Monday 19th Dec - QPR v Coventry

[kompressaur]

19:45 QPR (11/10 - general) Draw (9/4) Coventry (3/1 skybet)

[kompressaur]

looks pretty hard to me. Draw?

[MickeyPaul]

QPR v Coventry
QPR have only Shabazz Baidoo and Stefan Moore available up front with Paul Furlong banned and Marc Nygaard (calf) and Kevin Gallen (hamstring) injured.

Defender Matthew Rose (groin) could get back in the side but Marc Bircham and Steve Lomas (both hamstring) are out.

Coventry boss Micky Adams will consider involving striker Stern John in the trip to Loftus Road after his loan spell at Derby expired.

Stephen Hughes (Achilles) remains a doubt and Stuart Giddings is still out.

I'd perhaps be willing to chance that 3/1 for Coventry.

They're unbeaten in 3 matches - 1-0 v Millwall, 3-1 v Plymouth and 2-2 v Norwich (after leading 2-0) - all at home admittedly but QPR's form appears to be rather poor (below Coventry in the form table) and their home record is unimpressive. I'm well aware Coventry sit bottom of the away table and await their first victory on the road but they do draw alot. I'll work my way through their reports and see how many of those draws could have been wins......

I should add, Coventry beat QPR 3-0 in August. I'll look at that report too.

[MickeyPaul]

Well, hopefully Coventry's 3 without loss at home has boosted confidence for this one as they sound pretty dire on their travels recently and there aren't many positives to pick up although there are some.

They sound pretty hard to beat away from home at least with many of the reports mentioning resolute defending etc. I read Cardiff found it hard to break them down in their 0-0 draw (11th Nov). Coventry offered bugger all in way of attack though which is a concern. Also, the report of their 2-2 at Ipswich (18th Oct) is pretty positive. A good fightback from 2 down, creating chances this time while generally defending well again.

I particularly liked the sound of how Coventry performed at Sheffield Utd in August and even though that was a while back there are still signs that they're at least capable. They only lost to a late penalty after initially taking the lead and were reduced to 10 men in the 2nd half. Deserved a point by the sounds of it. Not bad. A hard fought draw at Norwich start of the season too; again, not bad.

Lots of talk of 'hard working' and 'resolute' throughout their away reports. I could really do with some more signs of attacking threat. I'm getting the impression pretty much all of their 6 away draws were deserved and never really get the feeling they should have won any.

They deserved that 3-0 home win over QPR though (20th Aug). Sounds like a very bad tempered match with wild tackles flying in everywhere. 8 yellows and a red there were btw and signs we may get something similar this evening. There was some crowd trouble too I believe. Woooooo. Can you feel the hatred in the room?

Overall, Coventry sound difficult to play against away from home but they rarely show much up front. Will the 3 good home results be enough of a boost? I'll need to read through QPR's home reports before I can decide. Judging by QPR's results so far I'd say Coventry have a chance. I'm not sure whether it's a 3/1 chance yet.

[corsair]

Keep up the good work mickey!

[MickeyPaul]

Thanks mate. I'll get through the QPR reports shortly and have a better idea of what bets (if any) I fancy.

[corsair]

As far as odds go...
from my betting site, the odds for QPR Asian handicap is -1/4: 1.85..
A straight win is 2.00.

My local bookmaker is offering 1.88 for a straight win...
Kinda strange...

[keemanan]

good work mickey , I have to say though that if this were to be played on a saturday I wouldn't go near it to be honest , all 3 results are possible (you know what I mean)

3/1 is a bit big though as you point out , you must have had a nice win at the weekend to be contemplating a gamble in this

[MickeyPaul]

QPR's home record so far: W4 D3 L4 F13 A13 with only one win in the last 7 - not the most daunting really but they have beat Ipswich, Sheff Utd and Luton there this season. Their last home match was the 2-2 draw with lowly Hull and they found themselves 0-2 down in that one and almost 0-3 at one point according to the report. The stats suggest QPR pissed on them a bit though without managing to find a winner.

