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Olde English Palace face continental QPR set up - full match preview
Olde English Palace face continental QPR set up - full match preview
Friday, 28th Nov 2008 11:18

There could be a real feel of déjà vu at Selhurst Park this Saturday as QPR bring a foreign coach to face Neil Warnock’s Crystal Palace side in one of his first assignments.

Crystal Palace (12th) v Queens Park Rangers (10th)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday November 29, Kick Off 3pm
Selhurst Park, Croydon


On November 28 1989 QPR were a First Division team just starting out life under a new manager. That manager was Don Howe, an experienced coach brought in to replace Trevor Francis who had made a bit of a pig's ear of his first managerial role and got the chop as a result. Howe's first game, with Ray Wilkins in the midfield at QPR for the first time, was at Crystal Palace and with Wilkins and Peter Reid pulling the strings the R's destroyed the Eagles 3-0. That was the last time they won on this ground.

Fast forward to the present day and Paulo Sousa faces his first away game in charge of Rangers at Selhurst Park on Saturday and, though it would be unfair to compare either to Ray Wilkins, Heidar Helguson and Gary Borrowdale are both set to make debuts for QPR this weekend. A year ago we were in the same boat with Luigi De Canio just starting out in the hot seat and bringing his team to Palace. I can't ever recall seeing a team dominate a game so much without winning the game as QPR did that day and it looked at the time like QPR were heading one way and Palace quite another - in the end it turned out to be quite the opposite and Neil Warnock carried his side to the play offs while the shakiness of their defence cost De Canio's men anything more than a lower midtable finish.

Warnock, it seemed at the time, was made to look pretty stupid in this fixture last season - out thought tactically by De Canio and forced to watch his team comprehensively outplayed only to snatch an undeserved late point right at the death. Ultimately though the former Sheff Utd boss did a great job last season and after a sluggish start this term is starting to put an impressive run of results together again - Palace have six wins in their last eleven matches. He was appointed at the same time as De Canio, a typically English manager against a more continental coach. He found four or five talented kids in Palace's academy to boost his team whereas De Canio had to wait until January for reinforcements to be bought for him. It was interesting to compare the progress of the two clubs through the season, in the end Palace did much better.

QPR now have a new foreign coach and meet Palace with just one team between the two clubs in the league - just like last year although twelve months ago both teams were firmly entrenched in a relegation battle at the time whereas now they are midtable with higher aspirations. Simon Jordan said openly last week that he thinks the appointment of Sousa at QPR is a bit of a joke and won't work so it's very much seconds out, round two as these London rivals prepare to meet again on Saturday.

Five minutes on Crystal Palace
If Crystal Palace have got any sense they will sack Neil Warnock right now. Twice in recent times the Eagles have disposed of a manager around this time in the season and then gone on an astonishing run under the new man to reach the play offs.

The last time it happened was in 2003/04 when Iain Dowie was tempted back to manage a club he’d served as a player. Dowie took over from Steve Kember who had been promoted from within to replace Trevor Francis but could only lead the Eagles to 19th place in the Championship midway through the season and with relegation a distinct possibility Chairman Simon Jordan decided to act – Palace had come too close to the third tier for comfort in 2000/01 and didn’t want a repeat of their last day escape at Stockport that season.

They need not have worried – Dowie revitalised the club and took the team on an amazing run of seventeen wins from the final twenty three matches. That meant the play offs and although Palace finished sixth and were the lowest ranked team in the end of season knock out they were the form team and that’s what counts so often. They beat much fancied Sunderland on penalties at the Stadium of Light in the semi finals, Jason McAteer hilariously missing his spot kick, then won 1-0 at Cardiff in the final against West Ham thanks to a goal from Neil Shipperley. Dowie, a League One manager in Oldham at the start of the season, was now a Premiership boss in the capital city.

Palace made a reasonably decent fist of staying in the top flight as well, owing largely to the goal scoring exploits of Andy Johnson who finished as the league’s leading goalscorer despite Palace eventually being relegated on the last day when they conceded an equaliser at Charlton and slipped below West Brom by a point for the first time on the afternoon just eight minutes away from the end of the campaign.

Dowie and Johnson both stayed at Palace back in the second tier but twelve months later they got a taste of their own medicine in the play offs as the form team, Watford on this occasion, smacked a tired looking Palace side 3-0 at Selhurst and then cruised through the home leg to get to the final where they made the nation happy by beating Leeds 3-0.

That was to be Dowie’s last involvement at Palace as he resigned to spend more time with his family in the north – eight miles north as it turned out because a week later he pitched up at Palace’s near neighbours Charlton who were still a Premiership team at that time. Dowie’s first press conference at The Valley was interrupted by lawyers acting for Simon Jordan trying to issue Dowie with a writ and the Palace chairman had his day in court eventually when he was awarded £1m in damages from his former manager.

