QPR v Wigan
Hughes will be hoping to celebrate his first home league game as QPR manager with a win against bottom of the table Wigan Athletic on Saturday, Kick-off 3pm.
The defeat at the Sports Direct Arena last Sunday was QPR’s seventh in nine games and they will be looking for their first victory in the league since beating Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium 3-2 on the 19 November.
A failure to score goals cost Neil Warnock his job and Mark Hughes will be hoping that strikers, Jay Bothroyd, DJ Campbell, Heidar Helguson and loanee Federico Macheda start to chip in with goals to ensure Premier League survival for the Hoops.
QPR go into this big “six-pointer” against Wigan with only one win at Loftus Road this season, the controversial win against Chelsea back in late-October and a defeat against Wigan will increase early pressure on Hughes’s reign.
Good news for QPR is influential midfielder Joey Barton returns after his three game ban however Hughes will be without play maker Adel Taarabt and Armand Traore who are both on international duty while Alejandro Faulin is sidelined with a serious knee injury.
Defender Danny Gabbidon, who scored QPR’s winner against MK Dons on Tuesday night, is also a slight doubt after picking up a hip injury in training on Thursday.
Despite a battling display on Monday night against top of the table Manchester City, Wigan remains in deep trouble at the foot of the Premier league table.
Roberto Martinez look set not to risk Scottish winger Shaun Maloney for the match as he is still recovering from the calf injury he suffered in Wigan’s FA Cup defeat to Swindon Town while goalkeeper Chris Kirkland is still out with a troublesome back injury.
Midfielder David Jones is a doubt due to the calf strain and Mohamed Diame is away on ACON duty with Senegal.
Martinez will be hoping for a repeat of their 2-0 win against QPR back in late August and three points on Saturday will ensure that Wigan leapfrog QPR in the Premier League table.
Martinez said in his press conference on Thursday that he is confident that his team can defy the odds and beat the drop this season. He said “I think stats are there to be broken. We are the type of football club that keep doing that, season after season. We know exactly what we have got to do.
We have got our own targets and that is what we base our success on. In many ways, the more stats against us the better. I don’t think we need any more motivation; football itself is a real challenge. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the response at our football club and that will always be the case”.
Possible Line-ups:
QPR: Kenny, Hill, Gabbidon, Ferdinand, Young, Derry, Buzsaky, Wright-Phillips, Mackie, Bothroyd, Helguson
Wigan: Al Habsi, Alcaraz, Caldwell, Stam, Figueroa, McCarthy, Crusat, Moses, Gomez, Sammon, Rodallega
