Neil Warnock is sure of a hot reception on Saturday as the R’s visit Selhurst Park to face Paul Hart’s Crystal Palace side in a match of vital importance for both.

Crystal Palace (20th) v Queens Park Rangers (18th)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday April 10, Kick Off 3pm
Selhust Park, Croydon

QPR have not really been in the habit of poaching managers from other clubs over the past few decades. Rarely doing well, rarely with any money to spend, Rangers have not exactly been an attractive proposition for managers already in jobs down the years. We infamously almost got Alan Curbishley from Charlton before he made them a Premiership force but went for Stewart Houston instead. Former players and/or new men cutting their teeth has been the order of the day for a while now.

The last one I can remember us poaching from a club who felt very aggrieved by it was Ray Harford when we nicked him from West Brom who were pushing for promotion at the time. A comment made by Harford about guaranteeing promotion if he ever got hold of the Sheron/Gallen/Spencer strike partnership had stuck in the Chris Wright-led board and they moved heaven and earth to get him to Loftus Road. Of course Harford, now sadly no longer with us, was a disaster and succeeded only in leading the club further down the dark path on which it had started under Ray Wilkins.

Harford’s one and only return to West Brom with Rangers finished 1-1, Iain Dowie scored believe it or not, and it’s fair to say the atmosphere was hostile. It mattered not that as mere fans we’d had nothing to do with the appointment, or that none of us really cared whether Harford came from West Brom or not such was the paucity of success in his track record as a number one, the Baggies fans were out to get us and The Hawthorns was white hot during the match, and a battlefield afterwards.

With Amit Bhatia and Ishan Saksena now pulling the strings at Loftus Road the potential with Rangers is massive. There were audible titters from the assembled media at Warnock’s press conference when he said he had come to Rangers for stability, the R’s have gone through managers at a frightening rate recently, but they were probably from national hacks who hadn’t quite registered the significance of Flavio Briatore stepping aside. There is no doubt Neil Warnock would not have come and worked for that idiot, and if he had done he’d probably have been sacked on Tuesday after the Leicester defeat.

Warnock has been at pains to point out, rather too vehemently for some fans’ tastes, that he still holds Palace and their supporters close to his heart and that he hopes neither side go down. Warnock has never been shy of confrontation but the Palace love in has been across all the papers this week to the extent where some are questioning whether his incessant praise for the Eagles’ team will damage the confidence of our own motley crew. It’s all been a bit Jim Smith circa 1986 for my taste but personally I think he knows our team without leaders or spine does not really need a pumped up, highly charged atmosphere on Saturday and he is doing his best to play it all down. If he’s the same behind closed doors, sitting in the dressing room and looking mournfully at pictures of Darren Ambrose, then fair enough but I’ll be willing to bet his public line is somewhat different to the one he’ expressing in private. Adel Taarabt, almost totally ignored by Paul Hart during his brief spell with us earlier this season in favour of Patrick Agyemang (stop laughing, no, come on, stop it), will certainly have had a word or two in his ear prior to this one.

If it is all mind games, we need to cross our fingers they work because with Palace and Watford both below us and both playing us in the next four days we can ill-afford two defeats.

Five minutes on Palace
The Story So Far: The reason I think a lot of this “Palace are so wonderful” act is mind games designed to quell a hostile atmosphere is because they’re really not. All these claims that the Eagles would be riding high in the play offs now but for the points deduction from the administrator is an absolute fallacy – put the points back on and they would be ninth, eight points behind Leicester and with absolutely no chance of making the six.

