Gillingham v. QPR (27 Aug: Coca-Cola Championship - Match 5) [R]

[Atouk]

Gillingham -- 11th, 2-0-2, -1 GD, 6 points
v.
QPR -- 23rd, 0-2-2, -5 GD, 2 points
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27 August 2004, 19:45
Priestfield Stadium
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Television:
UK - Sky Sports 3 (live)
US - Setanta Pub Channel (replay at 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET)
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Rangers News:

Tony Thorpe has had a setback and will be out another two weeks. Marc Bircham saw his first action of the year on Tuesday and should be available for selection. Dan Sh!ttu also saw his first action, but likely won't get into a League match for a bit. Gareth Ainsworth, Matthew Rose, and Arthur Gnohere will miss this match, but could be available for Tuesday (home v. Sheffield United). Richard Edghill was available for selection on Tuesday and could also be in the squad on Friday.

Given the injuries, I guess the defense picks itself with Day fronted by Bignot, Forbes, Santos, and Padula.

Will we see a Rowlands, Bircham, Bean/Johnson, and Cook midfield, or will Olly continue Wednesday's experiment and go with Rowlands, Gallen, Bean/Johnson/Bircham, and Cook?

Up front, with Thorpe out, it's some combination of Furlong, Gallen, and Cureton.

Also of note: the R's will be wearing their green-and-white hooped third shirt.

The Opponent:

The Gills were equal on points with and had just one goal better goal difference than relegated Walsall last season, but have started this season well, with 2 home wins and 2 away losses. They opened with a 1-2 away loss to Ipswich, defeated Leeds at home 2-1, defeated Preston at home by the same score, then lost last weekend 0-2 at Stoke.

They were knocked out of the Carling Cup on Tuesday with a 1-2 home loss to League Two's Northampton. Don't know if we should take much out of that one as they made seven squad changes from their Stoke loss.

The Series:

Rangers lead 25-21-13. Our relegation season from this level of 00/01 was their first one in it -- Rangers won 1-0 away and the teams drew 2-2 at Loftus Road. Before that, the clubs hadn't met since 1967.

The Referee:

Mike Thorpe gets the assignment. In four games this year, he's issued 6 yellows. He worked our 3-0 home win against Grimsby last April. He worked Gillingham's 1-2 home loss to Cardiff just the week before. In 33 total matches last year, he issued 99 yellows and 8 reds.

[QPR Kevin H]

Team prediction...

-------------Day--------------
Bignot-Forbes-Santos-Padula
-------------Bean-------------
Rowlands----------------Cook
------------Gallen-------------
---Cureton---------Furlong---

[Atouk]

Just watched the QPR World preview. Prav says Bircham will likely figure in the squad, but isn't fit enough to start.

Also of interest is that Gillingham plays a 4-3-3, so they're running an unusual system and we've had a very short time, basically just Thursday, to prepare for it.

Hopefully our back line is up to it -- the four likely to start did play 70 minutes together (their first as a unit) on Tuesday, so that's a plus.

[doolittledog2]

Does anyone know if this game will be on BBC London or some other free service? Mrs. Doolittledog still thinks we can spend our money more wisely than QPR world service and no bars in this area with Setanta pub service.

[doolittledog2]

Ok, I looked up the BBC London page. They will have QPR on this afternoon.

[Atouk]

Mrs. Doolittledog still thinks we can spend our money more wisely than QPR world service and no bars in this area with Setanta pub service.By the way, there's a new offer that's cheaper than QPR World -- for £20 you get Match Live, so you get the commentary for all the matches, but not the video highlights, interviews, etc. £20 is a bit more than $35 per year, but that's a good discount from the £35 per year that World costs.

[Atouk]

Lineups have been announced (http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~557807,00.html) and Olly decided to go with Bean/Johnson in the middle of midfield and moved Gallen back up top.

Starting XI:
Day; Padula, Santos, Forbes, Bignot; Cook, Bean, Johnson, Rowlands; Gallen, Furlong.

Bench:
Cole, Edghill, Bircham, McLeod, Cureton.

[doolittledog2]

Gillingham 0-1 QPR at the half.

[doolittledog2]

Full time Gillingham 0-1 QPR Always nice to get 3 points on the road.

