QPR, having made their best start to a season for nine years, will hope to maintain their 100 per cent record in the league when Scunthorpe United visit Loftus Road on Saturday.

Queens Park Rangers (2nd) v Scunthorpe United (13th) >>> Coca Cola Championship >>> Saturday August 21, Kick Off 3pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12

Confidence is allegedly a valuable commodity in sporting teams. When teams are confident and have momentum and form it’s supposed to be a good thing. With QPR that has always been the case, on the rare occasions we have got going and built a run over the year it has improved us as a team. Observe Hogan Ephraim, with a goal and three assists in two league games following a fine pre-season – he was completely ineffective last season. Amazing what a bit of confidence can do for a player.

But my natural pessimism and a decade of supporting Hull FC in the Super League has made me a little wary. Hull FC became a passion of mine after moving to Scunthorpe from West London as a teenager. They were the nearest Rugby League side and once I passed my driving test I was able to hop over the bridge to the old Boulevard ground and its unique atmosphere. Since I’ve been going there Hull have been on the cusp of big things – they won the Challenge Cup (FA Cup equivalent) one year, lost another final and lost in the grand final as well. The ability to make that final push into consistent table topping finishes has so far eluded them though, despite the division’s highest season ticket sales and annual profits.

Often I’ve felt this has been down to attitude. Too many Hull players spending too much time in The Weir bar smoking and pissing it up the wall. Never before in the history of sport has a team become so full of itself, so often, after such meagre achievements. A couple of wins against decent teams and the Hull players will form a queue to say how this is going to be their season – when they’re not queuing at a bar somewhere to toast their own brilliance that is. Consequently they’ve become one of those teams that will beat Wigan or Leeds or St Helens, and then lose to Salford or Harlequins or Wakefield.

This year Hull added big name signings Mark O’Meley, Craig Fitzgibbon and Shaun Long to their arsenal and, like QPR, started with two impressive wins in their first two matches away at St Helens and at home to Huddersfield. Had things changed? No. They then went and lost at the Celtic Crusaders -a franchise outfit in Wales that nobody really cares about and most sides beat easily.

This Saturday QPR, two and O as the Americans might say, face Scunthorpe United at Loftus Road in similar circumstances. Usually in match previews I err on the side of caution, try not to say anything that will bite me on the arse after a defeat, at least attempt not to curse the whole thing. But let’s be quite honest here – this is a ‘fill your boots’ fixture for our team if they want it.

Scunthorpe won on the opening day at Reading when nobody expected them to, and nobody will expect them to win at Loftus Road on Saturday, so we must be slightly cautious. But the Iron were not a particularly good side last season and have since lost their three top scorers from that team and a very decent left back. On paper they should be cannon fodder for most teams in this league this season.

They did win at Loftus Road last season, during a very dark period of QPR’ recent history. With Mick Harford the third manager of the season already and a 5-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on the Tuesday night fresh in the memory, QPR were insipid in a 1-0 defeat. This season they come into the match having won two out of two, scored seven, and not conceded a goal. The confidence and momentum is all with us and that should continue on Saturday. As far as I’m concerned we can only beat ourselves with the Hull FC syndrome in this match. If we concentrate, respect the fixture and play the game we’ve played against Barnsley and Sheffield United we will win. For once it really is as simple as that.

Five minutes on Scunthorpe

Recent History: I can actually remember a booklet dropping through my door maybe ten years ago now from Scunthorpe United asking me to buy a season ticket. It was quite a glossy publication for a small club and outlined their ambitions – one of which was to be a settled First Division club within ten years. I’ll be honest, I laughed at that one.

Growing up in Scunthorpe the local team was just that. It kicked around in the bottom division enjoying occasional half decent cup runs and little more. I remember watching Alex Calvo Garcia, David D’Auria, Lee Turnbull and Chris Hope. I remember when they had Mark Samways in goal – a goalkeeper who couldn’t catch, stop shots, or kick the ball. I remember when a girl from my English class reckoned she’d got off with Steve Housham. I remember when you had to go to the clubshop to buy a day membership for a pound and then go back to the turnstile for a ticket. It was all very low budget, lower league stuff – a place to go on a Tuesday night after school when there was nothing better to do than watch Scunthorpe United and Lincoln City leather seven bells of shit out of each other.

