QPR return to competitive action on Saturday, taking to the only patch of green grass left in West London to face capital rivals Millwall in the often torturous first round of the League Cup.

QPR (16-10-20 DDLLLL 15th) v Millwall (24-11-11 WWDWDL 3rd)

Rumbelows Cup First Round >>> Saturday August 8, 2026 >>> Kick Off 14.00 >>> Weather – Can you guess? >>> Loftus Road, London, W12

It has not been a great fortnight for football’s power brokers and their grand plans. FIFA’s dildo shaped/brained leader Gianni Infantino’s flagrant attempts to exploit our sport for every cent he can personally extract from it makes you almost pine for the cosy, old fashioned brown envelope corruption of his predecessor. However, as this summer’s Berlin Olympics Sponsored By PepsiCo disappears into the rear-view mirror, hopefully dragging Trump’s fellator-in-chief beneath the waves with it, we do have that rare and beautiful thing to look forward to this Saturday – somebody at the EFL done a good idea.

This final Saturday before the league season has become the day you tend to play your toughest/biggest/showpiece friendly. Tempt a decent crowd in with a captain’s run against Tottenham or Newcastle or Celtic or some such, pick your strongest side and give them a good 75 minutes to get their feet wet, ready to put to sea for real in a week’s time. Then, ten days later, play a Tuesday night League Cup tie in an empty stadium with a scratchy team of bad teenage moustaches and the sort of fake IDs that wouldn’t even pass muster in The White Horse in case the first teamers get tired/injured/bored.

Why not put that cup game on the previous Saturday instead? Bigger crowds, stronger teams, one fewer midweek trip to Northampton/Swindon/Northampton, job’s a good ‘un, right? Well, I guess we’ll find out this weekend. It does worry me a bit that Ian Holloway thought this was a great idea and Mark Warburton did not, but it feels like a no brainer to me.

Monsieur Julien, back for a second season with a REDACTED new contract in his back pocket to replace the REDACTED one we gave him in the first place, says he doesn’t distinguish between league and cup games and will be picking a strong side. That was certainly the case when he was in France, where his reputation was built around a French Cup win with Rennes who came from two down to beat PSG in the final, but does rather invite you to completely forget the debacle we went through at Plymouth a year ago where Rangers turned a 2-0 lead into a 3-2 defeat and first round exit by steadily introducing more and more sixth formers to the fray until Argyle couldn’t help but win the game.

That was spun as a fantastic night for the club and its development programme, and a wonderful moment the rugrats would remember for the rest of their lives, but there was genuine anger around the breakfast tables of the Plymouth Harbour Premier Inn the following morning (someone was writing an actual letter). Giving the development squad a chance to play as reward for their prior cup final win against Brentford would have been one thing, but sticking a load of 16-year-olds out there felt performative – seen to be there rather than there to be seen, or to win. Not one of the youngsters used that night has played a single minute of first team action since bar Tylon Smith.

Such is QPR’s keenness on public perception and coms I wouldn’t think they’ll be trying that one again any time soon. They subsequently went as strong as their chronic injury situation would allow in the FA Cup at West Ham and took a Premier League(ish) team to extra time. This draw with Millwall is less than ideal for either club who would both have surely rather have a nice sedate trip up to Cambridge United or similar tomorrow, but it also probably forces Rangers’ hand a little bit on the team selection.

I think the majority of the club’s support base are probably on the fence with the present regime and head coach. Some good, some bad, some progress, some irritants, but happy to wait and see how things play out for a while longer and pleased we seem to have some harmony and continuity at the top of the organisation. Jury members might start returning harsher verdicts if the team rattles around 15th again for a third consecutive season while ditching out of both cup competitions at the first possible opportunity. Starting the year with a home defeat to a London rival with a big crowd in the School End having a lovely afternoon in the sun would be an unwelcome 'same old, same old' vibe unlikely to be placated by little Freddie Fredderson getting to play on his 16th birthday.

