QPR and Coventry formed two of the bottom four when they last met in October, but meet tonight for the return fixture both midtable and just four points off the top six.

Coventry (11-8-12 WWWWLL 12th) v QPR (10-11-10 LWWLLW 13th)

Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Tuesday February 11, 2025 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather – It’s not going to bother getting light. Also cold. >>> Middle of Nowhere, ostensibly near Coventry but not really

There were still another five winless games to come, including the home debacle against Middlesbrough, when a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry in the first meeting made it eight without victory for Queens Park Rangers.

Coventry’s opener, scored after just four minutes ostensibly by Haji Wright, was a disaster of many parents and arguably the most defensively shambolic yet of an appalling start to the season for Marti Cifuentes’ team.

The first sign of a remarkable recovery which has seen QPR win nine of 15 games and rise to within just four points of the play offs was there that night though. Kieran Morgan rose from the bench for just his second ever appearance in senior football and within a few minutes had scored a Loft End equaliser - albeit aided and abetted by Cov keeper Oliver Dovin’s odd decision to dive out of the way of the shot, doing his former Hammarby manager a big favour in the process.

Morgan has since gone on to become something of a mainstay of the team despite his young age. He has a new multi-year contract banked and was recently described by The Athletic as one of the most exciting prospects outside the Premier League and QPR’s best young player since Ebere Eze. He hasn’t scored a goal since that Coventry game, though. It perhaps says something about what was going on with this team in the first few months of the season that having a midfielder in there who covers big distances and passes the ball forwards has made such a big difference and attracted such attention and plaudits.

We can always be guilty of reading too much into these things. Perhaps it was just a case of trying to bed in a challenging profile of new signings at the same time as losing key players to injury down the spine of the team. It did feel a little bit like we’d come out of last season thinking we’d cracked it, though. In play off form for much of the second half of last season, winning the final three matches including that 4-0 shellacking of Leeds, there was a deal of optimism around that with a great manager, more FFP headroom and without the millstone of two wins in the first 17 games to weigh us down we could finally sit back and enjoy something approaching a relaxing, enjoyable season following our team after three years of purgatory.

The recruitment and tactics possibly reflected that. Lots of projects and little ‘tens’, not a lot of Championship experience and knowhow. We started the season trying to execute a mega-high press, with the likes of Saito, Dembele and Andersen all on the pitch at the same time. Break through that and there was 80 yards or free space for you to move into through a busted midfield, and you don’t win many games of football losing midfield. Maybe an element of arrogance and hubris about it all, changing too much too soon from the basic, pragmatic approach that had brought so many good results to save the previous season.

You’ve got to run, you’ve got to tackle, you’ve got to head the ball. You’ve got to do the nasty, gritty, grimy things in this league. It’s not a division for your big money summer signing to play five games in midfield without attempting, never mind winning, a single tackle. Nicolas Madsen’s withdrawal and Morgan’s emergence has come to represent a return to investing in the basics of Championship football.

The initial results in this turn around were far from pretty. The 2-0 win away against a dire Cardiff side was forced through with backs to the wall and barely a third of the ball. If you’d said at half time in the home match with Oxford that the two teams involved would post the best results in the division over the following month you’d have been certified. A 1-1 at Bristol City played out like a lower league side desperately clinging on for a lucrative replay (used to be a thing, like public libraries) away at a Premier League side. QPR’s goal, and only shot on target in the whole match that day, scored improbably from the halfway line by Paul Smyth, another player unheralded in the summer who has become vital for this team in its new style with his pace and hard yards up and down the right hand side.

That’s the sort of luck the R’s weren’t getting in early season narrow-margin affairs like Plymouth and Hull at home which could easily have been wins on different days with alternate opposition goalkeepers. They’ve settled everybody down, built confidence and momentum, but could easily have gone the other way too. Still, impossible to argue that a switch in tactics and focus on a tight, narrow, blocked up midfield, as opposed to the earlier flamboyant and wide open approach, hasn’t been the catalyst for all of this.

Slowly but surely the performances have come too, starting at Watford away in a game Rangers didn’t win but played really well. After somehow scraping four points from those Oxford and Bristol City games, Rangers were far more accomplished and worthy of a more handsome victory in their 2-1 home success against Preston. Not you, Swansea away, but subsequent showings at home to Watford and Luton and away at Plymouth and Hull were really very good indeed and brought four straight victories to start the year. It made the team changes at Leicester in the cup frustrating, because you’d like to have seen what that level might have brought us against a Prem side if it had been maintained, and the defeats to Sheff Wed and Millwall were anti-climactic.

Blackburn at home last time out though was very gratifying. Admittedly I was only watching this one on stream from the US, which I don’t think often gives a fair reflection of the game and the performance versus being there, but from what I did see I thought we played really well in that game bar the first ten minutes at the start of the second half and, like Preston, deserved to win by more than the 2-1 we ended up with.

