Game one of an unkind three-match week for QPR sees them travel to unhappy hunting ground The Hawthorns to face play-off chasing West Brom.

West Brom (12-16-7 LWLDWD 6th) v QPR (11-11-13 LWLWLL 14th)

Sky’s Super Saturday Brunch Spectacular >>> Saturday March 8, 2025 >>> Kick Off 15.00 >>> Weather – Warm and sunny >>> The Hawthorns, West Bromwich

When the top threads on our message board are about garden birds, the war in Ukraine, the death of Roy Ayres, whether The Beatles were a bit shit or not and somebody’s daughter’s university dissertation, the end of the season is certainly nigh, and QPR have little left to play for in it.

A logistically challenging week lies ahead starting with a double away, and another borderline cruel choice for a Tuesday night fixture, followed by a visit from Red Bull Leeds next Saturday morning. West Brom and Boro away followed by the champions elect at home doesn’t scream a lot of points to me and should Rangers lose those games, having lost three of the last four and five of the last seven, then I’m sure the bed wetter’s switchboard will be taking calls in advance of the trip to Stoke on the other side of the international break.

When we say things like this it usually precipitates a complete collapse, so I hesitate slightly, but Luton (one win in 14), Plymouth (no away win all season) and Derby (winless in 13) are all now two wins back even from Cardiff. QPR’s 13/14 point buffer to those teams and the fast declining number of games left surely means a safe midtable finish beckons this year. There’s an awful lot of seriously out of form teams (Stoke three wins in 22 games, Cardiff one win in eight) who suddenly have to win six or seven out of the next 11 games for it to get remotely hairy.

That eyes naturally still cast down that way, rather than higher up to a play-off picture which is a much slimmer eight points away, says a lot about the last few years as a QPR fan. The collapse of the Mark Warburton promotion push, from rivalling Bournemouth for second at the end of January to not even making the play-offs by May; the start under Mick Beale that had Rangers top in October, only to come within a spawny win at Burnley of getting relegated six months and two managers later; the humbling Gareth Ainsworth’s reign, which culminated in a 2-0 defeat in this fixture where we barely even crossed the halfway line… it’s been torturous.

So much of it occurred immediately after we thought we’d cracked it as well. Warburton’s team had an unbeaten Christmas and January, five wins and two draws from seven games, and had just thumped Reading 4-0 in fine style at Loftus Road. They lost the next game 2-0 at Peterborough (of course) and slumped to two wins from 15. Beale’s side won eight of 11, including statement away victories at Millwall, Bristol City and Sheff Utd, then won two of its next 28. Even Ainsworth had that 1-0 home win against Watford where you thought, okay, maybe, maybe this could work, before immediately slumping to the nadir of a 6-1 loss at Blackpool in one of the club’s worst performances of all time. It makes us nervous. Will we be drawing comparisons between that Derby win and the Reading game a couple of months from now?

After all of that, a comfortable midtable finish is what we wanted and what we’re likely to get. This week is probably going to be extremely trying for all the reasons Sheff Utd at home was extremely trying. QPR are rubbish in three-game weeks anyway – nobody in the league fares worse in game three of a three game week than us – but when it’s West Brom and Boro away then Leeds at home that’s a challenge for any team in this league. Boro, in theory, the easier of the games, but their 4-1 win at Loftus Road was the low point of the season so far. Still, better than lying awake at night fretting over the Birmingham City score. We could do with being a bit bored, frankly.

What lies in the half dozen (relatively) ‘winnable’ games beyond that is probably where the sum total of our interest in the remainder of 24/25 lies. Rangers were unfortunate to lose the games against Coventry and Sheff Utd, but there was definitely the hint of a Mykonos sea breeze on the spring air for the Sheff Wed and Portsmouth games.

One of the footballing debates the message board has exorcised itself with this week is whether loanees Ronnie Edwards and Yang Min-Hyeok should be starting these games ahead of players we own. Edwards feels like a necessity because without Clarke-Salter he’s the only defender we have who steps forward in possession of the ball, beats the first press from the opposition attack, and plays us out. Even with him in the team we struggle against an aggressive high press like Portsmouth’s. Still, it feels somehow wrong for a club preaching a development model to be preparing a player as good as Edwards to play against us next year for Danny Rohl’s Southampton side while Liam Morrison, who we do own and is a prospect we’d like to grow into a sale, sits on the bench. Min-Hyeok isn’t keeping any development prospects out of the team – Rayan Kolli is injured, Paul Smyth ain’t getting sold to anybody – but again it feels a bit luxurious to have him around for largely meaningless games.

Problem is, why stop at the loan players? If you stop selecting everybody who doesn’t have a deal here next season, then your back four is Liam Morrison standing there holding his dick. Jimmy Dunne, Steve Cook, Morgan Fox and Kenneth Paal are all out of contract this summer, and only really in Dunne’s case does there seem much interest from the club in extending. Throw in Edwards, Min-Hyeok and Saito on loan, Jack Colback and Michi Frey, and that’s basically the whole team bar the goalkeeper, Jonathan Varane and Ilias Chair.

