Wednesday look to bounce back from defeat at Preston on Tuesday night with a home game against QPR.
The Owls are still firmly ensconced in the playoff picture despite suffering the first defeat of 2016 at the weekend.
Wednesday currently occupy 6th position on 53 points. QPR are 12th on 40 points and are the Championship's draw specialists having registered 13 Draws.
Owls News
Sam Hutchinson and Glenn Loovens are close to a return. Either could replace Vincent Sasso alongside Tom Lees or Hutchinson could be selected in midfield with Barry Bannan moving wide. Personally, I'd save Hutch for Friday.
Fernando Forestieri misses out through suspension and Aiden McGeady is likely to step in having trained as normal on Monday.
Owls XI (Possible)
Westwood, Hunt, Lees, Sasso, Pudil, Wallace, Lee, Bannan, McGeady, Nuhiu, Hooper
QPR News
Alejandro Faurlin is back in contention to start as he's recovered from a thigh injury that's kept him out of February's games.
Junior Hoilett may make way for Nasser El Khayati.
QPR XI (v Bolton)
Smithies, Perch, Onuoha, Hall, Konchesky, Mackie, Henry, Luongo, Phillips, Hoilett, Washington
Head to Head
Recent encounters against QPR at Hillsborough have been reasonably good, for us anyway. November 2009 wasn't so good though. I remember the crushing feeling after the 1-2 defeat, the feeling of impending doom and no escape route. Before that though, we'd won 3 of the last 4 at home v QPR. Sean McAuley oversaw a 3-2 win when in charge for the first game after Paul Sturrock was sacked in October 2006. A 2-1 win in March 2008 and a Leon Clarke goal in a 1-0 win 9 months later that year were the other 2 wins. The other result in that sequence was a 1-1 draw in March 2006.
It's hard to believe the 1-3 defeat and all that came with that in May 2004 is coming up to ten years ago. Black balloon protests and a nasty atmosphere in general wasn't helped by a comprehensive defeat and subsequent promotion for the 8,000 travelling Hoops to rub in our faces. Do I remember a QPR fan being knocked clean out in the Leppings Lane end penalty area after running on the pitch celebrating? On one of my darkest days watching Wednesday, that was a small highlight. Chris Carr took the term spectacular own goal to a new level with his 'effort' in the second half to make it 1-3, right in front of their lot too. Jon Shaw got the goal for us as we finished off a disgraceful season 3 points above the trap door to Division 4.
We have dished out some hammerings to QPR at Hillsborough over the years. A Gerald Sibon hat trick set up a 5-2 victory in December 2000 was a highlight in a season where highlights were very much seldom. An impressive Peter Crouch netted both Rangers' goals.
A repeat of the 4-0 win in December 1992 or the marvellous 7-1 triumph in May 1987 will do nicely on Tuesday, thanks.
Last time out at Hillsborough resulted in a 3-0 win for the Owls.
Overall record v QPR
Owls wins --- 28
Draws --- 15
QPR wins --- 20
Queens Park Rangers
QPR are one of London's smaller clubs. I'd put them in the Brentford bracket, rather than the Chelsea one. That doesn't put an end to their ambition as a football club though. They've spent millions and millions getting to the Premier League and then trying, unsuccessfully, to retain their position in England's top flight - twice. Plans were revealed in late 2013 for a new stadium which is to be incorporated into a huge shopping and residential complex. Loftus Road is one of my favourite grounds to visit, but if they are to fulfill their lofty ambitions, they have no option other than to move. As it is, they don't fill Loftus Road which has a capacity around 18,000, so who knows if they'll be able to fill a bigger ground. The 27,000 people they're hoping to house on the proposed new development may be a start!
The club itself was formed in the Queens Park area in 1882 after the merger of Christchurch Rangers and St Judes institute. The club played at many different grounds in West London before settling into their current Home, Loftus Road. The number of stadia they played in before moving to Loftus Road in 1917 stands at 20 - a league record. In an attempt to attract larger crowds, QPR moved to White City Stadium on two, separate occasions. They spent 2 years there from 1931-1933 and moved back again for a single season in 1962.
The R's spent most of their time in Division 3 and won their first and only major trophy to date - the League Cup in 1967. The final that year was the first time the League Cup final was played at Wembley Stadium. A 3-2 win against West Bromwich Albion after coming back from 2 goals down meant QPR were the first team from outside the top 2 divisions to win the League Cup. The appointment of manager, Alec Stock in 1959 was seen as the catalyst for Rangers upturn in fortunes. Promotion to Division one for the first time followed in 1968 but only one season was managed in the top flight.
The 1970's are looked back upon fondly, in the most part by R's fans. Back in the First Division under manager Dave Sexton, Rangers finished as runners up to Liverpool in 1976. Having led by a point after their last game, QPR had to rely on Wolves avoiding defeat to Liverpool. Liverpool won the game and the title, by a single point. You R's reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup the season after but lost on penalties to AEK Athens. The departure of Sexton saw them plummet to the second division in 1979.