[art]

By the way, there's a new offer that's cheaper than QPR World -- for £20 you get Match Live, so you get the commentary for all the matches, but not the video highlights, interviews, etc. £20 is a bit more than $35 per year, but that's a good discount from the £35 per year that World costs.

...or you can go the other way and go with World Extra (an extra $20-25 ish I think, not up on the latest exchange rates), and get 76 clubs worth of stuff! It's pretty amazing, ive spent hours on there. Most of the Prem clubs dont have World sites but for the League, it's unbeatable.

[art]

I love Rivals...read this match report from the Gills perspective. :)

http://gillingham.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=934&p=2&stid=8357870

[QuarkspaceDotCom]

The Hand of Bean, baby!! :cool: :cool: :cool:

We'll take it!

Come on you Rrrrrrrrrssssssssss!

[Atouk]

Nice win for the R's. A bit of luck on the goal, although we're due a bit of luck having had all the calls go against us thus far, and the referee pretty much made up for it just a couple of minutes later when he refused to call an obvious penalty that should have put us 1-0 up anyway.

Nice defensive effort from a makeshift backline. Santos did very well against Roberts -- quite a battle among big men there, and one that Santos mostly got the better of.

Too bad Forbes was injured. Whoever this loan man Olly seems to have coming in is, there's a decent chance he'll be thrown right into the lineup against Sheffield United on Tuesday. Or would we really play Edghill in the centre for 90?

While we played well overall, Rowlands can certainly play much better and Cook can have a more consistent performance (he did quite a few good things, but blew a few good chances to move us into dangerous positions, too), so with their improvement, returning injured players, and a loan player or two, we've got plenty of room for improvement.

Well done, Rangers! UUUURRRRRRR's! :D

[AEK]

I am just glad that we got the W, we really needed it!

[Atouk]

With today's results, we now sit 18th in the table. Leeds and Sheffield United play tomorrow, but both are already ahead of us on goal difference. The good news about that game is we'll have a couple of extra days rest on Sheff United for Tuesday's match at Loftus Road. With our inferior goal difference, we're last among six teams (including the two that play tomorrow) with 5 points.

Big news in the division is that Cardiff has agreed a price to sell Robert Earnshaw to West Brom.

18. QPR 5 GP, -4, 5 pts
19. Wolves 5 GP, -1, 4 pts
20. Preston 5 GP, -2, 4 pts
21. Forest 5 GP, -3, 4 pts
22. Cardiff 5 GP, -3, 4 pts
23. Brighton 5 GP, -5, 4 pts
24. Rotherham 5 GP, -3, 3 pts

[JacksonJazz#9]

Congrats on your win... Unfortunately, Plymouth wasnt as lucky, taking a 3-1 stuffing.... ARGH...

[Ian51]

The Super Hoops clearly stole the points from Gillingham with that handled ball.....was that move perfected on their training ground in Acton ?
http://www.angelfire.com/super2/fulhamfc

[QPR Kevin H]

The Super Hoops clearly stole the points from Gillingham with that handled ball.....was that move perfected on their training ground in Acton ?
http://www.angelfire.com/super2/fulhamfc
Could Bean's goal have been disallowed for handball? Yeah, probably. However, he did not use his hand intentionally to put the ball into the net. He landed on the ball, which came into contact with his elbow. It then hit the keepers leg and went in. Fortunate for us, yes. Cheating, no.

And what do the empty seats at Craven Cottage have to do with the price of rice in China? 5,000 of them for your glorious return home from your supposedly horrible exile at Loftus Road - a wopping 1,000 more than you got last season at LR. Hardly something to wag in peoples faces. You're a tiny little club - act like it and maybe more people might like you.

[QPR Kevin H]

How was the viewing at Summers last week? Many of the DC R's turn up? Great to get a win on a Friday evening.

[Atouk]

How was the viewing at Summers last week? Many of the DC R's turn up? Great to get a win on a Friday evening.It was fun. They put it on one of the big screens and turned up the volume, so we got to hear it, too. There were four of us watching, in total, two R's supporters and two friends of R's supporters chipping in a bit of support.

So far, we haven't seen any of the other message board R's like Dylan Pressman or 1967 (isn't there at least one more DC R on the message boards?).