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QPR v Birmingham City - Match Preview

QPR v Birmingham City - Match Preview

QPR take on Birmingham City at Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon in a match where anything could happen as both teams have struggled to find any sort of consistency in recent weeks.

Looking at QPR first and after a promising December which saw Steve McClaren’s men rack up three straight wins in the Championship with impressive victories against Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town, the R’s have since slumped to a five-match sequence without a league win.

Two draws and three defeats have followed their three-match winning streak with draws against reading and Aston Villa, but the hosts come into this clash on the back of three straight defeats to Sheffield United, Preston North End and Wigan Athletic.

The QPR bubble appears to have burst for now, and the London club now find themselves eight points adrift of 6th placed Bristol City and the play-off pack. Nevertheless, QPR are capable of scoring goals and indeed they’ve scored in 11 of their 14 home matches to date - 6 of the 14 matches have seen both teams score.

Forwards Wells (6 goals) and Freeman (5 goals) look the most likely for the hosts here.

Birmingham City ended a four match period without a win in the Championship last weekend when they recorded a much needed three points with a 2-0 home win over Nottingham Forest to move up into 8th place and four points behind the play-off pack.

All things considered, it’s been a successful campaign for The Blues so far this season as Garry Monk’s side have avoided being dragged down near the relegation zone this time around, and while there’s been financial restrictions and a transfer embargo placed upon them, they are within striking distance of the play-off pack.

Recent back-to-back defeats to Middlesbrough and Norwich City perhaps suggest that the visitors are a little way off from making a serious challenge for the play-offs, but they’ve lost just once in their last six away matches as they’ve made themselves hard to beat.

Birmingham have been involved in a number of draws though this season which has held them back, and they’re tied with local rivals Aston Villa with 13 stalemates. 9 of these 13 draws have been score draws, while away from home, 9 of their 15 away matches have also seen both teams score.

Forwards Adams (16 goals) and Jutkiewicz (10 goals) have been well supported by Maghoma (5 goals).

With both teams struggling to put any kind of winning streak together, both teams to score looks the more likely outcome in this clash.

Championship Regular Season
OVERALL TABLE PTS GP W D L +/-
1
Leicester City 94 44 30 4 10 47
2
Leeds United 90 45 27 9 9 39
3
Ipswich Town 89 43 26 11 6 32
4
Southampton 84 44 25 9 10 24
5
West Bromwich 72 44 20 12 12 23
6
Norwich City 72 44 21 9 14 16
7
Hull City 69 44 19 12 13 9
8
Coventry City 63 43 17 12 14 13
9
Middlesbrough 63 44 18 9 17 4
10
Preston North End 63 44 18 9 17 -5
11
Cardiff City 62 44 19 5 20 -11
12
Bristol City 59 44 16 11 17 4
13
Sunderland 56 44 16 8 20 1
14
Swansea City 56 44 15 11 18 -5
15
Watford 53 44 12 17 15 1
16
QPR 53 45 14 11 20 -12
17
Millwall 53 44 14 11 19 -12
18
Stoke City 50 44 13 11 20 -16
19
Blackburn Rovers 49 44 13 10 21 -16
20
Plymouth Argyle 48 44 12 12 20 -11
21
Sheffield Wednesday 47 44 13 8 23 -29
22
Birmingham City 46 44 12 10 22 -16
23
Huddersfield 44 44 9 17 18 -27
24
Rotherham 24 44 4 12 28 -53

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