Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

QPR have lost easier games and to worse teams than Watford this season and in the run of games without a win since Boxing Day, each new match has taken on an increased significance as managers and players alike insist the turnaround in their fortunes will start immediately.

So the Hornets provide the latest opportunity for QPR to salvage a truly horrendous season and though it's easy to class every game now as must-win, you can't help but feel the club need to be taking some points, preferably six, maybe four, from their next two games - both home matches - against Watford tonight and then Doncaster on Saturday. After that it's Middlesbrough and WBA and I mentioned recently that the Hoops don't have the easiest of run-ins so tonight is really a massive chance for them to keep their distance from the bottom three.

Look on it in a more negative light though and Rangers, should they lose, could be just one place above the relegation area by tomorrow night by my calculations. Should Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Scunthorpe all win tonight, they will jump ahead of the R's leaving Crystal Palace and Reading who meet tomorrow. Should either win, they would also move ahead of Rangers, leaving just tomorrow's losers, Plymouth and Peterborough below them. Even a draw for Palace, a team deducted ten points this season, would take them ahead of the Hoops should QPR fail to win tonight. It's not the rosiest set of scenarios ever, is it?

QPR Team News

To prevent a further slip down the table, QPR have close to a full squad to call on barring their two long-term absentees, former Watford player Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands. On top of that, there is Mikele Leigertwood, who serves the final game of a three-match ban and Marcus Bent, who is yet to recover from the hamstring injury sustained against Ipswich Town a week ago.

Tamas Priskin, who started his career in England with Watford, could start in place of Bent but manager Mick Harford could hand a first start to young striker Antonio German who has impressed with three substitute appearances recently.

A more surprising bench-warmer over the last two matches was Adel Taarabt, a player often likely to earn some howls from the crowd when he fails to pass to a team-mate but also capable of moments of individual brilliance that few others in the squad can match. He, Akos Buzsaky and Lee Cook are the three players I'd mark out as capable of turning QPR's season around, with Jay Simpson providing the goals.

Form

None worse than QPR's, not too much more to say about it. Five league games lost on the bounce against mainly bottom-half Championship sides.

Any silver linings? Well, amongst those defeats, there has only been two league games at Loftus Road since the turn of the year. Both were lost, to Scunthorpe and Ipswich, by the odd goal. Prior to that, QPR's home form wasn't bad, with just two defeats from August to December, against Leicester and Middlesbrough. You get the feeling their remaining home games are going to be critical in keeping them up - they have eight more between now and May 2nd, including tonight's game.

Prediction

Bringing in new players in January hasn't worked (or has perhaps hindered the team). Swapping the managers hasn't worked. Trying every combination known to man in defence hasn't worked. Maybe it's time for some old-fashioned superstitions. Well, QPR last won a game on Boxing Day, so their supporters should have spent today in their dressing gowns, half-drunk and unable to move from over-eating. Unless you start eating turkey sandwiches right now you just don't care enough about your team.

I'm going to go with mathematical randomness though (not that I have any understanding of it). They simply can't keep losing every game, can they? They're not THAT bad. There must be some law of nature that says you can't lose six Championship games in a row. If there is, I fully expect QPR to break it, but that said, I think the losing run will end tonight. Though not with a win of course.

SCORE DRAW