One of my mates wrote in my leavers book at school that he was looking forward to the day that Scunthorpe and QPR would meet in the league. I remember we nearly met them in a cup competition one year but they lost to Wrexham and we lost to some tat or other and our respective conquerors played each other in the next round. My grandad would come with us when we went to Glanford Park, but would complain bitterly throughout the experience about giving his money to a club he said lacked ambition. When researching Mickey Adams for the Port Vale preview I noticed one of the first Fulham games he was in charge for in 1997 was at Scunthorpe – D’Auria, Ford and Bury manager Alan Knill scored as the Iron won 3-1, but more importantly the crowd was just 1919. It always seemed a world away from QPR and I never ever envisaged a time when we would meet in the league.

It was a galling experience sitting in the away end at Glanford Park for the first time for our 2-2 draw there under Luigi De Canio. At the time I thought, and hoped, it would be a one season thing. Scunthorpe reached the Championship/First Division, as promised, within the ten year target. Brian Laws built the team that got them there. Promoting them from the bottom division just 12 months after they nearly slipped into non-league thanks largely to the goals of Paul Hayes, son of Martin, who he plucked from Norwich’s youth team. Hayes moved on to Barnsley but Scunthorpe’s progress continued with first Billy Sharp and Andy Keogh in attack and then later Jermaine Beckford.

By that stage Laws had been poached by Sheffield Wednesday and Scunthorpe replaced him with physio Nigel Adkins who not only saw them over the line, but actually improved their results and won them the league. Keogh went to Wolves, Sharp to Sheff Utd and Scunthorpe wouldn’t stump up the £500,000 to nail Beckford on a permanent deal. They did again find a decent striker in Martin Paterson from Stoke’s reserves but his 14 goals weren’t enough to keep them up. They were relegated after one season in this division, and Paterson was sold to Burnley.

I thought, and to my shame probably hoped, that that would be that. I didn’t fancy Scunthorpe to win promotion straight back from a league containing the likes of Leeds, Leicester and Millwall but they beat MK Dons in the play off semi final, and Millwall at Wembley to return. Once again they found a decent striking talent in Gary Hooper and when he translated his League One form (30 goals in 54 games) into the Championship (20 in 39) the Iron were well set to survive at the second attempt. Paul Hayes, long since back at the club, was outstanding in a notable survival as well. The likes of Newcastle, Sheffield United and Derby were all well beaten by a side they have all recently visited for pre-season friendlies.

The other thing I remember about growing up around Scunthorpe United was the 1998/99 season. Scunthorpe won promotion from the bottom division via the play offs – a memorable semi final victory against Swansea followed by a Wembley win against Leyton Orient. That side, managed by Laws, had John Gayle as a cumbersome target man, battering a path for John Eyre and Jamie Forrester to make hay. At the back Chris Hope led the side superbly alongside Richard Logan. Scunthorpe’s response to this rare success, partly through choice and partly through contract situations, was to immediately lose Eyre and Forrester and quickly surrender Logan to Lincoln and Hope to Gillingham. They were relegated straight back.

That policy of always cashing in on the best players has seen them rake in an estimated £6.5m in transfer fees over the last five years. Very little of it is ever splashed on big name player s with big name wages and the challenge this season, as ever, is to find the next Hooper/Sharp/Keogh kicking around in somebody’s reserve side at the right price. The club’s treasured Championship status rests on them doing so – Chris Dagnall from Rochdale and Bobby Grant from Accrington are the club’s latest attempts to carve diamonds from lumps of coal.

The Manager:“Who needs Mourinho, we’ve got our physio” is the oft quoted Glanford Park chant about Nigel Adkins, but during the past three seasons the likeable Merseysider has shown himself to be so much more than a quick fix or cheap option he seemed at the time of his appointment. Adkins did have managerial experience when he took over from Brian Laws midway through the 2006/07 campaign - albeit in the League of Wales where he won two titles with Bangor and took them into the Champions League. However it is true that he was indeed the magic sponge man at Glanford Park when he got the main job.

