Hasselbaink returns to old stomping ground — Preview Tuesday, 27th Sep 2016 11:26 by Clive Whittingham QPR, who change managers all the time to no great effect, tonight travel to Burton, who get their managers poached but keep winning all the same. Burton Albion v Queens Park RangersChampionship >>> Tuesday September 27, 2016 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather — Cloudy, warm >>> Pirelli Stadium, Burton-upon-Trent It did occur to me while testiculating prior to the Huddersfield game about an away match at a team leading the league on half our budget, with twice as many weird and wonderful European signings to bed in, playing much better football being the last thing that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink needed, with pressure mounting from the QPR supporters, that he wasn’t really in a position to bemoan his bad luck. After all, in theory, what a manager needs is a nice easy start to get a load of points on the board, including home matches against the worst teams to enable the team to find its feet and get its eye in. By the end of August QPR had played four of the bottom five, and won neither of their home games against two of the teams propping up the fledgling table at the time — Blackburn and Preston. You’ve got to play somebody half decent eventually. Nevertheless, this week doesn’t look ideal. Tonight Hasselbaink returns to Burton Albion, the club he managed for little more than a year, promoted from League Two and secured at the top of League One before moving to Loftus Road. Now quite apart from Burton’s desire to get one over on their former boss, show him he was wrong to leave and beat a third former Premier League team of the season already, this game looks a tricky encounter. For Burton are one of those annoyingly well-run clubs with no debt, outstanding facilities, stability and a sensible chairman. They didn’t skip a beat when Gary Rowett left to be replaced by Hasselbaink, nor when the Dutchman moved south and club legend Nigel Clough returned to the hotseat. Chairman Ben Robinson has only ever sacked one manager in his long reign here — Paul Peschisolido — and has seen three of his last four bosses poached by supposedly bigger clubs, but still the relentless climb out of non-league and into the second tier of English football has continued. When you look at Burton, QPR’s talk of “stability” is laughable, and once more we have some clamouring for another managerial change just ten months after the last. QPR are similar to Burton in that managerial changes don’t seem to make any difference — Burton keep winning, QPR keep losing — but that doesn’t stop the ‘more blood’ attitude prevailing at Loftus Road. This may be minnows against a supposedly big club, but Burton are streets ahead of QPR in infrastructure and foundations — something Lee Hoos and Les Ferdinand are working desperately hard to change, to precious little thanks from anybody. In fact, in a new peak of small mindedness, some now want to take issue with Ferdinand being included in the official team photograph. Sad times, sad people, and they’ll be out in force on the first peep of the full time whistle tonight should Rangers not win handsomely while playing magnificent football. Likewise on Saturday at Fulham, where all of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s predecessors, including even Neil Warnock who has been the only man to eek any blood from this particular stone over the last decade, have had their arse handed to them in embarrassing circumstances. The weird West London food chain situation, where QPR hate Chelsea but Chelsea don’t care about us, and Fulham and Brentford hate us but we don’t reciprocate, means Rangers are regularly caught out by the intensity of the home side and in fact have been 3-0 down by half time in three of their last four visits to Craven Cottage. That long, drawn out walk from the Wendy House across the field to the dugouts can be a lonely, traumatic experience for a QPR manager under pressure as Harry Redknapp and Chris Ramsey both discovered. It doesn’t take too much of a stretch of imagination to imagine Hasselbaink making that trek under a hail of fire on Saturday lunchtime. One can only hope that Saturday’s improvements against Birmingham continue into positive performances and results in these two away games. The two Polish lads, in particular, were impressive against the Blues and will hopefully play similar key roles over the next 180 minutes. It has occurred to me that we’re rather prone to giving debutants man of the match on this site, as we did with Ariel the South Pole on Saturday. While I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, I do wonder if there’s a certain confidence and adrenalin in the player which wanes after the first appearance, and the excitement of seeing somebody new — particularly when he’s replacing Karl Henry — skews our thinking somewhat. Hopefully Borysiuk is selected and carries on Saturday’s form, while Wzsolek continues whipping over those dangerous crosses. Hopefully this, hopefully that, hopefully it goes well. It’s not nice when it gets toxic at QPR, however much some seem to relish it. Links >>> House that