Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Stuck in a dismal run of form, QPR laid down one of their poorest results of the season on Saturday, losing 1-0 at bottom and seemingly stranded side Peterborough United. The new manager effect clearly holds greater weight in Peterborough than in west London, with the Posh's new boss Jim Gannon (pictured above) managing what Mick Harford has failed to achieve in four games for QPR - win a match. Below is some food for thought as Rangers consider new ways to try and save an increasingly nightmarish season.

1 - Too much change can be a bad thing. Were the current management of QPR not to be proactive in trying to arrest the club's slide down the table, then a lot of observers would rightly charge them with being over-complacent. So in entering the loan market to bring in defensive and midfield cover and most notably last week, two new attacking options, Mick Harford has clearly identified some of the team's weaknesses and tried to tackle them head on.

But getting the balance of a team right, especially when morale and confidence are very low, can be difficult and going on the results and performances in his four games in charge, it certainly looks like the new boss has tried to change too many aspects of the team too quickly.

Bringing Matt Hill into the side was common sense and though it hasn't arrested the team's alarming rate of conceding goals, it does provide an experienced and vocal player who will muck in in what could be a difficult remaining few months. Likewise for Nigel Quashie in central midfield.

That QPR also had to look for new strikers is undeniable with only Jay Simpson providing anything like satisfactory performances this season. To throw both Marcus Bent and Tamas Priskin into this game though, when both have struggled for games and goals this season, seems rash now and almost like an unnecessary snub to Simpson, one of Rangers best players this season.

Sometimes these experiments work. This weekend, it didn't.

2 - Things can only get ...worse? It's bad enough to be trailing to the league's bottom side and failing to craft any decent chances of your own, but to contrive to get two of your players sent off in almost identical situations is truly laughable.

Misplaced passes in the centre of the field forced firstly Mikele Leigertwood and secondly Peter Ramage to make desperate, even foolish lunges to try and reclaim the ball, but the alternative in both cases was to allow the Posh to go on a dangerous counter-attack. Leigertwood's tackle was particularly reckless but it arose from lazy play and poor decision-making, which is blighting Rangers' season.

Ramage will now miss tomorrow's visit of Ipswich, who could draw to just a point behind Rangers with a win. More damagingly, Leigertwood will miss that game and two further fixtures at Coventry and at home to Watford, games which now take on the aura of relegation battles instead of opportunities to press for the play-offs.

3 - Looking up or looking down? QPR now find themselves closer to the relegation area then the play-off spots and though it seems ridiculous to think about it when the club has been portrayed as ambitious, Premiership-chasers for so long, few QPR fans will be confident enough to not cast some anxious glances towards the bottom of the table.

You don't have to go back too far (2003/4) for the Hoops' last appearance in the third tier of English football and as recently as 2005/6 they finished 21st in the Championship, just one place above the relegation area.

In that season, they managed to get to the magic 50-point marker which though no guarantee of Championship football, is the first landmark on the way to safety. That would basically require 6 wins from QPR's remaining 18 games (7 to be more certain) which is clearly within this team's capabilities. But with two wins in the last three months, a relegation scrap is not in the realms of the impossible either.

4 - To add insult to injury... As QPR were hitting the lows at Peterborough, a couple of their former employees were finding life away from Loftus Road not unpalatable.

Wayne Routledge seems to have quickly settled into life at Newcastle and provided a key role in their 5-1 demolition of Cardiff with two assists whilst Dexter Blackstock notched a brace for Nottingham Forest, taking him to 10 league goals this season and keeping his side in the hunt for automatic promotion. You can harp on for too long about players who have now left, but surely both still had something to contribute for QPR.