Cock of the Hoops? QPR v Newcastle United – match preview.

Posted on May 1st, 2010 | 43 Comments |

QPR's celebratory centenary crest.
QPR's celebratory centenary crest.
And now, the end is here, and so I face, the final curtain. Poignant opening words from a very famous song that has a lot of parrallels with the last year or so in the life of a Newcastle fan. And perhaps more appropriately we face our very own final curtain in London tomorrow as we take on QPR at Loftus Road in a 1pm kick-off.

Like old Frank Sinatra, Newcastle will be looking to ooze style and win the game whilst having their sights firmly set on a target of a 100 point haul for the season, and if they can achieve it they will become only the fourth side to do so in Championship history. Thousands of fans are expected to flock to Loftus Road to partake of what is surely going to be a party atmosphere. Many have tickets, some will have a ticket in the home end whilst others won’t have a ticket at all and will just want to be there to take in what should be a carnival atmosphere. One would hope that the players can add fuel to the party fire with a win, and goals will surely be in the offing as QPR have a remarkable record of not being involved in a 0-0 scoreline all season – I hope I haven’t just jinxed things there!

It’s only fair I mention what is potentially at stake around the rest of the Championship tomorrow as there are still some issues at the top and bottom of the table to be resolved. Blackpool take on Bristol City at Bloomfield Road knowing that a win would guarantee them a spot in the play-off’s, whilst Swansea will be relying on Bristol City taking something from the game at Blackpool combined with a win at home to Doncaster to gain the final play-off position for themselves. At the bottom it’s do or die for Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace, the two teams can still be relegated although there is only one relegation position remaining. They meet at Hillsborough tomorrow and Sheffield Wednesday must win to avoid the drop whilst avoiding defeat will see financially troubled Crystal Palace survive.

Onto our game and QPR face a selction headache ahead of the game. Gavin Mahon, Matthew Connolly and Damion Stewart will play no part as they have long term knee, ankle and skull injuries. Peter Ramage will be looking forward to matching up against his former club after missing out on a place in the starting eleven at St James’ Park in September. Manager Neil Warnock has used the last few weeks to blood some of his younger players after they ended any lingering relegation fears. Their last game was a 1-0 win away at Barnsley in which they lined up with a starting XI of;

QPR: Cerny, Ramage, Gorkss, Tosic, Leigertwood, Buzsaky, Faurlin, Ephraim, Parker, German, Priskin.

Newcastle take some familiar faces back to their old stomping ground in the form of Wayne Routledge and Fitz Hall, although the latter will miss out with a hamstring problem. Despite returning to training, long term injury victim Steven Taylor will miss out as playing him is deemed a risk not worth taking. Nile Ranger will be absent with an ankle complaint whilst Jonas Gutierrez will be sunning himself in Argentina in preparation for his World Cup exploits. Steve Harper will drop to the bench whilst Tim Krul gets the chance to prove himself between the sticks and young Haris Vuckic travels with the squad and will be hoping to feature after his recent impressive exploits in the reserves. I would expect a team of;

Newcastle United: Krul, Simpson, Coloccini, Kadar, Enrique, Routledge, Nolan, Barton, Guthrie, Carroll, Lovenkrands.

QPR have the upper hand in head-to-head meetings between the two sides having been the victors on 16 occasions compared to Newcastle United’s 15. QPR have only lost one game out of the last eight and will be looking to sign off with a win in front of their home fans, whilst Newcastle will be looking to extend their unbeaten run from 16 games and rewrite a club record that was set last week.

In summary, the game is really a dead rubber with only the slight incentive of hitting the 100 point mark being the only real team target to aim for. Having said that, competition is fierce for the top scorer award and I would expect our lads to appraoch this game in the professional manner of which we are becoming accustomed to.

My prediction: 1-3.

Howay the lads!

Time: 1:00pm.

Date: Sunday, 2nd May, 2010.

Venue: Loftus Road, London.

Referee: Darren Deadman.

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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43 Responses

  2. Well off to the parade with the rest of the lumpen proletariat, Salud Companeros !

  6. BIG DAVE ime taken that score as your forcast mind,dont try to get out of it mind ;)ill go for 1-2

    never heard from clint for couple of days?

  9. Lads :) I dread the thoughts of tomoro then over 2 months with nowt to really look forward to except the WC and the fixture list and endless gossip from the rags :(

  10. Icedog – He has been right a few times. Perhaps his inside ringer, Barton, is helping out ;)

  11. Big Dave – Never fear, I have a series of things planned mate :twisted:

  13. BIG DAVE here are some things to mull over m8
    after most world cups clubs tend to change the way they play,ive always liked the tec side of game,i sniffed a change in chelsea last week-end they dropped the holding midfield player played flat back four and extra forward 2 attacking m/fielders,won 7-0 against quite a good defensive stoke side,1 attacking m/f dropping in hole when required, willbe watching style they take on sunday,do i sniff a change a comeing,take note ch

  14. BIG DAVE,dont take that mint dog with you to cuba mind i wont trust JB that far like ;)

  15. TOONSY did you notice chelsea deft change in play against stoke in last game

  16. Big Dave says:
    May 1, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    Who you gonna be supporting at the WC? (That’s the World Cup, not the toilet)

  17. Stuart I will sort of support England but its not the same as none of our players are playing, and most of their players are all big headed cu*ts. I’m looking forward to see how Jonas play’s

    Ice Chelski did play some real nice stuff but I think Stoke helped them along the way, I like a good old 4-4-2 ;)

  18. Cant wait for one more win this season. 100+ points, here we come :D

    Anybody still around?

