Having blown out their Christmas and New Year with one point from three eminently winnable games, QPR will hope to salvage something from Sheff Wed at home on Sunday and avoid the humiliation of losing at home to the Championship’s whipping boy.

QPR (10-5-10 WLWDLL 12th) v Sheff Wed (1-8-15 DLLDDL 24th)

Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Sunday January 4, 2026 >>> Kick Off 12.00 :-I >>> Weather – Bright sunshine, freezing cold >>> Loftus Road, London, W12

Four games in nine days, four match previews, four match reports. There’s not a lot left to say, really, is there? Particularly with what QPR have done with them so far. I’m starting to bore myself at this point.

In the name of ‘these previews don’t write themselves’ it is probably worth the obligatory paragraph on the schedule. If the bloke who writes the unofficial QPR website is fed up, knackered, and looking forward to tomorrow’s breakfast time game with Sheffield Wednesday about as much as a colonoscopy, then how will the people who’ve actually been playing in the games be feeling? Battered, bruised, several playing on painkilling injections I’d wager. It was a hectic time of year anyway, adding in a fourth round of fixtures is just gratuitous. Nobody needs or wants or can afford this much football in this period. It's for nobody other than the broadcasters, and even the TV companies are left screening slop. There were four Premier league games the other night and three of them finished 0-0. Smaller squads on limited budgets with less depth, like ours, are going to find it particularly tough.

It would also be remiss not to mention the cataclysmic numbers surrounding Sheffield Wednesday. Derek Chansiri may have had the club prised from his cold, dead fingers but the lasting damage of his cancerous reign will be felt for years. There is a long road ahead for a football club that was long since relegated from this year’s Championship, and may yet go out without making it back to the zero-point mark (currently -6). They had the lowest amount of home wins in the league last season and are yet to win at Hillsborough this. They have won only once anywhere, at Portsmouth on September 20, and arrive in W12 winless in 18 games. They have conceded 48 goals, the worst defensive record in the country.

The piece we usually write in such situations is That Swindon Town Match Preview, where we detail the growing litany of charitable donations and footballing disasters Rangers have produced in such situations down the years. Unfortunately, we already published that piece prior to Norwich away at which point the Canaries were adrift with Wednesday and had one point from nine league games at Carrow Road. They’ve since beaten QPR twice, because of course – 24 points on the board now for Philippe Clement’s recovery mission, and six of the fucking things were donated by us.

If we repeat such nonsense tomorrow it really will be one of the most extreme genre pieces of our time.

Sheff Wed are not a functioning football club or team - if you thought West Brom were there for the taking then wait and see this lot. It’s a prospect increased in likelihood by the presence of Barry Bannan who, ever since he popped up on the wing for Blackpool in a 2-2 draw at Bloomfield Road in January 2010, has seemed to revel in torturing Rangers teams of all shapes, sizes and abilities. The Scot has played against QPR more than any other side (19 apps) and from those he has won seven, drawn nine and lost just three times. He has scored twice and assisted a further four goals. He has beaten us more than any team bar Blackburn and Forest (both nine).

Let’s not forget, Julien Stephan’s side have already dropped two points to this opponent. The Owls are 0-4-9 at Hillsborough but one of those four was a 1-1 draw in the corresponding fixture in September. Paul Nardi’s horror show for Dominic Iorfa’s opener (he doesn't get his grasp of the offside law from his father) took the brunt of the headlines and criticism, but the visitors were complacent in that game and improvements after half time barely warranted the point they eventually salvaged. Bannan was given free reign to operate in the yawning space between R’s strikers and midfielders, and with Stephan seemingly steadfastly wedded to 4-4-2 there’s no indication that won’t be the case again tomorrow. Rangers’ midfield two is being outnumbered and beaten, whoever the two is, by teams who’ve seen tape, and as Rumarn Burrell inevitably tires from his incessant pressing job of the first half of the season that only makes the situation riper for somebody who knows what they’re doing to go and operate in that space. Kenny McLean could have played in a suit in the Norwich match.

If this is all coming across bleak then, sorry, but also not sorry.

It makes my job easier, in a way, because every time you play Josh Sargent who hasn’t scored in 18 games you go ‘ha ha ha, here have that John Jensen piece again’ and every time you travel to a club that’s lost all nine of its home games so far you go ‘ho ho ho, here have that Swindon Town piece again’. Perhaps, in fact, these previews do write themselves. But I am sick of it now. I am sick of trying to find comedy tropes for a well financed, equipped, talented, managed QPR team losing three times in a week and a half to Peterborough U-fucking-nited. Blowing the entire season apart. Holing us below the waterline for the next three-year FFP cycle. And we just shrug, and laugh, because when we think about QPR we think about that Oxford cup final and it makes me sick. (What’s the plot flaw in Fever Pitch, Mel?)