Ben built — Opposition Profile >>> Bouyant Burton — Interview >>> Duncan in charge — Referee Highlights, if you can call them that and if you can stand to watch them, of the only previous competitive meeting between these sides — a 1-0 win for then League Two Albion against then Premier League QPR in the League Cup two seasons ago. The sides met this summer in a pre-season friendly which finished 1-1, Nedum Onuoha scored a deflected goal for the R’s. TuesdayTeam News: Despite suffering a hamstring injury against Birmingham on Saturday, Jordan Cousins apparently might be available for this one. Likewise Seb Polter, despite his seemingly obvious continued struggles with a glute injury. Two games in four days usually sees Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink make changes, and Pawel Wzsolek must be pushing for a start after an impressive substitute display at the weekend. Whether Ariel Borysiuk can manage two games back to back after his injury problems, and what the reaction would be if he was left out in favour of Karl Henry, remains to be seen. James Perch, Jamie Mackie and Ben Gladwin are long term absentees. Burton are without Tom Flanagan who is grounded, and have doubts over four others. Damien McCrory (ingrowing toenail), John Brayford (ingrowing fingernail), Ben Turner (ingrowing eyelash) and Chris O’Grady (ingrowing brain) could all miss out. Elsewhere: A full volley of 12 Championship fixtures in this latest midweek round, including six of the seven teams beginning with B playing at home, which I throw in merely because I have to write 46 of these fucking ‘Elsewhere’ bits a season and trying to find genuine interest, intrigue and angles in a league based purely around gritty attrition has melted my brain to a pulp. That and all the beer. The game of the round is probably Newcastle v Norwich on Wednesday, though to be honest it’s pretty slim pickings all round. Developing storylines can be moved along a little further at Barnsley, where the Aston Villa Train Wreck can have an even brighter light shone in the victims’ eyes by the best performing newly promoted side so far. And at Cardiff where the Derby Chokers are already blue around the lips having dropped into the bottom three over the weekend. That was because they became the first team in the league to lose to the Mad Indian Chicken Farmers — potentially buoyed by that, Owen Coyle’s side host the Sheffield Owls. Borussia Huddersfield will hope to bounce back from a weekend defeat with Rotherham at home, which is as near to a gimme as you get at this level. Garry Monk is slowly turning things round at the Champions of Europe but he’ll have all on at Bristol City. High flying Brighton go to Ipswich, Tarquin and Rupert can enjoy the sights and sounds of Nottingham Trees, Brentford can climb back into the play offs by beating Waitrose at home. Birmingham v Preston looks like footballing gonorrhoea. Wigan v Wolves is a match between two teams beginning with W. Referee: Scott Duncan, who sent off Benoit Assou Ekotto for being a knob in his first QPR appointment, and was in charge of last season’s home win against MK Dons, is back in charge of the R’s for the third time in his career at Burton on Tuesday night. Details of his previous appointments and stats are available here. FormBurton: Games involving Burton Albion this season have tended to involve a lot of goals for and against — 38 in 11 matches so far, 16 for and 22 against. That said, having scored 12 in the first five games, Albion have rather eased up since and only scored four in the last six and not more than one at a time. At home they’ve beaten Sheff Wed and Derby in the league as well as League One Bury after extra time in the League Cup, but lost here against Bristol City and Brighton as well as Liverpool. Those two wins are their only ones so far, with a last minute equaliser conceded at Fulham last week denying them a first away win, a run since extended to five matches by the weekend loss at Norwich. QPR: Despite the improvements in performance and attacking intent against Birmingham, the 1-1 draw means it’s now five without a win in all competitions for QPR, and only one win from five home league matches this season. In addition, having kept three clean sheets in their first five league games, it’s now five without a shutout for the R’s and they’ve shipped 12 in that time, although that stat is obviously skewed by the Newcastle thrashing. Rangers have won two and lost two of their four away matches so far, having only won four Championship games on the road in the whole of last season. Predictions: Reigning Prediction League champion Dylan Pressman says… “QPR have had trouble winning in September but on Tuesday the Super Hoops will get back in the winning habit. Out of the blue, the R’s will score for fun and put three past Burton with the first being scored by Tjaronn Chery.” Dylan’s Prediction: Burton 1-3 QPR. Scorer — Tjaronn Chery LFW’s Prediction: Burton 1-1 QPR. Scorer — Tjaronn Chery The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
You need to login in order to post your comments |
   Blogs 31 bloggersArsenal Polls |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
