The beleaguered Queens Park Rangers players will be told only a win is acceptable when they go head-to-head with Southampton in a vital relegation clash at Loftus Road tomorrow.
So much hangs on the sold-out game. Both clubs need three points to ease growing concern for their Premier League survival — Rangers lie bottom of the table with just four points from 11 games while Saints are one place higher with five from 11 — while the jobs of managers Mark Hughes and Nigel Adkins could also depend on the result.
A couple of weeks ago, QPR played the only other team in the League without a win this term, Reading, with the strugglers playing out a 1-1 draw.
But Rangers assistant boss Mark Bowen has made it clear that will not be good enough tomorrow.
“I expect to win, nothing but a win,” said Bowen. “That is what everybody is crying out for, and we’ve got to produce.”
Despite the desperate situation, the former Wales international insists the players have not lost their belief.
He said: “We’re in a dire position. Where we are is uncomfortable for everybody. But I can tell everybody out there that there is nothing diminished from our way of thinking about the way our season is going, and about what we can achieve. There is a real purpose, and desire, and a real good team spirit among the lads.
“I’m sure we’re all sick of waking on a Sunday or Monday morning, going to work, and having to deal with your thoughts and disappointments. But nobody here is feeling sorry for themselves.
“It is simplifying it but we just feel if we don’t get any bad decisions against us, and if we don’t create silly defensive errors, we know we are well capable of turning over Southampton on our own patch.”
And Bowen issued a rallying call to Rangers supporters, saying: “We would say to every fan out there ‘don’t lose faith’, because we haven’t. We are fully committed to the job we’ve got to do, and we’ll start tomorrow, believe me.”
Many of those who have paid good money to watch a team in which chairman Tony Fernandes has invested more than £20 million, with a wage bill to match, might argue that the third weekend in November is a bit late to begin a League challenge.
Bowen acknowledged the patience of supporters has been tested, especially as they have only seen their team score five times in the last seven League matches at Loftus Road.
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“Let’s be fair, they’re not robots,” he said. “There are going to be times in any 90 minutes when they get disappointed and they’ll show their frustration. We’re all professionals, and we expect that. We know that at home, especially, we’ve got to help create the atmosphere for them, as well as them for us.
“We keep saying it but we know it will turn. We just have to keep working hard at doing the right things. I’m sure that things will turn with a little bit of fortune smiling on us. But you have got to make your own fortune as well, and we are determined to do that this weekend.”
Stand-in captain Ryan Nelsen is being treated for an ankle injury and a late decision will be made on whether he will be able to face the Saints.
RANGERS MISERY
0 wins from their first
11 games
3 goals scored at Loftus Road
4 points from a possible 33
20 goals conceded
SAINTS SINNERS
5 defeats out of 5 for Southampton on the road this season
29 goals conceded, more than any other team in the Premier
