After the disappointment against Wolves last weekend Rangers
return to action with yet another crucial looking fixture on Saturday, this
time at Blackburn Rovers. Our away form has certainly been better than our home
this season and it’ll need to be tomorrow as three points are surely a must.
Match: Blackburn Rovers v Queens Park Rangers Venue: Ewood Park Competition: The Premier League Date: Saturday 11th February 2012 Kick off time: 3pm
QPR will be without Djibril Cisse for Saturday's trip to Ewood
Park following his foolish sending off against Wolves. Cisse has manned up and
apologised for seeing red which has earned him a lot of respect but still means
he misses this and the next two fixtures.
Mark
Hughes will also be without several other key players as the squad starts to
look a little thin once again. DJ Campbell, Heidar Helguson and Luke Young are
all definitely out and Sparky will be keeping his fingers crossed that Akos
Buzsaky, Danny Gabbidon and Jay Bothroyd can be added to the travelling squad.
Yakubu will be back in the Blackburn Rovers side
on Saturday having missed the last three games through a suspension of his own.
However as one comes in another goes out, Gael Givet starts his three match ban following
his dismissal at Arsenal.
Chris Samba looks to be mending fences at Ewood Park after falling out
with the club in recent weeks but the big defender remains a doubt for his one
as he has a back problem that needs attention.
Jason Lowe is also struggling, he limped out of the Arsenal defeat and a late
decision is expected to be made on his participation this weekend.
Its little surprise
that he form of Blackburn Rovers is poor. Since the turn of the year they have
played five league games and taken just four points from them. There have been
home reverses against Stoke City and Newcastle United. Their other home game brought
the only win this year when a ten man Rovers side did for Fulham.
Just when you think
things couldn’t get much worse for Blackburn they went to The Emirates on
Saturday and got absolutely splattered by Arsenal. Van Persie and
Oxlade-Chamberlain were rampant and the dismissal of Gael Givet the Pub
Landlord before the oranges certainly didn’t help matters.
The meeting at Loftus
Road between the sides ended 1-1. Rangers took the lead through Helguson before
Rover’s want away captain Chris Samba equalised just eight minutes later. It
was a poor affair and yet another one of the many “must win” games that Rangers
haven’t won this season.
There’s very little in
the league head to head between the sides, Blackburn have 14 wins to Rangers’ 12
with a further 7 stalemates.
Rangers’ last league clash at Ewood Park came way back in the
00/01 season when the teams played out a goalless draw and if you are looking
for reasons why Rangers failed to trouble the scoreboard that day may I present
a front two of Sammy Koejoe and Kevin Lisbie for your delectation! Leading the
Rovers line that day was one Leslie Mark Hughes.
Rangers’ last Ewood Park win came the season before when goals
from Stuart Wardley and Kevin Gallen secured a 2-0 win.
It seems incredible to
many, probably including the man himself, that Steve Kean is still the manager
of Blackburn Rovers.
He has presided over a season that would have seen most managers
sacked, he has seen the fans hold almost weekly protests against him and his
captain has gone on strike after overtures from QPR were rebuffed. Kean has
skin thicker than a rhino; he has to with the pelters he gets whilst he stands
there stoically in his technical area surveying the carnage unfolding before
him!
QPR haven’t scored at Ewood Park in the last 271 minutes of
football played there between these two sides.
We have only won at Ewood Park once in the last nine visits spanning
across four different decades.
We have failed to win three quarters of all our games at Ewood
Park since this fixture was first played in 1948.
My 14 year playing career started in Lancashire in 1997 and ended
in Queensland, Australia last year.
Despite stints with nine English league clubs I am perhaps best
remembered for three years with Blackburn and two with Nottingham Forest.
I joined QPR after departing The City Ground but only made five
appearances for The Hoops before my contract was cancelled after just six
months.
The answer from the last ‘Who am I’ was Steve Hodge
Mark Hughes "There have been two games where we have been in control and
unfortunately a guy has been sent off and that has affected the outcome.
"We could have been sat here and been a lot better off, we
can look back on it and [cry over] spilt milk somewhat, but you can't do
anything about it. You have to get on with games you have got ahead of you and
that's what we are focusing on.
"Blackburn are coming up at the weekend so they are big
games, each and every one of them. We need to take points of teams in and
around us. We weren't able to do that last week, a couple of weeks ago we were.
We need to get back to hampering the teams in and around us and helping
ourselves.”
Bobby Zamora "It was nice to score and obviously doing it early in my QPR career was
pleasing. It gets that off your back and now I'm hoping to score a few
more.
"I am looking forward to the next fixture now, we go
from one big game straight into another but every game we play between now and
the end of the season is massive for us."
Akos Buzsaky "It's important - the same
as every game and this is a must-win game for both teams.
"We are not afraid to go
there and play our football. If we can do what we have done in the last few
weeks, it's going to be a good game for us.
Football is a game where there's always pressure but sometimes,
under pressure, you can be better. We've got players that like the
pressure. If we perform as well as we can, I think we are better than
Blackburn."
Home comforts have been pretty thin on the ground this season and after another encouraging start on Saturday Rangers
once again managed to turn a likely win into a poor defeat when Wolves came
from one behind to take all three points last weekend. It was a real kick in
the teeth for R’s fans and results like that suggest our fate this season will
go all the way to the wire.
Had we won things would look a lot more rosy right now had we won
that game but, if you want to look on the bright side, you could say that thanks
to poor results around us it was a defeat we just about got away with.
That’s behind us though and now we can only move on and look
forward to Saturday’s trip to Blackburn. A chilly afternoon at Ewood Park
awaits so warm yourself with thought that life on the road has proved a little
better this season for QPR. Perhaps we can go into the international break with
a good result behind us?
That’s really the scenario we need to achieve so I’ll keep
positive and keep backing us to get that win. I’ve gone for a 2-1 victory on
Saturday with odds of 9/1 which with ten quid riding on it would add a very
handy ton to my pretty paltry looking pot this season.
Don’t forget you can stay in touch with the action from Ewood
Park on Saturday via our twitter feed. Just click the image below and follow
@qprnet
