Boss Kieran McKenna hopes Town can emulate his promotion-winning team from two years ago by recording an important away victory at QPR on Saturday afternoon.

The Blues, 12th in the table having played a game fewer than all those above them, are are yet to win an away match this season and have picked up only two points from their four fixtures on the road so far, the fewest in the division, while scoring only three goals, also the lowest in the Championship. They have conceded first in all four of their games on their travels.

Town’s away struggles stretch back further, with the Blues without a win in nine, having won only one of their last 15 on their travels and without an away clean sheet in 24 going back to the goalless draw at Brighton in September last year.

Two years ago, the Blues visited Loftus Road in mid-August as they were finding their feet back in the Championship following promotion from League One, and picked up a 1-0 win, their second in two on the road at the start of that season and one which McKenna believes was significant and which holds lessons for the current squad.

“It’s probably an important one to remember, it’s something that I’m speaking to the group about quite a lot now,” he said.

“We all remember what an amazing season and amazing victories and what a brilliant team, what fantastic football we played every week and scored loads of goals.

“But in reality, it wasn’t like that every week. In the QPR game, if you ask me my memories of it, it was really, really tough, I don’t think we played great.

“Lots of Championship games are like that, there’s very, very little between the teams on most weekends. Most games are decided by one goal, especially this season. I think it’s even tighter than it was the previous time we were in the division. I don’t think there are many poor teams in the division, I think everyone is really, really competitive.

“Games are decided on really small margins, you have to get all your details right and from a mindset point of view be really, really strong going into the games, knowing that it’s more than likely most weekends are going to be tight and it’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to feel easy and the game’s going to have two teams fighting for the same thing.

“You have to work really hard to come out on those margins and that was one of those days where it was a really tough game.

“I remember them having a couple of big chances with Sinclair [Armstrong, now with Bristol City] and we stuck at it and stuck in there. And then Chappers [Conor Chaplin] popped up with a lovely scruffy goal in front of the home fans. 

“So you get the good memory of it, but how hard it was can get lost and that’s something for us to remember this year, how competitive all of those games were and what it took really to come out on the right side of those margins as often as we did.”

QPR, who go into the weekend ninth, two points ahead of Town, got off to a slow start, losing two - including a 7-1 walloping at Coventry - and drawing one of their first three, but then won three in a row at the start of a run of six games without a defeat.

The Rs, who have had Frenchman Julien Stephan as head coach since the summer, are currently on an inconsistent streak, alternating between winning and losing over the last four matches, beating Swansea 1-0 away just over a week ago, before a defeat at Derby by the same scoreline last Saturday.

At home, they have won two, drawn two and lost one, but are without a victory at Loftus Road in two matches - they drew 0-0 with Oxford and lost 2-1 to Millwall during October - with their most recent home win a 1-0 success against Stoke towards the end of September.

Their other three points on their own turf came against Charlton at the end of August when they defeated the Addicks 3-1.

McKenna was asked whether he feels Rangers, who were 15th last season under current Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes’s management until the final month, have performed better than he had expected in the opening months of the campaign.

“I didn’t follow loads of their progress last season, to be honest, so I can’t say in terms of what pre-season expectations were, I can only say from watching them from the start of this season,” he said.

“I think they’ve been good, you can see why they’re doing well. Of course, they had one bad game in the season so far, which can happen, but other than that they’ve been really solid.

“They’ve got a really young, hungry group, especially in the midfield and forward positions. Lots of players new to the level or who have been at the level for the last year or so and are really striving to make an impact. And you can see that in how they work.

“They’ve got good organisation with a new manager, defend well and carry a threat with a front four, so you can see why they’re doing well, why they’ve been a difficult opponent. 

“I think it always is at that stadium anyway, but we know we’re in for a difficult game Saturday.”

McKenna says QPR are a very different side from the one the Blues faced two seasons ago.

“There are a lot of new players from when we played them last in the Championship,” he reflected. “I’d be lying if I said I followed them lots in the Championship last season. 

“If I compare it when we played them two seasons ago in the Championship, you’ve got [Steve] Cook, who’s a really important part of the defence, but I think in the forward positions, certainly in [ex-Wycombe striker Richard] Kone and [former Burton attacker Rumarn] Burrell, new players. [Koki] Saito is new to the group, Ilias Chair, of course, was there before. 

