Huddersfield vs. QPR Predictions: Back the Terriers on Friday evening
The evening kick-off on Good Friday in the Championship sees Huddersfield Town host Queens Park Rangers.
QPR came into this off the back of five straight defeats having had their play-off hopes dashed. Three of those loses came against the best and most inform sides the division has to offer in Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United, which is no embarrassment. The most telling loss though was the 1-3 defeat at home to basement boys Peterborough. That was their first win since mid-December - 15 games prior- and only their second league win on the road all season!
Huddersfield vs QPR Tips
It is worth pointing out that this barren spell coincides with some key injuries. Chris Willock and Robert Dickie make up two of the six absentees Mark Warburton has to contend with for his trip to West Yorkshire.
In contrast, the hosts have continued to defy expectation and remain well and truly amongst the play-off chasing pack. They lead it, in fact as they sit third on 69 points, four behind Bournemouth.
The Terriers have won their last two and will come into this one brimming with confidence having bested promotion rivals Luton in a tense battle at the Kirklees Stadium.
If there is one Championship team you would want to face at the minute it would be QPR. Warburton’s side sit bottom of the form table having lost their last five on the spin, a dismal run that has seen them slump to eleventh in the table- six points off of sixth spot- as their play-off hopes slip from their grasp.
This dip in form has been partially due to a host of injuries to key personnel, the biggest of which being Chris Willock. The Arsenal loanee was forced off with an injury early on vs Forest, coincidentally, this was the first of their last five defeats.
With Willock in the starting XI, QPR have averaged 1.5 goals and 1.67 points per game, without him they have averaged just 0.5 points and goals per game!
The second half performance in their most recent performance was particularly woeful, the game finished 2-1 to Preston North End but based on that last 45 minutes, the R’s got off lightly.
Given how blunt QPR are without Willock, I think it is worth taking the hosts to win to nil here. On their own patch, Carlos Corberán’s side have kept five clean sheets from their last seven fixtures and with 63% of their 19 wins coming alongside a clean sheet.
As has often been the case this season when Huddersfield are involved, I expect this clash to live in the realm of fine margins. The Terriers top the charts for goals scored directly from set pieces with 18, and I expect them to play a pivotal role in this fixture. This, combined with the fact that QPR have conceded less (11) than their xGA (14.1) suggests they should have from set pieces, is why Tom Lees at 33/1 to score first appeals.
Lees has scored five times in all competitions this season, two of which coming against Posh at the start of March. He has had five shots in his last six appearances and averages 0.5 per game in the second tier.
Best of luck if you are backing any of these selections and please remember to gamble responsibly.