Tom Heaton & SandyHoops in the Kilburn Times

[Zamoraaaah]

Rangers to pay Heaton bill
11 November 2009
www.kilburntimes.co.uk/content/camden/kilburntimes/QPR/story.aspx?brand=KLBTOnline&category=QPRNews&tBrand=KLBTOnline&tCategory=defaultQPR&itemid=WeED11+Nov+2009+14%3A02%3A20%3A740
Tom Heaton
By Ben Kosky

GOALKEEPER Tom Heaton wants to sign a permanent deal at QPR in January - despite his lack of first-team opportunities this season.

Heaton has made only two senior appearances for Rangers, both in the Carling Cup, and is returning to Manchester United when his three-month loan expires later this week.

But the 23-year-old keeper, who is behind Edwin Van der Sar, Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak in the Old Trafford pecking order, plans to sound out United boss Sir Alex Ferguson about a move to Rangers in the new year.

"In an ideal world, I would have stayed down at QPR until January, but there's no loophole in the agreement - it was a three-month loan and now we can't do anything until the new year," Heaton told the Times.

"My contract at United's up in the summer and, from a personal point of view it's time to move on and start afresh, so I'm hoping to secure a permanent move in January.

"If there's a chance of that being to QPR, I'd certainly be very, very interested. I've had a couple of conversations with the manager and he's been happy with what I've done since I've been here.

"The manager's impressed me an awful lot as well and the club appear to be moving in the right direction. Every player wants to play in the Premier League and I'm no different."

Heaton performed well between the posts when called upon, helping a sluggish Rs side scrape past Accrington Stanley in the second round of the Carling Cup.

He then kept his side in the contest when Rangers made the short trip to Stamford Bridge, making eye-catching saves to foil Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole as Jim Magilton's side succumbed to Chelsea by a single goal.

But Heaton was then overlooked in favour of Radek Cerny when Rangers returned to Championship action and he admitted: "Would I have liked to play more games? Of course I would.

"By the same token, you have to look at Radek. I knew he was a great keeper before I came to QPR, we've got on very well and he's helped me with a lot of things in training.

"Radek was in the team when I arrived and he's been absolutely top drawer since then. That's credit to him and I can't have any complaints.

[Zamoraaaah]

VitalQPR's SandyDL also in the Kilburn Times
Beat around the Bush
11 November 2009
By Sandy Lerman

THIS is a contentious subject: Do QPR need a 20-goal-a-season striker?

This question has been the basis of heated debate amongst Rangers' fans for quite some time. It took on greater urgency in the summer, when we off-loaded our top scorer from last season, Dexter Blackstock, to a rival Championship team, where he was scoring quite regularly until his recent injury.

We also let Heidar Helguson go out on loan. And even though Helguson didn't exactly fire us to glory last season, he is still a striker. Who was going to score goals for us?

There was Rowan Vine and Patrick Agyemang, of course, but both players were returning from long-term injuries. We added Alessandro Pellicori - but he is a complete unknown hardly featuring for us this season due to injury. Oh yes! What about Angelo Balanta - no, same story as Pellicori!! So we brought in Jay Simpson from Arsenal on loan.

That list hardly inspires confidence, does it? And yet, a quick glance at the league table shows that Rangers currently have the third best scoring record in this division (behind West Brom and Cardiff).

We have scored more goals at home than any other team (although not quite as many on the road). And, as we are all well aware, in the space of six consecutive games, Rangers scored a total of 18 goals. Impressive statistics!

Simpson, with seven goals, is now our top scorer, one ahead of Wayne Routledge and Akos Buzsaky (both midfielders). Adel Taarabt, Gavin Mahon, Mikele Leigertwood and Ben Watson (all midfielders) have added to our tally, while Vine and Agyemang (our original strikers), have scored one apiece.

In other words, we have been scoring goals all over the pitch: strikers and midfielders have been doing the job that we have so desperately called for one man to do. Isn't that better? If we had to rely on just one player for all those goals, would we be doing as well now as we are?

One striker is usually targeted by the opposition. Whereas, when two or three defenders descend on say, Routledge, it takes one decent pass to an unmarked Rs player and we're in with a scoring opportunity. Clever, right?

Rangers are playing as a team and scoring as a team. And, at least in my opinion, that is preferable for creating and scoring goals, rather than relying on just one, 20-goal-a-season player. What do you think?