After superb performances in their last two away games and a great result at Cardiff last week it seems things are finally starting to click for Jim Magilton as Barnsley prepare to visit Loftus Road.

Queens Park Rangers (12th) v Barnsley (22nd)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday September 26, Kick Off 3pm
Loftus Road, London, W12

Having only read Jim Magilton’s post match comments from Wednesday night and not actually heard him speak I cannot be sure whether his comment about looking forward to hearing the massive travelling support backing the R’s again this Saturday at Loftus Road was a straight comment, a sarcastic one, or barbed.

It is to be expected for a big cup game like the one at Stamford Bridge that all Rangers fans would want to go to it, and once there in their thousands they would sign their hearts out for the entire game, but QPR’s away support has been generally more positive and supportive of the team everywhere from Blackpool and Scunthorpe to Chelsea and Man Utd over the last 18 months.

In the past two games at Cardiff and Chelsea QPR have played some tremendous football, picked up one great win and gone close to getting another, and the team has looked relaxed, happy, organised and as if it is enjoying its football. Rangers already have two away wins to their name in the league which is only one less than they managed in the whole of last season. Win at Newcastle on Wednesday and we’ve matched it inside two months of the new season. Strangely though, for a team that relied almost exclusively on its home form to prop up a midtable finish last season when only relegated Charlton won less games on the road, QPR are yet to win at Loftus Road in the league this season. Blackpool were fortunate to escape with a point, Forest and Peterborough probably unlucky not to leave with more. The atmosphere was positive in the first game but has since waned again and was dead for the visit of Darren Ferguson’s men - especially when compared to the support Rangers have had in their last two away games.

On paper this Saturday represents the ideal opportunity to get the home campaign rolling. The fans should by buoyed by the performances against Cardiff and Chelsea and result in South Wales, as should the players. And even if they’re not we always beat Barnsley at home - however bad things have got, however many Steve Morrows and Karl Readys we have had on the pitch, we have always beaten Barnsley. Even at the start of the second Gerry Francis reign when we had lost five straight games and had an injury list so long it rolled off the fax machine and down South Africa Road past the Springbok we beat Barnsley 2-1 at home in a midweek game, Richard Langley got his first goal for the club. Gerry admitted afterwards that he’d have liked the groundsman to leave a sprinkler on and waterlog the pitch beforehand - like I say, we always beat Barnsley.

Three weeks ago we may well have won this game without even having to turn up. Barnsley had stagnated under Simon Davey last year and obviously regressed during the summer. LFW had Davey as the only manager more likely than Jim Magilton to win the sack race in the Championship this season and so it proved. Since the appointment of Mark Robins though Barnsley have picked up - they won 3-2 at Derby a fortnight ago while we were waterlogging the pitch against Palace and beat Premiership side Burnley in the League Cup during the week. All runs have to come to an end somewhere and we must hope that Barnsley’s wretched form in West London does not suddenly improve this weekend and undo all our good work of the last seven days.

Five minutes on Barnsley
Recent History: Robins arrives at a club that has faced a struggle to stay in the Championship every year since it got back into this division via the play offs in 2006. The man at the helm for that promotion, they beat Swansea 4-3 on penalties in the Millennium Stadium final, was Andy Ritchie. Despite taking them up Ritchie was sacked after just three months of the new Championship season in what seemed at the time to be a bizarre role reversal on what you would normally expect - the Barnsley board wanted to strengthen the team, Ritchie wanted to keep faith with the players that had taken them there. Or at least that is the line the board put forward.

Simon Davey, one time Preston player and Barnsley youth coach, stepped into the breach and led them away from relegation problems. Davey assembled a cosmopolitan squad at Oakwell with Dennis Souza and Anderson De Silva (Brazil), Dominik Werling and Heinz Muller (Germany), Kim Christensen (Denmark), Roberto Colace (Argentina), Michael Mifsud and Daniel Bogdanovic (Malta), Mounir El Haimour (France) and Miguel Mostto (Peru) all treading the oakwell boards at one time or another during his reign. He brought the club into the national spotlight the season before last with an epic FA Cup run as well that included wins against Liverpool at Anfield and Chelsea in South Yorkshire but ended in the semi final against Cardiff at Wembley.

