Third time lucky for QPR stage fright? – Full Match Preview QPR will make a third attempt to do themselves justice on national television this season on Tuesday lunch time when they travel up the M1 and M6 to face Coventry City live on Sky.

Coventry (6th) v QPR (1st)

Npower Championship >>> Tuesday, December 28, 2010 >>> Kick off 12.15pm >>> Ricoh Arena, Coventry >>> Live on Sky Sports 1

Much to the surprise, and I sensed disappointment, of my well paid driving instructor I managed to pass my test at the first time of asking with just four minors. All four came in the car park at the test centre at the end of the examination as I tried, and failed, and tried again, and failed again, to park the car in a bay. Before attempting it for a third time the lady examiner stopped me, turned the car off, told me to just pull forward into parking spaces when I went to Tesco and signed the form off as a pass.

Full of the joys of spring and feeling as unbeatable as every other 17 year old out there I set sail onto the open road by myself with only that one piece of advice about car park usage to guide me. The way people are taught to drive in this country is a dangerous shambles. How is it possibly safe for somebody who has never driven at night, in heavy rain, in ice and snow or on a motorway to suddenly be legally permitted to do so by themselves just because they can rattle round the middle of Scunthorpe on a clear sunny day at 30 miles per hour? It’s ludicrous. I went home on the motorway from my examination and had never experienced anything like it. It’s wonder I didn’t kill anybody, it’s a wonder every new driver doesn’t kill somebody.

Within a couple of weeks of passing I was bringing Northern the Elder back from a Scunthorpe United match at Glanford Park and heading into the village of Broughton where my parents live, and where he had parked his car. En route we came up behind an ice cream truck on a windy country road and, wrongly, sensing the former police advanced driving instructor in my passenger seat was growing impatient with sitting behind it at 30 miles per hour I decided to pull out and overtake it. Inevitably halfway through the move, a long drawn out affair in a 1.2 litre Vauxhall Corsa (not my words Lyn, the words of Top Gear magazine), a very high powered BMW came towards us in the opposite direction at very high speed. High powered BMWs will do that to you if you overtake ice cream trucks on blind corners.

If ever there was a time for panic that was it - we were literally seconds from death and the driver in the oncoming car had already given up hope of survival and taken his hands off the wheel to begin praying for his soul – or whatever would be left of his soul after I’d driven my hot hatch back through the middle of his chest.

Northern the Elder simply sat there, sighed a little, and said nonchalantly “well son, I feared something like this might happen.” Was he resigned to his fate? Not a bit of it. There followed a series of barked instructions. “BRAKE. HARD LEFT. ACCELERATE. POWER.” And before I knew it we were back in the correct lane – still behind the bastard ice cream truck, but alive against the odds. That’s the value of experience for you. He later, I mean years later when he felt my confidence could take it, admitted that he had absolutely shit himself at the time and felt certain he was about to die. But at the time he remained calm, to the point of coming across as bored, and immediately corrected the problem with a minimum of fuss and panic. He sadly died two seasons ago, you can read more about the truly amazing man himself here, but he assured me on his death bed that my driving hadn’t had too much to do with it.

Two straight defeats should, in all likelihood, be a time to at least worry, if not quite panic. The Watford and Leeds debacles were both very QPR-like in its execution and start ed to threaten a bit of a collapse - the more pessimistic message board posters quickly embarked on an "I thought something like this might happen" episode of their own. But in Neil Warnock we have the Championship version of Stuart Sykes, and within a week of the comprehensive stuffing by Leeds at Elland Road he had QPR back on the right track, firing on all cylinders, and ramming four goals through a Swansea team usually renowned for its strength in defence.

Now for a third attempt this season at conquering QPR's long term stage fright when screened live on television.

Five minutes on Coventry

Recent History:Coventry have, for some time now, been a classic case study in what not to do when running a football club. In little over a decade the club has gone from being one of the longest serving in the top flight (albeit frequently staying up only by the skin of their teeth), playing in a city centre stadium with the ability to unearth talent such as Craig Bellamy and Darren Huckerby from lower divisions and reserve sides, and wheel and deal effectively for players like Dion Dublin and Robbie Keane.

