Queens Park Rangers head into their cup clash with Blackpool on the back of a defeat this past weekend.

Steve McClaren’s side followed up an impressive 2-0 win over London rivals Millwall with a narrow defeat by the odd goal to Norwich City last Saturday.

Tonight, however, the Championship is put on the back burners with full focus on the League Cup tie this evening.

QPR travel to Bloomfield Road to take on League One Blackpool in the third round of the EFL Cup.

McClaren is expected to make changes to his side after three games in a week, with tonight’s clash making it four in ten days.

Since the Hoops’ upturn in form, it has been a pretty consistent XI named each week, but tonight could see some fringe players given a rare start up in Lancashire.

With that said, here are three fringe players QPR must start to this evening in their League Cup third round tie away to the Tangerines of Blackpool.

The QPR striker has made just two starts this season, one of which being in the last round of the League Cup.

Matt Smith has averaged 25 minutes per match but in truth, his appearances, by and large, have been restricted to late sub roles.

In the last four games, Smith has played all of 13 minutes in the league since the EFL Cup win over Bristol Rovers.

So the former Fulham man should be given a full match this evening to allow him to continue to tick over and keep up his fitness should he be called upon in the league.

Impressive in the cup games, where Paweł Wszołek has played a full 90 minutes in both, he should be given a start again to try once more to prove why he deserves a more important role in the first team.

Aside from the cup games, Wszołek has only managed 72 minutes of Championship football from three appearances this season.

He is indeed on the fringes but tonight could be another opportunity to impress Steve McClaren ahead of Saturday’s trip to Swansea. 

Bright Samuel’s 13-minute cameo in the defeat to Norwich at the weekend could be a prelude that he is expected to start tonight’s League Cup tie away to Blackpool.

Having played most of his football this season in the cup competition - scoring in the second round win over Bristol Rovers - Samuel will be hoping tonight that he can impress enough to be involved more regularly in the league starting from this weekend’s trip to Swansea City.

Only 104 minutes have been played by the attacker this term in the second-tier over three appearances, with only one start.

Tonight he needs to start and put on a performance to give manager Steve McClaren a selection headache ahead of the trip to Wales on Saturday.