Sheffield United will look to cement their position in the top-six of the Championship when they travel to out-of-form QPR on Friday night. Mark O’Haire shares his best bet.
QPR fail to fire at Stoke
QPR manager Mark Warburton spoke of his disappointment after a 1-0 defeat at Stoke last weekend effectively ended any chance of Rangers snatching a play-off place. The R’s have tumbled out of contention following a rotten run of results since February and failed to land a shot on-target at Stoke with goalkeeper Kieren Westwood regular called into action.
Warburton’s future remains in the balance and the QPR chief shared his frustration post-match. He admitted: “It is frustrating because the team were in a really strong position and we’ve let ourselves down in certain games. There’s no doubt about the quality of the players but we have to be more consistent We’ve let ourselves down here against Stoke.”
Rangers have been dealing with a number of key injuries in recent weeks but are unlikely to see any faces return from the treatment table. With little left to play, Warburton is now hoping the R’s can at least better last season’s points total of 68. To do so they will need to win both their remaining matches, starting on Friday night before finishing at Swansea.
Sheffield United back on track
Iliman Ndiaye scored the only goal of the game as Sheffield United earned an important 1-0 victory over Cardiff last time out to solidify their position in the Championship’s top-six. The Blades sit three points ahead of seventh-placed Millwall with just two games of the regular season remaining, putting Paul Heckingbottom‘s outfit in pole position for the play-offs.
Cardiff had the best chance of the first half, when Max Watters’ effort was saved by Wes Foderingham despite being clean through. However, just two minutes after the restart, Morgan Gibbs-White found space and crossed for an unmarked Ndiaye to head home. Sander Berge had a chance to seal the win late on but his effort hit the woodwork.
Speaking post-match, Heckingbottom was understandably pleased with the win. He said, “While there is only one goal in it, it’s always going to be nervy but I thought we stood strong. We could have made it easier for ourselves. We could have put the game to bed. We keep getting things thrown at us but we’re battling hard and we’re coming through.”
QPR have lost each of their last four Championship meetings with Sheffield United going back to 2011 with the Blades winning 1-0 earlier this month in the reverse. Even so, three of those four fixtures were at Bramall Lane and Rangers do boast a reasonable W3-D3-L1 return when taking on the Blades at their West London base over the past two decades.
QPR 3.953/1 are in their worst run of form this season. Hampered by injury, unavailability and with the play-offs now out of reach, Mark Warburton’s position is being considered by the Rangers hierarchy. The hosts have registered only three league victories across their last 16
(W3-D3-L10), wining just one of their last nine against top-half opposition.
Sheffield United 1.9720/21 promotion push stalled slightly of late. The Blades have bagged successive league wins only once since February and have earned just W4-D4-L4 across their most recent 12 outings. United have largely built their challenge upon a strong record at Bramall Lane under Paul Heckingbottom’s watch, collecting just W4-D4-L4 on the road.
QPR’s encounters have produced 2.59 goals per-game this season, although that figure dips to 2.32 on home soil. Rangers have posted Under 2.5 Goals 1.9420/21 in 14/22 (64%) of their capital contests with 11 of their 12 tussles with top-13 teams also producing a maximum of two goals, suggesting this could be quite a tight affair.
Sheffield United have also shown a bias towards low-scoring match-ups under Paul Heckingbottom. The Blades past 25 fixtures have featured a 72% hit-rate for Under 2.5 Goals backers with only five of those games seeing four goals or more plundered – with that in-mind, I’m support Sheff Utd to win and Under 3.5 Goals at a generous 2.55.
The highly-motivated Blades should have enough quality to create and convert against a QPR side that’s dropped well below their high early season standards of late.
Recommended Bets
Mark O’Haire says: Back Sheffield United to win and Under 3.5 Goals @ 2.55
Source: Betfair UK English Championship
