Middlesbrough vs QPR - Team News and Preview
Posted On 26/02/2010 at at 16:20 by Alistair Kleebauer
The future identity of the club's manager is still less than clear, though comments by shareholder Amit Bhatia in midweek suggest that stability could be favoured over further change, so Mick Harford could well remain in charge until the end of this season. If that is the board's decision, its intelligence will receive a stern test tomorrow. It's one thing to narrowly beat Doncaster at home, but the Hoops need to add points away from home if they are to comfortably avoid a relegation battle.
Middlesbrough Team News
One of Boro's recent additions, Scott McDonald, who was the fifth Celtic player to join the club this season when he arrived during the January transfer window, is unlikely to be fit for tomorrow's game after recently undergoing a hernia operation.
Fellow striker Chris Killen, another addition from Celtic, is more likely to figure though after recovering from the hamstring injury and virus which have kept him out for the last three games.
QPR Team News
QPR's main concerns lie in defence, although Matt Connolly, who faces a late fitness test, has actually played admirably in the centre of midfield in the last two games. If he isn't ready in time for this game, recent loan addition Nigel Quashie is likely to start.
Peter Ramage has also been suffering from an abdominal strain after coming off during the Doncaster win, but he is a safer bet to be ready in time for tomorrow's fixture.
Barring those two, the other absentees are of course Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands, with Mahon potentially back by April but Rowlands unlikely to be ready before the close season.
Form
Boro are hanging around on the fringes of the play-offs and though it could take a gargantuan effort, it is surely not beyond them to sneak into the top six before the end of the season. They will have to greatly improve their form though which has been mixed at best under Gordon Strachan.
They've lost half their games since he arrived and have moved from the edge of the automatic spots (they were in fourth and two points off second when Gareth Southgate departed) to ninth and five points off the play-off spots. To put that in context though, QPR were in sixth after Southgate's final game. Boro have also never done the double over QPR, but they'll be confident after their 5-1 win at Loftus Road earlier in the season.
QPR's form is still far from impressive, though to be fair to Mick Harford and the team, the improvements in terms of performances have been growing. Hopefully the steep learning curve the new boss has been on will now pay off.
The players have also increased their work effort and team play in the last couple of games as they collectively seemed to realise that their season was heading towards a terrible climax. Bear in mind though, they've lost their last three away games without scoring and just finding the net tomorrow would be a bonus.
Prediction
It was hard to not get overly pessimistic about QPR since the turn of the year when everything about the club smacked of a lack of planning and togetherness. Many people from the chairman to the manager down to the players were saying the right things, about commitment and work rate, with little evidence of it on the pitch and every game took on the tone of a must-win fixture as they neared the bottom three.
The pressure isn't off yet, though a draw tomorrow would be less than disastrous and it was hard to not feel a renewed sense of hope around the club last weekend when the news of Flavio Briatore's resignation chimed nicely with the performances of Jay Simpson and Antonio German the next day. German has just committed himself to the club until 2012 and if his development is handled correctly, he could definitely make an impression at this level if not higher.
In trying to match this all-new optimism, I am plumping for a draw for the Hoops tomorrow, which would be a decent result in the context of this season.
SCORE DRAW
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