Howard gunning for Loftus Road revenge

Anthony Smith • Published 5 Nov 2010 10:35 Comments 1 Comment

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BRIAN Howard is out to exorcise his Loftus Road demons.

The Royals midfielder suffered a humiliating defeat in west London last season when his side were battered 4-1 in a nightmare hoops derby.

It was the disastrous October night when more than 1,000 Royals fans turned on former boss Brendan Rodgers (pictured right) and called for his head leading up to his eventually sacking.

Now Howard and his team-mates want to erase that painful memory: “I’ve touched on it in the dressing room.

“There are a few of us here who played in that game last year and we need to put that to bed,” he declared.

“Rangers were down to 10 men then Ivar Ingimarsson got sent off for us early in the second half.

“It was a funny game and last year we were in that mode where if we conceded one we could have conceded four.

“It was a bad night for the players, fans, coaching staff, the local media - anyone involved with the club.

“It’s been rectified and we beat them at the Madejski Stadium last season. But we still need to go there and put a few ghosts to bed.”

And he added: “You get over it but deep down we feel we still owe them one.

“Maybe it will give us that extra incentive to try harder and run harder and make sure we come away with a result.”

Ironically, Royals and QPR are the only Championship sides not to have lost a game this season after going in front.

“The first goal will be important,” added Howard. “We’re the away team so they’ll have to come at us and I think that’s when we’re most dangerous.

“We have a good shape and we hit teams well on the break with quick players so maybe it will suit us.

“But this season if we concede three we have a chance of coming back and scoring four ourselves.

“We’re all looking forward to it after two good results but we also know there are another 30-odd games to go.”

Moneybags Rangers have had an excellent start to the campaign under Neil Warnock.

But it seems Reading have momentum behind them.

Brian McDermott’s side bounced back from successive defeats by sticking four goals past Burnley and then Doncaster Rovers to win the next two which has lifted them to sixth in the table.

Rangers, meanwhile, have not won in four and were knocked off the top by Cardiff City last Saturday after a 1-1 home draw against Burnley.

“The next big game is Loftus Road against the unbeaten favourites in the league who have conceded one goal all season at home,” said Howard in eager anticipation.

“My old pal Paddy Kenny is in goal so it would be nice to stick one past him.

“I got my first Reading goal there last year and it would be nice to break my duck there for this season.”

Royals ended Burnley’s unbeaten home record a fortnight ago in a sensational 4-0 victory at Turf Moor.

And Howard believes they could do the same of Loftus Road: We can draw on that experience, it will be similar,” he explained.

“We’re high on confidence going too there patch but it will be test against some of the top dogs in the league.

“We faced the likes of Chris Eagles at Burnley and now we face the likes of Adel Taarabt at Rangers, but hopefully we will come out on top.”

Simon Church stepped off the bench to net the 89th minute winner against Doncaster to maintain Reading’s record of scoring late.

It was the eighth goal McDermott’s men have scored in the final five minutes of a Championship game this season.

Howard added: “I’m sure fans would like earlier goals to stop them losing their hair.

“But we know if we keep believing we can run teams into the ground. We’ve also got players good enough to take the chances .”

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 05 Nov 10

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QPR TREV
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Nov 5, 20:35
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In your dreams you are going to get batterd

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