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Upwardly mobile Wycombe provide Tuesday test for QPR - full match preview
Upwardly mobile Wycombe provide Tuesday test for QPR - full match preview
Tuesday, 28th Jul 2009 09:23

QPR return to Adams Park tonight for the first time since the farcical, wind affected match of 2004 that finished 2-2. Angelo Balanta, who scored three times on loan at Wycombe last season, is in the squad.

Wycombe Wanderers v Queens Park Rangers
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday July 28, Kick Off 7.45pm
Adams Park, High Wycombe


There’s nothing more rewarding in life than queuing behind somebody in a shop and watching them buy the newspaper you write for. That feeling can quickly turn to a sinking one if they rip out the voucher for the free Big Mac and then put the rest of the paper in the bin outside on the street without reading it. Such is life, I’m sure somebody somewhere appreciates my week’s work.

I’m not a technically minded person, and so when LoftforWords' viewing figures took an alarming dip on Sunday it took me a while to realise it wasn’t just the regulars outside en masse enjoying the sun. We had a problem, caused by an error of Karl Ready proportions, and there was little I could do. Like a drunk man trying to find his way to the toilet in the dark of night that didn’t stop me trying though, and failing. So I sit here writing this, the penultimate pre-season match preview, even less sure than normal that anybody will actually read it. If Tuesday is anything like Monday round these parts, you guys won’t even get chance to rip out the burger vouchers, never mind read the copy.

Next week, all being well, the annual LoftforWords season preview will be online. Every team looked at, a final table predicted, 24,000 words – every summer I say never again, every summer I find myself sitting here trying to think of things to say about Preston North End. I’m about halfway through at present, and am yet to find a team I like more on paper than ours. Well that’s not strictly true, I’d say several teams are better balanced but of those I wouldn’t swap many of our players for theirs. Sheffield United for instance, Ched Evans apart, I’d take our centre halves, our goalkeeper, Buzsaky, Routledge, Taarabt and Vine over anything they have and yet I have them down as league winners at the moment, and QPR down as missing the play offs.

The key to making a success of the players we have is first and foremost balancing the team – Sheff Utd’s midfield may not be as exciting as ours on paper but Martin Rowlands apart all of our players across the middle only go one way. You don’t get much defence from Cook, Taarabt, Buzsaky and Routledge, or much forward play out of Mahon and Leigertwood, whereas people like Brian Howard, Glen Little and Lee Williamson are good going both ways. Jim Magilton has two more games to work on that, starting on Tuesday at League One Wycombe. Secondly it is vital we keep the management and coaching situation nice and settled, and that is completely out of all our hands.

Five minutes on Wycombe
Recent History: Wycombe start the new season a division higher in League One after stumbling to promotion from the basement division in 2008/09. Wycombe looked like they were going to run away with League Two at Christmas but were beaten by non-league Eastwood Town in the FA Cup and never really recovered, ultimately relying on other results after a final day defeat at home to Notts County to steal the third and final automatic spot. The Chairboys won just four of their last sixteen matches and were ultimately lucky to make it at all, despite going unbeaten in their first 18 league matches. Nevertheless, promotion was achieved in Peter Taylor’s first full season as manager.

When QPR played for three seasons in the third tier Wycombe were regular opponents – at the time managed by Lawrie Sanchez and prone to some direct, physical play that resulted in several bad tempered and high scoring games between us and them. Sanchez was sacked midway through the 2003/04 season when QPR were promoted and replaced by Tony Adams with disastrous results – as QPR went into the Championship, Wycombe dropped into League Two. John Gorman, current QPR assistant, took over from Adams midway through the following campaign as Wycombe finished tenth. In 2005/06 the team, much like it did last season, started with an unbelievable unbeaten run that stretched to 17 games and saw them top the table. In January the club lost young player Mark Philo in a car crash, and Gorman took compassionate leave after the sad death of his wife. The team understandably slipped, finishing sixth and losing to Cheltenham in the play offs.

This pattern of starting like a runaway train before crashing off the tracks in the second half of the season was repeated in 2006/07 under new manager Paul Lambert. Wycombe shocked British football by flying through to the semi-finals of the League Cup beating Premiership sides Fulham and Charlton en route before holding Chelsea to a draw in the first leg of the semi. They lost the second leg 4-0 and that run, coupled with injuries caused by a congested fixture list, saw them fall away to twelfth in the table failing to win any of their final eleven league matches. Lambert rebuilt the team, adding QPR bad boy Tommy Doherty to his line up among others, and did make the play offs at the second time of asking but left the club after a semi-final defeat to Stockport.

