Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

One is a thirty-plus veteran striker with experience at over 10 football clubs. The other is a 20-year old rookie with just one professional goal to his name. One is injured after just arriving on loan; the other only signed for his new club yesterday and is eager to make his home debut.

QPR supporters will be cursing their bad luck at the moment, which has now extended from the football pitch to the transfer market.

They signed experienced forward Marcus Bent less than two weeks ago in a loan deal, hoping to have found the calm head who would bring goals back to a misfiring side.

But they may now be wishing they went for a younger alternative, such as West Ham's Freddie Sears (pictured above) who signed for Coventry City, Rangers' opponents this weekend, just yesterday.

Bent will miss tomorrow's vital clash at the Ricoh Arena after limping off the pitch ten minutes into Tuesday night's defeat to Ipswich Town, only his second game for the Hoops.

Sears, on the other hand, completed a loan move from West Ham United yesterday after already spending part of this season at Crystal Palace and will now compete with established Coventry strikers Clinton Morrison and Freddy Eastwood for a starting place.

Both teams are perilously close to the relegation area but again the omens seem to more greatly favour the home side. Rangers, just two points off the relegation zone, were leap-frogged by Coventry in midweek after the Sky Blues' surprise win over Nottingham Forest.

Bent (pictured below playing for Birmingham City) looked to have tweaked his hamstring during Rangers' dismal midweek defeat and the QPR medical team now await the results of a scan though the initial prognosis was not too serious.


It also means Rangers could start with a youthful front-line of their own.

Fellow loanee 23-year old Tamas Priskin can play again after missing Tuesday's game under the terms of his loan deal whilst 21-year old top scorer Jay Simpson is back in form after scoring Rangers' only goal in that game.

Sears will be keen to make the most of a loan move which lasts until the end of the season.

He signed for West Ham aged just 11, made his Premiership debut in 2008 aged 18 and has now been capped for England U-21s.

"He is a hungry striker who is really keen to impress and I like that in a player," said Coventry boss Chris Coleman.

"He is only a young boy so I am not going to put pressure on him but he is very exciting and I think our supporters will take to him immediately."

He could get his first opportunity to impress as soon as tomorrow afternoon and I'll have a full match preview before then.