In the meantime Dowie made a complete has of things on the pitch at Charlton and Palace moved on to former player Peter Taylor. The former England Under 21 manager had done a wonderful job with Hull City, guiding them from the Third Division to the Championship in consecutive season and laying the foundation for the surprise package of the Premiership we are seeing today. Sadly things did not work out quite as well for him at Crystal Palace and he only lasted 18 months during which time they finished twelfth and then drifted off down the league at the start of last season culminating in his sacking shortly before QPR went to Selhurst for a league match in mid November.

QPR sacked John Gregory at about the same time and it was interesting to chart the two clubs’ progress for the rest of the season because at the time they were neck and neck at the wrong end of the table – had QPR won at Selhurst Park when they should have done in Warnock’s fifth game in charge the R’s would have leapfrogged the Eagles and dumped them into the bottom three. Rangers fans laughed at the ineptitude of the Palaca team compared to ours and smirked about the appointment of Warnock compared to our continental manager Luigi De Canio.

Warnock, after a career spent rattling round the lower leagues with Notts County, Plymouth, Scarborough and Bury, had spent the best part of a decade trying to get Sheff Utd into the Premiership only to cost them any chance of staying there with negative tactics in games they needed to win. United may have moaned, and still be moaning, about Carlos Tevez and West Ham and rightly so but the fact remains that they had a game away at Aston Villa that they had to win and Villa didn’t care about that they post 3-0 with one up front then they had a home match on the last day with Wigan which they again approached defensively and lost and had they won either it would not have mattered what West Ham got up to. Warnock left at the end of the season, but his union with Jordan seemed an unlikely pairing.

Warnock started with two defeats and two draws before the lucky 1-1 against QPR and it looked like his stay at Palace may be short lived but by the time the teams met again a month later it was Palace moving forwards and QPR in trouble. Palace won 2-1 to make it seven without loss and they continued to pick up results – that run eventually stretched to fifteen league games including nine wins and once again the Eagles went from relegation strugglers to the play off positions. Sadly for them the tag of form team didn’t work a second time and despite being the better team for the majority of the two legged semi final with Bristol City they lost at Ashton Gate in the second leg to a fine strike by Lee Trundle after Ben Watson had missed a penalty that would have sent them through.

Warnock has lost John Bostock controversially, Tom Soares, Clinton Morrison, Dougie Freedman, Mark Kennedy and Mark Hudson from that team and it is perhaps understandable that they started this season poorly with just one win from their opening eight games. However with the additions of Alan lee and Craig Beattie up front Warnock is starting to get them going again and they have climbed to twelfth in the table coming into this match.

In his last ever job in football, he promises, could Warnock take Crystal Palace from bottom to top again this season without the need for Jordan to wield his axe first?

Men to watch
Since Neil Warnock took over he has shown a willingness to give players in Palace’s excellent academy system a chance in the first team as soon as possible. That probably cost them a player last year when John Bostock was put in the first team at only sixteen years of age, this in turn alerted Tottenham and thanks to the unique way our game works they were able to swallow him up into the giant squad never to be seen again while Palace were compensated with a wrinkly fiver and a packet of Walkers crisps.

Bostock was the headline act last season but he was not alone and Sean Scannell and Victor Moses also made a great impression in their first season of senior football. Moses is a pacy winger with a low centre of gravity who reminds me a little bit of Andy Impey when he was in his prime with us. He is certainly not shy of running at and taking on full backs and can be a real handful when he is on form. Scannell is a more thoughtful player who can play as an attacking midfielder or forward and looks a class act most of the time – he has two goals in his last three games.

The man most QPR fans will have their eyes on this weekend is of course Ben Watson. The ginger haired midfielder is another graduate of the Palace youth system, although he has been in and around the first team since 2003 now making more than 150 starts in the process. That run of appearances and service at Selhurst almost came to an end in the summer when Iain Dowie made him his top transfer target and with the player openly stating his desire to complete the move and refusing o sign an extension to his contract which expires this coming summer it seemed almost certain to be done. In the end Palace’s stubbornness over the transfer fee, which was probably motivated more by Simon Jordan’s dislike of Iain Dowie than any business sense because QPR can get him at a fraction of a cost whether Palace like it or not, saw him stay at Selhurst.

Warnock used him very seldomly to start with this season but he is back in the team now, and back amongst the goals with three in his last nine from central midfield. Watson is expected to move to Loftus Road, probably in January but if not next summer, and this will give Rangers; fans a chance to have a good look at him.

