Queens Park Rangers' manager Mark Warburton has stressed the importance of finding the 'right balance' of youth and quality at the club, as they travel to Birmingham City tonight.
The west Londoners head to St Andrew's tonight in search of a second-straight win in the Championship for the first time since October, having beat Preston North End 2-0 at the weekend - their first win in seven and their first clean sheet of the season.
They face a Birmingham side tonight who are level on points with QPR having won their last game 3-2 at Reading, their fourth unbeaten in the league.
Speaking to the QPR official club website today, Warburton spoke about finding a balance within his team ahead of tonight:
“Sometimes you have to sacrifice some of the playing and, for us, it is about getting the balance. If teams want us to play, we’ll play. If they want us to go direct, we can do but it is important that we mix it up with quality.
“The weekend’s performance and victory against a good Preston team – following on from a good performance at Derby where we should have got three points – means the feeling is good."
Warburton was slowly coming under the spotlight at QPR but after a fine 1-1 draw at Derby County before the Preston victory, the atmosphere seems much more better at the club.
“All credit to the players, they have worked hard and we have got to keep building. The games come thick and fast now and it was certainly nice to win on Saturday and keep a clean sheet and now all of our focus shifts on to Birmingham.”
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The verdict
It's bound to be an exciting encounter between two evenly matched teams tonight. QPR are strong on the road and Birmingham at home, and it'll likely need a bit of something special to win it.
QPR took advantage of an out-of-form team in Preston but tonight they face a very in-form one, and with West Brom on the horizon for the Blues, Pep Clotet will want nothing less than a win against QPR tonight.
Warburton looks to have instilled some much-needed confidence into his players ahead of tonight, and another win here would go down extremely well with fans.