Now I hear the arguments about the deduction affecting the morale of the players and supporters and I accept that it must have done and they may have picked up one or two more points without it. But Palace haven’t been that brilliant all season really. Scunthorpe won 4-0 here, Sheff Wed kept them scoreless, Doncaster won 3-0 at Selhurst – most of the success this season has come in the cup competitions, which Warnock has always had a good reputation for. That memorable win against Wolves where Danny Butterfield was forced into action as a makeshift striker for the replay and scored a hat trick, was the highlight of the season and Palace were very unfortunate to be taken to a replay by Aston Villa where they subsequently lost when defender Matt Lawrence had a brain haemorrhage and started conceding penalties at a rate of one a minute. Warnock argued that Villa’s original equaliser came from a corner that was a goalkick, he forgot that Palace only took Wolves to a replay thanks to an identical situation at Molineux.

Palace are undoubtedly a decent team in this league. They’re solid down the middle with Alan Lee leading the line, Shaun Derry kicking anything that moves in midfield, and Clint Hill taking no prisoners at the back in front of the excellent Julian Speroni. Their ‘trinkets’ have impressed this season as well with Darren Ambrose a shoo in for the division’s team of the year thanks to a 19 goal haul from midfield, Neil Danns back to his Colchester form and youngsters like Nathaniel Clyne catching the eye.

But play offs? I don’t think so, even without the points deduction and subsequent arrival of the mythical figure of death Paul Hart. Warnock’s love in has been so over the top this week that it can only be tactical on his part. They’re better than us certainly, but not by as much as he’s making out.

The Manager: Oh dear. *Pauses for breath, takes sip of water, cracks fingers, begins.*I’ll start with the mitigation, then I can get stuck into the guy properly. Paul Hart was the QPR manager for five matches during the winter, three of them against Sheffield United. A new manager can do next to nothing in that time and to judge him for such a short spell is harsh, to put it kindly, or ridiculous, to be more honest. Hart resigned as well, he was not sacked. He came in expecting to be allowed to manage the team and strengthen it with the likes of Tommy Smith and Mike Williamson and was not allowed to do that – as usual managers arriving at QPR are promised one thing and then delivered Marcus Bent and Tamas Priskin on loan. When you look at the players we did bring in during the January transfer window (Hill, Bent, Priskin, Ikeme, Quashie) can we honestly say that Hart’s suggestions (Tommy Smith, Mike Williamson, Amdy Faye, Jamie Ashdown) would have been any worse? Where this sort of thing had happened to Dowie and Sousa beforehand at Rangers both managers had largely kept quiet and got on with it, Hart wouldn’t have it and walked, and he deserves credit and respect for that.

Nevertheless Hart’s reign was the greatest farce of the Flavio Briatore era and the only purpose it served was pushing that Italian closer to the Loftus Road exit door. The appointment itself was absolutely ridiculous. A year before it he’d taken up a coaching job at Portsmouth after leaving Rushden and Diamonds down near the bottom of the Conference. If you’d said to QPR fans then he was going to be the new manager there would have been an outcry, but as he’d been in the news and on the television a lot with Portsmouth and because he seemed to be taking the turmoil down there in good spirits (while losing every bloody week) suddenly he was a viable option. A long list of failures, fall outs and fucking awful football at Forest, Barnsley, Rushden and Portsmouth completely ignored. The valid argument says well who else would have taken a job under Briatore at that stage – but without carting Bryan Robson back from Thailand we could scarcely have done worse. Hart always has been and always will be a youth coach, an academy director, someone who works with young players. He’s no more a first team manager than I am.

At his opening press conference with QPR he said he’d taken the job because he “liked to work” and although he did manage to muster some enthusiasm for his first programme notes against Bristol City on Boxing Day the words about being inspired by the great QPR side of the seventies, a side that he said “shaped his footballing philosophies”, rang a little hollow as QPR spent the final 20 minutes of the game with a flat back nine that included two right backs and two left backs lumping the ball into a completely unoccupied half of the field whenever they did manage to get hold of it. Rangers won 2-1 and were booed from the field.