Peter Taylor was then given the opportunity of a return to league football after an unsuccessful time with Crystal Palace and then Stevenage and, despite the late stutter, it is one he has seized with both hands.

The Manager: Peter Taylor has been something of an enigma during his managerial career, and few men who have never actually played or coached QPR can ever have attracted such frequent debate on our message board. Brilliant spells with Gillingham, England Under 21s, Brighton and Hull City, who he took from the Third Division to First in consecutive seasons, built a reputation that at one stage was so revered he was put in charge of the England side for a match in Italy – a match where he made David Beckham England captain for the first time.

Taylor is, sadly for him, probably best remembered for a disastrous spell at Premiership side Leicester. Taking over from Martin O’Neill was always going to be a tough task but things started well when he had them top of the Premiership for a time in October. The famous FA Cup defeat by his current club Wycombe, sealed by Roy Essandoh’s header, started the downfall and Leicester lost nine of their last ten to finish 13th. Taylor spent more than £20m on players, including £5m on Ade Akinbiyi, and was sacked in October 2001 with Leicester bottom and heading for a financial meltdown that they are only now recovering from.

Reputation rebuilt at Brighton, with whom he won the League One championship before leaving due to lack of resources, and then Hull he had a poor 18 months with Crystal Palace. Still, it was a surprise when he dropped out of the league altogether to join Stevenage – stories at the time said part of his settlement from Simon Jordan included a promise that he would not manage another league club that season. Taylor returned to the Football League last summer with Wycombe and while the Chairboy did their best to collapse in the second half of last season yet again they squeezed over the line thanks to other results on the last day. Taylor has now won promotions on five occasions with four different clubs.

Three to Watch: QPR’s players would do well to keep an eye on Loftus Road old boy Tommy Doherty on Tuesday night, for more reasons than one. Doherty was the mainstay of the Bristol City side that regularly battled with us at the top of the third tier during our time there before finally, in 2003/04, we beat them to promotion on the final day. Our Championship status gave Ian Holloway the chance to take Doherty away from Ashton Gate on a free transfer 12 months later and initially it looked like a superb signing. Doherty is a complete central midfielder, capable of attacking and defending with equal success, and complements that with an excellent passing game. The problem is, he’s a lunatic. Completely nuts.

The Northern Ireland international drinks and smokes more than QPR’s 7000 season ticket holders put together, abuses referees from the moment the teams line up in the tunnel and doesn’t so much suffer from rushes of blood to the head as walk around with a permanent cloud of red mist spewing forth from his beard which he grows, he says, through laziness. He missed three games early in his QPR career for shaking a Luton Town player warmly by the throat and then, 18 months later after a series of bad injuries and loan spells elsewhere, chinned a Lewes player in a pre-season friendly and served a further ban. The lack of discipline, rumours of his desire to move back to Bristol City, and his questionable lifestyle saw QPR lose patience with him and eventually he was offloaded to League Two Wycombe. Doherty has since made the division’s team of the year in successive seasons at Adams Park underlining his talent – sadly he has wasted that with a career that should have included many successful seasons in the Championship at least.

Wycombe have strengthened their promotion winning squad with the free transfer signing of Reading centre half Michael Duberry. I still remember seeing Duberry playing for Chelsea’s youth team at the QPR training ground against the famous Gallen and Dichio side and while he looked good that day, it still surprises me that somebody so clearly overweight has made such a good living playing professional football. Still, despite the super tanker like turning circle and advancing years, the former Leeds and Stoke man looks like a very good signing for League One and will bring much needed experience to his newly promoted side.

Wycombe’s main goal threat last season was provided by tall ginger target man Matt Harrold. He scored 12 times last season, including a televised hat trick in the FA Cup at AFC Wimbledon. Harrold is an unorthodox target man who has a similar languid playing style to Peter Crouch. He was picked up on a free transfer from Southend last summer, the Shrimpers took a chance on him two years previous after spells with non-league sides Harlow and Grays, and various unsuccessful spells in the league with the likes of Brentford, Grimsby and Yeovil. A deceptive threat.