I’ve been writing for LFW as long as Barry Bannan has played against us, and he’s done the same thing, every time, time after time, to countless QPR teams and managers, with us never learning, never doing anything about it. I could just copy and paste what I wrote last time. Maybe I’ll start doing that.

On the tram back from Hillsborough this year a jolly local got in my ear about it. Sound, knowledgeable, a good guy who just loved his club and enjoyed chatting about the sport with fellow travelling sufferers. I love meeting people like that, it’s one of the best bits of actually travelling to the games because you learn so much about the mood and culture of other clubs. “’Appen most teams come here put a man on him specially like, but you lot never do.” Ha ha ha. Yeh. I took him outside and beat him to death with his match programme before chucking the pasty corpse under the steel wheels at Netherthorpe Road, but he made a valid point, bless him. RIP.

I’m sick of ‘he always scores against us’, ‘we never win there’, ‘we’re always shit then’. Forest away? No chance, ever. Blackburn away? Didn’t like that one either, no? Boxing Day? Are you kidding? No away wins since 1967 – like our club is run by a rail union. Does that mean we don’t play away often on Boxing Day? Ah, no, actually turns out we play away on Boxing Day more than any other club. Fan-fucking-tastic.

We laugh, and we joke, and we choose to find it charming. It’s part of following a club like ours. We were there when Jensen scored, he he he. But it’s worn thin this Christmas. You worked so hard to put yourselves in such a great position through such a tough run of fixtures. So many online critics gave you massively positive write ups. It culminated in that Leicester game, which was wonderful, and provided a platform… and… what did you do with that?

Portsmouth, who we were lucky to draw with, subsequently lost 5-0 at Bristol City (who we beat). West Brom, who deserved to beat us, lost their next game to mighty Swansea (who we beat). That QPR mentality and attitude of getting up for a grudge game or a big match, but then not being arsed with the rudimentary day-to-day that follows, has started to grate. You’d have thought we’d won the World Cup against bloody Leicester, and where has any of that been since? Karamoko Dembele. If you ever get the chance, watch his performances back versus Leicester and Norwich. Compare and contrast.

If QPR top it off with the annual FA Cup Third Round exit at a West Ham club which is absolutely imploding, about to sack a second manager of the season, obviously getting relegated, obviously not giving a toss about our game there next week, 3-0 down at half time today against bloody Wolves, and I have to write that sodding ‘Lollollol have you heard about QPR’s FA Cup record’ preview and match report again, then it really is going to get all a bit J G Ballard around here. This is a big week.

What I’d like to see us do tomorrow, against a team that has the worst defence in the entire Football League (48 conceded and counting), is get back a little bit more of that attacking purpose from November and early December.

Look, we’re going to concede goals. In fact, ours is the second worst defence in the league behind only Sheff Wed’s mess, and that’s not likely to improve much while playing a wide open 4-4-2 with deficient full backs, rotating goalkeepers, a persistently out-numbered central midfield and a centre back pairing that relies heavily on a guy who can play once per equinox. So, it’s about shots on goal, set pieces, creation and attack. The Hull home game – 3-2, twice behind, you score two and we’ll score three. (Hull themselves, incidentally, are mounting a promotion push with the third worst defence stats in the league through doing exactly this). We were absolutely flying at home doing this – four wins in a row, averaging three goals a game. Nobody cares if you’re conceding doing that. We’re having fun.

Middlesbrough, since we made them look like the 1974 Dutch side, have lost three and drawn one without scoring a goal. They could have had six against us, but they could have had six in each of those games as well – they’ve had 80 shots across those four games. That tells me they still might come good again.

QPR, on the other hand, have gone the opposite way. Norwich came here on New Year’s Day with the worst goalkeeper I’ve seen on this ground since AKUTR’s wondered whether they’d let us use a ball with a bell in it to give Tony Roberts a chance. We gave Vladen Kovacevic two shots on target in 100+ minutes – one he fell over and improvised a save with his legs, the other he punched into the ground and up into the roof of his own net.