The problem was the cup run masked another poor season in the league where Barnsley survived by just three points and were sweating on other results right to the very end of the season. The cup run acting as a distraction could have been seen as a potential excuse for that had Barnsley then gone on into 2008/09 showing their cup form in the Championship. They spent £1m in the summer on Iain Hume from Leicester but struggled once again. I actually thought they looked like one of the best sides we played last season when they beat us at Oakwell and expected them to push on from there in the last three months of the season however they won just two of their remaining 13 and finished fifth from bottom, just six points clear of relegated Norwich.

There was uncertainty in the summer about whether Davey would be given the opportunity to carry on and although eventually the board did stick with him it looked doomed to failure right from the off with no summer signings of any note. Sure enough Davey was sacked under a weight of supporter protest following a 3-1 home defeat by Reading. It is down to Robins now to somehow find a way of pushing a club with limited resources and average attendances beyond where they currently are at the bottom of this division even though, in reality, that is where Barnsley have spent most of their existence and would probably admit themselves is just about their level.

The Manager: Mark Robins, the man who apparently saved Alex Ferguson’s job at Man Utd with that famous goal at Nottingham Forest, is one of several former United players now making a name for himself as a manager in his own right. While not immediately striking as ideal management material the fair haired striker, who also enjoyed great times with Norwich City as a player, has done a superb job in difficult circumstances at Rotherham United and no earned a shot at Championship football as a result. Robins arrived at Rotherham as a player initially in 2000 at the journeyman stage of his career that had also seen him play for Bristol City, Man City, Burton Albion, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Walsall and others. He assisted boss Alan Knill prior to his sacking in February 2007.

Rotherham were in a mess at this stage. The brief glory period under Ronnie Moore when they climbed into the second tier and upset big teams in cup competitions had given way to financial uncertainty and relegation. Rotherham were 13 points adrift at the bottom of League One, playing ina ground with an unfinished main stand and had supporters protesting against Ken Booth the chairman. Inevitable relegation and administration followed and Robins dealt with it all in his first full management role. Rotherham moved away from Millmoor to the Don valley, away from Ken Booth, and although they were deducted 17 points at the start of last season for their financial position Robins uncovered talent like Reuben Reid (now West Brom) and led them on a campaign of league and cup success that claimed the Championship scalps of Wolves, Sheff Wed and Southampton and would have resulted in at least a play off place but for the deduction.

Rotherham looked a good bet for promotion this season as Robins picked up Rochdale’s 17 goal striker Adam Le Fondre in the summer transfer window but, sadly from a Millers point of view, Robins’ work had not gone unnoticed and he was the top man in the frame for the first Championship job to become available in 2009/10 at Barnsley. Robins joined earlier this month after a protracted battle over compensation between the two clubs. Whether he has made the right decision or not only time will tell - he has left a club where he was loved and probably had a job for as long as he wanted, a club back on the up it seems, for one that will always be fighting to stay in the Championship rather than looking to push out of it through the top end. Barnsley get through managers at a decent rate, not a Flavio Briatore rate of course but 11 bosses including caretakers since 2000 all the same. Whether Robins would have been better furthering his reputation under little pressure at Rotherham rather than trying to do that at Oakwell with one of the worst squads in the league, as I think is the case, remains to be seen. The early results are certainly promising.