Watson’s current partner in the centre of midfield is Australian Nick Carle who signed for Bristol City in January and was their best player in a 3-0 defeat at Loftus Road but was then sold to Palace in the summer by Gary Johnson. Warnock paid £1m to secure his services and while he doesn’t look like a footballer, in the same way Jan Molby didn’t look like a footballer if you get what I mean, he is certainly a very talented player in this division and capable of bursting forward to great effect from the middle of the park. Watch his late runs into the box.

Palace have John Oster to play down the flank as well as Moses or Scannell. Oster burst onto the scene in the mid 1990s with Grimsby Town but made a poor move too early when he joined an Everton side regularly struggling against relegation from the top flight. Since then he has journeyed around a whole host of clubs at different levels without ever really settling or impressing and as he approaches his thirtieth birthday this season he is running out of time to fulfil his early potential. Frankly if John Oster was half as good a player as John Oster thinks he is then he'd be the best player in the division.

Sean Derry is a bit of a clogger and just the kind of odious git you’d expect at the heart of a Warnock team with with Moses, Scannell, Oster, Watson and Carle to pick from the Eagles make a mockery of the ‘best midfield in the world’ chant that the QPR fans trot out every now and again – that’s a better midfield line up than ours every day of the week.

Palace’s problems pre-season, with Clinton Morrison going to Coventry and Dougie Freedman to Southend, looked to be in attack. Shefki Kuqi, an awkward customer but somebody that should be easily dealt with by a competent centre half, was out of favour to start with after making a gesture at hi own fans last season but he is now back in and Warnock has added former Celtic striker Craig Beattie to his line up on loan from West Brom. He has four goals in 12 starts and scored in a win at Norwich on Saturday. Alan Lee has also been purchased from Ipswich and while he seems to be past his very best he is still a useful player to have around the place.

Only three teams have conceded less goals than Palace at home this season and that defence is built around a solid, uncompromising rock in Clint Hill. He has years of experience with Stoke and Tranmere and won’t take any prisoners. Former Leicester man Patrick McCarthy signed from Charlton in the summer to play alongside him and they have Jose Fonte back there as well – he signed from Benfica last summer. In goal is Julian Speroni who has a reputation of being a bit accident prone although I feel this is unfair and there are few better shot stoppers in this league. He won the club’s Player of the Year award last season.
 
Previous Meetings
Palace, and Clinton Morrison in particular, always seem to enjoy visiting Loftus Road and it proved to be the case again this time last year as Luigi De Canio’s QPR team were beaten 2-1. It started so well when Damion Stewart continued his hot run of form in front of goal with the opener after ten minutes – as you would expect he headed in a corner. However Palace came roaring back after the break with two goals in three minutes to turn the game on its head. First Clint Hill came up from the back to head in Ben Watson’s delivery, then Morrison got his obligatory goal against Rangers from another Watson cross.

QPR: Camp 6, Rehman 5, Stewart 5, Malcolm 4, Barker 4, Rowlands 5 (Nygaard 72, 5), Buzsaky 5 (Bolder 86, -), Leigertwood 4, Sinclair 4, Sahar 4 (Balanta 83, -), Vine 5
Subs Not Used: Cole, Ainsworth
Booked: Rowlands (foul), Rehman (foul), Camp (off the ball incident)
Goals: Stewart 10 (assisted Buzsaky)

Crystal Palace: Speroni 8, Butterfield 7, Hudson 6, Fonte 5 (Hills 52, 7), Hill 7, Soares 7 (Fletcher 73, 6), Watson 8, Derry 7, Songo'o 6 (Scannell 60, 7), Scowcroft 7, Morrison 7
Subs Not Used: Freedman, Martin
Booked: Butterfield (foul)
Goals: Hill 65 (assisted Watson), Morrison 68 (assisted Watson)

Match Report

Just a month before at Selhurst Park Rangers absolutely annihilated Crystal Palace but somehow only left with a single point. Scott Sinclair got his first goal for the club after signing on loan from Chelsea with a first half header and Rangers had amble opportunity to kill the game off in the second period as Vine, twice, and Bolder went through on goal but failed to score. In the end Palace, second best throughout, scrambled a last minute equaliser through that man Morrison again and went agonisingly close to snatching an undeserved winner in stoppage time.

