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.

HOME WIN

If you want a cathedral, they've got one to spare. The Sky Blue Army roll up in west London tomorrow. Below are the bare essentials on QPR's visitors.

Coventry City Team News

Coventry have a few problems at the back going into tomorrow's game. Centre-back Ben Turner is out with an ankle injury and left-back Marcus Hall misses out with a calf problem. Recent signing Sammy Clingan, a summer arrival from relegated Norwich, is also out with a broken toe. On a positive note for the away side, they can call on Isaac Osbourne who has recovered from a knee injury and Jordan Clarke returns following a ban.


How do you summarise Coventry City's history? That FA Cup win, countless last-day survival bids and Jimmy Hill would all be close to the fore of most people's minds.

City certainly started out as they meant to go in their first season of league football. In Division Two in 1919/20, they conspired to lose their opening game 5-0 at Tottenham, not win a game until Christmas and still stayed up on the last day of the season.

It took the arrival of the Golden Chin to elevate the club out of the lower divisions though. Much derided now as basically a bit of a prat, Hill was actually a bit of an innovator at Coventry. He changed the team's kit and nickname to 'The Sky Blues', came up with their anthem 'We All Sing Together' and most importantly, set about revolutionising the team on the pitch. He guided the club from Division Three to the top flight only to go and choose a career in television over management.

They managed just fine without him though and famously remained in the top division for the next 34 years, with numerous great escapes along the way. In the mid-80s, they beat the drop on the last day in three consecutive seasons before achieving their greatest accolade in 1987, a 3-2 FA Cup Final win over Spurs (more on that below).

After battling to remain in the Premiership ever since its inception, the club succumbed to the inevitable in 2001 though and dropped to their current home in the Championship. As with a number of clubs who were previously used to Premiership football, they haven't looked particularly close to returning there for some time.


A trawl through the available footage of Coventry back in the day unearthed the 1920s version of hard-core pornography. In a video in which British Pathe cast aspersions on the whole city of Coventry by branding them all 'Peeping Toms', a faintly depressed looking Lady Godiva stand-in called Muriel Mellerup parades through the city naked on the back of the horse. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=17163 - click here for some hot black and white action.


FA Cup finals have rarely been captivating occaisions in recent years, but if Coventry do nothing else, they
will still have played their part in one of the most memorable Cup finals ever (it got the nod from John Motson and he's been to a few).



I didn't have to go too far to get the views of an away fan this week. Despite a love for the red half of North London which grows by the year, my brother has been a Coventry supporter ever since he first struck his eyes on the angelic face of Steve Ogrizovic. His words below sum up the experience of your average Sky Bluer:

Being a Coventry fan has cost me two things…money and pain. For what felt like eternity we proudly hung onto our Premier League status but ever since then have struggled badly. On the whole Cov fans are an extremely cynical bunch. With only one major honour in our history we are used to mediocrity, and expect little else. Since our relegation to the Championship these meagre expectations have fallen even further, with the prospect of administration and League One football rearing their ugly heads but still we survive.

Dropping down another division is viewed as the potential death of the club, but the manner in which bitter rivals Leicester (who have usurped Villa as our most hated team because we never play Villa anymore) have bounced back makes us wonder. Chris Coleman still has the backing of the fans, but with players struggling for form and Keiren Westwood, our star goalkeeper, allegedly leaving in January, Coleman has a tough job getting anything from a season that seems to be slipping through our fingers


As mentioned above, if you're going to spend a lot of your time scrapping about at the bottom end of the Championship, you better have a decent goalie to lessen the burden. Now in his second season at the Ricoh Arena, Westwood has been close to ever-present since his arrival and is one of the few bright sparks in a team lacking in funds and genuine talents. At only 23 years of age, he's already been called up to the Republic of Ireland squad and is now supposedly fancied by a number of Premiership clubs. If he's on top form tomorrow, the Hoops will have to work extra hard for goals.

Jim Magilton is turning into the Harry Redknapp of the Championship with the amount of wheeler-dealering (?) he has done in the last three weeks. Most of the movement in and out of Loftus Road has been in the form of loans and short-term ones at that, so Rangers fans aren't seeing the green shots of an Abrahamovich-style splurge, but the deals could be of value to the club all the same.

The latest move is from Loftus Road to Elland as winger Hogan Ephraim, who has been missing for most of this season with an ankle injury, heads north to current League One toppers Leeds United. It's a one month deal and he can't play in the FA Cup for Leeds this weekend. Magilton commented on how much this can help Ephraim in allowing him enough competitive football to recover fully following his lay-off. Whilst it does demonstrate that the player wasn't in the manager's immediate first-team plans, to play in a successful team with a relatively high standard of players could be a massive boost for Ephraim and as the manager also said, he could provide much stronger competition for a starting place on his return.