Preparing for this season they looked absolutely ripe to join the ever growing list of former Premiership sides plunging into League One and beyond. They are a club playing in a soulless stadium that regularly boasts more than 10,000 empty seats for home matches and has all the atmosphere of an old oil drum. They don’t own that ground, and don’t make the required average attendance to break even on the rent, so they effectively lose money every time they play at home. They have no assets other than their players, because they don’t own the ground, and the attempt to both stay afloat and rectify this situation by purchasing the ground for themselves means that whenever they do get a good player or two they are immediately sold to the highest bidder and the money swallowed up – Scott Dann, Dan Fox, Leon Best and Gary McSheffrey have all been moved on swiftly in recent times.

So this is a club where it’s nigh on impossible to build a decent team, because any good players found are sold before they can be built around, and actually suffers through playing its home games where it does because firstly it costs them money to do so and secondly the atmosphere and noise is so non-existent it almost benefits the away sides. Except for the strange horn that sounds like a big door closing that tends to sound every 20 minutes or so, seemingly to wake up those that have nodded off, you could hear a pin drop in this very worst example of new stadia regardless of the circumstances surrounding the game. You will however hear the weedy man in the suit scream “It’s time to say good afternoon…. TO THE TESCO STAND” which may be followed by two or three people clapping and lots and lots of people cringing. “Good afternoon……. TO THE COVENTRY EVENING TELEGRAPH STAND.” And people wonder why I’m apprehensive about QPR ever moving to a new stadium.

Coventry were finally relegated from the Premiership in 2001 after 34 years in the top flight – only Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal had been there for longer although Coventry’s daring escapes from the drop seemed to come later and in more dramatic fashion with each passing year so it was inevitable they would one day be caught out.

Their attempts to return over the decade since then have been hampered by the situation I have outlined above, coupled with an ability to appoint lousy managers to lead them. Former players Roland Nilsson and Gary McAllister lasted barely a year each, long enough to piss away their parachute payments so crucial to clubs relegated from the top flight. The club then appointed Eric Black as manager, who had been McAllister’s assistant, and although the Scot initially did very well he was sacked after a 5-2 win against Gillingham with the board pointing to inconsistency as a thin veil over the real reason – they wanted to appoint Peter Reid as manager. Why anybody ever thinks it’s a good idea to appoint Peter Reid as manager is beyond me and Plymouth are the latest side to discover that in the modern game Reid’s outdated hang em, flog em, hurl crockery at em methods just will not cut it with modern day footballers.

Reid proved to be an ineffective, unpopular long ball merchant. Then Mickey Adams came in and proved to be an ineffective, unpopular long ball merchant. Then Iain Dowie came in and although he enjoyed notable cup success against Man Utd and Blackburn he proved to be a…. you get the picture. I always give Coventry a bit of a panning for the lack of atmosphere but in truth, if you lived in Coventry, would you want to spend £25 ever week to trek out to the edge of town and watch dire football played in an IKEA distribution centre under the guidance of this sorry list of managers?

Chris Coleman is a manager I quite like, and I thought he did a top job at Fulham, but his Coventry side was just as dire as that put together by all his predecessors and it was Coleman who had to see the likes of Dann and Fox sold from his squad inhibiting any long term plans on the pitch.

There was a collective groan across the Coventry message boards in the summer when they turned to former Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd to lead their charge. This was half admission that they are an ugly long ball side after all, and half selling their soul once and for all – an act confirmed by the disgraceful signing of Marlon King fresh from prison when the rest of football had quite rightly left the scumbag on the scrapheap.

Boothroyd, and Coventry, will point to the results achieved since. Against the odds which are stacked against any City manager Boothroyd, plucked from Colchester in the summer, has the Sky Blues knocking around the play offs. They’re hideous to watch – physical brutality mixed with aerial bombardment – but Boothroyd has never professed to play in any other way and his promotion with Watford could yet be followed up with a return to the top flight for City this season. They’ll win few friends, and you wouldn’t want to pay to watch them, but this is their best season results wise for the best part of a decade.

Manager: We may all moan about the standard of the BBC’s ‘Football League Show’, but it’s a bit like complaining about the current QPR team – while criticisms may be perfectly valid, when you look at its predecessor you realise the faults you are picking with it are tiny in comparison. The Cardiff bias may be laughable, Claridge may be a mongaloid, Lizzy pretending somebody has been sober enough at 1am on Sunday morning to e-mail her something other than “show us your tits” may be irritating but compared to the ITV shambles that went before it the Football League Show is a work of pure professionalism.

ITV’s ‘The Championship’ would be rattled around the schedules on a Sunday morning, starting at any time between 8am and noon, and the feature match would always be at the ground of one of a handful of clubs that were able to be driven to by Matt Smith, in his chunky knitwear, after presenting the Five Live breakfast show. Every week one match would be picked randomly to be some sort off weird ‘special feature’ where the camera was placed at ground level and film artsy fartsy angles of the action while Gabriel Clarke read a summary in haiku. The most irritating thing about it though was the length of the programme would vary from week to week, anything between 20 and 90 minutes. Sometimes it was so long even I’d be bored of it by the end, other times they’d be so short of time they’d only show the dreaded “selection” of goals which basically meant all the action from one main game and then five seconds and one goal from the rest.

However short the programme was cut though, for some reason the producers always found the time and the need to feature an interview with Aidy Boothroyd, then of Watford. Why this was only they would be able to tell you. Highlights programmes focus on Ian Holloway, Gordon Strachan, Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and others because they know, chances are, they’re going to say something ridiculous, provocative and headline grabbing. Boothroyd does none of this. In fact when he speaks it’s like white noise to me – smarmy excuses, complaints and moans delivered in a know-all Yorkshire accent out of the corner of a permanently smirking mouth.

I dislike Boothroyd – not because television companies give him an inordinate amount of airtime for his endless streams of negative irrelevant nonsense, but because he’s successful and he shouldn’t be. The style and type of football employed by Boothroyd is absolutely revolting, literally revolting, and revolves around intimidating opponents and lumping so much ball into the danger area that even strikers as limited as Clive Platt, one of numerous players bought by Boothroyd for his physique rather than any talent he may have hidden away in his substantial frame, cannot help but score every now and again.

But he’s like a modern day Dave Bassett – he talks constantly about nothing of any relevance or consequence, and his teams play football from the dark ages, but nobody can argue with his results. At Watford he took over a side on the slide with next to no money whatsoever as an unknown coach and within 18 months he had promoted them to the Premiership. His Colchester last season was unattractive but competitive and now he has a Coventry side in the play offs despite the set up at the Ricoh Arena, as already discussed, being set up for almost certain failure.

A thoroughly dislikeable man football wise, somebody any purist would be desperate to fail – but a manager for whom success seems to come naturally. Bastard.

Three to watch: I like to think that LoftforWords tries whenever it can to be a little bit original. I always try to make an effort in the ‘Three to Watch’ section to focus on at least one or two players we’re about to face who people may not have considered important, or newsworthy, or a threat to us. Today though I’m going to allow myself to go for the obvious choice to start with – and if you’ve grown tired and weary of high and mighty rants about the rights and wrongs of the Marlon King situation then I’d advise you skip the next few paragraphs and read about Roy Wegerle instead.

Marlon King is the scum of the earth. This has been proven in a court of law on 14 different occasions. If Marlon King isn’t stealing your car then he’s punching your girlfriend straight in the face for rejecting his advances. Or, if he’s feeling particularly frisky and your girlfriend is especially determined and reluctant, he may chase her through the streets of the West End wielding a belt buckle. When found engaging in such behaviour Marlon will plead not guilty, say it was mistaken identity, tell radio programmes that his whole life is one long story of a hard done to victim of the system. When he’s in jail, which he is frequently, he’ll employ a monosyllabic caveman posing as an agent to do that for him. This is a man, and I use that term loosely, who should be, at best, breaking rocks in his spare time or, preferably, kept in a cage away from the other reasonable human beings who know how to behave.

