Table-topping Baggies welcome in form Hoops

West Bromwich Albion v Queen’s Park Rangers; The Hawthorns, Saturday 12th September 2026, 12.30pm

James Morrison’s Baggies’ stoic display at Derby County on Wednesday evening earned them top spot in the Championship while, on the same night, Saturday’s opponents Queen’s Park Rangers missed out on the opportunity to top the table themselves as they were held to a goalless draw by Charlton Athletic at the Valley. Julien Stéphan’s team could take over at the top should they win at the Hawthorns depending on how West Ham United get on against Wrexham on Friday evening.

The Frenchman is in his second season at Loftus Road having taken over from Martí Cifuentes in June 2025, and guided the Hoops to a 15th-placed finish last season. This campaign has started well with the club currently unbeaten on the road. They won 3-1 at Portsmouth on the opening day and 2-1 at Blackburn Rovers a fortnight later, while the draw at the Valley on Wednesday was the first time they had dropped points away from home. They were beaten 1-0 at Loftus Road by Middlesbrough last weekend, with a win over Cardiff City (2-1) and a goalless draw with newly promoted Bolton Wanderers their other home league results this season.

Like Albion, Rangers have sought to reduce the age of their squad in recent years and the only player in their squad in his 30s is midfielder Glen Kamara, who joined on loan from Rennes. Their four permanent additions in the summer window were all in their mid-20s. Two left-backs, Dennis Cirkin (24) from Sunderland and Boy Kemper (27) from NAC Breda joined the squad along with goalkeeper Calum Ward (25) who is yet to make his debut. Former Chelsea and Brighton right-back, Tariq Lamptey, has also come in after an unsuccessful spell in Italy last season with Fiorentina. The other new face is 21-year-old goalkeeper, Pierce Charles, a Northern Irish international who has joined on loan from Manchester City and immediately taken his place as the club’s first choice stopper. He has Championship experience having played for Sheffield Wednesday for the past two seasons.

Elias Chair remains one of Rangers’ most dangerous players albeit all his goal involvements, two goals and an assist, came in the win at Portsmouth on the opening day and he has been fairly quiet since. Meanwhile, their only other multiple goalscorer, Rumarn Burrell, scored both of his goals in the victory over Cardiff City. Stéphan’s team have failed to score in their last two matches and the Frenchman has a few injury concerns. With Dembélé and Kemper already out for extended periods, Chair and Koné were taken off against Middlesbrough and Lamptey and Dunne had to be substituted at Charlton with Saito having been left out through injury.

James Morrison has a few issues of his own, of course, with the decision on who to play at right back the most pressing. With Rayann Pereira suspended and Nolan Galves suffering a knee injury early in the second half, the decision to send Alex Williams out on loan is looking a little premature! I jest, of course – the youngster needs the minutes in senior football to fulfil his potential and events at Pride Park were certainly unforeseeable. The extent of Galves’ injury is not yet known, but it’s safe to assume he will not be fit for Saturday. Callum Styles filled in at right back for the remainder of the match at Derby with Townsend slotting into his familiar left back position. I would probably go with the same again for the visit of QPR, albeit there are other right back options such as Chris Mepham or George Campbell. Campbell, of course, played there plenty of times last season but I think he would be missed in the middle, while Styles adapted well on Wednesday evening and we looked no less solid with him having switched sides.

Other than Mikey Johnston, who will be sidelined for a while, Mozza’s only other fitness concerns will be around fatigue as his team plays its seventh game in twenty-one days. George Campbell, Isaac Price, Callum Styles and Max O’Leary have played every minute of those seven games, while Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Ousmane Diakité have started them all. So far, I can’t say I have seen any sign of them losing too much energy late in games, but I’m sure they will be glad of a week’s rest after Saturday’s match.

Toby Collyer is, to date, the only senior player not to have made it onto the pitch so far this season, and I do wonder whether he will get an outing, albeit there has not been much time for real tactical or shape training since he joined with the three-game weeks coming back-to-back.

Mozza has tweaked things a little game by game, but the basic shape has remained largely the same. Myrhe for Heggebø is probably the biggest impact change in terms of approach, albeit the newer Norwegian has played as a second striker when up alongside Morgan. He lacks Heggebø’s striker instinct that was apparent at Pride Park, of course, and I think Aune should start if he is fit enough to go again. Price seems indestructible at the moment and I’m sure he will be in, leaving Mozza to choose who plays in the middle with Diakité and on the right side. The Malian, incidentally, has picked up four yellow cards already this season, albeit one was in the Carabao Cup and will not count towards a suspension in the league. Nonetheless, he is already 60% of the way towards a suspension with less than a third of the games played before the first cut-off (19 matches).

Victory for Albion would make it three league wins in succession for the first time since September 2024 when Carlos Corberán’s team won four on the bounce. Should West Ham beat Wrexham tonight, the Baggies will be looking to regain top spot, otherwise they will be hoping to extend their lead at the top of the table ahead of the 3pm kick offs. Either way, victory will ensure they will be Championship leaders at the end of the weekend.

And let’s face it, despite QPR’s decent start, if Albion don’t win, we’ll all be a little disappointed.

History

Queen’s Park Rangers make their 13th visit to the Hawthorns on Saturday lunchtime some 77 years after their first in April 1949. Rangers earned a draw in that Division Two fixture having been beaten at Loftus Road earlier in the season, but it would be 18 years until the next meeting as Albion earned promotion back to the top flight that summer while QPR dropped back to the third tier four years later.

The R’s would still be in the third tier when they came back from 2-0 down to beat the Baggies in the League Cup Final at Wembley in 1967 to lift what remains their only major trophy. They would go on to win promotion that season having topped Division Three since November, and followed that up with promotion to the top flight in 1968. They returned to the Hawthorns in early October and were beaten 3-1 with Asa Hartford, Ronnie Rees and Jeff Astle scoring the goals.

There was more cup heartache for Albion when they lost the FA Cup semi-final at Highbury to QPR in 1982 thanks to Clive Allen’s goal, and the following year, the Hoops won at the Hawthorns for the first time – Terry Fenwick and Simon Stainrod scored for Terry Venables’ team with Tony Morley scoring a late consolation for Ron Wylie’s Albion. Three years later, they did it again, but then most teams won at the Hawthorns during the truly dreadful 1985/86 season.

The R’s last win at the Shrine was in the Premier League in April 2015 – Tony Pulis had replaced Alan Irvine in January and guided the club to a relatively safe position before relegation-threatened Rangers came to visit under the stewardship of Chris Ramsey. Since Ramsey had been confirmed as the permanent boss replacing Harry Redknapp, the R’s had lost five successive games but blew the Baggies away with three first half goals from Eduardo Vargas, Charlie Austin and Bobby Zamora – Victor Anichebe pulled one back after the break before Youssouf Mulumbu was sent off for two yellow cards and Joey Barton added a fourth for the visitors in stoppage time. It didn’t spark a recovery for Ramsay’s team however, as they won just one more game in the remainder of the season and finished bottom.

Since then, Rangers have beaten Albion just twice, both at Loftus Road. The very next match was the Baggies record win over QPR, a 7-1 thumping under Darren Moore in August 2018 with goals from Matt Phillips (2), Kieran Gibbs, Jay Rodriguez (2 penalties), Dwight Gayle and Hal Robson-Kanu.

That was the first in the current run of fourteen meetings with the Baggies winning nine and drawing three.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

29 Dec 2025 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Campbell, Phillips)
Queen’s Park Rangers 1 (Diakité (o.g.))

Albion’s Record against Queen’s Park Rangers