Day of Destiny

The day of destiny is upon us, it’s time for the talking to stop and for Queens Park Rangers players to crown themselves among the legends by doing what’s necessary today.

Rangers have been written off by many at different points of this season – perhaps with good justification – much like their counterparts searching to take the title from their city rivals.

In Manchester City, QPR today face a football club and a core fan-base that understands what it’s like to drop two divisions and rise once more – indeed they will fully appreciate Rangers’ current plight.

Parachuting in and out of the title race for the last few weeks – it will be City fans that find United’s previously premature chants of ‘City’s Cracking Up,’ most poignant and amusing.

Rangers must care little for the Manchester rivalry as they seek what is deemed relatively impossible – the point they desire at the Etihad Stadium. Judging by media and some supporters’ boards – you’d think it’s job done already.

Mark Hughes – ousted rather unfairly at the Etihad – will need no further motivation himself to douse his former club’s title hopes – but will have to find spare space on the wall to pin up the articles citing a ‘foregone conclusion.’

Rangers face the impossible – ‘Gentlemen, we’re in hell,’ as the Al Pacino ‘Any Given Sunday’ speech goes – but a result, however unlikely given the respective form of the sides is not impossible by a long chalk.

In previous seasons and relegation campaigns there has never been that spark, that moment of magic in the QPR line-up – now in the guise of Djibril Cissé and Adel Taarabt, Rangers have players able to conjure magic from nothing.

The longer the game stays level, the more the nerves will make the home side sweat – risks will be taken, tactics will be stretched – all on the proviso that QPR can hold their buoyant opponents for a good period of the fixture.

At the start of the season, this was the fixture that supporters gasped at – ‘I hope we don’t need anything there!’ – I recalled stating with an air of resignation. We must handle the situation, steel ourselves as a club from top to bottom and enter the battle with optimism and hope.

As mentioned previously, the rallying cry was heard for miles around W12 both before and after the encounter against Stoke City – and that atmosphere is being taken up the M6 in hope, in optimism, in the name of our club.

A chance to book their place in history – can QPR wrap up a thrilling finale to the Premier League campaign. We hope, we pray – WE ARE QPR.