Town Start 2017 at QPR Chasing First Back-to-Back Wins Monday, 2nd Jan 2017 06:00 Town get 2017 under way at QPR this afternoon looking to build on Friday’s 2-1 home victory over Bristol City and aiming to record back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The Blues, who climbed to 14th after defeating the Robins, last won two on the trot in the final games of last season, at home to the MK Dons and away at Derby. Manager Mick McCarthy believes his Rangers counterpart Ian Holloway, whose 19th-placed side ended a six-game run of defeats by winning 2-1 at Wolves on Saturday, will be well aware of that record but believes his side will give themselves every chance of claiming their fourth away win of the season if they play as they did against Bristol City. “I would have thought Ollie will be thinking, ‘Ipswich haven’t won two games on the bounce’, so he’ll be loving us coming down there, won’t he?” McCarthy said. “It’s a good opportunity because of the way we played [on Friday], if we can replicate the performance. “We might not be able to replicate the result but let’s replicate the performance and we’ve got a chance. If we don’t we’ll get beat.” Saturday’s win was only QPR’s second in 11 matches - Holloway was in charge of the last eight having taken over at the start of November after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s departure - with the Blues winning the Portman Road fixture 3-0 just over a month ago.
However, McCarthy doesn’t believe that will give his team a psychological advantage going into this afternoon’s match. “I don’t get that, not really,” he said. “It’s a different game, a different day, a different set of circumstances.” The two bosses are good friends - Holloway issued an impassioned defence of the Blues manager following the Portman Road match - but McCarthy says that makes no odds once the whistle goes. “You know the answer to that question, and he’ll have no sentiment for me either,” he said. “Yes, we get on particularly well for two football managers, but I’ve never had any favours off him yet.” McCarthy reported no new injuries after the Bristol City match - “I think they’re all OK. Kevin Bru was tightening up, but he’s all right” - and unless anyone subsequently felt a niggle seems likely to field an unchanged side. Bartosz Bialkowski will be in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Myles Kenlock continuing on the left with Adam Webster and Christophe Berra at the heart of the defence. In midfield, Cole Skuse will again be joined in the centre by Bru with Tom Lawrence on the left and Grant Ward on the right. Up front, David McGoldrick will partner Brett Pitman. Town are understood to be closing in on the signings of Rotherham’s Danny Ward and Fulham’s Cauley Woodrow, while we understand a third so-far-unidentified player is also being targeted, but any additions are now more likely to come in ahead of the FA Cup tie against Lincoln City at Portman Road on Saturday. Tommy Smith (back), Jonny Williams (shoulder) and Luke Hyam and Giles Coke (both knee) are still recovering after surgery, while Paul Digby (also knee) and Teddy Bishop (ankle) are also sidelined at present. QPR have skipper Nedum Onuoha back after a one-match ban, while former Blues loanee Massimo Luongo is a doubt with a groin problem and another midfielder, ex-Charlton man Jordan Cousins, is a concern with a hamstring injury. Town have won 30 of the previous encounters between the sides (28 in the league), Rangers 26 (24) and 18 (17) have ended in draws. The Blues last won at Loftus Road under Roy Keane in February 2010, a 2-1 victory, and have lost on their last three visits without scoring. QPR have lost each of their last three home league games by a single goal, 1-0 defeats to Aston Villa and Derby following a 2-1 loss to Wolves. In late November at Portman Road, goals from Grant Ward, Luke Varney and Tom Lawrence saw Town to a 3-0 victory over QPR. Ward put the Blues ahead via a scuffed effort on 13, then Varney benefited from an error by visitors’ keeper Alex Smithies nine minutes after the break, before Lawrence sealed the win - which in the end could have been even more comfortable - on 61. The teams last met at Loftus Road in February when Matt Phillips netted in the 88th minute to hand QPR a 1-0 victory. But for an excellent goalkeeping display from Bialkowski Town would have been behind at half-time, but the second period was a more even affair in which both teams had chances and Phillips headed home late on to claim the three points. QPR’s Australian international midfielder Luongo 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. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, who is on a season-long loan at Gillingham, joined Rangers after being released by Bristol City in the summer of 2015. The former Arsenal youngster made 43 starts and 32 sub appearances for the Blues, scoring nine goals, between July 2011 and July 2013. Blues striker Leon Best was on loan at Loftus Road from Southampton between December 2004 and January 2005, making two starts and three sub appearances without scoring, while still-injured Town midfielder Giles Coke was with QPR as a youth player. QPR's Irish midfielder or striker Ryan Manning, who made his senior debut at Wolves on Saturday, trained with the Blues academy when a schoolboy before joining the West London club's youth set-up. This afternoon’s referee is Tony Harrington, who has shown 88 yellow cards and two red in 19 games so far this season. The Cleveland-based official’s last Town game was the 0-0 draw with Aston Villa in September in which he booked Tom Lawrence and one Villan. Harrington had only taken control of three previous Town games before that, most recently the 2-1 defeat at Bristol City in February, in which he booked Kevin Foley and one home player. Prior to that he took charge of the 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield in April 2015, in which he booked Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra and one Terrier, and the 3-0 Boxing Day 2013 victory at Doncaster in which he yellow-carded just one Rovers player. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Emmanuel, Kenlock, Webster, Berra, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, Ward, Lawrence, Varney, McGoldrick, Sears, Best, Pitman.
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