Postcard from Hull - Preview
Saturday, 16th Mar 2019 10:49 by Clive Whittingham Queens Park Rangers, bang out of form, are away at Hull City this afternoon, looking to recover from a midweek debacle against Rotherham.
Hull City (14-8-15, DLWWLL, 13th) v QPR (12-7-18, LLWLDL, 18th)
Lancashire and District Senior League >>> Saturday March 16, 2019 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather — Strong winds, pouring rain >>> The Circle, Kingston-upon-Hull
Well, hello from Hull, where the mood among the travelling QPR fans is as bleak as the weather.
It’s a rare Saturday morning match preview this week. That’s partly because of the extreme workload created by QPR’s ridiculous fixture list over the past couple of months catching up with us — playing on a Wednesday rather than a Tuesday just ran us clean out of time/will to live.
Partly because we drove up here yesterday en masse when we usually spend Friday afternoon writing, and three separate people decided to try and kill themselves by high speed motorway crash in front of us on the A1 over the course of six gruelling hours for a journey that usually takes two and a half. I was pretty jealous of them to be fair, all tangled up in their flaming wreckage, but do it on your own time lads.
And partly because we spent last night watching a big, physical Wakefield Trinity side run all over the top of my other love, Hull FC, while a local woman screeched swear words I didn’t even realise I knew right into the back of our heads. It’s fine, I’m getting used to losing. Dropping my car keys during the one moment of excitement we conjured up and having to wait until everybody had left to find them under a seat two rows away I could have done without, but it’s been that sort of week. BBC Radio Roverside tried to cheer us up on the way back by telling us that Jarrod Bowen has taken to his sickbed and probably won’t play today. But I suspect they lied. And I suspect it wouldn’t matter anyway.
But mainly because I don’t know what to say. I did sit down last night after we’d got back and tried to write this, but I ended up just staring at the screen for a long time. What can you say? We’ve analysed it, we’ve come up with all manner of reasons, we’ve sympathised with them, we’ve been angry and now, after Wednesday, we’ve been ashamed of them. And when Steve McClaren says “we’ve addressed it with the players and we need a response” we can’t help but think that we’ve travelled to the other end of the country to watch us concede an early goal, pissball about in our own half for a bit, concede another goal, and head off home again.
I’ll leave it there I think, because as you can tell I’m not in the mood. But I do hope they realise just what sort of financial, time and personal commitment a lot of people make to turning up to support them every week and what a sordid piss take of all of us that was on Wednesday night. Even a modicum of professionalism, the occasional pass to a team mate, the occasional threat on the goal, would be a vast improvement on the Rotherham debacle. That doesn’t sound like a big ask, but I guess we’ll see.
Links >>> Bowen starring for Hull — Interview >>> On the Wembley trail — History >>> That Stoke isn’t funny any more — Podcast >>> Martin in charge — Referee
Saturday
Team News: Geoff Cameron made the bench in the week after more than three months out, and will surely be restored to the starting 11 here. Angel Rangel is still a couple of weeks away. Grant Hall returns from his one game ban after the sending off v Stoke.
Hull have Markus Henriksen suspended for two games after reaching ten yellow cards and Jordy De Wijs is ill. Star man Jarrod Bowen has back, shoulder, and sickness issues but is on for a club record goal in eight consecutive home games so may well just be wheeled out in a body bag and parked in the general vicinity of the goal to see if anything bounces in off him. This would still be significantly more goal threat than we’ve posed for the last three matches.
Elsewhere: No league games for Swanselona and Millwall Scholars this weekend as they contest FA Cup quarter finals. Frank Lampard’s Derby County and Bristol City the two teams that sit out with them.
That leaves ten fixtures for Saturday, starting with the early Yorkshire derby between promotions chasers Sheffield Red Stripes and the Champions of Europe. Game of the day by some distance that one. Promotion chasers looking to take advantage of a slip from either side there may find the going tough, with Pulisball away to Big Racist John and the Boys and managerless West Brom facing their toughest game of the season away to Justice League leaders Spartak Hounslow. You’d fancy Borussia Norwich away at Rotherham — mind you you’d have fancied us against Rotherham too in theory.
Down at the bottom there’s a relegation six pointer and local derby between Wigan Warriors and Bolton, while Reading got to Stoke. Ipswich Down are hosting Nottingham Trees. Elsewhere Sheffield Owls host the Mad Chicken Farmers and Preston Knob End are at home to Birmingham.
Referee: Co-star of the 1987 John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles Steve Martin is the man in the middle for this one. Details.
Form
Hull City: When Hull arrived at Loftus Road at the start of December they’d won only four of their first 19 league games and were deep in relegation trouble. They won 3-2 that day, and looked good doing it, and then embarked on a run of one draw and five consecutive victories. That run eventually stretched to three defeats and ten wins from 17 matches to push them to within play-off contention. They have fallen off a little recently, with four defeats from seven games, including a 5-1 loss at Brentford and losses in their last two matches. Their home form has been formidable though — nine games unbeaten here, seven of them wins, five of those to nil.
QPR: Rangers haven’t won in ten visits to Hull in the league dating back to 1970 but did win at Boothferry Park in the League Cup in 1985 (5-1) and 1991 (0-3). The R’s arrive in this match with ten defeats and two draws from their last 14 games in all comps. The win at home to Leeds three games ago is their only league victory this year, the only maximum haul since Ipswich were beaten at Loftus Road on Boxing Day 13 league games ago. Having stuck four away wins on the board by Christmas, compared to just three in the whole of last season, Rangers are now without a win in six on the road and have lost the last five scoring just twice.
Prediction: A new leader of our Prediction League as the season end draws near with KensalRiseR now atop the division. The winner of our Prediction League this year gets goodies from our generous sponsor Art of Football. Get involved by lodging your prediction here or sample the merch from our sponsor’s QPR collection here. Reigning champion Elliott reckons…
“43 bloody games. Typical QPR at it’s very best. We desperately need this coming international break just to get some sort of cohesion back into this team. We look absolutely lost with nowhere to go. If Hull playing anything close to how they played at our place a few months ago, it’ll be a cricket score here.”
Elliott’s Prediction: Hull 3-1 QPR. Scorer — Nahki Wells.
LFW’s Prediction: Hull 2-0 QPR. No scorer.
The Twitter @loftforwords
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Blogs 31 bloggersKnees-up Mother Brown #19 by wessex_exile February, and the U’s enter the most pivotal month of the season. Six games in just four weeks, with four of them against sides also in the bottom six. By March we should be either well clear of danger, or even deeper in the sh*t. With Danny Cowley’s U’s still unbeaten, and looking stronger game on game, I’m sure it’ll be the former, but first we have to do our bit to consign Steve ‘Sour Grapes’ Cotterill’s FGR back to non-league. After our shambolic 5-0 defeat at New Lawn, nothing would give me greater pleasure, even if it meant losing one of my closest awaydays in the process. What’s the excuse going to be today Steve – shocking pitch, faking head injuries, Mexican banditry or some other bit of sour-grapery bullsh*t? Queens Park Rangers Polls |
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