[jjamez]

So after a very poor performance 230 miles away on foreign soil, Town have very little time to rest and regroup as they make the 4 hour journey home in order to face Queens Park Rangers at the John Smiths Stadium on Saturday, they too will be making a roughly 4 hour trip up the m1 to have that pleasure, roll out the red carpet boys.

Hopefully that will be the only welcome they get this weekend, as we look to right the wrongs from Tuesday night, which if you go on the season so far, it seems that there might be a chance of us doing so, as is the inconsistency of our performances this season, not that there is any side in the league that is truly consistent. Town are 8 points off the playoffs and 10 points off top spot, if any team strings together a good set of results and finds that consistency, they may find themselves pulling away from the pack, likewise, too many bad games in a row and you can be finding yourself drifting away, but as it is at the moment, anyone can beat anyone, unless you are Derby County  

Our visitors on Saturday are as inconsistent as we are, sitting one place below us in table in 17th with their current record standing at 4 wins, 5 draws, 6 defeats, town meanwhile are 5 wins, 3 draws, 7 defeats.

Still managed by the baker Mark Warburton he'd loaf to earn his dough and have his side put on a performance after being sliced apart in the second half on Tuesday night against Bristol City, scoring early on through Rob Dickie, but saw old boy and former town striker Nahki Wells score before Adam Nagy condemned rangers to defeat as they could rise to the challenge of being behind. Despite their standing in the table I wouldn't say that Warburton is kneading a win just yet and his relationship with the board hasn't turned sourdough just yet...



They began the season in similar fashion to us, going out of the league cup to lower league opposition, losing 3-2 away at Towns fa cup opponents Plymouth. They began the league season with a home win against Nottingham forest, Dykes and Chair scoring in the second half. They followed that up with another 3-2 defeat away at newly promoted Coventry city, Dykes on the scoresheet once again along with Yohan Barbet in a game that ebbed and flowed, before finishing September off with a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough, Osei-Samuel cancelling out Chubba Akpom's opener. October was another inconsistent month, yielding 3 draws, 2 defeats and 1 win. The draws came away at Sheffield Wednesday, Bournemouth and at home to Birmingham, Macauley Bonne scoring a 96th minute equaliser against Wednesday, the other two games finished 0-0. The defeats came at home to away day specialists Preston, who won 2-0 and 3-0 away at Barnsley, QPR seeing Dickie sent off in the first half with the game at 0-0. The sole win coming at the end of the month at home to Cardiff, another injury time winner sealing the points after chair and Todd Kane had given them a 2-0 lead only for Joe Ralls to bag a second half brace. November followed a similar pattern with the R's winning  3-2 again at home to Rotherham, Chair, Osei-Samuel and Dykes scoring in the first half, Smith and Ladapo scoring for Rotherham. A late Bonne goal sealed a 1-0 win away at Derby, Chair cancelled out Ben Wilmott's early goal at home to Watford. They lost away to Blackburn, Dykes getting the solitary QPR goal in consolation to a Ben Brereton goal and Adam Armstrong double, they also lost 2-1 away at Brentford, Dykes once again on the scoresheet in response to Ivan Toney and Vitaly Janelt, they also saw Kane dismissed for two yellows before starting December off with the defeat at home to Bristol City.

Their for and against stats are very similar to ours, with the r's having conceded just the one goal more than town, leading their scoring charts at the moment with 5 goals and 1 assist in 13 games is Australian Scotsman Lyndon Dykes, with Ilias Chair in second on 4 goals and 1 assist from 16 games. In terms of assists, highly rated Bright Osei-Samuel leads the way with 2 from 14, chipping in with 2 goals of his own, which incidentally puts him 3rd in their scoring charts. Town meanwhile see Josh Koroma leading the way on 4 goals and 1 assist, with Eiting and Campbell joint second with 3 goals, the Dutchman having set up one goal, the local lad having no direct assists. Leading the way with the assists for town is obviously Harry Toffolo on 5, with Bacuna second on 3 and Mbenza third on 2.



So what's happened over the summer in the hoops?

Coming into the club was former Tottingham midfielder Tom Carroll, who joined on a free after leaving Swansea City, another Spurs kid Luke Amos also switched London grounds and former Arsenal trainee and Town loanee Chris Willock joined for an undisclosed fee from Portuguese side Benfica. Also joining the club was the aforementioned Outback Highlander Dykes who joined from Livingstone for just under 2 million ENGLISH pounds along with fellow striker Charlie Kelman who joined from struggling league two side Southend. Another striker switched London grounds as Maccauly Bonne left Charlton to step back up to the championship, also joining the club was forest winger Albert Adomah who joined his boyhood club, George Thomas left Leicester to join on a free, whilst Rob Dickie left Oxford for 2.5 million.



