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Taarabt set for debut as QPR head to Oxford - full match preview
Taarabt set for debut as QPR head to Oxford - full match preview
Friday, 24th Jul 2009 14:29

A year later than scheduled, QPR are due at the Kassam Stadium for the first time tonight as the pre-season campaign continues against Oxford United.

Oxford United v Queens Park Rangers
Pre-Season Friendly
Friday July 24, 7.45pm
Kassam Stadium, Oxford


A wedding day is supposed to be a celebration, a day of great optimism for the future, the most important and happy day in the lives of the couple involved, a chance to come together and celebrate love and all that sentimental rubbish. While some may say couples simply decide to get married when they run out of things to talk about (God I hope Mrs Clive doesn’t read this) most accept that the joining in holy matrimony of two people in love is a day for tremendous optimism and joy.

But is it really, and I ask you to consider this carefully, important enough to justify the cancellation of a pre-season friendly between Oxford United and QPR? I say think carefully because there is actual history between these sides – and consequently we do get to include a past results section in the preview today for the first time this summer as LFW continues to ramp up its coverage ahead of the start of the season. Some of QPR’s darkest moments in recent history have come against Oxford, most notably the Wembley disaster of 1986 that we do not speak about, the 4-1 annihilation at the Old Manor Ground that signalled the end of Ray Harford’s time at the club and the club’s first game at Loftus Road after relegation from the Premiership.

That makes this friendly important because in more recent times Oxford United have completely collapsed – dropping from the First Division (now Championship) into non-league at an almost Luton Town rate of hilarity. So we might actually win this, and we might have won it last summer as well had it not been postponed because it clashed with some mushy romantic wedding due to take place at the stadium on the same day. And so with the same sort of rolled eyes resignation I often trot out when a live sporting fixture has to be Sky plussed and watched later because it clashes with One Tree Hill we shall just have to do it tonight instead.

We may well do what we usually do against Oxford of course, and lose, but the signing of Adel Taarabt, who will feature tonight, and the arrival of season tickets on door mats during the week has increased the optimism a notch or two. While the official site’s assertion that the “feel good factor is building” is still somewhat off the mark I’m happier now than I was a week ago.

Five minutes on Oxford
Recent History:
A already pointed out, QPR’s first game after relegation from the Premiership in 1996 was against newly promoted Oxford at Loftus Road. The U’s took the lead through Nigel Jemson but Rangers came back with late goals from Kevin Gallen and Danny Dichio to secure an opening day win. Oxford had recovered from their own top flight relegation in the late 1980s to climb back into the second tier under the guidance of Denis Smith and with the likes of Darren Purse, Matt Elliott, Jemson and Paul Moody to the fore they became awkward First Division opposition, particularly at the dilapidated and farcical Manor Ground.

So what went wrong? Well they suffered a financial collapse – building up a debt of some £15m and going into administration. The uncompromising moustached figure of Malcolm Shotton did his best to keep them in the First Division while Firoz Kassam completed his takeover of the club, refinancing the debt, and recommencing the building of the new stadium, Oxford were relegated and then again after only two seasons in the third tier into the bottom division for the first time in 35 years. In Division Three and financed by Kassam Oxford were able to attract some reasonably high profile managers – former England defender Mark Wright started the 2001/02 campaign in charge, a season where they finished in their lowest ever league position, 21st, but he was sacked in November that season after allegedly making racist comments to a referee - not the first time Wright has found himself out of work as a manger in controversial circumstances. Long ball merchant Ian Atkins took over from Wright midway through the 2001/02 campaign had them in and around the play offs the following year only for them to miss out on the final day.

Atkins may not be everybody’s cup of tea, in fact I don’t think he is anybody’s cup of tea, but he gets jobs done in the lower leagues and although the football was dire it was a blow to Oxford when he fell out with Kassam and was sacked for courting the Bristol Rovers job in November 2003. He was replaced by former Chelsea coach Graham Rix who nobody likes either, but unlike Atkins he has shown at Portsmouth, Hearts and then Oxford that the only jobs he is capable of getting done as a manager are the kind that end with you standing before a judge putting your name on a register. That was a terrible appointment and he lasted barely 12 months before Oxford made another fatal mistake, appointing Ramon Diaz to replace him and fight off relegation into non-league football in the 2004/05 season. Diaz had been the Italian led QPR board’s choice to replace Ian Holloway in 2004/05 before Olly managed to get seven consecutive wins under his belt and hold onto his job. It was a strange appointment at Oxford to say the least - I still remember seeing them play at Grimsby Town on a typically cold midweek night that season when, from a Grimsby corner, Diaz left four attacking players on the halfway line to counter attack.

