QPR face a tough task at Cardiff City on Wednesday night as they look to bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday's defeat to Ipswich. Ironically Saturday's villain Gavin Mahon got the only goal when these sides last met.

Cardiff City (6th) v Queens Park Rangers (11th)
Coca Cola Championship
Wednesday February 25, Kick Off 7.45pm
Ninian Park, Cardiff

I know it is a Wednesday night, I know our season looks like it might peter out into mid table mediocrity and I know this is the thick end of 130 miles away but I must recommend this trip to as many of you as possible. You see while we do not particularly get on with the Cardiff fans and watching football at their Ninian Park ground is rarely a pleasurable experience this Wednesday night’s fixture between the sides could well be a piece of history from a QPR point of view.

You see this will be our last visit to this ground – Cardiff are moving into another one of those soulless bowl like structures right next door from the start of the season. That means that with Peterborough United only vaguely close to the Championship and developments surely imminent at their London Road ground if they do make it this could be a final ever chance to watch QPR play a league match from a terrace.

Ninian Park is an absolute tip. The most accurate description of it I have seen is “the largest public toilet in the city” and watching football from its away end is a bloody nightmare. You cannot see a damn thing from the seats bolted onto the terrace at the front and the view from the terrace at the back is obscured by posts and netting and all manner of other bits and pieces. This used to be an open bank behind the goal, but a roof was whacked on literally as an afterthought to protect fans from the elements. This is a football ground from a bygone age and at the end of this season it will close for good.

Tip it may be but with away trips in the Championship increasingly spent in half full soulless stadiums that look more like Ikea distribution centres sometimes it is nice to come somewhere like this and stand on the terrace and think back to how things used to be. I may only be 24, but I spent my first QPR match at the front of the chocolate box terrace at the old Dell and have stood on a few in my time. It’s a shame that as another famous old footballing venue prepares to close for the last time we still cannot find a way in this country to have safe terracing at grounds.

Rangers’ welcome is likely to be as warm as ever as Wayne Routledge returns to Wales for the first time since turning down a permanent move there to join QPR. Unless there is a Cardiff fan who can honestly say they would turn down a more lucrative contract offer in their home city to move to the other side of the country for less money then they really should be directing their fury at Peter Ridsdale rather than Routledge or his supporters.

It was Ridsdale and Cardiff who spent the week leading up to the transfer saying he was sure Routledge would be signing for Cardiff when all the noises coming from Villa and QPR contradicted that and Ridsdale and Cardiff who have since tried to cover that up with bitchy stories about how much money we are spending on wages (pot, kettle) and how Wayne didn’t even stop to say good bye when he left (boo bloody hoo). Still no doubt our fans and players will run the gauntlet of spit and bile on Wednesday night once again while the Cardiff chairman sits in the main stand counting his remaining lives.

Five minutes on Cardiff City
Cardiff City were, as we know only too well, promoted into this league a year before us and as it stands going into this match they look about 12 months ahead of QPR in their development. It is not that simple of course - since winning promotion against QPR in the 2003 with Sam Hamman at the helm Cardiff have sacked the manager that got them there, endured a messy takeover and a couple of near misses with administration. They had to ask the PFA to pay their player’s wages for a month to avoid a ten point deduction and inevitable relegation under Lennie Lawrence and then Peter Ridsdale got together a takeover bid at the last possible second with Hamman turning nasty and demanding money back that he had put into the club. QPR have been beset by financial problems, boardroom tussles and umpteen managerial changes of their own but essentially after six and five years at this level respectively Cardiff look capable of making a real fist of a play off push this season while QPR look set to come up short.

The main reason for their relative success during the last three seasons is the manager Dave Jones who I rate very highly. Jones took Cardiff ten points clear in this league two seasons ago before they faded after Christmas, a run started by our own 1-0 win at Ninian Park when the late Ray Jones scored, and ultimately missed the play offs altogether.

Last season he was forced to sell top scorer Michael Chopra to Sunderland and used the money to take a different tact and build his team around ageing but at one time outstanding Premiership players. Former QPR man Trevor Sinclair came into midfield to feed Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink up front. This tactic did not really work, only Hasselbaink was any kind of a success, and the Bluebirds never really looked like making the play offs. They did however enjoy an unlikely run to the FA Cup final for the first time since 1927 where they were narrowly beaten by Portsmouth. That run was built more on the performances of people like the ever impressive Joe Ledley and Welsh rebel Paul Parry than the big name signings although Hasselbaink did bag an absolutely marvellous goal against Wolves in round five in South Wales.