Hart then started preaching a “back to basics” approach which included three matches against Sheffield United in which our sole tactic was to put Patrick Agyemang up front, knock long balls at him, and watch as he lumbered about and Chris Morgan calmly beat him in the air and headed it back down the field. Back to basics also, apparently, meant making one ridiculous non-sensical substitution after another and “you don’t know what you’re doing” was a regular chant around Loftus Road almost from the moment he stepped into the dug out.

Hart gets jobs because he is cheap and usually available as nobody keeps him for very long. When asked why he’d appointed Paul Hart the Palace administrator Brendan Guilfoyle replied “I’m an accountant” and that puts it better than I ever could. If there is a weakness for us to expose this Saturday it’s this chump.

Three to Watch: There is probably a degree of lazy journalism amongst it all, but if you believe what you read then QPR, should they escape relegation this season, will be knocking on the front door of Selhurst Park after the last match of the season picking up several Palace players that excelled under Neil Warnock during his time there. The one QPR need most is goalkeeper Julian Speroni who always has a blinder against us and is one of the, if not the, division’s top keeper.

Speroni initially came to these shores in 2001 and played for Dundee at a time when former Grimsby and Juventus striker (love writing that) Ivano Bonetti was assembling a cosmopolitan team there. Palace paid £500,000 for him when Dundee ran into financial problems and he started life at Selhurst Park competing for the number one jersey with Gabors Kiraly. I think there is still a culture of suspicion in this country towards foreign goalkeepers despite the best stoppers now coming from Italy and Spain and England struggling to find anybody vaguely competent to take to the World Cup this summer. Speroni lived up to the unpredictable foreign goalkeeper sterotype in his early days, journeying off on regular forays down the field with the ball at his feet, but after displacing Kiraly as Palace number one he has gone on to make the thick end of 150 starts for the Eagles and is up there with Lee Grant as the best goalkeeper in this league in my opinion. I’d walk barefoot over broken glass to carry him back from Selhurst Park if it meant he would start next season at QPR.

The other name that keeps being mentioned in connection to Rangers is Palace’s top scorer Darren Ambrose. He has 19 goals in all competitions this season from a midfield role which is an impressive figure even allowing for his penalty and free kick taking. I’d be slightly wary of lashing out too much money on him despite that – he has never fulfilled his early potential from Ipswich at Newcastle, Charlton or Ipswich again and it is only this season that he has really looked to be of any use at all. Nevertheless it cannot be argued that he has been outstanding throughout 2009/10 and it could just be that Neil Warnock knows how to get the best out of him. QPR’s midfield is currently being held together, almost single handedly, by Alejandro Faurlin so quality additions in this area in the summer are a priority.

Which would explain why we’re also allegedly eyeing up Neil Danns. He burst onto the scene in Phil Parkinson’s impressive Colchester side after joining from Blackburn but stagnated without ever really getting a chance to show what he could do following a big money move to Birmingham City. He has enjoyed a new lease of life at Palace, another player Warnock brought out of himself, and you’d find few QPR fans arguing with his addition to our squad should it be made in the summer.

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History
The first game between these sides this season was called off at late notice because of a water logged pitch. At that stage Rangers had only won one of their opening six games, at Scunthorpe, and had been held to disappointing home draws by Blackpool, Peterborough and Forest. There was some talk of pressure starting to mount on Jim Magilton (these were the Briatore days remember) and that the postponement, with the entire board due to be at the game, was no bad thing for the manager. By the time the game was played in November Rangers were absolutely flying after four and five goal wins against Reading, Preston, Derby and Barnsley. But for Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni the Loftus Road fixture could have been another big win for the R’s. The one goal the Argentinean did concede was from a penalty after Adel Taarabt was tripped in the area and Buzsaky tucked the spot kick away. Palace equalised with one of their own in the second half after typically poor defensive play from Fitz Hall allowed Freddy Sears into the area where he promptly bundled him over for a spot kick. Speroni was inspired after that, an amazing one handed save to keep out a fierce shot from Rowan Vine stands out in the memory, and ultimately Rangers had to settle for a single point despite dominating the game.

