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QPR’s bounce-back-ability faces stern Elland Road test — full match preview
QPR’s bounce-back-ability faces stern Elland Road test — full match preview
Thursday, 16th Dec 2010 23:59 by Clive Whittingham

Having suffered their first defeat of the season at the twentieth time of asking last Friday QPR must now react in the right way with a tough series of fixtures starting at Leeds United on Saturday.

Leeds (4th) v QPR (1st)

Npower Championship >>> Saturday, December 18, 2010 >>> Kick Off 3pm >>> Elland Road, Leeds

Meetings between with Leeds have often been momentous days throughout the history of Queens Park Rangers. Just putting together the ‘previous results’ section of this week’s match preview, usually the first, easiest and quickest job of the whole preview, brought memories flooding back of previous encounters.

Rangers had their record attendance at Loftus Road for a meeting between these sides — 35,353 was the official figure, those who were there that April afternoon in 1974 said there was many more, and Leeds won 1-0 on their way to the First Division title. Two years later it was QPR’s turn to challenge for the championship and on the final day of the season they needed to beat fourth placed Leeds at Loftus Road to keep their hopes alive. They duly did so in front of another packed house — Dave Thomas headed home at the back post, Stan Bowles scored one the keeper probably should have done better with and if there were two players who ever deserved a title winner’s medal in QPR shirts it was Thomas and Bowles. Sadly, belatedly, Liverpool won at Wolves ten days after the end of the regular season and pinched the trophy from within our grasp. Football’s habit of throwing up strange quirks could yet strike again — we play Leeds on the final day of this season at Loftus Road.

It would be fair to describe the more recent meetings between the two sides as tumultuous. Roy Wegerle’s world class slalom run past half the Leeds team for the BBC goal of the season in 1990 was made even better by the context of a three two victory at Elland Road when Rangers had trailed by two goals in the first half. Jan Stejskal made his debut in goal that day after impressing in the Italian World Cup during the summer — the Czech had good reason to wonder what on earth he’d let himself in for.

Two seasons later the man who replaced Wegerle at the head of the QPR attack Les Ferdinand scored in a 1-1 draw. It was, incredibly, Ferdinand’s seventh goal in three games in a single week after successive hat tricks against Everton and Nottingham Forest during the Easter weekend. The highlight of the period for me though came in the intervening 1991/92 campaign. Gerry Francis was in charge of Rangers for the first time and after an abysmal start to the season the R’s were in flying form down the home straight. Leeds won the league that season, with Man Utd second and Man City fifth — all three of them were beaten by Rangers in a scintillating period with the R’s scoring four on each occasion.

The Leeds match was the third in the series, coming just days after Man City had been soundly hammered 4-0 at Loftus Road. Rangers were absolutely majestic that night, despite falling behind early on to a header from Gary Speed. A scrappy equaliser from a corner by Ferdinand set the scene for a second half the likes of which Loftus Road has scarcely seen. Andy Sinton was in the form of his life, ripping Leeds to shreds to the point where Chris Whyte deliberately and cynically hacked him down in the area for a clear and obvious red card just to get away from him for a while. Ray Wilkins pulled the strings in midfield, Ferdinand led the line and Bradley Allen was as sharp as a tack alongside him. Allen’s Loft End finish from an angle that was near as damn it impossible after Wilkins had played him in behind the visiting defence with a pass that is talked about in the pubs of Shepherds Bush even to this day was as good a goal as you will ever see.

To prove it was no fluke, Rangers beat the reigning champions again in W12 a year later when Les Ferdinand powered through John Lukic before rolling the ball into an empty net.

Time, as we know, was not kind to that QPR team and Leeds have definitely had the best of it since then. A 4-0 win for the Whites at Loftus Road in 1994 added further straw to an already well laden camel. With Player of the Year elect Darren Peacock sold cheaply to Newcastle and limited youth teamer Karl Ready brought in as a replacement the QPR fans’ patience with chairman Richard Thompson snapped as the Leeds goals flew in — thousands invaded the pitch, led by a buxom blonde who removed her shirt, but sadly kept the goods concealed under a lacy bra. A week later at Sheffield Wednesday my granddad memorably caught up with her in the pub and told her we were all “proud but disappointed.”

