QPRnet.com :: The Pre-Match Warm Up

The Pre-Match Warm Up
Thursday 6th April 2006
by Ron Norris & Simon Skinner

After our longest winless run of the season Rangers travel to Burnley on Saturday looking to lift the mood in The R's camp. Can Gary Waddock inspire the boys to a tough looking victory?

TEAM NEWS

After the Stoke defeat we were told there would be changes, there weren’t. After the Crewe defeat we were told there would be changes, there had bloody well better be! Youngsters Howell, Bailey, Donnelly and Baidoo are in the squad and Waddock has alluded that all of them will get their chance to impress in the coming games.

Mauro Milanese suffered a cut eyebrow in training on Thursday but has been patched up and should be ok to play. Matthew Rose is due to go under the knife on Saturday so we wont see him again this season, the same goes for Sammy Youssouf who was injured against Stoke. As usual we will be without Doherty and Rowlands.

Burnley are in pretty fine fettle at the moment with new loan signings Alan Mahon and Andy Gray making an immediate impact after joining from Wigan and Sunderland respectively. Phil Bardsley is also on board from Manchester United and has been impressive despite an OG last week. Experienced hands Micah Hyde and John McGreal both turned out for the reserves in midweek and could be back in contention for this one.

PROBABLY NOT THE TEAM
		Gallen	Baidoo


	Cook	Lomas	Donnelly	Ainsworth


	Milanese	Evatt	Shittu	Kus



		Jones

A QUICK GUIDE TO OUR OPPONENTS

BURNLEY IN BRIEF

The Clarets have had a mini resurgence of late following a disappointing spell of six defeats on the bounce. They are an example of how a couple of new faces can pep a side up and one that Waddock should look to for inspiration. After losing the criminally overrated Ade Akinbyi to Sheffield United they have struggled to find the back of the net. They have only scored six in the twelve games since he left. The less than prolific Gifton Noel-Williams has been packed off to Brighton in search of form as a result.

LAST FIVE GAMES
Date	Versus	Venue	F	A
01/04/06	Sheff Weds	Away	0	0
28/03/06	Southampton	Home	1	1
24/03/06	Norwich	Home	2	0
18/03/06	Stoke	Away	0	1
11/03/06	Derby	Away	0	3


TOP SCORERS
Name	FLC	FAC	LC	Total
Garreth O'Conner	7	1	0	8
John Spicer	3	0	1	4
James O'Conner	3	0	0	3

RUBBISH FACT

Only 17 players, a club record, were used when Burnley won promotion to Division One in 1973 and six of them were ever presents.

RANGERS VERSUS .....

LAST TIME OUT

Queens Park Rangers 1 - 1 Burnley
Monday 2nd January 2006

“Shittu had the ball deep in his own half and launched a monstrous cross field ball at Ainsworth. He saw than Jon Harley was dallying and attacked the ball. Giant keeper Brian Jensen had come haring off of his line and was powerless to intervene as Ainsworth’s well placed header sailed over him into the net.”

LEAGUE STANDINGS
Pos	Team	P	GD	Pts
15th	QPR	41	-11	49
17th	Burnley	41	-8	48


HEAD TO HEAD
Played	QPR	Burnley	Draws
24	8	13	3

OTHER MEETINGS

Rangers only ever victory at Turf Moor came in March 1980 and since then we have suffered three defeats on the bounce. Marcus Bignot scored his first goal for the club in the 2-1 reverse in March 2001 and last season saw a crazy four Rangers youngsters make their Rangers debuts. Pat Kanyuka, Scot Mulholland, Luke Townsend and Lewis Hamilton were all pressed into service in the midst of yet another injury crisis.

GENERAL INFORMATION

THE REFEREE

Our merry whistle blower for the afternoon is the diminutive Ray Olivier. He took charge of our game against Norwich at Loftus Road earlier this season. He has reffed us a total of eight times over the years and we have tasted defeat just twice, one such defeat was against Burnley, although this time at home. In his twenty three games this season he has booked sixty four player but only flashed the red card three times with Burnley’s Garreth O’Connor one of the lucky recipients.

THE REF RECORD
Season	Games	Yellows	Reds
2005-06	24	63	3
2004-05	32	81	7
2003-04	26	67	4


OPPONENTS LINKS
Official Website	BurnleyFootballClub.co.uk
Fans Website	UpTheClarets.com
Travel Info	Football Ground Guide

QPR CONNECTIONS

Flying winger Dave Thomas was signed from Burnley and made his debut for Rangers in October 1972. In a distinguished career in W12 that saw him capped 8 times for England and pick up a league runners up medal, he scored 28 goals in 182 appearances before moving on to Everton.

RON AND SIMON'S PREDICT-OFF

RON: Hopefully the stinging criticism from the last two home defeats will have hit home and Rangers will approach this one with a much more positive attitude. Gary Waddock will know he has five games to make his mark and I hope we’ll see the changes he promised this time. Regardless we’ll have to make a major improvement to even think about bringing anything home with us and whilst I can’t see us being as bad as the last two games, I don’t think we’ll get that much better either. 2-0 to Burnley.

SIMON: There will certainly be changes to the side following the poor showings at home last week. I am hoping to see some of the younger players get a chance to impress and perhaps some tinkering with the way we actually play. If we can see progress being made I won’t be too gutted to lose a game I think we will get nothing from anyway. 1-0 to Burnley.

Current score: Ron 22 Simon 28