Top-of-the-table Town travel to QPR on Saturday aiming to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season and set a new club all-competitions unbeaten record.

The Blues, whose last defeat was at Burnley in the FA Cup replay in February, matched the 20-game undefeated run achieved in the 1980/81 season when they beat Stoke City 2-0 at Portman Road last week and victory Saturday would surpass the streak achieved by Sir Bobby Robson’s men in the season felt by many to be the best in the club’s history.

Town are also closing in on the league unbeaten run of 23 achieved by Robson’s side in the previous campaign, 1979/80. The Stoke win took the current run to 21 with the most recent league loss the fog-bound game at Oxford in January.

Reflecting on the two Championship wins so far, McKenna said: “Both games, there are two sides to it. We have created lots of chances, certainly last weekend and even in the Sunderland game when we didn’t have it all our own way, but we still felt we had a threat.

“But the other team has had chances as well, especially in the Sunderland game. And Stoke, as well in the second half, had their moments of pressure.

“Goals can change games either way and we are fully aware of that. We are ready for when games are going our way and hopefully we will be ready for when games aren’t going our way and we have to show another side.

“There are definitely bits of the performances that we can take a lot of confidence from, there are signs of how we play, how we work, how we train, building on the foundations we laid in place last year, that it could maybe bring us some success this season.

“At the same time, we know we have to keep working hard to improve and we know other teams will watch us more and you get more respect the more games you win in football – there is no doubt about that.

“Teams are certainly not going to make it easier for us and in that way we need to keep working to improve and be ready for the challenges opponents will bring to us.”

QPR, who will be hosting their first league game of the season after a pitch renovation at Loftus Road led to the switch of their opening day game against Watford, have had mixed fortunes so far and sit 16th in the table having finished the last campaign 20th, only six points off the bottom three.

A 4-0 opening-day walloping to the Hornets was followed by a 2-1 win at Cardiff last weekend. On Wednesday, a much-changed side lost 1-0 to Norwich City in the Carabao Cup via a goal deep in injury time.

“We have watched both games but normally when a team win, with a good, solid performance, you expect that the next match will look more similar to that, than the one before,” McKenna continued.

“I think the Cardiff game is a pretty good marker of the things that they have done well and the strengths they have as a team.

“They defended well throughout the game and they had a threat. Two good goals on the break as well and I am sure they will want to follow up that result with their first home game in the league.

“We are very aware of their strengths and what they might do in the game, but again, week-by-week and especially this season, we need to respect the opponents’ threats and the fact we are playing in their stadium and all these things.

“But beyond that, we need to focus on ourselves and go and try to deliver another good performance. We’ve worked on this week predominantly us and the things we need to improve and we look forward to another competitive match and trying to play as well as we can.”

Town have faced manager Gareth Ainsworth’s Wycombe Wanderers team on a number of occasions in recent years - indeed McKenna’s first game was a 1-0 home win against the Chairboys - and the Blues boss was asked whether he was anticipating a similar approach from his Rangers side.

“There are some differences from their first game and second game which I know the manager has spoken about,” he said.

“When you watch the games, you can see some things they have obviously worked on from the first game to the second. They made some improvements, I am sure they will feel, to the team.

“We have a good idea on the team we are playing and the style they play. But beyond that, this week my focus is so much on us. You have to respect the opponent, they are a good team with an experienced manager.

“It’s probably only nine or 10 months ago they were top of the Championship and thinking about the Premier League. That just shows the competitiveness of the division as one game into this season, people are talking about them very differently.

“They still have some top, top players, who not so long ago were at the very top of this division.

“They have top individual players and it is their first home game so they will be super-motivated for the game. We need to give that the full respect.

“Beyond that, our focus needs to be on continuing to improve our team and we need to be ready for when opponents play more direct against us, or less direct against us, or defends us zonally or man-to-man, or defends higher or lower.

“We are working to be ready for all these things and we certainly need to be ready for all these different scenarios on Saturday.”

Among a number of familiar faces in the QPR squad is former Blues midfielder Andre Dozzell, who left Portman Road for Loftus Road in the summer of 2021.
 
McKenna says the 24-year-old is a player he knows mainly from seeing him playing for young England teams.