  19. Stuart @ 16

    I expected to be supporting the Republic, but “Handball Henry” had other ideas….

    Cheatin twat

  21. toonsy

    Hanson and Lawro’s faces when Lineker mentioned Liverpool. I would put it in a frame and hang in on my wall. :)

  22. starkadder

    “The squad was poor before Ashley took over, and if he had pumped in 50 million to buy players and put right the previous mis-managment, he would only of put that debt onto the club (as he did with his loan), because he is a business man and somewhere along the line he want’s his money back and a profit.

    That would of just made our books even worse”

    thats one of the best points ive read on this blog

  23. mick, what you also need to understand, yeah FMA wants to make money… the club will make money… if its looked after well… and his model, in that sense is sound… its the future of football-the club being self supportive.

    i really dont believe, for FMA, its all about money… we’ve all seen the books ( for last season at least!) and the guy’s losing money… yeah football isn’t a cash cow so you don’t get involved in it unless you want to be successful on the pitch

    seriously… even if you look at it as a business.. you only make money if your successful on the pitch, so in that sense, our priorities are the same… now dont get me wrong, i’m not pro ashley but we’re in a lot stronger position going up than what we were going down. no?

  24. Oooofff, feeling a bit tender. Just outside of Notts and ready to pick up Whumpie en route and then onto Sheperds Bush and the big game. After that? Anything could happen really…

    Enjoy it ladsnlasses, it’s our last one for a while.

  28. TGS – Unfortunately not. I have the biggest hangover ever right now and don’t think I could handle it anyway.

  29. just reading on Ed’s site about all the players we have already been linked to, joke really isn’t it, such a high demand, so little supply!
    Would love if every player we get is completely off the radar and not even mentioned in the press, like the ones in January

  30. A big ENJOY to all those going to the game.
    The curtain comes down on what has a been a well documented “better than expected season”
    I am stuck here in Scotland tried to get tickets but not enough loyalty points.
    Keep the banter going very enjoyable even only if reading it makes me smile with pride.
    Glad to see Krul get a game as I seriously believe Kadar and Krul will be big stars of the european game in future years.Lets hope it is with the Toon.

  31. budalovesapatsy says:
    May 2, 2010 at 11:57 am

    “A big ENJOY to all those going to the game.”

    Thanks Buda, just setting off in a minute. Will come back with a match report, hopefully.

  32. NUFC: Tim Krul, Ryan Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge, Alan Smith (c), Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best

    Subs: Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, Peter Lovenkrands, Fabrice Pancrate, Andy Carroll, Ryan Donaldson, Haris Vuckic

  33. To all those going to the game, have a really good day, please don’t anyone do a Millwall. :)
    I’m expecting a win but then again I did last week as well. Like to see Vukic play and nice to see Krul in, we have to have three of the best GK going into the PL and thats without mentioning Soderberg or Alnwick.

    Big Dave enjoy Cuba, I don’t know if it is true but apprently the people really apreciate Pens, pencils and anything similar and that they can be a good form of tipping. Check it out before you go however as I got this info some time ago and things may have changed.

    I know the NE has always been traditionally Labour but I would sincerly hope no one is going to support the party of the most incompetent, most stupid two faced liar who has ever held high office. If you aren’t sure who I mean, heres a clue. He would be the biggest hypocrite ever if he called someone a bigot. I’m seriuosly tempted to vote BNP, although I won’t. I just wish Robin Page was my local candidate.

    Trying to find a stream, anyone have suggestions otherwise will dissapear just before kick off and hopefully reappear later. I will be around till then if anyone can be bothered to reply to my ramblings. :)

  34. team selection same players nothing changes! keeps playing 3 central midfield players sorry toonsy i hope u dont stick up for him that we need 100 points why not play donaldson and give us width. if he doesnt give harris and donaldson a good half an hour then unless i am daft they will have no chance to move forfard in the prem they wont play them.

  36. Asim, you can say he isn’t giving the youngsters a chance, but look at the ages.

    Tim Krul, Guthrie, Simpson, Best… they are all youngsters.
    He obviously wants to give Shola and Barton some game time because they’ve hardly had any this season.

    Having said that, I don’t really agree with him. But I can see why he’s done it.

    Perhaps he just really wants that 100 point mark and if we go a goal up early I’m sure he’ll give Donaldson and Vuckic a chance in the final half hour.

  37. same players toonsy we need young good blood not players who wont move us forward stop making as if these players would win us matches in the prem.would u be confident or nervous this team could win away from home i dont think so.

  38. Big Andy will have to get on at some point for him to get the 20 goals I predicted much earlier in the season. A really big win could see Nolan get close as well, I’d be very surprised if both of them don’t get onto the pitch at some stage of the game.

  40. Asim – I’d be even less confident if the likes of Ryan Donaldson was playing! At the end of the day mate, they are on the bench which means they have a chance of playing. Yet again, your bizarre prejudice against Hughton comes to the fore.

    I kind of wish Man Utd were playing now and not later. At least you would be watching them rather spouting crap elsewhere!

  42. talking shit toonsy stick with your safe policy and ch.winger in donaldson for slow midfield player with out balance then toonsy stick to writing u dont no much about football then.

  43. Asim – If these kids are so good then how come nobody else if after them, like they are with Vuckic?

    Is it because they look ok playing against other kids but shite when matched up with fully grown men? If they are good enough to play then they will, they just aren’t good enough.

    If you can’t see the difference between playing against kids and playing against men then you know nowt about footie son!