QPR face ghosts of Hasselbaink past — Preview Wednesday, 1st Feb 2017 11:56 by Clive Whittingham QPR are on the road up to the North East this evening, to face a Newcastle side which tore them a new arse at Loftus Road earlier this season. A match that has had profound effects on the direction of the club. Newcastle (19-1-7, LDWWWL, 2nd) v QPR (9-6-13, WWLWDL, 17th)Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Wednesday February 1, 2017 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather — Cool, cloudy, dry (although we said that on Saturday) >>> St James’ Park, Newcastle A very typical QPR January then. Half a dozen players in, twice that out either permanently or on loan, and is the squad really that much better or worse than it was when we started? Is Matt Smith an improvement on Seb Polter? Luke Freeman on Tjaronn Chery? Whether they are or aren’t will become clear in time, but one thing is for certain — this amount of upheaval in the middle of the season, in a month when it’s notoriously difficult and expensive to secure quality players, is difficult to pull off and shows that something has clearly gone wrong. You only need to look at the QPR marketing material for new shirts and season tickets to know that Polter and Chery, in particular, leaving in January was not in the grand plan. We knew that anyway, as we changed the manager in November. This is quite an apt fixture to have immediately after the transfer window carve up, being the return from the 6-0 humiliation at Loftus Road — a record league defeat — earlier in the campaign. A game that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was never able to, nor likely to, recover from. As we said in the match report at the time: you don’t lose 6-0 at home. Though Hasselbaink’s football wasn’t great (dreadful, in fact) and while he wasn’t exactly the people’s champion, the mood towards him was fairly conciliatory prior to that match in my memory. There’d been poor home games against Blackburn and Preston, but Rangers had already won twice on the road in August and beaten Leeds 3-0 at home. A fans forum the week before had passed off with little incident or complaint — Hasselbaink’s “still rolling” joke had actually been in response to a question about whether his contract might be extended. And then Newcastle turned up. Six goals, two Alex Smithies saves, two off the woodwork, one disallowed. It was an absolute carve up. It could have been even worse. I see Johnjo Shelvey in my nightmares, skipping uncheked through the midfield, dropping racist comments. I’d seen nothing like it since that memorable family Christmas when Harry Redknapp tried to combat the Suarez-Sturridge-Sterling front three with Stephane Mbia and Samba Diakite as two deep-lying midfielders. Rangers were 3-0 down almost immediately and quickly made the decision that, game gone, damage needed to be limited — Shaun Derry was introduced and the shop was shut. You don’t lose 6-0 at home. Hasselbaink did nothing to prevent further damage and was lucky not to go for ten. He burnt his remaining credit with the club, the supporters and the board, in one disastrous 90 minutes. He was on borrowed time from that moment. Given that it’s led to another change of manager, another complete overhaul of the squad, another apparent change in tack — having shopped for cheap players in Europe we’re now bombing them all out and replacing them with English players who “know the Championship” and “cold Tuesday night in Barnsley” and… It’s had a profound effect which will continue to be felt through Ian Holloway’s reign and into that of whoever follows him. Tonight probably won’t go a lot better, although the bar for that is quite low. Time will tell whether the sweeping changes that were triggered by that one 90 minutes stand us in any better stead moving forwards. Links >>> Ferdinand’s emphatic comeback — History >>> Newcastle still on course — Interview >>> Robinson gets Newcastle trip — Referee Jan Stejskal and stuff. WednesdayTeam News: Grant Hall injured his ankle at the weekend, removing the potential safety guard from the front of the back four which would have come in useful in the first meeting. Sean Goss is available for a debut if we fancy heaving the lad in at the deep end, and Luke Freeman has also travelled but the deadline day acquisitions Matt Smith and Ravel Morrison are unavailable. Jack Robinson is permanently knacked. Newcastle top scorer Dwight Gayle has typhoid. Nine changes were made for the cup defeat at Oxford and, given they lost 3-0, they’re likely to all be switched straight back. Like Stalin’s Russia, things are getting better and better every day at Ipswich who went out in the freezing cold on a Tuesday night to see Derby Sheep shit on their heads — 3-0. The Seventh Annual Neil Warnock Farewell Tour beat Preston Knob End 3-0, Leddersford lost 3-0 to Brentford having bought their best striker — a result which has sparked Steve Bruce into action, signing a further five strikers and an extra large kebab with garlic sauce. The greatest managerial change ever continues to have Birmingham City well ablaze — a 1-0 home loss to Waitrose last night extends Gianfranco Zola’s winless run to ten after Gary Rowett had halved the playing budget and lifted them to the brink of the play off places prior to getting the sack because the owners wanted their guests to be able to seek autographs on matchdays. Wolverhampton Wolves won 3-1 at Barnsley while the Wurzels completed the signing of Matt Taylor from Bristol Rovers — the first transfer between the two clubs since 1987. Bet that’s gone down well — turning over cars, looting shops, that sort of thing. Saturday Tuesday Saturday Tuesday Saturday Tuesday Wednesday — round 9,541 continues this evening with a further two fixtures as well as our own. The Champions of Europe go to the Mad Indian Chicken Farmers and Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion welcome Tarquin and Rupert for an evening of cheese and wine. Referee: Described as “insufferable” by LFW following his last date with us — a 2-1 home defeat to Wolves when James Perch got himself stupidly sent off — Tim Robinson is back in charge of a Rangers game on Wednesday at St James’ Park. Robinson, you may recall, who awarded a free kick for pushing at every single corner in that Wolves match. What fun. Anyway a full report on that and all his recent stats are available here. FormNewcastle: Newcastle have won 19 of their 27 league games this season, but with only one draw among them they’re not infallible. Wolves, Blackburn and Sheff Wed have all won to nil on this ground this season, while Rafa Benitez’s side were beaten 3-0 at League Two Oxford in the cup at the weekend. But, overall, it’s a formidable task facing Rangers with the second-placed Magpies now six points clear of Reading in third. QPR: Although the Burton Albion defeat at the weekend interrupted an unbeaten league run of four games (three wins) it followed closely on from a similar debacle against Blackburn in the FA Cup which means it’s now one win in four in all competitions going into two tough away matches this week. Rangers have lost five of their last six games on this ground, including the last three by the same 1-0 scoreline. This season they have already won five on the road (compared to just three in the league in the whole of last season) at Cardiff, Wigan, Fulham, Wolves and Reading. The R’s have won their last two away matches approaching this one. Prediction: Hard to see anything other than a proper seeing to. LFW’s Prediction: Newcastle 4-0 QPR. No Scorer. The Twitter/Instagram @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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