Diaz left the club at the end of the season, replaced by Brian Talbot a former Oxford player who enjoyed great success at Rushden before their money man pulled out. He could do nothing with Oxford, by now under the guidance of Nick Merry after Kassam had taken his bat and ball home with him and sold up, and was sacked in March 2006. Merry brought in Oxford legend Jim Smith but the Bald Eagle could not prevent relegation to the Conference at the end of the season. Smith, of course, left Oxford for QPR and then met his old club in that disastrous League Cup final when a cynic may suggest he looked happier than most of the Oxford players that QPR had collapsed in that final. Not the case, but the whole day still sticks in the craw of QPR supporters.

As usual the relegated side is immediately made favourites to return at the first time of asking by lazy bookmakers and as usual it just did not happen. Smith couldn’t get them close to the play offs in 2006/07 despite winning 14 and drawing eight of their first 25 matches and was replaced by Darren Patterson who was then sacked himself midway through last season. However, things may finally be looking up. Former Halifax man Chris Wilder took over from Patterson last season and won 15 of his 21 league matches in charge – despite being hindered by a five point deduction for fielding an ineligible player Oxford only missed the play offs on the final day of the season. Hopes are now high that Wilder can take that form into the new season and return Oxford to the Football League at the third time of asking. They’re not a bad bet at all in my opinion, and even the most embittered QPR fan would surely wish them some success after years of torture.

The Manager:
Chris Wilder took over from Darren Patterson halfway through last season with Oxford and has an extraordinary winning percentage of 70%. Having taken maximum points from 15 of his 21 games in charge so far hopes are high that Wilder could be the man to finally turn this club around. A journeyman footballer who started his career at Southampton, ended it at Halifax and included ten other clubs in between. Towards the end of his playing career at The Shay Halifax were relegated, replacing Alan Little and Neil Redfearn who had overseen the club’s decline. As a manager Wilder spent six years in charge at Halifax and was doing a reasonable job until the club’s ever dire financial situation saw it relegated three divisions by the leagues and Wilder left – beating a number of candidates to the job at Oxford after spending some time as assistant to Alan Knill at Bury.

Three to Watch:
Gareth Ainsworth is in the QPR squad tonight, and may well recall a fond afternoon of tormenting Oxford’s 36 year old goalkeeper Billy Turley. I think it would be fair to say Turley is something of a character. Regularly mocked by opposition fans for his weight, and regularly prone to turning round and giving them some back, he has been hugely popular with fans of Oxford, Rushden and Diamonds and Northampton where he has played the majority of his football since emerging from non-league football with Evesham in 1995. Turley was famously the goalkeeper at Nene Park when Ainsworth scored twice for QPR, both from fully 30 yards, inside five minutes in a 3-3 draw. He was sacked by Rushden and given a six month ban in 2004 for failing a drugs test – initially for the same steroid that saw Linford Christie banned and then, in a subsequent test, cocaine as well proving he doesn’t do things by halves. The rules in almost any other sport would have seen Turley banned for life. He has been the Oxford goalkeeper since 2005 racking up 153 appearances.

A new addition to the Oxford squad for the forthcoming season is fresh faced midfielder Alfie Potter on a season long loan deal from Championship newcomers Peterborough. Potter, along with our own former striker Richard Pacquette, shot to fame the season before last when he scored at Anfield for Havant and Waterlooville during a memorable FA Cup run that took the scalps of Swansea, York and Notts County before scaring Liverpool in a 5-2 defeat. Potter’s performances in that run caught the eye and he was snapped up by Peterborough ahead of the League One campaign in 2008/09. He failed to make an impact at London Road and spent most of last season out on a series of short term loan deals at Kvinesdal, Grays, Havant, AFC Wimbledon and Kettering. A small, slight figure who likes to break from midfield and make late runs into the penalty area, Potter will spend the whole of the forthcoming campaign on loan at Oxford and looks like a shrewd signing.

