Two of the newer managerial appointments in the Championship go head-to-head tonight as QPR host Wolves, live on Sky Sports 1 at 7.45pm.

Ian Holloway returned to Loftus Road last month and saw immediate success as the Hoops beat Norwich 2-1 before they then slumped to a 3-0 reverse at Ipswich last weekend leaving the west London outfit 15th in the table and just five points off the drop zone.

Things are even worse though for Paul Lambert and Wolves with the Midland outfit having drawn 0-0 at Preston and lost 2-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday since the Scot’s arrival leaving them level on points with Wigan and Cardiff near the foot of the table and only out of the bottom three courtesy of having scored more goals than the Latics and Bluebirds.



Wolves in fact have only won once in their last 11 games and that was way back in September so Lambert – who let’s face it didn’t exactly rip things up during his last tenure as manager of a Midlands sleeping giant club – has it all to do at Molineux.

The club may have supposedly wealthy Chinese owners who are ready to splash the cash come January, but that probably won’t help matters in the short term as Wolves look to recover from a disastrous period under previous coach Walter Zenga.

As for how the Spreadex traders see this one, well it appears they think both sides are just about as bad as each other. QPR are narrow favourites but a spread betting Goal Supremacy price of QPR/Wolves 0.05 – 0.25 and fixed odds prices of QPR at 7/5, Wolves 2/1 and the draw 9/4 shows there’s not much in it.

More revealing perhaps is a very low-looking Total Goals spread of 2.25 – 2.45 showing how both sides are struggling to find the net. Wolves have only scored more than once in a match on one occasion in their last nine outings while QPR have only scored 11 in their last 13.

This fixture itself has not had a history of great entertainment over recent seasons at Loftus Road as can be seen in our graphic above, with just just nine goals being plundered in total between the teams in the last seven meetings at this ground.

Based on this we’ve seen a few buyers of Time of 1st Match Goal on a spread of 38 – 41 (makes up at 90 if no goal is scored) and sellers of Match Performance on a spread of 87 – 92 (spread based on 15 points awarded per goal, 3 per yellow card, 5 per red, 10 per penalty awarded and -25 for a goalless draw).

Even the Player Goal Minute quotes look apologetically low with Tjarron Chery, Sebastian Polter and Idrissa Sylla all on 15 – 18 for QPR and Nouha Dicko 13 – 16 and Bright Enobakhare 10 – 13 for the visitors.

So for anyone who does fancy goals tonight there do appear to be some tempting levels for buyers – however, the stats and the Spreadex traders seem to be pointing towards a dour affair to say the least.