In terms of leaving the club, Joe Lumley left on emergency loan to Gillingham and Doncaster, but is now back at the club, fellow goalkeeper Dillon Barnes moved up to Hibernian on a free transfer. Aramide Oteh left for Stevenage on a free, whilst Olamide Shodipo moved to Oxford, probably as part of the Dickie deal, with Paul Smyth moving to Charlton, possibly as part of the Bonne move. Defenders Grant Hall and Tobi Leistner left on free transfers to Middlesbrough and Hamburger SV respectively, with full back Ryan Manning leaving for Swansea, whilst the main move saw Ebe Eze depart for Premier League side Crystal Palace for a fee reported to be around 16 million.



Ones to Watch

Bright Osei-Samuel- Tipped by manager to be destined for the premier league amidst interest from Scottish side Rangers. Capable of playing on either flank, the winger possesses a lot of pace and looks to get his side higher up the pitch as fast as possible whilst earning free kicks.

Lyndon Dykes- The Scottish striker joined in the summer and has put his height and bit of pace to good use, leading the scoring charts for the hoops. The striker recently made his debut for the Scottish national side and they look a completely different side when they have him leading the line over Oli Mcburnie, with the Aussie being a bully to most defences.

Ilias Chair- The Moroccan midfielder acts as the link between the midfield and Dykes, operating much how we hoped Pritchard would. Has started every championship game so far this season. He has already matched his goals tally from last year, but so has Campbell so its not saying much...

Rob Dickie- The centre half was highly coveted by Championship sides in the summer with town being one to have been linked with the centre half. The defender is still getting used to the championship and has been struggling with a groin strain but came back alongside Yohan Barbet last time out against Brentford. The former England u19 is now 24, but QPR will be hoping they can make him a mainstay of their defence for time to come.



Team news

Town will be without Richard Stearman and Tommy Elphick, but will be hoping to be able to call upon Pipa, Pritchard and Bacuna, whilst Critchlow could also return from a slight groin issue that has plagued him recently. Schindler and Toffolo both got subbed against Cardiff but it is probably for rest with the game already as good as over, so it could be the best squad we've had available for a fairly long while.

QPR will be hoping to welcome veteran Geoff Cameron to the fold, the American midfielder has missed the last two games through injury, whilst Todd Kane will be back from suspension, otherwise it is expected to be the same squad to pick from, with the obvious amount of rotation


What the managers have said...when they manage to talk.

CC
“We haven’t lost any players from the Cardiff game, and it is possible Pipa and Pritchard will add to the squad if training goes well today. Bacuna is back in training today, so we will assess if he is ready for the game or he needs a little longer.”

“if we depend on certain players too much, it means we are not doing our job well. Every player has to be ready to face the level of the Championship"

“QPR are an aggressive team in the offensive half, and defend high on the pitch. They are one of the teams that play good football; something I saw in two games last season. We have the same identity in attack. I think they deserve more than they have.”

“consistency is not easy, and is a big challenge this year. You play different opponents and have different teammates. Difficult moments always appear in games, and you get consistency by being ready to face every situation.”

“we’ve talked about keeping our level of concentration for 90 minutes. Mistakes are part of football, but we want to ensure that our mistakes don’t lead to conceding a goal.
That’s a big part of being competitive in football.”

“the demands of playing matches every two or three days are very high. This is not an excuse. We need to be ready to face games in terms of fatigue, and also not being affected by what happened in the last game.”

“unfortunately, it looks like we will miss Richard Stearman for a couple of months. He has been an important player for us. Thankfully, we have recovered Rarmani Edmonds-Green from his pre-season injury and we are focused on how we can develop him.”

“the mentality of our squad is the right one. They don’t look for excuses after any mistake; the players want to take responsibility and improve.”



QPR- The Bread Man

club links

1) easy- a Bermudian striker, signed for town from Bradford, left to join Burnley before moving down south.
2) another easy one, sold for some strange reason from town to QPR, we played against him this week
3) the original Rolls Royce defender, sold to make way for Schindler, currently unemployed
4) Winger who played in the championship for town last season
5) Full back who made a loan move to town, settled at QPR for a few seasons before moving for another couple of years in the midlands, now plays at a premier league side
6) Another goalkeeper who made 0 appearances here, but managed to make over 100 for the hoops, amongst other London clubs
7) Midfielder who signed an emergency deal with QPR for a season but made no appearances, signed for us with great expectations, but failed to deliver much upon it. Was injured a lot
8) defender who spent a year at QPR after leaving Newcastle, but left after they were promoted, spent a season at town. well nearly a season
9) Striker who had a season at town and scored 10 goals before being moved on. Signed from QPR and wound up back there via a brief detour after leaving town. Spent over a decade at QPR in total
10) had one successful spell as manager at town, and had 2 spells as manager at QPR, one as a temporary manager.
11) Striker who had a successful year at town on loan, wasn't allowed to stay and eventually made his home on the south coast. his troubled private life ruined his career as he journeyed from club to club
12) Defender who had 6 years at QPR before leaving for Tranmere, had a year in Sheffield, before joining town. Retired at town through injury, but came out of retirement to play for a further 4 clubs.

