Three consecutive wins in the league, three wins in three trips to Deepdale, can QPR continue their surprise ascent into the Championship's top half at Preston this afternoon?

Preston (13-14-13 LLLLWD 15th) v QPR (16-8-16 LLLWWW 10th)

Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Monday April 6, 2026 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Really quite nice >>> Deepdale, Preston, Lancashire

It’s taken a while but this set of Easter Monday fixtures is a re-run of the games from the opening day of the season back in August.

QPR started well at Loftus Road against Preston North End, taking a deserved lead just before half time when skilful Karamoko Dembele approach work forced an own goal from Ben Whiteman. However, with new signing Kwame Poku picking up the first of several hamstring injuries which have blighted his first season at the club, Rangers didn’t have the legs to see the result through and had to settle for a draw after an equaliser from loveable cannibal Milutin Osmajic.

After that game I said I thought we’d probably seen two of the worst five teams in the league. Preston spent the first half of the season making that prediction look very silly, losing only four of their first 23 games and climbing as high as fourth in early January. As usual though the Lilywhites have cratered through the back half of the campaign and come into this game 15th with one win from nine, so perhaps we do know what we’re talking about after all.

It certainly looked that way when QPR followed that draw up with a pathetic cup exit at Plymouth, a 2-1 loss at Watford that could have been far more severe, and a 7-1 loss at Coventry City. If you look at the line up Julien Stephan had to work with in his first game you can see why we were concerned – Walsh, Morgan, Mbengue, Morrison, Esquerdina, Chair, Madsen, Field, Poku, Dembele, Celar.

Our season preview predictions are shaping up quite well as the league stands today with a few notable Middlesbrough, Hull and Leicester exceptions. With three wins on the spin, tenth place in the league and the 56 point total of the last two seasons now matched QPR are one of those currently significantly out performing our call – although even three weeks ago the R’s were absolutely on track for the 16th-18th finish we went for.

The R’s are a good example of why that thing is so hard to write in the last week of July. The middle of the Championship is such a shemozzle that the difference between tenth and 18th can simply be whoever cobbled together a run of wins in the final half dozen games, which with players returning from injuries and a whole load of opponents already on the beach could well be Stephan’s team. But, more challenging still, the first month of the season is played with the transfer window still open and so by the start of September that QPR line up from the Preston game had Rumarn Burrell, Richard Kone, Koki Saito, Rhys Norrington-Davies and Isaac Hayden added to it, changing the picture entirely.

Who knows how much better still this could have been had so many key players not missed so many games through injury in the middle section of the campaign. Burrell, Chair, Madsen and Obikwu are all now back in some form of training and with six games left the debate is now going to be around how many of them are used, for how long, and when.

Rangers are still technically in play-off contention – eight points back, 18 left to play for. That’s extremely unlikely, particularly with tough away games at Millwall and Ipswich to come, but we should go for it while it’s there and finishing the season on a high is important for all sorts of reasons. Having already matched the points total of the last two seasons the club will be keen to show further progress – Mark Warburton got 58, 68, and 66 points in his three seasons here, though never finished higher than ninth, so that’s something to shoot for to shut the sceptics up a bit. Going into the summer in a positive frame of mind could breed confidence, mood and momentum for next season. This team with a few well chosen additions in goal, at full back and in midfield could be an exciting prospect.

But then Burrell, Chair, Poku and Madsen have all had dodgy hamstring and calf injuries that are want to reappear and reoccur. Good, fulsome, fit -for-purpose pre-seasons are going to be important to all of them. Getting a few games in at the end of this season could be useful in that (and of course showing any potential buyers that they’re fine ahead of the summer transfer window) but rushing them back now for the sake of finishing tenth rather than 14th, or to prove a point about their fitness, and then losing them again to an injury which eats into their summer or the start of next season would be suboptimal.

Still, these are much nicer dilemmas than the club and its manager were facing a month ago.

Links >>> PNE slump – Oppo Profile >>> Early Taarabt magic – History >>> Kirk in charge – Referee >>> Preston Official Website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Press >>> From The Finney — Blog >>> Deepdale Digest — Blog >>> PNE Online — Forum

Below the fold

Team News: Jimmy Dunne seemed to be moving uncomfortably at full time on Friday, and Rayan Kolli left that victory against Watford at half time but was out on the pitch with the rest of the players at the end. We wait to see who pulls up and how from the Watford game with Justin Obikwu, Ilias Chair, Nicolas Madsen and Rumarn Burrell all making their way back from medium term injuries. Karamoko Dembele and Ziyad Larkeche are the long termers.

Ali McCann is struggling with an ankle injury for the hosts while Jamal Lewis’ season is over. January arrival Callum Lang and veteran Robbie Brady are both injured while Jordan Thompson serves the final game of a three match ban picked up for kicking a water bottle into the crowd at Norwich.

Elsewhere: It’s a crunch day at the bottom of the Mercantile Credit Trophy.

Oxford, who are second bottom with 40 points, travel to Portsmouth for the live Sky game this lunchtime. Pompey are one place and point above the dotted line and will go below the U’s if they lose this one. The two teams immediately above in 19th and 20th are West Brom with 44 points and Blackburn with 46, and they meet at Ewood Park. With teams definitely dropping points there, but also definitely gaining them as well, it’s imperative Leicester don’t foul up their gimme at Sheff Wed.

