QPR finally return to competitive action on Saturday with Ian Holloway's Blackpool side providing tricky opposition for Jim Magilton's first proper game in charge.

Queens Park Rangers v Blackpool
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday August 8, Kick Off 3pm
Loftus Road, London, W12

I have been spending quite a lot of time with my head in my hands lately. I find the darkness soothing. It is absolutely throwing it down with rain outside as I write this, one thirty am Friday morning for those that are wondering where I find the time, and that’s a good thing too – the constant sound of falling water through my open bedroom window helps me sleep. I am in a dark place this week people, a place only men who have been dragged round the ornamental gardens at Chatsworth House for four hours (four bloody hours!) on a Saturday afternoon can possibly understand how to get to.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice garden as much as the next man, and I am more than capable of nodding and smiling and making pleasantries and looking at the pretty fountain and admiring its height and power and wondering just how they managed to do such things such a long time ago for an hour or so. But four bleedin hours of fountains and plants and walking and information boards? That is no way to spend time at a weekend, that is worse than work. I mean at least when you are at work you are getting paid to be there and normally it is at a time you would expect to be at work like half three on a Tuesday or ten o’clock Thursday morning. Saturdays are not for gardens and walking and bloody poxy, pointless lily pads.

Saturdays are for one thing and one thing only, always have been and always will be, and while I can hear the sighs and see the rolled eyes of my family members piercing me through the gloom of the sitting room here at LFW Towers as I type that I just do not care any more. I submit, mercy, get me back to Loftus Road, I do not care if it is crap, if the team is awful, if every game is 0-0 again, if the tickets are expensive, if they wheel Trevor Kettle and Andy Hall out for every single one of our matches on a rotation basis - I do not care. Just get me back to London W12 and put me in my seat, you may need to carry me up there as my legs are weary from all the bastard gardens they have been dragged around. And breathe.

Football is not just a game, not to me anyway, it is a way of life and I think it is very inconsiderate of it to just disappear for three months in the summer. Football provides me with the necessary release I need to remain calm during the week and not strangle the living shit out of every fat inconsiderate chav that bangs the back of my ankles with their trolley while I’m trying to queue for some honey cured ham at the Morrison’s Deli counter. After three months without it, football that is not cooked meat, I am a man on the edge. Just start the bloody season and nobody gets hurt.

Five minutes on Blackpool
Recent History: QPR fans took this game to be a good omen when it was announced that we would face Blackpool at home on the opening day of the season. In 2003, in one hundred degrees of searing heat, and with Pool in an all black kit, QPR thumped the Seasiders 5-0 at Loftus Road in the first match of the season and went on to win promotion to the Championship in May. Pool were at that time under the charge of former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon. He left the club in 2004 after a promotion and two LDV Vans trophy wins saying he had done all he could with the budget available to him.

Pool went for a similarly big name to replace him when they gave Colin Hendry his first shot at management but things did not go well and in November 2005 he was replaced, on a caretaker basis at first, by one of his senior players Simon Grayson. The transformation in the on pitch fortunes at Bloomfield Road since then has been quite remarkable. Grayson kept Pool up in 2005/06 when even that had looked unlikely when he was appointed, won the play offs in his first full season in charge beating Yeovil at Wembley, and then consolidated Pool’s position in the Championship on a tiny budget and with the world and his wife queuing up to write them off as relegation no hopers.

Grayson was always going to attract interest from elsewhere after such a sparkling start to his managerial career and was even linked with the job as assistant to Alex Ferguson at one point. However in the end he actually dropped a division, in bitter circumstances with Blackpool initially refusing his resignation and then demanding hefty compensation, when he joined Leeds United. Grayson is a Leeds fan and started his career at the club where he is now hoping to repeat the trick of rebuild – promote – consolidate that he did so well at Bloomfield Road. It is a very different task though – expectations are low at Bloomfield Road, they couldn’t be higher at Elland Road where the lobotomised locals still sing about being European Champions even though they never won the bloody thing and are now playing Exeter City in the league. Anyway, I digress.

