Bouncing Back At QPR

Nottingham Forest take on Queens Park Rangers tonight at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, Loftus Road, in a Sky Sports screened game where the away side will be looking to bounce back in London, after a reality check last weekend at the City Ground against Fulham.

Following a remarkable unbeaten start to his Reds tenure, man in charge Steve Cooper suffered a thumping 4-0 first defeat against title challengers Fulham last Sunday and will look to put that right at the first time of asking against a team sitting seventh in the table and only outside the playoff zone on goal difference.

QPR are managed by ex-red Mark Warburton and have been going well in particularly at home, but last weekend they were beaten at Peterborough 2-1 before crashing out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at home to League One Sunderland on Tuesday night, the Rangers also conceded four against Fulham a fortnight ago, they too will be looking to bounce back and kickstart their own aspirations.

For Forest, the only real proposed changes from the team beaten soundly by Fulham are in midfield and whether James Garner gets the nod over Jack Colback, and in attack, whether Joe Lolley or Lyle Taylor may see starts after impressing off the bench in recent outings.

Ask anyone in attendance, Sunday’s defeat was not as the score line suggested, the devil in the detail, Fulham, a Premier League club last season with the cutting edge of ‘taking their chances’ the biggest difference on the day.

Head Coach Steve Cooper however was prepared to take it on the chin and said after “It’s all well and good me saying it probably wasn’t a 4-0 game, but it was 4-0, so you have to look at it from both sides, you have to look at the things that were quite positive from the game, but the things that weren’t as well.”

“We have to move on. We don’t like the scoreline and we don’t like losing games, certainly at home, but at the same we have to take it on the chin and analyse it properly.”

Ahead of tonight’s test in front of the cameras, Cooper stated “Friday night in London, we’re taking close to 3,000 supporters which is just brilliant, and it’s a ground which is right on top of you so I’m sure it will be a very good atmosphere. We’ve got to look forward to it and thrive on these type of games and really commit to it.”

The match kicks off at 7:45pm.

Predicted line-ups:

Queens Park Rangers (3-5-2): Dieng, Dickie, Dunne, Barbet, Adomah, Ball, Johansen, Willock, Chair, Dykes, Austin.
Nottingham Forest (3-4-3): Samba, Worrall, Figueiredo, McKenna, Spence, Yates, Colback, Lowe, Lolley, Grabban, Johnson.

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