In his preliminary remarks ahead of Saturday's match, Ian Holloway has made plain his desire to see his Queens Park Rangers team play assertively and impose their style on Leeds United when the Whites travel to Loftus Road tomorrow.
The manager of Queens Park Rangers, Ian Holloway, has today enunciated his view that his players can emerge from tomorrow's match against United as victors, in addition to exhorting his team to impose themselves on the Whites.
Speaking to Rangers' official club website, Holloway was at pains to express, in spite of his side not having won any of their last five fixtures ahead of United's visit to West London tomorrow, his contentment owing to the determined nature of his team's recent performances.
A decisive late goal on the part of hefty striker Jordan Hugill condemned the West London outfit to a dispiriting defeat at Deepdale last weekend, but Holloway was satisfied with the application of his charges.
"I think the performance levels have been good, and we were particularly unlucky at Preston,” Holloway remarked.
"We didn’t deserve that — the boys did well," he added.
"However, hopefully we’ll have some troops coming back to fitness in the coming weeks to help us.”
Both forward Jamie Mackie and defender Alex Baptiste were shown red cards at Deepdale and will thus be suspended and unavailable for selection tomorrow. However, Rangers may be able to depend once more on the services of 31-year-old defender Nedum Onuoha, formerly of Manchester City. After spending almost three months sidelined with injury, Onuoha is in contention to start the match.
Speaking of Onuoha's fitness, Holloway said: "Having the likes of Nedum back will be a big boost.
"He played in a training game at Harlington in midweek and all looked good.
"It’s given the lads a lift already, and it’d be a massive boost if he’s involved this weekend with Alex Baptiste and Jamie Mackie suspended.
"Importantly in the Championship you need to look around the dressing room and see some experience, so the likes of Nedum coming back will certainly help.”
Leeds shall enter the contest having procured seven points from their last four Championship matches; this competent sequence of performances followed United's suffering of six defeats in seven matches and while conscious of the threat posed by Leeds after their renaissance in recent weeks, Holloway's sole focus is is on what his team are capable of.
"Leeds are a good team but I think we can win the game - so bring it on,” the 54-year-old said.
"Wherever Leeds are in the table at the moment is irrelevant. It’s about us putting our game on them and getting the points.”
The match is scheduled to kick-off at 15:00pm.