QPR v Blackpool: Live match updates

“QPR haven’t won in five, but that makes them dangerous opponents for me.

“They’re a very good team and they have lots of good players. I like watching them play because they play a fantastic brand of football.

“They have good attacking players in their team, they have good experience and they’re well managed and well coached.

“Loftus Road is a great stadium to play football. It will be a great atmosphere under the lights in midweek, so it’s a great challenge for us.

“They will be looking to get back to winning ways, but it’s a great game for us to look forward to. We know we’ll have to play well but we can take great heart from some of our recent away performances.”

Neil Critchley is expecting to have the same pool of players to choose from than what he had available to him at Cardiff at the weekend.

Kenny Dougall comes back into contention though, having been rested at the weekend. The same also applies for Jake Beesley who was left out of the 18.

Elsewhere, there is encouraging news regarding James Husband, who is to return to training this week on his return from a hamstring injury.

The defender has been sidelined since sustaining the injury during the FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool United at the start of January.

Despite the positive news, tonight’s game will come too soon for the 28-year-old.

Chris Maxwell (quad) and Keshi Anderson (hamstring) are also making good progress in their recoveries, but at the moment they’re a little behind Husband.

Richard Keogh (calf), Luke Garbutt (knee), Matty Virtue (ACL), Grant Ward (achilles) and Sonny Carey (metatarsal) are also sidelined.

Blackpool have still only lost once in the league in 2022, but they’ll be looking to get back to winning ways after two games without a win to push back up into the top half of the table.

After suffering a cruel late defeat to Bournemouth, Neil Critchley’s side bounced back with a 1-1 draw against Cardiff City at the weekend.

There’s still a belief among Critchley and his players they can put a run together and close the gap to the top six, but they’re going to have to get a move on.

Nevertheless, they still boast a comfortable buffer to the relegation zone, so whatever happens between now and the end of the season, it’s been an excellent first season back in the Championship for the men in tangerine.

Tonight they come up against a QPR side that have been one of the division’s surprise packages this season - sitting in a paly-off place and within touching distance of the top two.

Mark Warburton’s side have stalled a little in recent weeks though, losing three of their last five - a run that has included no wins.

And welcome to tonight’s live blog.

Four days on from the trip to Cardiff, the Seasiders are on their travels once again as they make the trip down to London to face a QPR side that are enjoying an excellent season in the Championship.

Follow the blog for build-up, team news and live match updates.