Match Preview Team bring you QPR v Burnley

Trip to London
By The Match Preview Team
January 6 2006

Your Match Preview Team this game is Tranzic and Rose & Crown Claret. Final game of a disappointing Christmas. Can we hit 2006 on a high tho......

Tommy Doherty
Kevin Gallen

Danny Coyne - Season
John Spicer
John McGreal

None

Win - 6/5 (F)
Draw - 21/10

Win - 21/10
Draw - 21/10

Please see Local Info

Referee: Keith Stroud (Hampshire)
Asst. Referees: Steve Tomlinson (Hampshire)
Roger Vaughan (Somerset)
Fourth Official: Eric Mackrell (Hampshire)

The Clarets are back on their road on Monday to complete the gruelling Christmas schedule of four games in seven days. The first game of 2006 see the Clarets travel to Loftus Road to face Ian Holloway's QPR, who currently occupy 13th place, just 3 points behind Burnley. It's was a disappointing end to December, a month in which we collected 7 points out of a possible 18. We started the month well, a good point at Southampton but then were well beaten at Bramall Lane, although there's no disgrace in that. Then the highlight of the month, a 4-1 home win against then 3rd placed Watford which was followed up by a good 1-0 win over high-flying Stoke in front of the highest crowd of the season at the Turf, 17,912. It certainly looked like it would be a very rewarding December as far as points were concerned, we'd picked up 7 points and still had another 6 to play for. Then the wheels came off, no real disgrace in coming away from Carrow Road empty handed, a poor first half performance condemning us to our second defeat of the month. Positives could be taken from our second half performance, and we only had to face lowly Sheffield Wednesday at the Turf next, so surely all was not lost? Wrong, this is Burnley, a lacklustre performance saw us go down 2-1 against a side who hadn't scored for 7 games, it took them just 4 minutes to do that against us. We eventually went down 2-1, but could we take any positives from the game? Well, no, not really. Garreth O'Connor pulled one back late on for us, signalling his intent on regaining a starting place, and after watching that on New Year's Eve, who can begrudge him his place back?

So, onto the teams. Garreth O'Connor could well be back in contention as part of Cotterill's rotation over Christmas system and considering his performance on Saturday. The Clarets will be sweating on the fitness of John McGreal who was substituted on Saturday after picking up a knock, and John Spicer is unlikely to figure after picking up a shin injury in the defeat at Norwich. As for QPR, Paul Furlong is expected to return after being rested for the win against Crewe, with either Shabazz Baidoo or Marc Nygaard expected to make way. Influential midfielder Marc Bircham is a doubt after limping off in the same game.

Let's not talk about the 3-0 defeat there last season, but a trip to Loftus Road will bring back fond memories for the Clarets that were there in the 2000/2001 season. The Clarets won the game courtesy of a second-half strike from John Mullin, a win that saw us occupy 6th position on what was a truly memorable day. The Burnley fans were certainly in fine form as The Springbok pub was taken over by the travelling Clarets who decided that not only would they occupy the inside of the pub but also the beer garden and the roof of the beer garden. Rocky, as you can imagine was in his element getting the songs going, conducting the Burnley fans from his roof-top position. The QPR fans must have wondered what had visited Shepherd's Bush that afternoon. The banter though was good and the QPR fans seemed to see the funny side of it all. God knows what the landlord thought!

With QPR picking up just two wins from their previous 6 home games, and the Clarets picking up just 4 points from a possible 18 since our win at Leicester in mid-October, this one could go either way. Let's hope we get something again from Loftus Road, so we can make up for the awful result against Sheffield Wednesday, and start as we mean to go on in 2006.

UP THE CLARETS

QPR	Last Meeting			Burnley
Top Scorers G Ainsworth 4 K Gallen 4 M Nygaard 4 P Furlong 4 D Shittu 3	FLC 19/04/05 Burnley 2 QPR 0 FLC 30/10/04 QPR 3 Burnley 0			Top Scorers A Akinbiyi 12 G O'Connor 7 J O'Connor 3 J Spicer 3 W Elliott 3
Discipline Y/R P Furlong 6/2 D Shittu 5/1 G Santos 5/0 M Bircham 5/0 T Doherty 2/1	League Head 2 Head			Discipline Y/R G O'Connor 4/1 F Sinclair 7/0 J Harley 6/0 M Hyde 6/0 M Duff 5/0
	Burnley 11 Draws 2 QPR 8
Goal Details When: first half 16[22] second half 16[16] From: open play 14[24] crosses 4[5] corners 7[2] penalties 2[2] direct fk 1[2] free kicks 4[3]	Games Since			Goal Details When: first half 16[19] second half 22[15] From: open play 21[15] crosses 6[5] corners 1[4] penalties 6[3] direct fk 2[3] free kicks 1[4]
	0 0 0 2 1 1 4 22 0 0	a win home win away win a defeat home defeat away defeat score draw no score draw conceded scored	2 1 4 0 0 0 5 19 0 0
For 32 Against38				For 38 Against34
	Total Goals
W 3 D 1 L 2 Pts 10				W 2 D 1 L 3 Pts 7
	Current Form