QPR take on Cardiff City in the Championship this weekend.
QPR have had a week’s rest since their opening day defeat at Watford, which is more than most teams in the division who’ve had cup ties to play.
Cardiff played out a 2-2 draw at Leeds United on the opening day and then another 2-2 draw v Colchester United in the Carabao Cup last night, eventually getting through on penalties.
The Cardiff City Stadium is always an interesting stomping ground for the R’s but they’ve been bolstered this week by the arrival of Steve Cook from Nottingham Forest.
He becomes the R’s seventh summer signing and speaking to the club ahead of this weekend, boss Gareth Ainsworth said that he’s ‘hoping to have him [Cook] involved at Cardiff’.
And there’s another new arrival in Jack Colback who QPR fans are waiting to see in action for the first time. He was released by Forest this summer and he too has signed on a two-year deal.
Ainsworth said of Colback:
“Jack is also close to making his first start. We’re monitoring him very closely to see if he can make the trip.”
A tough test
QPR have done well to get Cook in ahead of this game, and it looks like the centre-back could play a role with Ainsworth still in dire need of central players.
He’ll bring a huge degree of experience and leadership to the side and that’ll be vital in what is going to be another tough outing at Cardiff – the same can be said of Colback, though he looks less likely to feature this weekend.
The Bluebirds looked good in their opening day draw at Elland Road, losing out to a late equaliser, and so they’ll be right up for the challenge of QPR who looked abject in their first game.
The game kicks off at 3pm on Saturday.
