[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Queens Park Rangers
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday August 29th - 3:00 ko
at The John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome QPR to the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday afternoon. It will be a week of hoping and praying for supporters of both clubs that their best players don't get sold in the transfer window. Town have had multiple aggressive bids from fellow Championship club, Derby County for our Player of the Season, Jacob Butterfield. All the bids to date have been flatly turned down, with Manager Chris Powell insisting that the player is crucial to the team's progression.
QPR's fans meanwhile, will be hoping that their top scorer for the last two seasons, Charlie Austin, will still be theirs despite numerous Premier League clubs showing interest in signing him. If he does go, it seems that one club he won't be going to will be West Ham after their chairman publicly stated that he was an injury liability, who's knees could go at any time. A statement that was rubbished by the player himself on social media.


How much?  
This is a category B fixture.

Fantastic Media (north) Stand Lower Tier

Adults: £23.50

Seniors: £16

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

Fantastic Media (north) Family Stand Upper Tier

Adults: £27.50

Seniors: £17

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

Chadwick Lawrence (south) Stand – available to home fans

Adults: £27.50

Seniors: £17

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

LV=Britannia Rescue Stand

Adults: £27.50

Seniors: £18

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

Revell Ward Stand Lower Tier

Adults: £28

Senior & Wheelchairs: £20

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

Revell Ward Stand Upper Tier

Adults: £30.50

Seniors: £22

Under-18s: £10

Under-8s: £5

All prices increase by £3 adults and £2 juniors on match days. Buy in advance to get the best price for a match day ticket!

So if you wake up on Saturday morning and the sun's shining and you think to yourself, I fancy going to watch Town this afternoon, it'll cost you extra.


A brief history of Queens Park Rangers: Formed in 1886 from a merger between St Judes's and Christchurch Rangers, they got the name  because most of the players came from the Queen's Park area of London. The club inexplicably dropped the apostrophe from Queen's Park then became known as just an abbreviation and everybody just knows them now as simply QPR.
Simply QPR spent their early years without a permanent home, playing home games at twenty different grounds before moving into Loftus Road in 1917. 

Loftus Road

They won their first trophy in 1947/48 when Town legend Dave Mangnall led them to the Division 3 South title. Relegated four years later, they didn't get back up to the 2nd division until 1967. That was an astounding year for this small club as they also became the first 3rd division club to win the League Cup, coming from two goals down to beat West Brom 3-2 with goals from Roger Morgan, Rodney Marsh and Mark Lazarus.
Was this the start of something big for Simply QPR? Nah, not really. Despite a few ups and downs and flirtations with the Premier League and the insistence from some of their deluded fans that they are a big club, that League Cup win in the swinging sixties is still the only major trophy they have ever won and they're still playing in a ground that only holds 18,000.

Leagu Cup winners 1967 (who's he on the right?)

Head to Head - Town v QPR

 


QPR lead in the overall head to head with 12 wins to Town's 10, with 7 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's 11 QPR wins to Town's 6, with 5 draws.

The last meeting of the two clubs was a couple of season's ago in the Championship when two Charlie Austin goals gave them a 2-1 win at Loftus Road. Nahki Wells getting Town's goal.

Town's last win over QPR was way back in 2001, in the season after both of us had been relegated to the 3rd division. Andy Booth gave Town a 1-0 victory at the MacAlpharm Stadium.

Town beat QPR twice in the FA Cup before we first met in the league. That league match was in 1967 and was my first ever Town match, the programme for which is pictured above. We won 1-0, Frank Worthington scored and I was hooked.



So what's new at Loftus Road? 

Last week, Town goalkeeper, Alex Smithies, became manager Chris Ramsey's eleventh signing of the summer transfer window. A genuine Town legend, having come through the club's academy to score the winning penalty in the shoot out at Wembley against Sheffield Utd. But let's be honest......he was a bloody liability!

Clumsy Clown Smithies

Another Town legend who joined QPR in the summer was Oscar Gobern. He was released by Town, despite the fact that Chris Powell was keen to keep him.

Oscar Quebec Papa Romeo

Other summer signings include Massimo Luongo and Ben Gladwin from Swindon, James Perch from Wigan, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas from Bristol City, Grant Hall from Spurs and a return to the club for Scottish international, Jamie Mackie.