A 3-2 victory in 1994 heralded the beginning of Ray Wilkins’ reign as manager, and he seemed to be getting things together despite the sale of Les Ferdinand a year later when his side won 3-1 at Elland Road. Sadly QPR were relegated, Bradley Allen’s missed penalty in a 2-1 defeat to Leeds in the return fixture rather summed up the luck of a side that missed two other crucial penalties and conceded a 98th minute equaliser to Man Utd, all of which would have kept us up had they gone a different way.

By the time the sides met again in 2004 QPR had been to League One and back, and Leeds had been to the Champions League semi finals spending money they didn’t have on players they couldn’t afford. Rangers went into a November meeting at Elland Road on an astonishing seven game winning run that had propelled them into the top four and attracted attention from Wolves in manager Ian Holloway. The QPR gaffer wasn’t well enough to travel to Yorkshire that day, but did so anyway after a monumental row with then chairman Gianni Paladini over the proposed Molineux move. The result was a 6-1 defeat with Brian Deane of all the cart horses in all the world scoring four times. Of all the things to remember of that day it’s the tannoy announcer who is permanently engrained on the inside of my skull — behaving like a complete cock at great volume throughout.

Holloway and Paladini’s strained relationship snapped just over a year later. Again Olly had been linked with a move elsewhere, Leicester this time, and Paladini had been telling anybody who would listen in the boardroom at Elland Road on matchday that he was about to be fired for wishing to speak to the Foxes. Holloway responded by giving six debuts to a collection of reprobates — Phil Barnes, Andy Taylor, Keith Lowe, Marcin Kus, Sammy Youssouff, Andy Taylor and Leon Clarke all made debuts that day. Holloway was placed on gardening leave a day later and several of them never played for the club again.

His replacement Gary Waddock enjoyed a rare high point with a late fight back and 2-2 draw with Leeds at Loftus Road at the beginning of the following campaign — Martin Rowlands and Shabazz Baidoo scored in the last eight minutes with Ray Jones catching the eye and almost scoring a winner. Another false dawn as it turned out. John Gregory was in charge by the time we played the return fixture, Lee Camp started his second spell with the club with a clean sheet and crucial point. Rangers stayed up, Leeds were relegated and now we meet again.

Five minutes on Leeds

Recent History: How tempting it is to just run a copy and paste, find and replace programme here with the Nottingham Forest preview I wrote a few weeks ago. The similarities are stark — a former giant of the English game, slowly crawling its way back towards the top after lean years brought on by chronic mismanagement. The difference is Forest are reasonably likeable — non Leeds fans glad to see them back in the Championship this season could be counted on the fingers of one hand when they finally made it at the third time of asking in May.

The story is depressingly familiar — top flight mainstay mismanaged, fallen on hard times, suddenly finds itself playing a first round fixture in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Section. Norwich, Forest, Southampton, QPR, Leicester and others have all been there — although the collapse of Leeds United from European semi finals with Valencia down to League One games with Hartlepool was probably the most extreme example of the art, and the mismanagement that caused it was absolutely catastrophic.

We’ve all heard the Peter Ridsdale stories before — the thousands of pounds spent on fish, Seth Johnson going into his office looking for £20k a week and coming out with double that, millions upon millions upon millions of pounds thrown around in the pursuit of a dream that they came tantalisingly close to reaching. They still haven’t recovered, it’s doubtful whether they ever will to the level they were at before. Ridsdale has, scandalously, been allowed to get involved at Cardiff City since then, and is now casting glances at Plymouth Argyle, when any other sport would have ensured he ran nothing but a market stall for the rest of his days, and even then he’d have to be supervised.

There was brief hope of a reprieve, when Kevin Blackwell hauled them kicking and screaming to the Championship play off final in 2006, but they were soundly beaten by Watford and the side that returned for the following season was an unimaginative shambles with Geoff Horsfield at the top and a hollow vacuum at its heart. Blackwell made way for Dennis Wise midway through that campaign but he couldn’t save them from relegation to the third tier with a plethora of dodgy loan signings — Leeds were out fought and thought by a QPR team swiftly filled with characters like Danny Cullip, Adam Bolder and Lee Camp by John Gregory who performed miracles at Loftus Road to ensure Rangers survived against the odds.

