QPR’s win at home-bore away approach to the Championship returns to W12 on Valentine’s Day for a date with struggling Blackburn who have a new (part time) manager in situ.
Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Saturday February 14, 2026 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Sunny, allegedly >>> Loftus Road, London, W12
These are attritional times to be following Queens Park Rangers away from home.
If you braved the Friday night rush hour, the teeming rain, the train cancellations and overcrowding, and the sort of crush and policing/stewarding operation we’d hoped the sport had left behind in the 1980s to make it into The Valley last week, your reward was pretty scant. QPR again struggling to hold onto the ball and progress it meaningfully down the pitch. The lauded and much welcomed tactic of leaving three up at Coventry corners abandoned in favour of pulling everybody back for every set piece, so that every clearance merely presented the ball back to Charlton and invited them to hang another cross into the box – which they gleefully did. A tough watch, and a point secured only because Joe Walsh made five or six decent saves in goal while Jimmy Dunne and Steve Cook stood and cleared the ball a fairly monstrous 33 times between them.
Rangers have now won only one of their last 11 away from home. Four of those have finished 0-0, including each of the last three, and the one win in that sequence – at Blackburn, who we meet again on Saturday – was another dire watch which felt destined to finish goalless until Paul Smyth’s late super sub act. Julian Stéphan’s team have scored one goal or fewer in each of their last 12 on the road, and have only scored more than once on two occasions away from W12 – a 2-1 win at Bristol City in October and a 3-1 at Wrexham the month before that.
If you are one of the sad sacks traipsing off to Euston for the 08.30 every other Saturday at the moment then it’s a grim existence – QPR are, frankly, dreadful to watch on their travels. In the six away games since Christmas we have averaged just 2.33 shots on target (four last week, three at West Ham and Pompey, two at Oxford and Stoke, none at all at West Brom). This sequence has included games against the sides currently 18th, 19th, 20th and 23rd in the table (Charlton had won three of 17, Oxford three of 21, West Brom two of 15) from which the R’s have extracted zero victories (coming up next, trips to 4th, 9th and 10th).
The games at Charlton and Stoke were particularly frustrating because when QPR did show a modicum of ambition to get on the ball and attack late in the day they created their best chances. Kealey Adamson and Richard Kone might both have scored in injury time in the Potteries – the only two shots on target all day – while Steve Cook, Jimmy Dunne and Rayan Kolli all went close in eight minutes added on at The Valley. That, naturally, leads frustrated fans to wonder what might have been had we opened up and played a bit of football a bit sooner, but then pre-Christmas when we were more expansive in games at Middlesbrough and Norwich we got a new arse torn for ourselves and all the talk was about stodging things up and being more pragmatic. Such are the contrasting lives of a football manager, supporter and blogger, I guess.
Medium term it’ll be interesting to see if this is truly how Stéphan sees the game and us playing it, or whether the Frenchman is simply working with what he’s got at his disposal. With his reputation for developing attacking and wide players at Rennes it’s puzzling to watch how he uses his wingers in this 4-4-2 system, constantly inverting and crowding the centre, robbing the team of width. Koki Saito’s performance at Charlton was disturbing. But the injury list at Loftus Road is formidable and getting longer rather than shorter – none of the absentees are back in contention to play this week while Karamoko Dembele is now done for most of 2026 with an ACL blow out. New signing Justin Obikwu’s "small thing, nothing to worry about” is entering a fourth week. Ilias ‘back by Christmas’ Chair and Jonathan ‘end of January’ Varane remain sidelined for this Valentine’s Day clash. With the performance department ripping it up (literally) to this extent you can forgive the manager for looking at what he has got available and what they’re good at (two big bastard experienced centre backs who can stand there head it and kick it) and playing to those strengths.
Or, perhaps, this is simply us now and we’ll have to get used to it. After all, QPR aren’t losing games very often either, despite the performances and long list of missing in action. You may not have enjoyed standing through them, but it’s three unbeaten and three clean sheets on the road while missing half a first team. One defeat in six league games. Bristol City reached the play-offs in this league last year despite winning one of their last 15 (!!) away games because they drew seven of those and won ten home games from Boxing Day to May. Liam Manning’s side were a mostly boring watch too, but winning at home and drawing away, two points a game, will get you into the top six in this league. Without a freakish injury time meltdown at Loftus Road to Wrexham that’s exactly where QPR would be right now on a run of seven wins from eight at home where they have scored more goals than anybody in the league bar Coventry, Ipswich and Birmingham.