With the money that has been spent (Kone, Burrell, Edwards, Varane, Madsen, Celar, Obikwu etc) and the myriad staff appointments to supplement that it probably is piss or get off the pot time in 2026/27. I’m not saying QPR could or should be promoted, but certainly as a bare minimum they should be moving out of Stokeland 15th/16th and making themselves comfortable in Bristol Cityville 9th/10th/11th. From there, with the play-offs down to eighth, who knows?

Getting beaten at home by a Millwall side beset by pre-season injuries to key players (what’s that coming over the hill? It’s Lyndon Dykes) would be an inauspicious start to what is, on paper, a very kind set of fixtures to begin this year with. Wawll’s play-off semi-final defeat looks to have taken a lot out of them if pre-season results are anything to go by (defeats to Stevenage, Gillingham and FC Andorra). Mind you, they wouldn’t have even had to bother with those two legs against Hull had Rangers pulled their finger out at Ipswich on the final day of the season so a little belated revenge for that pathetic roll over might be on the minds of the visitors.

Add in one Steve Gallen sitting on the other side of the director’s box and the desire for a performance and result grows stronger. Having succeeded where Rangers have so far failed in not only getting a stubborn animal over the dotted line and into the play-offs, but also getting a player trading model up and running with some big sales of the likes of Flemming and Tanganga, he’s something of a thorn in his old club’s side at the moment. Rangers have lost five of their last seven games against Millwall, seven of their last eight London derbies in cups, and had a double done over them by The Lions last year for the first time since 1989. The R’s really wouldn’t welcome a repeat tomorrow afternoon.

QPR have a lot going for them this year: two good strikers capable of big breakout years; several investments in young players going into years two and three of Championship football now nicely settled in; a manager who’s had a year to learn about the division; a kind start in a weaker league; play-offs going down to eighth; surely a more favourable injury list than the last two years… After 11 years in this division, the last four all well in the bottom half of it, we can surely dare to dream of some upward momentum this time.

We’ll dig into all this in-depth next week as our season previewing hell burns to a fiery conclusion Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday and then we look ahead to Portsmouth on Friday. Be great if they could deliver a little positive preview of the preview in a cup competition at last tomorrow afternoon.

Links >>> Cup cliffhanger – History >>> Hungover much? Oppo Profile >>> Donohue in charge – Referee >>> Millwall official website >>> South London Press — Local Paper >>> News at Den — Blog >>> North Stand Banter — Forum >>> News Shopper — Local Paper

Parish Noticeboard…
- The Bakerloo Line is closed between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone. The Overground likewise between Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Road with a reduced service between Willesden Junction and Stratford.
- Usual array of road closures around the back of the School End pre- and post-game for the visit of Millwall. Details here.
- Both clubs will come together before kick off to remember Kenny Jackett, inspirational manager of Millwall and assistant to Ian Holloway during a glorious period in the early 2000s, who sadly died this summer.

Below the fold

Team News: Often the team selections can be more interesting than the games themselves at this early stage of the League Cup, and there will be keen eyes on QPR’s injury list and fitness record in 2026/27 after the disasters of the last two seasons. The scares around Richard Kone and Nicolas Madsen in the Fiorentina game have subsided – Kone played at Wimbledon last week, Madsen will be back for Portsmouth if not this game. Karamoko Dembele and Tariq Lamptey are the long-term carry overs from last season. Justin Obikwu has vanished again. Pierce Charles will be number one this season but I’m interested to see if they give Calum Ward his debut first in the cup. Boy Kemper will also make his first senior start for the club after arriving from Holland. Isak Alemayehu played for the development squad against the PFA XI on Friday afternoon which surprised me a bit – I thought his pre-season form might have got him some minutes in this one.

