Already ravaged by injuries, two of the country’s worst cup sides meet at Home Park in the League Cup this evening as League One Plymouth Argyle host Queens Park Rangers.

Plymouth (0-0-2 LL 23rd) v QPR (0-1-0 D 13th)

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It felt like, in Julien Stéphan, QPR had deliberately gone out of their way this summer to hire a manager who might finally rectify the club’s appalling cup record – Rangers haven’t reached an FA Cup quarter final since 1995 or that stage of the League Cup since 1989. Or, at least, change the club’s attitude to knock-out football, which has long irritated sections of our support.

Stéphan’s headline successes in France revolved around cup competitions. He took Rennes to the last 16 of the Europa League, and beat Arsenal 3-1 at home in the first leg, before succumbing to defeat in North London. He famously won the club its first trophy since the 1970s by coming from 2-0 down to win the French Cup final against Thomas Tuchel’s monied PSG side on penalties. He took the club into the Champions League for the first time, and then carried Strasbourg into Europe having been appointed manager there before the influx of capital that Liam Rosenior is now enjoying spending.

Surely this could be the man to help a side eliminated at the third round stage of the FA Cup a record 53 times, and only able to reach round four of the League Cup twice since 1996.

Well, he might have been (might still be) but for now he’s having to contend with another of QPR’s self-immolation traits – having all our players injured.

I don’t know what the plans were for tonight team selection wise originally – I get the impression the club is alive to the supporter irritation over not only our cup record but our all round attitude to them, and how pissed off a lot of people were by what happened at Leicester in January – but they’ve almost certainly changed now the squad has been decimated by injuries before we’ve even really started the season.

We await news on Kwame Poku’s hamstring with some trepidation, as well as a prognosis for Jimmy Dunne and the reason for Ziyad Larkeche’s absence at the weekend. Plenty of rumours are swirling, few of them are good. We were already missing Jake Clarke-Salter long term and Steve Cook has been struggling. Jonathan Varane and Paul Smyth should be due back this weekend but Michi Frey is a way off and neither Celar nor Kolli had a proper pre-season and it showed at the weekend.

I think a few of those weird and wonderful squad numbers we saw announced last week might be getting a work out in this one, and although I’m usually the first one to hammer them for not taking cups seriously I think you can see where they’re coming from on this occasion if that does happen. Quite why our squad is apparently in such a poor physical condition, Sam Field light-heartedly but presciently predicting they’d be blowing after 45 minutes in the pre-Preston video, is another debate entirely.

It might still be enough to progress anyway.

In Plymouth Argyle we face a club not only reeling from the aftereffects letting Wayne Rooney near their Hoe, but then entrusting Miron Muslic with the rebuild only to have him walk out as soon as relegation was confirmed. A chaotic summer of, frankly bizarre, player recruitment has given way to a 3-1 home loss to Barnsley and 2-0 defeat up at Bolton for new boss Tom Cleverley.

More to the point for this preview, Argyle are a club with a cup record every bit as laughable as ours. These are the two clubs with the worst FA Cup exit records in the country – 53 Third Round exits for QPR plays 50 for Plymouth. They did famously beat Liverpool last season, mind. Argyle, for whom a final defeat in the 2022/23 EFL Trophy is as close as they’ve ever come to lifting anything, have been eliminated in the first two rounds in each of the last 16 seasons, last reaching the third round in 2007/08. They haven’t been beyond round three since 1973/74 when they reached the semi-final. The Green Army have been eliminated in the first round of this competition in 23 of the last 31 seasons.

Clash of the cup titans, then. Can’t win, won’t win, possibly don’t even want to win when it comes to tonight. A real treat in store on the sunny south coast.

Mind you, if QPR really are going to announce the signing of Wycombe forward Richard Kone while we’re all making our way down there this afternoon I doubt anybody will be talking about the game. It’ll be like that 4-0 FA Cup shock at bottom tier Swansea when we signed Kevin Gallen on the way home.

