 Friday, 6th Jan 2012 21:40 by Clive Whittingham Pressure appears to be growing on QPR manager Neil Warnock after a run of eight matches without a win. QPR can arrest that slide, and put to bed an 11 year wait for an FA Cup win, by beating MK Dons away on Saturday. MK Dons v QPRFA Cup >>> Saturday January 7, 2012 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Stadium MK, Milton Keynes Time is not QPR's friend. A protracted and messy takeover that rumbled on all summer left Neil Warnock with just ten days to put together a team capable of competing in the Premiership – managers promoted through the play offs regularly complain about the three weeks of summer planning it costs them. Having started well and climbed as high as ninth despite that, Rangers then engaged in a run of fixtures against six of the current top eight sides in the division, and although they took a creditable seven points from those eight games they predictably sank down the league. There was no appetite for removing Warnock in mid November when the fantastic win at Stoke had Rangers sitting ninth, and dissenting voices were still in the minority when a home defeat by Man Utd on December 17 brought the horror run of fixtures to an end. Most, I'm sure, would have taken seven points and a win over Chelsea from that run of eight games that ended with the United defeat. If you were thinking of sacking a manager at a Premier League club though that December 17 game was probably the last opportunity you had to do it if you wanted to make the most of the January transfer window. QPR@s summer has made January crucial. Since then however Rangers have been poor and taken just a single point from winnable games with Sunderland, Swansea , and Norwich . Now the dissenting voices are louder and have been joined be CEO Philip Beard who told the official supporters club EGM that they would do whatever it takes to stay in the Premier League, and owner Tony Fernandes who said this morning that tough decisions may have to be made to secure safety. "Whatever it takes" and "tough decisions" is taken to mean that Warnock may be on shaky ground. He may want to rethink his earlier claim that the club wouldn't be taking up its option to terminate Kieron Dyer's contract in January despite him being out for the season out of some namby pamby belief that he brings a lot to the training ground – I can't imagine Fernandes is in the mood to have his money wasted given recent results. But time is the key issue here. Unless a new man is already lined up and ready to hit the ground running on Monday then I'm afraid any change now will simply see the transfer window wasted, and we'll be in the situation we were in back in the summer all over again trying to cram weeks of activity into days. We can ill-afford that with everybody recognising that a strong performance in the transfer market this month is crucial to our hopes of survival. But allowing Warnock to strengthen the team and then sacking him later if it hasn't gone well doesn't strike me as a wonderful idea either. QPR's fixtures have fallen in such a way that if we are to survive the bulk of the points needed to do it must be achieved by the time we've played Bolton away at the beginning of March. It would have to be some manager to come in and turn it around with somebody else's players over our last ten matches this season. The more I look at it, the more I believe we have to stick with Warnock to the end of the season regardless. The timing doesn't work for us to do anything else. That we're even contemplating changing our manager still doesn't sit well with me. Warnock is somebody with vast experience, who turned our club around from a desperate position and made it a Premiership side within 18 months on a small budget. He's put up with a lot at QPR, dealt with it well and achieved everything that has been asked of him. Despite the recent troubles we are still outside the relegation zone which is the target for this season. Currently we're on course to achieve what we set out to do and as far as I'm concerned he did a fine job up until December 17, it's only in the last four games where things have gone awry. The man deserves more support than he's currently getting across the message boards. But at the same time I'm growing concerned about a number of things currently going on at Rangers. I look at how this group of players performed against Newcastle , Wolves and Stoke and wonder why they're falling so far below those standards now. I look at the constantly changing team and formation and wonder if Warnock actually knows what his best line up and system is – and if he doesn't then how is he going to buy players this January to fit into it? Andy Johnson, for instance, has been linked this week but where does he fit in the 4-2-3-1 we've reverted back to of late? And why can we not take set pieces? I mean set pieces of any kind, including throw ins. How hard can that be? I wonder about his man management of Taarabt and Traore in recent times as well. I'm still firmly in Warnock's camp but the team is not performing at the moment, it must start to do so really quickly because the games we have coming up are crucial. I don't expect to see the second string side in action at MK Dons in quite the same way as we have in previous cup games partly because the team needs a win to breed confidence, but also because with the way things are going at the moment Warnock needs a win to stay in a job. Links >>> Opposition Focus >>> Travel Guide >>> Referee This SaturdayTeam News: Neil Warnock must decide how many players to rest, and how seriously he wants to take this game, when selecting his team for the game. Warnock has been very open about his lack of interest in cup competitions since arriving at Rangers and given that we're scrapping to stay up it wouldn't be a great surprise to see a reserve side fielded here and concentration focused firmly on the league. But a defeat could damage morale further and undermine his position as manager. Joey Barton is suspended after his appeal against his sending off last week was ridiculously rejected by the FA – he now serves a three match ban. Armand Traore and Adel Taarabt are about to fly to the African Nations Cup and are unlikely to feature. Federico Macheda has been cleared to play by his parent club Manchester United. MK Dons are likely to be without striker Charlie McDonald, who scored his first ever professional goal against QPR in an FA Cup tie for Charlton 12 years ago this month. He picked up a knee injury against Colchester and is