4. QPR, 3-2-1, +8 GD, 11 Points 21. Wycombe Wanderers, 1-1-4, -5 GD, 4 Points ------ 13 September Loftus Road ------ The R's will play without Bircham and Thorpe. Padula is set to return to practice and should play. Our options seem to be either: a) start Edghill at right back and move Rowlands into the attacking midfield slot, letting Gallen move back up front to partner Furlong, or... b) keep Rowlands at right back, keep Gallen in central midfield, and start Pacquette (or Sabin) at forward along with Furlong. If Edghill has the fitness to go 90, I'd probably go with the former. If not, we may have to go with the latter. Wycombe is 1-1-1 at home, but 0-0-3 away, having lost 2-3 at Blackpool, 1-3 at Grimsby, and 0-2 at Rushden. Their home win was an opening day 1-0 defeat of Stockport, with a home draw against Chesterfield and a home loss to Sheffield Wednesday. However, they did beat Wimbledon at home in the Carling Cup. The clubs have only ever met four times, twice each the last two years. QPR has won both at Loftus Road (2-1 last year, 4-3 the year before). Wycombe has won the two there (4-1, 1-0). News on Thrope injury: http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~422747,00.html
Hey, Kevin, are you in England yet? Did the move go OK? Will you be at the match? Also, Michael Jones is the referee. He's worked one each in D1, D2, and D3 this year, issuing a total of 6 yellows and no reds. Last season, he didn't work any QPR matches, while working one road loss for Wycombe. He averaged about 2 1/2 yellows per match and gave out just three reds in 30 matches. Although he works many 1st and 2nd Division games, he hasn't refereed a QPR match since '98/'99 (a 2-1 loss at Bolton in which our only goal was a penalty).
In short - yes, yes and yes! In my place in Brighton at the moment and as you can gather by my message time, I have not adjusted to the lag as of yet. Frustrating. I'll be in the Loft for the match on Saturday. BR and Goldhawk before and after. So excited to start the season ticket. I'll give a report on here saturday night (if Im in)
Great! Glad to hear everything went well (except the jet lag!). We'll definitely appreciate hearing your thoughts after the matches, so please keep us filled in. Thanks! Should be fun to drink a few beers before Bristol City & Barnsley (will you be able to make a weeknight match?). I'm in Lower Loft Section J for both of those (same seat as I had for Chesterfield).
Will be in London for both matches. Think most of my friends hit the Goldhawk to get the beers in beforehand. Send me an email closer to the day and I'll let you know the story. Should be two good matches as well
Will do. As you know, I'm generally a White Horse man, myself, for pre/post match drinks, but I often pop into the Bush Ranger early for a pint before going to the WH. I've only been to the Goldhawk once -- on the "drinking tour of the Bush" I did the day after the play-off final. Speaking of it... I started at the BR and had a pint in every joint down the Goldhawk Road. By the time I made the turn at Askew Road (picking up the Orchard Tavern, too, that's on Ashchurch Grove just off), I was pretty far gone. I shifted to half pints as I made the turn back on the Uxbridge Road and was so drunk that I had to skip a whole bunch on Uxbridge just to stop into the White Horse for a final one before going to collapse. I meant to do a write-up on it here on the board, but wasn't much in the mood after the play-off loss. I was aided by this great website that has a list of every pub (149 in all!) in Hammersmith & Fulham, broken down by post code. I printed out the W12 and away I went. I'll have to try to finish up many of the easy-to-find W12s and maybe start working on the W6 too, since that starts right there south of Shepherd's Bush Green. http://www.sff.net/people/chris.amies/publist/index.html No kidding. Bristol City was the favorite of many to go up and now Barnsley is top of the league. Should be good stuff!
God bless West London, and its only football club Rangers till I die. I honestly feel sorry for Man Utd "fans"
QPR 0-0 Wycombe. From the QPR World broadcast it sounded as if the Rs had many, many chances to put this one away, but just couldn't. Looking forward to your match report, Kevin.
Well Im not exactly the best beat reporter, but I'll give a quick recap. I wouldnt make too much of an assumption about our quality from todays dissapointment. The R's were unlucky really - played well enough to win. Wycombe defended well when they had to and the R's just could not force the ball in. I'd say that the central midfield were a liability with Palmer and Bean there - but really they weren't. Bean actually played pretty well - Palmer not quite as much. We could have used Thorpe and his goal poaching. But Furlong played alright - as did Gallen. We just could not find the net. Unfortunate for me on my first day - I dont think its me jinxing them, more likely not being able to kick into the Loft in the second half (real technical breakdown there huh) On the bright side - we were all able to get trousered in the Goldhawk and Bush Ranger afterwards. Everyone wins!! Heading up to Sheffield United for the league cup match next week. Will have another report then. 4 points + from Wrexham and Luton would be nice.
Thanks for the recap, Kevin. I'll definitely look forward to hearing your thoughts after the matches. No kidding. And it was a good way to spend the day after the Play-Off Final. In some pubs, I just had a pint, got a feel for the place, and moved on. But in quite a few, I ended up striking up conversations about Rangers, the match the day before, etc., with people who either had been the day before or were Rangers fans who had watched it on TV. That should be fun. Incredibly tough draw, though. I believe I was told they won an obscene number of home cup games last year (10?) on their two good cup runs (semifinals in both cups).