Blackpool gave Grayson’s assistant Tony Parkes the chance to stake a claim for the job permanently by making him the caretaker manager through to the end of the season. Parkes, a seasoned campaigner and coach, mostly with Blackburn Rovers, successfully kept a mediocre squad in the league and wanted the job but was not happy with the meagre terms offered – hinting that he felt the club were making an offer because they felt they had to rather than because they really wanted him to stay. As Grayson’s permanent replacement eccentric chairman Karl Oyston and Latvian investor Valeri Belokon have turned to a man with a proven track record of discovering hidden talent, getting mediocre players to excel themselves and building a competitive Championship side on a budget.

The Manager: New Blackpool boss Ian Holloway needs no introduction to QPR fans. A former player at Loftus Road Holloway cut his managerial teeth at another of his former clubs Bristol Rovers. He was desperately unlucky at Rovers to lose out in the play offs when promotion to this league seemed likely, but he made the club huge amounts of money by discovering the likes of Barry Hayles, Nathan Ellington, Jamie Cureton and Jason Roberts in non-league and other clubs’ reserve sides. That attracted QPR to him in 2001 with relegation to the Second Division and administration looming. Holloway got a blank canvas at QPR, with only seven professionals left for the 2001/02 season, but no money for paint. He assembled a rag tag bunch of players along with talented assistant manager Kenny Jackett and miracle working scout Mel Johnson. QPR finished midtable in their first Second Division campaign, made the play off final in the second and won promotion at the third attempt with a team high on effort, work rate and commitment with a smattering of genuinely talented players.

The introduction of Gianni Paladini to the QPR board and a poor start to the 2004/05 season in the Championship almost cost Olly his job but a run of eight wins in nine matches catapulted the R’s into promotion contention before they fell back into mid-table. That was about as much as Rangers were ever likely to accomplish with no money and low crowds and better equipped clubs like Wolves and Leicester started to sniff around the QPR manager. It was interest from the latter that brought an end to Olly’s time at Loftus Road, although it seemed at the time like the Loftus Road board was just looking for an excuse. He was placed on gardening leave in January 2006 and replaced by Gary Waddock, surfacing that summer at Plymouth Argyle.

Again working with meagre resources Holloway assembled a hard working and attractive Argyle side that included the likes of David Norris, Akos Buzsaky and Peter Halmosi, he also rediscovered his knack of unearthing genuine goal scorers when he brought in Sylvain Ebanks Blake from Man Utd for £250k. By the middle of the 2007/08 season though, 18 months after taking the job, Holloway seemed to be becoming frustrated with the lack of resources at Home Park and the prospect of losing the majority of his talented players at the end of the season – in the end, after his departure, Plymouth lost nine of their starting eleven in summer 2008. Despite ruling himself out of the once again vacant Leicester job to such an extent that he branded anybody who thought he would leave Plymouth to go there “an idiot” he moved to the Walkers Stadium in January 2008. Clearly having never read the play through to the end Holloway declared he was pleased to finally be in King Lear after years of acting in Eastenders – he was right of course, though not in the way he wished or intended, as Leicester ended up dead in the end and relegated. Holloway was sacked.

Loved by fans of other clubs for his obscure outbursts, that do become rather irritating after a while if he is in charge of your team and it is not doing very well, Holloway must now rebuild his reputation in the more familiar surroundings of a small club punching above its weight.

Three to Watch: Olly has always been a persuasive type, one of the main strengths of his time at QPR was his ability to sell the club to players like Marc Bircham, Paul Furlong and Lee Cook from higher divisions despite QPR being on its knees at the time. I doubt Blackpool’s rich Latvian board member Valeri Belokon has ever met anybody quite like him and so it is no surprise that a summit between the two last week ended with Holloway getting his own way and transfer funds to spend immediately. The first chunk of that money, £500k of it to be precise, has been given to Glasgow Rangers in exchange for midfielder Charlie Adam who impressed the Bloomfield Road faithful during a loan spell last season and will bring some much needed Championship quality to a Pool squad that looked a little thin on numbers and quality ten days ago.