Rangers couldn’t really be playing anybody better this Saturday than Blackburn Rovers. Like Sheff Wed, Derby and others before them, theirs is a disaster many years in the making that could be seen coming from a mile away. Fantastic managerial performances from Jon Dahl Tomasson and John Eustace got Rovers to 8th, 7th and 7th in three of the last four years, but the malignant Venky’s ownership has been eating away at the fabric of this place for a long while and they were lucky not to go down in 2023/24. Serious Championship talent has bled out of here in the last few years (Lewis Travis, Dom Hyam, Tyrhys Dolan, Sammie Szmodics, Sam Gallagher, Adam Wharton, Thomas Kaminski, Bradley Dack, Ben Brereton Diaz, Joe Rothwell, Adam Armstrong etc etc) to be replaced by an increasingly eclectic bunch of weird and wonderful picks from European backwaters by sporting director Rudy Gestede – who Rovers fans are not shy of reminding once refused to play for the club to force a move away from it. Fans are boycotting home games at a decaying Ewood Park where the pitch has already forced two abandonments this season.
With the lumper’s lump Valerian Ismael jettisoned after two wins in 17 (one of those at home to Sheff Wed) Rovers are scrabbling around for a Gary Rowett type to come and save them. Right on press time, Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill has agreed to take the job part time while still trying to qualify for this summer’s World Cup. A bizarre state of affairs.
How QPR approach the task will be intriguing. Marti Cifuentes’ side won this fixture a year ago 2-1 with a late strike from Jack Colback. With 52.9% possession it remains the last victory they achieved with more of the ball than their opponent – there have been 16 Rangers victories since, all with an inferior possession stat. Is this team, which transitions from back to front quicker and more directly than any other in the entire Football League, able to dominate and win a home game when required?
Ronnie Edwards had the best game of his loan spell in this fixture last season, carrying the ball out from the back beyond the first Blackburn press and spraying it around the midfield with aplomb. Would you drop Steve Cook, playing as he is, to get Edwards into the middle and Mbengue at right back? Isaac Hayden had a poor game last Friday, does Edwards step into that role as he did against Leeds with some panache? Or do you leave him where he is on the right side of the defence? His role feels pretty key to this one.
The away performances and results do put considerable pressure on your home games. Stéphan said it himself post Charlton – "a win next week validates this point”.
Links >>> January Transfer Window – Podcast >>> QPR knock over Dalglish’s title challengers – History >>> Venky’s chickens come home to roost – Oppo Profile >>> Martin in charge – Referee >>> Rovers official website >>> Official website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Paper >>> BRFCS message board and podcast >>> Rovers Chat — Blog
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- Good news. Sky have finally got around to naming their picks for the weekend of March 14 and our trip to Leicester has escaped, so you’re safe to book trains for that now. Derby haven’t been so lucky, their away game at Portsmouth is now on a Monday night. Bristol City away at Middlesbrough goes to 12.30.
- Bad news. No Central Line service between White City and Ealing Broadway or West Ruislip this weekend. Replacement buses operate.
Team News: Justin Obikwu’s unspecified, nothing serious, absolutely nothing to worry about knock keeps him away from a QPR debut for a fourth week. Jake Clarke-Salter (stop it), Jonathan Varane and Ilias Chair have all come back into training this week but won’t be available for this game. Karamoko Dembele ruptured his ACL against Coventry and will miss the rest of this season and time into next as well. Rumarn Burrell and Ziyad Larkeche are also long-term absentees. No sign of or news on Kwame Poku. Amadou Mbengue is one yellow card away from a two-game ban.
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has taken the Blackburn vacancy on a temporary basis in a job-share arrangement. He will watch this from the stands with coach Damian Johnson taking the team. Phil Jones is also coming on board his coaching staff. Scott Wharton (gout), Ryan Hedges (squits), Matty Litherland (adult called Matty), Augustus Kargbo (club foot), Sidnei Tavares (piles) and George Pratt (date night) are all out for Rovers. Todd Cantwell is up on the high wire with Mbengue on nine yellow cards for the season.
