Boss Mick McCarthy believes Town’s Boxing Day opponents QPR can still be play-off contenders, despite currently sitting in mid-table as the Championship season reaches its halfway point.

Rangers are in 12th but are only five points behind the Blues in the final play-off place ahead of both teams' 23rd game of the season.

The Rs are unbeaten in five games, two wins and, in the three game since new manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took over, three draws.

“I think they can compete for the top six still,” McCarthy said. “I think there are a whole load of teams competing for the top six.

“I see Leeds have had three wins on the bounce, Sheffield Wednesday got a good win, Reading have got Brian McDermott in and they’ve got a good squad of players. There are teams pushing for those six places, definitely.”

The Blues boss believes that Hasselbaink was a good appointment following his successful spells at Royal Antwerp and then Burton Albion.

“He’s been a resounding success at Burton, he was at Nottingham Forest for a while on the coaching staff and he had an amazing career as a footballer,” McCarthy added.

“Everything I hear about him is very, very good, about his coaching, his management and that would just back up his success at Burton.

"He’s left them at the top of the table and he’s unbeaten now at QPR and he’s certainly got much better players to work with.

“I look at their team, the likes of Leroy Fer, Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips, Junior Hoilett, Alejandro Faurlín and Sandro. When I go through them they sound like they’ve got a good team to me, they’ve got good players.

“And if they can get a bit of stability they’ll be a real handful, they could still push for the play-offs.”

The QPR squad contains a couple of faces familiar to Town fans and McCarthy was reminded that early in his time at Portman Road, he said of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas that he’d call him by his nickname JET "when he looks like he’s got a rocket up his backside".

The Blues boss recalled the quip but didn’t want to get drawn into commenting further on the 24-year-old, who he allowed to join Bristol City in a swap deal which saw Paul Anderson join the Blues in the summer of 2013.

“That’s a great line for him to come back and haunt me, I suppose,” McCarthy reflected. “But that’s exactly how I felt and I haven’t changed my opinion on that.

“I will speak to you about Jay after the game. Sod’s law, ex-players come back and score goals, that’s the way it is, I’m not going to talk about him.”

Similarly, he didn’t want to be drawn into discussing former loanee Massimo Luongo, whose spell from Spurs he cut short soon after he took over at Portman Road.

Town are at home on Boxing Day for the first time since 2008 when they lost 1-0 to Birmingham, the scheduled game against Watford in 2010 having been postponed due to a frozen section of the Portman Road pitch.

McCarthy isn’t particularly concerned where the Blues are playing with his three Boxing Day games with Town so far having ended in a 2-1 win at Charlton, a 3-0 victory at Doncaster and last year’s 4-2 defeat of Brentford at Griffin Park.

“I’ll tell you after the game whether it’s nice to be at home when we’ve got the points. It doesn’t bother me one way or the other where we’re playing," he added.

“If we’re travelling, we’re travelling and we’re in the hotel. It’s not about home comforts, it’s about whether we get the points or not.”

McCarthy will be looking for an improvement to Town’s recent home record with the Blues having won just one of their last nine at Portman Road.

Following Saturday’s match Town face a tough trip to Brighton on Tuesday, then a similarly difficult visit to Burnley on January 2nd.

However, McCarthy says he’s currently only thinking about the QPR fixture: “Three big games but until we’ve played QPR, nothing will come into play with either of those.”

With three games coming in such quick succession the Town boss could be considering switching some of his personnel after naming an unchanged team for five matches.

Dean Gerken is certain to keep his place in goal and it would be a surprise if McCarthy were to change any of his back four, from the right, skipper Luke Chambers, Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra and Jonas Knudsen. Full-back Jonny Parr remained sidelined earlier in the week with a calf problem.

In midfield, Luke Hyam has returned from his loan spell at Rotherham but McCarthy hinted that the former academy player would be on the bench. Cole Skuse and Jonathan Douglas seem likely to continue in the centre, while Kevin Bru is another option.

Ryan Fraser could make his first start since returning to the club having undergone the rehab from his knee injury back with his parent club AFC Bournemouth.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles seems likely to be the man to drop out for the Scotland U21 international, who could line-up on the left with Freddie Sears switching to the right. Up front, the Town boss will probably continue with Daryl Murphy and Brett Pitman.

QPR are set to be without star striker Charlie Austin over the Christmas period, due to a hamstring injury.

James Perch is out having suffered a bad knee injury against Brighton, while Jamie Mackie has been sidelined since September with a hamstring problem. You can read our sister site Loft For Words' preview from a QPR perspective here and their look back at previous games between the clubs here.

Town have won 28 of the previous encounters between the sides (26 in the league), Rangers 25 (23) and 18 (17) have ended in draws.