Head to head

Town haven't lost to QPR since August 2015 when a late Tjaronn Chery goal consigned town to a 1-0 defeat. Since then town have won 3 and drawn 2, the most recent game being at our place last season where goals from Kachunga and a Mounie penalty gave Danny Cowleys side a 2-0 win. In the promotion season town managed to do the double over the R's, Izzy Brown and Nahki Wells scored two first half goals, with Luke Freeman scoring midway through the second half to make things nervier. Earlier in the season town won by the same result, Kachunga and Kasey Palmer bagging for the terriers, with Idrissa Sylla scoring for Rangers. In the dreadful Mick Wadsworth relegation season, QPR registered two 3-0 wins, with big Danny Shittu scoring in both, I had barely started following football at that time, so I imagine they were both set piece goals, but I suppose we were truly awful at that time anyway so it makes no difference.



Overall, in the league, Town have won 9, drawn 7 and lost 12 against QPR, but if you add in cup games that becomes 13 wins, 9 draws and 13 defeats. So in general we seem to be fairly even against the hoops.

Now everyone's favourite anagrams, this time they are all something QPR related, could be anything though

1) I Did Not Nap If A Nun Ask I Mutter Coy
2) Ones Trendy Fan
3) Sky Win Lair
4) Red Rag Go Dodge
5) Refined Lands
6) A Hour Aid Factors
7) A Lily Bible
8) Clock Seat
9) My Code Rot Myth
10) I Scram Past Her Hob

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Thanks, jj.

[theo_luddite]

I'll raise a slice of toast and marmalade to that Wonderloaf effort jjamez , and hopefully I get the chance at a couple of quiz questions afore Snoots gets home.

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1. too easy - I'll leave that for Snoots so he can get his pecker up after doing a proper weeks work for once.
2. not giving him both easy ones - Alex Smithies
3. Joel Lynch
4. Chris Willock


I'll be back - gonna have a look at your famous aunty grams

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Aunty grams - in no particular order

Can't see a Lord Stanley of the flat Bowles green or Sir Rodney of the Hackney Marshes too easily in here so
5 Les Ferdinand
9 Tommy Docherty
3 Ray Wilkins

---

6. South Africa Road

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, jjamez.

And a few good bread puns, although I can't believe you missed the one about him being a master baker.

---

1. Kahki Smells
2 SMIVVIES!!!!
3. Joelly Lynch
4. Willock the Wisp
5. Jack Robinson (didn't realise he was back in the prem)
6. Rob Green
7. The legend, Oscar Gobern
8. -
9. Kevin Gallen
10. Colin Wanker
11. Neon Light
12. -

[jjamez]

Nice one, jjamez.

And a few good bread puns, although I can't believe you missed the one about him being a master baker.  

---

1. Kahki Smells
2 SMIVVIES!!!!
3. Joelly Lynch
4. Willock the Wisp
5. Jack Robinson (didn't realise he was back in the prem)
6. Rob Green
7. The legend, Oscar Gobern
8. -
9. Kevin Gallen
10. Colin Wanker
11. Neon Light
12. -

Yeah as long as we don't put qpr on a roll.

Robinson left forest to join Sheffield United

[ritchiebaby]

Anagrams
4) George Goddard - if only to prove I do read these posts.

[Lord Snooty]

1) I Did Not Nap If A Nun Ask I Mutter Coy
2) Ones Trendy Fan Tony Fernandes
3) Sky Win Lair
4) Red Rag Go Dodge
5) Refined Lands Les Ferdinand
6) A Hour Aid Factors
7) A Lily Bible
8) Clock Seat Alec Stock
9) My Code Rot Myth
10) I Scram Past Her Hob

[theo_luddite]

Great run and strike by Koroma

---

Another well worked goal sees Toffs finish off with some aplomb

---

Good half that from Town. Pipa making a world of difference to the way we play.

[Lord Snooty]

Great first half. But we've had great first halves before. Don't do like we did against Preston and Brizzle.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

That didn't look good for Schindler