Scunthorpe were pushing for promotion with a team that Brian Laws had built when he upped sticks and went to Sheffield Wednesday with his assistant Russ Wilcox. That, and the January transfer window departure of Andy Keogh to Wolves, seemed to be the start of a typical Scunthorpe collapse - Glanford Park is the only ground where I have seen a home side twice throw away a three goal lead, against Cambridge United and Carlisle, I saw Rotherham come from four down to four three there once as well, Scunthorpe just seem to enjoy the drama. For once though they held firm, in fact they actually improved. Adkins picked up a young Jermaine Beckford from Leeds in the loan market to replace Keogh and sealed the title with three games to spare, six points ahead of Bristol City.

After promotion to the Championship Billy Sharp followed Andy Keogh out of the exit door but the club’s knack of picking up quality front men continued with the signing of Martin Paterson, now with Burnley. It was not enough to prevent an immediate return to League One. Back they came though. Student of psychology and eternally optimistic Adkins led them through last season with a smile on his face and yet another 25+ goal hitman in his arsenal in Gary Hooper.

Even if things do not go well he is unlikely to be sacked by a notoriously patient and realistic board led by Steve Wharton who, as if to deliberately reinforce northern stereotypes, wears a flat cap to matches and is as tight as they come with his money. Scunthorpe had the smallest transfer and wage budget in the league last season but stayed up ahead of the supposedly bigger Sheffield Wednesday which is to Adkins’ credit. Now he has a new challenge – keeping them up for a second time after a summer where all his best players bar goalkeeper Joe Murphy have been sold .

Three to Watch: Scunthorpe, as already said, have developed a handy knack of picking up goal scoring strikers on a budget in recent years. Sadly for them, and such is the nature of the club, the likes of Gary Hooper, Martin Paterson, Billy Sharp and Andy Keogh have all had to be sold on at a profit after impressing at Glanford Park. Hooper is the most recent departure and the Iron have again been rummaging around in the bargain bucket for his replacement.

Hooper, originally signed from Southend for £175,000, left for £2.4m and in his stead has come Rochdale’s Chris Dagnall and Accrington’s Robert Grant. With Hooper scoring 20 goals last season, Paul Hayes bagging 13 and the club’s player of the year award, and Grant McCann getting nine – and all three leaving during the summer – it’ a big ask for these two to step up from League Two into the Championship, into a team that is likely to struggle, and succeed.

Dagnall probably did more to earn his move, and Scunthorpe had to fight off competition from Charlton to secure his free transfer signature from Rochdale during the summer. Last season Dagnall scored 20 times in League Two as Rochdale were promoted. His contract expired at the end of the campaign and he took the opportunity to step up two levels rather than one with Scunthorpe. The former Tranmere trainee scored 61 goals in 155 appearances in total for Dale but is yet to get off the mark in Scunthorpe colours and by my accounts looked nervous and lacking confidence during the club’s pre-season campaign.

Grant has a less impressive record, and indeed is probably better known as one of the men arrested alongside England’s Steven Gerrard for assaulting a man in a nightclub rather than for anything he has done on the football field. He scored 18 goals for Accrington last season which prompted Nigel Adkins to spend £260,000 during the summer – a sizeable amount for Scunthorpe. Although Grant is only 19 it does seem strange that Scunthorpe have currently only used him once, from the bench, in the League Cup against Oldham having splashed so much cash on him during the summer. Perhaps we will see more of him this Saturday.

Mind you they shelled out a club record fee last summer and it didn’t really work out for them. In spending a fee said to be more than half a million pounds for Rob Jones Scunthorpe fell into a trap currently being enthusiastically occupied by Middlesbrough by assuming that good performances in the SPL will translate to good form south of the border. They say in London you’re rarely more than 10 feet away from a rat. In Scotland, you’re never more than three weeks away from another fixture against Kilmarnock. It’s a dreadful league - cash strapped clubs scrabbling round with Conference standard footballers in front of a handful of hardy lunatics. Liam Miller is a midfield dynamo for Hibs and we all know just how bloody awful he was for us.

Jones impressed for Hibs himself, but had previously only played in the lower leagues for Stockport and Grimsby in England, and attracted plenty of criticism last season after hi move. This year has started better for him – you won’t see a better header than the one he scored with to win the game at Reading last week – but he’s certainly a potential weak link to exploit.

