QPR face a tricky Tuesday night away game at Blackpool this week. This is the first time Kaspars Gorkss has returned to Bloomfield Road since his controversial move to Rangers in the summer.

Blackpool (15th) v Queens Park Rangers (8th)
Coca Cola Championship
Tuesday January 27, Kick Off 7.45pm
Bloomfield Road, Blackpool

Hooray, it's another one of those cold Tuesday night away games in the north that we are always told our soft southern nancy boy players won't fancy very much. QPR have three of these this season, this is the second following a 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday that really only QPR will know how they did not win. We still have Doncaster to come later in the season but Blackpool, and their half finished Bloomfield Road ground, fit the stereotype better than most it must be said.

After reading Karen Brady's somewhat barbed allegation that Blackpool “did not try very hard” to get their fixture on here earlier the season I have been keeping half an eye on the weather forecast for this part of the world all week fearful that time booked off work and pre-purchased train tickets may all be for nothing. I can confirm that it will be both cold and wet in Blackpool on Tuesday – just like it was last time we were here. And the time before that.

On the pitch Rangers can expect to find a pudding like surface and home team buoyed by the signing of our one time youth team prospect DJ Campbell. They may have only won one game in six since Simon Grayson controversially decamped to Leeds United but the win, coming as it did against Birmingham on Saturday in some style, was a good one. Wolves were lucky to escape from here with a 2-2 draw a fortnight ago as well so this will be a big ask.

Off the pitch the travelling faithful will once again be charged £27 to sit in the squalor of the Blackpool away end. They still have the nerve to call it a temporary structure despite it being there for a good five years now - frankly calling it a structure at all is pushing it somewhat with its tendency to sway backwards and forwards in the breeze. There is no roof to shelter you from the inevitable rain, and it is built on a clay like substance that clings to your shoes in thick clumps when wet so consider your footwear carefully. Blackpool still have some way to go off the pitch to catch their team up on it – these are the worst facilities for away fans in the football league by some distance.

Spice is added by the numerous recent connections between the sides. QPR are not considered a big side by many but they have picked off several of Blackpool's better players in recent times – Clarke Carlisle for £250k, Kaspars Gorkss for a similar amount and Danny Shittu from Charlton when the Tangerines would have liked to have made his loan switch permanent. For their part Blackpool have taken Ian Evatt, Marcus Bean, Zesh Rehman and Daniel Nardiello from us with limited success.

The drawn out purchase of Gorkss during the summer, during which Pool chairman Karl Oyston reported QPR to the league for an illegal approach, fostered bad blood between the sides and both Gorkss and the QPR board can expect a frosty reception on Tuesday night – and I don't just mean the weather.

Five minutes on Blackpool
We rejoin Blackpool with the Tangerines in a bit of a state of flux. Prior the match at Loftus Road I spoke a lot about their manager at the time Simon Grayson and the remarkable job he had done at Bloomfield Road. Now, some four months later, Grayson has gone and Blackpool are under the caretaker stewardship of his former assistant Tony Parkes.

You may well recognise Parkes – a constant figure in the background at Jack Walker’s Blackburn revolution, occasionally called upon to fill in as a caretaker boss in between appointments after the likes of Ray Harford, Roy Hodgson and Brian Kidd had been shown he door. Parkes was a real one club man. He spent 12 years at Ewood Park as a player, his entire professional playing career after starting with non-league Buxton, and then served as a coach and assistant manager for a further 22 years taking caretaker charge of the side on six occasions. His departure in 2008 reflected badly on Rovers with Parkes claiming the first he heard of it was from his daughter who had picked it up on a radio sports bulletin in the car on her way home.

Still the dour Sheffielder always looks miserable regardless of circumstance so it was difficult to tell just how much that hurt him. Understandably with such a terrific reputation it was not long before another club snapped him up. Grayson had played under Parkes at Blackburn and brought him in as an experienced, wise old assistant to complement his burgeoning managerial talent at Bloomfield Road.