Crystal Palace: Speroni 8, Lawrence 6, Hudson 6, Fonte 6, Hill 6,Soares 6 (Freedman 72, 7), Watson 6 (Bostock 64, 6), Kennedy 6, Songo'o 5 (Hall 46, 6), Morrison 7, Ifill 7
Subs Not Used: Idrizaj, Hills
Goals: Morrison 88 (assisted Kennedy)

QPR: Camp 6, Timoska 8, Stewart 8, Mancienne 7, Barker 7, Rowlands 5 (Ainsworth 86, -), Bolder 7 (Rehman 90, -), Buzsaky 8, Leigertwood 8, Sinclair 7, Vine 7 (Sahar 90, -)
Subs Not Used: Cole, Nardiello
Booked: Leigertwood (foul)
Goals: Sinclair 45 (assisted Buzsaky)

Match Report

Head to Head:
Palace wins – 29
Draws – 26
QPR wins – 35

Past Palace v QPR scores:
2007/08 QPR 1 Palace 2 (Stewart)
2007/08 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Sinclair)
2006/07 Palace 3 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 4 Palace 2 (Smith 2, Gallen, Lomas)
2005/06 Palace 2 QPR 1 (Furlong)
2005/06 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Ainsworth)
2000/01 QPR 1 Palace 1 (Crouch)
2000/01 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Carlisle)
1999/00 QPR 0 Palace 1
1999/00 Palace 3 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 6 Palace 0 (Kiwomya 3, Kulscar, Scully, Breaker)
1998/99 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Steiner)
1996/97 QPR 0 Palace 1
1996/97 Palace 3 QPR 0
1994/95 QPR 0 Palace 1
1994/95 Palace 0 QPR 0
1992/93 Palace 1 QPR 1 (Allen)
1992/93 QPR 1 Palace 3 (Penrice)

Team News
QPR have former Palace full back Gary Borrowdale and Bolton striker Heidar Helguson available for debuts after they completed their loan deals on Wednesday. Rangers are without Fitz Hall and Emmanuel Ledesma who are both suspended for cards of differing colours collected at Watford last Saturday. Mikele Leigertwood also has a ban for card accumulation coming up although that one does not kick in until Wolves at home next Saturday. On the injury front Martin Rowlands, Lee Cook and Matt Connolly have all missed the last three games with thigh, calf and back knocks respectively. Rowlands looks the most likely to play this weekend although none are certain to feature by any means. Akos Buzsaky and Rowan Vine are both long term absentees although Vine’s surgery appears to have gone well and he is hoping to make a second attempt at returning to training around Christmas.

Palace team news to follow.
Injury List

Referee
Prepare both hands. Put your elbows together on the desk in front of you and then put your hands together with your palms facing up. You are now in a position to receive the news that Rob Styles is the referee for this one. Now place your head carefully in your hands and rest for a while before seeing if you can get rid of your match ticket – in the past there has been little point in going when this incompetent arse has been in charge.
Details

Elsewhere
The game of the weekend in the Championship is clearly the Saturday lunch time clash between top of the table Wolves and local rivals Birmingham City who are six points behind in second. A win for Wolves would open up a nine point gap at the top of the table and even at this early stage that looks like a big gap for a team as good as Mick McCarthy’s men to throw away. At the bottom there’s a big six pointer between two former Premiership sides that have fallen on hard times – Charlton are three points adrift in the bottom three and face Southampton, two places and four points higher, at the Valley. There’s a massive South Wales derby on the box on Sunday morning – Swansea take on Cardiff for the second time this season at the Liberty Stadium, the Swans took the first game 1-0 in the League Cup.
Tony’s Championship Preview

Form
Goals on the road are proving to be a massive problem for QPR – it has been seven and a half league games since our last one and almost 600 minutes in all competitions. The last one in the league was Rowlands’ free kick at Norwich on September 17, the last one overall was Damion Stewart’s second half header at Aston Villa a week after that. QPR’s pathetic total of two goals on the road is comfortably the worst in the Championship – even Doncaster have five. As a result of this toothless attack QPR have only won once away this season, at Norwich, and that is the worst record outside the bottom four. The win against Charlton at Loftus Road on Saturday was Rangers’ first in four games. The R’s have not won in twelve attempts at Selhurst Park since their 3-0 success here in 1989 although quite how they didn’t bring that record to an end last season God only knows.

Palace have just come into form in time for this match with three wins from their last four games. The Eagles’ two one win at Norwich earlier in the week came on the back of a thumping 4-2 win at home to Bristol City and moved them up into the top half of the table. They have won six of their last eleven matches. Palace have only won four of their nine home games this season compared to QPR’s seven and Nottingham Forest and Sheff Wed have both left here with positive results in their last three matches.
Form Guide

Prediction
My predictions are becoming the stuff of legend, not one right so far this season, so partly because I want us to win and partly because we have a poor record here and are dire away from home at the moment I’m going for our customary narrow defeat here again. There were positive signs on Tuesday though so hopefully it will be a whole lot better than the Watford game a week ago even if we do lose.
Palace 1 QPR 0

 

Photo: Action Images



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