In a week when we've been promotion certainties and relegation candidates, the richest club in the world and on the brink of administration it will be nice to get back on the pitch this Saturday against Cardiff and try and right the wrongs of Tuesday.

QPR v Cardiff City
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday 18th August 2007
Kick-off 3pm

Thanks to what has been an everyday kind of week at QPR, I find myself writing this preview on the back of all the recent confusion about the sale/non sale of the club. The whole situation has reached farcical heights and I for one am more than happy to take a breather from it all and concentrate on the actual football.

This is our first home league game of the current new season and following a more than decent performance at Ashton Gate last week, which earned us a very useful point there, expectations have been high for our first game at Loftus Road (I am going to conveniently forget all about the nightmare of Tuesday evening).

Cardiff did not get off onto the start they wanted, by suffering a home defeat to Stoke City on the opening day last weekend so they will no doubt be wanting to put all of that behind them. It’s going to be a good game I predict, so let’s take a little look at what’s in store.

Cardiff. What’s the low-down on them?
In the early part of last season they appeared to be running away at the top of the league somewhat, but then a certain team visited them on a Friday night, live in front of the Sky TV cameras, and put a stop to their unbeaten run. They didn’t seem to recover and lost their momentum in the weeks that followed, ending up finishing 13th in the table and on 64 points.

This time around there will be a few changes to the side that we faced, most notably with the likes of Michael Chopra having flown the South Wales nest for the Wearside nest. They have though added players such as Robbie Fowler and Trevor Sinclair and I suspect the Bluebirds faithful will have high expectations again this time around.

Mind you they have their own problems themselves off the pitch too, and chairman, Peter Risdale has this week released a statement on the club official website regarding the receiving of legal proceedings in relation to loan notes made with Sam Hammam’s company when he was in charge. Risdale has said that the matter is now in the hands of the club solicitors and goes on to attempt to clarify parts of the puzzle.

What about their manager?
Dave Jones has oodles of experience. He first burst onto the management scene in the mid nineties when he oversaw Stockport County’s promotion in 1996 and following this went on to have a successful two or three years with Southampton who at that time of course were in the premier league. Highly rated, it seemed as though his career in football management was going to be brought to an end after some non football allegations led to him departing from the saints and then, after a year out of football returned to take over the managerial reigns at Wolves where he spent three years before departing Molineux. He took over there last season and after watching his one time high flyers from last season fade away, he now has the job this season of building and progressing upon that.

It’s also reported that Jones and our own John Gregory have a good relationship with each other, though I’m sure friendship will be put aside for the 90 minutes tomorrow afternoon with both bosses desperate for the three points.

Last Meeting
This fixture was played late on last season, in the April with us coming out 1-0 winners. Dexter Blackstock the goalscorer, following a fine delivery by Lee Cook. Attendance that day was 12,710. The game confirmed QPR’s survival in the Championship, Cardiff had long since dropped out of the play off race. In the corresponding fixture Rangers were in the bottom three and Cardiff were top but a last minute Ray Jones goal sealed a memorable away win and set up a jingle bells party on the terraces.

QPR: Camp, Bignot, Kanyuka, Stewart, Timoska, Bolder, Rowlands (Smith 71) Lomas, Cook, Blackstock (Furlong 84) Nygaard
Subs not used: Cole, Milanese, Bailey

Cardiff: Forde, Gilbert (Parry 57) Johnson, Gunter, McNaughton, Whittingham, McPhail, Ledley, Flood (Blake 75) Thompson (Feeney 72) Chopra
Subs not used: Alexander, Green

Head to Head
QPR wins: 29
Draws: 10
Cardiff wins: 22

Past QPR v Cardiff Results
2006/07 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Blackstock)
2006/07 Cardiff 0 QPR 1 (Jones)
2005/06 Cardiff 0 QPR 0
2005/06 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Nygaard)
2004/05 Cardiff 1 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Shittu
2002/03 Cardiff 1 QPR 0 (Play off final)
2002/03 Cardiff 1 QPR 2 (Furlong, Langley)
2002/03 QPR 0 Cardiff 4
2001/02 Cardiff 1 QPR 1 (Pacquette)
2001/02 QPR 2 Cardiff 1 (Thomson 2)
1999/00 QPR 1 Cardiff 2 (Peacock p)
1999/00 Cardiff 1 QPR 2 (Langley, Fowler og)

What’s the team news?
The Bluebirds await on the fitness of Robbie Fowler and Steve McPhail. Ricky Scimeca could also be doubtful.

Both Dexter Blackstock and Danny Nardiello should be ok for this game after being rested for the Orient game in the week, whilst the news about Ray Jones and his ankle injury has been a bit vague from the club.

Referee
Rangers welcome Phil Joslin back to Loftus Road this weekend. He refereed Morecambe’s opening league game last weekend and the Peterborough v Southampton shock in the week handing out just three yellow cards over the two games but this is his first game in the Championship this season. His last QPR game was ironically against Cardiff in Wales last season when Rangers won 1-0 and four players were booked. Joslin stood up to a partisan home crowd and denied them a couple of penalty shouts in that game and overall we do seem to do quite well with him in charge. He showed 134 yellows and six reds in 35 outings last season. In 2004/05 he refereed our 1-1 home draw with Gillingham, the season before that he was in charge as we drew with Peterborough, beat Brighton and won at Sheff Utd in the League Cup. He was also in charge for a 2-1 home win against Blackpool but of course there’s always an exception to the rule – he was the man in the middle for the Vauxhall Motors debacle. Still a good referee, and one we seem to get along with very well.

Who to watch out for
Some useful names in their squad including the likes of Peter Whittingham, Joe Ledley and Warren Feeney causing an eyebrow to raise. Robbie Fowler of course, and if deemed fit, we know all about, but the star man I’m going for this week is Trevor Sinclair. I don’t need to go into depth about tricky as we all remember him from his time at Rangers. From all accounts he was still causing problems for the Stoke defence last weekend so it would appear he still has the tricky in him that we all remember. I hope he gets a warm reception, he was one of the few that put the effort in for us following our devastating relegation from the premier league a decade ago now.

Form
Very early days obviously to be talking about form so I’ll just touch briefly on the professional games that both teams have played over the course of the last week. Cardiff began their season by kicking off at Ninian Park last Saturday and promptly went on to lose 0-1 to Stoke City. They then reversed the scoreline three nights later when they defeated Brighton and Hove Albion via a late, late winner deep into extra time.

We kicked off our season with the visit to Ashton Gate and came away with a reputable draw following a decent performance. Three nights later we found ourselves making our inevitable early cup exit thanks to a 1-2 defeat to Leyton Orient.

Prediction
There’s going to be an expectant crowd at Loftus Road, and by that I mean both sets of supporters, whilst both teams will be desperate to collect their first three points of the new season. It will be a question of who holds their nerve better and even though I think it will be a tight game, I’m going to go for us to gain the edge. 2-1 to QPR.

Photo: Action Images

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