QPR take on Birmingham City at Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon in a match where anything could happen as both teams have struggled to find any sort of consistency in recent weeks.
Looking at QPR first and after a promising December which saw Steve McClaren’s men rack up three straight wins in the Championship with impressive victories against Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town, the R’s have since slumped to a five-match sequence without a league win.
Two draws and three defeats have followed their three-match winning streak with draws against reading and Aston Villa, but the hosts come into this clash on the back of three straight defeats to Sheffield United, Preston North End and Wigan Athletic.
The QPR bubble appears to have burst for now, and the London club now find themselves eight points adrift of 6th placed Bristol City and the play-off pack. Nevertheless, QPR are capable of scoring goals and indeed they’ve scored in 11 of their 14 home matches to date - 6 of the 14 matches have seen both teams score.
Forwards Wells (6 goals) and Freeman (5 goals) look the most likely for the hosts here.
Birmingham City ended a four match period without a win in the Championship last weekend when they recorded a much needed three points with a 2-0 home win over Nottingham Forest to move up into 8th place and four points behind the play-off pack.
All things considered, it’s been a successful campaign for The Blues so far this season as Garry Monk’s side have avoided being dragged down near the relegation zone this time around, and while there’s been financial restrictions and a transfer embargo placed upon them, they are within striking distance of the play-off pack.
Recent back-to-back defeats to Middlesbrough and Norwich City perhaps suggest that the visitors are a little way off from making a serious challenge for the play-offs, but they’ve lost just once in their last six away matches as they’ve made themselves hard to beat.
Birmingham have been involved in a number of draws though this season which has held them back, and they’re tied with local rivals Aston Villa with 13 stalemates. 9 of these 13 draws have been score draws, while away from home, 9 of their 15 away matches have also seen both teams score.
Forwards Adams (16 goals) and Jutkiewicz (10 goals) have been well supported by Maghoma (5 goals).
With both teams struggling to put any kind of winning streak together, both teams to score looks the more likely outcome in this clash.