Links >>> Wycombe Official Website >>> Wycombe Message Board

History
Recent Meetings:
QPR’s last visit to Adams Park was in our promotion season 2003/04. At the time we were trying to fend off the challenge of Bristol City while Wycombe were fighting an ultimately fruitless battle against relegation. The Sun’s betting columnist who had been let down by QPR on several previous occasions during the season despite our lofty league position backed us as the dead cert of the weekend but despite that, and the difference in league positions, the R’s were held to a 2-2 draw in farcical circumstances. A gale force wind so strong trains from London could only run at half speed blew right down the pitch causing havoc for the team defending with it in their faces and it was no surprise to see the team with it at their backs win both halves 2-0. Having been two goals down at half time QPR bundled in two wind assisted goals from Gallen and Rowlands and should have won the game late on when Tony Thorpe went through on goal but had a shot saved by Williams in the Wycombe goal.

Wycombe: Williams, Johnson, Rogers (McSporran 86) Nethercott, Senda, Vinnicombe, Currie (Philo 77) Simpson, Bloomfield, Faulconbridge (Brown 62) Tyson
Subs not used:Simpemba, Dixon
Goals: Bloomfield 27, Faulconbridge 30

QPR: Camp, Forbes (Edghill 46) Carlisle, Gnohere, Rowlands, McLeod (Cureton 75) Bircham (Bean 86) Johnson, Gallen, Thorpe, Furlong
Subs not used: Day, Palmer
Goals: Gallen 46, Rowlands 68

With the teams sharing sixteen goals, six red cards and two penalties between them in the previous four games it was something of a surprise that the last meeting at Loftus Road finished goalless. This was about as poor as QPR played in W12 throughout the 2003/04 season and in fact Wycombe, then managed by Lawrie Sanchez but already struggling badly in the league, should have won the game at the death when sub Gavin Holligan dragged the ball wide of the post when left unattended 12 yards from the Loft End goal.

QPR: Day, Rowlands, Gnohere, Shittu, Padula, Ainsworth, Bean, Palmer, McLeod, Furlong, Gallen
Subs not used: Culkin, Sabin, Pacquette, Oli, Edghill

Wycombe: Talia, Senda, Johnson, Rogers, Vinnicombe, McSporran (Ryan 67 ) Bulman, Simpson, Currie, Onuora (Holligan 63) Harris (Dixon 83)
Subs not used: Williams, Dell

Head to Head:
Wycombe – 2
Draws – 2
QPR wins – 2

Previous Results:
2003/04 Wycombe 2 QPR 2 (Gallen, Rowlands)
2003/04 QPR 0 Wycombe 0
2002/03 QPR 2 Wycombe 1 (Rose, Gallen)
2002/03 Wycombe 4 QPR 1 (Furlong)
2001/02 QPR 4 Wycombe 3 (Thomson, Gallen, Connolly, Peacock)
2001/02 Wycombe 1 QPR 0

Played for both clubs: Leon Knight Both Wycombe and QPR have had the dubious pleasure of the Poison Dwarf in recent times. Knight, little over four feet tall and with a chip on both shoulders, arrived at Loftus Road towards the end of the 2000/01 season on loan from Premiership neighbours Chelsea. Ian Holloway had just taken over from Gerry Francis and QPR were sadly heading for relegation. Knight arrived initially as a striker but in true Holloway style was played mostly at right wing where he showed brief flashes of ability, but nothing to really write home about albeit in a very poor side. Knight forged his reputation int he following two seasons, scoring 16 goals for Huddersfield in the Second Division and then getting 24 games in the First under his belt with Sheffield Wednesday. It was becoming clear though, with the Abramovic revolution sweeping across Stamford Bridge, that he had little future with his parent club and when the time came to make a permanent move away in the summer of 2003 QPR were at the front of the queue.

Ultimately Knight chose to move to Mark McGhee’s Brighton instead, and then spent some considerable time mouthing off in the press about why that was. When he then scored against QPR in August live on Sky and celebrated by screaming into a camera, well, his reputation was secured. He averaged a goal roughly every three games for Brighton and scored in the play off final at the end of 2003/04 as the Seagulls joined QPR in getting promoted. However rumours of fall outs with Mark McGhee, including an alleged incident where the manager threw him off the team coach at the side of the road on the way back from an away game, started to surface and have recurred at every club he’s played for since.

