Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Two teams with very different priorities meet tomorrow at Loftus Road, but for both, the game could have a large bearing on how their seasons pan out. QPR welcome Swansea City with the former team looking to consolidate its position away from the relegation area and the latter trying to stay in touch with the automatic promotion spots or at least stake their significant claim to be in this season's play-offs.

QPR have been a very different team since Neil Warnock arrived and immediately gave them a massive lift by inspiring them to a victory over West Bromwich Albion. What is perhaps surprising is that Warnock hasn't once tinkered with his side so far, even though you suspect he would be keen to give the once-over to as many of his players in a competitive scenario as possible. He clearly feels now is not the time of the season to overly rotate his squad and may prefer the comfort of the close season to truly get an appreciation of all his players.

He will need to change things tomorrow though, at least in the back four. Defending has been QPR's biggest weakness this season, one which came very close to completely derailing their season. Though they've righted a lot of those failings, they're still not free of relegation worries. The scalp of Swansea tomorrow however would put a lot of minds at ease.

QPR Team News

The need for a switch at the back is the result of Damion Stewart's sending-off against Reading in midweek, a red card which did little to impress the manager in its foolishness. As a result, Matt Connolly will most likely switch into the middle two alongside Kaspars Gorkss and Peter Ramage will come in at right-back.

Apart from that change, it should be business as usual and I wouldn't expect too much unnecessary tinkering before playing a team as capable as Swansea. Expect Mikele Leigertwood and Alejandro Faurlin to form a solid pairing in midfield, with the latter player in particular growing in confidence and importance to the team by the week. If Warnock sticks with his preferences of previous games, he'll place Hogan Ephraim and Adel Taarabt on the wings, with Tamas Priskin and Jay Simpson up front, so Marcus Bent may have to sit out another game because of loan player restrictions.

Swansea Team News

The Swans could call on midfielder Andrea Orlandi, who previously played at Barcelona on loan, after he missed the last four weeks with a hamstring injury. Current Wigan boss Roberto Martinez brought Orlandi to Swansea in 2007/8 from Alaves, prior to which he spent two seasons on loan at Barca, making 66 appearances for their B team and four for the first team. In a stop-start career so far in Wales, he made 23 league appearances this season prior to his injury, though as he only started training again yesterday, Swans boss Paulo Sousa may judge it too soon to hand him a starting place.

Form

As mentioned yesterday, these two clubs have an idential records in terms of points over the last six games, with Rangers just topping their visitors in the form table because of a goal difference of plus two (compared to Swansea's of zero).

In fact, over the season up until now, the Swans' goal difference is only six to the good which could be taken as a factor in their failure to catch up with the league's top two. They've let in an incredibly miserly twenty-five goals in the league so don't expect Rangers to score at will tomorrow, but amazingly they've also scored the fewest goals as well, with just thirty-one. Even bottom-side Peterborough, who have looked doomed for much of this season, have found the net more often.

Rangers will have few complaints about their points haul since Warnock arrived, except perhaps that some more sympathetic refereeing and less head-strong defending on Tuesday would have earned a draw. The two home games under the new manager have been particularly promising with West Brom beaten 3-1 and Plymouth beaten 2-0.

Prediction

Not many goals. Rangers look a much better prospect defensively over the last four games and so, despite the need to make some changes, they will be hopeful of shutting out the away team. At the same time and as mentioned above, Swansea are the masters of the no-score draw, with eight so far, and though they will push for a win, they are unlikely to sacrifice their controlled play to get it. No-one wants to predict a goalless stalemate and Rangers haven't featured in one yet this season, which suggests that, for all their flaws, they can't be accused of being boring. But if one is to arise, tomorrow is a good bet and so my prediction. Which probably means they will be 1-0 up inside ten minutes.

NO-SCORE DRAW