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RANGERS WELCOME STOKE
Saturday 1st March 2008
by Ron Norris & Simon Skinner

At the time of writing this we are looking forward to a live Sky encounter with table topping Stoke City. By the time kick off comes around we could be playing third placed Stoke City. Either way, this is going to be an unbelievably tough encounter against a team that are likely to try and knock seven bells out of us.
 

Queens Park Rangers v Stoke City
The Championship
 Sunday 2nd March 2008
Kick Off 13:15

 
TEAM NEWS

De Canio is hoping that Gavin Mahon makes a recovery from the medial knee ligament injury that has kept him out of the last two. If he doesn’t make it then Leigertwood is likely to continue despite poor showings in those two games. Vine seems certain to replace Blackstock and Ephraim is likely to come in for Balanta. Ainsworth is fit and may get a place on the bench as something other than a cheerleader. Another issue that Gigi will have to ponder is how he gets Buzsaky more involved. I would like to see him moved back in to play off the striker but I think he will be wasted wide again. 

Pulis will be hoping that free scoring centre back Leon Cort recovers from the ankle injury he sustained last weekend. At the time he thought his season was over, turns out he might be fit to play in this one. A classic hard man centre half! Just in case he doesn’t make it Chris Riggott has been brought in on loan for the rest of the campaign and one or the other will partner the impressive Shawcross. Thankfully human slingshot Rory Delap is suspended so there won’t be throw ins flying into the box from anywhere forty yards and in. Zakuani and Matteo are both crocked and miss out but Paul Gallagher may come in.
RON & SIMON'S
SELECT XI		          
Vine Agyemang
Ephraim Mahon Rowlands Buzsaky
  Delaney   Connolly   Hall   Mancienne  
        Camp        
A QUICK GUIDE TO OUR OPPONENTS
 
STOKE IN BRIEF: Stoke City have bludgeoned their way to the top of The Championship with a solid defence, a deadly striker, one genuine quality player in midfield and a long throw in. The Potters for me sum up the parlous state that this division now finds itself in. It’s as poor as it has been since we came back in and when you take a glance around the top six it hardly sets the pulse racing. Stoke are functional and well drilled and that it seems is the order of the day. Their fans will enjoy being top of the shop but they can’t seriously enjoy the brand of football that Pulis peddles. Maybe I am kidding myself that the teams at the top should play quality, attractive attacking football. What an old romantic!
 

LAST FIVE GAMES
Date Versus Venue F A
26/02/08 Preston Away 0 2
23/02/08 Ipswich Home 1 0
15/02/08 Scunthorpe Home 3 2
12/02/08 Southampton Home 3 2
09/02/08 Wolves Away 4 2

TOP SCORERS
Name League Cups Total
R. Fuller 14 0 14
L. Lawrence 12 1 13
R. Creswell 9 1 10
R. Shawcross 7 1 8
L. Cort 7 0 7
 

CLASH OF THE DAY: Fitz Hall v. Ricardo Fuller. Hall has been in good form for the past two games and in Fuller he comes up against a striker that is full of confidence. The Jamaican is a languid looking player that can suddenly burst into life and before you know it he has bagged two goals and the game is gone. Hall’s Inspector Gadget legs will be needed and he will need to marshal those around him well.
 
RANGERS VERSUS .....
 

LAST TIME OUT: “Play had been held up for getting on for three minutes before the resulting free kick was rolled short to Liam Lawrence and he battered an unstoppable shot past Camp into the top corner.” Stoke City 3-1 Queens Park Rangers Tuesday 27th November 2007.
 
HEAD TO HEAD
Overall
Played QPR Stoke Draws
28 14 8 6
At QPR
Played QPR Stoke Draws
14 8 2 4
 

OTHER MEETINGS: Rangers are well ahead in the league head to head standings with thirteen wins to Stoke City’s eight. There have been a further six draws. Last seasons game at Loftus Road ended with Sam Timoska being sent off thanks to Lee Martin’s am dram and the game ended in a draw. Rangers’ last win at home was also on Sky in January 2005 and a solitary Lee Cook strike settled it.
 

LEAGUE STANDINGS
Pos Team P GD Pts
1st Stoke 35 14 62
15th QPR 34 -7 41
 
GENERAL INFORMATION

THE REFEREE

D’Urso is at the helm for this one and he is a referee that seems to have improved in recent seasons (famous last words and all that!) He was something of a card happy loon in the early days but this season he has booked seventy two in thirty one and sent two off which is pretty good. His last R’s game was in the hammering at West Brom earlier in the season, his last Potters game was a home draw with Hull last April.
THE REF RECORD
Season Games Yellows Reds
2007-08 31 72 2
2006-07 44 99 4
2005-06 33 111 9
2004-05 29 86 6
2003-04 28 83 6
 

 
   

OPPONENTS LINKS
Official Website StokeCityFC.com
Fans Website Boothen End
Fans Website Stoke Mad
Message Board The Oatcake

MATCH DAY ODDS
Bookie QPR Draw Stoke
11/8 21/10 13/8
8/5 11/5 11/8
6/4 11/5 6/4
   
 

SIX DEGREES OF SEP-R-ATION: Campo’s Rangers debut came back in 2004 when lined up in a 4-1 victory at Hartlepool after joining on loan that day. Joel Porter scored a late goal for the home side that day. Australian Porter is still with The Monkey Hangers playing for their current boss Danny Wilson. Wilson is most known for continually blowing Bristol City’s promotion chances and his last game in charge for them was the League One play off final of 2004 in which Leon Knight’s goal saw Brighton promoted at Bristol’s expense. Knight is now at Wycombe where he is a team mate of former Leicester man Neil Lennon. Lennon spent four years in the midlands before moving to Celtic. His last appearance for The Foxes was a 4-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in 2000. Coming off the bench for The Owls that day was Richard Creswell. Creswell is now at Stoke City where he is team mates with Steve Simonsen.
 
RON AND SIMON'S PREDICT-OFF
SIMON: Two draws in two games isn’t terrible when you consider that the performances would certainly have merited two defeats earlier in the campaign. Stoke City are a very different proposition though and if we don’t pick things up then we will be staring down the barrel of a seventh home loss. I think that there will certainly be an upturn, whether it will be enough to merit a win I am not sure, but I am pretty confident of grabbing another precious point. 1-1.

RON: I’m not too worried about the last couple of draws but we will really need to step things up a gear if we are to get anything out of this one. The 3-1 defeat in the away game was a poor showing from Rangers but I’m sure De Canio would have learned a thing or two about our opponents from that one and will put that to good use. Stoke aren’t infallible they’ve actually only won one of their last seven away games but since this is on telly I’ll take us for a boring 0-0 draw with apologies to the great viewing public!

Current score: Ron 17 Simon 15