Millwall have added Lyndon Dykes to their ranks on the eve of this game on a one-year contract, because of course they have. Dykes will provide cover for main man Mihailo Ivanovic who will miss the start of the year with a broken foot. Given the way they flopped in the play-offs there was always a risk of hangover for the Lions at the start of this year and that won’t be helped by the absence of not only Ivanovic but also star defender Tristan Crama who has had surgery this week and their big summer signing in midfield Mathis Servais. Derek Mazou-Sacko, who would be his natural replacement and played so well when these sides met in April, is now also out with a calf issue.

Elsewhere: To avoid the poor, over-worked, under-resourced “Champions” League teams having to go to the trouble of rolling out the hoarded dozens from their puppy farms and provide a bit of a gate receipt windfall to lower division clubs too soon, we now have to have a preliminary round of this competition to get the right number of balls in the draw. Rochdale beat Tranmere on pens last Saturday and then Crawley won 2-0 at York during the week – York a study in self-immolation having sacked Stuart Maynard, who won the Conference with 108 points last year, and replaced him with Scott Lindsey, who was booed by his own fans on his opening night.

Bristol City became the first Championship side to fall to lower league opposition when they lost 1-0 to Walsall on Thursday, and there could be more to come tonight with Wolves at home to Port Vale. Boro and Wrexham meet in an all-Championship clash and Stevenage travel to Wycombe on Friday night as well.

There are 29 fixtures on Saturday between 13.00 and 17.30. Championship clubs heading away to lower league banana skins include Blackburn at Burton Albion (managed by former Rovers favourite Gary Bowyer), Bolton at Sheff Wed who they swapped places with in May, Charlton at Cheltenham, West Brom at Rotherham and Southampton travelling to Colchester (wonder if they’ve felt able to go into that one without having a little peak at their set piece practice in advance?).

There is a tedious number of Championship-on-Championship ties in this year’s first round. Given the main attraction of this early stage of the competition is playing somebody different to the norm and ticking a ground off I wonder whether it might be worth seeding all the second-tier teams involved as the away teams. Mind you, tell that to Portsmouth who are taking 9,000 fans to West Ham on Saturday. Can’t see there being that many at Derby v Lincoln.

There’s an intriguing clash on Sunday afternoon as Sheff Utd make the short trip to face former manager Nigel Clough and his Mansfield Vets EFL retirement home. The tie of the round, though, is the Devon derby between Plymouth and Exeter which should make for a lively Monday Night Football.

Referee: Occasional Premier League referee Matt Donohue seemed to be having some sort of outer body experience when last we crossed paths at Stoke in January, so let’s hope for a more together approach when he takes charge of this all-London clash tomorrow. Details.

Form

- QPR were 15th for the second consecutive season in 2025/26 finishing with 58 points – 15 points from play-offs and 11 from relegation zone. This is a twelfth consecutive season in this league, joint-longest current run with Bristol City and Preston.

- QPR finished last season poorly, with no wins in their final six games and four straight defeats to end. The R’s won only six of 25 games from Boxing Day onwards in 25/26 and just two of their final 15 away games as injuries took their toll on Julien Stéphan’s squad.

- That wasn’t good news for Millwall who needed a favour from Rangers on the final day at Ipswich and ended up coming up one point short of automatic promotion despite losing only one of their final eight games in the regulation league season. They then crashed out of the play-offs against Hull, drawing 0-0 away and losing 2-0 at The Den.

- Millwall made the second tier play-offs for the first time since 2002 after finishing eighth on four different occasions during their current nine-year Championship stint. Their total of 83 points was a club record in the top two divisions.

- No Championship side kept more clean sheets than Millwall last year (18). No team won more away points (41). And only Southampton (28) and Coventry (29) scored more goals from set pieces (26). Josh Coburn finished top scorer with ten.

- QPR conceded more goals (73) than anybody bar Sheff Wed (88) in the league last season and have registered one shut out in their last 15 competitive outings. The R’s have won only two of their last eight home games and only Sheff Wed (44) conceded more home goals than their 37 last year.

