It’s been a fantastic week for QPR as Tuesday night’s cliffhanger ending against Birmingham pumps the R’s back into play-off contention, but it’s a daunting trip to high flying Middlesbrough ahead.

Middlesbrough (11-6-3 WDLWWW 2nd) v QPR (9-4-7 DWWLWW 7th)

Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Saturday December 13, 2025 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Bright, breezy, chilly >>> Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough

From one of those nights under the lights at Loftus Road, to one of those third games in a three-game week at the other end of the country. Be honest, who doesn’t want to go to Middlesbrough in the middle of December? You love it. … Hello?

We’ll deal with the game at hand first this week to get it out of the way, because with four wins in five games and the bruised shin/drowned liver after effects of Tuesday night’s adrenalin dump still fresh (or, whatever the opposite of fresh is) you’ve got to be positive about Queens Park Rangers at the moment.

However, I do think we’ll be fortunate to get anything from tomorrow’s game. Not only because of all the logistical issues we beat ourselves to death with around Norwich and our historic struggles at the back end of these three-game weeks – though we did play the same midweek day as our opponent this time, and Boro had a mammoth slog of their own down to Charlton on Tuesday – but also because you’re playing a really good side, in red hot form, on their own patch.

Rob Edwards’ Mick Beale tribute act, rather than derail Boro, if anything seems to have galvanised them. I watched them last Friday night at Hull, themselves a top half side as it stands, and they were absolutely electric – 4-0 up before half time. Kim Hellberg has hit the ground running with three straight victories, and one of our post-Cifuentes Hammarby contacts described him as “Cifuentes but much faster and more attacking football. Don’t be surprised if Boro see plenty of 3-3s second half of the season.”

I’d certainly take that scoreline tomorrow but Boro’s key strength is in the middle of midfield, where Hayden Hackney is about as good as they come at this level. We lost faith in Boro in this year’s season preview after years of tipping them to go up, and that was largely because we expected Hackney to be moving to Ipswich. Partnered in the middle with Aidan Morris, that’s arguably the Championship’s best central midfield. In playing two up front with two wide QPR have been willing to sacrifice numbers in the centre of the park and play with just Jonathan Varane and Nicolas Madsen. The former is in patchy form, at best, for me and, while Madsen has improved immeasurably and was very good again midweek, we are prone to getting outnumbered and overwhelmed through there, as happened at Carrow Road. I wonder if Julien Stéphan may be tempted to sacrifice an attacker for another warm body in the middle here – Kieran Morgan, Isaac Hayden etc etc.

Either way a very difficult game, and a real statement piece if Rangers do go there and get a positive result.

To be fair, we’ve had one of those already this week. I concluded the midweek preview by saying we’d know a lot more about our side and its capabilities come 10pm Tuesday night, and almost everything we learned about the lads in the Birmingham game was a positive.

Stéphan made a big deal when he arrived of talking about how he doesn’t mind his players making mistakes as long as they react to them in a positive way. That can be quite scary to hear as a fan because it’s basically indicating that we’re going to concede a tonne of goals, but Tuesday was a prime example of what I think he was talking about. I felt pig sick when Birmingham scored. So late, so underserved, so much effort expended on the pitch, so many nerves shredded in the stands, and you end up with a poxy point. And yet the players had it within them to get straight back on the attack, winning a free kick, packing the box, putting a cross in, retrieving, having a penalty appeal, recycling again with a calm ball back to Morgan, and of course his goal, but if you look at the bodies we had in penalty area for that it was extraordinary. I think a lot of QPR teams of the past would have just seen out the draw and sulked about it after. Having criticised the mentality after Norwich, it’s worthy of praise here because it’s not easy to pick yourself up from a gut punch like that and go again.

I feel like we’re growing as a team and really starting to see what a Stéphan side looks like. It’s hard coming into a new club, in a new country, with a new language, following a popular and charismatic previous manager into the bargain, and put your stamp on things. We’d heard in France about his fondness for two up front, about his ability and history of developing wide players, and talked in the summer about the exciting prospect of a classic QPR 4-4-2 set up with strikers and wingers and crosses and goals. That Koki Saito assist in the week was pure David Bardsley, and the whole performance and style was very reminiscent of some of the nights we had at Loftus Road under Ian Holloway first time around. Not technically perfect, not winning any prizes for aesthetics, quite direct, but just relentless, aggressive, high up the pitch, pace, width. It’s very difficult to play against and exhilarating to watch when it’s executed like that.