Links >>> Scunthorpe Official Website >>> Scunthorpe Message Board

History

Recent Meetings:

QPR’s abysmal winter form continued against Scunthorpe at Glanford Park in january. The R’s had just lost 5-0 to Nottingham Forest and were plummeting down the league table with first Paul Hart and then Mick Harford in charge. Scunthorpe, fighting for their lives at the bottom, relished the chance to drag QPR down towards them and move a step closer to safety with an away win. The goal was farely scrappy when it came, Gary Thompson striking home at the School End after good work by Gary Hooper, but it had been coming for a while and Scunthorpe easily deserved their win.

QPR: Ikeme 6, Leigertwood 6, Gorkss 7, Connolly 6, Hill 6, Buzsaky 5 (Balanta 80, -), Faurlin 6, Quashie 6, Taarabt 6 (Cook 75, 7),Vine 5 (German 75, 6), Simpson 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Ramage, Stewart, Ephraim

Scunthorpe: Murphy 7, Williams 7, Jones 7, Mirfin 6 (Wright 46, 6) Byrne 6, Thompson 7, Togwell 7, McCann 7, Woolford 6 (McDermott 46, 6),Hayes 7, Hooper 7 (Forte 90, -)

Subs Not Used: Lillis, Moloney, O'Connor, Morris

Booked: McCann (foul)

Goals: Thompson 74 (assisted Hooper)

QPR picked up their first win of the season at Glanford Park last August, despite a pretty disjointed performance. A neat move on the edge of the box sent Adel Taarabt in for the only goal of the game after five minute son Jay Simpson’s full debut for QPR. However any hope of a comfortable win was quickly extinguished by a nervous display and in the end the result owed more to the performances of Matt Connolly and Fitz Hall in the defence than anybody else as QPR gave away possession time and time again.

Scunthorpe: Murphy 6, Spence 7, Byrne 6, Mirfin 6, Williams 6,Sparrow 5 (Thompson 70, 6), Togwell 5 (McCann 61, 6), O'Connor 6 (Wright 61, 6), Woolford 6, Hayes 5, Hooper 5

Subs Not Used: Lillis, Forte, Morris, Crosby

Booked: Murphy (foul)

QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 6, Hall 7, Connolly 7, Borrowdale 6, Routledge 6,Leigertwood 4, Faurlin 7 (Mahon 81, 5), Ephraim 6, Taarabt 6 (Vine 56, 5),Simpson 6 (Helguson 70, 6)

Subs Not Used: Heaton, Stewart, Buzsaky, Pellicori

Booked: Routledge (diving)

Goals: Taarabt 3 (assisted Faurlin)

Head to Head:

QPR wins - 8

Draws – 1

Scunthorpe wins – 2

Previous Results:

2009/10 QPR 0 Scunthorpe 1

2009/10 Scunthorpe 0 QPR 1 (Taarabt)

2007/08 QPR 3 Scunthorpe 1 (Rowlands, Agyemang, Vine)

2007/08 Scunthorpe 2 QPR 2 (Buzsaky 2)

1966/67 QPR 5 Scunthorpe 1

1966/67 Scunthorpe 0 QPR 2

1965/66 QPR 1 Scunthorpe 0

1965/66 Scunthorpe 1 QPR 2

1964/65 Scunthorpe 2 QPR 1

1964/65 QPR 2 Scunthorpe 1

1931/32 Scunthorpe 1 QPR 4 

Links >>> Scunthorpe 0 QPR 1 Match Report >>> QPR 0 Scunthorpe 1 Match Report >>> Match Report Archive

This Saturday

Team News: Peter Ramage may be in line for his first start of the season if Fitz Hall’s latest hamstring injury keeps him out. Hall left the Sheffield United game five minutes into the second half after a heavy collision and was immediately replaced by Ramage at Bramall Lane. Matthew Connolly will also be in the frame to replace him if necessary. Akos Buzsaky is yet to feature this season but should be fit for a return to the bench at least. Lee Cook and Martin Rowlands are long term injury absences. 