Leeds didn’t care for this very much at all. Their ever loveable fans invading the pitch before the end of their final game of the season with Ipswich and attempted to get the match called off with a small riot. The rest of the Championship bid them farewell like you may do with your in laws after Christmas — big smile, celebratory drink, vow never to see the horrible bastards again.

Leeds were left to fall into the Sheffield Wednesday trap of assuming a return would be automatic because of the sheer size of their club, and off they went with their factually incorrect ‘Champions of Europe’ chant to Yeovil, Hartlepool and other glamorous flesh pots of the British Isles. New owner Ken Bates, of Chelsea infamy, put the club into administration with debts of £35m, and then scandalously bought it back for himself offering to pay the creditors 1p in the pound, and eventually settling on 8p under protest. The Inland Revenue, owed more than £7m in unpaid tax, revolted and Leeds were deducted 15 points for the start of the following season. Quite how Leeds’ owners are able to pass the league’s ‘fit and proper person test’ when nobody actually knows who the Forward Sports Fund is, and Bates isn’t willing to divulge, is as much a mystery as it is a farce.

Wise left to join Newcastle midway through the season and Gary McAllister replaced him as manager, guiding Leeds to the play offs where they again brought joy to the nation by losing in the final against Doncaster Rovers. Much like their previous play off final failure Leeds suffered a hangover the following season and McAllister was sacked in December after a run of five straight defeats. The Scot still seems unable to shake the idea that he’s an undoubtedly nice fella, but not really management material and to go with his poor spells as boss at Coventry and Leeds he has this season presided over the collapses at Middlesbrough and Aston Villa as an assistant.

He did however leave a side that contained Jermaine Beckford, Luciano Becchio, Fabian Delph and others and Leeds actually made a positive move for once by bringing in former player and fine manager Simon Grayson from Blackpool. The turn around was remarkable but they were again beaten in the play offs, this time by Millwall at the semi final stage.

Last season they started as clear favourites to win League One and did indeed race away at the top to start with — eight straight wins to start the season was the club’s best ever run at the beginning of a campaign. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, they even beat Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford in the third round of the FA Cup, and scored late to take Spurs to a replay after that as well. What happened then has never really been explained. Grayson is clearly a fine manager, as we will come onto shortly, and the team Leeds had at their disposal last season was the best League One will see for a generation. But they completely collapsed.

Norwich City quickly overhauled their nine point lead at the top of the table and all of a sudden, just two wins and a draw from eight matches later, Leeds were staring down the barrel of another play off campaign as Millwall and Swindon came up on the rails. Walsall won at Elland Road, Brentford took a point, Charlton closed the gap to two points in third at one stage. They were in trouble and nobody could really put a finger on why. The cup run may have served as a distraction, along with constant speculation about Jermaine Beckford whose status at the club was up and down like a bride’s nightie as he refused to sign a new contract and courted Premiership clubs ahead of an inevitable summer move. They lost four games in March, including a 2-0 home defeat to Millwall, and dropped to fourth.

In the end they got lucky. A rally in April saw them win three consecutive games to climb back to second, although they lost against league leaders Norwich which meant Millwall were still in the driving seat until they lost a late game in hand against a poor Tranmere side with nothing to play for. The black was over the pocket, the white was well placed, Leeds chalked their cue — Bristol Rovers came to Elland Road on the final day of the season with one foot already on the plane to Tenerife.

In a week when the population of Liverpool whacked a score apiece on a sending off in a random Motherwell game three minutes before a Scouser on the Motherwell team said something so serious to the referee he was immediately sent off I wonder if it’s fair to question whether some of the Leeds players had money on them not going up? They went one nil down to Rovers, and then down to ten men when Max Gradel threw a tantrum on a level not seen on a football pitch for many years. Eventually Jonny Howson and Jermaine Beckford scored in a narrow 2-1 win — but by Christ they made it needlessly difficult for themselves.

Back in the Championship Leeds have found a division with no obvious title contender, and no threat being posed by the relegated Premiership clubs. It’s there for the taking, and Leeds are very well placed to make it a second consecutive promotion, although a terribly leaky defence could well prove to be their undoing.