Stéphan still makes some very strange decisions – the unchanged team at Norwich, Esquerdinha against Ipswich. Deciding to put Kieran Morgan on at right back on Tuesday, rather than shift Dunne out there and introduce Morrison, would have been held up afterwards as a grave tactical error as it freed Demarai Gray for the first time on the night to set the equaliser up. Of course, Morgan then ends up scoring the winner, Stéphan has a quiet word with the subs on the pitch at the end of the game, and we move on with joy in our hearts and praise for the boss, because one kick of the ball went into the net instead of wide. That’s football, and football management.

I’m enjoying how his team is playing by and large. More of the same please Rangers. More of the same.

The big improvements in the recruitment we spoke about over the summer are also starting to show through. After messing up the prior off season transfer window, this time the club made a noticeable, concerted effort to add pace, power and athleticism to a fantastically slow and tiny side. Rumarn Burrell is getting the headlines and could be another project to add to Stéphan’s reputation of developing players in forward positions, Richard Kone has had some long overdue praise for his last two performances, and the more teams pisball around trying to play out from the back in front of those two the better because they’ll have you. Amadou Mbengue also had a terrific game against Birmingham, his best for the club so far, and absolutely pocketed Gray who is just the sort of player we wouldn’t have been able to physically cope with a year ago.

Christian Nourry, Andy Belk and the backroom staff at the club deserve credit for that, and putting together a much more in-depth squad than we’ve had previously on a challenging budget. I keep bouncing back two years and looking at our bench for this week then compared to now – for a 0-0 against Plymouth Marti Cifuentes could glance along his subs and see luminaries Archer, Clarke-Salter, Cannon, Larkeche, Drewe, Richards, Dixon-Bonner, Smyth and Armstrong. Now we’re bringing people like Poku, Saito, Dembele, Hayden, Cook off the bench. Imagine two years ago knocking out wins like we have this week while Ilias Chair and Sam Field were both missing. Stéphan could do with using those subs a bit more, a bit sooner – the changes made against West Brom were obviously needed ten minutes before they came and the Baggies pulled a goal back in that period of dithering - but the squad is much stronger than it was, unquestionably.

That means we’re not having to rush players back from injury, exacerbating their situation. Poku showed in his brief cameo against the Birmingham side he almost signed for in the summer exactly what he’s going to bring, and the prospect of him coming into this this set up, in this form, is arguably even more exciting than when we signed him in the first place – and I was pretty excited then. Jake Clarke-Salter has become something of a standing joke, but you saw against West Brom the difference it makes to our team, and Ilias Chair out wide on the left in particular, having a left-sided defender who can step out and play passes quickly and accurately down that side. The defence and goalkeeper still look pretty ropey to me, and I’m expecting a long afternoon tomorrow and a loss, but if – if - he can get fit and into the team that’s another big plus still to come.

For all that, it’s a squad that had issues in goal, at full back and in central midfield last year, and it still does. You couldn’t really play a team better set up to take advantage of those specific weak spots than Middlesbrough. So, I’ve no doubt if we get our arse handed to us tomorrow, which we very well could do, and have to traipse back down the A1 after a chunky loss then the message board and social media will be lit up again, it’ll be all doom and gloom. I’ll return to my natural state of pissed right off. Taking six points from these three-game weeks is a good return regardless, and will get you up the table – Rangers now in the dizzying heights of seventh.

It’ll be interesting to see what the manager, and the squad, learned from that Norwich experience and what it translates to in the North East tomorrow. There’s a lot to be positive about regardless of how it goes (this must not, I repeat not, be taken as an excuse to lose 7-1 again).