Scunthorpe may be without attacking midfielder Garry Thompson, who scored the winner at Loftus Road last season, and central defender David Mirfin. The former is having treatment on a groin injury while Mirfin has a knock to his leg. Both are rated as doubtful as I write this a day and a half before the kick off. Sam Togwell was suspended for last weekend’s home defeat by Norwich and Josh Wright and Michael O’Connor left the Canaries game early through injury but all three are free to feature in this match.

Elsewhere: Coventry and Derby clash on Saturday lunchtime in an uninspiring Midlands derby match that Sky have selected for coverage. There is another early kick off on Saturday, with Millwall travelling to Leeds, but that is on police advice rather than any television commitment. Millwall top the table after a fine start to the campaign, Leeds are yet to win in the league. Gary Speed starts life as Sheffield United manager with a televised trip to Middlesbrough on Sunday. Reading’ home game with Nottingham Forest and Burnley hosting Leicester stand out as other matches between potential promotion hopefuls.

Referee: Graham Salisbury is the man in the middle for this fixture, just as he was last August when Rangers won 1-0 at Glanford Park. There were some very strange decisions made by the man in black that day, not least a booking for Wayne Routledge for diving when it looked a blatant penalty, and only a yellow card for Joe Murphy after he raced from his area to hack down Jay Simpson. For full details click here.

Form

QPR: When these sides met last season Rangers had won just two of their previous 15 matches and conceded two goals a game during that time. This Saturday they approach the games with two league wins from two played, seven scored, and none conceded. Port Vale have won at Loftus Road this season in the League Cup, but it was a much changed QPR line up that night – this hints at problems later on in the season when the strength in depth is tested. Rangers have had their fair share of luck so far – both Sheffield United and Barnsley had good penalty appeals while Rangers have already been awarded three spot kicks. Barnsley hit the woodwork three times here on day one. This is already QPR’s best start to a season since 2001 when Ian Holloway’ new look side beat Stoke and Bury in the first two league games. In 1992/93 Rangers drew their opening match and then won three on the spin against Southampton, Sheffield United and Coventry in the new Premier League. In 1987 Rangers opened with a 3-0 win at West Ham and 2-0 home win against Arsenal either side of a 1-1 home draw with Derby and then went on to secure six wins and a draw from their opening seven matches. In 1964 Rangers beat Scunthorpe in the third game of the season having opened the campaign with Barnsley, as they have done this year, but that was again two wins and a draw. To find three straight wins to start the season you have to go back to 1947 when Rangers beat Norwich (3-1), Brighton (0-5), Bristol Rovers (0-1), Brighton (2-0) and Northampton (2-0) in their first five matches of the season in Division Three (South). And Christ it took me most of the first half of the Liverpool game on Thursday to research that one.  

Scunthorpe: Scunthorpe have one win from one away game so far, and that was against another blue and white hooped side Reading on the first day. Few pundits gave them a chance on the opening day and they are 7/1 to win here but that won’t bother them greatly. Last season they won four times on the road in the Championship, a 4-0 win at Neil Warnock’ Crystal Palace included, but conceded 52 goals on their travels which was more than anybody else in the league by some distance – relegated Sheff Wed and Plymouth shipped 38 each. While QPR were losing at home in the first round of the League Cup Scunthorpe beat Oldham 2-1 but lost at home to Norwich last weekend. The four goals they have scored this season so far have all come from different scorers. Scunthorpe’s win here last season was their first in five attempts – QPR having won the previous four.

Prediction: I’ve got to be honest, it really is tempting to simply do my usual thing and say this has disaster written all over it and predict a draw. It would be typical of QPR to do just that. Scunthorpe have already won once away this season, and will do so again if clubs under estimate them. But if QPR are professional, focussed and play as they have done so far this season then this really shouldn’t be a game that poses many problems.

QPR half time and full time, 11/10

Photo: Action Images

DublinQPR74 added 10:13 - Aug 20 Great research and at least two lols. Excellent stuff, thanks Clive.
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AshteadR added 13:35 - Aug 20 Excellent write up - thanks for all the hard work. With the added steel and improved team spirit this year, we should have too much for Scunny; lets hope it ends up that way!
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