Manager: Simon Grayson’s rather brain-dead comment earlier this week that: “It's first versus fourth and it's a big game, primarily because it's the next one," betrays his obvious managerial talent.

As a player Grayson was a dependable right full back who played predominantly with Blackpool and Leicester but also notably with Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers. A Leeds fan as a boy, and player as a trainee coming through the youth set up at Elland Road, Grayson was the reserve team manager at Blackpool in 2005 when the Oyston’s surrendered their grand plans of progress under former Scotland captain Colin Hendry and sacked the Pat Butcher look-a-like with relegation to the bottom division a distinct possibility.

Grayson was thrown in initially as a caretaker, but did such a superb job he was hired permanently and laid a platform at Bloomfield Road that Ian Holloway and the Tangerines are still benefitting from today. For a rookie manager Grayson showed great knowledge and tact in the transfer market — picking up players like Jason Wilcox, Marcus Bean and Ian Evatt who were really solid, dependable figures for the level of football Pool were playing at. They stayed up with something to spare and then in his first full season in charge rocketed straight through the league to win promotion via the play offs — Yeovil Town their victims in the final in what was a club record tenth straight win.

He then revelled in keeping Blackpool in the Championship despite pundits queuing up to tip them for an immediate return. Again his transfer dealings were second to none with players like Kaspars Gorkss and Wes Hoolahan discovered playing in the backwaters of Latvia and Scotland and added to the team with great effect at minimal cost. When those two, and more besides, were picked up by perceived bigger clubs on the cheap Grayson simply replaced them with more fine buys.

It was inevitable that a big club would come calling, and he was even linked with the assistant manager position at Old Trafford before finally answering the call from Leeds. After everything he had done for Blackpool it was a shame he had to part on bad terms to manage the club he supported — he forced the Tangerines’ hand by resigning when they refused initially to let him go to Elland Road.

As the previously mentioned former Premiership sides have found, promotion from League One is not an easy thing to win but Grayson has now brought one big and one small club out of that division and made a really decent fist of the Championship. A second promotion could beckon and his stock really will be sky high then — although as a supporter it’s hard to envisage him ever leaving of his own choice but if h continues in his current vein it may well be Leeds cast in the Blackpool role of fending off interest in him from clubs higher up the food chain.

Three to watch: While Jermaine Beckford was attracting the attention and headlines with his goal scoring exploits mixed in with supreme arrogance and a chip on his shoulder almost as big as his head it was always the performances of Luciano Becchio that caught my eye and it seems with Beckford not quite the world beater he always seemed so sure he was now he’s at Everton that other clubs are starting to take notice of the Argentinean striker he left behind.

It’s not just the fact that Becchio is clearly so much more likeable than his loathsome former team mate, he scored 17 goals of his own last season including a crucial five in the final seven games as Leeds were starting to wobble. Beckford got 31, and his big move, but Becchio has successfully kicked on this season and will be the man to stop for Rangers on Saturday. He has 12 goals already this season, well on course to smash last year’s total, including six in his last five matches. In the last two home games Leeds have beaten Bristol City 3-1 and Palace 2-1 with Becchio scoring all five goals.

A shame for Simon Grayson therefore that they have proved so accident prone at the other end, but in my opinion it’s a rare dodgy purchase from the manager in the summer that has undermined their defence during the first half of this season. Alex Bruce is not even as good at football as I am. If his last name was Smith or Jones or anything other than Bruce, and his dad was a cabbie or a brickie or an estate agent or anything other than a former Man Utd captain then he would be doing an everyday job, just like the rest of us who have no footballing ability whatsoever. You can forgive the family loyalties that saw him attached to Birmingham for so long when his dad was manager but Ipswich fell into the trap of thinking there may be a little of his father’s magic in there somewhere and despite proving conclusively over several seasons at Portman Road that there absolutely wasn’t Leeds leapt straight in to sign him when his contract ended last summer.

