Shaun Derry confident QPR can avoid Premier League relegation

Former QPR midfielder Shaun Derry believes the relegation battle will go right down to the wire but is confident his old side can retain their Premier League status.

QPR’s run-in sees them play West Ham at Loftus Road this weekend before games against Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle before a final day visit to Leicester.

Manager Chris Ramsey told reporters on Thursday he thought his team would stay up if they won three of their remaining five fixtures and Derry can see QPR getting the results they need in order to keep them up.

“When you look at the remaining games that QPR have got, they’ve really got to look to win this weekend’s game against West Ham,” Derry told The Morning View on Sky Sports News HQ.

The home form has been disappointing of late but the crowd at Loftus Road are fantastic and they really get behind the boys.

“The likelihood is that they are going find it difficult against Liverpool and Manchester City but I can see them getting the three wins, I really can.

“Newcastle have been on a torrid run of late and then that final game against Leicester. Everything could be resolved on the final day of the season which would be amazing really.”

'Disappointing'

QPR suffered 11 straight league defeats before winning at Sunderland in February, but have since lost four consecutive games at home. But QPR have scored nine goals in their last four matches and Derry is enthusiastic by the side’s rich vein of recent goalscoring form.

“The home form has been disappointing of late but the crowd at Loftus Road are fantastic and they really get behind the boys,” he said.

“What I’m really impressed with is that they are now scoring goals, and not just scoring goals through Charlie Austin. They’re now mixing the goals around and I think that is going to be massively significant between now and the end of the season.

“I think Charlie and Bobby Zamora have really struck up a decent partnership of late. I think Bobby is such a big player for Charlie - he allows them to change the way they play.

“When Bobby’s not playing a lot if it is on the ground but when he plays they can be a little bit more direct, and a lot of the goals of late have come from getting the ball up to Bobby, feeding off him, and getting people around him. That’s where I think QPR look the most dangerous.”