please log in to view this image ............................................... please log in to view this image QPR 0................................... vs ...................... 5 Swansea City Loftus Road West London Referee: Lee Probert Saturday the 18th of August 2012, 3pm kick off. Goal scorers Michu 8, 53, Dyer 63, 71 and Sinclair 81. And now some poetry.....ahem.... Football, a way of life by Kevin Halls Being a football fan is a way of life it is constantly on one's mind. You're thinking about the next match while going about the daily grind. Your talking about great goals and a brilliant player from the past telling anyone who's listening that he was skilful and he was fast. Your living and breathing football you dream of it in your sleep even though the team you support can make you angry and make you weep. You meet up with fellow football fans in the pub before the match. One group of like minded people talking footie over pints and a batch. Football on a Saturday is all that matters nothing else can stand in it's way all of life's worries are put on hold while the football fan watches his team play. Welcome, Croeso, Velkommen, Welkom, Bienvenidos, Benvinguts, Benvido, Ongi etorri, Bruchim ha-baim, Brukhim-Haboim, Velkomin, Cead mile falite, Haere mai, Swagatam, Dobrodosli, Soo dhowow, Yin dee dton rap, Khush amdid, Ngiyanemukela and Casse-Toi (Darnell Situ excepted). It's finally here. Even with a European Championships, an Olympic Games and the Eurozone crisis to keep us all entertained through the summer nothing, nothing, could come close to filling that Swansea City shaped hole in our lives. *cue Star Wars theme tune* Our exciting journey continues up, up, through the football echelons we go. We're approaching light speed now...some of us are starting to get distorted and bent around space and time....but we all love each other really, not in a gay way. *cue 'I will survive' by Gloria Gaynor* Brendan left, little Joe too....they won't be coming back from outer space until the 24th of November. Some of us used to spend many nights crying, feeling sorry for ourselves....taking the piss out of scousers.....but now we've found someone who is "loving" us and we can hold our head up high because he is none other than, the great, immaculate, Mich-ael Lauuu-druuup!!! The future's bright, black and white. *cue 'Rocky' theme tune* The Match; Swansea A quick recap for our QPR visitors then; We were flat broke and heading out of the league in 2003. It could easily have been the end of Swansea City. We had to beat Hull at home on the last day and managed it, local boy James Thomas scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory. Link; http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/160129-That-Final-Day We've been on the rise ever since. Truly fairy tale stuff. Those responsible include; Huw Jenkins and the board, Brian Flynn, Kenny Jackett, Roberto Martinez, Paulo Sousa, Alan Curtis, Graeme Jones, Colin Pascoe and Brendan Rodgers (and others of course). We've all enjoyed the journey from roaring on the little boy that was Leon Britton in front of the North Bank in League 2, the brute force of Akinfenwa, the magic contained in Lee Trundle's daps, urging resident donkey Alan Tate to "shooooot!" at every opportunity and the emergence of Joe Allen. Along the way we have savoured our Johnstone Paint Trophy victory as much as beating the billionaires at Man City last season. Three promotions later we find ourselves 11th in the Premiership with a truly iconic football man at the helm. Heady times. For history buffs: the following 2 links take you to threads concerning some of Swansea City's rich history; http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/140490-Welcome-to-the-Swansea-City-forum http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/153994-Swansea-f-c-history-help QPR Queens Park Rangers were formed in 1882 when a team known as St. Jude's merged with Christchurch Rangers. They became known as 'The Queen's Park Rangers' as most of those early players hailed from the Queen's Park area of North West London. They turned professional in 1889 and spent the next 28 years playing in nearly 20 different stadia before settling at Loftus Road in 1917 (Although the team would briefly attempt to attract larger crowds with temporary stays at the White City Stadium 1931-1933 and 1962-63). Honours:- 1st Division runners-up. - 1975/1976 F.A. Cup runners-up. - 1981/1982 League Cup Winners. - 1966/1967 League Cup runners-up. - 1985/1986 QPR have also won the Championship/Division 2 on 2 occasions and finished runners-up on 2 occasions. They have the same record in the 3rd tier. Great QPR managers of the past Alec Stock, 60s architect of the