Liam Miller's Chance to Impress....Annual Dinner...QPR Departures...Kieron St Aimie Update..Walton to Crewe?....Flashback: Holloway's Last Home Game

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- Visit QPR Report's recently-launched QPR Report Messageboard. With its focus solely on QPR and broader football matters and its its "general football articles-of-interest" postings, the "boutique" QPR Report messageboard aspires to a different kind of messageboard (as suggested by its moderators). Visit the messageboard and judge for yourself! All perspectives welcome! [Brief Registration required to post). [Articles posted today include: Video snippet: QPR vs Oldham Playoff------(Other) Clubs' "Community Service"-------The Benefits of Experienced Players-----Crystal Palace's Simon Jordan Interview.]

Reminder of a couple of QPR Report Blog posts from yesterday:
- Mark Bircham, retired: Career Highlight - Playing and Captaining QPR
- Pay to Play at Loftus Road (to Help the Charity, Football Aid)


- UPDATE: QPR is holding its Player of The Year Dinner and Dance, April 25. - Dinner Details


Dave McIntyre/BBC 606 - Miller's chance to impress
- To state the bleedin’ obvious, by Tuesday night we’ll know a lot more about QPR’s promotion credentials.
- Back-to-back away wins means they'll move into the play-off places if they beat Reading on Saturday.
- But home matches against Reading and Swansea could prove to be more difficult than the trips to Derby and Blackpool, where Rangers played with one up front and were able to counter-attack after grabbing the opening goal.
- Breaking down two strong Championship sides at Loftus Road and potentially being more open against some of the division’s best strikers is maybe a bigger test than the recent away games.
- Rangers’ home form has kept them in touch with the play-offs - it’s their away results that needed to improve for a top-six finish to be realistic.
- But under Paulo Sousa, that trend could be reversed. Recent home games have been disappointing and an improvement is needed this weekend and on Tuesday night.
-A lot will also be required from Liam Miller, who has the task of filling in for Martin Rowlands.
- I think the loss of Rowlands is a huge, possibly hammer blow, for Rangers - despite what the last couple of results suggest.- Rowlands has had more of a team role this season, so wasn't the stand-out performer he had been previously and his stock among some fans seems to have dropped.
- But he is still a massively important player and very difficult to replace, especially with Akos Buzsaky and Rowan Vine also out.
- The pinch is more likely to be felt at home than away, so the next couple of games will tell us a lot.
- There has been no real attempt to sign another midfielder while the transfer window is open, although when it closes loan signings will still be an option.
- An enquiry was made about Manchester City’s Michael Johnson, but it never progressed beyond that stage. - So Miller is very much the man Rangers are looking to and it gives him the chance to make a name for himself.
- He had a steady debut at Blackpool, where the likes of Gavin Mahon and Mikele Leigertwood were always likely to have more promiment roles.
- Now with key home games coming up, Miller should get better chances to show what he can do in at least one of them.
- At 28, he has flattered to deceive in his career but showed he was a good Championship player with Sunderland and while on loan at Leeds.
- He needs to find that kind of form again - for his sake and QPR's. BBC606


Two More QPR Reserves were released yesterday:
- Matt O'Brien released
- Josh Ford released


The Argus/Howard Griggs - Rooks get an exotic feel (Kieron St Aimie)
- Kieron St Aimie has arguably the most exotic name in Sussex football.
- Now the on-loan Lewes forward wants people to remember it.
- St Aimie, or Kieron Lloyd Junior Minto St Aimie to give him his full name, scored his first goal for the Rooks in their FA Trophy defeat at Havant 12 days ago.
- He hopes to add a few more in the remaining ten days of his loan, starting with tomorrow’s trip to Oxford United when he is expected to be back up front alongside fellow Barnet loanee Elliott Charles.
- St Aimie played in centre midfield away to York, then left-midfield in the last two games against Mansfield and Torquay.
- He has looked most effective as a striker and he is likely to be asked to play there again at the Kassam Stadium following the decision to allow Josh Klein-Davies to return to Bristol Rovers after his loan spell at the Dripping Pan ended.
- St Aimie said: “I knew the situation with Lewes being second from bottom before I came and I am more than happy to try to help them.
- “I don’t think they should be where they are. They got up to the Conference last year because they are a good team and they should stay in it.
- “My aim is to do well here and then hopefully go back to Barnet and get in the first team.”
- St Aimie started his career with Queens Park Rangers where he scored on his debut with a solo effort in a pre-season game against Celtic.
- He had a loan spell at tomorrow’s opponents Oxford United in October 2007 before joining Barnet a year ago. He has made 13 League appearances for the Bees and was also loaned to Grays and Stevenage before joining the Rooks.
- The versatile 19-year-old is happy to help out Lewes even though he is not playing in his best position.
- He said: “I am quite versatile and I don’t mind where I play but I do prefer centre midfield. I like to get on the ball and be constantly involved.
- “I am trying to make a good impression on the gaffer (Kevin Keehan). Since I came here he has been very positive towards me. He is a nice man to play under.”
- So what about his rather extensive name?
- Minto is part of a double-barrelled surname although he tends to be known as St Aimie.
- As for the rest, he explained: “Lloyd was my dad’s name so he called me Lloyd Junior.
- “It is a long name I know. St Aimie is a French name. My mum is from Dominica and they speak Creole so it is broken down French.” ...The Argus


The Sentinel/Gwyn Griffiths Crewe Alex: Walton on loan radar
- PLYMOUTH outcast Simon Walton is understood to be a loan target again for Crewe.
- The 21-year-old midfielder turned down a move to the Alexandra Stadium in November, shortly before first-team coach Steve Holland was sacked. But the ex-Leeds and QPR youngster has since been told he can leave Home Park.
- Walton, who has a reputation for his tough-tackling, was transfer-listed after being sent off against Barnsley in December for kicking out at the Tykes' Anderson De Silva.
- After capturing experienced defender Marlon Broomes and keeper John Ruddy, Gudjon Thordarson is not ruling out brokering further loan deals before the transfer window closes on Monday...." The Sentinel


January 31, 2006, was Ian Holloway's last game in charge at Loftus Road as QPR lost 3-2 to Leicester.
-The following week, QPR played and lost at Leeds, with five players (three loans) making their debuts. It was announced that Ian Holloway had been placed on "gardening leave," after supposedly - according to Paladini, having expressed an interest in the Leicester City managerial job. (Holloway gave a rather different account)
- (Prior to that Leeds game, Ian Holloway reportedly heard - not directy from QPR - that he was out. The official announcement was made a couple of days later). QPR's Team for Holloway's last Loftus Road game:
Royce
Bignot Shittu Santos, Rose
Ainsworth, Lomas, Langley, Cook
Furlong, Nygaard.
(subs) Moore, Kus, Taylor, Donnelly, Baidoo.
Leicester - Douglas, Stearman, McCarthy, Kisnorbo, Johansson - Maybury, Williams, Gudjonsson, Hughes - Hume, Fryatt. (sub) Hammond, Wesolowski, Gerrbrand, Smith, O'Grady.
Goals: QPR: Ainsworth (6) Shittu (83)
Leicester Fryatt (10), Stearman (79), Hughes (88)
- QPR vs Leicester Match Reports and comments