The teams last met at Portman Road in January 2014 with Rangers on their way to promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.

Second-half goals from Niko Kranjcar, Gary O’Neil and Armand Traore saw the visitors to a 3-1 victory, Tommy Smith volleying a spectacular injury time consolation for the Blues.

Town had been the better side before the break with QPR keeper Rob Green making an important stop to deny skipper Luke Chambers.

In the preceding August at Loftus Road, debutant sub Tom Hitchcock scored in the final minute to consign the Blues to a 1-0 defeat.

Town had gone close to going in front before the break when Green saved from Daryl Murphy, but it was all Rangers in the second half with Clint Hill and Charlie Austin both hitting the bar prior to Hitchcock’s last-gasp goal.

Emmanuel-Thomas joined Rangers after being released by Bristol City in the summer. The former Arsenal youngster made 43 starts and 32 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring nine goals, between July 2011 and July 2013. He has made seven starts and six sub appearances for the Rs, scoring five goals.

Australian international midfielder Luongo - an international team-mate of Tommy Oar - joined Town on loan from Spurs in the summer of 2012 and made eight starts and three sub appearances, scoring once, before McCarthy curtailed his spell at Portman Road shortly after taking over.

QPR striker Charlie Austin was close to joining Town from Swindon in January 2011 before signing for Burnley, who he left for Loftus Road in the summer of 2013.

Town midfielder Giles Coke was with QPR as a youth player, while Blues U21 coach Mark Kennedy was on loan with the Rs for just over a month in 1998, scoring twice in eight games.

Saturday’s referee is Darren Drysdale from Lincolnshire, who has shown 43 yellow cards and one red in 17 games so far this season.

His most recent Town game was the 5-2 win at Rotherham last month in which he booked only one Millers player.

Prior to that Drysdale took control of the 2-0 away win at Brighton in March 2014 in which he booked Tommy Smith and one home player. Earlier that season he was in charge of the 1-1 draw at Birmingham.

Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Berra, Smith, Malarczyk, Skuse, Douglas, Hyam, Coke, Tabb, Bru, Maitland-Niles, Fraser, Oar, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney.

Photo: Action Images

therein61 added 17:47 - Dec 25 I am now really fed up with our manager telling us how good the opposition are, and also telling us how good his underperforming favourites are! his blinkered selection policy re the back four and keeper(although Gerken has improved a bit but has still cost us points!!) and the Scuse Douglas combo which leaves me thinking they are both so similar we look like we play with 10 men from the start!! the guys upfront who work their nuts off must be as peed of as the fans are!!!! so once again big man for christs sake sort something out because until you(or someone else) does we are staying where we are!!! I know we are still 6th but that is down to other teams losing rather than what we do especially at home

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Currie10 added 18:25 - Dec 25 Nothing like a negative rant the rein. Mick has done the same since day 1 and isn't going to change - people seem to think he'd say the same behind closed doors than to the press. I love it, he gives the press or the opposition manager nothing to work work with. I think our away record may have something to do with league position if you want to be so damn negative about our home........

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Cloddyseedbed added 20:39 - Dec 25 Oh well we'll see how true it is, just heard Parr is going in January. Can't say I blame him.
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floridaboy added 22:35 - Dec 25 3-1 Rangers!!
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jabberjackson added 00:18 - Dec 26 A few people have it in for Bohslehendhere. He always seems pretty balance to me And a good laugh in the match day chatroom Spivvy chops jokes book is a cracker
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bobble added 07:48 - Dec 26 Qpr are easy beats 2..0 to town
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dirtydingusmagee added 09:18 - Dec 26 as much as it grates on the ear,to hear him come out with those statements, he is unlikely to say 'oh the opposition [whoever they are] are a bunch of useless t##ts we are going to roast em '' is he,useless t##ts they may be in some supporters opinion,roast em ,well thats probably not going to happen , and above all apart from the backlash if we lose, the FA,may not be too impressed either.So calm down accept or ignore it .

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carsey added 12:21 - Dec 26 It's simple really all he had to say is "I would rather talk about Ipswich Town and leave the opposition to worry about us". By all means talk after the match but before the game, publicly he shouldn't be seen to big them up. Personally I still live in hope that he will make changes to personnel and playing style but I know its highly unlikely and the likes of Jonny Parr will leave the club if not in January during the summer.

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blueboy1981 added 12:58 - Dec 26 Carsey .......... spot on post.
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blueboy1981 added 13:01 - Dec 26 Jonny Parr is far too good to stay around here on the fringe, when he knows he should be in the team. Complete waste of a talent at Portman Road.
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sidtheswan added 13:45 - Dec 26 QPR can reach the play offs because teams above them, mentioning no names, keep dropping points !
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