Links >>> Hellberg’s hot start – Oppo Profile >>> Ferdinand’s late strike – History >>> Smith in charge – Referee >>> Middlesbrough Official Website >>> Teeside Gazette — Local Paper >>> FMTTM — Message Board >>> Boro Breakdown – Podcast >>> One Boro — Forum >>> Bonkers for Boro — Blog >>> Boropolis — Podcast

Below the fold

Team News: It’s almost universally good news from the treatment room for QPR. Sam Field and Ilias Chair left the Norwich and West Brom games early with worrying looking muscular injuries, but the former returned to full training today and the latter should be good to go next week. Jake Clarke-Salter did 70+ minutes against the Baggies, was rested during the week, but is travelling to Boro and may be involved. Kwame Poku got another 11+ minutes under his belt against Birmingham and it would be nice to think we may see a bit more of the ex-Peterborough winger if not here then against Leicester because he’s very exciting. Rhys Norrington-Davies doing all three games in the week feels unlikely given Stéphan’s comments about his physical state, but it’s only really Esquerdinha available as cover out there without a significant defensive reshuffle. Amadou Mbengue’s latest comedy yellow card against Brum leaves him nursing eight bookings already, two shy of a two-game ban with the next amnesty not until round 32. Ben Hamer is available again, Joe Walsh has made it back as far as the bench, Ziyad Larkeche is out for the season.

Middlesbrough had a long trip to Charlton for their midweek round and came back with a 2-1 win which keeps them second in the table behind fly-away leaders Coventry. David Strelec and Sontje Hansen both stayed home poorly and didn’t make that trip but are back in training ahead of Saturday. Dael Fry (calf) hasn’t played since a goalscoring appearance against Birmingham on November 8 and remains sidelined. George Edmundson and Luke Ayling are feeling their respective ways back to fitness from the bench. Alfie Jones has been Hellberg’s only fit, recognised centre back available since he took over, with Matt Targett filling in centrally. But, then, Boro won this fixture last season with the entire back four missing and Jonny bloody Howson playing CB so I wouldn’t all be getting big stiff hard ons about that just yet.

Elsewhere: You could probably dedicate a whole Football Cliches podcast to what is the most Friday night Championship Sky TV pick possible, but West Brom would definitely be involved and Sheff Utd as visitors is a pretty strong contender. With the Baggies well beaten twice already this week and sinking as low as 16th, while Sheff Utd continue to click into gear with 13 points from their last 15, this looks like a decent away win for your coupon, but do bear in mind West Brom are unbeaten in six at home and have lost only four of their last 28 games at The Hawthorns.

The Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular is led by 1993/94 Premiership classic Norwich v Southampton. Philippe Clement hasn’t yet been able to eat into the five point gap to safety since arriving at Carrow Road, but Southampton’s new manager Tonda Eckert is absolutely motoring with six wins from seven and another here will almost certainly lift them into the play-off spots for the first time barely a month after dismissing Will Still. The Saints are on a run of 20 away league games without a clean sheet, last registering one in a 0-0 draw at Fulham in December 2024. They last had a longer stretch without a shutout on the road between March 2009 and February 2010 (21) – which was ended by a 2-0 win at Carrow Road against Norwich.

The other early games are Oxford v Preston and Stoke v Swansea. Oxford boss Gary Rowett has never lost a Championship match against Knob End in 15 attempts (W8 D7). Stoke have started their predictable slide with five defeats from six games, but should be good value against the lowly Swans who have lost their last three away games under three different managers - Alan Sheehan, Darren O’Dea and Vitor Matos.

Leaders Coventry host Bristol City in the pick of the afternoon games, with Ipswich fast approaching now as high as fourth ahead of a trip to Leicester. Beaten 3-2 by Sheff Utd last time out on this ground, the last time the Foxes lost consecutive Championship home games Marti Cifuentes was in the opposite dugout leading QPR to a 2-1 success with a Sinclair Armstrong winner. Third placed Milllllllllllll host Hull.

It's been a challenging week on the road for Birmingham with successive defeats (laugh snort) but they’re back at St Andrew’s this weekend against fellow newly promoted side Charlton (Brum won both meetings in League One) and almost all Chris Davies’ heavy lifting has been done at home this season. Blues have 20 of their 28 points from home games and have won 17 games at St Andrew’s in 2025. Another here would equal the club record of home wins in a calendar year – 18 in 2000.

There’s a relegation six pointer between Pompey and Blackburn at Fratton Park, while Wrexham host the division’s worst away side in Watford - the Hornets have won just one of their last 15 away league games (D4 L10), beating Derby 3-2 in November, while they’ve kept just three clean sheets in their last 34 on the road.

Monday Night Football also comes from our division this week with Sheff Wed hosting Derby. The Owls, perhaps unsurprisingly, are the only side in the league without a home win to their name (D2 L8). The only second tier side to have a longer home winless start to a season was Portsmouth in 1975-76 (12 games).

