Swansea may have been promoted at the same time as Nottingham Forest, but they will provide a far greater test than QPR got on Saturday when the teams meet at the Liberty Stadium tonight.

Swansea City (11th) v Queens Park Rangers (7th)
Coca Cola Championship
Tuesday October 21, Kick Off 7.45pm
Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Queens Park Rangers find themselves up against another newly promoted side on Tuesday night, but the daunting trip to Swansea City will be a far cry away from Saturday’s home game with Nottingham Forest.

After a collapse in form and two week international break Colin Calderwood’s men were ideal opponents for the R’s – lacking confidence in their own ability to such an extent that even when they had the better of the play they didn’t look like they really believed they could cut through QPR and cause any serious damage. Rangers were able to get their eye back in with a 2-1 victory despite not playing anywhere near their best. I dare say 90 per cent of the teams in this league would probably have beaten us, but Iain Dowie will be hoping that the result breathes new belief into a team that seemed to have lost its way.

Rangers certainly don’t have time to dwell on the return to winning ways as tonight, just three days after the final whistle at Loftus Road, they travel down the M4 to South Wales and Swansea. It’s another one of those ‘look how far we’ve come’ moments for QPR fans, some of whom will have been unfortunate enough to be in Swansea the last team the team played here in 2001 – quite possibly the worst starting eleven in QPR’s history, Christer Warren replaced by Paul Bruce on the hour I rest my case, crashed 4-0 at the old Vetch Field in the FA Cup. On Tuesday the R’s make a first ever visit to the Liberty Stadium. Forest meanwhile have Ipswich at home with Lee Camp likely to start between the sticks after being on the bench for QPR at the weekend – who said it was a funny old game.

While Forest seem to be in very serious trouble this season Swansea are going along quite nicely and can make their way into the top six, above Rangers, should they win on Tuesday. If the visiting players were lulled into a false sense of security by Forest’s patternless play and lack of cutting edge at the weekend they will certainly need to be switched on right from the off tonight as Swansea are a talented side, with an outstanding forward, and a penchant for attractive attacking football that could expose the weak full back areas in the Rangers side.

An intriguing encounter awaits with both sides fond of passing football and looking to prove their credentials as potential promotion candidates this season.

Five minutes on Swansea City
Swansea have a recent history very similar to that of Brighton and Hove Albion – plummeting down the leagues from the very top division, enduring a few scrapes with going out of the league altogether, moving grounds, financial turmoil and then, more recently, recovery. However unlike Brighton Swansea have managed to pin down, build and move into a new stadium and consequently they’re now all set for further progress than even the Championship where they currently reside under the guidance of one of the game’s brightest young managers.

When Swansea, led wonderfully by Mamady Sidibe who is now a Premiership player of course, crushed Ian Holloway’s QPR side in 2001 they were in fact a division lower than the R’s, in the basement league. The tie was screened live by Sky Sports which gave the producers all the invitation they needed to show clips of Les Ferdinand banging goals in for QPR in the premier League and, although they had to go back a few more years, similar shots of the great Swansea sides of the late 1970s and early 1980s. With John Toshack as manager the Swans took it to the best teams in the country, beating Man Utd and Arsenal in league matches and playing in the Cup Winners Cup after success in the Welsh Cup.

The manager for that cup tie was Colin Addison, who had replaced former QPR player and manager John Hollins not long before the tie. After an ill fated mid-90s spell with former Liverpool man Jan Molby trying to cut his teeth at the Vetch the Welsh outfit frantically changed managers, getting through nine in ten years including an infamous 15 day spell in charge for Mickey Adams. Addison didn’t even make it to the end of the season despite the demolition of QPR and was replaced by player Nick Cusack in March, once of the scorers in the cup tie. He in turn was sacked in favour of experienced former Wrexham man Bryan Flynn but final league positions in the 20s and near scrapes with relegation to the Conference continued.

The turn around in the club’s fortunes really began in earnest in 2004 when QPR assistant manager Kenny Jackett headed back to Welsh routes to take over from Flynn as manager. Jackett’s arrival coincided with the construction of a new stadium and after lifting the Swans to tenth in the final weeks of the season he then led them to promotion in third place in his first full season in charge. Sadly the manager missed the promotion celebrations, he was busy at the police station getting his goalkeeper Willy Gueret out of the cells after he’d been mistaken for a pitch invader by Greater Manchester Police.

Playing in a new ground, and a new division, Swansea wasted no time in making an impact and will always have a special place in my heart for beating Bristol City 7-0 and pushing that loud mouth, no nothing twit Brian Tinnion closer to the sack. QPR fans may remember Marcus Bean and Kevin McLeod featuring in the Swans midfield at this time, sadly most people also recall Leon Knight playing in attack – a hat trick on his debut for the club not enough to eventually save him as Jackett grew tired of his antics and eventually booted his arse out to MK Dons. For so long in 2005/06 Swansea looked set for automatic promotion but they slumped to sixth and lost to Barnsley on penalties in the play off final – the LDV Vans Trophy all they had to show at the end of a gruelling season, and even that was overshadowed by a row over maverick striker Lee Trundle’s anti Cardiff flag that was on display during the after match celebrations.

Jackett’s team missed the play offs by one spot the following season and lost both the manager and star striker Trundle towards the end of campaign. Jackett resigned citing lack of support from others in the club, Trundle finally decided to try his luck at a higher level and moved to newly promoted Bristol City for £1m. Jackett was replaced by former Swans favourite Roberto Martinez and after leading them to seventh in that first half season he then set about moving the Swans onto the next level.

Martinez was best known as a player in this country for his time at Wigan as part of the ‘Three Amigos’ midfield team that also included Isidro Diaz, Jesus Seba. He also enjoyed time with Walsall and Swansea during their darkest hour but it still seemed a strange managerial appointment to me at the time. Shows what I know, Martinez has transformed Swansea. Jackett, as we know all too well ourselves, is fond of a pretty direct style of play with lots of balls played into the channels – Martinez tore all that up and promoted Swansea as champions in his first season with them playing free flowing football in fluid formations.

They are now a terrific side to watch and Martinez’s reputation is going through the roof – he said after they sealed promotion at Gillingham last season that he’d stay at Swansea for as long as they wanted him, but if he keeps picking up players like Ferrie Bodde and Jason Scotland and continues rising through the leagues at the Liberty Stadium tempting offers from elsewhere will no doubt start to flow. Swansea have made an encouraging start to life at this level while the teams that were promoted behind them, Forest and Doncaster, have struggled. A win tonight, and they could be in the top six.

Men to watch
Jason Scotland was always a bit of a standing joke in football circles during his time with Dundee United and St Johnstone – a man called Scotland, playing in Scotland, gosh who would have thought it? Still once you got past that and looked at the goal scoring record it was certainly impressive. Scotland managed 52 goals in 106 starts and 35 sub appearances. Still achievements like that in Scottish football are often overlooked because, well let’s be honest, it’s bloody awful and it was only when Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the World Cup in Germany that he started to attract attention.

Swansea took a chance on him, and were richly rewarded for their nominal fee last season when his 29 goals helped fire them to the League One championship. The question then was whether Scotland could make the step up to the new level – he came into the season on the back of six League One games without a goal, something that makes his final tally all the more remarkable, and started slowly this season with just one deflected goal at Plymouth to his name in the first ten games. However two fine strikes against high flying Wolves in Swansea’s last home game hints at more to come and he will certainly be the chief threat to QPR’s back four tonight.

Swansea’s top scorer this season is actually Dutch midfielder Ferrie Bodde, another superb Martinez signing last summer from Dutch side Den Haag. He’s a feisty character, six yellows and two reds last season and already boasting four bookings to his name so far this season, but he’s a terrific player and took his goal tally from midfield to five at the weekend with a typically fine strike against Ipswich at Portman Road. Bodde spent most of the summer being linked with moves to Derby or Nottingham Forest and he seemed pretty keen to leave at one point but in the end he stayed put and Swansea ae very glad he did – QPR face a tough task restricting his runs from deep and devastating long range shots tonight.

QPR fans may remember Mark Gower from his time with Southend, the former Tottenham trainee was a key figure in our 4-0 and 5-0 demolitions at Roots Hall in recent years and is another canny signing by Swansea ahead of their first season at this level. Leon Britton, four feet tall and about five stone soaking wet through, has come up through the leagues with Swansea and while he looks like he might struggle in a physical league like this he’s a tidy little player.

The majority of R’s travelling to South Wales tonight are unlikely to know much about the plethora of talented players Martinez has brought in from his homeland over the past 18 months. There are six Spaniards in the Swansea squad at the moment, midfielder Jordi Gomez arrived on loan in the summer from Espanyol and already has three goals to his name from only four starts and three sub appearances – including one against Cardiff in the League Cup which will no doubt make him an instant hero in this part of the world.. The wonderfully named Angel Rangel looked like a classy performer at the back when I saw them in that match.

Previous Meetings
QPR’s last trip to this part of the world was in the 2001/02 season – an FA Cup tie live on the television, the two QPR curses collided with spectacular results. Swansea were a division below Ian Holloway’s men but with Mamady Sidibe ripping the R’s apart in the Swans attack the only surprise in the end was that the home side didn’t win by more. Two goals before half time and two after gave the Swans a comfortable win, QPR announced after the match that Kevin Gallen would be returning to the club from Barnsley and that glossed over the mauling a little but the memories are still painful – in fairness when you look at the QPR team it is not hard to see why we were beaten so comprehensively.

