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      MATCH PREVIEW

WEST BROMWICH ALBION v QUEENS PARK RANGERS
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 6th October 2012, 3pm
The Hawthorns

TEAM NEWS

Albion

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke will be without the services of the injured Chris Brunt, Billy Jones, Boaz Myhill, Jerome Thomas and Steven Reid.

Gareth McAuley has been passed fit after picking up a knock in last week's game at Villa Park whilst Liam Ridgewell is also expected to be fit. Peter Odemwingie returns following his three match suspension.

Squad from: Foster, McAuley, Olsson, Popov, Ridgewell, Mulumbu, Morrison, Yacob, Dorrans, Gera, Long, Daniels, Jara, Dawson, El Ghanassy, Odemwingie, Lukaku, Fortune.

Queens Park Rangers

Midfielder Samba Diakite serves a one-game suspension following his red card against West Ham.

Jose Bosingwa and Anton Ferdinand are both injury doubts, while Andy Johnson, Fabio and Armand Traore are all out injured.

Squad from: Julio Cesar, Nelsen, Mbia, Hill, Onuoha, Granero, Park, Faurlin, Zamora, Cisse, Wright-Phillips,  Green, Cerny, Murphy, Ehmer, Derry, Bosingwa Ephraim, Ferdinand, Mackie, Hoilett, Taarabt.

QUOTES

Baggies' boss Steve Clarke:

"You go to a club, they invest in a number of players, sometimes it gels quickly, other times it takes a little bit longer. That is the case with QPR. They have got some really good players. It hasn't quite clicked for them. It is up to us to make sure this Saturday it doesn't click for them and they are still struggling going into the international break. That is our job. They need to turn their season around and we need to make sure we are 100 per cent at it and make sure it doesn't happen this weekend.

"It is a difficult situation for Mark Hughes. But he has got far more experience than me in terms of being a manager. I'm sure he has been in this position a couple of times before and he will know what to do - and he will know how to get his team out of it. There is expectation at every club. There is an expectation level at West Brom and it is something you've got to live with and deal with."

www.sportinglife.com

Queens Park Rangers' manager Mark Hughes:

“The one emotion that we’re all displaying is a little bit of frustration. We know that we’ve got quality in the ranks. At the moment we’re finding it difficult to get results in line with our performances. We haven’t picked up as many points as we’d have hoped. But there’s real belief in what we’re doing. Once we get more games under our belts, we’ll be fine. Injuries have meant that I haven’t been able to select the side that I want.

“We’ve been encouraged by what we’ve produced in a number of games and we know we’re capable of winning Premier League matches. We all understand that we’re judged on results – but we knew it was a difficult start to the season given the fixtures we had. The opening day [defeat against Swansea] put us on the back foot.

“If you look at the teams that do well and have a good start to the season, they have settled sides and defences. We haven’t had that – but it’ll come. We’re six games into a very long season. I’ve got a great relationship with Tony [Fernandes] and Amit [Bhatia]. Together and in the long-term, we’ll take this club forward.”

www.qpr.co.uk

MATCH ODDS

Result

Albion Win: 5/6, QPR Win: 16/5, Draw: 13/5.

First Goalscorer

Long 5/1, Lukaku 5/1, Odemwingie 6/1, Fortune 7/1, Rosenberg 7/1, Cisse 7/1, Zamora 7/1, Hoilett 9/1, Taarabt 9/1, Mackie 10/1, Dorrans 11/1, Gera 11/1, Morrison 11/1, El Ghanassy 12/1, Ji-Sung 14/1, Wright-Phillips 14/1, Ephraim 18/1, Granero 18/1.

REFEREE

Michael Jones (Cheshire) - Refereed two Albion games last season and both ended in defeat for the Baggies - The 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United on the opening day of the season and the 3-2 defeat at home to Arsenal on the last day of the season.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets are currently on general sale to Albion fans. Queens Park Rangers' allocation of 1,650 tickets for the game have now completely sold out.

WEATHER FORECAST

Sunny spells, 14°C

FIXTURE HISTORY

The first ever meeting between the two clubs was a friendly match at Rangers' West Kilburn ground on 8 January 1898. The game saw Albion run out 4-1 winners.