Referee: It’s occasional Premier League referee Josh Smith for this one, his first QPR fixture since a 2-1 win at Coventry on the final day of the 2023/24 season. Details.

Form

- A fantastic week for QPR with consecutive wins against West Brom and Birmingham at Loftus Road lifting the R’s briefly as high as sixth. Julien Stephan’s side has recovered from a sequence of one win in six to win four of the last five games.

- QPR are ten points better off than this time last year.

- Rob Edwards’ defection to Wolves doesn’t seem to have hurt Middlesbrough’s promotion chances greatly – they’ve won three out of three under his replacement Kim Hellberg and scored eight goals in the process. They’d won only three of 11 league games prior.

- Boro have won ten of their last 15 games on this ground, losing only twice to Coventry who are top and Leeds who went on to win promotion. Won six of their nine League games at home this season, with only defeat coming in that Cov game.
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- Early trip back to the pub if Boro score first? They’re the only Championship side yet to drop a single point from a winning position – ten wins from ten games when scoring first.

- Only Stoke (three) and Sheff Utd (two) have drawn fewer games than QPR (four).

- QPR have won four of their last six visits to The Riverside Stadium, but Middlesbrough did the double over Marti Cifuentes’ side last season and have won the last three meetings home and away.

- QPR haven’t won any of their last six away Championship games in the month of December (D3 L3), last winning back in December 2023 away at Preston.

- Morgan Whittaker has scored three goals in his last five home Championship games for Middlesbrough, having failed to score in any of his first 11 games at the Riverside for the club. Whittaker has scored one goal in each of his last five appearances having scored only two in his prior 33 and failed to score in his first 25 outings in Boro colours. This is the best run of his career.

- Rumarn Burrell spent three years at Middlesbrough (2019-22), playing just a single minute of first-team football before joining Falkirk. Had loan spells at Bradford & Kilmarnock during his time at the Riverside.

- Kieran Morgan (19y 267d) is the youngest player to reach 40 appearances for QPR since Nigel Quashie (19y 136d) in December 1997. @JTSupple

- Only Neil Warnock (ten) has won more of his first 20 games in charge of QPR than Julien Stephan (nine)

Prediction

In our Prediction League for 2025/26 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. QPR_Hibs won last season’s Prediction League at a canter and is lending his thoughts to this year’s previews…

“The next time you buy a second-hand car, or even if you just have to rent a car, try this little experiment. Say to your friends ‘You’ll never believe what I found when I opened the boot.’ They will pretty much be guaranteed to say ‘What? A dead body?’ Unless that’s just what my weird friends say, of course.

“I’ve just bought a second-hand car which is modern enough not to have a printed owner’s manual – it’s a 300-page pdf document on a website. Nor a service schedule and history book – that’s all on an app, which is all very well I’m sure, until something goes wrong. Just for good measure, there’s no spare wheel in the boot either. Just a dead body….

“What a fantastic finish to Tuesday’s game against Birmingham! One of the best nights at Loftus Road for quite a few years. Clive has already written the ultimate match report, so no further comment from me is needed here.

“Next up, we face a tough away match at second placed Middlesbrough, who have only lost once at The Riverside this season, unsurprisingly to Coventry City. Morgan Whittaker, who failed to score for Boro in 16 appearances last season, has found the net in each of their last five matches, so this is definitely a game where we need to play a proper left back, and I expect RND will have to be used for the third time in eight days. Mad Ben Mbengue will also have his work cut out on the other flank against Aussie winger Riley McGree.

“You have to wonder if Rumarn Burrell can keep running for 90 plus minutes every game. The last time that he was substituted was in the 71st minute of the Swansea match, back on 22nd October. He and Kone do seem to be super athletes, so maybe he will continue up front – he certainly deserves to. Paul Narrrrrdi (as the Sky commentator insists on calling him) has done enough to keep his place despite Ben Hamer allegedly being able to play in some sort of face mask. Liam Morrison has more chance of making the Scotland World Cup squad than getting a game from Julien, but JCS was rested on Tuesday, supposedly for this game. Unfortunately I think Boro will be slightly too good for us in the chilly North East.”

QPR_Hibs Prediction: Boro 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

LFW’s Prediction: Boro 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect