Coca-Cola Championship Matchday Nine: Queens Park Rangers v Barnsley

Team News

Slovenian defender Suad Filekovic- who has today been called up by his national side - will not be available to make his debut when The Reds make the trip down to West London as he still short of match fitness. His fellow new defensive recruits, Stoke pair Ryan Shotton and Carl Dickinson should figure however. Darren Moore is rated 50-50 after clashing with Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen on Tuesday but Jamal Campbell-Ryce is back after recovering from an eye injury. Emil Hallfredsson has recovered from the medial ligament injury suffered at Derby 10 days ago but has been suffering from illness this week and is unlikely to be risked.

Manager Mark Robins has a selection dilemma up front. Andy Gray is back after being ineligible in midweek but Jon Macken's excellent performance could keep Gray on the bench.

Likely Line-Up:

David Preece

Rob Kozluk

Stephen Foster

Darren Moore

Julian Gray

Adam Hammill

Anderson De Silva

Hugo Colace

Jacob Butterfield

Andy Gray/ Jon Macken

Iain Hume

Head to Head

Barnsley have a horrible record at Loftus Road and have won just once there in 22 visits, with QPR triumphing 17 times- including the last six.

On the other side of the coin, the R's have won just three times in the same amount of visits to Oakwell- and The Reds are unbeaten at home against the Hoops since the promotion winning season of 1996-1997 when a 3-1 win for Rangers ended Barnsley's 100% start to the season.

The Reds only success in this part of West London came in their second visit way back on January the 21^st 1950, when The Reds won 5-0! They had triumphed 3-1 at Oakwell earlier in the season to give them their only double over the Hoops.

In more recent times, the best meeting is arguably the 3-3 draw at Oakwell in the 2003-2004 season in League One. A real cock-up between Antony Kay and rookie keeper Danny Alcock handed the Rs an equaliser on 32 minutes after Craig Ireland put The Reds in front with a header on 22. Paul Furlong put the Rs 2-1 up with fifteen minutes remaining before an extraordinary last 10 minutes. Danny Nardiello equalised with five minutes left and a stunning free kick from David Murphy in the 89^th minute looked to have won it for The Reds, but Furlong struck again deep into injury time. It was certainly more memorable than the earlier meeting at Loftus Road when Barnsley were thumped 4-0.

The Reds came close to ending the hoodoo last season when they travelled down on the opening day of the season and Iain Hume hit a debut goal after just five minutes. Fitz Hall though hit back for Rangers with two goals in two minutes. The Reds got revenge in February with a 2-1 win at Oakwell. The poor form for both clubs at the other teams ground means that there has only been four "doubles" in the 22 seasons the two sides have met.

Barnsley 2-1 QPR 28/2/09 Match Report

Barnsley 0-0 QPR 26/2/08 Match Report

Barnsley 2-0 QPR 30/1/07 Match Report

Last Six QPR v Barnsley Results:

28/2/09 Barnsley 2-1 QPR (Championship)

9/8/08 QPR 2-1 Barnsley (Championship)

26/2/08 Barnsley 0-0 QPR (Championship)

19/1/08 QPR 2-0 Barnsley (Championship)

30/1/07 Barnsley 2-0 QPR (Championship)

23/12/06 QPR 1-0 Barnsley (Championship)

Overall Record:

QPR Wins: 20

Barnsley Wins: 14

Draws: 10

QPR Goals: 68

Barnsley Goals: 69

At Loftus Road:

QPR Wins: 17

Barnsley: Wins: 1

Draws: 4

QPR Goals: 46

Barnsley Goals: 23

This Season

There has certainly been off the field drama at QPR this season after co-owner Flavio Briatore was banned from Formula One for race fixing, but on the pitch issues have been less exciting. Under new manager Jim Magilton, the R's- like Barnsley- are yet to win a home league game this season but a decent away run of two wins in four has seen Rangers into 12^th position. Last time out Rangers secured an impressive 2-0 win at Cardiff and were narrowly beaten 1-0 at neighbours Chelsea in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.

Barnsley's average away form is keeping them off the bottom of the Championship, as they have won one and drawn one of their four games on the road. Their last away game brought the only win of the season so far - 3-2 at Derby and they have followed this up with a 0-0 home draw with Swansea and a 3-2 Carling Cup win over Burnley to go three games unbeaten.

QPR could go as high as 6^th with a win whilst Barnsley could go as high as 16^th.

Mad Sites:

www.queensparkrangers-mad.co.uk

www.barnsley-mad.co.uk

Official Site:

www.qpr.co.uk

www.barnsleyfc.co.uk.

Other Fixtures:

Saturday 26^th September 2009

Blackpool v Peterborough, 15:00

Coventry v Middlesbrough, 15:00

Derby v Bristol City, 15:00