Swansea: Freestone, Evans, Bound, Smith, Evans, O'Leary, Cusack, Coates (Phillips 75) Lacey, Sidibe, Williams (Watkin 85)
Subs not used: Jones, Mazzina, Todd
Goals: Williams 6, Cusack 39, Sidibe 80, Watkins 90
Bookings: Evans, Phillips

QPR: Digby, Forbes, Warren (Bruce 58) Palmer, Plummer, Perry (Burgess 58) Connolly, Bignot, Bonnot, Griffiths (Pacquette 75) Doudou
Subs not used: Wardley, Bull
Booked: Doudou, Palmer

Referee: Andy Hall
Attendance: 4784

Head to Head:
Swansea wins - 9
Draws - 8
QPR wins – 15

Past Swansea v QPR results:
2004/05 QPR 3 Swansea 0
2001/02 Swansea 4 QPR 0
1980/81 Swansea 1 QPR 2
1980/81 QPR 0 Swansea 0
1979/80 QPR 3 Swansea 2
1979/80 Swansea 1 QPR 2
1978/79 QPR 2 Swansea 0
1966/67 Swansea 1 QPR 3
1966/67 QPR 4 Swansea 2
1966/67 Swansea 1 QPR 2

QPR’s 2-1 win at the Vetch Field in 1979/80 is the featured match in the ‘Connections and memories’ column this week - click here for more details.

Team News
Fitz Hall left the field early against Nottingham Forest although that appears to have been more to do with illness rather than a recurrence of his groin injury. Whether he’s fit enough to play two games in three days remains to be seen, Matt Connolly is ready to deputise if not. Rowan Vine remains out but everybody else is fighting fit, Iain Dowie must decide whether to keep the same starting eleven for the first time this season and risk going away from home with Buzsaky on one wing and Cook on the other. Personally I’d want both in the team but then my job is to write the previews not pick the team.

Midfielder Thomas Butler has suffered a recurrence of his groin injury after coming on late in the day against Ipswich on Saturday – he picked that injury up in the home win against Wolves. Spanish midfielder Andrea Orlandi missed the Ipswich draw and looks set to do so again, both players will face fitness tests in training. Shaun MacDonald should be fit after tweaking an ankle playing for Wales Under 21 against England last week.
Injury List

Referee
Anthony Bates is the referee for this game and after a weekend of the televised games being ruined by harsh and early red cards it was good to see him allowing the Barnsley goalkeeper to stay on the pitch at Crystal Palace on Saturday after conceding a penalty. Let’s hope for more of that common sense at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night.
Details

Elsewhere
Once again the Football League fixture computer has been unnecessarily unkind to supporters – after two weeks spent twiddling their thumbs while one or two players go and represent their countries there are some ridiculous Tuesday night journeys to make hot on the heals of the weekend action. Our trip to Swansea and Wolves journeying to Norwich is hardly convenient but consider the Preston fans who have Plymouth away and the Southampton supporters who must go to Sheffield United. You’ve got to0 think there’s a better way of doing things than this. In a rare local game Sheffield Wednesday go to Barnsley for what promises to be a feisty Yorkshire derby.
Tony’s Championship Preview

Form
QPR’s narrow victory against Nottingham Forest on Saturday was their first in five league games. So far on the road the R’s have been erratic with good wins at Swindon, Norwich and most notably Aston Villa and a solid point with ten men at Bristol City undermined by poor performances and results at Sheffield United and Birmingham and an undeserved defeat at Coventry. Iain Dowie’s men have only two goals to their name away from home in the league, compared to 11 at Loftus Road.

Swansea are currently 11th in the league, two points outside the play off places and three points off 19th – such is the tightness of the league table. Worryingly for QPR the Swans beat title chasing Wolves 3-1 in their last home game and were only denied another impressive win at Ipswich on Saturday because of a last minute equaliser. They have won three and drawn one of their last five matches, including a win against the old enemy from Cardiff in the League Cup, but the defeat was a big one when it came – 4-0 away to free scoring Reading who QPR face on Saturday.
Form Guide

Prediction
Very difficult game this one against a good side. QPR have shown this season, particularly at Norwich, that they can stay in shape and frustrate teams on the road and if we can do that perhaps we’ll be good for a point or more but it’s going to be difficult and I can’t help but think we may struggle to get anything, particularly with our recent poor goal scoring form.
Swansea 1 QPR 0

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One user has commented on this preview. Click here to add your thoughts:

The preview written by Clive Whittingham for the Swansea preview is an excellent piece of journalism. Really well written and deserves a lot of credit for a really good article. Wish more writers were as knowledgeable! Thanks Swans fan -robbo

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