Elsewhere: When Coventry won 4-2 at Middlesbrough at the end of November the gap between the sides was ten points, and the Sky Blues had a 12-point cushion back to third. As the teams prepare to meet again on Monday night, it’s now Boro topping the table while Ipswich have closed to within five of Frank Lampard’s faltering (two wins in eight) side following a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Oxford last weekend.
Kim Hellberg’s Boro have won six in a row in the Championship scoring 16 goals in the process. Their performance in victory at Sheff Utd on Monday was impressive, as was the spectacle as a whole – certainly a far cry in quality, standards and entertainment value from that we’d served up to the Sky audience on the Friday (stop picking us then).
I’m not going to sit here and give it ‘why can’t we be more like Middlesbrough’ who are one club town with an enormous stadium, lower costs, greater income, vastly more FFP/PSR headroom than us and so on. But they’re not a parachute payment team and if we are aiming to become a top six club their performance on Monday set the standard. The midfield three, in particular, of Hackney, Browne and Morris was really something to aspire to – controlling a difficult away game with possession and creativity in a way we don’t seem able to. While Boro have spent things like £7m on sub David Strelec, similar on centre back Adilson Malanda, £7m on Morgan Whittaker, £5m on Tommy Conway etc, those three in midfield cost them £3m altogether which is less than we spent on Zan Celar and Jonathan Varane. It can be done.
That’s undoubtedly the game of this truncated weekend where several Championship sides are in FA Cup fourth round (who knew?!) action. Several games scheduled for this weekend were bumped back into midweek and managerless Leicester going 3-0 up at home to Southampton then losing 4-3 was undoubtedly the standout result of those fixtures. Quirkily, the two now meet again in the cup. Sam Field was pulling strings for Norwich in their 3-0 win against his favourite opponent Oxford United, West Brom got a 0-0 out of Brimingham but are still yet to win for new manager Eric Ramsay, Nathan Jones was predictably and typically low key about Charlton’s 1-0 victory against his former club Stoke.
Of the games that are left this weekend, watch out for Watford. The Hornets made a lousy start to their year under Paulo Pezzolano but had climbed back into play-off contention under former boss (isn’t everybody?) Javi Gracia. Unfortunately, amidst declining results and some odd team selections, Gracia has decided to resign and walk away from football’s hottest seat having not been granted the signings he wanted in January. Will Still had been linked with the job but it’s his non-union Belgian equivalent Ed Still who’s got the nod despite winning two of his last 28 games on the continent. Señor Stillbergo starts his new gig away to Preston Knob End.
Derby host Swansea, Portsmouth are at home to Sheffield Red Stripe assuming the pitch holds up to day 67 of continuous rain, and the Barry Bannan derby between Sheff Wed and Millllllll takes place at Hillsborough. If results fall a certain way this weekend then the Owls will seal their relegation at Bramall Lane in the Steel City derby next weekend. Ouch.
Referee: Experienced Championship official Stephen Martin takes on a QPR game for the first time in more than a year, since a 3-1 win here against Watford on New Year’s Day last year. Details.
- The divide between QPR home and away continues to grow. The victory against then-league leaders Coventry a fortnight ago means it’s six wins from eight at Loftus Road. The bore-draw at Charlton a week ago means it’s one win from ten on the road (that win coming against Blackburn in the first meeting).
- QPR simultaneously have one win from six league games and two from nine, but also only one defeat from six. Loftus Road is a land of contrasts.
- QPR have drawn 0-0 in three consecutive away league games for the first time since April 1910 in the Southern League. @JTSupple
- Blackburn have slipped into the bottom three with an 8-8-15 record which leaves them on 32 points from 31 played.
- Blackburn have won one of their last ten (Sheff Wed H) and two of the last 16 – a sequence which began with QPR’s 1-0 win at Ewood Park in November at which point Rovers had won four of their previous five games.
- Blackburn’s away record of 5-3-7 is quite respectable. It’s one more away win than QPR have managed and the same amount as third placed Ipswich. Rovers have won at Hull, Watford, Leicester, Bristol City and Preston. However they are without a victory in their last eight in all comps, losing the last three after five straight draws.
- Only Coventry (31), Birmingham and Ipswich (30 each) have scored more home goals than QPR’s 28 so far.
