QPR -- 14th in Championship last season v. Barnsley -- 18th in Championship last season ------ 9 August 2008 15:00 Loftus Road ------ Full match preview at loftforwords.co.uk -- Excellent stuff. It's everything you need to know, but I'll still include my more meager offering below. Rangers News: The Dowie Era begins at Loftus Road as does, more importantly, the first full season under the ownership/stewardship of Briatore, Mittal, Ecclestone, Bhatia, Agag, et al. Exciting times in W12. UUUURRRRRS!! Rowan Vine (ankle) and Akos Buzsaky (ankle) remain out injured, while Martin Rowlands, Damioin Stewart, and Samuel Di Carmine serve suspensions. Stewart and Di Carmine will be available for the League Cup game on Tuesday at Swindon Town, while Rowly will miss two additional games. Matt Connolly left the Falkirk friendly with an ankle injury and didn't feature in either of the subsequent friendlies, so his status is unclear. QPR has received international clearance for Real Madrid loanee Daniel Parejo, so he will likely make his R's debut. The Opponent: Barnsley knocked Liverpool and Chelsea out of the FA Cup, but finished 18th in the Championship. The Tykes splashed £1.2+ million on Iain Hume in the offseason. They also added Derby defender Darren Moore, French winger Mounir El Haimour, and made a permanent signing of keeper Luke Steele Tough blow for the Tykes as Barnsley will be without Jamal Campbell-Ryce after he dislocated his elbow in a training ground accident. Their website indicates they're still waiting on international clearance for Miguel Mostto and Hugo Colace. It also says that Colace is unlikely to feature anyway with a hamstring problem but Mostto could be on the bench if they get clearance. The Series: QPR leads the overall series, 19-10-13, with an 18-10-12 lead in league play. The R's won 2-0 at home last season in January with first-half goals from Agyemang and Vine while the away match in February ended in a 0-0 draw. The home team won each encounter in 06/07. Before that, the clubs hadn't met since 03/04. The clubs first met in the 1909/10 FA Cup, but didn't meet again or meet in league play until 1948/49. The Referee: Neil Swarbrick will work the match. The R's are 1-1-1 in the three games he's worked including two last year. Loft for Words recaps their opinions of his work from their match reports of those games.
Perejo starts on the bench. QPR: Cerny; Delaney, Gorkss, Hall, Ramage; Ledesma, Mahon, Leigertwood, Cook; Blackstock, Agyemang. Subs: Camp, Parejo, Connolly, Balanta, Alberti. Barnsley: Steele, Hassell, Moore, Foster, Hume, Howard, El Haimour, Souza, Macken, Van Homoet, Devaney. Subs: Kozluk, Mostto, Odejayi, Leon, Rigters.
Great action from the R's -- Agyemang, Blackstock, Cook, Leigertwood, and Ledesma involved. Ultimately, a foul against the R's was called, but we had some dangerous possession.
Ledesma is causing some trouble for Barnsley. [R] in this thread for all of today's English games. Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 Burnley -- four goals in the first 17 minutes!
Ledesma was on the run. Agyemang got in his way, according to the commentary. Blackstock fouled deep in Barnsley's area. Free kick R's at the edge of the box. Ledesma's kick headed onto the bar by Agyemang, comes off, turned in by Fitz Hall!!! 1-1! UUUUURRRRs! Brilliant free kick over the wall by Ledesma!
WOWWWW! Fitz Hall with a second! Right-footed volley over the keeper! Looped it over Steele from the edge of the box! Wow! 2-1!!
Agyemang with a shot wide. R's with the majority of possession. Corner for the R's with about two minutes remaining in the half comes to nothing.
Barnsley: Hume 4' QPR: Hall 28', 30' Halftime stats from World: Possession: QPR 57-43 Shots On Target: QPR 5-3 Shots Off Target: QPR 2-1 Corners: Barnsley 4-3 Fouls: Barnsley 13-7 No cards
I don't know about any free ones. I'm listening on QPR World, the club's pay service that has video highlights, news, etc., in addition to the audio commentary.
Cook is booked. Elsewhere... Doncaster just scored to take a 1-0 lead at Derby Cardiff 1-1 Southampton Ipswich 1-2 Preston Plymouth 1-1 Wolves Wednesday 3-1 Burnley Blackpool 0-0 Bristol City Coventry 1-0 Norwich Charlton 1-0 Swansea Palace 0-0 Watford ...and a final from earlier: Birmingham 1-0 Sheffield United
Penalty! Blackstock beat his man and was taken down in the box. You've got to be kidding me.... Fitz Hall steps forward to take the PK. It's saved. They tried to give him a hattrick and this could come back and bite us. I can see doing that if you're up 2 or 3 goals, but up 1?
Ledesma with another nice free kick. Steele turned it around the post for a QPR corner that came to nothing.