Holloway said of his first big Blackpool signing: “I am absolutely delighted to have signed Charlie. He played a massive part in keeping the club in the division. Having watched all the DVDs from last season, I know exactly what he can bring to the club.” Adam, a 24 year old Scotsman who started his career with Rangers and enjoyed loan spells at Ross County and St Mirren before making his first team bow at Ibrox. Adam was hugely impressive on loan with the Tangerines at the end of last season when Tony Parkes was manager and is now the club’s record signing at £500k.

Adam is almost certain to start in the Blackpool midfield on Saturday and another new face in the orange shirt is Jason Euell who should partner big Ben Burgess in attack. Euell is a vintage Holloway signing – a promising start to his career in the Premiership with Wimbledon brought a £4.75m move to Charlton and although he started well at the Valley too he has since fallen away badly and suffered terribly with injuries. In 12 months with Middlesbrough between 2006 and 2007 he scored no goals in 20 appearances and he only managed five goals in two years and 65 appearances with Southampton in this league as well.

Ask ten football fans about Jason Euell and nine of them would tell you he is finished. However in February, with the Saints all but doomed, Ian Holloway was put in charge of a match at St Mary’s between them and Southampton where Euell came on with half an hour to go and changed the game back in their favour before the succumbed to an unlucky late winner from the visitors. Holloway could not say enough good things about Euell, so much so that the other presenters on the night started taking the mick out of him for a while. It was always likely he would look at him as a potential signing when next employed and sure enough he took advantage of an expired contract and Saints’ relegation to pick his man up for nothing. Whether this will turn out to be his Blackpool version of Paul Furlong who was also said to be past it, injury prone and not worth the money when we picked him up from Birmingham, or Dean Sturridge who bled the club of thousands while contributing nothing over 18 months when all sensible suggestions had advised us to steer well clear remains to be seen.

An interesting twist to Holloway getting the Blackpool job is the presence of Ian Evatt in the Pool backline. Evatt came through the ranks at Derby but made his name as a commanding, goal scoring centre half at Chesterfield. QPR paid £250k for him in 2005 after being priced out of the race to sign Andy Butler from Scunthorpe, although in his autobiography Holloway shifts the blame/responsibility for this transfer almost entirely onto Gianni Paladini. Within six months of signing, and with Evatt finding the pace of the Championshp tough and his half mile turning circle an issue, Holloway transfer listed him. Eventually, under Gary Waddock, Evatt was released to join Blackpool where he has blossomed since and is now a steady rock on which their team is built. Whether that will continue under Holloway is unclear but he has already stated his intention to start with a clean slate with Evatt at Bloomfield Road.

Holloway told the Blackpool Gazette after being appointed: “There are no problems between me and Ian – he is a fantastic lad. He has done fantastically for Blackpool and I can't wait to work with him again. But Ian knows the way I am with players. What I said to Ian back in our days at QPR together was that it was a mistake for the chairman to run off and get him because he was on our list and we were going to talk about him. I said to the owner I'm going on holiday for a week, a little break. Two days later he's on the phone shouting that he's got Ian Evatt. I just thought 'what is going on?' We had signed him without even giving the player a medical and you can't run a football club like that. So I said to Ian 'hang on a minute this is what happened'. In hindsight, if I could go back, I wouldn't have told Ian that. He didn't need to know that. It was my frustration with the board and I didn't need to be that upfront with him. I think it affected the kid. But at the time the defence wasn't my top priority. I had Clarke Carlisle and Danny Shittu and what I was looking to do was buy a striker to add to the ones I already had. I think that QPR team would have done something if we had done that. So I wanted to get that right and unfortunately Ian was caught in that drama.”

Links >>> Blackpool Official Website >>> Blackpool Message Board >>> LFW Championship Preview

History
Recent Meetings: Last season at Loftus Road 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 Blackpool 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)

The last meeting between these two sides was at Bloomfield Road in January when QPR defied their poor away form and wild weather conditions to record a comfortable 3-0 win. Wayne Routledge’s strong wing play set up Heidar Helguson for a first half headed opener and the Icelandic international, more than used to playing in the driving sleet that battered the players and uncovered QPR fans throughout the night, made it two after half time when he slid in a penalty after a foul on Lee Cook. Hogan Ephraim added a deserved third five minutes from time in what was one of QPR’s best away performances of the season.

Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Barker 6, Evatt 5, Edwards 5, Harte 3 (Crainey 64, 4), O'Donovan 5 (Nemeth 59, 5), Fox 5, Vaughan 6, Martin 4 (Owens 46, 6), Campbell 6, Taylor-Fletcher 6
Subs Not Used: Gilks, Baptiste

QPR: Camp 7, Connolly 6 (Hall 88, -), Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Delaney 6, Routledge 8, Cook 7, Leigertwood 7, Mahon 7, Miller 6 (Ephraim 54, 7), Helguson 7 (Blackstock 75, 7)
Subs Not Used: Bulmer, Di Carmine
Booked: Cook (foul), Routledge (kicking the ball away)
Goals: Helguson 17 (assisted Routledge), 58 (penalty) Ephraim 90 (assisted Cook)

Head to Head:
Blackpool wins - 3
Draws – 7
QPR wins - 13

Previous Results:
2008/09 Blackpool 0 QPR 3 (Helguson 2, Ephraim)
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)

Played for both clubs:
David Bardsley
Blackpool 1981-83 & 1998-2000
QPR 1989-1998
Arguably one the most underrated right-backs to ever play in the Premier League, the Bard started his career at Bloomfield Road playing as a midfielder he played for two seasons with the Tangerines before being snapped up by Watford for a £150,000. While with the Hornets, Bardsley got to play at Wembley as part of the 1987 cup final side that lost to Everton and helped the team get promoted to Division One. He was again on the move to Oxford for a then record fee before he joined Trevor Francis’ QPR weeks into the 1989/90 season. It didn’t start to well for Bardsley, he joined a team low on confidence and some early erratic displays saw him become the subject of some the fans frustration. Part of the reason was he was now being converted from a midfield player to a right-back and was taking time to adjust to the role.

Francis soon left and was replaced by the more experience Don Howe as manager and under Howe Bardsley’s football improved. His experience became vital along side Alan McDonald in helping young players like Darren Peacock and Andy Tilson slot into the Rangers defence. By the time Gerry Francis arrived at W12 he had established himself as the R’s first choice right-back and became one of the first names down on the Rangers team-sheet forming a successful partnership down the right flank with Andy Impey. His performances during the memorable first Premier League campaign were rewarded with international recognition and although he only won two full caps it should have been many more.

The likes of Arsenal and Tottenham were constantly linked with the full-back but Bardsley stayed at Rangers even after the relegation from the Premier League in 1996, vowing to help them bounce straight back. Sadly a terrible Achilles tendon injury kept him out the team for almost 18 months and although he came back to help Rangers steer off another relegation he didn’t look like the same player and was released in 1998, where he rejoined Blackpool. Once again injury restricted him from his best form and later moved on to Northwich Victoria then retiring. He now works as a director for one of Ajax ’s academy’s in Florida .

Links >>> QPR 1 Blackpool 1 Match Report >>> Blackpool 0 QPR 3 Match Report >>> Match Report Archive

This Saturday
Team News: QPR are in reasonably decent knick going into the new campaign. Mikele Leigertwood and Akos Buzsaky (both thigh) returned to pre-season training earlier this week although both may have to be content with a place on the bench after spending quite a decent portion of the summer sitting out. Martin Rowlands and Rowan Vine are both fit and raring to go after their long term injuries. Radek Cerny has recovered from Swine Flu in time to play although with the Andy Marshall transfer still up in the air he will only have 18 year old Elvis Putnins as back up. Big money summer signing Alejandro Faurlin is definitely out with a thigh problem but Adel Taarabt and Alessandro Pellicori are ready for debuts.