At the top Coventry now have an 11 point gap to second and 12 to third so it’s a case of if not when they reach the Premier League for the first time since 2000. Their procession continues tonight in a late game at Hull.

Millwall were the big winners behind them on Good Friday, triumphing 2-1 at Middlesbrough to move above Kim Hellberg’s side into second with two goals from former Boro boy Josh Coburn. Millwall now face Norwich at The Den in an early kick off while Boro have a long trip down to Swansea for an early evening kick off.

Ipswich lie in wait three points back in fourth, but now have two games in hand. Chris Davies feels like he’s on his last legs as Birmingham manager ahead of their visit to Portman Road thyis afternoon.

Elsewhere Derby probably need a win at home to Stoke to keep their play off fire burning, while Watford v Charlton and Bristol City v Sheff Utd take place for want of something better to do with their time.

Following their shock win over Premier League leaders Arsenal at the weekend, FA Cup semi-finalists Southampton play tomorrow night at Wrexham and will go above the Welsh side if they win. That win at the weekend is part of a run of 15 league and cup games without defeat for the Saints. They now have eight fixtures left to fit in, possibly with a cup final to come, including four midweekers.

Referee: Thomas Kirk, a fast tracked Premier League official last seen with us at West Ham in the FA Cup in January, takes this one… Details.

Form

- QPR have gone from four straight defeats in which they failed to score and conceded 12, straight into three consecutive wins in which they’ve scored 11 times.

- Now up to tenth in the Championship, QPR have only finished higher than that once in the last ten years since returning to this level from the Premier League.

- With six games still to play QPR have amassed 56 points which equals their totals from the last two seasons.

- QPR have failed to score in five of their last seven away league games, though they have won both games in which they’ve found the net in this run (Hull and Leicester both 3-1).

- With 46%, QPR’s Good Friday win against Watford was the 20th consecutive Rangers win achieved with less possession than the opponent. The last time they won with more of the ball than their opponent was against Blackburn on February 4, 2025.

- Preston lost just four games through the first half of the season having started their year with a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road. After 23 games they were fifth on 37 points, one behind Ipswich. In the 17 games since they have lost nine times and won only four. They are now 15th on 53 points, 16 points behind Ipswich.

- Preston drew 2-2 with Leicester on Good Friday having beaten Stoke 3-1 prior to the international break so they’re unbeaten in two prior to today’s game. That victory is their only win in nine however, and they’ve won just two of the last 14 Championship games.

- QPR are unbeaten in five meetings with Preston having done the double over them in each of the last two seasons.

- Lucas Andersen’s last-minute winner here last Easter made it three wins in a row at Deepdale for QPR. They have lost just one of the last six visits to this ground, winning four. This after 13 visits without a win dating back to 1980.

- Milutin Osmajic scored in the first meeting this season, as he did at Loftus Road last term, and is the joint top scorer here with eight along with Spurs loanee Alfie Devine.

Prediction

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. Huge shifts either sides of the international break leave JB007007 and Garnham level on points at the top of the tabl.e QPR_Hibs won last season’s Prediction League at a canter and is lending his thoughts to this year’s previews…

“Just over thirty years ago, the Battle of Britpop took place, when, as you may remember, Country House by Blur (terrible song) and Roll With It by Oasis (nearly as bad) were released on the same day in a media-created rivalry that gripped the nation. On that occasion, Blur triumphed and took the number one spot, but what has happened since? I’m sure you’re all desperate to know.

“Every year, Radio X do a poll of their listeners’ favourite British songs of all time – in fact the results of the 2026 poll are being played out over this Easter weekend if you feel like tuning in. But in 2025, their top 100 British songs contained 16 tracks by Oasis (including some B-sides and non-singles) and just two by Blur (Song 2 and Parklife if you’re interested.) So, there you have it – if you want to be remembered as a great band, just copy The Beatles. The obvious question to ask next is, how many top 100 songs did The Beatles have in this chart? Well, three is the answer that surely calls the validity of the whole poll into question.

“I’m pretty sure that everybody had a good Friday on, er, Good Friday, with Rangers putting in a dominant first half performance against Watford, that should have seen us three or four up at the break. Paul Smyth had a tremendous game and was my MOTM, just ahead of Harvey Vale and Handsome Ronnie. I was pleased to see Keiran Morgan given the whole 90+ minutes and I thought he did well in the ‘Madsen’ role with Varane also benefitting from playing slightly further forward. RND had another solid game, which has once again led to a flurry of ‘should we sign him permanently’ comments on the forum. One thing I will say is that he looks very happy at Loftus Road.

“Deepdale is our destination on Easter Monday, as we take on a Preston side sitting three points below us in 15th spot. They have had more draws (14) than any other Championship side this season and, until they beat Stoke on 20th March, had been on their very own QPR-like run of seven matches without a victory. The reverse fixture at Loftus Road was the first game of the season, back in the days when Rangers were still reliant on OG to get us a point.

“We’re currently on a nice little run and playing attractive football, so I think we can get at least a draw, possibly a narrow win here. Questions about Remy being available for the play-offs are surely being readied, but I’m going to err on the side of caution.”

QPR_Hibs Prediction: Preston 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Ronnie Edwards

LFW’s Prediction: Preston 0-2 QPR. Scorer – Richard Kone

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