-
Bignot's boxing clever
Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times
QPR are aiming to land a knockout blow on their TV jinx as they prepare to face Coventry on Monday .Rangers have floundered in their three live Sky Sports appearances ....Ian Holloway is now considering taking his squad to the boxing gym ahead of the Coventry clash....
QPR defender Marcus Bignot said: "We haven't been the best on TV and the gaffer's got another trick up his sleeve in terms of something we can do differently."His motivational skills that are off the cuff and nine times out of 10 they come off a treat. There's rumours we might be going boxing this week to try and toughen ourselves up in preparation for Coventry."Then again, it could be ballet, who knows? ..."Coventry like to mix it and we've got to be up for the challenge. They beat us up at their new stadium on the day it opened and it was probably written in stone that they'd do us over."But we've got a few wounded egos from then, we're looking forward to putting one over on them and we're more than confident, after our last couple of away performances and the second half against Hull."
Prior to the 2-2 draw with Hull, Rangers' run of four straight defeats had prompted mounting criticism of Holloway and the following week club president Harold Winton publicly demanded a change of manager.
According to Bignot, though, that rebuke - and, of course, the first of two ten-pin bowling tournaments - strengthened team spirit and galvanised the players into raising their performances at Stoke and Ipswich."It's not nice when you pick up a paper and you're reading comments about your manager from within your own club," Bignot added.
"Since the gaffer walked through the door, he's been striving for togetherness - not just the squad, but also the supporters and the board."Going bowling was quite a courageous thing to do after that criticism, but sometimes to go away from the norm can be a great help. When we got there the gaffer was a disgrace, if we're being honest, but the skittles were probably someone else he was trying to aim at!"
Going into the game at Stoke, feelings were running high and we were probably a bit overcharged because we wanted to do well so badly for the gaffer. It was more business as usual at Ipswich and I think it was a more composed, professional performance."
It felt like a defeat to concede so late, but the gaffer and his coaches are very upbeat, positive people. They talked afterwards about all the positive aspects of the game and if we can take that form back to Loftus Road, we'll be looking forward to the second half of the season."Rangers will be without striker Paul Furlong, who has netted twice in the last two games, but is facing his third suspension of the season after picking up his fifth yellow card at Ipswich.
http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/content/camden/kilburntimes/sport/story.aspx?brand=KLBTOnline&category=sportfootball&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=sportklbt&itemid=WeED14%20Dec%202005%2012%3A02%3A49%3A997