Ian Holloway will have to do without full back Danny Coid who has a fractured tibia sustained in pre-season at Rochdale. Rangers midfielder Charlie Adam has completed his move and is ready to play after a successful loan spell with the Tangerine last season and at the time of writing they were racing against time to get Oldham full right back Neal Eardley signed up in time for this match after having a bid accepted for the 20 year old. Jason Euell should make his debut in attack but former Ipswich man Billy Clarke may have to wait to make an impact from the bench.

Elsewhere: The Championship actually gets underway tonight with a televised clash between two of the promotion favourites – Sheffield United and Middlesbrough. The other stand out game of the weekend is on Saturday evening when the BBC take Championship football live for the first time as two of the newly relegated sides Newcastle and West Brom clash. Roy Keane begins his first full season as Ipswich manager against Coventry live on Sky on Sunday. Sheff Wed v Barnsley is a South Yorkshire derby, Cardiff start life in their new stadium against newly promoted Scunthorpe while the other newbies Peterborough and Leicester are at Derby an home to Swansea respectively.

Referee: Well we may as well start with a familiar face I suppose – Andy D’Urso is back at Loftus Road on Saturday, the eighteenth QPR game of his at times controversial career. Rangers fans tend to groan whenever they see him named as the official for one of our games but in truth we have had our fair share of decisions from him and apart from a couple of notable abominations, Watford and Brighton at home where Nygaard and Furlong were sent off for example, D’Urso seems to have mellowed in recent seasons into not a bad referee at all. Having said that he deserved to be hauled over the coals for only booking Chris Morgan for his brutal assault on Iain Hume last season.

Links >>> D’Urso gets first match >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List >>> Arthur Gnohere Discipline Counter >>> Referee League

Form
QPR: QPR have had a reasonable pre-season campaign results wise, although the lack of a serious test among the seven games has given cause for concern. Rangers have beaten Aldershot (4-0), Wycombe (2-1), Southampton (3-0) and Forest Green (2-0) but could only draw (2-2) at Conference outfit Oxford United. In Slovenia and Croatia while on tour the R’s drew 2-2 with Celje and lost 3-1 at NK Karlovac. Despite the obvious lack of goals last season, only Doncaster could rival us for miserliness in front of goal, the home form was pretty solid with only four teams coming to W12 and winning in 25 matches. Rangers have not lost their first match of the season since going down 2-0 at Burnley in 2006.

Blackpool: Blackpool’s pre-season campaign sprang into life last week with a 2-1 home win against Premiership side Everton. Ian Holloway had laid into his players for what he deemed an unacceptable performance in a draw at Rochdale earlier in the summer but overall results have been good on some pretty inhospitable grounds. Pool won 3-1 at Carlisle, 4-2 at Oldham and 4-0 at Burscough before vanquishing Everton. They were dangerous opponents on the road last season too with eight wins, nine draws and just six defeats in away matches putting to shame QPR’s record of just three wins and nine draws. Pool drew at Loftus Road last time out 1-1 but lost here 5-0 on the opening day of the 2003/04 season and have only won their opening game of the season once in the last eight attempts.

Prediction: So far the prediction league stats say that 61 LFW members believe QPR will win this game, five have gone for a draw, and nobody as yet has gone for a home defeat. Despite the mumblings and grumblings there is some optimism around, and against a team like Blackpool that can actually be a dangerous thing. Rangers and Blackpool are, on the face of it at least, team with eyes on opposite ends of the table this season. This time last season the same could be said of QPR and Barnsley and so when the Tykes came to Loftus Road and outplayed Rangers in the early stages and then took the lead things turned pretty nasty around the ground and set the tone for the negative atmosphere the rest of the season. This is an awkward, niggly little game for Jim Magilton to start with – Blackpool have had a cash injection and some new blood this week and will be fired up to fight for every ball by Ian Holloway who won’t want to lose his first full game in charge. QPR should have more than enough ability to win the game but I just have this feeling we may not click straight away in the face of Olly’s infamous “bad rashing” tactics and a draw followed by much teeth gnashing and moaning is my pessimistic prediction.
1-1 Rowlands to score

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Photo: Action Images via Reuters