The first league meetings took place during the 1948/49 season. The first game, which took place at Loftus Road on November 6, ended in a 2-0 win for the Baggies. Dave Walsh and Frank Hodgetts were the scorers in front of a crowd of almost 25,000.

The return game at The Hawthorns in April ended all-square at 1-1, Billy Elliott the Albion goalscorer whilst Billy Pointon netted for the visitors.

Albion’s biggest win against Rangers is 5-1, achieved during Albion's Championship winning season of 2007/08. Kevin Phillips (2), Ishmael Miller, Robert Koren and captain Jonathan Greening were the goalscorers for Tony Mowbray's men.

Another big win for the Baggies came at Loftus Road in December 1968 when Albion, then under FA Cup Winning manager Alan Ashman, strolled to a 4-0 victory. Ian Collard (2), Dennis Martin and Ronnie Rees the goalscorers.

QPR's biggest win against the Baggies is 3-1, achieved twice, first in August 1984 when Simon Stainrod (2) and Terry Fenwick netted and then in March 2010 when former Albion loanee Jay Simpson was amongst the Rangers' goalscorers.

Albion are unbeaten in their last five home league games against Rangers, winning three and drawing twice.

LAST LEAGUE MEETING AT THE HAWTHORNS

Albion 1-0 Queens Park Rangers
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 14th April 2012, 3:00pm

Albion: Foster, Jones, McAuley, Dawson, Ridgewell, Brunt, Mulumbu, Dorrans (Andrews 71), Thomas (Scharner 80), Fortune (Long 59), Odemwingie. Subs not used: Daniels, Shorey, Hurst, Cox.

Goalscorer: Dorrans 22

Booked: Mulumbu 50 (foul), Ridgwell 61 (time wasting), Dorrans 70 (foul)

Queens Park Rangers: Kenny, Onuoha, Ferdinand, Hill, Taiwo (Traore 77), Barton, Diakite, Derry (Wright-Phillips 56), Mackie, Zamora, Taarabt (Helguson 75). Subs not used: Cerny, Gabbidon, Buzsaky, Young.

Booked: Diakite 56 (foul)

Attendance: 25,521

Referee: Jon Moss (West Yorkshire)

West Brom midfielder Graham Dorrans added to QPR's relegation fears with a superb winner in the Barclays Premier League clash at the Hawthorns. The Scotland international settled the contest midway through the first half with a 30-yard strike. But QPR should have picked up at least a point with Bobby Zamora causing plenty of problems but spurning several opportunities.

Mark Hughes' side have strung together some impressive results at Loftus Road in recent weeks to revive their hopes of staying up. But they have now failed to win in 11 away matches and picked up only two points. Albion have now moved past the 40-point mark and can look forward to a third successive season of top flight football. Youssouf Mulumbu made his presence felt in midfield while left-back Liam Ridgewell again showed he was an astute signing by Roy Hodgson from Birmingham in January.

QPR started brightly and Zamora went close to putting them ahead after only two minutes. The England striker found himself with only Ben Foster to beat after the ball ricocheted invitingly into his path. But Foster was alert to the situation and came quickly off his line to block the shot at the expense of a corner. Brunt had Albion's first attempt on goal but his shot was smothered by Joey Barton. Odemwingie had a good chance to end his five-game run without a goal after Thomas had spotted his run - but the Nigerian international screwed his low drive just past the far post. The only goal of the game came from Dorrans after 22 minutes. The Scotland international received the ball from Odemwingie 30 yards out and his rising shot flew past Kenny into the roof of the net. QPR tried to respond and Adel Taarabt found himself in a yard of space just outside the box but he dragged his shot wide of the far post. A fine pass in between the Albion defence played in Barton. whose ball across the danger area picked out Samba Diakite. The midfielder's rising effort contained plenty of power but was a yard wide of the mark. Zamora should have levelled after 39 minutes when he found himself with a free header from a pinpoint Barton cross - but angled it just wide. Foster then beat out a fierce drive from Zamora, who had worked under Albion coach Hodgson at Fulham.