Norwich have dropped 17 points from winning positions this season, only Wrexham (18) have dropped more and that game was there for the taking up to and including the point it went 2-0 for the want of some attacking purpose and penetration. We’ve got two good strikers this season, for the first time in a long time, and a whole plethora of options on both flanks. None of them are playing well currently - we have had five shots on target in three games – and Ilias Chair’s return would be most welcome.

You shouldn’t have to play well tomorrow. Concentrate on crosses, set pieces, getting to the byline, and delivering for your centre forwards. Lather, rinse, repeat. Press, run, overwhelm. Most of all – DELIVER. There was too much inversion and aversion against Norwich. It's not as hard as we’re making it look. Width, crosses, service. Good, early, ball. Two, big, bastards up front. Against Hull we won not because we played well, but because we force fed them 26 shots on goal and eight on target. Do that tomorrow and you’ll win the game 99 times out of 100 – bar a Danny Coyne situation.

Most of all, and I mean most of all because I’m not going to be able to sit here on Monday and be jolly japes if you don’t… DON’T BE ALL QPR ABOUT THIS.

Links >>> Smith’s R’s off the mark – History >>> Allison in charge – Referee >>> Sheff Wed Official Website >>> Sheffield Star — Local Paper >>> London Owls — Blog >>> Owls Talk — Message Board >>> Supporters Trust

Below the fold

Team News: Michi Frey was not on the bench for New Year’s Day and is being linked with a January move away from the club despite signing two separate REDACTED contract extensions in the same pre-season. Ilias Chair has been back training but also wasn’t involved in the Norwich debacle. No news there. Nor of Jake Clarke-Salter, who got a "bang on the ankle" against Leicester and has since had a scan the results of which are ominously quiet. Having made five changes at West Brom and then eight back again for another 2-1 defeat to Norwich we wait with interest to see what Julian Stephan’s plan is for this one.

Elsewhere: There are, needlessly, implausibly, three different games kicking off at noon on Sunday including our own. Who wants that? Who’s watching those? Who’s that for?

Well, it might at least be good news for Sheff Utd at home to managerless Oxford. They haven’t lost a Championship game on a Sunday in 13 attempts going back to December 2010. The Blades have won more points (22) and scored more goals (25) than any other EFL side since November 23. They have scored nine more goals than any other Championship side in that time.

Not so much for Birmingham who are heading in the opposite direction and now welcome runaway leaders Coventry to St Andrew’s. Blues have not won any of last seven league games, losing four and conceding 14 times in the process. It’s the worst record of any side since Decemeber 6. Only Sheff Wed (18) are on a longer winless run in this division.

There’s a real goat rodeo at Ewood Park among the lucky 15.00 kick offs. Blackburn, 12 points worse off than this stage last year and without a goal in their last three league games, have won just nine points from 12 games on their own ground this season – the worst home record in the league bar Sheff Wed. They host rapidly declining Charlton who have won one of their last ten and picked up just five points from a possible 30. The Addicks are winless in seven away games since a surprise 3-0 at Ipswich in October. They haven’t scored more than a single goal in any of their last 13 games.

Middlesbrough following up their all conquering performance against us in December, which we praised to the hilt, with a winless run of four games in which they haven’t scored a goal is pure QPR/LFW. Having won their first four games under Kim Hellberg they’re now on their longest scoreless run since 2014. It is worth pointing out though that they’ve had 81 shots on the goal across those four matches, so potentially watch out Southampton who have won only three of 13 away games this season. Only Coventry (28) have scored more away goals than Southampton’s 21, but equally only Sheff Utd (25) have conceded more (23).

Two of the other surprise packages we can’t really work out, Hull and Watford, also face off tomorrow. You’d have got long odds on this being fourth v fifth at the start of the season. The Tigers have the league’s third best attack (40) and third worst defence (38) while Watford have soared after their change of manager and unbeaten in seven, winning five. The Hornets have lost just one of their last 13 and have the best comeback record in English football with 23 points recovered from losing positions – more than any other Championship side.

Bristol City crowned a great Christmas of three wins from four games with a 5-0 homer against Portsmouth and now face Preston Knob End in the Emil Riis derby – their 2-1 loss at Wrexham ended a six-match unbeaten away run. City have the joint most clean sheets in the league (nine).

Wrexham are another side climbing the league inspite of their underlying numbers and not because of them. Up to tenth now, three points shy of the play-offs, they have faced the most shots in the league (383) and dropped the most points from winning positions (18) in the whole EFL bar Doncaster (23). Having won a first away game in nine attempts at Blackburn last time out, they’ll be looking to repeat the dose on Derby who have scored in 23 of 25 games played so far – a divisional high.

