The EFL's Friday night coverage this week sees Nottingham Forest make the trip down to west London to face Queens Park Rangers at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.

Steve Cooper's side will have been hoping to come into this clash off the back of an unbeaten run which had stretched to six matches - firstly under Steven Reid's caretaker stewardship before being taken over by Cooper - but a crushing defeat to Fulham at the weekend put paid to that.

The 4-0 defeat at the City Ground to Marco Silva's side was certainly a humbling one but after being in such good form beforehand, there will be a desire to get back to winning ways almost immediately - but it'll be a tough task against Mark Warburton's side.

 

 

 

 

QPR are also coming into this off the back of disappointment, not only in the league after a stoppage time defeat to Peterborough but also they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup this week on penalties to Sunderland.

And Sky Sports presenter David Prutton, who made over 150 league appearances for Forest as a player, is predicting that there's going to be more misery for the R's when Cooper and his team visit.

"QPR will probably still be feeling a little sick after the way they crashed out of the Carabao Cup in midweek," Prutton said on his Sky Sports predictions podcast.

"As offside decisions go, it was one for the ages against Sunderland.

"Nottingham Forest and Steve Cooper were brought back down to Earth with a bump against Fulham.

"It's the first real setback he's suffered, and it's important they show they can bounce right back. I think they will. 2-1."

The Verdict

Two teams who will be very disappointed at what happened to themselves last weekend come up against each other here and it's hard to split them.

From what we have seen QPR like to attack and that may suit Forest, who have the personnel at the top end of the pitch to be very effective on the counter attack so it could play into Cooper's hands.

But that crushing defeat to Fulham will have been a hammer-blow as before then Forest looked very solid at the back but old frailties were exposed.

Just like Prutton has predicted I can see a narrow win for Nottingham Forest - perhaps a 1-0 on the road to take back up the M1.