- Rumarn Burrell (ten) and Richard Kone (11) were the first QPR players to get into double figures since Andre Gray in 2021/22 (also ten).

- QPR’s last 20 wins have all come with less possession than their opponent – they are yet to win a game this season where they have dominated the ball. The last time it happened was a 2-1 home win against Blackburn in February 2025.

- QPR finished their pre-season with a 3-2 win at League One Wimbledon having beaten Bromley 7-0, Fiorentina 3-2, Wycombe 1-0, Wiener Neustadt 3-1 and drawn 0-0 at First Vienna. Millwall finished up with a 1-0 home win against Royal Antwerp having drawn 1-1 at Bromley, lost 1-0 to Stevenage and Gillingham, beaten CD Eldense 2-1 in a game in which they had two players sent off, and lost 2-1 to FC Andorra.

- QPR beat Orient on penalties after a 1-1 draw in 2021/22 and subsequently beat Oxford 2-0 at home and Premier League Everton on pens after a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road to reach round four where they were conned out of a home win against Sunderland. It was their best performance in the competition since 2008//09 when a shock win against Aston Villa at Villa Park took us into a fourth round 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

- Of course, but for that Keith Stroud-supervised catastrophe, Charlie Austin’s legitimate late goal would have stood and QPR would have had a quarter final at Arsenal — the R’s haven’t been that deep into the competition since 1988/89 when they lost 5-2 at Nottingham Forest.

- The victory at Brisbane Road is the outlier in Jack Supple’s stat of the week that QPR have lost seven of their last eight cup ties against London sides.

- Since that ‘run’ QPR have gone out in the first round at Charlton in 22/23, the same stage at home to Norwich in 23/24, at home to Crystal Palace in round three after knocking out Cambridge and Luton under Marti Cifuentes in 24/25, and then at League One Plymouth in round one a year ago.

- The victory at The Abbey Stadium was the first cup tie QPR had won away from home without a penalty shoot-out since August 2015, when they won at this stage of the comp 3-0 at Yeovil with goals from Polter, JET and Onuoha.

- QPR have still only been to one cup quarter final, in either competition, since 1990 — the 1994/95 FA Cup quarter final away to Man Utd. That was achieved by beating Millwall at Loftus Road in round five with a last minute Clive Wilson penalty.

- Millwall have progressed from eight of their last ten League Cup first round ties, beating Newport County 1-0 at this stage last season. The last time they got beyond round three was a quarter final appearance in 1994/95.

- Since relegation from the Premier League 30 years ago QPR have played 140 London derbies (I’m not including Watford here) across three divisions and three cup competitions. They have lost 74 of those and won 31. Away from home they have won eight games in 73 attempts against other capital sides.

- Millwall won the first meeting between the sides at Loftus Road last season, 2-1, with first half goals from Femi Azeez and Mihailo Ivanovic. The Lions have won five of their last seven league games against QPR, losing only once, and went on to complete a double over the Hoops for the first time since 1988-89 in the top flight with a 2-0 win at The Den in April.

- QPR have lost the last three league games against Millwall, last having a longer losing run against them between 1937 and 1953 (five).

- QPR are unbeaten across their three prior League Cup games against Millwall (W2 D1), winning their last clash in the competition 3-0 in the third round in 1993-94 with goals from Simon Barker, Trevor Sinclair and Les Ferdinand.

Prediction

We will once again be running our Prediction League this year and we’ve got the squad updated and the league table reset ready for you to start entering your Portsmouth calls ahead of next week. Last year’s champion JB will be lending his thoughts to the previews this year as is tradition. However, this is a cup game, and the league doesn’t run, so you're stuck with me and while I do actually quite fancy us tomorrow I'll resist cursing things early and stick with my usual cup call of a draw and penalties...

QPR 1-1 Millwall Scorer – Rumarn Burrell

If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk.

Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

Recent Stories