QPR return to action after the international break with a home game against Preston North End this Saturday. The R's face the division's fifth placed team without either Ben Watson or Martin Rowlands.

Queens Park Rangers (13th) v Preston (5th)
Coca Cola Championship
Saturday October 17, Kick Off 3pm
Loftus Road, London, W12

To quote and paraphrase the great Sid Waddell: when Alexander of Macedonia was 32 he cried salty tears for there were no more worlds to conquer, Martin Rowlands is just 30.

He may only be 30 but if the worst fears are confirmed when our skipper gets his test results back sometime today or tomorrow then Martin Rowlands faces a very long, and maybe even impossible, road back to fitness. I was actually on the phone when it happened with the Ireland match on in the background, with the conversation drawing to a close I looked at the screen to see a green shirted player with six on his back pounding the turf and signalling immediately for treatment. Even in an unorthodox number six jersey I knew straight away who it was, what it was and what it meant. To tear the cruciate ligaments in your knee in an innocuous incident once is unlucky, to do it again in the same knee simply by losing your footing ten months later is career threatening.

While he is left to contemplate that, and who knows the test results may show something much less serious and we can only hope this is a repeat of what happened on the first day of the season when he was carried from the field against Blackpool apparently in agony only for the injury to be diagnosed as a low grade ankle problem that allowed him to return to action five games ago, we are left to face football without him. Whether that turns out to be two games this week, ten games through Christmas, 34 games through to the end off the season or permanently it is a massive dent to our chances of doing anything in the Championship.

QPR do not have a player with an all round game as good as Martin Rowlands’. They have players that can pass, and tackle, and shoot as well as he can but not altogether in the same package. To find provides the defensive steel, passing game, work ethic and box to box energy that our captain does would require us to replace him with Mikele Leigertwood, Akos Buzsaky, Gavin Mahon and Alejandro Faurlin and the three of them would struggle to do the job as well even if we were allowed 14 men on the field. Rowly even takes the bloody penalties on the rare occasions we get one. He has blossomed into the complete central midfield player after his early days on the wings at Loftus Road.

One thing he is, and the one thing we cannot replace from our current squad, is a leader. While the introduction of Ben watson to the midfield has undoubtedly had a galvanizing effect on the team it is the return of Rowlands alongside him, fetching and carrying for Watson, providing a threat of his own and driving the team on with constant encouragement, bollockings and talking that we will miss the most on Saturday. Think back to the lifeless and insipid display against Peterborough, a game in which Watson played, and compare it to the performance against Barnsley - two teams similarly placed in the league. There is not another leader at the club, we are a deathly quiet team without him.

There are other factors behind the improved form, and Rowlands is not some all conquering God, but if you asked me to list players in order of preference for a season ending injury (not that I’d ever wish one on anybody you understand) he would be the last name on my list and we face a very, very tough battle to cope without him.

Five minutes on Preston
Recent History: Following Burnley’s promotion into the Premiership at the end of last season no team has now been in the Championship for more consecutive years than Preston North End. They arrived in this division in 2000, promoted as champions from Division Two with David Moyes enjoying great success in his first full managerial role. Since that time they have developed a knack of appointing excellent, mostly Scottish, managers and have regularly flirted with another promotion into the big time without ever actually making it. Their regular play off heartbreak, last year was their fourth failure in nine years, makes them this decade’s Ipswich Town although unlike the Tractor Boys under George Burley I cannot honestly see PNE making it any time soon.

Moyes was first to try his luck, in their first season after promotion Preston made the 2001 play offs while QPR were relegated - North End annihilated Gerry Francis’ men 5-0 at Deepdale during the regular season. A 3-0 defeat to Bolton at Wembley consigned Preston to try again, and Moyes’ obvious talents attracted the attention of Everton in 2002 leaving them to do so without their talisman at the helm. Former Scotland manager Craig Brown was his replacement and Preston stagnated in the middle of the league. It wasn’t until brown’s assistant, former Motherwell boss Billy Davies, took over in 2004 that things started to pick up again.