In fact, that might make a nice match report intro…

Links >>> Rude awakening – Oppo profile >>> Promotions and POPs – History >>> Busby in charge – Referee >>> Plymouth Argyle Official Website >>> Plymouth Herald – Local Press >>> Argyle Life/Green and White Podcast >>> Pasoti – Forum >>> Cornish Janner – YouTube Vlog

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Team News: West London Sport says Paul Nardi will be given a start in goal for this cup game after slipping behind Joe Walsh in the pecking order. Keeley Adamson will also start at full back after his sub appearance at the weekend, though which side that’ll be remains to be seen with the first choice – Dunne and Larkeche – missing from the right and left. From there it really is anybody’s guess. Kieran Morgan got a bang to the shin at the weekend and is unlikely to be risked, Jonathan Varane and Paul Smyth are hoping for comebacks at Watford, Kwame Poku seemed to do his hamstring at the weekend etc etc. There’s probably a few Celar and Kolli types that could do with minutes.

Although Alfie Tuck played frequently during the summer he wasn’t among he youngsters given a squad number when they were announced last week. Those that were include centre half Noah McCann, winger Emmerson Sutton who we’ve already seen glimpses of, goalkeeper Charlie Warren and striker Ridwan Hassan who has already been loaned out to Hanwell. Development squad prospects Jaylan Pearman, South African defender Tylon Smith and giant former Aberdeen centre back Timothy Akindileni may also feature.

Potentially quite a nice story among the Plymouth line-up. Ayman Benarous, a 21-year-old pick up this summer on a free from Bristol City, may make his first senior start in three years. The midfielder broke through at Ashton Gate as a teenager in 2021/22 and got eight starts and four sub appearances under his belt but has since suffered back to back ACL blow outs. His sub outing at Bolton at the weekend was a first appearance in men’s football since April 30, 2022, when City beat Hull 5-0 in the Championship.

Other than that good news is thin on the ground for a green machine that has lost both its opening league games. Tom Cleverley told the Plymouth Herald: "I think it's probably the only football club where their starting 11 is as injury affected as ours at the minute. I'm sure that they will make a lot of changes, we will have to make some. It's an important game for us to win and change the narrative right now but we can't afford to lose any more bodies. That's the situation we are in."

Elsewhere: A chunky 30 ties tonight and another five tomorrow as the EFL herd thins ahead of the introduction of non-European Premier League sides – with basically everybody from the top league qualifying for Europe this year the League Cup required two preliminary games to wrestle it into the right configuration for rounds two and three – Newport beat Barnet at the end of July and Accrington knocked over Oldham last week.

We’re not the only Championship side facing an awkward away trip to a lower division side tonight. Millwall are heading to Newport County, Preston up to Barrow, Southampton to Northampton (nice) and Ipswich down to Bromley. Tomorrow what’s left of Sheff Wed go to Bolton and Leicester travel to Huddersfield Town who’ve started the League One season strongly.

Not that home advantage counts for much for the second tier teams with grounds largely empty and reserve sides in action. Hoping to spring ‘shocks’ on the road this evening are Crawley at Swansea, Doncaster at Middlesbrough, Bradford at Blackburn, MK Dons at Bristol City who came out all guns blazing on opening night at Sheff Utd, Stevenage at Charlton, Luton down at Charlton the team they swapped places with in May, Colchester at Oxford, Reading at Portsmouth in the John Swift derby, and Walsall at Stoke.

There are a few thrilling all-Championship ties among this lot as well. Keep an eye on your heartrate if you’ve got a smartwatch as we remind you that Watford drew Norwich, West Brom are at home to Derby and Wrexham pulled Hull City. Tomorrow it’s Birmingham v Sheffield Red Stripe.

Referee: Championship referee John Busby in charge of this one. He’s refereed Plymouth more than any other side (22). Details.

Form

- QPR knocked over League One opposition at this stage of the competition last year with a 2-1 away win at Cambridge. They eventually succumbed to Premier League side Crystal Palace in round three after beating Luton on penalties in between.

- Plymouth won 3-0 against Cheltenham at this stage last season as a Championship side before losing 2-0 away at Watford in the second round.