modern QPR (along with chairman Jim Gregory), Dave Sexton, led the R's to runners up in the 1st Division 1976. Terry Venables (introduced a plastic pitch), Gerry Francis, and of course, Paulo Sousa. Ex-QPR players you might have heard of George Goddard, Tony Ingham, Ray Jones, Terry Venables, Rodney Marsh, Phil Parkes, Don Givens, Dave Thomas, Stan Bowles, Dave Clement, Ian Gillard, Mick Leach, Gerry Francis, Ray Wilkins, Alan McDonald, Les Ferdinand, Paul Parker and Trevor Sinclair. Highest attendance 27th April 1974 vs Leeds United. - 35,353 Friendly pubs near Loftus Road 'The Springbok' is a good pub near the ground....although the policy towards away fans keeps changing. Other recommendations are 'The Bull' in Westfield and two pub chains on the green, O'Neills and Walkabout. PLEASE NOTE : A common complaint about Loftus Road amongst away fans is the length of time it can take to get through the turnstiles and seated. It is recommended to be at the ground 30 minutes before kick-off.....also, as a traditional cramped ground, there isn't much leg room once seated Recent History, Present and Future I'm not going to bore on here as you all know about QPR's money and their rise to the Prem. What is of interest to us Jacks though is their present management. None other than Welsh legend Mark 'Sparky' Hughes and assisting him is ex St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Comprehensive Port Talbot pupil Mark Bowen. QPR's future plans include a brand spanking new stadium (doubling their present average attendance) and World domination. Prior Form; (most recent at top) Swansea City 3 - 3 Stuttgart Pre-season friendly Swansea City 4 - 2 Blackpool Pre-season friendly San Jose 2 - 2 Swansea City Pre-season friendly Colorado Rapids 0 - 1 Swansea City Pre-season friendly Port Talbot 0 - 5 Swansea City Pre-season friendly F.C. Augsburg 2 - 2 QPR Pre-season friendly Trabzonspor 1 - 1 QPR Pre-season friendly Wycombe Wanderers 0 - 3 QPR Pre-season friendly Pursebaya Surabaya 1 - 2 QPR Pre-season friendly Kelantan 0 - 5 QPR Pre-season friendly Completely guessed lineups; Swansea ---------------------Vorm----------------------- ---------------Chico-----Williams-------------- Rangel-----------------------------------Taylor -------------------------Britton----------------- ------------De Guzman------------------------ Dyer----------------Michu-----------Routledge --------------------Graham--------------------- Bench; Tremmel, Tate, Jazz, Agustien, Orlandi, Sinclair, Schechter. Queens Park Rangers Almost impossible to guess given their huge squad... -----------------------Green---------------------- Onuoha------Ferdinand---Nelsen---------Fabio --------------------------------------------------- --------------Diakite-----Park-------------------- Wright-Phillips-------------------------Hoillett- -------------------Taarabt----------------------- ---------------------Cisse------------------------ Bench; Cerny, Hill, Traore, Derry, Dyer, Mackie, Zamorra/Johnson. Key Battles; Samba Diakite vs Leon Britton I refer you to Michael Laudrup's comments below. These two are the men expected to win their side the ball. The contrast between the two sides couldn't be starker. It will be interesting to see how little Leon does without Allen beside him closing the spaces for the opposition and always being available for the ball. He needs to build a new relationship with De Guzman or Agustien ASAP. Michael Laudrup on tweaking Swansea's tactics; "Maybe we will touch it a little less from behind before we try to penetrate (oooh, you are naughty) to the second line..." "I like possession - I want the ball because there is only one." "If we don't have the ball we have problems because we are not physically strong like 60, 70, maybe even 80% of the Premier League teams." A very confident Adel Taarabt ahead of the game; "I can't wait to get started and it's nice that we start with Swansea as I have a good record against them. I always seem to do well, play well and score goals against them. They must hate playing against me and will probably be sick of the sight of me. They do play very good football but that just seems to bring the best out of my game. I am hoping to be given the chance to play again and it's important that we start well. ....and finally... Totted up everyone from both board's predictions and these are the results; The average Swans fan has us losing 2 - 1. The average Hoops fan has them winning 3 - 0
Bravo, Terrorwit. An inspiration to our other budding match-day-threaders. Scott, if you're reading this, you can make your comeback with the Aston Villa v. Swansea game
Good start Terror. We always start slow and I can't see that changing Saturday, but as always hope I'm wrong.
