Rangers are finally back at Loftus Road this Saturday after two long weeks of cup matches, new signings and trips to Sheffield
QPR (20th) vs Barnsley (15th)
Coca Cola Championship
Loftus Road, Saturday January 17 2008
After all the kerfuffle of the last couple of weeks, the fifth richest man in the world on the board, a visit to Scumford Bridge, signing half the league and getting a ticking off for our newfound wealth from a little-known but clearly jealously embittered hack, it’s almost a relief to get back to a humdrum league game against Barnsley.
This is a game against opposition who’ve always made us work, but generally played to the script and yielded us the points in the end. Rangers haven’t lost at home to Barnsley since the last king died, although that was a fairly painful 5-0 drubbing in 1950. We have also won every fixture in this decade and tomorrow we’re against a side that has been leaking confidence for about a month and a half. What could possibly go wrong?
That question might be the problem for us, because the old Rangers could have lost this game and nobody would have batted an eyelid. Now if our newly-assembled, and only recently introduced to each other, side wins, loses or draws there’ll be opinions expressed, most of them in that snidely condescending way that is reserved for teams which suddenly offer promises of big things to come. We Brits quite like winners, but we really love to see people fall, especially if it comes just after a nice big burst of pride. “1-0 to the billionaires?” I’d save it for Scumford Bridge in a couple of year’s time and not give those waiting to pounce too much ammunition.
Five minutes on Barnsley
In early May, having watched Rangers and the Tykes trade places in the bottom three virtually all season, few of us would have predicted anything better for Barnsley this season than another relegation scrap. So it was a bit disconcerting to see them get off to a flyer this time round, putting themselves in contention for a play-off berth and not looking out of place in doing so. Barnsley acquired a Keeganesque talent for not worrying about what the opposition are up to and just trying to score more. They’ve hit 34 goals so far this season, as many as sixth placed Palarse, although they’ve leaked 39 with many of these coming recently as they’ve hit a run of poor results that has taken them down to 15th place.
This is probably the most testing time of manager Simon Davey’s 13-month old reign. When he took over in November 2006 he did very well to keep somebody else’s team up, especially since they looked pretty well buried by about this time last year. But now it’s his team and its one that has shown us all that it can do well until it began underperforming. At the moment Barnsley are just on the fringes of the relegation fight but defeat against Rangers will see their fans looking over their shoulders in a way they haven’t endured for most of a season.
Barnsley’s top goalscorer is left sided midfielder Brian Howard, who signed from Swindon in 2005. He is a former-England youth international and has been at the heart of Barnsley’s successes this season. The rest of the goals are fairly evenly spread around the side, which says a lot about a side which likes to play a quick passing game. Jamal Campbell-Ryce is a tricky winger who can be worth watching, although he’s a bit lightweight, and Istvan Ferenczi should at least be known to Akos, given he’s a Hungarian international, even if not that often to the stats gatherers.
What happened the last time these two teams met?
It might be nearly February, but this is Rangers first game against Barnsley this season. Last season’s 2-0 defeat at Oakwell sent Rangers into the bottom three, thanks to goals from Marc Richards and Brian Howard against a Rangers team that included Adam Bolder making his debut.
Barnsley: Colgan, Hassell, Reid, Kay, Eckersley, Devaney, Togwell, Howard, McCann, Nardiello (Reid 73) Richards
Subs not used: Lucas, Coulson, Atkinson, Mattis
QPR: Royce, Mancienne, Rehman (Nygaard) Timoska, Stewart, Bolder, Lomas (Ainsworth) Smith, Cook, Furlong (Jones) Blackstock
Subs not used: Cole, Kanyuka
The last game at Loftus Road, just before Christmas 2006, was settled by a lovely strike by Rowlie, who cut in from the right and drove in left-footed, just inside the near post.
