Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Rangers welcome Fitz Hall back to the fold so Jim Magilton has a full quota of centre-backs to call on. Kaspars Gorkss didn't have his best game in a blue and white shirt last weekend so the manager may choose to give Hall or Damion Stewart a try. He also chose loanee signing Tommy Williams over Gary Borrowdale at left-back last weekend though Borrowdale has been fairly consistent for the side all season so it's unclear who the manager currently prefers.

His options up front are less varied with Rowan Vine still out with a hernia problem and Angelo Balanta yet to fully recover from a groin injury. I'd expect Patrick Agyemang and Alessandro Pellicori to deputise for a front two of Jay Simpson and Wayne Routledge, by some distance the most successful striking partnership the Hoops have tried this season.

In midfield, Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands are of course long-term absentees so the manager will have to try and strike the balance between Ben Watson, Alejandro Faurlin and Steven Reid with Mikele Leigertwood also available to provide defensive cover. Lee Cook is stepping up his recovery from his knee injury but I wouldn't expect to see him in the first team for at least two or three weeks yet.


No new team news for Coventry since yesterday.


Take the form of this season and this game should be a walkover for QPR. Coventry are currently bottom of the league's form table with just two points from the last 18 and no win since they beat Watford on 29 September; form which has taken them to within three points of the relegation area. QPR, on the other hand, despite only one win in their last four games, have been in startling attacking form for most of the season and before their home defeat to Leicester, scored 13 goals in three home games.

Take the historical form though and it's much more in the Sky Blues favour. QPR showed last weekend that the prospect of a bogey team in Doncaster Rovers could have more of an effect than current form would have suggested and there is no bigger bogey (pardon the expression) for QPR than Coventry. They've beaten them just once in the last seven games at Loftus Road and have lost three of the last four. Coventry can also call on Clinton Morrison who has an unerring ability to find the net against QPR.


After predicting a comfortable win last weekend which turned into QPR's worst performance of the season, I am suitably chastened and this game has many of the omens which surrounded the Doncaster game which you ignore at your peril. That said, I still think Rangers have better options across the pitch than the visitors. Those loanee signings who didn't cover themselves in  glory last weekend may find the atmosphere in front of their own supporters more inviting. I think QPR should have enough to win this by a couple of goals.

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