“New midfielders Harvey Vale and [Karamoko] Dembele on the right weren’t there, so it's a really different group than two seasons ago when we faced them in the Championship. 

“I thought then they were well coached by Marti. When we played them at Loftus Road, it was Gareth Ainsworth in charge, so that’s a different team.

“They’ve had quite a turnover over the last two years, as many teams in the Championship do, but I’d say a really good Championship team. Well coached and with good players.”

Regarding £2.5 million rising to £5 million summer signing Kone, who has scored four times in nine starts and two sub appearances this season, and his journey from the Essex Senior League to League One Wycombe - where he was brought in by former Town head of academy recruitment Scott Mitchell - and then this season the Championship, McKenna added: “A great story. I don’t know all the details of it, but I’ve read a few things about it. So, a great story. 

“Cameron [Humphreys, who was on loan with the Chairboys last season] speaks highly of him. Of course, we asked Cameron a few times last year on things about the Wycombe players. 

“It was obvious that he was a really important part of that Wycombe team and he seems to have stepped up well.

“They’ve got dangerous forwards, he’s one of them and we’re going to have to work hard to stop them.”

One man in the Town squad has worked with the new QPR head coach, midfielder Azor Matusiwa having been taken to Rennes by Stephan during his second spell in charge of his hometown club.

McKenna says he will see what he can find out from the Dutchman about his old boss ahead of the match.

“I haven’t spoken to him too much about it yet actually, but it’s on my radar,” he said. “You’ve got my afternoon schedule there.

“It’s a different team and different club, and I’d be pretty certain Azor is not going to tell me anything different than I’ve gleaned from watching all the QPR games so far, but obviously he played across him. 

“I’m sure it’ll come up in conversation, but I can’t imagine there are going be too many nuggets that will help us come Saturday.”

The Team

McKenna will probably stick to a great extent to the team which beat West Brom 1-0 last week, perhaps looking to rotate his squad more for Tuesday’s home game against Watford.

Christian Walton will continue in goal with Alex Palmer sidelined with his calf injury, while ex-Rangers man Darnell Furlong and Leif Davis will be the full-backs. McKenna may well stick with skipper Dara O’Shea and Cedric Kipre at the heart of the defence.

In midfield, Matusiwa could be rejoined by Jens Cajuste, who came off the bench against the Baggies, but with Jack Taylor in with a shout of keeping his place having impressed on his first start since August.

Town will have to make one enforced change in the number 10 role with Sammie Szmodics out for a number of weeks having undergone surgery on a knee injury sustained in the first half last week.

Chuba Akpom, the Irish international’s replacement last week, also suffered a knock and was forced off but McKenna expects the on-loan Ajax man to be fit enough for the weekend.

If not, the Blues manager has plenty of alternative options, among them Jack Clarke, Kasey McAteer, Sindre Walle Egeli, Taylor and Marcelino Nunez.

McAteer could come back on the right for Walle Egeli with Jaden Philogene on the left and George Hirst the number nine.

The Opposition

QPR boss Stephan is looking for an improvement on his side’s display in the defeat to Derby at Pride Park last week.

“We spoke immediately at the end of the game with the group about the performance and when I reviewed the game on the coach back to London, I didn’t change my mind,” he told his club’s official website.

“We didn't use the ball as usual and we didn’t create enough offensively to offer different results. And we didn’t start the game well, not a good dynamism and not enough intensity.

“They succeeded in scoring immediately and when they score, it’s more difficult, they played more of a low block in the second half with a back five and they defended well in the box.

“It was a disappointment but now it’s done, it’s finished and we will have a completely different game against Ipswich.”

Reflecting on Town, he added: “They are an ex-Premier League team just last season. We know it’s a big challenge because we will face a very strong team.

“I watched all the games since the start of the season. I need to know and to learn exactly and to understand exactly how they react in different situations. So it’s a question of details after that.

“When we’ve played 35 games, probably I will not watch the first 25 games of the opponent, but at the end of December we will play against all the opponents, so I will have more information at this moment. 

“But yes, I need to watch the different games and I need to see the reaction of the players, the reaction of the team as well in different situations. I collect different information and some details that I can give to the players as well, because we need to give the details to the players if we want to win.”