Mulumbu became the first player to be booked after 52 minutes for bringing down Nedum Onuoha in full flight. Albion came close to doubling their lead five minutes later when Odemwingie's reverse pass picked out the run of Jones, whose low shot hit the base of a post. A deep corner from Taarabt was seized onto by Barton in space but his curling effort was high and wide. Ridgewell was booked for time-wasting when taking a throw-in, before a fine tackle from Hill halted Albion substitute Shane Long inside the box as he prepared to shoot. Dorrans became the third Albion player to be yellow carded for lunging at QPR substitute Wright-Phillips - and he was immediately taken off and replaced by Keith Andrews. Zamora's unhappy day continued when he was found in space by Taarabt inside the Baggies box but sliced his shot, which hit the back of Jamie Mackie. Kenny had to be alert to hold a dipping 25-yard free-kick from Brunt away to his left, before Long should have made it 2-0 in injury-time only to shoot wide.

Sporting Life

CURRENT CONNECTIONS

Rob Hulse spent two years at The Hawthorns after joining from Crewe Alexandra in the summer of 2003. His first season at the club was a success and he quickly became a fan favourite but with the club clinching promotion to the Premier League he would find appearances harder to come by the following season at the higher level. Hulse joined Leeds United on loan for the last three months of the 2004/05 season before leaving to join them permanently at the end of the season. Spells at Sheffield United and Derby County followed before the Crewe-born striker moved to Loftus Road in September 2010. His time at Rangers’ has not been a success and the player is currently on loan at Charlton Athletic.

Current Baggies’ right-back Steven Reid spent a month on loan at Loftus Road from Blackburn Rovers during the 2009/10 season shortly before joining Albion whilst Albion winger Jerome Thomas spent two spells on loan at Rangers from Arsenal during 2002.

 

PAST CONNECTIONS

Amongst the players to have turned out at various levels for both clubs are: Colin Anderson, Brett Angell, Gary Bannister, Paul Barron, Steve Burke, Clive Clark, Danny Dichio, Jimmy Dugdale, Lloyd Dyer, Peter Eastoe, Wayne Fereday, Danny Gabbidon, Allan Glover, Adam Haywood, Peter Hucker, Andy King, Billy Law, Andy McDermott, Ishmael Miller, Paul Peschisolido, Nigel Quashie, Alf Ridyard, Georges Santos, Ernie Shepherd, Jay Simpson, Garry Thompson, Billy Thompson, Ben Watson, Ike Webb, Fred Wheldon, Bill Williams.

Ray Harford had short spells as manager of both clubs during the late 1990s; Gordon Clark, who was Baggies' boss from 1959-61, was later assistant manager at Rangers; Former Albion player and manager Don Howe later coached and managed QPR; Mike Kelly coached at both clubs.

ALL-TIME LEAGUE & CUP RECORD VS QUEENS PARK RANGERS

 VENUE P W D  L F A
 Home 19 10 6 3 35 20
 Away 17 6 3 8 19 19
 Neutral 2 0 0 2 2 4
 Total 38 16 9 13 56 43

LAST TEN MATCHES AGAINST QUEENS PARK RANGERS

DATE COMPETITION H/A F-A GOALSCORERS  GATE
Sat 14 Apr 2012 Premier League H 1-0 Dorrans  25,521
Sat 03 Dec 2011 Premier League A 1-1 Long - Helguson  17,290
Sat 06 Mar 2010 Championship A 1-3 Brunt - Simpson, Connolly, Buzsaky  14,578
Mon 14 Dec 2009 Championship H 2-2 Thomas, Cox - Olsson (og), Gorkss  21,565
Sun 04 May 2008 Championship A 2-0 Kim, Brunt  18,309
Sun 30 Sep 2007 Championship H 5-1 Phillips 2, Miller, Koren, Greening - Ainsworth  24,757
Sat 31 Mar 2007 Championship A 2-1 Phillips, Gera - Blackstock  14,784
Tue 31 Oct 2006 Championship H 3-3 Ellington, Kamara 2 - Stewart, Gallen, Nygaard  17,417
Sat 13 Jan 2001 League Division 1 A 0-2 Plummer, Koejoe  11,881
Mon 28 Aug 2000 League Division 1 H 2-1 van Blerk, Hughes - Kiwomya  14,831

 

 
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