Davies may well be an intensely dislikeable man but it is hard to deny that he is a very good manager in this league. In two seasons in charge Davies took Preston to the play offs twice, losing to West Ham in the final first time around and then crashing out to Leeds in the semi final 12 months later. Leeds used Davies’ over the top celebrations at the end of the first leg at Elland Road which Preston drew as motivation for the second when they went to Deepdale and won 2-0. Nevertheless his reputation was cemented and Davies, like Moyes, left that summer for a supposedly bigger club with a better chance of furthering his own ambitions. Sure enough Davies promoted Derby County in his first full season in charge while Preston narrowly missed the top six for a fourth time under new boss paul Simpson who built his reputation dragging Carlisle out of the Conference and into League One.

Preston were flying for the first two thirds of the 2006/07 season under Simpson but their form collapsed in the Spring, including a memorable 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road when Dexter Blackstock lashed home a crucial winner for Rangers from long range, and they missed out on a play off place that had looked assured. Form is not something you can just flick on and off and with top scorer David Nugent sold during the 2007 close season and replaced by Karl Hawley from Carlisle who failed to score the goals Simpson hoped he would the manager was sacked in November with PNE languishing near the bottom of the table.

Preston then returned to Moyes for help, taking his Everton assistant manager Alan Irvine on in his first number one role with a clear mandate to maintain their Championship status and rebuild. Irvine has done that brilliantly - using the loan market to snare the likes of Chris Brown and Tamas Priskin to great effect in his first half season in charge and keeping PNE up with plenty to spare, and then making the play offs again in his first full season in charge. In truth Preston were lucky to make the six, propped up by a formidable home record and relying on other results on the final day of the season, and they never looked good enough to overcome Sheffield United in the semi final. Sure enough they lost the second leg at Bramall Lane and remained in the Championship for a tenth straight year.

While Irvine is undoubtedly a manager with great potential, and Preston’s squad is littered with very talented players for this level, I just cannot see them being anything other than a top ten side in this league. They’ll continue to make the play offs regularly, but in my opinion they’re the team you’d want to draw once there yourself. Their squad is very small, and earlier this season they were forced to allow star defender Sean St Ledger to join Middlesbrough on loan with a view to a permanent move to balance the books. Burnley famously went up last year using only 23 players but they were very fortunate to avoid injuries to players like Alexander, Jensen, Paterson, Eagles and others in doing so. In every previous season since they were promoted at the same time as Preston the Claret’s policy of working with a small squad of quality players had backfired on them through the winter months when injuries and suspensions bite. Short of a similar inspired season and a hefty dose of luck it is hard to envisage Preston not being a steady upper mid table Championship side in another ten years.

The Manager: Alan Irvine is enjoying good success in this, his first full management position. Preston have picked up some excellent young managers in recent years with David Moyes and Billy Davies taking the side to promotions and play offs in this league. Irvine followed in their footsteps with a top six finish in his first full campaign last season, but like Moyes and Davies before him he just could not find that little something extra to force Preston over the line into the Premiership. That was their fourth play off defeat in nine seasons in this league and it is hard to see them ever actually making it as things stand.

Irvine is clearly a talented manager, in both tactics and transfer market. His signings at Preston have been spot on by and large, and his side is always very well set up for matches in this league, boasting a formidable home record last season. The problems he is facing pushing Preston on to the next level are the same that forced his predecessors to look elsewhere to further their ambitions - finances, gates and ground improvements restrict transfer activity and squad size. The necessity to allow star defender Sean St ledger to join Middlesbrough on loan earlier this season further highlight the challenges he faces and, at the moment, is meeting well. Irvine was recommended to the club by their former boss David Moyes who had him as an assistant manager at Everton. Prior to that he worked in the academy set ups at Blackburn and Newcastle.

As a player Irvine began life with Queens Park in the early eighties before making 60 appearances for Everton and more than 100 for Crystal Palace. He was at Blackburn at the start of the Jack Walker revolution there but retired in 1992 to concentrate on coaching at Ewood Park and then elsewhere. A quietly spoken, thoughtful and likeable man in interview.

Three to Watch: The most immediately noticeable thing about the Preston side QPR will face this Saturday is the sheer size and physicality of its strike pairing. Jon Parkin is widely mocked by opposition supporters for his build which is more akin to a professional darts player than a Championship centre forward, however the bustling target man was voted North End’s Player of the Season last year when he bagged 12 goals including a hot run of six in eight through January and February. Nicknamed The Beast by the Preston support Parkin began his career as a centre half with Barnsley and then Hartlepool, playing only very occasionally as a centre forward, he was used solely as a striker to great effect by Macclesfield where he caught the eye sufficiently to earn a permanent move to Hull City. Things turned sour for him there when manager Phil brown questioned his fitness upon returning for pre-season training in 2007 and he was loaned out first to Stoke and then Preston where he eventually signed permanently in September 2008. Parkin could kindly be described as a big handful, and will provide a rough and ready opponent for Gorkss and Stewart to deal with on Saturday. If QPR can prevent the flick ons and knock downs from parkin without using too many men to do so and leaving space for Neil Mellor in the process then they will have gone a long way to winning this game.

Such is the stature of Parkin that Mellor finds himself in the unusual position of being the ‘little’ man in the front two combination despite standing six feet tall and weighing in at 14 stone himself. A product of Liverpool’s youth academy who is best remembered for a thumping last minute Kop end winner against Arsenal in 2004 he lost his way somewhat thereafter with poor spells at West Ham and Wigan preceding his move to Preston in 2006. Mellor always looks like a very good player when we play Preston - he is averaging a goal every other game so far this season with six in 12 and although he missed last season’s meeting between these sides through injury he scored when they drew 2-2 here in 2007/08.

The creative spark from the midfield, and danger from set pieces, comes from Scottish midfielder Ross Wallace who signed permanently from Sunderland in January after a successful loan spell. A tidy and combative box to box player who started life with Celtic before moving to Sunderland and then Deepdale. While he has only scored once this season he is very dangerous with long range free kicks and scored an absolute pearler to win a game at Birmingham at the end of last season in the last minute. That goal, as good as you’re ever likely to see, was the final kick of the match, kept Preston’s play off hopes alive, sent Birmingham into the last week of the season not knowing their fate and in amongst all this drama and emotion Wallace was sent off for over celebrating in the ultimate kill-joy moment. He therefore missed the match between these sides at Deepdale on the final day of the season. How heavily he will feature after a trip to Japan with Scotland at the weekend remains to be seen but QPR, without Martin Rowlands, may find it difficult to keep tabs on him, Richard Chaplow and Velice Shumulikoski in an attractive North End midfield line up.

Links >>> Preston Official Website >>> Preston Message Board

History
Recent Meetings:
The sides last met at Deepdale on the final day of the 2008/09 season. QPR’s campaign has long since ended but Preston still had an outside chance of the making the play offs if they could win and other results went their way. The game seemed to be petering out into a typical end of season draw when a mix up between Cerny and Gorkss allowed Parkin to open the scoring for PNE before the break, and then Patrick Agyemang riffled in a leveller against his former club immediately after the oranges. There then came news from Hillsborough however that Cardiff were in fact behind, meaning one Preston goal would move them into the top six. Sure enough from a Parkin long throw St Ledger came up from the back to force a header over the line and lift the roof off Deepdale. A mass pitch invasion followed the final whistle but Sheffield United would prove too strong for Irvine’s men in the knockout semi final.

Preston: Lonergan 6, Jones 6, St. Ledger 8, Mawene 6, Nolan 5, Whaley 7 (Nicholson 79, 6), McKenna 8, Carter 7, Sedgwick 7, Parkin 7 (Elliott 88,-), Mellor 5 (Brown 61, 6)
Subs Not Used: Neal, Chilvers
Booked: Jones (foul), St. Ledger (foul)
Goals: Parkin 37 (unassisted), St. Ledger 74 (assisted Parkin/Brown)

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 6, Connolly 7, Gorkss 6, Delaney 6, Routledge 7, Leigertwood 5, Mahon 7 (Balanta 83, -), Ephraim 8, Agyemang 6 (German 75, 6), Vine 8
Subs Not Used: Cole, Hall, Alberti
Booked: Leigertwood (foul), Connolly (dissent)
Goals: Agyemang 57 (assisted Vine)

These sides fought out a five goal thriller at Loftus Road in December 2008 with Dexter Blackstock rising from the bench to win the game for QPR four minutes from time. Things started well for Rangers when a beautiful cross from Lee Cook was headed powerfully into the net by eider Helguson and although Preston quickly drew level through Chris Sedgwick the R’s went back in front before half time when Helguson bundled home a corner after Damion Stewart won the initial header. PNE came out firing after the break but owed their equaliser on the hour to Premiership referee Alan Wiley who disgracefully adjudged Radek Cerny to have fouled Sean St Ledger when he clearly and obviously took all the ball. Callum Davidson slammed in the resulting penalty. There was more drama to come though as Blackstock, on for Ramage, climbed highest at the back post to magnificently head home a cross from Martin Rowlands to win a fantastic game 3-2.

QPR: Cerny 6, Delaney 4 (Hall 80, 6), Stewart 7, Ramage 7 (Blackstock 80, 8), Gorkss 7, Ephraim 7, Rowlands 7, Mahon 4 (Leigertwood 62, 6), Cook 8, Agyemang 7, Helguson 8
Subs Not Used: Ledesma, Di Carmine
Booked: Delaney (foul)
Goals: Helguson 16 (assisted Cook), 34 (assisted Stewart), Blackstock 86 (assisted Rowlands)

Preston: Lonergan 6, Davidson 7, Mawene 5, St. Ledger 5, Nolan 7, Nicholson 6, Sedgwick 7 (Whaley 90, -), McKenna 7, Wallace 8, Parkin 7, Chris Brown 7
Subs Not Used: Neal, Hawley, Carter, Jones
Booked: Sedgwick (foul)
Goals: Sedgwick 28 (assisted McKenna), Davidson 60 (penalty)

Head to Head:
QPR wins -8
Draws – 12
Preston wins – 11

Previous Results:
2008/09 Preston 2 QPR 1 (Agyemang)
2008/09 QPR 3 Preston 2 (Helguson 2, Blackstock)
2007/08 QPR 2 Preston 2 (Blackstock, Ainsworth)
2007/08 Preston 0 QPR 0
2006/07 QPR 1 Preston 0 (Blackstock)
2006/07 Preston 1 QPR 1 (Ainsworth)
2005/06 QPR 0 Preston 2
2005/06 Preston 1 QPR 1 (Shittu)
2004/05 QPR 1 Preston 2 (Furlong)
2004/05 Preston 2 QPR 1 (Santos)
2000/01 Preston 5 QPR 0
2000/01 QPR 0 Preston 0

Played for both clubs:
Gareth Ainsworth
Preston 1991-1995 & 2002
QPR 2003-Present
Wild Thing first spread his wings at Preston, beginning his career at Deepdale. Like at many of the clubs Ains has played for he was a big fans’ favourite at North End in two different spells at the club. After scoring fourteen goals in just under four seasons at Preston, Gareth moved to Lincoln where he was such a cult hero he came fourth in a poll to find the 100 best players to play for the Imps. Two seasons at Port Vale followed before Gareth got his big move to the Premier League with a £2 million transfer to Wimbledon. Unfortunately injuries hampered his career with the Dons and found himself struggling for a first team place. Craig Brown brought him back to Preston on loan and it looked like a permanent transfer was on the horizon until Gareth chose Cardiff instead.

He only lasted one season in Wales and in 2003 signed for QPR and he got off to the perfect start with two goals in an opening day 5-0 romp against Blackpool. That was followed up a month later with two of the greatest goals to ever come off a QPR boot in the 3-3 draw with Rushden and Diamonds. Over the next five seasons Gareth would become one of the most popular players at Loftus Road and build a real bond with both the fans and the club.

Following the takeover and under manager Gigi De Canio, he became a vital voice on the touchline between the manger and players which was rewarded and the start of the 2008/09 campaign when he was named player/coach as Iain Dowie was installed as manager. Fifteen games later Ainsworth found himself in complete control of the R’s in a caretaker basis as Dowie was sacked. He was in charge of Rangers for five games including a hard-fought point at Reading and beating promotion chasing Birmingham at Loftus Road with just ten men. He served as assistant to Paulo Sousa and took over as caretaker again when he was dismissed before the end of the season. Citing a desire to continue his playing career Ainsworth went back to being a standard squad member this summer and is currently the longest serving player at the club. Immensely popular with the QPR fans.