Three to Watch: Time was not so long ago that Barnsley striker Andy Gray was one of the league’s hottest properties. A big, strapping target man who not only did the winning headers, holding the ball up, flicking through balls on job for his various partners but also scored prolifically as well. The complete Championship centre forward basically. He got 20 goals in 80 appearances at Bradford and 25 in roughly the same number at Sheffield United but things did not work out for him in the Premiership when Sunderland spent £1m on him to try and prop up their doomed top flight return under Mick McCarthy. Further good times at Burnley followed but he seems to have stagnated a little recently. He proved to be an expensive mistake for Charlton who ended last season relegated with Gray able to contribute just nine goals in shy of 50 appearances and now he finds himself at Barnsley, unloved and available for nothing, looking to rebuild his reputation. Gray will always be a handfull for defences at this level and two goals in his last four games hints that the old confidence and sharpness may be returning.

Gray is partnered in attack by Canadian Iain Hume who still bears the haunting scar across the side of his head after last year’s disgusting incident with Chris Morgan. The well known Sheff Utd thug was never given anything more than the yellow card he received on the day for elbowing Hume in the head, fracturing his skull and leaving him in intensive care with brain bleeds. Hume has returned this year, but the scar serves as a lasting reminder and judging by the way he reacted to a much lesser, and accidental, clash in their draw with Swansea last week it is clear that one or two mental demons remain as well. Still, Hume scored at Loftus Road on the opening day last season and made a regular habit of it with Leicester as well - he has four career goals against Rangers - so what better place for him to get his first goal after returning to football?

Another man who always seems to impress against QPR is Brazilian midfielder Anderson De Silva. Simon Davey made a habit of picking up obscure foreign talent and moulding it into a Championship team while he was manager although he only had to go to Everton to pick up De Silva, initially on loan, in 2007. A tall and classy ball player in the centre of midfield De Silva was the best player on the park when these sides met last in February and scored what turned out to be the winner just before half time.

Links >>> Barnsley Official Website >>> Barnsley Message Board

History
Recent Meetings:
These sides last met at Oakwell in February when the hosts ran out 2-1 winners thanks to a lacklustre QPR performance. With Barnsley’s classy midfielders Bogdanovic and De Silva to the fore the hosts looked a good bet to push on up the league after this victory but ultimately sunk back into relegation trouble. QPR’s goal came from a typically rampaging run down the left by full back damien delaney who ended a flowing move with a diving header. That equalised five minutes before the break but QPR contrived to lose another before half time and never really threatened to get back into the match in the second half.

Barnsley: Muller 6, Hassell 7, Foster 7, Guedes 7, Kozluk 7, Colace 8, Teymourian 8, De Silva 8, Hammill 7 (Devaney 82, 6), Mifsud 6, Bogdanovic 8 (Macken 66, 6)
Subs Not Used: Steele, El Haimour, Rigters
Booked: De Silva (repetitive fouling)
Goals: Bogdanovic 26 (assisted Mifsud), De Silva 43 (unassisted)

QPR: Cerny 5, Connolly 6, Stewart 6, Gorkss 6, Delaney 6, Routledge 6, Leigertwood 5, Miller 4 (Rose 55, 5), Alberti 6 (Lopez 69, 7), Blackstock 3, Helguson 3 (Di Carmine 80, 4)
Subs Not Used: Hall, Mahon
Goals: Delaney 35 (assisted Alberti)

QPR opened last season with a narrow 2-1 victory against Barnsley at Loftus Road. With the ground developments, new shirt, new badge and new signings it was hailed as the start of a new era. For all the talk of ‘money bags’ QPR it was Barnsley that possessed the most expensive player on the pitch with Iain Hume costing them £1m from Leicester during the summer – it took Hume just five minutes to open his Tykes’ account as QPR started abysmally. In truth Barnsley should have been three up inside the first ten minutes. Rangers drew level against the run of play when Fitz Hall bundled one in from close range and then took the lead when the same man hooked home a fine goal from a corner. Hall had a chance for an unlikely hat trick in the second half but saw a penalty kick saved by Luke Steele. Any potential Barnsley come back was nipped in the bud by the late sending off of Van Homoet for a bad foul on Daniel Parejo.