QPR: Cerny 7, Leigertwood 7, Hall 6, Gorkss 8, Borrowdale 6, Buzsaky 6 (Ephraim 80, -) Watson 5, Faurlin 8, Taarabt 7 (Agyemang 74, 7), Routledge 6, Simpson 5 (Vine 74, 7)
Subs Not Used: Heaton, Ramage, Alberti, Ainsworth
Booked: Routledge (kicking the ball away)
Goals: Buzsaky 19 (penalty)

Crystal Palace: Speroni 9, Hill 5, Fonte 7, Davis 6, Butterfield 6, Ertl 6, Ambrose 7, Derry 6, N'Diaye 6 (Sears 46, 6), Danns 7 (Hills 84, -) John 6 (Lee 67, 6)
Subs Not Used: Clyne, Carle, Moses, Scannell
Booked: Davis (shirt pulling)
Goals: Ambrose 62 (penalty)

There were no goals between the sides at Selhurst Park in November last season, both games between the sides in 2008/09 were dull and finished score-less which is no real surprise considering the amount of draws between the two down the years and the fact that Rangers clocked up 11 0-0 draws and failed to score on 23 occasions last season. The game was just the second of Paulo Sousa’s reign in charge and took Rangers’ run of away games without a goal to six. That wasn’t for the want of trying though, and for the second consecutive visit to this part of the world the travelling faithful were left to rue missed chances. Heidar Helguson was the most guilty party, he rolled a ball wide of an open net from 30 yards with one of his first touches after coming on as a second half substitute.

Crystal Palace: Speroni 6, Clyne 7, Fonte 6, Hill 7, McCarthy 6, Carle 8 (Derry 63, 6), Watson 7, Oster 7, Scannell 7 (Griffit 87, -), Ifill 6 (Kuqi 63, 7), Beattie 6
Subs Not Used: Lawrence, Moses
Booked: Carle (foul)

QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 5, Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Delaney 6, Agyemang 7 (Di Carmine 90, -), Leigertwood 7, Mahon 6, Parejo 4 (Helguson 46, 6), Ephraim 7, Blackstock 6 (Rowlands 56, 6)
Subs Not Used: Cole, Borrowdale
Booked: Ephraim (foul), Delaney (foul)

Head to Head:
Palace wins – 29
Draws – 29
QPR wins – 35

Previous results:
2009/10 QPR 1 Palace 1 (Buzsaky pen)
2008/09 QPR 0 Palace 0
2008/09 Palace 0 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 1 Palace 2 (Stewart)
2007/08 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Sinclair)
2006/07 Palace 3 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 4 Palace 2 (Smith 2, Gallen, Lomas)
2005/06 Palace 2 QPR 1 (Furlong)
2005/06 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Ainsworth)
2000/01 QPR 1 Palace 1 (Crouch)
2000/01 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Carlisle)
1999/00 QPR 0 Palace 1
1999/00 Palace 3 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 6 Palace 0 (Kiwomya 3, Kulscar, Scully, Breaker)
1998/99 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Steiner)
1996/97 QPR 0 Palace 1
1996/97 Palace 3 QPR 0
1994/95 QPR 0 Palace 1
1994/95 Palace 0 QPR 0
1992/93 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Allen)
1992/93 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Penrice)

Played for both clubs: Gerry Francis
QPR 1968-79, 1981-82, 1991-94 (manager), 1998-01 (manager)
Crystal Palace 1978-81
One of the Superhoops’ favourite sons, Gerry Francis’ involvement with the club spans more then three decades as player and manager. If anyone is close to having the name Mr QPR then Francis is one of main contenders.