Simon Grayson was a very steady right back in his day. He started his career as a trainee at Leeds in the early 1990s when they took the First Division title to Elland Road for the last time but he played the majority of his first team football, some 192 games, at Leicester City. Spells with Aston Villa and Blackburn followed but his career looked to be winding down as Rovers lent him out to a succession of lower division clubs. An Indian summer at Blackpool saw him make 132 appearances between 2002 and 2005.

Pool were at this time bobbing around between the bottom two divisions of English football. You could forgive the fans for being a little tired of this, since relegation to the old old Third Division in 1978 they had never been back to the top half of the Football League despite being one of its famous old names. There were high points, promotions and play off final wins against Scunthorpe (under Billy Ayre) and Southend (under Steve McMahon) more than a decade apart, but more often than not Blackpool sunk back down to the bottom rung of the ladder and in November 2005 it looked like they were about to do so again.

McMahon, the former Liverpool midfielder and Swindon manager, was the gaffer at Bloomfield Road the last time Pool shared a division with QPR between 2001 and 2004 but he could never get them any higher than mid table despite putting together a couple of neat looking sides and he resigned in 2004 when it became clear further progress was going to allude him. He was replaced by former Scotland international and Pat Butcher look-a-like Colin Hendry but that proved to be a backwards step and so with the club staring the fourth tier square in the face yet again experienced defender Simon Grayson was given he job of succeeding Hendry, as a caretaker at first and later permanently.

Grayson had been taking the reserves at Blackpool towards the end of his playing time there but nobody could have foreseen the success he enjoyed almost immediately in his first job as a senior manager. He saved Blackpool from relegation in his first season and then led them back into the top two divisions of English football at long last in his first full season in charge – they beat Yeovil in the Wembley play off final to join Scunthorpe United and Bristol City as the promoted sides.

Scunny went up as champions but were relegated straight back after selling Billy Sharp and Andy Keogh from their promotion winning squad and failing to stump up the cash for Jermaine Becford who had been on loan at Glanford Park and could have been theirs for a measly few hundred thousand. Bristol City strengthened rather better and made the play offs in their first season back at this level. Blackpool finished between the pair. With the board, made up of the Oyston family and a rich Latvian, still refusing to finance much needed extensions to the now two sided Bloomfield Road and little money available for players it needed all of Grayson’s ability to keep Pool up last season but they did indeed survive be three places and two points.

Second season syndrome is always a risk and with the ground still of a Ryman League standard on two sides and money still scarce Blackpool were many people’s tip for the bottom spot this season. Contract clauses meant they lost two outstanding performers from the previous season Kaspars Gorkss to QPR and Wes Hoolahan to Norwich and Grayson was forced to rely increasingly on the loan market. A wretched pre-season campaign did little to raise hopes and Pool lost three of their first four games including the opening home fixture against Bristol City and a cup game at Macclesfield Town.

Grayson though turned things around. He picked up loaned gems like Alan Gow, Kyel Reid and Liam Dickinson and Pool have battled their way up to fifteenth in the league. Not only is second season syndrome currently being avoided, they’re actually set to improve on last season’s finish. Heck they have even got round to starting building work on a new stand which will be a blessed relief to away fans forced to pay sky high prices for squalid accommodation on this ground for the last five years.

Whether that new stand sees Championship or League One football next year is still in some doubt. Grayson finally succumbed to the bright lights of a supposedly bigger club when he resigned and took over at Leeds in December, Blackpool are still taking legal advice after refusing him permission to do so, and six of the loan players went back at the turn of the year including Gow who subsequently failed a medical at Wolves.

Parkes has said he wants the job full time and Blackpool have said he can have it depending on results but Saturday’s impressive success against Birmingham was his first win in six attempts and even a ‘back me or sack me’ plea from the caretaker has no subsided into ‘we’ll just see what happens’ when interviewed by TalkSport this week. He has shown a Grayson like understanding for the loan market though and where Gow once ploughed the forward line now DJ Campbell provides the main threat after joining from Leicester. Pool are seven points clear of the drop zone and in al probability only 16 points or so away from a required target for safety. Whether it is Parkes that is charged with getting them there remains to be seen but two wins in a week against pre-season promotion favourites would do his cause no harm at all.