For the Rovers game, Cifuentes dared to remove one of the three-man mid-block midfield (Jonathan Varane) and go with Ilias Chair in the ‘ten’ role where he gave his best performance of an injury hit campaign (finishing not included). Now midtable, highly unlikely to have the firepower for a play off push, but similarly with a nice cushion from relegation, it’ll be interesting to see over the coming games whether this represents another subtle turn of the tactical wheel from Cifuentes, particularly at home where Rangers have gone from no wins in their first 11 in all comps to six wins from seven.

It’ll be difficult to do too much other than cling on for dear life in March – a month which QPR start by playing Sheff Utd (2nd), West Brom (5th) and Boro (7th) away, then Leeds (1st) at home in 14 traumatic days – but QPR have Cov tonight, Derby at home on Friday and Portsmouth before that and then precious little to worry about on the other side until we get to the final two matches of the season.

Will the Cruyffian disciple look, once again, to open his team up into a more attacking, expansive, ambitious shape and system now the ship is steadied and new signings have bedded in? And will that bring the rewards it did against Preston and Blackburn? Or will sides exploit that extra space through midfield once more?

We’ll get more clues this evening when the R’s face Coventry once more. The Sky Blues had won only four of their first 18 games and while Rangers decided to stick with Marti Cifuentes, Cov jettisoned Mark Robins after a decade of success and took the bold move of giving Frank Lampard another swing at management. The results have been nearly as impressive as our own, and what was a clash of 24th v 21st last time is now 12th v 13th with both just four points shy of the top six.

Who wins out remains to be seen, but it’ll likely look and feel a good deal different to how it did in October.

Links >>> Lampard makes his point – Oppo Profile >>> Copa De Ibiza – History >>> Newbie – Referee >>> Coventry City — Official Website >>> Coventry Telegraph — Local Press >>> Sky Blues Talk — Forum >>> Sky Blues Blog — Blog >>> Sideways Sammy — Blog >>> The Lonely Season — Blog >>> Sky Blues TV - Classic Match Highlights >>> Access All Areas — Podcast

Below the fold

Team News: With Zan Celar and Jake Clarke-Salter both still out long term, Marti Cifuentes will largely be picking from the same group of players he had for the Blackburn game last week. Karamoko Dembele and Lucas Andersen are both back in full training for the first time since their respective injuries pre-Burnley and Norwich away.

Haji Wright has scored in the last two meetings between these sides but has been out since the start of November with an ankle injury and has a few more weeks to go yet. Ben Sheaf is also out medium term. Ephron Mason-Clark has an outside chance of returning for this game though after suffering a hamstring problem on Boxing Day. Jake Bidwell will also miss the meeting with his former club. Matt Grimes will likely debut after signing from Swansea and missing the weekend game with Ipswich cup tied.

Elsewhere: The big news in the Championship this week is John Eustace’s somewhat surprising decision to swap sixth-placed Blackburn for relegation haunted Derby.

Even allowing for Eustace commuting to Lancashire every day from the family home in the Midlands, the decision to take on the ailing Rams, now just one point from their last eight games, at a time when their best player has been sold to Brighton, their second best player is injured for the season, and the transfer window has closed seems a bold decision. It also says a lot about the state of things behind the scenes at Ewood Park. Eustace is said to be unhappy with the notorious ownership situation there and lack of backing for their unlikely promotion push. Blackburn took the unusual step of issuing a statement before the move was completed, saying they’d reluctantly granted permission after a £500k release clause was met and criticising Eustace’s stance – pointing to the late deadline day additions of strikers Cauley Woodrow and Emmanuel Dennis. Amidst it all, Derby have a home game with Oxford and former manager Gary Rowett tonight while Blackburn are at West Brom tomorrow.

Three other games tonight see Red Bull Leeds, now five points clear of third at the top of the table, heading to rapidly descending Watford. There’s a six pointer at the bottom end as Portsmouth and Cardiff both have a chance to put daylight between them and the bottom three. Norwich, quietly climbing into play off contention once more, are at home to Preston Knob End – some midweek trip that for the hardy away fans.

The three teams immediately chasing Leeds at the top all have a home fixture on Wednesday night. The pick of those is second placed Sheffield Red Stripe at home to Middlesbrough, who are first in line to take that final play-off spot from Blackburn should their annual post-Christmas collapse really set in after this managerial turmoil. Scott Parker’s scintillating Burnley are drawing 0-0 at home to Hull this week while Sunderland host surprise strugglers Luton – still second bottom and without a win in nine despite their own managerial change and a host of January signings.

A definite come down from the highs of Sunday’s remarkable cup result against Liverpool for Plymouth – they’re at home to Millwall.

The midweek list is rounded out by Swansea, who got a much needed win at the weekend, at home to Sheff Wed and Bristol City, who the Swans surprisingly knocked over at Ashton Gate, hosting Stoke.

