Hoops for supper tonight – Newcastle v QPR match preview.
Posted on September 30th, 2009 | 21 Comments |
The three teams below us failed to win last night. West Brom suffered a surprise defeat by Barnsley, Preston lost at home to Reading and Middlesbrough lost at home to Leicester. Charmed results as far we’re concerned and if we can capitalise on them and get the win tonight we’ll go 5 points clear at the top of the table.
QPR are sitting in the middle of the table on 13 points but they have two games in hand over most of the teams above them and a win tonight would see them up amongst the play-off positions, so they have everything to play for.
QPR have only lost once in the league this season, which was away to Bristol City. They’ve notched up draws against Blackpool (H), Plymouth (A), Forest (H) and Peterborough (H) and wins against Scunthorpe (A), Cardiff (A) and Barnsley (H).
Arsenal loanee Jay Simpson is QPR’s top scorer in the league with 3 goals but there are plenty players capable of scoring for QPR and the season’s goals are shared around amongst 10 players. Winger Wayne Routledge – signed in January from Villa for £600,000 – is also one to watch out for having scored a hat-trick against Exeter in the Carling Cup earlier this season.
QPR have had their share of boardroom scandal this season as co-owner Flavio Briatore was recently removed from his post as the Renault Formula 1 team boss by the FIA for allegedly fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Apparently Briatore asked Nelson Piquet Jr to crash his car in order to help team-mate Fernando Alonso. According to Football League rules nobody can own a club if they are banned from another sporting body, so the Football League has asked the FIA for more details and will consider action against Briatore (I wonder if Mike Ashley is banned from his local darts league!).
As far as our team’s concerned, Joey Barton, Fabricio Coloccini and Shola Ameobi are definitely out, Ryan Taylor is likely to be out and Danny Simpson is doubtful. However, Danny Guthrie is back from suspension and Jonas Gutierrez is back from injury, although Hughton is unlikely to risk him for a full 90 minutes. The defence is the hardest hit section of the team at the moment and, depending on the availability of Ryan Taylor and Danny Simpson, we might have to call on James Tavernier or Ben Tozer to plug some of the holes.
As we’re at home I wouldn’t expect Hughton to mess about with any 4-5-1 nonsense and I’d guess Carroll will start up front with either Ranger or Harewood and I’m presuming Guthrie will replace the injured Ryan Taylor.
We’re bound to have periods when things don’t go too well for us this season, so let’s hope we can take advantage of the slip-ups by our main competitors and stretch our lead tonight.
Howay the lads!
So the pressure is on. Tonight we will see what the lads are made of. Tough game for sure and QPR will be well up for it, especially after their last result against Barnsley. May not be a clean sheet tonight with the defence in tatters, so lokking for the lads to push on and score plenty. Our forwards need to step up tonight. We need goals from strikers, not just midfield.
Howay the Lads.