and then choosing between Mancienne and Connolly for right back.

United picked Tonge and Quinn in the middle of midfield against Middlesbrough last week because Gary Speed was out with a groin injury. Speed remains a doubt for this weekend and even if he is fit there’s no guarantee that he’ll go straight back into the line up. Ugo Ehiogu and Lee Hendrie have missed the last month of action and neither are likely to be fit for this one.
Injury List

Referee
It’s a Premiership referee for this fixture, which was of a course a regular in the fledgling years of the Premier League. Steve Bennett from Kent hasn’t had a QPR match since our play off semi final draw at Oldham in 2003 when he sent off Richard Langley. He’s one of those technical officials you can tell never really played the game and certainly isn’t one of my favourites.
Details

What’s going on elsewhere?
Not much is the answer to that – it’s the most boring and run of the mill Championship fixture list you could ever wish to see. Top of the table Stoke (still can’t believe how well they’re doing) host Ipswich in the game of the day while Watford and Preston will have battles at opposite ends of the table on their mind with they meet at Vicarage Road. Scunthorpe have a great chance to stick some crucial points on the board at home to crisis club Southampton who will be deep in the mire should they surrender all three to the Iron on Saturday. No televised games, and no bloody wonder looking at the list.
Details

Form
QPR are either fantastic or absolutely awful at the moment. In the last home game against Burnley they were both within 90 minutes – playing some of their best football of the season for 45 minutes and going 2-0 up before collapsing spectacularly to a 4-2 defeat. At Southampton three days before they were excellent and won and that came on the back of an emphatic 3-0 victory against Bristol City Before that they were awful and got done by Cardiff after paralysing Barnsley and collapsing at Sheff Utd. Consistency not a strong point then. Three wins and three defeats from the last six games certainly testifies to that. The Burnley defeat was Rangers’ first at Loftus Road in six matches. For all his superb goal scoring exploits so far for QPR, Patrick Agyemang is yet to score at the Loft End.

Sheff Utd have one win, one defeat and four draws from their last six games. In fact draws have been a real problem for them this season with 12 in total. Away from home they are 20th in the form table with three draws and three defeats from their last away match. Their last away win was at Coventry on December 1 – they have won at Bolton in the cup in that time though. Like us they have four away wins to their name this season so far.
Form Table

Prediction
Ten days ago I’d have had this down as a 3-0 home win and all round my house afterwards for a ‘bye bye Bryan’ party. As it is Sheff Utd have a new, competent, manager in charge and are coming into this game with three draws and three clean sheets under their belt. They have the players to be a dominant force in this league and they may well start to show that with new manager syndrome sure to be a factor. We’ll be looking to bounce back from the Burnley debacle so, once again, I’m going for a high scoring draw.
QPR 2 Sheff Utd 2

Prediction League

 

Photo: Action Images



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