Former playing favourite, Terry Venables was appointed manager in 1980 and the club controversially installed the infamous plastic pitch at Loftus Road. 1982 saw El Tel lead QPR to their first and only FA Cup final. They were beaten 1-0 in a replay by Tottenham Hotspur. Reaching the final was quite an achievement for Rangers, who were in the second division at the time. The second division title and promotion were achieved the season after and QPR were back amongst England's elite. Promotion was built upon this time around and Venables guided the west Londoners to a 5th place finish before doing one to Barca. I thought he may have stayed at QPR if I'm honest. Yeah, right!
League cup runners up in 1986 and another 5th place finish were the highlights for the latter part of the 80's as QPR continued to tread water in the first Division under a succession of managers. It wasn't until former player and fans favourite Gerry Francis returned as manager in 1991 that QPR were worrying the top of the league again. 1992-93 saw the inception of the new FA Premier League and with this came a resurgent Rangers. Francis led QPR to a 5th place finish which made them the highest placed London club. I still enjoy watching Francis pop up occasionally on SSN, not for his riveting insight, but for his spectacular mullet that incredibly, he STILL sports. Great effort, Gerry.
Ray Wilkins took charge as player manager after Francis jumped ship to Spurs rather dramatically midway through the 1994-95 season. Perhaps Butch should have retired as a player as he tried to balance the two roles and QPR were relegated in 1996. Selling Les Ferdinand to Newcastle the summer before won't have helped QPR's cause.
Gerry Francis, mullet n all, returned in 1998 but couldn't repeat the success he'd enjoyed in his first spell and resigned in 2001. The club were relegated soon after as financial turmoil gripped the London club. Another former player, Ian Holloway was identified as the man to take the R's back up. Holloway had also come from managing Bristol Rovers, much like Francis had done a decade or so earlier. Holloway delivered and the club were promoted back to the second tier in 2004. I was hoping we'd throw a spanner in and Bristol City would make it. Either we didn't have a spanner or just couldn't be arsed.
Holloway managed to stabilise the club's position on its return to the second tier but left after a couple of seasons amid reports of interest from Leicester City. QPR struggled towards the foot of the Championship under managers John Gregory (there's a surprise) and Gary Waddock. Financial oblivion was again on the horizon when it emerged F1 supremos Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briaratore had purchased a controlling stake. Ecclestone had little involvement in the day to day running of the club, so that was left to the complete screwball Briatore.
Chairman Gianni Paladini was kept on at the club and he and Briatore wreaked havoc at the club. Briatore, especially, was a total basket case. Anyone wishing to see evidence of this can watch the documentary made about this period - The Four Year Plan. The rate at which the club went through managers was akin to Leon Clarke's consumption of chips and gravy - lots and fast. Iain Dowie, Luigi De Canio, Gareth Ainsworth, Paulo Sousa, Jim Magilton and Paul Hart all held the hot seat in a short period of time before the QPR aboard actually put some thought into an appointment and Neil Warnock took the job early in 2010. Colin won the Championship title in his first full season in charge. Warnock's second crack at the Premier League proved an unsuccessful one as he was, somewhat unfairly sacked in January 2012 by new majority owner and Chairman Tony Fernandes with the club hovering just outside the bottom 3. Fernandes installed Mark Hughes and escaped relegation on the final day of the season despite a 3-2 defeat at Champions Manchester City. After the match a relieved Hughes stated that QPR would never be in this sort of position again whilst he was in charge. WRONG! Hughes signed some real garbage on big money and his Chairman enjoyed signing the cheques and running his mouth about it. The gullibility of Mr Fernandes seemingly knows no bounds. So much so, he sacked Hughes after an horrendous start to the season and replaced him with, of all people, Harry Redknapp! Yes, Mr Straight down the line himself! The situation was by no means a lost cause when twitchy chops took over but QPR plumbed new depths of embarrassment and were relegated, stumbling from one defeat to another.
'Arry did manage to lead the club back to the top flight with a rather fortuitous 1-0 win over Derby in the 2014 playoff final. Although it was a good strike, Bobby Zamora's last minute winner wasn't a patch on the one he netted just 3 days ago.
Rangers struggled again and Redknapp bailed in January citing hip surgery, but the writing was on the wall. Chris Ramsey - a relatively unknown member of the coaching staff oversaw their relegation and was somewhat surprisingly given the job permanently this summer. He's made an inconsistent start to life as a full time manager. Unsurprisingly, his services were dispensed with early on this season and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was handed the reins. It looked like a good appointment by the QPR board for once but just 2 wins in 14 games has seen his job come under threat already and it very much looks like QPR won't be seeing the Premier League again anytime soon.
Played for Both
Junior Agogo, Gary Bannister, Leon Best, Adam Bolder, Jay Bothroyd, Marlon Broomes, Leon Clarke, Giles Coke, Trevor Francis, Leon Knight, Danny Maddix, Andy McCulloch, Oguchi Onyewu, Craig Rocastle, Ben Sahar, Andy Sinton, Frank Simek, Akpo Sodje, Ron and Peter Springett, Simon Stainrod, Chris Woods
Final thoughts
QPR have some very capable players but are still suffering the effects of relegation last season and the loss of top scorer Charlie Austin in January.
It's a dangerous game for us but I think we'll bounce back. It may be unconvincing but I think we'll get the job done.
Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 QPR
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