Mark Hughes will give a run out to several players on edge of the first team picture this evening as the R’s face League One Walsall in the League Cup Second Round at Loftus Road.
League Cup >>> Tuesday August 28, 2012 >>> Kick Off 7.45pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
It’s a source of considerable personal pride, and irritation to family and work colleagues, that I can retain reams of useless football information while forgetting everything else. I will, for instance, have to scramble through my contacts book to find the name of a CEO at a company we write about four or five times a month at work but knew without looking that when QPR won 3-2 at Walsall in 2000 the first goal that day was put through his own net by Bjarni Larusson. He went onto play for Scunthorpe United by the way – and I knew that without looking it up as well.
So it says something of the importance QPR have placed on the League Cup in recent years that when writing a profile of Walsall manager Dean Smith for this week’s Opposition Focus article I had to dig the record books out to research the Leyton Orient victory at Loftus Road in 2007 that he was O’s assistant manager for.
Even for the football obsessives among the Rangers fan base, these early round League Cup games have become an absolute ball ache in recent times – attended by almost nobody, not even remembered by those that did for more than a day or two. It was Rochdale last season, eventually relegated from League One but still good enough to win 2-0 at Loftus Road which was more than half closed for the game. The year before Port Vale won 3-1, a game memorable only for the emergence of QPR’s Maddest Fan on YouTube.
We enjoyed a couple of runs before that – to the third round against Chelsea in 2009 through Exeter and Accrington, and the fourth round in 2008 through Swindon, Carlisle and Aston Villa before Man Utd nailed us. But the Orient defeat came before that, a 3-2 loss at Port Vale in Gary Waddock’s last game in charge, a 3-0 defeat at Northampton the year before and 2-1 on the same ground in 2001, a 3-2 defeat at Orient in 2002 and so on.
They’re traumatic at the time, but totally unmemorable. Apart from the maniac at the Port Vale game nobody seems to care very much about this competition until they get to the latter stages of it, and that includes the players most of all. Against Rochdale a year ago Rangers played at a jogging speed throughout, putting less into the game than they would a pre-season friendly. Neil Warnock would have ordinarily torn strips off his side for such an approach but because it was the League Cup it was fine. It’s becoming more and more like the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy for Premier League teams every year this competition.
In recent times QPR have fielded a team made up of youth team graduates and players with no future at the club for this match. Tonight, the fringe is likely to get an outing again despite the club preaching the “strong line up” line through its social media channels. For once though that may actually be of benefit. Max Ehmer, Michael Doughty and Michael Harriman showed plenty of promise in the pre-season games and Frankie Sutherland, handed squad number 30 in the build up to the game and therefore likely to feature, will be keen to impress. Similarly those first teamers that are involved know that a poor start to the league season means places are up for grabs. Andy Johnson cut a frustrated figure on the Carrow Road bench at the weekend and after Djibril Cisse’s poor start to the season he’ll be keen to send a message about his starting credentials. Similarly Shaun Wright-Phillips whose form improved over the summer to the point where he may have considered himself unlucky not to start a game so far.
Players with something to prove is vital to success in the early rounds of this competition when sparsely populated stadiums offer little motivation and encouragement. It’s about attitude, and if QPR can show enough to crawl through the early stages this is a competition they could (could) feasibly win this season. Famous last words.
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Team News: Shaun Wright-Phillips and Andy Johnson are likely starters here as Mark Hughes looks to give game time to those first teamers not involved as much in the opening two games. Frankie Sutherland has been given a squad number and is likely to start on the bench. It remains to be seen whether Kieran Dyer and Ale Faurlin are deemed fit enough for minutes here after coming through an Under 21 game with Millwall on Friday unscathed. Jose Bosingwa is set for a home debut. Joey Barton serves game three of his 12 match suspension.
Walsall could give a debut to former QPR loanee Andy Taylor who has signed this week on a free transfer. Taylor joined Rangers on loan from Blackburn during Ian Holloway’s reign and was most recently with Sheffield United prior to his release in the summer.
Elsewhere: The second round fixtures are spread over three nights this week with Everton v Orient tomorrow and Northampton v Wolves on Sky Sports on Thursday. Tonight the televised game is Premier League side Wigan away to early Championship high flyers Nottingham Forest.
Whether that could be classed as an upset if Forest win is open for debate but there are plenty of other giant killings waiting to happen elsewhere. Will Aston Villa be relishing a home tie with Tranmere after losing their opening two games of the season under new boss Paul Lambert? Ipswich, beaten 6-0 at Blackpool at the weekend, go to League One Carlisle and they’re just one of the Championship sides in questionable form facing awkward away trips: Birmingham are at Coventry, Middlesbrough at Gillingham and Bolton at Crawley Town.
Some potentially awkward nights on the road for some of the Premier League’s lesser lights as well as West Brom go to Yeovil, Southampton travel to Stevenage and Fulham go to Sheffield Wednesday.
QPR: The League Cup is the only major domestic trophy QPR have won in their history – they beat West Brom 3-2 in the 1967 Wembley final having trailed 2-0 to a side two divisions above them at half time. Their recent record in this competition is pretty dreadful however and they have been eliminated by lower division sides seven times in the last ten years including two defeats each by Port Vale, Northampton and Orient respectively. Rangers finished last season with a win-lose-win-lose sequence that eventually stretched to ten games and included five consecutive home wins that lifted them to safety. That run came to a juddering halt on the first day of this season when Swansea won 5-0 at Loftus Road on day one.
Walsall: The Saddlers have never won at Loftus Road in 23 visits, although prior to their opening day 5-0 win Swansea had failed to record a victory on this ground in 19 attempts. They beat QPR’s near neighbours Brentford in round one before crashing to a 3-0 opening day defeat against Doncaster. That hinted at another season of struggle for the Saddlers but since then they’ve drawn at Oldham and recorded an impressive victory at Notts County which is no mean feat having recorded just three away wins in the whole of last season – the worst total outside the bottom two in League One. Walsall have been eliminated in the first round of the League Cup in six of the last seven seasons – Middlesbrough, Accrington, Darlington, Swansea, Palace and Sheff Wed accounting for them previously – and they haven’t won two games in this competition since 2002 when they beat Shrewsbury and Forest before losing on penalties to Blackburn.
Prediction: Well on paper it’s all set up for the now traditional early exit to a lower division team, however I think two things count in QPR’s favour this evening as well as the obvious difference in ability and resources between the playing squads. The first is that Mark Hughes will not want another defeat on his card after a poor start to the league campaign and with tough matches against Man City, Chelsea and Spurs to come in September. The second is, unlike in previous years, any fringe players that do come in know they have a future at the club and that good performances could see them called up for first team action. I expect the likes of Andy Johnson and Shaun Wright-Phillips to play and play well in a reasonably comfortable victory.
QPR 3 Walsall 0
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