Jones has managed to improve his Cardiff team season on season despite losing Chopra to Sunderland, Cameron Jerome to Birmingham, Aaron Ramsey to Arsenal and Chris Gunter to Tottenham. The latter two looked like outstanding young prospects at Ninian Park and both were quickly snapped up for big money by Premiership clubs - the value of an effective youth set up laid bare once more, take note QPR for the love of God. Ramsey has already shown flashes of brilliance for Arsenal and Wales while Gunter has found his chances more limited at White Hart Lane as Spurs’ struggles continue.

Joe Ledley is rumoured to be the next one heading through the exit door but Cardiff did well to rebuff advances from premiership new boys Stoke City during the summer - they went for Michael Tonge in the end after growing weary in the Ledley chase and the former Sheffield United man is not even half as talented as the man we will face at Ninian Park on Wednesday. Ledley, another youth team product, is the beating heart of this team.

The pursuit of Fowler et al last season may have been a mistake, but Jones has done good business in the transfer market this season. Jay Bothroyd, who has never fulfilled his early potential at Arsenal with Wolves or Coventry, and Ross McCormack certainly did not look like much of a partnership when Jones paired them in the summer but between them they have bagged 24 goals this season. Jones has also brought Michael Chopra back to the club on loan from Sunderland and recovered from the loss of Wayne Routledge, who was in superb form for Cardiff before QPR nipped in to sign him permanently last month, by bringing in former Arsenal trainee Quincy Owusu Abeyie for the rest of the season.

Cardiff remain in an absolute mountain of debt, somewhere in the region of £30m, and while they won a High Court ruling earlier this season that said they did not have to repay the money immediately that money will still have to be repaid at some point and in the meantime Ridsdale’s habit for spending lavishly on team strengthening while ignoring the book balancing has continued – the club is set to spend £4m on Chopra to bring him back permanently in the summer. They also remain in a decrepit old stadium although as the few QPR fans braving the trip on Wednesday will see a new home is literally and metaphorically just around the corner. This will be their last season at Ninian Park and they could yet finish it with a promotion.

That should come as no surprise really. Dave Jones has made a career out of polishing turds - bringing Stockport County up to this division from the basement, turning Southampton into a steady midtable team that Glenn Hoddle was able to take credit (and his dream job at Spurs) for when Jones was scandalously moved aside due to personal problems, promoting the un-promotable Wolves to the Premiership for the first time in their history and now threatening to fulfil the ambitions of a demanding South Wales crowd.

On paper whichever one of the current top three that doesn’t make the automatic spots will be best equipped to win the end of season play offs but if Cardiff make that top six and are in decent form at the end of the season nobody in the world would fancy a play off semi final in this part of the world and City have plenty of positive end of season knockout experience to spring an upset. It promises to be an exciting end to life at Ninian Park.

Men to watch
The big news on the pitch at Cardiff recently has focussed on the goalkeeping situation. Former Aston Villa and Blackburn man Peter Enckelman started the season as number one, famed for letting in an own goal from a throw in during the Birmingham derby of course, with his main competition coming from up and coming Man Utd stopper Tom Heaton. However both are currently injured and that has opened the door for Dimi Konstantopoulos to have another crack at this level. He impressed scouts with his consistent displays in the lower leagues with Hartlepool but endured a difficult time at Coventry City after moving there and has since been usurped by the Sky Blues’ more successful lower league keeper capture Kieran Westwood. Konstantopolous has therefore had to look elsewhere for first team football and the situation at Ninian Park has given him a way in - not that he will be sticking around too long if Sunday is anything to by.

Leading 2-1 at fellow promotion chasers Wolves Cardiff were denied a win when their own goalkeeper dropped a routine cross down over the line, although the replays are inconclusive as to whether or not it did make it the whole way over the line, and no amount of chasing or protesting changed the linesman’s mind. Harsh, because like I say he was very good and consistent at Hartlepool but he’s perhaps fallen into the Scott Carson problem of struggling with confidence after major errors.

Other than that Cardiff look to have a settled and competent team with Welsh international Joe Ledley at its heart. Ledley is a stylish performer, a terrific passer of the ball and one of those players that always seems to be composed and have a lot of time on the ball. He has served his time in this league with Cardiff unlike players like Ramsey and Gunter who got moves straight away and if Cardiff don’t make it to the top flight this year you would think a Premiership team will go that extra mile this coming summer to secure his signature. Stoke had a bash last summer but were frightened off by the price and their subsequent unsuccessful purchases of Michael Tonge, Dave Kitson and Tom Soares suggests that Pulis was maybe panicking slightly and frantically slapping a bid in for all sorts of players that had impressed him the year before. Ledley deserves a better stage than Stoke on which to display his talents anyway.

