Match Preview: QPR

THE season gets off and under way today with the Reds travelling to London to take on Queens Park Rangers and here is our (rather late) preview of the game.

QPR, possibly the richest team in the football league, will be expected to win this one, at least by their owners which includes Renault F1 boss Fabio Briatore. But as we all know, football doesn’t work like that does it.

History of Barnsley against QPR:
The same fixture last season resulted in a 2-0 score line with Patrick Agyemang getting an early goal that Rowan Vine added to on 45 minutes and thorough history we haven't faired much better, winning just 13 and drawing 10 in the 42 times that the sides have met.
To find the last (and only) time we were victorious at Loftus Road we have to go all the way back to January 1950 and a 5-0 drubbing. Will Simon Davey emulate that game? Or will he be more likely to get a result similar to the 16 times that we have lost in London?

Last season form:
Well what can you say about Barnsley's season? Excellent start followed by four or five month's of the worst football in a long time in the league but with the best cup run in nearly 100 years thrown in for good measure. The season ended much like the other 40 games we had played, i.e. with total inconsistency, WWLWLL. Three wins and three defeats. There seems to be two Barnsley's, the one that can beat any team and the one that would struggle to beat an old lady with a baseball bat.

The R’s got off to a dodgy start, languishing at the wrong end of the table but picked up the pace and were even pushing for a play-off spot, but a series of bad results saw them drop out of contention and having to settle for mid table. They ended the season a little worse than us with three draws, two losses and only one victory. DDDWLL.

TarnTalk prediction:
After seeing us in pre-season I can't see us keeping a clean sheet but I’m struggling to see where goals are going to come from either so unfortunately I'll be predicting a win for QPR today.