To the clear horror of his father, regularly filmed shaking his head in the stands as Bruce commits one howler after another, young Alex disobeys the clear and obvious rule of centre half play with ridiculous frequency — never let the ball bounce. He gives whoever he is playing against a chance — he’s good for a goal a game. Last week against Burnley he let the ball bounce, then fell on his arse and Jay Rodriquez scored. Against Cardiff earlier this season he let the ball bounce, then fell over his own goalkeeper, and that was just one of Cardiff’s four goals on the night. I sat and watched them draw 0-0 with Doncaster earlier this season and he does it time after time after time after time after time. It’s like Zesh Rehman all over again. He’s the manager’s annoying son everybody had in their junior Sunday league team, always getting to play despite being crap just because of the ball sack he came from in the first place.

Never mind who Warnock picks this weekend, the most important piece of team news for us is whether this useless tosser plays because if he does he’ll give us at least one gilt edged chance in the game.

Grayson, realising his mistake, delved into the loan market six weeks back and brought in Bolton’s Andy O’Brien who may possibly miss out with a thigh strain on Saturday but is being given every chance to prove his fitness, such is his importance to Leeds. I’ve never been greatly impressed with O’Brien, but he’s commanded £4m in transfer fees and played for the last ten years in the Premiership, clocking up more than 200 appearances so he’s obviously got something. Leeds have only kept one clean sheet in the eight games he has played for them so far, but the eight goals they conceded in those games is in stark contrast to the 20 they conceded in the eight matches prior to his arrival — Barnsley got five, Preston six and Cardiff four against Leeds before they signed O’Brien.

The selection or otherwise of both Bruce and O’Brien could be key to our success in this game.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Message Board >>> Travel Guide

 

 

History

Recent Meetings: The last meeting between these two sides on this ground finished goalless, but there was so much more to it than your average bore draw. Both sides were struggling gamely against relegation, although much of the fight seemed to have drained away from QPR the previous week when Southend beaten them 5-0 live on Sky. Leeds must have fancied their chances against such meagre opposition but between the games John Gregory added returning hero Lee Camp to his side on loan and he produced a sparkling display with Danny Cullip, Michael Mancienne, Sam Timoska and Adam Bolder also to the fore. It should have been better than a draw for Rangers, Dexter Blackstock missed a first half sitter, but ultimately it was Leeds bidding farewell to the Championship as the R’s survived against the odds.

Leeds: Ankergren 8, Armando Sa 8 (Foxe 76, 6), Rui Marques 7, Heath 6, Lewis 6, Blake 8 (Johnson 72, 6), Douglas 7, Thompson 6 (Howson 32, 6), Nicholls 6, Healy 6, Cresswell 6

Subs Not Used: Stack, Moore.

Booked: Douglas (foul), Foxe (foul)

QPR: Camp 8, Mancienne 8, Cullip 7, Stewart 7, Ainsworth 6, Lomas 7, Bolder 7, Timoska 8, Rowlands 7, Blackstock 7, Cook 7.

Subs Not Used: Cole, Kanyuka, Furlong, Ray Jones, Smith.

Booked: Timoska (foul), Camp (time wasting), Blackstock (foul), Cullip (foul).

Earlier in the 2006/07 season, right at the very beginning of it in fact, Rangers and Leeds shared the spoils in an opening night Loftus Road thriller. After a meek 2-0 defeat on day one at Burnley QPR looked set to par the course again when Eddie Lewis gave the visitors the lead midway through the second half. Step forward young Ray Jones, who combined with Shabazz Baidoo in the final half an hour of the game as a substitute to win QPR a famous point. Rangers drew level from the penalty spot after a generous decision from referee Kevin Friend who adjudged Gareth Ainsworth to have been fouled in the box. From the kick off Geoff Horsfield restored Leeds lead with just eight minutes to go but Baidoo scrambled and equaliser and Jones went within a whisker of winning the game outright in stoppage time.

QPR: P Jones 9, Bignot 4 (Baidoo 76, 8), Rose 4, Stewart 4, Milanese 5, Ainsworth 7, Lomas 7, Rowlands 7 (Bircham 89, -), Cook 7, Ward 7, Czerkas 5 (Jones 54, 7).

Subs not used: Cole, Kanyuka.

Goals: Rowlands 80 (pen), Baidoo 90

Bookings: Stewart 39

Leeds United: Warner 7, Kelly 7, Crainey 5, Butler 7, Healy 7 (Carole 76, 6), Horsfield 8 (Moore 84, -), Lewis 7, Stone 8, Bakke 7 (Westlake 50, 6), Derry 6, Kilgallon 6.