Links >>> QPR 3 Preston 2 Match Report >>> Preston 2 QPR 1 Match Report >>> Match Report Archive >>> Connections and Memories

This Saturday
Team News: QPR will of course be without skipper Martin Rowlands who awaits the result of his knee scan after being carried off while on international duty during the week. Akos Buzsaky, who scored for Hungary against Denmark, Kaspars Gorkss and Adel Taarabt have all returned from their respective trips abroad unscathed. Gareth Ainsworth is a couple of weeks away from full fitness, no certain return date has yet been set for Angelo Balanta and Lee Cook is a long term absentee. Fitz Hall had a run out for the reserves during the week following his groin injury and is likely to be on the bench at least. Ben Watson serves a one game ban following his red card at Swansea.

Preston have used the international break to ease Paul Parry and Callum Davidson back into full training and both are competing for a place on the bench if not the starting eleven.

Elsewhere: The Saturday evening televised game sees Newcastle (yes, again) travel to Nottingham Forest. Other than that the South Yorkshire derby between Doncaster and Barnsley is probably the most eye catching fixture with Scunthorpe v Sheffield United also sure to be keenly contested. Following the international break all media eyes will probably now return to Roy Keane who has the look of a man about to go on the rampage with Ipswich five points adrift at the bottom and without a win in eleven matches. They face Swansea at Portman Road this Saturday before Watford come calling on Tuesday and you would think that surely to Christ they will be able to beat one of those two.

Referee: Nottinghamshire official Russell Booth is in charge at Loftus Road on Saturday – the second time he has had appointments with these two sides although the first time we have come across him since 2006 when we beat Barnsley 1-0 at Loftus Road. Booth is normally a sensible official who gives games every chance and tries to keep the cards in his pocket. That is in stark contrast to our referee for Reading on Tuesday – one Andy Hall.

Links >>> Dean Sturridge Memorial Injury List >>> Arthur Gnohere Discipline Counter >>> Booth represents calm before the storm >>> Tony's Championship Preview >>> Referee League

Form
QPR: Prior to the 2-0 defeat at Swansea immediately before the two week break QPR were on a run of six league games without defeat, and had lost just once in eight games in all competitions. The two red cards received by QPR in South Wales go some way to explaining defeat in a game we surely would never have lost otherwise and even though we are without both our central midfield players for this game the form book gives us good reason to be confident. The R’s are yet to lose in five home games this season but drew three of those games 1-1 with Forest, Peterborough and Blackpool. A betting man would suggest 1-1 is a decent punt at any QPR game - Rangers have been deadlocked at that score five times already this season and have participated in games with a winning margin of more than a goal on only two occasions so far. Preston are tricky opponents for us at Loftus Road and have avoided defeat in six of their last ten visits. The last visiting team to win on this ground was Norwich 12 games ago.

Preston: The value of turning draws into wins is shown clearly by Preston who have lost the same number of games as QPR this year, two, but currently sit fifth while QPR languish in 13th. Preston have five wins and four draws from 11 games played and currently sit five points behind leaders Newcastle on 19 points. On the road they have won two and drawn two of five with the victories coming at Barnsley (0-3) and Leicester (1-2), the draws at Doncaster and Ipswich (both 1-1) and the defeat at Scunthorpe (3-1). An impressive record, but it could fairly be argued that this Saturday represents their biggest test. Preston are scoring plenty of goals, 18 in total, but come into this game with just one win from their last four games. Last year Preston won just five times away from home, and lost ten, but still finished in the play off places before their away form let them down again at Sheffield United in the semi final.

Prediction: I originally had the two home games this week marked down for four points with QPR playing well and looking confident. This game without Watson and Rowlands through suspension was always likely to be tough so a draw is about the best we can hope for, but with those two back on Tuesday, I reasoned, Reading should be easily swept aside. Now, with Rowly sweating on knee scan results, I’m not so confident about either these games or the rest of the season depending on how long he I out for. Without Watson we will lack direction and and without Rowlands we will lack leadership and Preston are a good solid side. Remember you can win W12 t-shirts from ilovemypostcode.com by predicting the score, first scorer and gate of this match - post your guesses on the message board thread.
Narrow defeat

Links >>> Championship Table >>> Total Form >>> Home Form >>> Away Form >>> Prediction League >>> Fantasy League

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