QPR: Royce, Bignot, Mancienne, Stewart, Milanese (Rehman) Rowlands, Lomas, Smith (Bircham) Cook, Jones (Furlong) Blackstock
Subs not used: Cole, Baidoo
Barnsley: Colgan, Hassell, Reid, Kay, Austin, Hayes (Devaney) Togwell, Howard (Reid) McCann, Knight (Richards) Nardiello
Subs not used: Letheren, Heckingbottom
The home game before that was in our promotion season, when we contrived to be 0-0 against a very unadventurous tykes side at half-time, but ran out 4-0 winners after goals from Gallen, Rowlie, Wild Thing and Tony Thorpe. If you want a game against Barnsley that lives in the memory, think back to 1996/97 and Tricky Trevor Sinclair shaping up to make the most outrageous bicycle kick ever seen
See the goal
Head-to-head Rangers wins – 18
Draws – 9
Barnsley wins – 13
Previous Rangers results against Barnsley: 2006/07 Barnsley 2 Rangers 0
2006/07 Rangers 1 Barnsley 0 (Rowlands)
2003/04 Barnsley 3 Rangers 3 (Oggy and Furs twice)
2003/04 Rangers 4 Barnsley 0 (Gallen, Rowland, Ainsworth, Thorpe)
2002/03 Rangers 1 Barnsley 0 (Pacquette)
2002/03 Barnsley 1 Rangers 0
2001/02 Rangers 2 Barnsley 0 (Kiwomya, Crouchaldinho)
2001/02 Barnsley 4 Rangers 2 (Kiwomya twice)
1999/00 Barnsley 1 Rangers 1 (Rose)
1999/00 Rangers 2 Barnsley 2 (Darlington, Steiner)
1998/99 Barnsley 1 Rangers 0
1998/99 Rangers 2 Barnsley 1 (Langley, Gallen)
1996/97 Rangers 3 Barnsley 2 (Peacock, Spencer, Sinclair – that goal)
1996/97 Rangers 3 Barnsley 1 (Spencer hat trick)
1996/97 Barnsley 1 Rangers 3 (Barker, Perry, Dichio)
Team news
What are these pre-match previews for, if not for telling QPR fans about the opposition, the team we don’t know? But who on earth are all those people in blue and white hoops? This week Damien Delaney joined the ever-expanding list of new faces and is presumably available to make his debut. The way things are going Busaky, Rowlands, Stewpeas and Camp will be the only starters that someone who hasn’t seen the team since Christmas will definitely recognise. Just to confuse things further, Leigertwood is available after suspension. So, up front, its either Dave or Dexter with, just behind him, Buszaky. In midfield perm any five of Vine, Mahon, Bolder, Legs, Rowlands, Ainsworth, Lee, Walton, Balanta and Ephraim. And at the back pick four out of Delaney, Barker, Stewart, One Size, Mancienne, Connolly, Lee and Timoska. And they’re all fit. Barnsley’s new loan signing left back from WBA, Miguel Tininho, and recently signed midfielder Diego Leon are in their squad.
Injury List
Referee
Richard Beeby returns to Loftus Road for the second time this season. Last time out we drew 0-0 with Sheffield Wednesday in a very entertaining match and he got a seven out of ten rating for his half decent performance. The same again, with a QPR goal or two thrown into the mix, will go down very nicely.
Details
What’s happening elsewhere?
The stand out match of the weekend is the Saturday lunchtime Sky match between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United – both are languishing in the wrong half of the table despite early season optimism, although the Blades have shown signs of recovery in the last couple of weeks as we know to our cost. Watford v Charlton on Saturday evening also catches the eye.
Tony’s Championship Preview
Form
Barnsley have been on a rotten run, home and away. Last week they surrendered a 1-0 half-time home lead to go down 3-1 at home to Naarwch. The week before that saw a home FA Cup success against Blackpool and the three games before that were high scoring draws – 2-2 at home to Saints and away at Scunny and 3-3 at home to Stoke. Prior to that, Barnsley lost by the odd goal at Ashton Gate and at home to Sheffield United, which must have hurt. Barnsley’s last win was a 1-0 at home to Wolves on December 4th.
By contrast Rangers are on a bit of a roll, despite away defeats by the odd goal at Bramall Lane and Scumford Bridge most recently. Of their last three home games two, against Leicester and Colchester, were wins and one was a 0-0 draw, with Wolves. On their travels Rangers won 4-2 at Watford and 2-0 at Turf Moor, as well as going down 2-1 to Plymouth.
Form Table - League Table
Prediction
The script is very clear, the new boys run onto the pitch, look very imposing, and proceed to roll over a trembling opposition, so that we can all go home singing about Bernie and Flavio. On the other hand, the new boys keep getting in each other’s way, can’t remember each others’ names and generally embarrass themselves playing against a team which is determined not to be beaten by the nouveau-riche southerners. Personally, I think its going to be a scrappy first half, in which the team slowly gets its act together, followed by a fairly comfortable second – 3-1 to Rangers.
Prediction League