Subs not used: Gregan, Blake.

Goals: Lewis 65, Horsfield 82

Bookings: Crainey 6, Derry 45, Warner 79, Kilgallon 90

Head to Head >>> Leeds wins 18 >>> Draws 13 >>> QPR wins 15

Previous Results:

2006/07 Leeds 0 QPR 0

2006/07 QPR 2 Leeds 2 (Rowlands pen, Baidoo)

2005/06 Leeds 2 QPR 0

2005/06 QPR 0 Leeds 1

2004/05 QPR 1 Leeds 1 (Gallen)

2004/05 Leeds 6 QPR 1 (Ainsworth)

1995/96 QPR 1 Leeds 2 (Gallen)

1995/96 Leeds 1 QPR 3 (Dichio 2, Sinclair)

1994/95 Leeds 4 QPR 0

1994/95 QPR 3 Leeds 2 (Ferdinand 2, Gallen)

1993/94 QPR 0 Leeds 4

1993/94 Leeds 1 QPR 1 (Meaker)

1992/93 Leeds 1 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)

1992/93 QPR 2 Leeds 1 (Bardsley, Ferdinand)

1991/92 QPR 4 Leeds 1 (Ferdinand, Allen, Sinton, Wilson pen)

1991/92 Leeds 2 QPR 0

Links >>> Leeds 0 QPR 0 Match Report >>> QPR 2 Leeds 2 Match Report

This Saturday

Team News: QPR’s first defeat of the season against Watford isn’t likely to yield wholesale changes, although former Leeds man Rob Hulse will be recalled in attack at the expense of Heidar Helguson after starting the Watford game on the bench because of an illness. Another change may see Bradley Orr recalled to the defence with Kyle Walker switching to the left at Clint Hill’s expense but otherwise it should be as you were. Peter Ramage and Lee Cook are the long term absentees.

Neil Warnock has warned centre halves Kaspars Gorkss and Matt Connolly their places will come under question if they produce another performance as poor as the one they put in against the Hornets. Warnock said: “What can you say? Gorkss and Conn had nightmares. They have to go out and put it right and if they don't, they won't be playing will they. They can have one of them, but they can't have two games like that. If your central defenders struggle, it makes your midfielders sit deeper and it's like a knock-on effect and I thought they were poor as well. There will be plenty of changes in the next couple of weeks with four games in nine days, and other players will get opportunities, but I won't make lots of changes just because of the result last week.”

Leeds are sweating on the fitness of Bolton loanee Andy O’Brien, and will miss the centre half badly if his calf strain rules him out. The former Newcastle man tightened Leeds’ leaky defence immeasurably after arriving from the Reebok, and they were back to their usual haphazard selves without him at Burnley last weekend. Another loanee, Arsenal’s Sanchez Watt, could also be involved after missing the whole of November with a hamstring strain. The winger played in a 4-1 behind closed doors defeat of Newcastle earlier in the week and is pushing for a recall.

Elsewhere: The last televised Championship action this side of Boxing Day takes place on Saturday evening as Ipswich face Leicester with Roy Keane teetering on the brink — God you have no idea how much I wish it was us with a chance to give him the final shove. Town have lost their last five matches while Leicester are bang in form after a 5-1 mauling of Doncaster last week. Doncaster and Middlesbrough start the weekend off with a Friday night game, not televised strangely, while the chasing pack at the top of the table must wait until Saturday for their chance to bite into QPR’s four point lead. Cardiff host Burnley having won just one of their last seven games, Swansea go to Sheffield United who have just lost a second manager of the season already. Elsewhere Coventry and Norwich meet each other in a battle of fifth v sixth with Derby ready to take advantage against draw specialists Reading. The bottom three all have tough away games so expect it to be as you were down there at the end of the weekend — Palace go to Forest, Scunthorpe to Portsmouth and Preston to Watford. An ideal chance therefore for Middlesbrough, Sheff Utd and Hull, who face Bristol City, to put some daylight between themselves and the dreaded drop zone.