I’ve heard the liberal views about prison, I’ve heard about rehabilitation being preferable to punishment, I’ve heard all about second chances and redemption and all the rest of it but for me a man with 14 previous convictions for offences ranging from thieving cars to smacking innocent women in the face should be given up on. Society should abandon him, find him a menial task away from everybody else and leave him to do it with some bread and water until he does us the favour of keeling over for good. This is the kind of person a society, civilised or otherwise, can well do without.

Tragically though Marlon King is a man with footballing ability, and in this twisted world in which we live in that covers for a multitude of sins. And Marlon King has a multitude of sins to cover. Aidy Boothroyd says signing King following his release from an 18 month prison sentence was like getting a £5m player for free, and that’s really all that matters to Boothroyd and, it seems, to Coventry. Boothroyd says King has never given him a moment of trouble – missing the point that if he had a clunge King would have probably smacked him in the face had he been refused an opportunity to poke around in it.

I went on the record in the summer saying that if the horrifying rumours linking QPR with a move for this waste off flesh were to materialise into some sort of truth then my 20 years of following Rangers home and away without fail would come to an abrupt end. I just couldn’t bring myself to support such a person. And I won’t be there on Tuesday either. For once I’m grateful to Sky for shifting a match so I don’t have to compromise my morals by handing over money that would indirectly go into the pocket of a thoroughly loathsome moron.

Will he score against us? Absolutely. I have little doubt in my mind – because life and football are like that. You can get ten years for fraud, but be out in eight months and playing football again after breaking a woman’s nose in a nightclub because she didn’t “know who I am”. But even when the inevitable happens there’ll be a big part of me glad that QPR, when in need of a striker in the summer, didn’t compromise themselves and sell the name of the club down the river for the sake of a few goals from somebody who I promise you I would not spare one drop of piss as he burned to death.

And breathe. Who else? Well Boothroyd also signed Lee Carsley in the summer when the veteran central midfielder was released on a free transfer from Birmingham. To be honest I was surprised Carsley was still able to command a club so high up the league ladder, he'd looked well past his sell by date in this division two seasons ago with Birmingham and has only got older and slower since then, but Ian Holloway always used to praise the roll of the piano carriers as well as the musicians and we have seen ourselves this season with Shaun Derry the value of having an experienced old head at the heart of a developing team. Carsley is not pretty to watch, but he breaks things up and niggles players and disrupts opponents and, most importantly, wins the second ball when it drops.

The one player Coventry have who I would mark down as being really genuinely high quality is goalkeeper Keiren Westwood who was, by all accounts, in flying form at Cardiff at the weekend once again. Boothroyd initially fell out with the Irish international earlier this season - his contract ends at the end of this season and he has so far refused to sign a new one - but to drop him would have been cutting off his nose to spite his face so it was no surprise when 'clear the air' talks were held in September. Westwood is very much like our own Paddy Kenny, his fellow Republic of Ireland international. His realtively small 6ft 2ins frame may not mark him out as a potential goalkeeping star but his bravery and shot stopping is second to none. He was named in the division's team of the year in 2009/10, and swept the board at Coventry's Player of the Year awards last season. A product of the Man City academy, picked up by Cov from Carlisle United, he is sure to attract interest from higher up the league ladder as his deal winds down. Celtic have already shown an interest, but it would be a tragic waste of a supreme young talent if he ended up in the dire SPL.

Links >>> Coventry Official Website >>> Coventry Message Board >>> Travel Guide

History

Recent Meetings: The last meeting between these two sides was at the Ricoh Arena in February, and it says something for the farce that QPR were engulfed in by that stage that even somebody like myself, who prides himself on QPR knowledge and trivia, have had to get the programmes out and double check just who was in charge of Rangers that afternoon. It was actually Mick Harford, just before Neil Warnock’s arrival, and a mixture of lack of ability and bad luck cost us anything against an equally dismal Coventry side on the day. The home side opened the scoring after ten minutes when Deegan’s low drive deflected past the already committed Carl Ikeme and although QPR showed more application than they had for several weeks that was more than enough to seal all three points.