I thought Swansea were a reasonable tip for the drop when they lost five straight going into the holiday period they’ve won five of seven games since and might fancy another positive result away to a Millwall side with one win in six games and no goals in three of their last four matches.

QPR have now treated Norwich to six of the 24 points they have in total, and six of the 15 they’ve taken in ten games under new boss Philippe Clement. They now face former player Mark Robins and a Stoke side heading the other way, losing seven of the last 11 to drop from second on November 4 to ninth now and three points off the play-offs.

Portsmouth ‘s positive results against QPR and Charlton over Christmas were then torpedoed somewhat by that thrashing at Ashton Gate. It’s their first defeat in five but they’ve won only three of the last 15. Only Sheff Wed have scored fewer goals, and it’s Ipswich up next. Still, 18 of their 25 points have come at Fratton Park.

Marti Cifuentes’ last hurrah gets a Monday Night Football audience against West Brom.

Referee: Sam Allison is in charge for this one, as he was for Sheff Wed’s 2-0 win here last season. Details.

Form

- From five wins in seven games, QPR are now winless in three and have lost the last two. The Norwich defeat on New Year’s Day halted a run of four consecutive victories at Loftus Road.

- Sheff Wed have been deducted 18 points this season for a combination of entering administration and financial irregularities. They come into this game bottom of the league on -7 points, 32 adrift of safety.

- These are the two worst defences in the Championship. Sheff Wed have conceded 48 and QPR 39. Sheff Utd come next with 38 shipped.

- Sheff Wed have won just one game all season – away at Portsmouth, 2-0, on September 20. They are winless in 18 matches since (D7 L11). This is the worst active losing run in the EFL and the club’s longest run without a league win since joint club record 20-match sequence in 1975.

- No team has conceded as many (48) or scored as few (18) as Sheff Wed. Though Portsmouth (seven), Birmingham (eight) and Charlton (ten) have all scored fewer than their 11 on the road, and seven teams have conceded more than their 20 goals away from home including QPR (22).

- QPR are winless in their last five league games against Sheff Wed (D2 L3), since a 4-1 home win during lockdown in April 2021.

- Sheff Wed have won this fixture 2-0 in each of the last two seasons. They have never won three consecutive away games against QPR.

- QPR are winless in their last five league games played on a Sunday (D2 L3), with this their first Sunday match since a 1-1 draw with Norwich in December 2024. Sheff Wed have lost seven of their last eight league games played on a Sunday (W1), including each of the last five in a row.

- Perennial QPR scourge Barry Bannan is the Sheff Wed top scorer with three. Rumarn Burrell top scores for the hosts with nine, but has been stuck on that total since December 6 at home to West Brom – six appearances.

- Bannan has made 19 appearances against QPR, more than any other side, and from those he has won seven, drawn nine and lost just three times. He has scored twice and assisted a further four goals. He has beaten us more than any team bar Blackburn and Forest (both nine).

- QPR will play seven times in January for the first time since 2013.

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. JB007007 made a strong start and held off the competition to win our first prizegiving for being top at Christmas. QPR_Hibs won last season’s Prediction League at a canter and is lending his thoughts to this year’s previews…

“At the start of the season, when Clive asked me to write these prediction preview pieces, he delivered a note of caution. He told me that at some point, particularly when the team was playing badly, they would become a 'bit of a pain' to write. I suspect that both regular readers have sussed out that that time has now come. For three consecutive games, the team has phoned in their performances , and it is only fair for me to do the same. It'll probably just be random Alan Partridge quotes and song lyrics for the next couple of paragraphs.

“The team that started the Norwich game was pretty much the one that I picked in my preview and it should have been good enough to win the match. Some of our decision making was poor. There were times when I felt we had chances to put the ball into the box but we tried to be too intricate. And why don't we have a flipping shot sometimes? The stats say that we did have ten, with two of those on target, but Mbengue's is the one and only (nobody I'd rather be) attempt that I can remember.

“We've been incredibly poor against the bottom sides recently so I'm not expecting much from Sunday's home game with Sheffield Wednesday. You'd hope that Julien would stick someone like Field or Morgan into the team and just tell them to mark Bannan out of the game but I don't think he will do that. It's our fourth game in ten days and I can see little point in trying to predict the starting line-up - it really is anybody's guess.

“ And on that bombshell...”

QPR_Hibs Prediction: QPR 0-1 Sheff Wed. Scorer – Barry Bannan, of course

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

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