-
- For QPR and Football Updates and perspectives throughout the day, visit the QPR Report Messageboard. All QPR and football perspective welcome...Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
_____________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE: PITCH INSPECTION TODAY
Portsmouth News - Fratton Park pitch inspection ahead of - QPR clash
- Tonight's game against QPR is in doubt. Pompey were this morning hoping tonight's Fratton Park clash with QPR would beat the heavy rain. However, a Fratton Park pitch inspection this afternoon was set to determine whether the contest could go ahead" Portsmouth News
- Video (1993)- QPR vs Blackburn
- Two Year Flashback: Briatore and Ecclestone Give Pre-Match Team Talk in the Dressing Room!
- Year Flashback: Tommy Williams Back at QPR
- "On This Day" Flashbacks: Jarrett Returns after one game of three month loan...Gianni Paladini responds to Holloway re Sinclair wages...A home Loss to Northampton
- Birthday for Mike Flanagan
- Chelsea in Talks to Move to Earls Court
- Visiting All 92 Grounds
- Tonight: Portsmouth vs QPR:Previews & Stats
- QPR will wear a poppy on their shirt Football League - LEAGUE CLUBS BACK POPPY APPEAL - The South Wales derby will continue Football League clubs' support of the annual Poppy appeal with both Cardiff City and Swansea City set to have the iconic image emblazoned on their shirts this weekend....
- on Tuesday the Poppy will be worn by Queens Park Rangers...
"Football League
Portsmouth News/Steve Wilson - Nail down the teapot and cups if Blues defeat QPR
Michael Brown is ready for a tough test from the side managed by his former boss Neil Warnock
The tea cups went flying, the wild eyes were looking around for his next victim and Michael Brown knew when the time was right to keep his head down.
Neil Warnock, who managed the Pompey midfielder during their time together at Sheffield United, has long been recognised as one of the more combustible characters in the game.
And Brown has seen the manager lose his rag more times than he cares to remember.
The QPR boss, who has been linked with the job at Fratton Park several times in recent years, brings his table-topping side to the south coast tonight, and Brown is expecting a pre-match phone call from his old mentor.
But Brown believes the Yorkshireman has mellowed with age.
He recalled: 'You'd be in the dressing room and sometimes the teapot, the cups, the lot would all go. There were always a few scraps.
'I had the odd row with him but I still speak to him every now and then and he was great with me.
'He could go ballistic after a game and then on Monday morning it would be "morning lads, how are you?" as if nothing had happened.
'Sometimes he had the hump until Tuesday, though.
'I'm sure I'll get a call off Warnock before the game.
'They've had a fantastic run and they haven't been beaten yet.
'Warnock has relaxed a lot more than when I first met him. He used to fight everything to be successful.
'Now he accepts things as they are a bit more and can enjoy being a manager.
'I think he's done really well at QPR.
'He took Sheffield United up and he did really well with Crystal Palace to get them up to the play-offs from near the bottom.'
Warnock was close to being appointed Pompey boss before Harry Redknapp returned to the club from Southampton and was often in former chairman Milan Mandaric's thoughts during the recruitment process.
It has often been remarked that his character would have been an ideal fit with the club and supporters.
But Brown sees some similarities between Warnock and Blues boss Steve Cotterill, with their motivational skills and the relationship they forge with players.
Brown explained: 'I think they are both strong characters.
'They are both great with the players, they are really good at motivating the players, they make you relaxed and they make you enjoy your work.
'Warnock has that ability to create something. It's not always technical and I don't think he goes to watch a load of games or anything like that.
'But he knows how to manage people, for sure, and he knows how to get the best out of people.
'I'm sure he's still got that angry streak.
'But I don't think any players would have a problem with him when they are winning.
'If you cross him, though, good luck because he will get you!
'It might take a year or two but he will still get you in the end.'
Meanwhile, Brown is still using QPR as the benchmark for Pompey's resurgence, which took a dent after the weekend defeat at Derby.
He said: 'QPR were the main form team and were nine points ahead of us before the Derby game.
'They haven't been beaten yet so we'll be looking forward to giving them a game.
'The top six is not an issue to me at the moment, but it would be a nice bonus.
'I've just seen us get it down to nine points off QPR but that's gone back to 12. Now we've got to go again.'
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/frattonlatest/Nail-down-the-teapot-and.6618043.jp
Portsmouth News/Steve Wilson - Cotterill: Smith sale was out of my hands
Tommy Smith is clear to return to play against Pompey tonight as Steve Cotterill admitted: I didn't want him to leave.
The former Watford man joined QPR on transfer-deadline day but the paperwork on his £1.5m move to Loftus Road was received late, meaning a loan deal was hastily arranged instead.
But while it's an automatic rule in the Premier League that an on-loan player cannot play against his parent club, there is no such rule in the Football League.
And as far as Cotterill, below, is concerned, both Smith and Liam Lawrence's loan deals are permanent.
He said: 'Tommy has gone permanently, really. We were 20 minutes late so it's a bit more paperwork and a few more trees to chop down in January to make those loan signings permanent.
'They are loans as a technicality – the same as it is with Liam's.
'But they will be permanent from January 1 for sure.
'Tommy was popular with the players and myself.
'We would like to have kept Tommy for sure because he's a good player.
'At the time, I think we only had eight senior players so he wouldn't have been one we would have wanted to leave.
'But those decisions were out of my hands at the time, apart from the Marc Wilson one, which went the way I wanted it to go so that we got something in return there.'
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/frattonlatest/Cotterill-Smith-sale-was-out.6618099.jp
- FA Cup Second Round Draw (Including AFC Wimbledon vs Milton Keynes (If The two clubs win their replays!)
- Romone Rose Returns From Torquay, Injured....Joe Oastler Extends Torquay Loan
- Bradford Manager Peter Taylor Slams Messageboard Moaners/Rumour Mongers. (Obviously would never occur on a QPR Messageboard!
- Neil Warnock's QPR Record
- APPROACHING 1,300 DAYS SINCE QPR's LAST FAN FORUM......More Than Six Months Since the Last Club/Fan Meeting
- Donate to QPR GIRLS ONLINE