Men to watch
Blackpool’s high turn over of loan players means that this section looks very different to what I wrote even just four months ago. Then at Loftus Road Rangers were looking forward to facing ‘Big’ Ben Burgess and Steve Kabba, a month ago it would have been Alan Gow and Liam Dickinson and now it could well be DJ Campbell and Krisztian Nemeth.

Campbell needs few introductions. He was with QPR as a teenager but had a bit of a reputation and was released into non-league football. He caught the attention during Yeading’s FA Cup run that ended with a plum third round tie against Newcastle which they switched to Loftus Road. Having beaten Brentford in an earlier round then Bees manager Martin Allen returned to the now merged club to sign Campbell. A year later, after more FA Cup heroics this time against Sunderland, he got a big move to the top flight joining Birmingham City for more than £1m.

Campbell is a pacy forward and will work hard for the team when in the right mood. That made him popular at St Andrews despite a poor record of nine goals from 43 appearances and many Brum fans sang his name at Bloomfield Road on Saturday when he scored for the Tangerines in a 2-0 win. In between times he has endured a mediocre spell at Leicester City as they have worked their way through four managers in 18 months – he was originally signed at the Walkers by his old Brentford boss Martin Allen.

Nemeth is an altogether more unknown quantity. He is a 20 year old Hungarian striker who signed on loan from Liverpool on Monday in time to play in this game. He has an incredible record of 13 goals in eight appearances for Hungary at Under 21 level and 14 in 15 at under 19 level but has yet to make a senior appearance for Liverpool since signing from MTK Hungaria in 2007.

Never fear though, Burgess is still here. He scored a heartbreaking last minute winner against us in this fixture last season and will I’m sure relish the opportunity to crawl all over us for the umpteenth time in his career if necessary. Burgess was a regular thorn in the QPR side during our Second Division days when he spent time on loan from Blackburn to Stockport and Brentford. A huge great lump who poses a threat through his sheer awkwardness. Gary Taylor Fletcher, scorer of a super goal at Loftus Road in September, got the nod alongside Campbell on Saturday with our old powder puff forward Daniel Nardiello still awaiting his first goal of any sort since leaving Barnsley for Loftus Road 18 months ago.

At the back watch out for a couple of familiar faces – one through time spent with QPR, the other through time spent in the Premiership. Ian Harte was hot property at Leeds at the turn of the century. A Champions League regular at left back and free kick specialist in David O’Leary’s attractive Leeds side that ultimately turned out to be built on foundations of sand. While the likes of Alan Smith, Robbie Keane, Mark Viduka and others stayed at the top end of the game Harte has joined Seth Johnson and a couple of others in drifting downwards. An unsuccessful spell in Spain with Levante saw him struggle to clock up 30 appearances in three years and ended his international career with Ireland. Blackpool picked him up for nothing on a month to month contract earlier this season – testament to how far he has fallen. The Pool fans do not seem overly impressed with him so far either.

QPR fans did not think much to Ian Evatt when he was at Loftus Road but he has proved to be a big hit in this part of the world. Evatt impressed against Rangers for Chesterfield on a couple of occasions and when a move for Scunthorpe’s Andy Butler fell through Ian Holloway turned his attentions and £200k towards the former Derby man. His chronic lack of pace and turning circle that required traffic to be stopped on the Uxbridge Road to complete saw him caught out at Championship level – he was transfer listed after less than six months by Holloway and although Gary Wadock initially gave him a chance when he took over the writing was on the wall and he was allowed to join Pool on a free transfer two seasons ago. He has rarely looked back since and looks pretty comfortable in this league these days – still if QPR could get Routledge or Ephraim running at him with any sort of regularity you would think that a weak spot is there to be exploited. Butler turned out to be poor as well so don’t worry too much about the choice we made.

