Wolverhampton Wanderers -- 12th, 5 GP, 2-2-1, 0 GD, 8 points v. QPR -- 13th, 5 GP, 2-2-1, -1 GD, 8 points - - - - - - Molineux 30 August 2005 19:45 - - - - - - Rangers News: For our second game Live on Sky in a row, Rangers still have injury problems. Cook, Rowlands, Sturridge, and Nygaard remain out, while Matthew Rose joins the list of the injured. With Ian Evatt back from suspension, a backline of Milanese, Evatt, Shittu, and Bignot seems likely. Santos will again face a late fitness test, so could feature. Ainsworth will likely continue to fill in for one of the injured wingers. It'll be interesting to see if Ollie goes with Miller, Brown, or Moore at the other spot, assuming Furlong and Gallen continue to start up front. The Opponent: Wolves' loss at Leeds was their first in 19 consecutive league games; they closed out the season with 16 straight unbeaten and had 2 wins and 1 draw to open this season. Their last five (most recent first): A Cardiff City D, 2-2 H Chester City (Carling Cup) W, 5-1 A Leeds United L, 0-2 H Hull City W, 1-0 H Crystal Palace W, 2-1 The Series: In an almost even series, Wolves lead 12-12-11. Last season, Wolves won 2-1 at Molineux, while it was 1-1 at Loftus Road. The clubs first met in the 1899/1900 FA Cup, but didn't meet again until playing in the old Division 1 in 1968/69. The Referee: Nigel Miller works today's game. He's handed out 15 yellows and 2 reds in 5 games this season (1 Championship, 2 League One, 1 League Two, 1 Carling Cup). His only career QPR game was our 3-0 home win over Burnley last season in which he issued 5 yellows (Bignot and 4 to Burnley) and awarded a penalty that resulted in our first goal.
Sky Sports match preview Reports that some changes are in store for Wolves and notes that QPR hasn't scored an away goal yet this season. BBC match preview Says Stefan Moore could get a start. QPRnet's match preview Ron guesses 2-1 Wolves, while Simon guesses 2-0 Wolves. Ouch. Obviously, we'll take a point today.
Yep. Looks like I'm going to take 3 hours leave to go watch it. Of course, I'll still have to come back to work and put in a few hours on my own time afterward to get some stuff done, but it'll be worth it. Even if we aren't likely to have a good game today (all signs point to "no"), it's hard to pass up watching QPR live if I have the chance.
1-0 Wolves Cort with the goal after several atrocious defending sequences from our boys. Edit: And QPR instantly equalizes against the run of play. Moore sends a nice cross from the left-side which Gallen heads home.
2-1 Wolves Kenny Miller fakes Evatt out, who is having a very poor game, and sends in a fast, rolling cross right to the charging Cort for his second of the game.
3-1 Wolves Cort breaks the trap to make it 3-1 and secure his hat-trick in the final minutes of the match.
Very poor today, surprisingly bad from the likes of Shittu and Furlong. I think the boardroom drama has been a distraction + the injury list does not help. We could use the likes of Rowlands and Nygard in the team. Dan and Santos need to be much more solid in the back, but they're good enough to do so. I just hope Olly can straighten this out in the next month or so or we can slip into a dangerous spot by Xmas.