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TIME FOR A CUP WIN?
Monday 11th August 2008
by Ron Norris & Simon Skinner

Having notched a first league win on Saturday Rangers now travel to Swindon Town hunting that rarest of beasts, a win in a cup! This will be a tough encounter though against a team that scores plenty of goals at home and who will be keen to add a Championship scalp to an impressive home league win of their own at the weekend.
 


Swindon Town versus Queens Park Rangers
The Carling Cup Round One
Tuesday 12th August 2008
Kick Off 19:45
 
 
TEAM NEWS

Iain Dowie is able to welcome back two players from suspension for the trip to Wiltshire. Damion Stewart and Samuel Di Carmine are both available again and will be on the bench at least. Dani Parejo may be handed a full debut after a twenty minute cameo on Saturday and he may slot in behind a lone striker after Blackstock and Agyemang failed to gel on Saturday. Lee Camp is apparently in line to start having been told he would get a crack in this one after Cerny started against Barnsley. Buzsaky and Vine remain sidelined with injury whilst Rowlands sits game number two of a three game ban. 

Brace yourselves for a shock folks, Pay Kanyuka is injured! Well, battling back from injury actually but Maurice Malpas reckons this one has come too soon for him. He is also missing two other defenders in Jerel Ifil who was injured on Saturday and former Rangers trialist Jamie Vincent. Malpas is chucking a couple of youngsters in Chris Allen and Sean Morrison. Up front Simon Cox and Billy Paynter should continue after both notching at the weekend.
 
RON & SIMON'S
SELECT XI		            
Blackstock
Parejo
Cook Ledesma
Mahon Leigertwood
  Delaney   Gorkss   Hall   Ramage  
Camp
A QUICK GUIDE TO OUR OPPONENTS
 
SWINDON IN BRIEF: The Robins finished top of the bottom of League One last season, and when you look at their home and away records you can see why. Only six defeats at The County Ground and only four wins away from it. There hasn’t been a great deal of transfer activity in the summer, Lilian Nalis has joined from Plymouth and Michael Timlin and Kevin Amankwaah have come in from Fulham and Swansea respectively. Maurice Malpas will be looking to add a few more to the W column on the away record this season to push themselves into play off contention.
 

LAST FIVE GAMES
Date Versus Venue F A
09/08/08 Tranmere Home 3 1
06/08/08 Plymouth Home 3 0
01/08/08 Hungerford Away 4 2
29/07/08 Cardiff Home 1 1
26/07/08 Chippenham Away 4 1
 
WHO'S THE BOSS?: Maurice Malpas won over fifty caps for Scotland through the 80’s and early 90’s. He moved into management with Motherwell in 2006 and had a brief stint at Scotland U21 boss before taking over at Swindon following Paul Sturrock’s return to Plymouth. He led them to a creditable thirteenth position in League One and will hope to push on toward the play offs this season as he moulds the squad as his own.
 

TOP SCORERS
Name League Cups Total
Simon Cox 1 0 1
Billy Paynter 1 0 1
Jon-Paul McGovern 1 0 1
- - - -
- - - -
 
OAKWELL LEGEND: Jan Age Fjortoft, the king of the aeroplane celebration, was a big hit for The Robins in the early 90’s. Having won promotion to the Premier League they needed a decent front man and Fjortoft certainly fitted the bill. The Norway international smashed in twenty eight in seventy two games before moving to Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and Barnsley. These days he is the Norweigan Gary Linker, although I don’t know whether this extends to a stunning flibbertigibbet on his arm!
 
RANGERS VERSUS .....
HEAD TO HEAD
Overall
Played QPR Swindon Draws
98 40 35 23
At Swindon
Played QPR Swindon Draws
49 10 24 15
 

OTHER MEETINGS: There have only been two previous League Cup meetings between the sides and that was back in 1996 when the early stages were still two legged affairs. Both sides were in Division One as it used to be called and after Rangers won 2-1 in Swindon thanks to goals from Dichio and Impey The Robins won 3-1 at Loftus Road with Brazier grabbing the Rangers goal.
 

CLASH OF THE DAY: Anthony McNamee v. Peter Ramage. The diminutive former Watford winger McNamee is rapid and a box of tricks. Only today in the paper he was bemoaning the fact that Aidy Boothroyd used to send him on the cheer the crowd up when they were getting beaten!! Ramage isn’t the quickest so will need to use his experience to keep the little man in check or he could cause untold problems.
 
GENERAL INFORMATION

THE REFEREE

Richard Beeby is in charge for this one and it is the second time he has seen Rangers this season having taken the pre season game at Northampton. He took charge of Charlton against Swansea at the weekend and got the red card out for Swansea’s hilariously named Gary Monk for a second bookable. His last Rangers game was last seasons 2-0 home win against Barnsley and his last Swindon game was also last season, in their 6-0 home romp against Port Vale.
THE REF RECORD
Season Games Yellows Reds
2008-09 1 2 1
2007-08 36 76 5
2006-07 40 116 9
2005-06 30 84 9
2004-05 40 104 8
 

 
   

OPPONENTS ONLINE
Official Website SwindonTownFC.co.uk
Fans Website Swindon-Town-FC
Message Board Moonrakers
Travel Info Football Ground Guide

MATCH DAY ODDS
Bookie Swindon Draw QPR
11/4 23/10 4/5
n/a n/a n/a
9/4 9/4 evens
   
 
RON AND SIMON'S PREDICT-OFF
SIMON: Saturday wasn’t a vintage display by any means but the players got the job done. Going into an away game, albeit against a side from the division below, will need a step up in the performance levels. The players will also need to guard against the Rangers cup hex, the one that states, it doesn’t matter who we play, we are going out! I am going to go down the tried and tested route therefore and go for a 2-1 home win.

RON: In patches I thought we played some nice stuff on Saturday and despite the bitty display we came from behind and dealt with a Barnsley side who boasted some decent attacking options. The new signings looked encouraging and I'm looking forward to seeing them in action again. Saturday was our first opening day win in years so let's follow it up with an equally uncommon cup win! 2-0 to Rangers.


Current score: Ron 1 Simon 3