Monday 22 April 2013

Four London derbies next season?

QPR's inevitable relegation will occur over the next seven days, most likely at Reading on Sunday. Sky will bring us the treat in glorious High Definition (Sky Sports 1) at 1.30pm and I will again remind myself that it may be expensive but my Sky subscription brings great value-for-money.

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I don't rate QPR at all and my opinion of them is certainly several thousands leagues below that of their own deluded supporters. Travelling Premier League fans will be relieved to know that they won't be inconvenienced next season by having to suffer a visit to League One Loftus Road. We will have to go there again, of course, but I am hopeful that the mess Tony Fernandez has created in West London will take a couple more years to unravel as his squad of expensive misfits fail to respond again in the Championship and they do a Wolves. It remains to be seen whether the genial Cockney manager will stay to supervise the impending disaster or whether, he will jump at a better opportunity. These players certainly haven't done it for him and he looks stuck with most of them.

Rangers going down might give some end-of-season comfort but it will be topped if Palace miss out on a promotion they were banking two months ago. I will split my sides laughing. The Nigels are wobbling like a very large jelly at the moment. They have taken three points from the last twenty-one and their next two games are not ones I'd fancy. Blackburn Rovers may be a club in turmoil themselves and fighting a desperate relegation battle but they have won ten and drawn five at home and will give Palace a real test. If they fail that, they will face Millwall at the Toolbox a week tomorrow night and their record against the Lions isn't much better than ours. Leicester or Forest might catch them, although they play each other on the last day when Palace face Posh at Selhurst. Even if Palace scrape the play-offs, they hardly enter it full of confidence and they will face a bouncing Brighton and a Bolton Wanderers side managed by Dougie Freedman, a man they were happy to let move north earlier in the season when he had manoeuvred them to the top of the table.

Brentford have cruised into third in League One and are within three points of Doncaster Rovers and face them at Griffin Park next Saturday where a win will see Bradley Wright-Phillips winning back-to-back promotions from League One. The Bees will give QPR a much-needed and better-matched derby than Chelsea or Fulham. It could be an exciting day in West London on Sunday - "Brentford up, Rangers down, hallelujah!"


There's a school of thought that too many London derbies doesn't help London sides because of the propensity to draw although our record this season has been a propensity to lose. Personally, I'd like nothing more than being promoted and beating them all in the process.

1 comment:

  1. Love it. Can you imagine how these relegated teams would perform if there was NO parachute payments?

    Like to see Brentford go up and another weekender in Bournemouth on the cards!

    ReplyDelete

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