Recent Form:

Town are still waiting for their first win of the season, having had three draws on the spin which came on the back of defeats at Hull and at home to Notts County in the cup. We are 20th in the league.

QPR are in 6th spot having won their last two matches, against Rotherham and Wolves.

Last 5 matches:

Fulham 1-1 Town

Town 1-1 Brighton

Town 1-1 Blackburn

Town 1-2 Notts Co (League Cup)

Hull 2-0 Town

QPR 4-2 Rotherham

Wolves 2-3 QPR

QPR 2-2 Cardiff

Yeovil 0-3 QPR (League Cup)

Charlton 2-0 QPR

[Lord Snooty]

Smithies makes his QPR debut as they get beaten 2-1 at home to Carlisle.

[MNTerrier]

you know who would have made those saves ...Joe Murphy .....

let hope he has another off day saturday for the 3 shot on goal we'll have

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Great thread Snoots
It always seems to be that when a player is transferred from one club to another in the same division, the next game always seems to be against that team.
Uncanny.
I'm going for a 2-1 win for Town in this. I think we have the beating of them....IF we keep Butterfield.

[theo_luddite]

There's a hot water bottle on his seat in the away dug-out keeping it warm for him already. Unless Green disappears to West 'aaam in the next 24 hours or so, Smithies will be on the bench.

Will be checking for updates while eating breakfast over the other side of the pond for this one.

Game on. Let's play ball.

[JimboHTFC]

Nice thread!

I'm missing this one tomorrow as I'm off for a little bank holiday break to sunny Cleethorpes! That might be a good thing anyway if Town serve up the same dross as in recent weeks!

Hope to see some attacking intent with Vaughan partnering Wells in attack and can another 3-5-2 combo. Likely team for tomorrow:

Murphy
Smith - Hudson - Lynch
Scannell - Whitehead - Butterfield - Hogg - Davidson
Wells - Vaughan

If we are losing then expect a shift to 4-4-2 or 4-4-3 with one of the CM's making way for either Lolley or Carayol.

I actually would prefer a 4-4-2 of:

Murphy
Smith - Hudson - Lynch - Davidson
Scannell - Hogg - Butterfield - Carayol
Wells - Vaughan

I can see Austin bagging a couple before departing to pastures new on deadline day!

[Lord Snooty]

Well! 

[theo_luddite]

lost for words Snoots?

[ARTERRIER]

Thought we were decentish today and didn't deserve to lose but we are our own worst enemy at times. Despite dominating the game we didn't make it count and were ruthlessly punished. QPR did not play well and they will be chuffed to bits to win that and keep a clean sheet, they didn't deserve to win but they did. I assume they don't play that crap every week?

That game was crying out for us to grab it by the scruff of the neck and get it won as QPR were having a real bad off day. We needed to be more positive and should have gone to 4-4-2 at half time and upped the tempo and I'm convinced we'd have won the 2 or 3-0. It's a worry that we are letting home games get away from us and we never really look like the home team. Thought the midfield were great today with Whitehead having his best game for the club, Hogg was everywhere and Butterfield the fulcrum.

Up front is not so impressive, Wells has the first touch of a rapist and his second is usually a tackle. I really don't think he shines in a 4-3-3 formation. He needs service, just to score goals, we seem to be asking him do stuff he isn't comfortable with. Powell needs to play to our strengths, play 4-4-2 man, we have 4 wingers at the club (Caryoll, Lolley, Hammil and Scannell) play to the players strengths. Let him play off Miller. Miller gets some stick which is unjustified in my opinion, he gets stuck in, holds the ball up well, he's physical and makes general pain in the arse of himself but he won't score 25 goals a season.

Overall an ok performance but it needs to be better, we need to get that first win and we need a striker and a new right back. Spend some of the Smithies money of them and we should be ok.

[Lord Snooty]

lost for words Snoots?

Yes. Once again, I don't know how we lost that. Well, yes I do. No end product, but apart from that, we're playing really well and I'm sure the wins will soon start and we won't be in any danger this season. But come on, let's get some goals scored.