QPRnet.com :: The Pre-Match Warm Up

The Pre-Match Warm Up
Friday 17th October 2006
by Ron Norris & Simon Skinner

RANGERS TAKE ON LEICESTER

After a bit of a slump in form of late John Gregory will be expecting his players to bounce back against Leicester City on Saturday afternoon. Can Rangers get back to winning ways?

Match Preview

TEAM NEWS

Coming off the back of two defeats Rangers need a win and any kind of win will do! Bircham looks likely to sit the game out having not taken part in training although Rowly should make it. Kanyuka, Ainsworth and Nygaard are also back in contention but Furlong will still need a couple more reserve outings under his belt before he is back in the fray.

Leicester gaffer Rob Kelly is also able to welcome back some of the residents of the Walkers Stadium treatment room. Darren Kenton, Danny Tiatto and in form keeper Conrad Logan are all in with a shout of a run out. Paddy McCarthy, Matty Fryatt, Gareth Williams, Stephen Hughes and Andy Johnson are all likely to be out of the picture.

RON & SIMON'S SELECT XI
		Blackstock	Jones R


	Cook	Smith	Lomas	Rowlands


	Bignot	Stewart	Kanyuka	Mancienne


		Jones P

A QUICK GUIDE TO OUR OPPONENTS

LEICESTER IN BRIEF

The Foxes are currently on a six match unbeaten run in the league although four of these have ended in stalemate. In their last game they were taken to extra time by Villa in the League Cup and endured the heartbreak of a streaky last minute goal by the Premiership side. The recent good run has been largely down to the goalscoring run of Canadian striker Iain Hume.

TOP SCORERS

Name	FLC	FAC	LC	Total
Iain Hume	5	0	1	6
Patrick Kisnorbo	2	0	1	3
Richard Stearman	1	0	2	3
Elvis Hammond	1	0	1	2


LAST FIVE GAMES
Date	Versus	Venue	F	A
24/10/06	Aston Villa	Home	2	3
21/10/06	Crystal Palace	Home	1	1
17/10/06	Leeds	Away	2	1
14/10/06	Southampton	Home	3	2
30/09/06	Birmingham	Away	1	1

CLASH OF THE DAY

Pat Kanyuka v. Iain Hume. If Kanyuka comes back in to shore up the centre of the defence then he will be up against a striker in form. Hume has bagged four in his last three league games including two stunners to do for Southampton. He has genuine pace and will shoot from anywhere so Big Pat will have to be on his mettle.

RANGERS VERSUS .....

LAST TIME OUT

Queens Park Rangers 2 - 3 Leicester City
Tuesday 31st January 2006

“The subs had been on for barely four minutes before once again Rangers gift wrapped The Foxes a goal. Richard Stearman was allowed to dance down the Leicester right flank past the hopeless Rose and pull a ball back into the six yard box. No bugger wanted to know about it apart from Stephen Hughes and he rolled the ball home from three yards to win it.”

HEAD TO HEAD
Overall
Played	QPR	Leicester	Draws
47	21	18	8
At Loftus Road
Played	QPR	Leicester	Draws
25	16	5	4


LEAGUE STANDINGS
Pos	Team	P	GD	Pts
14th	Leicester	13	-1	17
19th	QPR	13	-4	13

OTHER MEETINGS

Rangers are in the ascendancy as far as the head to head goes with nineteen league wins to Leicester’s seventeen. In recent times the games at Loftus Road have been high scoring affairs with a 3-2 either way in the last two campaigns. Last season Stephen Hughes scored a last minute winner, the season before that it was Furs dishing out the last minute heartbreak.

GENERAL INFORMATION

THE REFEREE

Saturday’s merry whistle blower is Keith Stroud. This will be his third Rangers game and his third at Loftus Road having presided over the Ipswich win last August and the draw with Burnley in January. He isn’t the most card happy ref ever; he booked a little over three a game last season and is averaging under three a game this. He did however send Cameron Jerome off on his Birmingham debut on the opening day despite the protestations from the oppositions players!

THE REF RECORD
Season	Games	Yellows	Reds
2006-07	11	27	1
2005-06	39	139	9
2004-05	30	113	1
2003-04	8	30	2


OPPONENTS LINKS
Official Website	LCFC.co.uk
Fans Website	The Cunning Fox
Message Board	Foxes Talk


MATCH DAY ODDS
Bookie	QPR	Draw	Leicester
	5/4	21/10	9/5
	11/8	11/5	8/5
	5/4	9/4	7/4

QPR CONNECTIONS

Our very own Simon Royce enjoyed an excellent spell on loan at Rangers whilst a Leicester City player. Despite spending three seasons at Filbert Street he only managed twenty one starts and was knocked out on loan to Brighton, Manchester City and Rangers twice.

He then left for Charlton, whom he had joined Leicester from, only to be loaned back to Rangers again! We eventually signed him on a free in May 2005.

RON AND SIMON'S PREDICT-OFF

RON: I hope to see the defence re-jigged with Big Pat and Mancienne both asked to stick their fingers in the dyke, fortunately for us though goals seem to be an issue for Leicester on their travels. They've scored only four times in their six away games this season and two of them were against Leeds the other week, fortunately for them though they've probably come up against the right side to put that right! The question at the moment seems not can we beat someone but can we outscore them and I think we can let's have another classic 3-2 please.

SIMON: Gregory asked for a response last week following the Derby defeat and it was, frankly, shite! He will expect better, the fans will expect better and I think the players will deliver better. Injuries will force a couple of changes and hopefully Kanyuka will be back in to add a bit of steel to the leaky defence. 2-1 Rangers.

Current score: Ron 7 Simon 10

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	Queens Park Rangers v Leicester City The Championship Saturday 28th October 2006 Kick Off 15:00