Coventry: Westwood 8, Wright 5, Barnett 6, Wood 6, Cranie 6, Baker 5,Deegan 6, Clingan 5, McIndoe 6, Eastwood 4, Morrison 5 (Sears 67, 5)

Subs Not Used: Konstantopoulos, Hussey, Walker, Grandison, Jeffers

Booked: Wright (foul), Cranie (foul)

Goals: Deegan 10 (assisted Morrison)

QPR: Ikeme 5, Ramage 4, Stewart 5, Gorkss 6, Hill 5, Buzsaky 5 (Taarabt 67, 5), Connolly 6, Faurlin 5, Cook 6, Simpson 6, Priskin 5 (German 55, 6)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Vine, Quashie, Balanta, Borrowdale

Booked: Connolly (foul), Faurlin (dissent), Gorkss (foul)

Earlier in the season QPR had been absolutely superb, comprehensively outclassing and outplaying a dire visiting side and somehow failing to win. This was all just before the infamous implosion of Jim Magilton’s reign and for half an hour in the second half it was Rangers at their absolute very best. Coventry scored early when Leon Best rose above Matt Connolly to send a header looping into the net but it was all Rangers from that point on and goals from Jay Simpson and then Akos Buzsaky were nothing more than the hosts deserved. Coventry had engaged in some cynical time wasting and fouling tactics when in front and level in the game and had captain Stephen Wright sent off late on for the second time in as many meetings at Loftus Road – he lengthened the subsequent ban by throwing his armband at the referee on the way off. But Coventry started to hurry up a bit after Buzsaky had scored and they got the equaliser their play scarcely deserved when more rank defending allowed Richard Wood to steal in for an equaliser from a free kick eight minutes from time.

QPR: Cerny 6, Leigertwood 6, Hall 5, Connolly 5, Borrowdale 7, Watson 8, Faurlin 9, Buzsaky 6, Taarabt 8 (Reid 80, -), Routledge 7, Simpson 7

Subs Not Used: McWeeney, Ramage, Agyemang, Pellicori, Gorkss, Williams

Goals: Simpson 35 (assisted Faurlin), Buzsaky 69 (unassisted)

Coventry: Westwood 7, Wright 6, Wood 6, Barnett 6, Van Aanholt 7 (Clarke 72, 6), Bell 6 (Eastwood 74, 6),Gunnarsson 5 (Madine 80, -), Cork 6, McIndoe 6, Morrison 6, Best 7

Subs Not Used: Ireland, McPake, Cranie, Grandison

Sent Off: Wright (two bookings)

Booked: Wood (foul), Van Aanholt (foul), Westwood (time wasting), Cork (foul), Wright (foul), Wright (foul)

Goals: Best 16 (assisted Van Aarnholt), Wood 81 (assisted McIndoe)

Head to Head >>> Coventry wins 44 >>> Draws 28 >>> QPR wins 34

Previous Results

2009/10 Coventry 1 QPR 0

2009/10 QPR 2 Coventry 2 (Simpson, Buzsaky)

2008/09 QPR 1 Coventry 1 (Blackstock)

2008/09 Coventry 1 QPR 0

2007/08 Coventry 0 QPR 0

2007/08 QPR 1 Coventry 2 (Buzsaky)

2006/07 Coventry 0 QPR 1 (Smith)

2006/07 QPR 0 Coventry 1

2005/06 QPR 0 Coventry 1

2005/06 Coventry 3 QPR 0

2004/05 Coventry 1 QPR 2 (Cureton, Santos)

2004/05 QPR 4 Coventry 1 (Cureton 3, Furlong)

1995/96 Coventry 1 QPR 0

1995/96 QPR 1 Coventry 1 (Barker)

1994/95 Coventry 0 QPR 1 (Sinclair)

1994/95 QPR 2 Coventry 2 (Penrice)