Joining Potter through the entrance at the Kassam Stadium this summer is striker Jack Midson. Though only 5ft 8ins tall Midson made a great impact in the Conference last season in the notoriously direct and physical Histon team that very nearly won promotion into the league, eventually losing in the play offs, and shocked Leeds United in the FA Cup to the footballing nation’s delight. Midson scored 22 goals for Histon last season and it’s the signing of players like him and Potter that make Oxford a very good bet for promotion this coming season. With target man James Constable bagging 25 goals for Oxford last season on loan from Shrewsbury now signed permanently alongside him the U’s look like they could be a very threatening side in the Conference this season.

Links >>> Oxford Official Website

History
Recent Meetings:
QPR endured one of their regular ‘it surely cannot get any worse than this’ moments at The Manor Ground in September 1998. Struggling at the bottom of the First Division Ray Harford’s QPR side crashed to a miserable 4-1 defeat against a side that would eventually finish the campaign relegated. In fairness, looking at the QPR side on paper, it is not hard to see why it happened. Joey Beauchamp, a regular scourge of QPR during the clubs’ series of meetings in the late 1990s, opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour and two further goals followed after half time from Matt Murphy and Andy Thomson before Dean Windass, only 53 years old at the time, completed the rout with a forth that was scored with goalkeeper Lee Harper, Matthew Rose and several other QPR players all laid flat out by the corner flag after colliding chasing an aimless through ball. Tony Scully’s spectacular late volley would have been consolation for the travelling QPR fans on the terrace behind the goal had any of them stayed to see it – to a man almost everybody had left by that stage, some heading straight to the car park to attack Harford’s motor prompting his resignation by telephone to Nick Blackburn straight after the game.

Oxford: Whitehead, Robinson, Marsh, Gray, Whelan (Murphy) Gilchrist, Powell, Smith (Hill) Thomson, Windass (Cook ) Beauchamp

QPR: Harper, Heinola (Scully) Baraclough, Yates, Ready, Maddix, Slade, Peacock, Kulcsar (Sheron) Gallen, Murray (Rose)

By the time the teams met for the return fixture things had turned around completely. Rangers, under the guidance of Gerry Francis by this stage, were fighting successfully against relegation while Oxford were starting to struggle financially and on the pitch. A single goal by Rob Steiner just after half time was good enough for a single goal victory for the R’s who went on to secure their status with a 6-0 home win against Crystal Palace on the last day of the season. Oxford won 5-0 against Stockport on the final day of the season but were still relegated with Bristol City and Bury.

QPR: Miklosko, Breacker, Baraclough, Rose, Ready, Maddix (Plummer) Kulcsar, Peacock, Steiner, Gallen, Jeanne (Murray)
Subs not used: Dowie

Oxford: Gerrard, Robinson, Remy (Murphy ) Gray, Watson, Gilchrist, Banger, Tait, Francis (Thomson) Windass, Beauchamp
Subs not used: Rose

Previous Results:
1998/99 QPR 1 Oxford 0 (Steiner)
1998/99 Oxford 4 QPR 1 (Scully)
1997/98 QPR 1 Oxford 1 (Gallen)
1997/98 Oxford 3 QPR 1 (Peacock)
1996/97 Oxford 2 QPR 3 (Yates, Spencer, Peacock)
1996/97 QPR 2 Oxford 1 (Gallen, Dichio)

Played for both clubs:
Ian Holloway was famously remarked about Andy Thomson that he was prone to setting up a camp fire and cooking sausages in the opposition penalty area while waiting for the ball to arrive. While hard work was certainly not the name of the Scotsman’s game, goals were. He started his career with Queen of the South bagging 109 goals in 201 appearances before moving to Southend and then Gillingham. Inbetween those two spells in the extreme south eat he enjoyed the 1998/99 season with Oxford where he scored seven goals in 25 starts for the eventually relegated U’s, including one against QPR in the 4-1 hammering at the Manor Ground. He scored 21 goals in two season for Gillingham, including a play off final strike against Man City at Wembley.

