A much-improved Queens Park Rangers have been tipped to drop points away at Sheffield Wednesday this weekend by Sky Sports pundit David Prutton.
Having won three games in a row, Rangers failed to capitalise on a 25th-minute Dan Scarr red card for Plymouth Argyle by not winning at Loftus Road in midweek. The Pilgrims managed to hold Marti Cifuentes’ men at bay as the spoils were shared.
QPR had a disastrous start to the season under Gareth Ainsworth and the club looked destined for relegation to League One, having won merely two games all season prior to Cifuentes’ arrival in the dugout.
However, since the Spaniard took over from Ainsworth at the beginning of November, QPR have lost just one game in his first seven matches and have picked up more points over their last five league outings than Leeds United.
A win on Wednesday would have lifted the London outfit outside the relegation zone and would have also widened the gap between themselves and 23rd-place Sheffield Wednesday to nine points, with a trip to Hillsborough to take place this weekend.
Nevertheless, writing in his weekly predictions column for Sky Sports, pundit David Prutton believes QPR will be held to a 1-1 draw away in South Yorkshire, saying:
“For a moment it looked like it might have been three wins on the spin for Sheffield Wednesday, but their dreams of that were foiled at Norwich in midweek.
“Despite that result, things are looking far more hopeful for them than they were a couple of weeks ago.
“The same can be said of QPR, who probably should have made it four wins in a row against Plymouth on Wednesday, with a victory that would have moved them out of the bottom three.
“Instead, they could do that at Hillsborough. Draw here for me, that will not help either side a huge amount.”
Writer’s View
This is the definition of a six-pointer. QPR feel untouchable at the moment under Cifuentes but a defeat would bring them crashing back down to earth and would offer some hope for a Wednesday team that had already accepted relegation before the arrival of Danny Rohl.
However, on the flip side, if QPR win, the Owls would leave themselves with a mountain to climb, rapidly losing their grip on any hopes of survival in the second tier.
Deputy Head of Writing