Saturday 12th March 2011
Npower Football League Championship
Loftus Road Stadium
Referee: M Atkinson
Kick-off: 15:00
Queens Park Rangers (1st) V Crystal Palace (21st)
By The Godfather

QPR's promotion bid has been plunged into uncertainty after the club and its controversial Chairman, Gianni Paladini, were charged with breaching seven Football Association rules regarding third-party ownership and agents. The charges relate to the signing of Alejandro Faurlin during the summer of 2009, one of the Rs' key performers this season. According to reports, the offences could be punished by a points deduction and/or a fine.

Understandably, QPR supporters are very worried that such a successful campaign could be ruined by alleged boardroom incompetence. However, all fans can do at this point is to get behind Neil Warnock and the players, who have all performed tremendously over the course of the season and will need our support tomorrow afternoon.

Queens Park Rangers face relegation-threatened Crystal Palace at Loftus Road. In front of another sell-out crowd, this promises to be an interesting encounter. Warnock, of course, left Palace last year to take up the QPR job, bringing Clint Hill and Shaun Derry with him. Despite their league position, the Eagles have improved recently and must not be understimated.

Crystal Palace

Manager - Dougie Freedman

Former Queens Park Rangers manager, Paul Hart, managed to keep Crystal Palace in the Championship last season, securing their second-tier status on the last day of the campaign in a tense match at fellow strugglers, Sheffield Wednesday. Even after that, the club's future was still uncertain. In fact, it seemed very likely that Crystal Palace would be liquidated. Fortunately, the CPFC2010 consortium agreed a last-minute deal to save the club and quickly appointed the experienced George Burley as the new manager.

Palace did manage to hold on to their key players during the summer, such as Darren Ambrose, Neil Danns and Julian Speroni, but were unable to sign Championship-quality players due to their financial situation. It wasn't really surprising that Burley struggled. He was sacked by the Board following a humiliating 3-0 defeat to local rivals, Millwall, on New Year's Day.

Fans' favourite, Dougie Freedman, was appointed as Burley's replacement, despite having little managerial experience. To his credit, Freedman has managed to stabilise the team on the pitch. A recent run of form has seen Palace move out of the relegation zone, most recently beating Cardiff 1-0. Thus, it is likely that the Eagles will be feeling confident about Saturday's London derby.

Men to watch

Palace's star man is Darren Ambrose, who, of course, was repeatedly linked with a move to Queens Park Rangers during the summer. Ambrose is a set-piece specialist, who capable of producing accurate strikes from long-range. He could cause problems for QPR on Saturday afternoon.

In central midfield, expect to see Neil Danns, a very talented player who was also linked with a move to QPR last summer. The 28 year-old has previously enjoyed spells with Birmingham City and Colchester United.

In goal, Crystal Palace have one of the best goalkeepers in the division, Julian Speroni. The Argentinean always seems to play superbly well against QPR: let's hope that changes tomorrow afternoon!

Previous Match

Heidar Helguson's last-minute winner gave Queens Park Rangers a deserved victory at Selhurst Park. The Rs took the lead minutes into the second half, when Jamie Mackie pounced on a terrible back-pass by Edgar Davids and squared it to Adel Taarabt, who tapped it into the back of the net. Palace thought they had nicked a point when Kieron Cadogan fired past Paddy Kenny in the 89th minute. But QPR's Icelandic forward won the game for the away team when he headed Tommy Smith's cross into the bottom corner of the net.

Crystal Palace 1-2 Queens Park Rangers

Referee

A Premiership official, Martin Atkinson, will take charge of this match. Atkinson, of course, was recently criticised by Sir Alex Ferguson for his decisions during the Chelsea V Man Utd game. Despite this, he is regarded as one of the country's top referees. Let's hope he lives up to that reputation.

Elsewhere

Unfortunately, QPR's promotion rivals have relatively "easy" fixtures. Swansea will travel to face Nigel Clough's struggling Derby team, whilst Cardiff have a home fixture against Barnsley on Sunday. Leeds and Nottingham Forest are both at home against Ipswich and Doncaster respectively. On Monday night, Norwich will play an in-form Bristol City side, which has been boosted by the return of star striker, Nicky Maynard. Hopefully there will be a few shock results.

QPR Team News

Unfortunately, Danny Shittu, who has performed brilliantly over the last few games, will miss this match through suspension. Fitz Hall is unlikely to recover from his hamstring injury in time to make the squad. Therefore, I suspect that Warnock will choose the Connolly/Gorkss defensive partnership. On a positive note, Tommy Smith is available and may replace Akos Buzsaky in the starting line-up. Peter Ramage, Jamie Mackie and Lee Cook remain long-term absentees.

Prediction

Obviously a lot depends on how the QPR players react to this worrying news. Perhaps it will motivate them even more to bounce back from the Millwall defeat. Alternatively, some supporters have expressed concern that the players will be demoralised. However, with Neil Warnock in charge, I doubt very much that this will happen.

Providing that QPR play like they have done for the majority of this season, they should be able to beat Crystal Palace. Therefore, I am going to be optimistic and predict a 2-0 victory. Come on you Rs!

Queens Park Rangers 2-0 Crystal Palace