1993/94 Coventry 0 QPR 1 (White)

1993/94 QPR 5 Coventry 1 (Allen 2, Barker, Ferdinand, Impey)

1992/93 QPR 2 Coventry 0 (Peacock, Pearce og)

1992/93 Coventry 0 QPR 1 (Impey)

1991/92 Coventry 2 QPR 2 (Penrice 2)

1991/92 QPR 1 Coventry 1 (Wegerle)

1990/91 QPR 1 Coventry 0 (Ferdinand)

1990/91 Coventry 3 QPR 1 (Ferdinand)

1989/90 Coventry 1 QPR 1 (Maddix)

1989/90 QPR 1 Coventry 1 (Falco)

1988/89 Coventry 0 QPR 3 (Clarke 2, Channing)

1988/89 QPR 2 Coventry 1 (Francis, Falco)

1987/88 Coventry 0 QPR 0

1987/88 QPR 1 Coventry 2 (Falco)

1986/87 Coventry 4 QPR 1 (Bannister)

1986/87 QPR 3 Coventry 1 (Byrne, Bannister, Allen)

1985/86 Coventry 2 QPR 1 (Byrne)

1985/86 QPR 0 Coventry 2

1984/85 Coventry 3 QPR 0

1984/85 QPR 2 Coventry 1 (Stainrod 2)

1983/84 QPR 2 Coventry 1 (Stainrod, Allen)

1983/84 Coventry 1 QPR 0

Played for both: Roy Wegerle

QPR 1990-1992 >>> Coventry 1992-1995

To wear the number ten shirt for Queens Park Rangers, you have to have that little something extra, something that made you stand out from the rest. I am unfortunately not old enough or lucky enough to remember Rodney Marsh or Stan Bowles donning the hoops so growing up it was a different number ten that I idolised, one Roy Wegerle.

Although born in Pretoria South Africa, it was in the US where Roy began his footballing career at the University of South Florida. His goal scoring exploits at that level-where he still holds the record for goals scored in one season, were soon noticed by teams in the NASL and was drafted by Tampa Bay Rowdies. He scored nine goals and made seventeen assists that season but it was to be the last for Tampa Bay as the leagued folded. Luckily for Roy his talents were noticed by Tampa coach Rodney Marsh who used his contacts to get him trails in England, proclaiming him to be a future superstar.

QPR actually declined to take Wegerle and it was eventually rivals Chelsea who signed the striker in 1986. Things never really got going at Stamford Bridge though and after a brief loan stint at Swindon, Wegerle signed for Luton Town. It took time for him to settle at Kenilworth Road but his wonderful skill and clever eye for goal soon turned them round and finished as their top scorer. Soon First Division scouts were hovering and with Luton needing the money it was Queens Park Rangers who splashed out a record £1million to bring him to W12. It wasn’t before long the R’s sensed they had a star on their hands, with Ray Wilkins pulling the strings in midfield, Roy had the freedom to express himself and although the goals struggled to come at first his overall play was getting fans off their seats.

The 1990-91 season, his first full campaign with the R’s, belonged to Roy Wegerle. It started with a goal on the opening day against Nottingham Forest, and by the tenth match of the season Wegerle already had nine goals to his name. He would go on to finish as Rangers’ Player of the Season having scored 18 in total.

There are so many moments you can pick out from that season but the one that I can still watch and get excited about was the goal that won ITV’s goal of the season that year. Rangers were struggling again and in the middle of an awful injury crisis as they travelled to Leeds with new keeper Jan Stejskal making his debut between the sticks. We were soon 2-0 down and looked all set for another defeat. Most of the QPR fans in the stadium were resigned to their fate and a few of the players looked like they had given up as well.

Ray Wilkins got us back in the game before half time and then the moment came. Wegerle got the ball out on the right wing and with very little support the danger was zero. Wegerle got the ball under control with a nice shimmy left the first two players looking stupid and then slipped the ball between David Batty's legs, strolled past two more challenges then slipped the ball onto his right foot and majestically placed it into the bottom corner. It’s a goal I’ve watched hundreds of times and it gets better every time, just watch it again link.