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Hall 7, Gorkss 6, Delaney 6, Ledesma 7 (Alberti 83, -), Mahon 7, Leigertwood 6, Cook 6, Agyemang 5 (Parejo 72, 7), Blackstock 5
Subs Not Used: Camp, Connolly, Balanta
Booked: Cook (foul)
Goals: Hall 29 (assisted Ledesma), 31 (assisted Cook)

Barnsley: Steele 7, Devaney 7, Moore 6, Foster 6, Hassell 6 (Leon 85, -), De Silva 6, Howard 6, Van Homoet 6, Hume 7, Macken 4 (Odejayi 85, -), El Haimour 5 (Rigters 75, 6)
Subs Not Used: Kozluk, Mostto
Sent Off: Van Homoet (83) (serious foul play)
Goals: Hume 5 (assisted Howard)

Head to Head:
QPR wins - 20
Draws - 10
Barnsley wins - 14

Previous Results:
2008/09 Barnsley 2 QPR 1 (Delaney)
2008/09 QPR 2 Barnsley 1 (Hall 2)
2007/08 Barnsley 0 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 2 Barnsley 0 (Agyemang, Vine)
2006/07 Barnsley 2 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 1 Barnsley 0 (Rowlands)
2003/04 Barnsley 3 QPR 3 (Furlong 2, Kay og)
2003/04 QPR 4 Barnsley 0 (Gallen, Rowlands, Ainsworth, Thorpe)
2002/03 QPR 1 Barnsley 0 (Pacquette)
2002/03 Barnsley 1 QPR 0
2000/01 QPR 2 Barnsley 0 (Kiwomya, Crouch)
2000/01 Barnsley 4 QPR 2 (Kiwomya 2)
1999/00 Barnsley 1 QPR 1 (Rose)
1999/00 QPR 2 Barnsley 2 (Darlington, Steiner)
1998/99 Barnsley 1 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 2 Barnsley 1 (Langley, Gallen)
1996/97 QPR 3 Barnsley 2 (Peacock, Spencer, Sinclair)
1996/97 QPR 3 Barnsley 1 (Spencer 3)
1996/97 Barnsley 1 QPR 3 (Perry, Barker, Dichio)

Played for both clubs:
John Curtis
Barnsley (loan) 1999
QPR 2007
If there was ever an example of how far we have come in the last eighteen months then John Curtis could be it. Rewind a season or so and we were all discussing in great depth what a useful player Curtis could be. How wrong we were and how times have changed eh!?

Curtis began life in the famous Manchester United youth ranks and was part of the side that won the FA Youth Cup in 1995, a team that included Ronnie Wallwork and captained by Phil Neville. Much was expected of the versatile defender and two years later he made his first team bow for the Red Devils in a League Cup defeat to Ipswich. He would make a further 13 appearances over the next two campaigns but struggled to get a regular run in a team that was on its way to an unprecedented treble.

At the start of the 1999-00 season, Curtis joined First Division side Barnsley on loan to get regular first-team football just a week after playing against Lazio. At Oakwell, Curtis enjoyed a regular slot in the Barnsley back four for the whole campaign, including the two draws against the R’s as they Tykes made it all the way to Wembley, only to lose to Ipswich in the play-off final. He impressed so much that Graeme Souness signed the defender that summer for 150,000. It proved an astute buy, as Curtis was an almost ever-present as Rovers were promoted to the Premier League as runners-up. However an injury meant that Curtis missed most of the following season and by the time he was fit again, he struggled to regain his place in the Rovers side and was released at the end of his contract after a loan spell at Sheffield United. He then had spells with Leicester, Portsmouth and Preston without success before joining League One Nottingham Forest in 2005. It proved to be a decent move for Curtis and established himself as first choice right-back for Forest in their bid promotion back to the Championship. A bid that proved unsuccessful in both Curtis seasons at the City Ground and after tightening the purse strings at Forest , John was let go by the club.