A product of Rangers’ successful youth team the clever midfielder made his debut for QPR as a 17 year old during a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in 1968 and a year later made his first start in a 3-1 win over Portsmouth - marking the occasion with his first senior goal for the club. Manager Les Allen had tried to ease the youngster into the first-team but by the time Gordon Jago took over, Francis was too good to leave out and was given the number eight shirt. From then on he became a regular fixture in the first team as the main creative spark in midfield, striking up almost telepathic understandings with Stan Bowles and Don Givens. By the 1975/76 season Francis was a pivotal part of Dave Sexton’s free flowing attractive Rangers side. That season Francis and Rangers pushed mighty Liverpool all the way in the title race but agonisingly missed out on the championship by one point to finish second. By now Francis was an established England international too, earning 12 caps and captaining his country on eight occasions.

A back injury the following season then robbed Rangers of their midfield maestro and would only play 24 of Rangers next 84 games, and struggled to discover the kind of form that had made him a Loftus Road hero. In 1979 Francis ended a decade in W12 by moving across London to Crystal Palace . However he never settled at Selhurst Park, and despite making over fifty appearances for the Eagles he soon moved back to QPR. But the back injury was still taking his toll, and he soon moved on again to enjoy spells at Coventry, Exeter, Swansea and Bristol Rovers before moving into management.

Cutting his managerial teeth at Exeter after just a season at St James Park, Francis took over at Bristol Rovers and took a struggling Third Division side into a respected passing side a division above. It wasn’t before long the lure of Loftus Road was too much to ignore and he returned to QPR as manager in 1992 succeeding Don Howe. Having inherited a squad with talent such as Alan McDonald, Andy Sinton and Les Ferdinand, Francis got the best out of Rangers and brought the likes of Gary Penrice, Ian Holloway and Darren Peacock with him to mark his own stamp on the team. All of which paid benefit when he led the R’s to a fifth place finish in the newly created Premier League - their best position for 20 years and as London’s top club. Successive mid-table finishes followed and Francis un-earthed gems like Trevor Sinclair and Bradley Allen and made Ferdinand a Premier League star. Unfortunately a clash with the board over a possible appointment of Rodney Marsh above him led to him leaving Loftus Road in 1994 for Tottenham. At Tottenham he helped the club to seventh spot and an FA Cup semi-final but mid-table finished the following two campaigns saw the Spurs unconvinced as he resigned in November 1997.

A year later though he was back at QPR, who had slumped since his departure and were now in a relegation battle at the bottom of Division One. The Francis effect was enough for Rangers to pull off the great escape that season, sealing it with a 6-0 win over Palace on the last day. But with no money to spend and an ever decreasing quality of squad, he resigned from his post in February 2001 with relegation to the third tier imminent. Some had suggested his heart was no longer in the game and didn’t want to be responsible for relegating his beloved side - even his successor Ian Holloway couldn’t prevent it.

A further spell at Bristol Rovers before Gerry took a long break of seven years from the game. Now currently on the coaching staff at Stoke City and occasionally appearing as a pundit on Sky Sports. – AR

Links >>> QPR 1 Palace 1 Match Report >>> Palace 0 QPR 0 Match Report >>> Match Report Archive >>> Connections and Memories

This Saturday
Team News:
There will be a change between the sticks for QPR on Saturday with Carl Ikeme’s loan from Wolves over and Radek Cerny sufficiently recovered from his back injury to start. Another loanee Marcus Bent may also feature for the first time under Warnock if he can shake off a hamstring injury (who would have thought it?) that has dogged him since he arrived from Birmingham in January. Matt Connolly (ankle) is out while Martin Rowland and Gavin Mahon (both knee) are long term absentees and it starting to look increasingly likely that Mahon has in fact played his last game for Rangers. The removal of Ikeme from the loan rota could free up place in the starting eleven for either Bent, or defender Dusko Tosic who is yet to appear since signing from Portsmouth.

Palace will give late fitness tests to full-back-cum-striker Danny Butterfield who has a hamstring complaint and robust centre forward Alan Lee who is struggling with his groin. Lee Hills has served the ban he picked up for a sending off at Watford last week and he could return at the expense of either Clint Hill or Matt Lawrence.

