QPR boss Mark Warburton has reminded the press and his players that they are in no way safe from the threat of League One yet.
In 15th with 43 points and a nine-point buffer on 22nd, you can be pretty confident that the R’s will be playing yet another season in the English second-tier, but Warburton is taking no chances.
The Championship can be an unforgiving division, and with many of the teams not being able to show many differences, you can end up getting relegated with a lot of points behind your back. Warburton wants 50.
This is something the head coach knows all too well, as his Forest side stayed in the division by the skin of their teeth with 51 points, as he told West London Sport.
He said: “Forest will tell you: we had 51 points and stayed up by two goals.
“Until you get 50-51 points no-one’s safe. You can win 10 in a row, you can lose 10 in a row.
“I keep hearing this (about) safety. No. We’re not safe at all. We’re not safe until we hit 51 points and then we’ll see.
“The sooner we hit it then we want to win every game and see how high we can go.”
Will Warburton still be in charge next season?
Yes
No
There’s absolutely no problem with Warburton telling his squad that the fight is not over yet as he wants to maximise as much as he can out of their final 12 appearances.
You never know, either. If the club was to lose 5 or 6 on the bounce then they would undoubtedly be dragged towards it and it could leave an anxious April.
Thankfully, Rangers should have just a bit too to go down. While they have been hugely inconsistent throughout this season, conceding barrels and scoring plenty, they still have a strong enough squad to win enough games to stay up; the firepower of Eberechi Eze and Bright Osayi-Samuel can simply be too much to handle for some teams.
In a fairly similar situation to the Hoops are Derby County, and that’s who they face today. Phillip Cocu’s side are two points ahead of them, and even with them looking a new side with Wayne Rooney, it’s hard to see them claw back the 11 point gap between themselves, Forest and Brentford.