Before that was a 0-2 defeat by in form Preston who sound like they got a grip on midfield there and restricted QPR to only a few chances. Preston are on a long unbeaten run though so that was always going to be a toughy. Hmmm, and their home match before that was the 1-2 Reading loss and to be honest, QPR sound pretty impressive 2nd half against the table toppers. I'm starting to sway toward the home side now. A fine 3-0 win over Norwich (22nd Oct) and before that a 1-1 with Plymouth where they sound the dominant side without managing to turn pressure into goals. Plymouth were absorbing the QPR attacks and hitting on the break which could well be what Coventry end up doing. This is tricky now. QPR's 0-1 defeat to Leeds; again they sound ok. A good early spell, quite lively apparently before Leeds came into it and took the lead before being reduced to 10 men and defending in numbers. QPR couldn't break through and were restriced to long range efforts. Sounds like they lack that extra wee bit needed in attack again. Same for the 2-1 win over Sheff Utd; an uneventful, scrappy match with few chances.

Coventry have shown they can keep it quite tight and I'm not convinced QPR have the killer instinct up front (same as Coventry) BUT they sound not bad in these reports and with a small slice of luck they could grab all 3 points. I'm not done yet but 2.10-2.20 for QPR is a possibilty although there are more question marks over this one than I'd like. I think I'll be shying away from trying to pick a winner and may look into goals or bookings.... or.... something.

[MickeyPaul]

Aye but Keem - I don't know it's a shit betting prospect till I look so I'm looking. I've concluded it's pretty shit. Might be something here somewhere though.

[MickeyPaul]

I always like to read the manager's comments before matches and Coventry sound quite upbeat:

City manager Micky Adams says that credit for the Sky Blues' recent resurgence in form should lie firmly at the feet of the players after a spell in which we have lost just once in six games and recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

Speaking on Sky Blues World the gaffer says that the players are now reaping the dividends of upping the workload on the training pitch, and that claiming their first away win of the campaign at Loftus Road on Monday night would be the perfect Christmas present.

"I think if you are going to give people credit then it's got to be the players because they got themselves into a situation where a lot of fans were questioning them and me. For us to change their minds we have to win games of football, how we do that has got to be a collective thing nine times out of ten. But generally then they've got to look at themselves individually and I think they've all done that and asked themselves the same question, 'can I do more?' And I think the answer to that was yes, they could in training. They've picked that up and I think we are getting the benefit of that.

"People will be looking at our home form and it's been quite decent and be wondering what's happened away from home and why we can't do that, and until we get that win we won't get that monkey off our back."

Monday night's clash - which will be screened live on Sky Sports - sees a reverse of the first-ever game at the Ricoh back in August when City beat the Hoops 3-0. And the gaffer knows that the players will have to match that performance if we are to claim all three points.

"We started the game very, very well with a tempo and I think it will be on the minds of Queens Park Rangers. I would think they will have been slightly upset with their performance but we can take a lot of positives from that but we start again. Ian has got his critics which I find laughable, I think they've forgotten where they've come from.

"They are competitive, I don't think it will be a game for the purists but we can't get embroiled in that type of football, we've got to play our football and hopefully the best team on the day will win."

I'm back to thinking they could get something. I see he's hinting at another mad mental kick fest too.

[MickeyPaul]

There's going to be cards isn't there? Bet365 over 2.5 cards @ 1.57

Number Of Cards In Match
Yellow card counts as 1, red card counts as 2. Second yellows are ignored for settlement purposes (ie. maximum card count per player is 3).

Right - let's get some referee info.....

[MickeyPaul]

Wow, I forgot Paul Furlong was out for QPR. Key player for them I think and makes it even harder for them up front. Hard to see goals in this one and Coventry maybe, possibly, could nick it. I still like that cards bet though so far. Anyone know who the ref is tonight? I can't find it.

[kompressaur]

I was reading about this in the racing post this morning Mick. They seem keen on QPR even though QPR have about 5 strikers out. I'm finding it hard to get excited by any bets on it but i might be interested in the under 2.5 if i can get on it. I'll have a look this afternoon and read up on this thread

[kompressaur]

just as you said in your posts above Mick