Watford vs QPR - Preview Thread

The Ref is Andy Penn

Orange Football 365

Monday, December 7

Watford (9) v QPR (5)

Watford are unlikely to rush captain Jay DeMerit back into action although he resumed full training this week after being sidelined since August following eye surgery. Teenager Ross Jenkins remains sidelined after a back operation but fellow midfielder Don Cowie returns to the squad after a calf injury. Team selection will also depend on Saturday's trip to Newcastle.

QPR will be without on-loan midfielder Steven Reid after he suffered a hamstring injury. Midfielders Martin Rowlands and Gavin Mahon remain long-term absentees with knee problems and team selection could also depend on the effects of Saturday's game at home to Middlesbrough.

Last season: QPR 0 Watford 0, Watford 3 QPR 0

Last five league matches: Watford W L W W L; QPR L D W L D

Top scorers (all competitions): Danny Graham (Watford) 7; Jay Simpson (QPR) 8

Referee: Andy Penn

orange.football365.com/Story/0,17169,8652_5745049,00.html

Reid and Connolly expected to be out (as well as "norma" injuries

Teamtalk
Rangers duo set to miss out

On-loan Blackburn midfielder Reid is still struggling with a hamstring problem and defender Connolly has a pelvic injury.

Rangers picked up no fresh knocks at the weekend but boss Jim Magilton is expected to make changes following the 5-1 mauling by Middlesbrough.

Damion Stewart, Peter Ramage and Tommy Williams will all push for starts in a shell-shocked defence.

"We've got just a few hours to think about it and we'll go to Watford aiming to put the wrongs of that performance right," said Magilton.

Angelo Balanta (groin) is close to returning but Gavin Mahon, Martin Rowlands and Lee Cook (all knee) are long-term absentees.
www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1801_5751317,00.html

Watford Observer

Mixed emotions for Malky Mackay ahead of Watford's Sky clash with QPR
Sunday 6th December 2009

By Frank Smith »


Tomorrow's televised clash with Queens Park Rangers will bring back bitter-sweet memories for Watford manager Malky Mackay.

The corresponding fixture last year saw a Mackay-led Watford record one of their results of the season with an emphatic 3-0 win.

But speaking before yesterday's trip to Newcastle United Mackay explained: "It was good memories until six o'clock, when I was then told that I wasn't going to be manager. So up to six on that day was great.

"It was a different manager in charge, Paolo Sousa, and it was my last game in charge, so it is strange that round about the same time the following year it has come around again.

"It will be good to see [QPR boss] Jim Magilton and [assistant manager] John Gorman because they are good guys who I have known for a number of years."

Sky TV's decision to televise the match meant it was moved forward a day, resulting in Watford having less than 48 hours to travel back from Newcastle United and recover before taking on their rivals from West London.

When asked whether this would force him to rotate some of his squad, Mackay joked: "I don't know who I am going to rotate them for. If you tell me who I should rotate them for then fine.

"It is a small squad and we will certainly look at it on the Sunday. We will look at the fitness and see from there.

"It is not ideal but that is thrown up in this league throughout the year. This time it is for television, it can also be because of Christmas and Easter and things like that.

"It is something players have to deal with. We had it last year where we had to play Swansea twice in three days on a Sunday and a Tuesday. You just get on with it, there is an 'absolutely no excuses' culture."

One definite absentee from the line-up will be on-loan QPR striker Heidar Helguson, who will not be allowed to play against his parent club.

Mackay said they knew from "day one" that Helguson would be unavailable, so it gives someone else a "chance to take the jersey and run with it".

The Scot also dismissed suggestions his side would have to drastically change the way they play due to the Iceland international's absence.

Mackay said: "I don't think with the group of players I have there is one single way of playing. I think there is a balance to them and we can mix it up.

"That is not going to change whether Heidar is there or not.

"We don't have an out-and-out winger at the club but we still manage to manufacture a lot of chances, and before Heidar arrived we were scoring goals so I would like to think we can mix things up."

www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/localsport/4776446.Mixed_emotions_for_Watford_manager_Mackay_ahead_of_QPR_game/

QPR.ORG Rganic's preview.

qpr.org/content/relentlessly-negative-preview-watford

Thanks G-d Father!

The Standard

Don Cowie warns flush QPR that even paupers can prosper
Andrew Fifield

Just one point and three places divide Watford and Queens Park Rangers in an increasingly compressed Championship table but that is where the fine margins end ahead of the sides' meeting at Vicarage Road tonight.

In the area that matters most in these straitened economic times - the balance sheet - the contrast between these two local rivals could not be greater. For while Rangers luxuriate in the knowledge that their band of multi-billionaire backers effectively makes them bullet-proof - at least financially, Saturday's 5-1 defeat to Middlesbrough showed there's still work to do on the pitch - Watford's players will take to the field this evening knowing that the club is teetering on the brink.

A £5.5million blackhole in their accounts must be filled this month otherwise chairman Jimmy Russo, whose Valley Grown Salads company last week loaned Watford Plc an extra £1m to continue trading until 22 December, will apply for its shares to be suspended. Administration, and the attendant 10-point Football League penalty, remains a very serious threat. Either way, the club's top players, including England under-21 goalkeeper Scott Loach, will almost certainly have to be sold in January.

Malky Mackay's squad have grown used to living within their means. While some of their divisional rivals might have attempted to dilute the draining effect of playing two games and covering over 600 miles in the space of just over 48 hours by taking the plane to Newcastle United on Saturday, Watford's squad climbed on the train at King's Cross, returning late on Saturday night. "We're used to it by now," said Don Cowie, the Scottish midfielder. "We're certainly not going to use it as an excuse - if we lose the game it won't be because our heads are not right because of what's happening off the field.

"That's out of our control: what is in our control is what happens on the pitch. Nobody from the club has spoken to us about it and we're happy to leave it that way: that means we can put it to one side."

There is certainly no fatalism in Mackay's squad. Watford may have been scuppered at Newcastle, another of the Championship's big-hitters, on Saturday, but their comparative lack of resources has not prevented them surging to within sight of the play-offs.

The Hertfordshire club have already scalped Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough and Preston this season and they are still just two points shy of the top six. Now, they are determined to prove that the financial divide can be bridged against Rangers, arguably the world's most moneyed club.

"There is a big gulf between certain teams in the Championship, but that's the modern game for you," Cowie added. "You just accept it and the fact is that the game will be decided by what happens on the field, not off it.

"The fact is that this is a very competitive league and money doesn't decide where you finish. We're still very much in the shake-up for the play-offs, despite having a young team, and it's very even throughout the division."

Watford's competitiveness this season can largely be attributed to Mackay, who already has the bearing of a grizzled managerial veteran, despite having only been appointed in June. It helps that Mackay - who was recommended to Russo by Sir Alex Ferguson, the footballing equivalent of a papal blessing - already had the respect of both fans and squad from his playing days at Vicarage Road and, while many struggle to make the transition from dressing room to dug-out, the Scot is not one of them.

"We know that he is very approachable and there's a great understanding between us all," said Cowie. "But he's also been very clear about where the boundaries are: we know he's the boss and we wouldn't cross that line.

"It helped that he was here beforehand and he knew the club and the Championship very well already."

* Tonight, 7.45pm (Sky Sports 1)
www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/football/article-23780603-don-cowie-warns-flush-qpr-that-even-paupers-can-prosper.do

Clive's LFW preview.

www.clubfanzine.com/QPR/v2.showNews.php?id=26978