Holloway swoops to boost bid for history

"I've got a massive headache," the Rangers manager admitted. "One of the reasons for our recent good run has been continuity of selection.

"You don't want to change it when it's going so well.

"We knew it was going to be a real test for us when we got injuries.

"Our strength in depth is going to be examined tonight."

Holloway swooped for Simek because of his injury crisis in defence, which includes long-term absentee Arthur Gnohere.

He said: "I'm very concerned about the centre of our defence - we've had some big strong fellows over the last few weeks who can win headers.

"There's no two better defenders in this division than Dan Shittu and Georges Santos."

The last thing on Holloway's mind is the opportunity to equal the club's record streak of eight consecutive games, set in 1931. "I'm not interested in that," he said in typically blunt fashion. "We've got a massive game tonight and that's the only thing that matters."

Nonetheless, it would rank as a massive achievement if Rangers were to defeat Preston tonight and join the 1931 outfit in the club's record books.

That feat was achieved early in the managerial tenure of Archie Mitchell in Division Three South. Mitchell, a former Rangers defender who played more than 400 games for the club, had taken over from John Bowman only two months into the 1931-32 season after the latter resigned due to ill health.

"Mitchell had this run almost as soon as he took over," QPR historian Gordon Macey said.

"He must have thought it was pretty easy.

"It was the first of our two seasons at White City. One of the reasons we were playing there rather than Loftus Road was to get bigger crowds.

"The game in which we lost the winning run was a derby at home to Brentford, which was played in front of 33,000."

Amazingly, Rangers' eight-game run came after a sequence of nine matches without a win and was followed by another eight-match winless streak.

Macey added: "Apart from the record run, we were not exactly setting the world on fire. We came 13th that season and 16th the next."

One of the reasons was that striker George Goddard, the club's record scorer with 186 goals, broke his leg early in 1932 and barely played again.

There has been a lot of interest from Rangers fans as the club seek to equal the record tonight.

"Since beating West Ham on Saturday, it's really started to take off," Macey said.

"There's been quite a lot on the message boards and I'm sure a lot of fans will be looking out for the result tonight and keeping their fingers crossed even more than usual."