QPR preview

Charlton fans currently resemble sick animals, where the humane thing to do would be to put us out of our misery.

It remains absurd that the play-offs even remain a possibility with just 61 points from 43 games, but a win for Charlton tomorrow, defeat for Palace at Watford, and draw at Molineux would see us right back in the shake-up again. Ridiculous, but true. Then again, a defeat (and probably even a draw) for Charlton, and a Palace win and it's all over for the season.

I witnessed the home defeat to QPR in October, and in many ways it typified our season. Performances have lacked a cutting edge at home, and the players swiftly retreated back into their shells as the fans expressed their discontent. It's debatable which way the causation goes here, but just 8 wins from 22 home games (the same as our final opponents Coventry in 21st) is a sorry statistic.

However in defence of QPR, they did not look relegation material that day, and are now firmly in mid-table thanks to new management, and an injection of capital. One Charlton player assured a warm welcome however is Lee Cook, who donated his signing-on fee back to QPR before the recent takeover. One wonders if he got the money back, but knowing the ethics of most people involved in football, it's a silly question.

It's not clear what the motives are of the new owners, but QPR fans expecting a Chelsea-esque revival are likely to be disappointed. Some of their home attendances meanwhile have threatened to dip below the 10,000 mark this season (in a famously crappy stadium). In all likelihood it's a short-term bit of fun for their owners (they paid virtually nothing for it), with no desire for it to become a material cash burner as Chelsea has become for Abramovich.

Unlike Charlton however, they did benefit from being on the 'right' side of London (in the eyes of the world's billionaires at least), which should perhaps not be undestimated in light of our own failed searches for fresh capital.

Pards has shown more cavalier intent than Curbs ever did, but his risk-taking has not paid off often enough this season. Nonetheless, with anything less than a win almost worthless tomorrow, an extremely attacking line-up is assured. I expect us to line-up as follows: Weaver, Halford, Thatcher, Bougherra, McCarthy, Cook, Ambrose, Zheng, Holland, Gray, Lita. Subs: Elliot, Semedo, Shelvey, Iwelumo, Varney.

NY Addick predicts: QPR 0, Charlton 1 (Gray). Att: 14, 372.