Good thread terrorwit Derry's been poor in preseason though, whilst SWP has been in excellent scoring form- so the latter will start in place of the former. Hill hasn't been used recently, and Fabio has been very impressive, so i'll eat my hat if this isn't the starting back 4: Onuoha--Ferdinand--Nelsen--Fabio Cisse is practically the first name on the teamsheet at the moment too, he's had a blistering preseason, and 6 from 8 at the end of 11/12 means he'll definitely start ahead of Zamora!
well done terror great post....I think we will get something out of this game, I know we usually lose the first game but i feel the least we will do is draw and we could quite easily win with the players we have. ...either 2-2 or win 2-1...
To be honest i don't think there's a better time to be playing QPR this season. All the new aquisitions are still meshing together. Plus, although we'll probably bring in more players before the window ends, they might not arrive before saturday. I'm sure strengthening will occur in January too. That said, i still think hoilett/taraabt/cisse/park/diakite et al. will be enough to get the job done
Excellent thread Terror a big thumbs up from me, I take it the links to watch the game are for tight buggers like Phil and for our friends across the oceans ? Nice to see that so far we have only been visited by a decent QPR fan but I cant help wondering when the first one will arrive predicting they will win 8-0 and qualify for the Champions League.
Good post Terror - its going to be close on Saturday with probably one goal in it if its not a draw. So I am going for a 2-2 draw but would love a 1-2!
Excellent job Terror, difficult game to predict. We normally always lose our first game which is always away, we always lose to QPR away, so the stats say a loss which won't surprise me or be of any great shock. But I do think as some have mentioned QPR have a lot of new faces, yes we have a few, but I think it will be a draw game, probably a couple of goals apiece.
I think we'll catch QPR unprepared , hoping we are ready but a bit nervous . We need points in the early part of the season , if we don't get them it could be a long season IMO ... 2 - 1 Swans !
I don't think that in any way will we be catching QPR "unprepared". Hughes got them to do a job on us last season and I suspect that, as I write, he will be getting them to sharpen their studs. For some reason QPR is a bogey team for us - we didn't play well against them at the Liberty. Unfortunately, as ML stated, we are not a physical team and sometimes get bullied in games. IMO, QPR will be looking to do just that from the first whistle, looking to intimidate our new players who will have had little experience of such physicality. This is one of the reasons I hoped for a "card happy" ref on a different thread, providing he penalises the foul and not the retaliation. Perhaps we should detail Chico or Kemy, if he plays, to kick the s**t out of Taraabt if we find we are getting no protection from the ref. I always believed you fight fire with fire when I played and you don't need to be a brick outhouse to kick someone or wipe them out in a tackle. The trouble is, it's just not our game.
I hope you can knock the stuffing out of them, shatter their confidence and soften them up for their 2nd PL game - away at Carrow Road
Doubt Derry or Zamora will start. More likely to be Park in the middle with Mackie out wide and Cisse up front.
We're going to win 8-0 and qualify for the champions league. Oh, and *generic sheep gag* for good measure.
Very good match thread terrorwit Just missing a vid: [video=youtube;Df1zdsceihc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1zdsceihc&feature=youtu.be[/video]