It is hard to say who will start in midfield for the home side with injuries and suspensions biting into their team. Roy O’Donovan, a 23 year old winger, is another loan signing from Sunderland and Joe Martin looked reasonably impressive when I saw them against Wolves a fortnight ago. The problem Parkes and Blackpool have though is a reliance on loans means a high turnover of players and three of their most impressive players in that Wolves game, Dickinson, Gow and Kyel Reid, are now no longer with them. David Vaughan is likely to fill in across the middle tomorrow – he looked like the next big thing when he came through the ranks a Crewe but, like Harte, a poor spell in Spain has left him back at Blackpool looking to rebuild a faltering career. Still a tidy player mind.

Watch out for right back Shaun Barker’s long throws.

Previous Meetings
At Loftus Road in September Blackpool profited from a prolonged QPR cup hangover. Rangers had won 1-0 at Norwich in the league, and Aston Villa in the League Cup, and been unlucky to lose at Coventry prior to winnable looking home games against Derby and the Tangerines. The Rams won comfortably 2-0 at Loftus Road on the Saturday and Blackpool looked like doing the same when they took a deserved one goal lead against the R’s. Gary Taylor Fletcher hammered in a fine first half goal after a poor defensive header from Damion Stewart. The QPR fans turned on manager Iain Dowie towards the end of the half, demanding a switch to 442, and although he obliged Blacpool looked set for a win until the introduction of Akos Buzsaky. It was a free kick from the Hungarian that rattled the cross bar, falling plum for Dexter Blackstock to head into an empty net, that brought Rangers back into the game and sealed a scarcely deserved point. Having said that, Blackstock did have another headed goal disallowed.

QPR Cerny 6, Ramage 4, Hall 6, Stewart 6, Delaney 5, Mahon 6 (Buzsaky 7) Parejo 4 (Leigertwood 7), Ledesma 4 (Agyemang 7), Rowlands 5, Cook 7, Blackstock 6
Subs not used: Camp, Gorkss
Bookings: Leigertwood 69 (foul)
Goals: Blackstock 80 (assisted Buzsaky)

Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Southern 6, Evatt 7, Edwards 7, Camara 6, Vaughan 6 (Broomes 84, -), Taylor-Fletcher 7, Jorgensen 5 (Fox 90, -), Barker 6, Kabba 6, Burgess 7
Subs Not Used: Coid, Hammill, Gow
Goals: Taylor-Fletcher 18 (unassisted)

Match Report

On our last visit to Bloomfield Road December 2007 QPR were beaten in cruel circumstances by a Ben Burgess header in injury time in appalling weather conditions. Akos Buzsaky went close in the first half but Blackpool, with a gale at their backs took over the second half and completely dominated. It looked like Rangers had hung on for a goalless draw as the game entered stoppage time but a mistake by Damion Stewart under a high ball gave Burgess a chance to nod past Camp and win the game.

Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Barker 7, Jackson 7, Gorkss 7, Crainey 7, Welsh 6 (Taylor-Fletcher 59, 6), Southern - (Fox 12, 6), Jorgensen 6, Hoolahan 8, Burgess 8, Slusarski 6 (Morrell 54, 7)
Subs Not Used: Evatt, Parker
Goals: Burgess 90 (assisted Crainey)

QPR: Camp 8, Malcolm 6, Stewart 7, Leigertwood 7, Barker 6, Rowlands 6, Buzsaky 6 (Moore 75, 5), Bolder 5, Sinclair 6, Vine 7 (Ainsworth 68, 5),Sahar 4 (Nygaard 46, 4)
Subs Not Used: Goodchild, Bailey
Booked: Buzsaky (deliberate handball), Rowlands (foul)

Match Report

Head to Head:
Blackpool wins - 3
Draws – 7
QPR wins - 12

Past QPR v Blackpool results:
2008/09 QPR 1 Blackpool 1 (Blackstock)
2007/08 QPR 3 Blackpool 2 (Buzsaky, Vine, Rowlands)
2007/08 Blackpool 1 QPR 0
2003/04 Blackpool 0 QPR 1 (Rowlands)
2003/04 QPR 5 Blackpool 0 (Ainsworth 2, Langley, Gallen, Palmer)
2002/03 Blackpool 1 QPR 3 (Langley 3)
2002/03 QPR 2 Blackpool 1 (Langley, Clarke og)
2001/02 QPR 2 Blackpool 0 (Langley, Gallen)
2001/02 Blackpool 2 QPR 2 (Griffiths 2)