- The defeat on penalties to Charlton at this stage of the 2022/23 competition, and loss at Fleetwood in the FA Cup, meant QPR had been eliminated from cup competitions by League One opposition at least once for six seasons running: Charlton 2022/23, Fleetwood (FA Cup) 2022/23, Sunderland 2021/22, Plymouth 2020/21, Pompey 2019/20, Blackpool 2018/19, MK Dons 17/18 (FA Cup).

- The League Cup in 1967 remains QPR’s only major trophy. Plymouth are yet to lift a cup, coming closest in 2022/23 when they were beaten in the final of the EFl Trophy.

- Infamously, these two teams have more FA Cup Third Round exits than any other – QPR 53-50 Plymouth. Plymouth don’t get a lot better in the League Cup – they have been eliminated in the first two rounds in each of the last 16 seasons, last reaching the third round in 2007/08. Remarkably they haven’t been beyond round three since 1973/74 when they randomly reached the semi-final. Argyle have been eliminated in the first round of this competition in 23 of the last 31 seasons.

- Rangers beat Orient on penalties after a 1-1 draw in 2021/22 and subsequently beat Oxford 2-0 at home and Premier League Everton on pens after a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road to reach round four. It was their best performance in the competition since 2008//09 when a shock win against Aston Villa at Villa Park took us into a fourth round 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

- Of course, but for the latest Keith Stroud-supervised catastrophe, Charlie Austin’s legitimate late goal would have stood and QPR would have had a quarter final at Arsenal — the R’s haven’t been that deep into the competition since 1988/89 when they lost 5-2 at Nottingham Forest.

- Rangers have still only been to one cup quarter final, in either competition, since 1990 — the 1994/95 FA Cup quarter final away to Man Utd.

- The victory at The Abbey Stadium was the first cup tie QPR had won away from home without a penalty shoot-out since August 2015, when they won at this stage of the comp 3-0 at Yeovil with goals from Polter, JET and Onuoha.

- Following relegation from the Championship in April, Plymouth would have presumably been hoping for a bounce-back promotion campaign from League One but have lost 3-1 at home to Barnsley and 2-0 at Bolton in their first two games.

- Both league meetings finished level in 23/24 – 0-0 at Loftus Road when a bright start by the visitors was wrecked by Dan Scarr’s 25th minute red card, and 1-1 at Home Park where Rangers’ hard fought away win was torched by a succession of missed chances and a late howler by Asmir Begovic. The first meeting last season finished 1-1 despite QPR taking a third minute lead through Michael Frey and Plymouth having two players sent off.

- Rayan Kolli’s second half goal settled this fixture in QPR’s favour in January. It was Rangers’ first win against the Pilgrims in five attempts and only the second win in the last 16 in league and cup. A 2-0 win thanks to an Adel Taarabt penalty and Damion Stewart header right at the start of Neil Warnock’s reign in 2010 was the only other success over the Green Army since the memorable 3-2 win at Loftus Road which kept Ian Holloway in his job in September 2004.

- Kolli’s winner brought the R’s their first success at Home Park in ten visits. Richard Pacquette got Rangers’ previous winning goal here, 1-0 in January 2003.

Prediction: Much like the team news, even harder than usual to call these games until you see who’s out there and how arsed they are. I usually hedge and say draw, penalties and then who knows so let’s do that.

Plymouth 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Rayan Kolli.

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HastingsRanger added 16:37 - Aug 12 I saw part of that 1973/74 Argyle cup run, as having won at top division Burnley, naturally they then won at Loftus Road. This after we had knocked out the holders Spurs and put 8 past Sheffield Wednesday!
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francisbowles added 18:24 - Aug 12 I was at the Sheffield Wednesday 8-2 but don't remember knocking out Spurs?
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TacticalR added 19:36 - Aug 12 Thanks for your preview. It's the battle of the cup no-hopers. On top of that it sounds like both teams are having to settle for a lucky dip in player selection as half the players are injured.
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HastingsRanger added 23:55 - Aug 12 Francis: Definitely beat Spurs. I saw all 3 games and after the first 2 rounds of knocking out the holders and that huge win, we all thought it was the League Cup coming home. Ironically, the Plymouth game disaster occurred with us fielding a strong team, unlike today's ties.
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