Lowly Bolton pose familiar threat to QPR — Preview Friday, 19th Feb 2016 19:28 by Clive Whittingham Pressure off and a game against the bottom-placed team who’ve only won four times all season — what could possibly go wrong for Queens Park Rangers at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday? Bolton Wanderers (24th) v Queens Park Rangers (14th)Championship >>> Saturday February 20, 2016 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather — Heavy rain all day, coming down in sheets >>> Stadium Name, Bolton Bolton Wanderers, bottom of the league, only four victories all season, unable to pay their players, forced into picking Emile Heskey in attack, surely League One bound… but this weekend playing the ideal opponents. Queens Park Rangers have been so obliging so often in such circumstances you could almost register the club as a charity. Their propensity to roll over and have their tummies tickled by teams that, until Rangers rolled into town, seemingly had no hands with which to tickle is notorious. It’s the football equivalent of the meathead 16-year-old schoolboy, whose sexual encounters to this point have been exclusively with his right hand, meeting every hint of double entendre with “that’s what she said” — it’s never ending, and it wasn’t funny the first time. The John Jensen thing, the Lloyd Doyley thing, that time we missed the chance to go second (second, the one immediately after first) in the Premier League by losing to Swindon, despite them failing to win any of the 15 games before that, despite them having a man sent off after 15 minutes. That time we lost at home to Swindon too, giving them their first and to date only Premier League double — they’ve won five top flight games in the history of the club, and two of them are against QPR. Rangers are a Florence Nightingale figure to clubs in distress — sidling up to them quietly, meekly, mopping their brow, asking if they’re ok, waving Dean Bowditch through for his first Ipswich goal in 80 appearances and nourishing them with much needed three point hauls. Throw in the geography and the picture looks bleaker still. Time and again, in dead-end northern towns like Grimsby and Doncaster, we’ve seen a QPR team paid vast amounts more than their opponents going through the motions of a warm-up wrapped in gloves, snoods, hats and indifference to the task ahead against their short-sleeved, ruddy-skinned, heavily-tattooed opposition. Arse End of the North 2 Queens Park Rangers 0, and it fucked it down with rain all afternoon, tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme. It’s like when you find yourself watching Love Actually on ITV2 at Christmas — it’s shit, and you’ve seen it before, but here it is again, and here you are again, staring at it gormlessly, trying to grasp positives from the situation. In our ongoing theme of “this is merely an extended pre-season for 2016/17” the trip to Bolton, like last Saturday’s encounter with Fulham, could provide some stark lessons and realisations for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Who fancies this tomorrow? Soulless stadium on a retail park, more empty seats than supporters, weather forecast from the Old Testament, opposition completely bereft, nothing to play for, long way from home… who fancies this? When Ian Holloway and later Neil Warnock recovered QPR from dire positions and built promotion-winning teams, the sides they created revelled in these games. Danny Shittu powering home a header in the snow at Chesterfield; 89 minutes of backs to the wall grit having taken a 1-0 lead at Barnsley through Adel Taarabt; Eric Sabin’s last minute winner at Blundell Park; Chris Day’s miraculous save at Wrexham; Eugene Dadi’s penalty miss at Tranmere; Lee Camp’s amazing debut at Hartlepool, Heidar Helguson’s flying header at Middlesbrough — those seasons when QPR were at their absolute best were peppered with long, arduous trips to the north that resulted in memorable moments and points ground out against the odds. Pretty much every other QPR team, before and since, over the last 25 years have offered as much resistance as the Shoreditch and Hoxton Vegan Cookery Society Arm Wrestling team. There’s nothing riding on this from a QPR point of view, but Hasselbaink needs to know who’s capable and willing to roll their sleeves up on such occasions and who isn’t because it’s a vitally important season for the club coming up and it’s the strong jawlines that are going to be needed rather than the limp wrists. Links >>> Financial meltdown — Interview >>> Clint Hill’s Ghost Goal — History >>> The Kids R Alright — Podcast >>> Simpson referees Bolton trip — Referee >>> Travel Guide
