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Monday, January 28, 2008

Cardiff Preview "Moneybags Queens Park Rangers" Match

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Cardiff Official Site HOME TO THE RANGERS
Moneybags Queens Park Rangers visit Ninian Park on Tuesday night as City return to league action. With a near full midweek Championship fixture list, City will be desperate for the three points to put pressure on those top six spots.
City's eight game unbeaten run has seen us fly up the league table and progress to the last sixteen of the FA Cup. The optimism is back amongst supporters.
Rangers are also enjoying better times, making a steady rise away from the relegation zone. They currently occupy 17th position in the Championship, six points clear of Preston in 22nd. But they are far from safe yet and will be eager to reach the magic fifty points sooner rather than later.
Their upturn in fortunes has coincided with Lakshmi Mittal's arrival in West London. Mittal, the fifth most minted man on the planet bought a 20 per cent stakeholding in the R's in December. The Indian steel magnate topped last year's Sunday Times Rich List with a near £20bn fortune - almost double that of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. He has joined Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone at Loftus Road and already the spending has started.
So far they have parted with over £3.5m during the January transfer window for three players and have brought in a further four on free transfers. One of those additions, Hungarian attacking midfielder Akos Buzsaky, has already bagged six goals in 16 appearances since moving from Plymouth.
Other notable faces added to their squad include defender Fitz Hall who moved from Wigan for a free transfer and striker Rowan Vine who put pen to paper from Birmingham for a cool £1m.
Their last game finished in a comfortable 2-0 victory at home to Barnsley. New signing Patrick Agyemang opened the scoring, latching onto Dexter Blackstock's tidy cross to head home from six yards early on, his second in as many games. Vine then secured the three points from Agyemang's tempting cross in the closing stages of the first half.
Prior to that they were beaten at Sheffield United and were unlucky to lose at Chelsea in the Cup from an own goal by 'keeper Lee Camp.
QPR midfielder Gavin Mahon will return to their squad after he missed their Barnsley fixture through illness. Club captain Adam Bolder also missed that match due to personal reasons but will return to the fray. Former City fullback Chris Barker may feature following a successful hernia operation, but goalkeeper Jake Cole is likely to be sidelined with a bruised thumb.
Also amongst the QPR ranks is former City midfielder Gareth Ainsworth. Ainsworth made just nine league appearances over two months during our successful play-off season of 2002/03 but is fondly remembered by the City faithful for his frantic efforts and rock and roll celebrations.
A number of City players picked up knocks and bruises during our 2-1 win at Hereford on Sunday so Dave Jones will wait until Tuesday morning before evaluating the fitness of his men. Steve Thompson has been suffering with cramp and might not be ready for a second game in three days. Loan goalkeeper Peter Enkelman may have to continue to wait for his chance to impress following a decent display by Michael Oakes at Edgar Street. There may be a place on the bench for Trevor Sinclair returning from injury.
Speaking ahead of the game, Jones told CCWorld: "There's no easy games in this division. QPR have invested a lot of money and brought in plenty of good players they're on a little good run themselves, expectations are high so it becomes a very difficult game. But again, if we can play to our maximum and keep the performance levels high then hopefully we can come away with maximum points."
City faced Rangers in the second league game of the campaign and came away with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Steve MacLean and Paul Parry. Trevor Sinclair's corner was helped across the box by Parry and MacLean was there to swivel the turn the ball home on half hour. Paul Parry put the Bluebirds 2-0 up after a great move down the right culminated in McPhail putting an inch perfect cross into the six yard box and Parry headed past Camp. Cardiff

CARDIFF OFFICIAL SITE - MANAGER. Dave Jones DAVE TALKS RANGERS and WOLVES
There were some tired legs after the tough Cup tie at Hereford, but Dave Jones is hoping that everyone will be fit to face QPR.
"I'll just see how they all feel today," he said. "Johnson was struggling to walk and McPhail was feeling his hip. Thommo had cramp which is to be expected as it was his first full game since the Bristol game. We'll get them down the gymnasium, get them on the bikes and in the pool and see how they feel. They're in again tomorrow before the game, so we won't know until then.
"There're no easy games in this division. QPR have invested a lot of money and brought in plenty of good players - they're on a little good run themselves and expectations are high, so it becomes a very difficult game. But again, if we can play to our maximum and keep the performance levels high then hopefully we can come away with maximum points.".....
"If you were going to get one of the big four financially you would want to play away as you get triple the money. It is an old cliché but we will look at the Wolves game when it comes around and the most important game for us is the next one which is QPR on Tuesday night Cardiff

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