Plymouth Argyle v Queens Park Rangers

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QPR in for 'cup final' smackdown against Plymouth Argyle - Cifuentes makes 'difficult' admission
QPR look to bounce back from Sheffield Wednesday defeat against another Championship club fighting for their lives.

QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes has sent a rallying call to players ahead of a huge Championship relegation smackdown against Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night.

The Rs will look to bounce back from a hugely disappointing showing against Sheffield Wednesday at Loftus Road on Saturday afternoon. Cifuentes was determined to shoulder the blame for his side's performance after full-time but has also asked his players to step up this week.

A win against the relegation-threatened Owls would have put Championship survival in touching distance for QPR but defeat has now put huge pressure on Tuesday's meeting with Plymouth Argyle. The Pilgrims sit 19th in the second tier, two points behind QPR in 17th - another loss could leave the London outfit in freefall with just four fixtures left this campaign.

When asked if his side tends to struggle against the clubs around them in the table, Cifuentes said: "I think we have been a consistent team in being reliable in our performances. It's true that we get some good and some bad results against these kind of teams. It's impossible to expect that just because you play against teams close to you in the table that you are going to win all of them.

"Plymouth, Sheffield today, everybody is fighting for big things. Everyone wants to make the last push and it's important we keep focused and understand it's going to be another final - as it has been since I arrived.

"We put ourselves in a much better position than five months ago, I think all of us would have taken the situation we are in today even one month ago. We need to keep working and be humble, perform at our best and get a result on Tuesday."

He said: "There will be some changes. After they won against Rotherham they would have been happy with their result but at the same time, at this moment, with a few days in between it's about understanding what they can do but especially what we need to do. My full focus is about understanding the opposition and getting the best from my players.

"I'm trying to get the best from all my players. It's an extremely difficult calendar at this moment of the season having played 45 games with the cup and everything. We have Plymouth and then three days later away at Hull. It's a demanding schedule and I need the best from all of them."

QPR Media

We'll do well to get a draw here

I think Hardy needs a rest but no forwards to replace him. Maybe gave Freddie a chance or is it to big of a game?

Tgwu wrote:

I think Hardy needs a rest but no forwards to replace him. Maybe gave Freddie a chance or is it to big of a game?

too big a game. now is not the time for putting heavy pressure on youngsters that havent featured much this season to take over from Hardie and expect him to bag a goal or 2 in a game we need to win. Bring him on near the end by all means but we screwed ourselves with the striker situation all season long by keep those number low and no one to challenge Hardie for his spot so we got to hope hes got enough left in him to go another 5 games. Mind you he's always taken off in games for Waine so he should do.

Angry wrote:

Tgwu wrote:

I think Hardy needs a rest but no forwards to replace him. Maybe gave Freddie a chance or is it to big of a game?

too big a game. now is not the time for putting heavy pressure on youngsters that havent featured much this season to take over from Hardie and expect him to bag a goal or 2 in a game we need to win. Bring him on near the end by all means but we screwed ourselves with the striker situation all season long by keep those number low and no one to challenge Hardie for his spot so we got to hope hes got enough left in him to go another 5 games. Mind you he's always taken off in games for Waine so he should do.

Tbh Hardies been running on empty for the last 5 games they have ran him into the ground plus I suspect he’s been carrying groin injury or some kind of thigh injury his hiding as well ..but his gunna just have to keep going unfortunately ! And tbh he as lasted longer than I thought he would without getting injured this season ..but as we all know we’re in this position because the board were hoping that all the euphoria surrounding mumba & Whittaker that no one would noticed we were a central defender & 2 strikers short to start the season with

A win would be massive and give us a bit of much needed breathing space as fridays game will be men against boys I fear. Can't wait, think we'll win tonight with a raucous crowd behind us. COYG

1-1 Whittaker

While the action on the pitch may be very entertaining, everyone needs to do a bit of "crowdwatching" to suss out any prospective managers who may be sussing the players out.


I did notice a Merc with a personalised number plate-K1 0PP -in Sainsbury Marsh Mills car park earlier.

Not sure about Scarr being in the team tonight. Two games in 5 days might be too much given his recent lack of game time and QPR might wind him up to get him sent off again.

Absolutely awful so far, need to up the tempo.

Had to win that to stand any chance of survival. But true to form at home it was utter dogshit from start to finish. We'll will get massacred on Friday night by the Champions. We are down.

Gutted, players look devoid of ideas and spent physically, hard to see where points are going to come from now.

Didn't think it was that bad tbh,hard fought point which may prove important yet.QPR had more pace and quality on the counter but Argyle had their moments and I thought merited s draw overall.Not sure why Wright was subbed.hsd a good game I thought would have been Randell for me.Better night all round post Foster not sure how much Bundu knew about the goal-a rare score indeed from a corner.

Looked like an OG from where I was sat.

Last night was confirmation that we will be relegated. We are just nowhere near good enough to stay up. Realistically it's between Argo, Huddersfield and Sheff Wed who will take the last two places. Sheff Wed are on a good run and look too good to go down. So unless any unbelievably freak results happen it's us and the Terriers who will be joining Rotherham in having to play Exeter in 24/25.

well it was a better more committed performance first time in a while that we have seen that at home QPR looked dangerous on the attacks but we dealt with that well, their number 10 is a good player he tore our defence up at times.
Sadly we didnt win we needed too but a point is better than nothing but its not good enough sadly we really should have gone for it. When we took the leaders off the pitch edwards houghton and hardie that affected our performance which lead to qpr getting the goal. Christ knows why after they scored we still brought on a defender and not looked to bring on miller as his pace would have opened up qpr more so. we finally saw a goal from the greens of sorts to level but i never thought we would get anything more especially with waine up front.

overall we needed the 3 points especially given who we still got to play i cant see an obvious 3 points being won and i feel we need 4 points to be safe.

Jeez tonights results really went our way for once

Mook wrote:

Jeez tonights results really went our way for once

they did indeed we got to make it count as soon as we can against stoke, millwall or hull 4 points from those 3 will definitely secure championship football next season i feel.

Yep, somehow this team needs to recover from tomorrow night's mauling and get something from the final 3 games. Really can't rely on others slipping up as that's not going to keep conveniently happening like it did last night. But because we are so easy to score against and can't score ourselves it's a massive ask to get any points at all from the final 3 games.