Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

QPR's Carling Cup game in midweek with Accrington Stanley didn't prove to be a beautiful distraction from the league after all but a horrible reminder that this team is currently playing without belief, organisation or spirit. Instead of a rallying call for future league games, that performance was a low point for this season despite the win. What will be key to the club now is how they can perform back amongst the bread-and-butter games of the league.

Unfortunately for QPR, they only have one game to turn things around prior to the international break and it's newly-promoted Scunthorpe away. Following the two weeks off, they have home games in quick succession against Peterborough and Crystal Palace. Before the season started, QPR would surely have been looking for nine points from these three games. Now, to just get that first win would be satisfactory and five points could be a more realistic target.

For the Scunthorpe match, QPR do at least have some new firepower to call on up front. Jay Simpson, a 20-year old prospect at Arsenal, was signed on a year-long loan yesterday and in his previous loan spells at other clubs, he has demonstrated that he could have the ability to kick-start the Hoops' season. He previously spent a year on loan at Milwall, scoring 6 goals in 34 games and ending the season as the fans' Player of the Year. He finished last season on loan at struggling WBA but still managed to find the net twice but his appearances for Arsenal have been restricted to the Carling Cup. His pace and confidence should add something to a faltering forward line and he is immediately available for tomorrow's game.

In terms of other team news, the only real absentees for QPR are Martin Rowlands, who is unlikely to be ready for this game and Lee Cook who is still recovering from a long-term injury. Angelo Balanta and Fitz Hall are both now back in contention for a first-team place.

Magilton reverted to a 4-4-2 formation for the match against Accrington so it will be interesting to see if he sticks with that, as it sucked a lot of creativity out of the team. If he opts for a midfield duo of Mikele Leigertwood and Gavin Mahon he could hand a lot of the attacking potential to Scunthorpe. Perhaps most importantly though, QPR need to find a settled formation soon and use it for long enough to allow the players to grow into it. The tactical confusion on Tuesday night made a mockery of the whole team and cannot be successful against more competitive opposition.

Another key point to look for is if Akos Buzsaky gets a game and how he responds to the mid-week criticism from Magilton. I maintain that he is QPR's most talented player and the one most likely to get this team going but his confidence could have been dented by events in midweek.

Scunthorpe are newcomers to the Championship following their play-off final victory over Milwall last season but they have struggled early on. They did knock out Paulo Sousa's Swansea City in the Carling Cup midweek in a game which bordered on the farcical as Swansea were close to going down to 6 players, which would have led to the game being disbanded. In the league, they've struggled but they've had tough games against Middlesbrough and Cardiff City. Forest had a slow start to the season until they played Rangers so Jim Magilton will hope that his team are not now a scalp for the bottom half of the Championship.

They have a couple of injury worries following their last Championship game against Sheffield Wednesday with defenders Rob Jones and Niall Canavan both likely to miss out. In the form book, QPR have a pretty decent record against the Iron, having won six out of the last eight encounters. Scunthorpe have been shipping goals and currently have the worst goal difference in the Championship and under normal circumstances, this should be an easy three points for QPR. But Tuesday night was woeful. If they respond in the right way, this could be the game where the floodgates open and QPR finally finish a team off as they have been threatening to do. I still think they will be heading into the international break without a win though, which could make for an uncomfortable fortnight for the manager.

PREDICTION

DRAW