Paul Mersons Predictions
Ford Super Sunday: Newcastle v QPR
1pm, Sun, Sky Sports HD1
QPR are on a bit of a slide at the moment, but I never like to see anybody lose their job.
If they were to get relegated, I'd look at it and think: who would I want at the club to get them back up? And it would be Neil Warnock.
I'm a great believer that if you get promoted from the Championship then you should not be allowed to be sacked for 18 months. We keep seeing managers pulling up trees to get a club promoted to the Promised Land and then getting sacked six months later.
So I'm not happy about Warnock going, but it's good to see Mark Hughes, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Mark Bowen and Kevin Hitchcock back in a job.
There's no doubt that Hughes is a very good manager and he has had good experiences in the Premier League with Fulham and Blackburn. But I'm not sure if he'll keep QPR up because this team has been on a slippery slope.
Also, they play the top six teams in their last 10 games of the season, so they need to get points on the board now - and I can't see anywhere tougher to go right now than Newcastle, who beat Man United comfortably in their last league game. I'm sure Hughes wishes he could start with a home game!
Yes, Newcastle have lost big players to the Africa Cup of Nations, in particular Demba Ba, but Shola Ameobi and Leon Best are a handful on their day.
And they're playing against what is effectively a Championship defence. At the moment, QPR need to score two or three goals per game to get a result and they need to be much tighter than that.
They've been linked with players like Alex and someone like that would improve their back four 100 per cent, but I fear that this is a game too early for Mark Hughes. With Joey Barton suspended I can't see them getting anything here.
PAUL PREDICTS: 3-1
