Preview: Queens Park Rangers vs Derby County - prediction, team news, lineups

Aiming to distance themselves from the playoff-chasing pack, Queens Park Rangers welcome strugglers Derby County to MATRADE Loftus Road on Wednesday night for a Championship contest.

The R's picked up a commendable point at the base of title favourites West Ham United on Friday night, whereas the Rams were painfully close to recording a Pride Park success over Wrexham on Saturday afternoon.

Match preview

After threatening to scrape the bottom of the Championship table over the past few years, Queens Park Rangers are now dreaming of a Premier League return for the first time since 2015 with ambitious Frenchman Julien Stephan at the helm.

The R's recorded their fourth consecutive second-tier draw on Friday night, when Nicolas Madsen's first goal of the season was cancelled out by a second-half Jarrod Bowen effort at West Ham's London Stadium.

The former England international was denied a winning goal late on from the penalty spot by QPR goalkeeper Pierce Charles, who produced an outstanding performance in East London, fresh from collecting four straight clean sheets whilst on international duty for Northern Ireland.

One of five sides who have lost just once in the division so far, the R's sit in sixth position in the Championship standings after nine fixtures, four points behind Middlesbrough in second spot.

Stephan's side will be hopeful of halting a five-match winless run (D4 L1) at Loftus Road this week, however, the hosts have only won one of their four home league fixtures so far, finding the net just four times.

Despite controlling large spells of their battle with Wrexham at Pride Park over the weekend, Derby County were unable to claim their first home victory of the season at the sixth attempt in all competitions.

The winner of the Golden Boot in the Championship during 2023-24, Sammie Szmodics fired the Rams into an early lead last time out, however, midfielder Ollie Rathbone netted an equaliser late on for visiting Wrexham.

Since a 2-0 triumph at Portsmouth on September 1, John Eustace's side have endured a five-game winless spell (D2 L3) in the second tier, dropping down to a lowly 23rd place in the standings.

Derby supporters scrambling for positives amid a difficult run of form will surely point towards the contributions of summer arrival Mohammed Fuseini, who has played a part in both of his side's goals during the past two fixtures.

Another reason for cautious Derby optimism ahead of Wednesday night's trip, the Rams recorded back-to-back successes over QPR last season and have lost just eight of the past 23 meetings (W10 D5) between the teams.

Queens Park Rangers Championship form:

Derby County Championship form:

Team News

A key playmaker for QPR in recent years, Ilias Chair is a doubt to feature this week because of a muscle injury.

The R's options at the top end of the pitch are reduced further by the absence of former wonderkid Karamoko Dembele.

Derby's fitness woes worsened over the international break, with defender Max Johnston picking up an injury in training.

The Rams were already without centre-back Eiran Cashin (calf) and Matt Clarke (calf), whilst left-back Charlie Taylor (hamstring) is also unavailable.

The biggest miss in attack for Derby at the moment, American marksman Patrick Agyemang is recovering from an Achilles injury.

Queens Park Rangers possible starting lineup:

Charles; Adamson, Dunne, Clarke-Salter, Kemper; Edwards, Kamara, Madsen; Poku, Kolli, Kone

Derby County possible starting lineup:

Vickers; Ward, Langas, Sanderson, Hedges; Mowatt, Ozoh, Fuseini, Clark, Szmodics; Morris