The same day he was released, QPR manager John Gregory snapped the player-up and brought the defender to Loftus Road. It seemed like a good deal for both club and player, with Rangers struggling for money but needing reinforcements and Curtis getting the chance at a higher level once again. But despite an average debut in a 2-2 draw with Bristol City, he looked way out of his depth for next four games which all ended in resounding defeats, including the humiliating 5-1 defeat to WBA live infront of the Sky Cameras. After that game Gregory was sacked by Rangers brand new millionaire owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone and Curtis never played for Rangers again. His contract was paid up that December and after a number of unsuccessful trials he is currently on the books of Blue Square South side Worcester City . To think we are still complaining about our current lot. Curtis unfortunately for him is a prime example of how far we’ve come as a club in a very short space of time. -AR

Links >>> QPR 2 Barnsley 1 Match Report >>> Barnsley 2 QPR 1 Match Report >>> Connections and Memories >>> Match Report Archive

This Saturday
Team News:
Jim Magilton seems to be settling on a preferred team and system so I expect few changes here. Radek Cerny will almost certainly return in goal despite Heaton's excellent display at Chelsea and Faurlin, another impressive performer at Stamford Bridge, will probably make way for Ben Watson who was cup tied during the week. Martin Rowlands and Jay Simpson both took a battering in the cup and left the game early but should be fine. Matt Connolly remains out with glandular fever, Lee Cook is a long term absentee, Fitz Hall and Angelo balanta are still recovering from groin injuries.

Barnsley have signed three defenders on short term deals this week and Suad Filekovic, Carl Dickinson and Ryan Shotton are all in the squad. Darren Moore is fit to return so a new look defence could be on show. Jamal Campbell Ryce is fit to return.

Elsewhere: Another weekend, another Newcastle game on the television. The BBC have their game at Ipswich on Saturday evening in which both teams will wear special Bobby Robson commemorative shirts. Nottingham Forest’s long trip to Plymouth is Sunday’s game which seems strange when a fiery derby between Scunthorpe and Doncaster takes place this week - that has been moved to saturday lunch time on police advice. League leaders West Brom host palace, Reading manager Brendan Rodgers faces his old club watford at the Madejski with the Hornets fairing somewhat better then the Royals so far this season.

Referee: Rookie referee Karl Evans from Lancashire is in charge on Saturday - just his third Championship match in this his third season on the league list. So far this season Evans has refereed three games in the bottom two divisions and shown two yellow cards in each of them. Strangely, for somebody with so little Championship experience, he has refereed Barnsley before - a 1-1 draw with Blackpool in 2008.

Links >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List >>> Arthur Gnohere Discipline Counter >>> Ton’y Championship Preview >>> Rookie Evans in charge >>> Referee League

Form
QPR: Rangers have still only been beaten once in the league this season but currently languish in twelfth because of too many drawn games. All three league games on this ground so far have finished 1-1 and the two victories achieved have come at Scunthorpe and Cardiff. The R’s are unbeaten in four league games since losing out to a late Nicky Maynard strike at Bristol City.

Barnsley: The Tykes had lost five and drawn one of their first six league games and were rooted to the foot of the table just a couple of weeks ago. The appointment of Mark Robins as manager has seen a dramatic turn around in fortunes - Barnsley have new manager syndrome, and they’re running a high fever. They won 3-2 at Derby County last week and kicked Burnley out of the League Cup on Tuesday either side of a goalless draw with Swansea City.

Prediction: However bad things get we usually beat Barnsley, and things are actually pretty decent at the moment after the week we have just had. We have a much better team than them on paper but then the same could be said of most of our opponents at Loftus Road so far this season and yet we are still to win here in the league. Only a combination of tiredness from Wednesday when the lads put in a monumental effort at Chelsea, and the upturn in barnsley fortunes since Mark Robins arrived, can de-rail us here but I’ll stick with my usual score draw predicition just be safe and so as not to jinx any potential win.
Score draw

Links >>> Championship Table >>> Total Form >>> Home Form >>> Away Form >>> Prediction League >>> Fantasy League

Photo: Action Images

Swansea City Polls