The usual reaction of the Elland Road faithful to such an event is a violent one, and a visiting spectator could be forgiven for having mixed feelings as the ball hits the net as they wonder how they might cross the car park safely after the match. On that day, after that goal, even the Leeds fans were applauding.

That summer Gerry Francis replaced Don Howe as manager and despite glimpses of his magic, Wegerle struggled to fit into Francis workmanlike style of play and with the emergence of Les Ferdinand was sold to Blackburn Rovers in March 1992. He didn’t last long at Ewood Park though and joined Coventry City just six months later. And although he was back among the goals, his three year spell with the Sky Blues was blighted by injuries and was never quite the same player we’d seen at Loftus Road.

Soon after Roy went back to America to play in the MLS with Colorado Rapids and DC United before retiring in 1998. He has since tried his hand at another sport, golf and been seen as a pundit on US TV. My all time favourite player, I still have the 1990 Rangers shirt and wear it most Thursday nights down my local 5-a-side, although I don’t think I do it the same justice. – Ashleigh Rose

Links >>> Coventry 1 QPR 0 Match Report >>> QPR 2 Coventry 2 Match Report

This Tuesday

Elsewhere: Games continue to fall by the wayside because of the weather with Doncaster's match against Ipswich already the victim of a frozen pitch. The game of the day is probably a toss up between Watford and Cardiff at Vicarage Road, or Leeds versus Portsmouth in deepest darkest Yorkshire. The real eye catching fixture is the hotly contested East Midlands derby between Derby and Nottingham Forest, although that game has been bumped back to Wednesday evening - despite not being screened live on television. Resurgent Hull face Reading at home in a clash between two form sides, at the bottom Middlesbrough go to bottom side Preston in a game they dare not lose while Scunthorpe go to Burnley and Palace to Bristol City.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick is the man in charge of this game. He has been on the league list for the last five seasons and in that time has refereed QPR on six occasions during which we have only lost once. There have been plenty of memorable moments and controversy in the games he has taken charged of involving the Super Hoops, for more details click here. Last season he refereed two games on this ground, against Bristol City and Sheff Wed, and both finished 1-1.

Form

Coventry: The Sky Blues' form this season has been impossible to really pin down. They don't draw many, just four so far, so it's either wins or defeats and there is no real pattern tpo their six victories and four defeats at home, four wins and five defeats away. They come into this match on a run of three without a win, prior to that they had won three on the spin, and prior to that they lost three consecutive games. The first goal here could be crucial - Coventry have the worst record for gaining points from losing positions of any team in the Championship. City have struggled to score of late, just two goals in four games, and their 17 home goals is the worst total in the top eight apart from Swansea. Hope for QPR is provided in the shape of Norwich, Preston, Cardiff and Leeds who have all won on this ground already this year but City have beaten Middlesbrough, Burnley, Portsmouth and Derby at home this season among others. Aidy Boothroyd has two wins and a draw against QPR to his name from four previous contests with Watford.

QPR: Rangers have lost just once away from home this season, but have struggled on this ground since Coventry moved from Highfield Road. The R's have only won once in five visits to the Ricoh Arena and the Jimmy Smith goal that sealed all three points in 2006 is the only goal we have scored here. Prior to the move Rangers could normally count on a decent return from trips to this part of the world - five wins and three draws from their previous ten visits stretching back into the 1980s when these sides were top flight mainstays. Although Neil Warnock's men have lost only once on their travels this season, last time out at Leeds, it is now five games since they registered an away win after a run of draws. The last success was at Crystal Palace in October, one of four wins on the road achieved so far. Rangers have scored 26 goals in the second half of matches this season compared to 14 in the first half - a trend that continued against Swansea at Loftus Road on Saturday - 12 of those goals have come in the final quarter of an hour.