Up front Cardiff have a player who got a move to the Premiership on the back of good performances of with the Bluebirds but has had to return in the search for first team football after not quite cutting the mustard. That should be no surprise really, Michael Chopra was hailed as the next bright young thing to come through when he graduated from the Newcastle academy but he rarely looked threatening at the top level, or when on loan in this division and the one below with Watford and Barnsley. He had a tremendous season with Cardiff after first arriving and suddenly Sunderland, at a time when Roy Keane was throwing £70m at all manner of tat, picked him up for £5m after missing out on David Nugent. Chopra stuttered and stammered and ultimately stalled completely on Wearside, rejoining Cardiff on loan earlier this season a matter of weeks after saying watching Bristol City v QPR made him realise he never wanted to play in the Championship again. He is now back for a second loan spell after briefly rejoining the Mackems during their managerial change and scored at Molineux on Sunday. A good player at this level, but certainly no higher.

In Chopra’s absence Dave Jones has put together a prolific front two for next to nothing this season. Ross McCormack, a product of the Rangers youth set up, hardly stood out at Motherwell with 14 goals in more than 50 appearances in a notoriously poor standard of football but he has been a revelation for Cardiff this season. He has bagged 16 goals already, including a Les Ferdinand like run of eight in nine games through October and November. McCormack is very much the smaller, goal scoring, fox in the box type character nipping around the heals of target man Jay Bothroyd. He, you may recall, was the young man kicked out of Arsenal for throwing his shirt at Don Howe after being substituted in a stiffs game. Lots of potential that he failed to realise at first Coventry and then Wolves, although he was always prone to flashes of 30 yard volleyed brilliance, he seems to have settled down and played well at Cardiff under Jones this season. Eight goals so far for him this season.

Other than that Cardiff still have Parry on one wing, he was the best player on the pitch in this fixture last season, and added Rangers’ winger Chris Burke to their wide midfield options during the January transfer window. He looked impressive when I saw him play against Arsenal at Ninian Park recently. Gavin Rae holds it all together in the middle.

At the back City lost Glenn Loovens to Celtic and Darren Purse is starting to really look his age these days but Roger Johnson is stating to attract interest. The former Wycombe man headed in his fourth goal of the season at Wolves on Sunday and has impressed watching scouts in the Championship –Arsenal in full flight exposed his lack of Premiership quality though and he has a long way to go before he could hold down a place in the top flight. Mind you if Michael Turner can do it at Hull Johnson certainly can. Former QPR trialist, Hungarian Gabor Gyepes replaced Loovens at centre half. Cardiff’s main weakness always looks to be Kevin McNaughton to me so hopefully we can get Routledge running at the Scottish full back regularly.

Previous Meetings
QPR came out on top in the first meeting between these two teams this season thanks to a late header from the man everybody is talking about this week Gavin Mahon. Rangers were below par though and probably owed much of their success to Cardiff’s indiscipline as the visitors were reduced to nine men by the end. Darren Purse was sent off before half time for a lunging tackle on Lee Cook that could easily have been given a yellow card and then deep into the second half Comminges also got to sample the early bath water after arguing with a linesman. In between the red cards Mahon struck, sending a good cross from Peter Ramage (no, really) sailing over Heaton’s head and into the corner. How he would love another like that on Wednesday to silence the doubters.

QPR: Cerny 8, Ramage 6, Stewart 8, Hall 8, Connolly 7, Ledesma 5 (Buzsaky 55, 7), Rowlands 5, Tommasi 5 (Mahon 67, 7) Cook 5, Blackstock 4, Di Carmine 5 (Agyemang 71, 7)
Subs Not Used: Cole, Delaney
Booked: Agyemang (foul)
Goals: Mahon 80 (assisted Ramage)

Cardiff: Heaton 6, McNaughton 7, Purse 5, R Johnson 7, Comminges 6, Rae 6, Ledley 6 (Gyepes 29, 7), Whittingham 6, McPhail 6, Eddie Johnson 5 (Parry 72, 5), Chopra 5
Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Blake, Brown
Sent Off: Purse (28) (dangerous tackle), Comminges (87) (two bookings)
Booked: McPhail (foul), Comminges (foul), Comminges (dissent)

Match Report

QPR produced an abject display at Ninian Park in this fixture last season. Joe Ledley profited from some woeful defending and the Damien Delaney back pass from hell to put Cardiff two up at half time and Parry added a third on the hour. QPR did pull one back, Patrick Agyemang continuing his great run of form with a tap in finish, but it took a while for the QPR fans to realise it had gone in and even when they did they didn’t celebrate too loudly.