Team News
Goalkeeper Lee Camp is in line for a shock recall after QPR lost Radek Cerny to a hamstring injury. The Czech stopper has struggled to train much since the Derby match and although he tried to train with the rest of the boys in Oldham on Monday it looks like the injury is going to keep him out of this one. With Jake Cole out with a broken finger and Reece Crowther not travelling Sousa is left with just Camp and youth team keeper Niki-Lee Bulmer to pick from in his travelling party and, despite Flavio Briatore’s dislike of him, Camp is likely to get the nod. Elsewhere Rangers are without Martin Rowlands, Patrick Agyemang and Akos Buzsaky who are all long term absentees. Rowan Vine is still a couple of weeks away from a potential return.

Blackpool have big problems in midfield but have added a new name to their attack in the build to this one. Tony Parkes completed the loan signing of 20 year old Hungarian striker Krisztian Nemeth from Liverpool late on Monday and he goes straight into the squad to face Rangers. Keith Southern has a swollen ankle and is unlikely to be fit in time and Claus Jorgensen was sent off for an off the ball clash with Lee Bowyer on Saturday so he is banned. Former Crewe man David Vaughan waits to deputise.
Injury List

Referee
Graham Laws is in charge of QPR for the second time this season on Tuesday night. His previous game was the 3-0 defeat at Sheff Utd in August so we need to hope for better than that. He has in the past been in charge of a 4-0 win at Mansfield and a 3-1 win at Man City so he’s not all bad, and he gave us a dodgy goal at Hull last season.
Details

Elsewhere
The clear stand out fixture of this midweek round is the meeting of the top two Wolves and Reading at the Madejski Stadium. Wolves have wobbled a little of late and lost at home to struggling Premiership side Middlesbrough on Saturday so may well not fancy this trip to the team with the best home record in the league – only QPR have stopped Reading scoring at home this season and they have a record of 11 wins and two draws from 14 matches. Birmingham wait to capitalise with a home match against Derby. At the bottom Norwich and Southampton looks like a six pointer. Cardiff get to play Coventry a day later on Wednesday following their cup exploits with Arsenal – it’s worth pointing out that if the Bluebirds win the replay at The Emirates Stadium next week our match there on February 15 will be postponed and we will have another bloody long trek to do on a Tuesday night. Tony’s Championship Preview

Form
QPR’s away record has a slightly less embarrassing look to it following the 2-0 win at Derby last Saturday. Let’s be honest, two wins and six draws from 14 matches is still a rank return and the goals at Pride Park still only increase our total to a measly seven in the league but it is improving and with trips to several of the leagues struggling teams including Doncaster, Southampton, Barnsley and Blackpool on Tuesday still to come it may yet improve further. We do now at least have a better away record than Charlton which is something. That result at Pride Park made it six league matches without defeat since the unlucky set back at Sheff Wed in the middle of December however four of those games have been drawn with the two wins coming against Preston at home and of course the Rams away.

Blackpool beat promotion chasing Birmingham 2-0 at home on Saturday and deserved the win by all accounts but that was their first victory in eight attempts and first one since Simon Grayson left for Leeds in December. They are however unbeaten in four consecutive home games with wins against Birmingham and Charlton (both 2-0) and draws with Wolves (2-2) and Swansea (1-1). Overall Pool have just four wins from 14 home matches this season and have been beaten five times – Barnsley and Derby are the other teams they have beaten, Bristol City, Sheff Utd, Ipswich, Preston and Sheff Wed are the sides that have left here with a maximum haul. Only three teams have scored less goals at home than Blackpool with 17 – bottom of the table Charlton have19.
Form Guide

Prediction
Blackpool are hard working and difficult to beat at home recently, but they don’t win too many. It would be unusual for them to win two home games on the trot. QPR are similarly tough to beat recently but also struggle for wins. In tough conditions this looks all ends up a draw to me.
Blackpool 1 QPR 1

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