- QPR won this fixture 2-1 last February with goals from Michi Frey and Jack Colback. With 52.9% possession it remains the last time Rangers have won a game with more of the ball than their opponent – all 16 victories achieved since have been achieved with less.
- QPR have won two of their last three visits to Blackburn, including the corresponding fixture in November when Paul Smyth bagged a late winner. Prior to that they had lost six in a row at Ewood Park and won none of 12 going back to 1999, losing ten, and one of 18 going back to 1983.
- If QPR do win here it’ll be their first double over Blackburn since 1970/71 when they won both games 2-0.
- Blackburn have lost three of their last four league games against QPR, as many as they had in their previous 21 (W12 D6).
- There hasn’t been a draw between these sides in 16 meetings going back to September 2016 when Tjaronn Chery scored a brilliant free kick in a 1-1 at Loftus Road. Blackburn have won ten of the meetings since then but have lost the last two.
- Julien Stéphan is the first QPR manager to win eight of his first 15 league games at Loftus Road since Luigi De Canio in 2007–08. @JTSupple
- Andri Gudjohnsen is Blackburn’s top scorer with seven Championship goals but this team has only scored three goals in its last seven games. Rovers have only scored more than two goals in a game once, a 3-0 win at Hull on August 23.
- Blackburn have only played third tier football once in the last 46 years (2017/18).
- If you're a fan of growing your hair until QPR win five in a row, then (inevitably) we are the Championship team that has gone the longest period of time without doing that. Ian Holloway's 2004/05 side beating Brighton, Leicester, Coventry, Stoke and West Ham in October 04 was the last time.
In our Prediction League for 2025/26 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. Monners was the big mover in the post-Stoke predictions, though he said he had "Catholic guilt” for correctly calling a dire 0-0. QPR_Hibs won last season’s Prediction League at a canter and is lending his thoughts to this year’s previews…
"For about three weeks every four years I become totally obsessed with the sport of curling. Then I totally forget about it until the next Winter Olympics comes along. I have followed nearly every match involving a GB curling team so far, which is a far from easy task when you’re trying to watch it on the BBC. They sometimes start off on one channel, then switch to another halfway through, before you are told that, if you really want to see the conclusion of the contest, you can find it on the ‘red button.’ They’d never get away with that during the rugby ‘Six Nations’ or any type of football match.
"To be fair to the BBC, their coverage of the Olympics as a whole has been pretty decent, and I much prefer their commentaries to those from the TNT Sports mob. The only other small irritation that I have found is their insistence on using the words ‘podium’ and ‘medal’ as verbs. ‘I was really expecting him to podium in that event – he’ll be disappointed not to medal.’ Stop that right now.
"Because the FA Cup fourth round weekend is coming up, some Championship teams had to play their league fixtures during the week (not you, QPR) and there was an eye-catching result on Tuesday evening, which saw Southampton come back from a 3-0 deficit at half time to win 4-3 away at Leicester. If any of you occasionally take slight umbrage with Clive’s player ratings, then you should have a look at the BBC scores for that game. Divine Mukasa scored a goal, also got an assist and was then substituted when Leicester were leading 3-1. His rating? 3.83 out of 10. That’s very harsh indeed.
"Rangers had a solid defensive performance and some fine goalkeeping from Joe Walsh to thank for their goalless draw at Charlton last Friday night. They come into this weekend’s home fixture against struggling Blackburn Rovers with no additional injury worries. However, Jake Clarke-Salter is the only likely returnee from the treatment room. I doubt he will be risked as a starter, but he may well slot into the squad.
"Murmurings on the LFW forum suggest that some fans would like to see Ronnie Edwards pushed up into midfield alongside Nico Madsen, with Mbengue returning at right back. There’s a slight chance of that, but I suspect that the same eleven again will start this game. Isak Alemayehu, who was on the bench against Charlton, picked up a red card in the DS cup game at West Brom and that may affect Julien’s decision to include him in the squad.
"Blackburn are sitting in the bottom three and are on an awful run of form, so what better place for them to visit than Loftus Road. But, surely, even QPR couldn’t mess this one up, could they? Could they?”
QPR_Hibs Prediction: QPR 2-1 Blackburn. Scorer – Richard Kone
LFW’s Prediction: QPR 2-0 Blackburn. Scorer – Richard Kone
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