QUUENS Park Rangers travel to Luton Town on Saturday for the early morning kick-off in the Sky Bet Championship with a growing feeling that this might be the year they finally return to the Premier League. The west London club have endured a seven-year hiatus from England's top division but their start to this campaign has yielded seven wins from 13 games and they sit joint-top alongside Norwich City and Sheffield United.
Under the former Rangers manager, Mark Warburton, QPR were in contention for much of last season before a raft of injuries took the promotion door off its hinges.
Much of the credit for their fast start to the season must go to another former Rangers man, Michael Beale, who has performed as previously advertised. Steven Gerrard's former Ibrox assistant was pegged as the brains behind the club's tactical set-up during his time in Govan and it was no surprise that he joined Gerrard when the former Liverpool captained moved south this time last year to become manager of Aston Villa. When Beale struck out on his own during the summer, this column speculated on what might be in store for both clubs and a quick glance at the respective league tables – with Villa in 14th and QPR third – suggests that Beale, who took the gold-panner's approach to the summer transfer market to sift for some bargains including former Rangers centre-half Leon Balogun, is the real deal.