Prediction: As per usual my prediction for the Swansea home match was spot on the money - 0-0. For what it’s worth I envisage another draw here. Coventry’s tactics, I promise you now, will be to kick Adel Taarabt, Alejandro Faurlin, Tommy Smith and others and essentially try to bully and intimidate QPR out of possession at which point they will hoof the ball down the field and try to turn the QPR defence around and batter them in the air. QPR don’t tend to respond well to this sort of intimidation, especially away from home, in the cold, live on the television, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re beaten. However, in what I expect will be a dire match that I cannot for the life of me explain why it has been picked by Sky TV for broadcast not once but twice in a month, I would hope we’ll have enough about us to escape with a draw. Players like Shaun Derry, Kaspars Gorkss, Heidar Helguson, Rob Hulse, Clint Hill and others will be vital – their strength and presence will need to be asserted to the maximum to give the rest of our team some kind of platform to play on.

12/5 the draw with Bet Fred, and if you can get a price on more than 4.5 cards in the game then take it.

Photo: Action Images

devonranger added 17:11 - Dec 27 another top read clive,tuesdays game wont be a classic but gorks and connolly play the long high ball better than when its played fast and on the deck,so its a rangers win for me 0-2,even on sky(fingers crossed) happy new year to you and all your readers.
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JB007007 added 17:38 - Dec 27 Wegerle was one of my heroes too. Everyone must remember the Arsenal game when Seaman came back to Loftus Road for the first time. Wegerle scored a penalty past him at the loft end and then just into the second half he tried a Beckham-Wimbledon effort from the half way line after spotting Seaman off his line. What a shame it came off the crossbar. I also remember a bit a individual skill at LR against Chelsea when he received a long cross field ball by the touch line. How he brought the thing down and past an opponent in one movement was as good as you will ever ever see. I dislike scummy Coventry as well and I think everyone will see why we really are top tomorrow.

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hoops123 added 19:41 - Dec 27 Great read Clive as always. Your dislike of all things Coventry is palpable. Great, if slightly unexpected win against Swansea. You have to wonder how the game might have panned out without the sending offs. Teams are now looking to pressurise Derry and Faurlin so we need to ensure assistance from Tarrabt and Smith is provided. Smith certainly seems a touch lightweight to me and needs to impose himself more. Despite my eternal pessimism, I fancy us to beat Coventry tomorrow but come unstuck at Norwich. Bristol should also be winable, particularly as their form has dropped off. Maddix was always a personal fauvorite of mine. I remember Mark Hughes commenting on how difficult it was playing against him. First class man marker. Happy new year to one and all, lets hope 2011 is finally our year.

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DesertBoot added 21:23 - Dec 27 Great report again Clive. I'm hoping for a performance tomorrow that sees off comments from my mates like "how the hell are you top?" and "what's all the fuss about?".
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jonqpr added 22:35 - Dec 27 ...........i promise u i would not spare one drop of piss if he burned to death......... lol qoute of the season clive . i agree marlon king is scum.
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Rs4life added 04:53 - Dec 28 Great Stuff Clive And completely agree with you DesertBoot
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gazza1 added 10:48 - Dec 28 Ah dear old Stuart Norf.....great man - still remember having laughs with him about 'our Lee'.
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qprdan added 11:17 - Dec 28 As ever, great read, Im staying up to watch the game online tonight, I am still knackered from the 4 am kick off(New Zealand time) the other night but was well worth it, hope the crowd get stuck into King!! Give him a boo from me... Were Queens Park Rangers...were top of the league....and so on...
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Doughnut added 11:38 - Dec 28 If we can stuff the team that let him back into football then tooday will be a double celebration. If Clint sorts him it'll make my day!
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NorwayRanger16 added 11:53 - Dec 28 Excelent as always Clive! Love the way you open your preview with a story, nice touch. Thanks for the link re the article about Northern the Elder , very moving and well written, must have been a fantastic relationship. QPR are once agian screened live in Norway (third of the last four games!), it's nice beiong top, reminds me of Newcastle's tv monopoly last season. Heres to hoping the Sky curse is overturned today, come on you R's! I'll be in London for the return fixture, can't wait!!! Going for a double against Coventry, a victory not only for QPR but football as well.

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