Referee: Will Finnie, who made his Championship debut in April last year, gets his first QPR career appointment in this game. Details.

Form

Coventry: Mark Robins’ sacking after a decade of continued success at Coventry was widely condemned as the latest example of a sport gone mad. The Sky Blues had four wins from their first 14 games and were 17th in the Championship at that point. The decision to then go with Frank Lampard as his replacement was also met with derision, but having won seven, drawn two and lost four of their last 13 City are now 12th and only four points shy of the play-offs. That steady climb up the table was given a significant shot in the arm by four consecutive wins through January at home to Bristol City and Watford and away at Blackburn and Swansea. They are, to be fair, all games you’d expect this Coventry side to beat, even allowing for several injuries to key players outlined above, and they’ve since been comfortably beaten at home in league and cup by Leeds (2-0) and Ipswich (4-1).

City’s overall home record is 7-3-5 with Norwich, Swansea, Sheff Wed, Derby and Leeds the sides to win here. Four of those losses were prior to the change of manager and City had been unbeaten here in eight league and cup games prior to that defeat to the league leaders. Haji Wright, who has scored in the last two meetings with QPR, is still the top league scorer here with seven goals despite last playing on November 7. His ankle injury against Sunderland particularly ill-timed in the middle of a personal run of four goals in five fixtures.

Few sides took advantage of QPR’s two-year meltdown quite as well as Coventry. They won their two visits to Loftus Road in 22/23 and 23/24, scoring three goals on each occasion, although Rangers did snap a three-game losing sequence against this opposition when they won the end-of-season dead rubber 2-1 in the Midlands in May. QPR had been unbeaten in five meetings at Loftus Road prior to that but lost the three immediately before. In Coventry the sides have alternated wins for the last five meetings (2020/21 was behind closed doors at St Andrew’s) which, if the sequence continues, unfortunately means it’s Cov’s turn tonight. Rangers were the first visitors to this ground when it opened in 2005/06, losing 3-0. The R’s have since posted a 4-1-4 record on this ground.

QPR: The victory against Blackburn was QPR’s ninth in their last 15 league games having started the season with one win in the first 16. Since drawing 1-1 with Stoke in November, only the top three have taken more points than QPR and only Leeds and Sunderland have picked up more points in 2025. It was also a good recovery from defeats to Sheff Wed and Millwall, the first time the R’s have lost consecutive games since losing to Leeds and Boro in November. It leaves the R’s with 41 points from 31, 12 more than they had at the same stage of last season.

Marti Cifuentes’ team were beaten 2-1 at Millwall in their last away game having won the previous two road trips at Plymouth and Hull. Those victories ended a run of five away games without a win and just one victory (Cardiff) in 11 league and cup games away from Loftus Road. In W12 QPR have won 18 points from their last 21 available at Loftus Road (W6 L1), scoring 2+ goals in each victory in this run.

Ilias Chair was much improved on his recent form when used in the ‘ten’ role against Blackburn last time out, but his wayward finishing in that game means it’s now 20 games without a goal for the Moroccan – his longest sequence as a QPR player. His last goal was a 25 yard scorcher (and do use that word) in this fixture on the final day of last season.

Prediction: In our Prediction League for 2024/25 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. For the first time last year we had joint winners so this season you’ll be hearing from one or both WestonsuperR and SimplyNico in the match previews.

Nico’s Prediction: “We return from our week off after the home win against Blackburn to a trip to Fat Frank’s Coventry City. We looked really good against Blackburn, a useful side under John Eustace. Coventry have also been enjoying something of an upturn under Lampard (even allowing for the FA Cup result at the weekend and loss to Leeds). Although Coventry have had three games this week, I think this one is finely poised. Sadly, I think it will be a loss - we can’t win them all.”

Weston’s Call “Coventry have been on a pretty good run recently and have some real quality players at their disposal, so don’t want to underestimate the task for getting a result there. Let’s hope we can take advantage of the fact Cov had to play on Saturday, were well beaten and we of course have had a week to recover from Blackburn and prepare for this one. I’m calling a tight match with few chances that will end in a draw.”

Nico’s Prediction: Coventry 2-1 QPR. Scorer – Michi Frey

WestonSuperR’s Prediction: Coventry 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Michi Frey

LFW’s Prediction: Coventry 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Jimmy Dunne

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enfieldargh added 14:36 - Feb 11 Well I’m going for a 3-1 win for us so put that in your letter box and post it!!!!😝😝😝😝
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062259 added 17:08 - Feb 11 Rested
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TacticalR added 19:34 - Feb 11 Thanks for your preview and your review of our comparative fortunes since last we met Coventry. We are next to Coventry in both the league table and the form table (over the last 6 games). Having said that, Coventry spent some money in the summer, and do look to have some firepower, even if their top scorer (Wright) is out. It will be interesting to see how we match up against another side in the mid-table pack.

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