Thomson was one of Ian Holloway’s first signings as manager towards the tail end of the 2000/01 season when QPR were almost certainly doomed to relegation. In his first full season at Loftus Road he scored 21 times as QPR narrowly missed the play offs in the Second Division. Despite a hugely successful campaign Thomson and his wife were said to be homesick for the north, and his recurring back injury was exacerbated by lengthy commutes around the M25 from his home near Gillingham from where the R’s purchased him. A mooted move to Stockport County that summer fell through but Thomson was not as successful and he only scored five times in our play off season. Following his time in W12 he moved back to Scotland and enjoyed time with Falkirk, Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South and Partick Thistle. A terrific finisher with virtually no work ethic whatsoever he was the best example of a goal poacher QPR fans have seen since Clive Alen was loitering around penalty boxes in the 1980s.

This Friday
Team News:
With just three friendlies left Jim Magilton’s preferred starting eleven should now start to take shape, and for that reason it is somewhat concerning to see Akos Buzsaky again missing from the matchday squad. Goalkeeper Andy Marshall and Italian striker Alessandro Pellicori are both included again with the former trying to earn a deal and the latter still at the ‘set to sign at any moment’ stage of his move from Avellino. QPR fans will get another sight of Adel Taarabt for the first time since he rejoined on loan for the whole season from Tottenham – the French Moroccan has recovered from the ankle injury he sustained with us at the end of last season. There is no place in the squad for Alejandro Faurlin either – Faurlin has so far only featured in the foreign parts of our pre-season campaign.
QPR from: Ainsworth, Alberti, Agyemang, Balanta, Borrowdale, Cerny, Connolly, Ephraim, Gorkss, Hall, Mahon, Marshall, Pellicori, Ramage, Routledge, Rowlands, Stewart, Taarabt, Vine

Oxford have doubts over Damian Batt who is yet to feature this pre-season. Defender Rhys Day is set for his first appearance in an Oxford shirt after completing a free transfer from Aldershot Town. Luke Foster has a shin injury and goalkeeper Billy Turley is suffering with illness. Mark Creighton, Marcus Kelly, Alex Rhodes, Alfie Potter, Jack Midson and Dannie Bulman have all arrived at The Kassam this summer and should all play some part in a new look line up.

Elsewhere:
Crystal Palace are at Bristol Rovers and West Brom are at Kidderminster tonight. Tomorrow Barnsley go to Bradford and Bristol City welcome newly promoted Wolves to Ashton Gate. Sheffield United go to Bury, Coventry to Huddersfield Town whose match with Newcastle earlier this week descended into a 20 man brawl, Newcastle themselves go to Leyton Orient, Derby face QPR’s cup opponents Exeter after signing Dean Moxey from them earlier this summer, and Middlesbrough are at League One side Carlisle. Not for the first time this summer Peterborough look to have the most attractive friendly of the weekend with Premiership side Fulham going to London Road after Tottenham won 4-0 there on Tuesday night.

Links >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List

Form
Oxford:
While QPR were away in Croatia and Slovenia Oxford travelled north to Scotland for their pre-season training camp. They were beaten 2-0 by Glasgow Rangers in a behind closed doors match at the Rangers training ground, but won 3-0 at Morton with two goals from Jack Midson and one from James Constable – that looks like a potentially terrific partnership for the coming season. Oxford finished last season with 15 wins from 21 matches, including a run of eight wins from nine home games up to but not including a surprise final day defeat against lowly Northwich.

QPR:
Rangers have won two, lost one and drawn one of their pre-season matches so far. Form would suggest that QPR should be able to win tonight with League Two side Aldershot beaten 4-0 and Conference outfit Forest Green 2-0 already this summer – personally I rate this new look Oxford side as being better than both. The wins at The New Lawn and Recreation Ground may reassure some QPR fans after a dire away campaign in 2008/09 that included just five road wins, three in the league.

Prediction:
Results not important, fitness exercise, all eyes on August 8 etc etc etc, QPR should win if they play anything like but this will be the toughest game we have had in this country so far this summer. With just a fortnight until the first match it’s time to start stepping the level of performance up a notch.
QPR by one

Photo: Action Images



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