unlikely to be fit. Adam Smith, who has impressed as an attacking right back during his loan spell from Tottenham, is eligible to play as part of the terms of his deal and returns to the team after a one match ban for yellow card accumulation. Elsewhere: FA Cup Third Round day is one of the most anticipated days of football action in the whole season, although it is now more of a long weekend than the traditional first Saturday in January. Matches start tonight with Liverpool v Oldham and finish on Monday evening when Arsenal host Leeds in a televised fixture. There are four games on Sunday including the tie of the round Man City v Man Utd. The television cameras are covering two games for ESPN on Saturday – an early kick off between Birmingham and Wolves and a late match between managerless Bristol Rovers and Premiership side Aston Villa. The pick of the 3pm kick offs is arguably the tramway derby match between Conference side Fleetwood and Championship outfit Blackpool . That, and Stoke's visit to Gillingham , look like the main potential upsets at 3pm. Referee: Fresh from the controversial defeat against Norwich and dismissal of Joey Barton, QPR find themselves face to face with another official who did them few favours earlier this season. Michael Oliver, the Premiership's youngest referee, takes charge this weekend at Stadium MK. His last QPR fixture was the home game with Aston Villa in September where Villa were awarded a highly debatable penalty kick and QPR had at least one blatant spot kick of their own turned down. Click here for Oliver's full QPR case file. FormMK Dons: The Dons have scored in all but one of their last 12 matches and only three other clubs, including the two Manchester giants, have scored more goals than them in the league this season - 48. They currently sit fourth in League One and have only lost once at home all season, to Preston . They have won six of their 12 home matches this season but have never reached the FA Cup fourth round. They reached this stage of the competition with a 3-1 win at Barnet and a 6-0 home win against Nantwich in the previous rounds. They have lost just one of their last 11 matches and scored 32 goals in those matches – QPR have scored 12 in their last 11 games by way of comparison. QPR: Rangers have the worst FA Cup record of any league team, without a win in the competition for 11 years, The last time they made the fourth round in 2001 they lost 6-0 to Arsenal. They are without a win in eight games and have won just one of their last 11 since beating Chelsea . Away from home their form has been better, three away wins already is respectable for a newly promoted Premiership team, but they are without a win in four on the road and have lost three of those scoring just once in the process. Betting: Professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says… As he won't be playing, I am going to try and give you a balanced opinion about QPR's first trip to Stadium MK this weekend without mentioning Joey Barton as like a number of you, I am getting tired of only hearing reference to our wonderful club if its in the same sentence as the said midfielder. At least we get some press coverage I suppose, unlike when we were trying to get out of League One - which brings me nicely onto Saturday's opponents. I'm not getting into the rights or wrongs of such a club's existence - as an odds compiler, you soon learn that the politics of football play little or no part in the pricing of football matches – it's about what goes on out on the pitch. Its hard to price this game not knowing what team QPR will put out - although saying that, in reality, one of QPR's better performances of the season this season occurred when we headed North (to Goodison) with what I considered at the time, a reserve side. I am inclined to think that Mr Warnock will play a number of reserves here if his past form is anything to go by. However, with Taarabt and Traore heading off after this game, I believe they will both play in this one. Macheda is likely to start, Campbell and Bothroyd will both be vying for a starting berth, so it might not end up too poor a side. I worry a little for our midfield this weekend but no matter which way I look at it, it should be - on paper at least - a very attack minded Rangers. Our opponents.... well there is no doubting they are a decent footballing side for the level. League One is pretty strong this year - both Ephraim and Cook are tantamount to the fact that it is littered with Championship quality players and indeed I believe it is stronger this year than ever before. Milton Keynes have a number of players who have played at a much higher level - Potter the engine in midfield, Chadwick who has graced the Premiership, and Dean Bowditch who spent much of his career plying his trade in the Championship to name but a few. Anyone who believes this game will be easy needs to look a bit closer. MK have failed to score only once in their last 12 games and in fact only Man Utd, Man City and Charlton have scored more goals this season out of all 92 League clubs. QPR do look shaky at the back - there is no disguising it. For Norwich's winner, for all the furore surrounding the match and excuses of tired legs, not one but two Norwich players were left free at the back post and Morrison left unmarked also in the six yard box. Ten men or not, three unmarked opponents in the six yard box is completely unacceptable at any level of professional football. I can't separate the teams in price but the game has goals written all over it. Bet of the weekend, Over 2.5 Goals at Evs (Pinnacle and Betfair) Prediction: Like Owen I'm finding this one difficult to call because it's impossible to guess what sort of a team Neil Warnock will put out. Then again, having failed to call a score correctly all season, and only managing it once in the whole of last season, it seems I find it difficult most weeks. I'd actually quite like a draw, as it would mean Joey Barton would be back for the crucial game against Wigan , but I think QPR will have just enough about them to crawl through this tie. On the two occasions I've seen MK Dons this season they've been tidy with the ball but a danger to themselves without it and you can't give even a mediocre Premiership team like us too many chances. You can actually get QPR at quite long odds against for this match. QPR win 17/10 with William Hill, QPR 2-0 14/1 with William Hill Tweet @loftforwords Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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