Andy Johnson wheels away to celebrate the only goal of the game as promotion-bound QPR won 1-0 on their last visit to this ground early in the 2013/14 season. SaturdayTeam News: After last weekend’s central midfield meltdown the news that Ale Faurlin will again miss out with a tight thigh is as welcome as a dose of venereal disease. It remains to be seen whether Daniel Tozser keeps Faurlin’s place after a dreadful showing last weekend, or if Karl Henry gets a recall — inspirational options. Better news for Conor Washington though who should return to the attack from the start after recovering from his ankle injury. Gary Madine (brain transplant) and Jay Spearing (face transplant) are doubts but Dean Moxey is expected to return to the side after his fishing trip. Diamond in the rough Zach Clough is feeling his way back to fitness after a long spell out but is pushing for a start here. Elsewhere: So much vitally important Championship action to squeeze in that there’s no time to pause for such inconsequential nonsense as the FA Cup fifth round (yes, I was surprised it had one too). Cup commitments mean Boro v Waitrose and Brum v The Champions of Europe have been postponed, presumably to be crowbarred into whatever spare 20 minutes of space can be found through March and April, and the programme is reduced to a piffly ten fixtures. Fear not, there’s a proper programme with some chest hair just around the corner on Tuesday night. Having started his ninth annual farewell tour with a 0-0 draw against Birmingham, and two red cards, Neil Warnock takes Rotherham to Big Spending Burnley this weekend having shocked and stunned the footballing world by adding a rotund — even by his standards — Paddy Kenny to his squad on Friday. Championship, tackles, kicks, headers, I love it me. While Rotherham, you would think, are unlikely to take points from Turf Moor they can rest easy knowing that Franchise v The Wurzels, and Tarquin and Rupert hosting Belgium’s Finest means that four of the teams around them at the bottom of the table will be taking points from each other this weekend. With neither Boro nor Tigers Tigers Rah Rah Rah in action there’s a good chance for Brighton to re-stake a title claim away to The Red Dragons in the lunchtime Sky game. Derby Sheep should also, in theory, be able to make up some of the ground they’ve lost of late, but an away match at Abacus doesn’t exactly look like the sort of trip that’s going to bring their annual meltdown to an end. Perhaps best-placed to profit, with Birmingham and Ipswich both out of action, are Sheffield Owls who go to Preston in decent touch with Gary Hooper having scored ten in his last ten. Also, for reasons known only to themselves, Huddersfield v Wolves. Referee: Jeremy Simpson is the man in the middle for this one, the second QPR game of his career so far and first since that 2-0 League Cup win at Exeter two seasons ago. For details on how he did there, and his more recent stats, please click here. FormBolton: Wanderers are currently bottom of the Championship with just four victories from 31 games all season leaving them seven points adrift of fourth bottom Bristol City. Their home form, by comparison, hasn’t been that bad however. All four victories have come on this ground (Wolves, Blackburn, MK Dons, Rotherham) and they’ve only lost three of their 15 games on home soil. Huddersfield, Cardiff and Birmingham are the only sides to win here in the league so far this season. They’ve only conceded 16 goals in those 15 games, the best record by some distance in the bottom six, four fewer than we’ve shipped at Loftus Road and the same amount conceded at home by Ipswich and Birmingham in seventh and eighth. QPR: Rangers have only won nine of 31 games themselves this season and after picking up with a five-match unbeaten run that included two victories, they slipped back with a limp defeat to Fulham last time out — the fourth time in five meetings the Whites have been 3-0 up by half time against their West London rivals. Away from home it’s four wins (Rotherham, Reading, Wolves, Huddersfield), four draws and seven defeats although two of those maximums were back in August and only one of them has been during Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s spell in charge. That said, the R’s are unbeaten in their last three road trips in the league. Overall Hasselbaink has won two of 14 games in charge so far but has drawn seven. Neil Warnock won promotion with QPR with a win at Watford in the final away match of the 2010/11 season but since then Rangers have won only 19 times away from Loftus Road in the league in almost five years. Prediction: Reigning Prediction League champion isawqpratwhitecity tells us… "Bolton's home form isn't that bad, 4-8-3 in the league. But since their last home draw (before Christmas), it's been more cut-and-dried, with them winning three and losing one. Don't soil yourselves, though, the wins were against Blackburn, the Dons and Rotherham while Huddersfield took the points. Bolton generally seem good for a goal or two most games, while we've done better than a single goal only twice since Ramsey went. Another consideration: 'Fulham' QPR or 'Ipswich' QPR? I'm going to strike a happy-but-dull medium." Jim’s Prediction: Bolton 1-1 QPR Scorer: Matt Phillips LFW’s Prediction: Bolton 0-1 QPR Scorer: Conor Washington The Twitter @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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