Rangers host Bournemouth as Woodgate continues his bid to secure permanent Cherries hot-seat

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Bournemouth travel to an in-form Queens Park Rangers side after their recent win against high-flying rivals Brentford as they look to make it three consecutive home wins.

QPR find themselves in sensational form since the turn of the year, only losing one game in their previous six matches as last time out they beat local rivals Brentford who currently sit second in the Championship table. Their January recruitment has been instrumental in turning their form around in the second half of the season.

Rangers started the games slowly against Brentford as they stood off their West London rivals, as manager Mark Warburton said pre-match “We gave Brentford too much respect in the opening half an hour”. Ivan Toney opened the scoring when he flicked on an incoming free-kick as keeper Seny Dieng could only watch his effort enter the far corner of his goal.

The hosts improved after the interval, dominating possession and searching for an equalising goal. Substitutions made by Warburton turned the game on its head as Chris Willock and debuting Sam Field entered the pitch.

Field hammered Rangers level when a ricocheting ball was half-cleared with the midfielder connecting with his left boot as his effort nestled in the bottom right-hand corner.

Only four minutes later, QPR had completed a miraculous turnaround to lead the game when Charlie Austin saw his deflected effort fly past David Raya after brilliant build-up play between both wing-backs Todd Kane and Lee Wallace.

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The West London club currently find themselves in 16th despite their win, however, they do have one or two games in hand over their rivals around them. This weekend’s game will be massive for QPR if they are to make any kind of late charge for the Play-Offs.

As for Bournemouth, their impressive form since the sacking of Jason Tindall has been able to steer what looked to be a sinking ship by picking up seven points out of a possible 12 with their most recent outing being a 1-0 victory over struggling Rotherham.

The Cherries started the game on the front foot as Sam Surridge and Arnaut Danjuma asked several questions of the Rotherham defence. It wasn’t long before their questions were answered when Philip Billing finished off a scintillating counter-attack as they took the lead inside 23 minutes.

Jonathan Woodgate’s side rode their luck at times as it looked harder to miss when Rotherham captain Richard Wood missed a gilt-edged chance to make it 1-1 just shy of half-time. In the second half, it was more of the same as Bournemouth dominated the ball but Rotherham kept on probing towards Asmir Begovic’s goal to force an equaliser.

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As the Millers pushed forward it took a superb save from the Cherries shot-stopper to keep his sides 1-0 lead with the Bosnian pulling off a smart save in the 67th minute. Freddie Ladapo should have scored with his first touch after coming on but failed to keep his shot below the bar as the game came to an end.

Bournemouth currently sit in the final Play-Off spot in sixth on 49 points, six points clear of their nearest challengers in Cardiff City. Although a few teams have games in hand behind that could get close to the Cherries if they fail to win in the coming weeks with a new manager imminent.