That could be problematic in the medium term because how many of these players do you want to re-sign and keep? If Jimmy Dunne isn’t going to extend, do you let Colback, Cook, Fox et al walk out the door as well? Because that’s an awful lot of leadership and experience to replace, and if the recruitment plan this summer looks like the recruitment plan last summer that’s an enormous risk to take with the Championship and leaves you very susceptible to the sort of troubled start to next season that we had this. The club has been lucky to get away with winning only a couple of its first 18 games twice, would we want to chance it a third time?

Of course we need better if we’re to progress. The goal now remains what it was a year ago, we need to achieve the levels of the home game against West Brom (and later Leeds) more often, and this group of players isn’t able to do it. It is what it is - about the sixteenth best team in the league. The problem, though, is the same thing the club’s Twitter demographic struggle to wrap their heads around when savaging the likes of Sam Field and Paul Smyth – money. It’s also about the sixteenth biggest wage bill in the league. On our budget, players like Field and Smyth who come cheap and play 40 times a season are valuable commodities. Would they get in the Leeds team? No, but our wage bill is £23m and theirs is £140m. It’s going to be a tricky summer. How much change do you risk?

It's going to be potentially tricky and problematic short term as well, despite Marti Cifuentes’ repeated assurances in today’s pre-match video and all the right noises about plenty to play for, lots of targets still to hit, great group of lads, professional etc etc. If you haven’t got a contract for next season, you’re inevitably going to be partially looking at your next move, your next loan, where the next deal is coming from. You’re not going to want to be injured come May. They’d all deny it I’m sure and trot out the media trained lines, but when the Covid lockdown hit they had to break cover and look how the likes of Grant Hall and Loyal Taylor behaved. It’s just inevitable human nature. That intensity isn’t going to be there, and as discussed previously this is a QPR team that needs to try incredibly hard and play very well to win (bar Oxford at home) but finds defeats very easy to come by when it drops even very slightly below that level.

With a run of games to come against Stoke, Cardiff, Oxford, Bristol City, Preston and Swansea it would be disappointing if that manifested, and the season drifted away from here. It’s a significant challenge for the manager to make sure it doesn’t.

Links >>> Mowbray’s surprise return – Oppo Profile >>> Birch and Gallen in the dugout – History >>> Herczeg in charge – Referee >>> West Brom Official Website >>> The Hawthorns – Ground Guide >>> Independent West Brom forum — Message Board >>> Boing — Blog >>> Express and Star — Local Paper >>> Birmingham Mail — Local Paper

Below the fold

Team News: Since the start of the 2022/23 season Sam Field has featured in 128 of the 134 league and cup games QPR have played, starting 123 of them. He’s likely to miss the rest of this season though with an ankle injury sustained at Portsmouth so won’t face his former club tomorrow. He joins Zan Celar, Jake Clarke-Salter and Harvey Vale on the long-term absentee list as the season rounds onto its home straight. Rayan Kolli should be back in a fortnight and Karamoko Dembele is pushing for his first start in 2025 after two sub appearances on his return from injury. Michi Frey is a doubt which would leave Alfie Lloyd as the only senior travelling striker.

Josh Maja’s hat trick won the first meeting between the sides, but the Baggies’ top scorer (12 goals) has been out since January 4 with injury. Semi Ajayi, who has scored from centre back against QPR for both Albion and Rotherham, has been sidelined since last months’ win at Oxford. He was replaced by Kyle Bartley at Leeds last week as he returned from suspension. Jed Wallace is out with a calf strain.

Elsewhere: A particularly damaging round of midweek games in hand for the bottom three.

With less than a dozen games left to play it’s now a five point gap for Luton to make up despite their first win in 14 games at home to Pompey last weekend. They’re drawing 0-0 at Burnley on Saturday. Plymouth’s loss at Hull means they’re still seeking a first away win of the season and the Tigers have now climbed seven points ahead of them. Argyle are at home to Sheff Wed, where manager Danny Rohl now seems almost certain to be joining Southampton the second the season is over. And the task seems monumental for woeful Derby who are now bottom of the table and seven points adrift of safety. Few teams would like to press down on their throat more than Blackburn and the first John Eustace grudge match between the two is at Pride Park tomorrow. The Rams have added Jeff Hendrick to their arsenal in preparation. That’ll cure what ails them I’m sure.

The three sides on 36 points who they’re all trying to catch are Hull, Stoke and Cardiff. All three have very difficult away matches this week. Stoke are at Frank Lampard’s Coventry on Saturday lunchtime, the Sky Blues have swept up to fifth in the table on a terrific run of form since Christmas. Hull also face a play-off chaser in Bristol City, while Cardiff make the long trek up to Sunderland.