Knight was transfer listed by Swansea, left Mk Dons after a year, had his contract at Wycombe terminated after 20 matches and five goals at the start of last season and was most recently transfer listed, and then sacked, by Conference side Rushden and Diamonds for repeated breaches of club discipline. Rushden have done English football a favour by retaining the player’s registration so he cannot play for another club in this country until 2011/12 unless they pay a transfer fee, and frankly it is hard to believe there is anybody out there still stupid enough although I suppose Phil brown’s hilarious summer search for a striker may yet reach new depths. He is currently in Turkey with Thrasyvoulos C but has only made three appearances and not played for several months except for a trial in America with San Jose Earthquakes that did not yield a permanent contract.

It seems Knight must go further than even the States and Turkey to find somebody foolish enough not to see him for what he is - one of life’s genuine arseholes.

This Tuesday
Team News:
Every fit member of QPR’s first team squad will play tonight, or tomorrow in the reserve game at Kettering. The senior members named in the squad tonight are Alberti, Agyemang, Cerny, Connolly, Gorkss, Hall, Mahon, Ramage, Rowlands, Taarabt and Rowan Vine. Angelo Balanta is also down to play against the club he scored three times for on loan last season. Alejandro Faurlin and Mikele Leigertwood are suffering from minor injuries and Akos Buzsaky is also missing having struggled with knocks throughout the summer campaign. Lee Cook misses the start of the season with his long standing knee injury. Jim Magilton said: "These little knocks can sometimes become bigger issues if you rush the player back, so for the time being they're in the capable hands of our medical department and we'll continue to monitor the situation."

Peter Taylor left four first team members at home at the weekend as Wycombe played Eastbourne Borough and his former club Dover Athletic. However Craig Woodman, Lewis Montrose and Stuart Green are all expected to return to the squad tonight. TJ Moncur (hamstring) and Leon Johnson (thigh) are doubtful while Lewis Hunt and Lewwis Spence are definitely out.

Elsewhere:
A number of QPR’s Championship rivals face awkward away friendlies on Tuesday night when the aim will be getting out with your legs in one piece as much as actually performing well and winning the game. Do we envy Doncaster Rovers their 7.45pm kick off at Mike Newell’s Grimsby Town for instance? Or Blackpool their trek to Carlisle? Gainsborough and Lincoln will both provide keen and physical tests for Scunthorpe and Sheffield United while Leicester fans face the short hop up the Midland Mainline to Chesterfield for their latest test. All media eyes will surely be on Derby’s trip to the newly named “Sven Goran Eriksson’s Notts County” but Simon Cox’s return to Swindon with West Brom and Gary Johnson going back to Yeovil with Bristol City are perhaps more eye catching fixtures.

Links >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List

Form
Wycombe: Peter Taylor’s men have endured an indifferent pre-season campaign so far. They were involved in the somewhat farcical Errea tournament in Devon, where they drew 0-0 with Bideford, won on penalties and were then eliminated without playing another match when their next game with Luton was rained off. The final of that tournament between Grimsby and Luton never took place with the two teams unable to agree a kick off time. Since then they have beaten Windsor and Eton 4-0 and Conference side Eastbourne 1-0 but lost 2-1 at Dover over the weekend. Wycombe only lost three times at home last season, but won just two of their last seven at Adams Park and lost on the final day to Notts County.

QPR: Rangers drew 2-2 at Conference side Oxford on Friday night taking their pre-season total to one win, one defeat and two draws. Mercifully after last season’s abysmal goalscoring record the R’s have at least scored nine times in their four matches so far, however a cause for concern is the record of our previously solid defence that has already leaked seven goals this summer and commited some real howlers amongst them. I would say it is unlikely we have seen Jim Magilton’s preferred starting eleven yet and saturday’s final friendly at home to Southampton is likely to provide bigger clues.

Prediction: QPR need to start stepping things up with only a home match against Southampton to come before the big kick off. Wycombe were lucky to be promoted in the end last season and I think we should have enough to deal with them here.
QPR by two

If you’re going to the game and fancy writing the LoftforWords match report, get in touch loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Failing that feel free to test your Championship knowledge against myself and last year’s champion Nathan McAllister among others in our annual Championship Fantasy League Competition - follow this link, select your team, and then enter it into the private LoftforWords league using code 1208.

Photo: Action Images



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