Referee: Scott Mathieson from Stockport is the man in the middle for this game, and that should really be good news as he has 16 years of experience as a league official and a very low card average. He’s a sensible, calm referee more from the old school of common sense and a quiet word on the run. The problem is, QPR never seem to win with him. The R;’s have been victorious in just one of the ten games he has refereed us in, and that includes the disastrous FA Cup tie where the R’s were first held, and then beaten in a replay, by Vauxhall Motors. More details, if you can stand it, here.

Form

Leeds: QPR rather got away with their first defeat of the season when only one of the top seven teams managed to win and close the gap. That side was Leeds, coming from two down to beat Burnley 3-2 at Turf Moor and cement their place at the top of the form table. Leeds are now fourth in the table after going eight matches unbeaten — the run started following a 4-0 home defeat by Cardiff and the signing of defender Andy O’Brien who is yet to be on a losing Leeds side. Leeds score plenty, but concede lots too — nobody in the league has shipped as many at home as Grayson’s men, although admittedly their total of 20 is skewed somewhat by the barmy 6-4 game against Preston earlier this season. They’ve scored 19 times at Elland Road themselves though, only three teams have a better goals for total on their own patch. Four teams have beaten them at home this season, you have to look right down to Ipswich to find a team with five home losses — one of them, Derby, relied on a winning goal from Rob Hulse who should start for QPR in this game.

QPR: Rangers’ 3-1 defeat against Watford last weekend was their first of the season at the twentieth attempt in the league. Rangers had won three and drawn two of five going into that game, and are still unbeaten away from home where they have won four and drawn five of nine, so it would be unfair to describe their form as anything other than excellent although Luciano Becchio was probably rubbing his hands together watching Danny Graham rip into Gorkss and co last Friday night. The QPR defence conceded a third of its goals for the season against Watford — they’ve now shipped 12. QPR haven’t lost an away game of any sort since Easter when they were hammered 4-0 at Leicester. Since taking over Neil Warnock has taken 61 points from 35 games.

Prediction: Neil Warnock won’t want to lose again after last week’s first defeat of the season, and has said already he’d be happy to still be in the top two by the time we get to the Burnley game in mid-January. That said Leeds are suspect at the back so I don’t expect QPR to sit back and play for a draw. I expect both teams to attack this, but ultimately both would probably be quite satisfied with a point and when that’s the case a draw is always a sound bet.

Rob Hulse to score first in 1-1 draw, 45/1 with Bet365

Photo: Action Images



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Myke added 00:37 - Dec 17
Why would Hill miss out? is he injured? He certainly wasn't our worst player against watford and saved one certain goal by throwing himself in front of the ball late in the first half. I don't get your dislike (understatement) for Keane. An awesome player for club and country ( I accept i'm bias) - a legend.
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JB007007 added 08:03 - Dec 17
This is just the test we need after last weeks slip up. We'll now see what we are made of. We have a Manager and players that have been here, seen it and done it before so we'll be fine.
If we are still top after these next four games, it will be a massive boost and will surely put us in the driving seat.
We will win tomorrow narrowly.
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R_in_Sweden added 20:23 - Dec 17
Great memories. I was at the 1-0 defeat in 1974 as well as the 2-0 win in 1976. Also remember the resigned look on Batty's face face as he took a throw in front of the Paddock during the 4-1 thrashing in 1992.

A win tomorrow would have to rank as the best result of the season so far. A draw would steady the ship.
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isawqpratwcity added 23:57 - Dec 17
I have fond memories of Leeds visiting Loftus Road in the 68-69 season, a season with little to treasure except for the novelty of being in the top flight.
Leeds went ahead and then withstood a ferocious QPR counterattack.The game was exhilirating, relentless attempts to crack a Leeds defence that just held. I have never left after a defeat feeling so happy.
Don Revie said "We won the Championship here tonight". And they did.
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NorwayRanger16 added 00:00 - Dec 18
Great read as always, really enjoyed the "five minutes on Leeds", funny stuff :-)
Can't wait for your thoughts on Ecclestone accumulating shares, said to be 62%.
Was hoping the Mittals where to get the controlling share, but i like Bernie's words about it's all about backing Neil in these promising times. After all he is a business man, those shares will be worth alot more if we get promoted.
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