At the business end of the division, in addition to the Burnley and Sunderland games already mentioned, Sheffield Red Stripe are at home to Preston Knob End while Red Bull Leeds get a convenient Sunday breakfast kick off down at Portsmouth who are on a run of eight wins from nine games at Fratton Park which has moved them safe in the Championship. Middlesbrough have reignited their play-off push with consecutive wins and will fancy another away to Swanselona.

There’s a distinct end of season feeling to tonight’s televised match between Norwich and Oxford, and tomorrow’s Watford v Millwall.

Referee: Adam Herczog continues his fledgling career at this level with his second QPR appointment, the first being the December home win against Oxford. Details.

Form

West Brom The Baggies are a very difficult side to beat. They’ve only lost seven games in total this season and Middlesbrough and Blackburn are the only teams to win at The Hawthorns so far. This has only been good enough for sixth in the league, one place behind a Coventry side that’s been beaten 12 times, because of the amount of draws on their slate. No team in the division has drawn more than West Brom’s 16 – a total matched only by Preston and bolstered significantly by a ridiculous October and November in which they drew ten of the 11 games they played. Tony Mowbray’s side come into this game unbeaten in three, although again two of those have been tied.

That run where they went unbeaten in 11 games but only won one of them really sums up their season and it depends whether you’re optimistically or pessimistically minded. If you want to be miserable about them then it’s three wins in ten games and just seven in the last 29 Championship fixtures having won five of the first six games of the season. Under Tony Mowbray it’s won three, drawn two, lost three of eight. They have won six of the last eight games on this ground though and have lost only one of 13 here.

West Brom haven’t lost at home to a London side in the Championship in 17 games (W5 D12) since a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in September 2009.

QPR: At the other end of the scale, QPR haven’t drawn with anybody for a dozen games since their 1-1 at Norwich over Christmas.

After losing only one of 13 games through the winter QPR have now lost five of seven, three of their last four and both of the last two. A team that started 2025 with four consecutive league wins, including consecutive successes on the road at Plymouth and Hull, has now lost three away games in a row. It’s the first time Rangers have lost three away games in a row under Marti Cifuentes – the last time was in October 2023 at the end of Gareth Ainsworth’s unhappy reign, a sequence that culminated in a meek 2-0 loss to West Brom.

Jack Supple tells us last week’s selection of Kieran Morgan and Yang Min-Hyeok was the first time we’ve had a pair of U18s in the side since December 2007 vs Crystal Palace (Ben Sahar & Scott Sinclair). The travelling 1,800 would probably not welcome the sight of the baby vomit away shirt come 3pm. Rangers have lost four and drawn two of their six games in that kit with the four away wins so far coming in black (Cardiff, Hull) or hoops (Luton, Plymouth).

West Brom are a very awkward opponent for QPR. Josh Maja’s hat trick won the first meeting between the sides on the opening day of this season after Lucas Andersen had given Rangers an early lead – Maja remains the top scorer here with 12 goals despite not having played since January 4 because of injury. That made it five unbeaten for Albion against Rangers since Charlie Austin’s late winner at Loftus Road in January 2022. That’s the only success QPR have managed in 11 meetings since this was rekindled as a Championship fixture in 2018/19. The baggies average 2.4 goals a game across that run, although that’s boosted substantially by the 7-1 here under Steve McClaren. The R’s last win on this ground was a surprise 4-1 success in the Premier League in April 2015.

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: “Last weekend’s result at home to Sheffield Utd was disappointing. I thought they would walk all over us and it really was very close in the end - I took a Villa supporting friend and he thought we were the better team for much of the game but lacked the ability to finish. This week, West Brom. Tony Mowbray is a good manager. He has got a reasonable squad, in the play-off places and we have reverted to not winning away. We also only have Michi Frey up front and Alfie Lloyd at 70 minutes. Sadly, I am going for a narrow loss.”

Weston’s Call “Play like we did against Sheff Utd and we give ourselves a great chance of getting at least a point, the worry is of course we continue our recent abject away form. The Baggies have been pretty good recently and will be desperate for a win to keep them right in the hunt for a playoff spot, I worry they will have a little too much for us.”

Nico’s Prediction: West Brom 2-1 QPR. Scorer – Ilias Chair

WestonSuperR’s Prediction: West Brom 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

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

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Ian Randall Photography

062259 added 19:35 - Mar 7 Daunting
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TacticalR added 23:23 - Mar 7 Thanks for your preview. That's a lot of unknowns in terms of next season's players, and it makes you wonder how far a club can progress if it's rebuilding the squad every season. And how far can you progress in a baby vomit kit? We really seem to have lost momentum...our lack of options up front has caught up with us.
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Burnleyhoop added 09:06 - Mar 8 The hope was we would bed in new players this season to facilitate a push next season. The way things are panning out, we may well be back to square one in the summer, whilst carrying expensive failures, losing our own key personnel who are out of contract and two quality loanees. Not looking good is it? A likely defeat today and the season is effectively over. At least we’re safe, but disappointing non the less.

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