Elsewhere: It looked like the play off places were all settled a few weeks ago, but poor runs of form from Leicester and Swansea have allowed Blackpool to close the gap and it would appear to now be a three horse race for the two remaining spots behind Cardiff and Forest. Blackpool won’t fancy their chances at Newcastle this Saturday while Leicester should take all three points against already relegated Peterborough at London Road. It could be Swansea who Ian Holloway has in his sights then – the Swans were thrashed 5-1 at Bloomfield Road last month and will do well to take anything from in form Bristol City this weekend after one win from their last seven. At the bottom it’s even tighter. Peterborough are gone, Plymouth are going you would think, and that leaves one spot to be filled by Sheff Wed, Watford, Palace, Scunthorpe or QPR. Watford and QPR have a game in hand on most against each other next Tuesday, Palace have the best team and are artificially low because of a points deduction. Sheff Wed have the toughest run of fixtures, Scunthorpe’s three home games are a nightmare. This weekend Palace and QPR meet while Sheff Wed are at Middlesbrough, Scunthorpe at Preston and Watford have Plymouth at home. Sheff Wed or Watford is my tip, but it’s almost a total lottery at this stage.

Referee: We have experienced Durham official Nigel Miller in charge for this game. His yellow card stats are slightly high but nothing out of the ordinary – he has however sent off ten players in 31 games this season, a red card every three matches or so, and I’m not sure such a trigger happy referee is the best option for this game. I thought we’d get a Premiership referee this weekend to be honest with all the circumstances taken into account and the way Miller bottled a fierce atmosphere in another relegation six pointer involving QPR at Hull a few years back does not bode well here. Refereed our 2-1 win at Sheff Wed in November, details of which follow at the link below.

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Form
Palace: The Eagles have finally, just in the nick of time, started to string a few results together lately after a dismal run that threatened to relegate them with a whimper. They beat Preston and Watford (both 3-1) and drew at Middlesbrough last week to climb out of the bottom three at the expense of Sheffield Wednesday. Prior to that they had lost eight and drawn four of their previous 13 matches. Their home form has been highly erratic all season – Doncaster won here 3-0 and Scunthorpe 4-0, while play off chasers Blackpool and Middlesbrough were beaten 4-1 and 1-0 respectively. The Preston victory was their first home win in four attempts – Cardiff, Leicester, Bristol City, Coventry, Reading and Swansea have all left Selhurst with victories since Christmas.

QPR: Rangers’ problem at the moment is that when they’re better than their opponents they only draw, and when they’re worse they lose comfortably. It’s seven without a win now following the collapse at Leicester on Monday, or two defeats from nine depending on your point of view. Rangers have had problems scoring at one end, they’ve scored one goal or less in six of the last seven, while keeping them out at the other is proving almost impossible – just four clean sheets in the league all season and only one in the last 32 matches. Away from home Rangers started well, with four wins in the league through to November, but they haven’t won away since that victory at Sheff Wed (with the same referee we have on Saturday incidently) – nine defeats and four draws from 13 fixtures. We haven’t won here since Peter Reid and Ray Wilkins rolled back the years with a passing masterclass in a 3-0 win back in 1989 – eight draws and four defeats since then and only five goals in our last ten visits.

Prediction: Warnock has done his best to calm the situation this week but I would still expect the atmosphere to be hot, the Palace players to be up for it and the Rangers players to crumble. Well, they always do in these situations don’t they? We showed last week at Leicester just how weak the spine of our side is and QPR have rarely performed well on the big occasion. The thought of 2000 QPR fans making the trip only makes it worse, the quality of our away performances seems to decline per QPR supporter that attends. Who can forget just how dismal we were on this ground against Wimbeldon in the FA Cup back in the 1990s when the thick end of 10,000 R’s travelled? I’m afraid I only see this going one way, and if it does that Watford game a week on Tuesday is massive.
Palace win

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