Cardiff: Oakes (Enckelman 79) McNaughton, Capaldi, Johnson, Loovens, Rae, Whittingham (Blake 88) Ledley, Ramsey, Parry, Hasselbaink (Thompson 89)
Subs not used: Purse, Sinclair

QPR: Camp, Delaney, Stewart, Connolly (Blackstock 45) Hall (Mancienne 38) Mahon, Buzsaky (Ephraim 61) Rowlands, Leigertwood, Vine, Agyemang
Subs not used: Lee, Crowther

Match Report

Head to Head:
Cardiff wins – 24
Draws – 10
QPR wins – 30

Past Cardiff v QPR results:
2008/09 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Mahon)
2007/08 Cardiff 3 QPR 1 (Agyemang)
2007/08 QPR 0 Cardiff 2
2006/07 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Blackstock)
2006/07 Cardiff 0 QPR 1 (Jones)
2005/06 Cardiff 0 QPR 0
2005/06 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Nygaard)
2004/05 Cardiff 1 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 1 Cardiff 0 (Shittu)
2002/03 Cardiff 1 QPR 0 (Play Off Final)
2002/03 Cardiff 1 QPR 2 (Furlong, Langley)
2002/03 QPR 0 Cardiff 4
2001/02 Cardiff 1 QPR 1 (Pacquette)
2001/02 QPR 2 Cardiff 1 (Thomson 2)
1999/00 QPR 1 Cardiff 2 (Peacock)
1999/00 Cardiff 1 QPR 2 (Langley, Fowler og)

Team News
Cardiff have a doubt over striker Jay Bothroyd who has a calf injury and is unlikely to play. Goalkeepers Peter Enckelman (knee) and Tom Heaton (back) both remained sidelined giving a reprieve to Dimi Konstantopoulos after his weekend blunder. Quincy Owusu-Abeyie is available for his Cardiff debut after travelling to Wolves as an unused substitute at the weekend.

Predicting the QPR team at the moment is very tricky with Sousa’s team selection apparently being done by a blind man with some names in a hat. Player of the Year elect Damion Stewart was left out on Saturday, apparently with a knock although some aren’t so sure, and in his absence the defence looked a shadow of its former self with Fitz Hall particularly shakey so I would hope Stewart is recalled on Wednesday. Also pushing for recalls are fit again goalkeeper Radek Cerny, never injured in the first place Hogan Ephraim and the mysteriously ignored striking pair Heidar Helguson and Dexter Blackstock. Despite his goal on Saturday it would be madness to come to a place like this and play Di Carmine alone up front. Akos Buzsaky, Martin Rowlands and Patrick Agyemang are long term injury absentees, Rowan Vine’s return draws closer day by day.
Injury List

Referee
Rookie referee Roger East from Wiltshire is in charge of this one. It is his first ever QPR fixture as a referee and only his seventh Championship game in total after 18 months on the league list. He has however refereed Cardiff before – awarding them a late game winning penalty and controversially disallowing a Coventry goal when the sides met at Ninian Park before Christmas. The omens get worse – East was the linesman when we lost to the Bluebirds in the Play Off Final of 2003.
Details

Elsewhere
As this is a game in hand there is not a full programme of league action this midweek. Crystal Palace survived for a quarter of an hour with ten men against promotion chasing Birmingham at Selhurst Park last night – the teams ended up deadlocked after ninety minutes. There were mixed fortunes for Championship sides in the FA Cup as Swansea blew a one goal lead at Fulham to lose 2-1 after goals by Dempsey and Zamora. Coventry on the other hand overcame a poor first half in which they were distinctly second best to beat Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn side 1-0 at the Ricoh Arena.

Form
Descriptions of QPR’s form constantly lurch in tone from glass half full to glass half empty. That is because we draw so many so suddenly a run of nine games unbeaten has been turned into three without a win by the weekend defeat by Ipswich. Rangers have lost one and drawn two of their last three, and drawn six of their last ten games in the league. Prior to Christmas we were very much a home team with only two defeats at Loftus Road and only one win away from home but since Boxing Day we are yet to win in five games on our own patch and have taken two wins and two draws from our away matches.

The draw at Wolves on Sunday, that should really have been a win, took Cardiff’s run of unbeaten league games to 12 although they were soundly hammered 4-0 by Arsenal last week. In that run they have taken on and taken points from Wolves, Birmingham, Reading, Swansea, Preston and Burnley so this is going to be very tough for QPR. They have three draws and three wins from their last six in the league and overall at home this year have won nine out of 14 games and lost only twice.
Form Guide

Prediction
Very difficult one to call (no I’m not going for a draw again before you accuse me of sitting on he fence) as QPR’s dire performance at Loftus Road on Saturday was in direct contrast to some impressive showings on the road lately. That is down to the system we play, much maligned in W12 but very effective in away matches. I do wish Sousa would pick a team and leave it alone and I think Helguson has to play up front tomorrow for us to stand any chance. Even if he does it is hard to see us taking much from an in form City side on their own hostile patch, particularly with the return of Routledge likely to fire the locals up still further.
Cardiff 2 QPR 0

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