He continued: “[Ipswich are] a team able to use the ball very well to create some chances to counter-press and they are well-organised as well defensively.

“They don’t concede a lot of chances. In the league, they are the team that concedes the second-least big chances. First was Coventry and the third one is QPR! So we know that we will face a good block, good organisation.”

Stephan believes the Blues will be tough opposition but says what’s expected to be a sellout Loftus Road crowd can play their part.

“To play against a team relegated from the Premier League is a big, big, big challenge, always,” he said.

“I think in the last two, three or four years, probably each year, a minimum of two teams who were relegated were promoted just after.

“So it’s a big challenge, but when you play at home with your fans, it’s another big challenge.”

Stephan has a virtually fully fit squad with forwards Kwame Poku and Ilias Chair perhaps returning to the XI after injuries with the Moroccan having come off the bench in the last two matches.

Left-back Ziyad Larkeche is a long-term absentee with an ACL injury and keeper Joe Walsh is out with a broken wrist.

History

Town have won 31 of the previous encounters between the sides (29 in the league), Rangers 29 (26) and 20 (19) have ended in draws.

The teams last met at Portman Road in December 2023 as Town ended a memorable year with a more forgettable 0-0 draw with QPR, the first time the Blues had failed to net at in the league Portman Road during the calendar year.

Town, shorn of several regulars through suspension, injury and illness, were never at their best with the visitors coming closest to breaking the deadlock when a Cook header struck the post and ran along the line before being forced away.

In the preceding August at Loftus Road, Chaplin’s first goal of the season saw Town maintain their 100 per cent start to their season and stay top of the Championship as the Blues beat QPR 1-0.

Chaplin reacted sharply to his first shot being blocked in the 75th minute to claim all three points and set a new club unbeaten all-competitions record of 21 matches, surpassing a run achieved in the 1980/81 campaign.

The win was Town’s first at Loftus Road since February 2010, the Blues having lost on their subsequent six visits, and their only win in their last seven against Rangers anywhere.

Familiar Faces

Blues right-back Furlong came through the academy at QPR, where his father Paul had been a player, and went on to make 65 starts and seven sub appearances, scoring two goals.

Town forward Jack Clarke spent time on loan at QPR in the second half of 2019/20 while a Tottenham player, making one cup start and six Championship sub appearances without scoring.

Officials

Saturday’s referee is Sam Allison, his assistants Hristo Karaivanov and Johnathon Bickerdike, and the fourth official Callum Winchester.

Winchester-based Allison’s last Town match was the 1-1 draw at Southampton in September last year in which he yellow-carded O’Shea, Taylor, Omari Hutchinson and Liam Delap.

A month earlier, he was in the middle for the 4-1 loss at Manchester City, which he took control of just before kick-off after the scheduled official, Michael Salisbury, suffered an injury in the warm-up.

With Town having taken a surprise early lead, City were awarded a penalty after Davis had tripped Savinho, a decision reached after a VAR intervention.

Davis was denied a later spot-kick when he was felled by a combination of Savinho and Rico Lewis.

VAR failed to intervene in that instance but the Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel subsequently ruled that a penalty should have been awarded, but that the incident didn't meet the threshold for a clear and obvious error required for VAR to intercede. Sam Morsy, Sammie Szmodics and two home players were yellow-carded.

The previous season, Allison took charge of the 1-1 home draw with Middlesbrough in April in which he cautioned Massimo Luongo and Lewis Travis.

In January 2023, he was the man with the whistle for the 2-1 home victory over Sunderland at Portman Road in which he booked Wes Burns, Harry Clarke, George Edmundson, Taylor and two Black Cats.

Before that he was in charge of the 2-2 draw at Portsmouth in December 2022 in which he yellow-carded only Cameron Burgess and Pompey’s Marlon Pack.

His only previous Town match prior to that was the 2-1 home victory over Fleetwood at Portman Road in October 2021 in which he booked Morsy, Bersant Celina and three of the visitors.

Squad From

Walton, Button, Gray, Furlong, Johnson, Young, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Philogene, McAteer, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

TWTD

Gforce added 20:41 - Oct 30 24 away games without a clean sheet ! It's about time we put that right ! Coyb.
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