“I knew of him because he was a very good young player and was in the England youth side, so I saw him a few times then when I might have had players from my previous club [Manchester United] at a game,” he said.

“Not someone I know well, I know he’s still in contact with some of the players here and, of course, the family have good connections with the club as well.

“I’m sure he’ll see some familiar faces on Saturday, but for us again it’s just another good opponent, a really technical player, whose strengths we need to respect for the game on Saturday.

“But also we need to go and try and impose ourselves on them and all our players need to go and try and impose individually themselves on the QPR players.”

McKenna seems likely to stick with the same team which started last Saturday’s victory over the Potters with Vaclav Hladky in goal and Janoi Donacien and Leif Davis the full-backs and Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess the centre-halves.

Skipper Sam Morsy will probably again be joined in the centre of midfield by former QPR man Massimo Luongo.

Wes Burns is likely to be on the right with Conor Chaplin in the centre and Nathan Broadhead on the left of the three behind striker George Hirst.

QPR are set to be without striker Lyndon Dykes, who suffered a knee injury against Norwich.

Centre-halves Jimmy Dunne and Jake Clarke-Salter have missed the opening two league games of the season but veteran former Bournemouth man Steve Cook was recently added from Nottingham Forest to strengthen that area of the squad.

QPR are without a win in their last five at home in all competitions and have won only once in their last 16 at Loftus Road. They won only six of their 23 home league games last season, losing 12.

Town have won 30 of the previous encounters between the sides (28 in the league), Rangers 29 (26) and 19 (18) have ended in draws.

The Blues have lost nine of their last 12 league games against Rangers, winning only two, and have been defeated in all of their last six matches at Loftus Road.

Town’s last success on Rangers turf was in February 2010 when goals from David Norris and Daryl Murphy helped Roy Keane’s Blues to a 2-1 victory.

The teams last met in West London on Boxing Day 2018 when goals from Pawel Wszolek, Joel Lynch and Nahki Wells saw QPR to a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Wszolek profited from Town mistakes to open the scoring on the half hour, Lynch headed the second on 34 and Wells added the third on 74 as the bottom-of-the-table Blues slipped back to seven points from safety.

At Portman Road two months earlier, first-half goals from Luke Freeman, direct from a corner, and Tomer Hemed, from the penalty spot, gave QPR a comfortable 2-0 win over Town, who were woeful in Paul Hurst’s last home game in charge before his sacking.

Freeman curled his flag-kick over keeper Dean Gerken on 13 and Hemed netted from the spot in first-half injury time.

Blues midfielder Luongo was with QPR between 2015 and 2019, making 144 starts and eight sub appearances, scoring 10 goals.

Dom Ball was at Loftus Road from 2019 until he joined Town just over a year ago, making 74 starts and 25 games from the bench, netting three times.

QPR midfielder Dozzell joined the West Londoners from the Blues in the summer of 2021 for £1 million, QPR having met the academy product’s release figure.

Dozzell, the son of Blues’ legend Jason, made 78 starts and 15 sub appearances for Town, scoring three times, including a debut goal aged 16, following in his father’s footsteps.

Keeper Asmir Begovic was on loan with the Blues for nearly two months in the first half of 2009/10. The Bosnian international joined QPR in the summer after leaving Everton.

Midfielder Jack Colback, who recently signed for Rangers after leaving Nottingham Forest, had two spells on loan with Town in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons. In total, the 33-year-old made 46 starts and eight substitute appearances while at Portman Road, scoring five times.

Defender Morgan Fox, who moved to Loftus Road from Stoke in the summer, was an academy schoolboy with the Blues.

Saturday’s referee is Geoff Eltringham, who has shown nine yellow cards and no red in his two games so far this season.

The County Durham-based official’s last Town match was the 2-2 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Portman Road in February in which he awarded the Blues a penalty after Marvin Johnson had elbowed Burns, an offence spotted by his assistant.

The assistant couldn’t be sure which player committed the offence but Eltringham included the incident in his match report and Johnson was retrospectively banned for three games. Two Owls and no Blues were booked during the match.

Before that, he was in charge of the 1-1 home draw with Cheltenham in November in which he cautioned Morsy and three Robins.