Better that than playing in the very infrequent reserve matches. QPR had to organise a reserve friendly with Crystal Palace on Tuesday to make up for the lack of competitive fixtures until December. The side lost 5-3 with reserve manager Keith Ryan bemoaning the absence of professional linesmen. A number of potential first-teamers played. Defenders Peter Ramage, Damion Stewart and Fitz Hall all got a 65 minute run-out, Gary Borrowdale and Ephraim lasted 75 minutes and Matteo Alberti, Alessandro Pellicori and Patrick Agyemang played the whole game, with the 'Pelican' scoring twice (substitute Sam Bewick provided Ranger's other goal).

One player who may soon need a few reserve games is Lee Cook. Another tricky winger, Cook hasn't featured all season for QPR due to a serious knee injury and he has been slowly on the road to recovery. He is now stepping up his rehabilitation out of the gym and running with the first team and said this week that he is well on target for his scheduled return date of Christmas.

There has been further excitement in a number of papers at the prospect of youngster Raheem Sterling departing QPR. The favourites for his signature are constantly shifting, from Liverpool (he went to a game there) to Manchester City (they will buy anyone) to now Arsenal (he maybe met with Liam Brady). There could be some truth in it of course and Arsenal certainly have a better track record of developing young players, though they can't find first-team places for most of their current crop of kids. QPR would get £750,000 initially plus further incentives should he be successful with the Gunners according to the Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2744570/Sterling-effort-from-Gunners.html, so make of that what you will.

Marcus Hall won't play for Coventry in Saturday's game, he's out with a calf injury. More on Coventry and QPR's preparations to bounce back from defeat last weekend tomorrow. It could be a bumper weekend of football. After taking in what could be a surprisingly full Loftus Road on Saturday, Sunday, for those who look up a division, promises the Scouse derby and Arsenal-Chelsea, with El Classico later in the evening. Plus somewhere amongst that, there's the draw for the FA Cup third round on ITV. When Trevor Brooking or a stand-in is juggling balls in his hand, look out for number 31.

Flavio Briatore began the proceedings today which could see his ban from Formula One overturned and his future in English football settled. Well, his lawyers did anyway. Briatore himself wasn't present at a hearing of the Paris High Court today at which it was argued that the ruling, which expelled Briatore from F1 for his involvement in a race-fixing scandal, was 'illegal' and that the outcome had been decided prior to the hearing.

Briatore's legal challenge centred on three arguments. Firstly, it was felt the severity of Briatore's punishment was the result not of any misdeamenour but because of his strained relationship with the then FIA president Max Mosley. Secondly, Briatore's lawyers insisted that World Motor Sport Council did not have the authority to impose an indefinite penalty on Briatore. Thirdly, they argued that the whole procedure was flawed because it relied on the testimony of an anonymous witness.

Briatore's lawyer Phillipe Ouakrat said, "Briatore wants to recover his freedom and be able to do what he wants.

"When he decided to leave Renault, he took moral responsibility for the mistake, but he doesn't want to be penalised for something he is not responsible for."

Representatives for the FIA also spoke before the Court, arguing that the FIA had to ensure the security of its events and that Briatore had "put other people's security at risk."

The all-important decision for Briatore, with potential ramifications for his continued ownership of QPR, will not be made until Jan 5. The Football League previously said they would not make any decision on Briatore under the 'Fit and Proper Persons Test' until after the result of his appeal so QPR fans will have to wait until the New Year for any idea on whether Flavio is sticking around.

At the same time, manager Jim Magilton indicated that the continuing Briatore saga is firmly separate from the football team in his mind and will not impact on the team's form, even if he should be banned from the club. Magilton told the Evening Standard, "I have been assured it is business as usual whatever happens." He also said he is happy to continue in his job at QPR and contrary to rumours about the overbearing influence of the Board, he is left to get on with it.

One task he has, according to numerous sources, is to keep QPR youth star Raheem Sterling (pictured above) at the club. Sterling is a 14-year old striker who has appeared for Ranger's U18 team and England U16s. Despite his young age, a number of papers have been eager to talk up the boy's talent and his attractiveness to a number of Premiership clubs, including supposedly both Manchester clubs, Arsenal and Liverpool.

The Mirror went so far as to suggest Mark Hughes was prepared to offer QPR two fringe players (unnamed) and £1 million to secure the youngster: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Manchester-City-to-swap-pair-of-stars-for-QPR-whizzkid-Raheem-Sterling-article216879.html. They then reported yesterday that the youngster has asked to leave Rangers: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Manchester-City-set-to-swoop-for-QPR-wonderkid-Sterling-article230917.html.

Should it be the player's will, there are probably few who would deny a genuine talent his right to develop with one of the best teams in the country, though it could be questioned how much room there will be for him in future Manchester City squads. What is noticeably missing from most of the breathless reports about this 14-year old boy is what would be in his best interests. Hopefully the people around him have some idea about that.