He was also in the middle for the 2-1 home victory over Accrington Stanley in January last year in which he booked Edmundson, Tom Carroll, Bersant Celina and three of the visitors.

Prior to that, he refereed the 2-1 loss at Reading in March 2019 in which he yellow-carded Jon Nolan, Toto Nsiala, Gwion Edwards and four Royals.

In the preceding December he had taken control of the 2-0 defeat at Stoke in which he again cautioned Edwards as well as one Potter.

A couple of months before that, he was the man in black for the 2-0 home defeat to QPR in which he booked just one visiting player.

Before that he took the whistle for the second half of the 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough in December 2017 when he replaced Robert Jones at the break and booked Celina and one Teessider.

Eltringham refereed the 3-2 defeat at Leeds in September of the same year when he cautioned Jonas Knudsen, Cole Skuse, Jordan Spence and one home player, and was also in charge of the 2-1 win at Barnsley the previous month in which he yellow-carded Iorfa, then on loan with the Blues, Knudsen and one Tyke.

He was the referee for the 3-1 loss at Fulham in April 2017 in which he booked three home players and Blues captain Luke Chambers.

Eltringham also took control of the 2-2 draw with Reading at Portman Road two months earlier in which he cautioned Knudsen and two of the visitors and the 0-0 draw at Blackburn in October 2016 in which he booked only one home player.

He also refereed the 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday in April 2013 when he kept his cards in his pockets throughout.

His first Blues match was against Leeds at Elland Road in January 2012, which ended 3-1, in which he red-carded on-loan Town keeper Alex McCarthy for handling outside the area thereby denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity and booked Luke Hyam and one Whites player.

Squad from: Hladky, Slicker, Donacien, Clarke, Ball, Woolfenden, Burgess, Edmundson, Baggott, Davis, Leigh, Morsy (c), Evans, Luongo, Taylor, Humphreys, Burns, Jackson, Chaplin, Broadhead, Harness, Aluko, Hutchinson, Hirst, Ladapo.

Photo: TWTD

Bazza8564 added 17:33 - Aug 17 Same old mantra for me, one game at a time, and we will see where that takes us. We have the quality to beat anybody in this division, but we have to be at out best defensively and execute well in front of goal. We will get chances and we have momentum. The good thing about this Town side is Kiaran's ability to keep everybody in the present. Not an easy one but nothing to be scare of either

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exeterblue10 added 17:48 - Aug 17 'Victory tomorrow'? Aren't we playing Saturday?
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PhilTWTD added 18:14 - Aug 17 Habit! Amended.
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itfckenty added 18:38 - Aug 17 Strangely enough, I can see this being our biggest challenge yet. (Even though they have been tipped for relegation) but hey, we will have plenty of tough games ahead, but one game at a time.
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ArnieM added 18:44 - Aug 17 Tbh I start to get very nervous / twitchy when “ unbeaten runs of x number games” …and “new records being set”…etc, etc…. Because we nearly always then cock it up. So I’d rather these things not get mentioned. …..But here’s hoping Town can do a professional job in Saturday. I’m taking nothing for granted… COYB’sssssss
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Nomore4 added 18:44 - Aug 17 Another routine 3 points in our March to the Premier league…….
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SpiritOfJohn added 21:44 - Aug 17 Compare this quote from Kieran "we need to improve and we look forward to another competitive match and trying to play as well as we can" to a former manager who wouldn't have got on the bus if he'd been offered a point. No wonder home attendances have doubled since those dark days.
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norfsufblue added 00:54 - Aug 18 Crikey...didn't think the refs past Town games list was ever going to end!
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Linkboy13 added 10:22 - Aug 18 Must clamp down on Dozy's deadly square passes otherwise its good bye hundred percent record.
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Ebantiass added 10:42 - Aug 19 Despite our very high confidence levels I can see this being a close one. Its never easy away in the championship ,but if both sides play to their potential I can see us winning again by a goal margin like at Sunderland. Come on you blues
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Linkboy13 added 11:29 - Aug 19 Shall be a bit worried about today's game if Dozy is dropped as rumoured from their lineup.
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