With thanks, once again, to @LoftForWords for their kind contribution, Sam Down gets the opposition lowdown from QPR.

A lot has happened since we last spoke. What was your view of the game at Loftus Road in August? A rare result on the road for Rooney.

A bizarre game for many reasons. I think we saved up 20 years’ worth of torture at Gavin Ward’s hands and then cashed all our chips in with him on one day, though he’s subsequently been back to Loftus Road and given us every decision at home to Stoke as well – once again, we couldn’t capitalise and drew 1-1. I think with 30 shots on goal, and ten on target, any other day we win the game. Hazard was terrific. Zan Celar missed a boat load of chances. That was pretty much the story of the first half of our season – when we played okay or well we could only draw, every time we dropped slightly below that we lost, principally because we couldn’t score goals and Celar had a nightmare start after arriving in the summer.

After a poor start to the season, QPR are absolutely flying towards mid table. What do you put that down to?

We made ten signings in the summer, all but one of them (goalkeeper Paul Nardi) under 25, all but one of them (Newcastle loanee Harrison Ashby) from weird and wonderful European backwaters (Westerlo, Sporting Gijon, Lugano, Brest (giggity), Gent etc). We’re an analytics-led recruitment operation now don’t you know (eye roll). We then suffered bad injuries to key players who do have experience of the league right down the spine of the team (Clarke-Salter, Colback, Chair, Frey). Plymouth was one of several games where on an ordinary day you probably get a win that takes the pressure off. With that profile of signing it was inevitable some wouldn’t settle and work and those that did would take time to come up to Championship speed, and some of them have. At the same time we’ve got some key players back from injury. We put a few wins on the board to calm everybody down and improve confidence and mood. It’s a fragile recovery, we’re not playing brilliantly by any means, and we’re picking up injuries again to key players particularly at centre back. But it’s broadly heading in the right direction.

How easy was it to keep faith with Marti Cifuentes during those tougher times? That new contract looked brave.

Against Stoke at home, a 1-1 draw which made it 13 without a win, the crowd chanted Cifuentes’ name constantly through the second half. As he said himself afterwards that was pretty unheard of. He’s got a lot of credit in the bank from last season, the fans trust him and like his football, but also the general feeling was the team was struggling because of recruitment and injuries – neither of which were his fault.

The club insist the support from the fans played no part in him being kept on, that they always retained faith in him. But the fans made it pretty clear that if he was sacked they would aim their ire at those above him, particularly our inexperienced CEO/DOF Christian Nourry, not the manager. Like you say they’d only recently renewed his contract, so they’d have looked pretty stupid firing him a week or so later and it presumably would have been expensive to do so which may have played a part.

A relatively quiet January so far. Can you expect any incomings or outgoings?

By our standards, I suspect pretty quiet. We made those ten signings and spent the bulk of our budget in the summer – unfortunately the two we spent the most money on have also been the biggest flops (Celar, Madsen). We’ve brought in Ronnie Edwards on loan which probably needed doing because key and in form centre back pairing Steve Cook and Liam Morrison, on whom much of our recovery was being built, both got crocked at the same time. The main focus at the moment is trying to get key out of contract players like Jimmy Dunne, Ilias Chair (I think) and Rayan Kolli signed up. But, it’s QPR, so they’ll be signing somebody. QPR are always signing somebody. MORE BLOOD.

What are the strong areas of the team?

Well the recovery initially was built largely on the form of the centre backs. Steve Cook and Liam Morrison formed a terrific partnership in the middle of defence, with Paul Nardi behind as a great shot stopper, Jimmy Dunne to the right in form, and Sam Field and the improving Jonathan Varane as a good screen. We were able to win several games with 25-35% of the possession, with prolonged spells defending our own box then a break. The 1-1 at Bristol City, where we had one shot on target in the whole game, from the halfway line, and scored, an extreme example. But with Cook and Morrison both injured now we’ve had to grow a bit. Having pressed very high early in the season and frequently caught out, we’ve tightened things up with more of a mid-block in midfield to which surprise package Kieran Morgan (18, initially signed as a development squad player from Spurs in the summer) has been absolutely key with his energy and quality on the ball.

And any weak spots?

When that fails, it really fails. Swansea absolutely took us apart on Boxing Day.

Michi Frey has come back strong from injury up front which is good, because he’s our only fit senior striker and finishing the chances we create and scoring actual goals has been a problem all season as you saw at ours. Frey looks like somebody’s dad is filling in, runs like the top half of his body doesn’t get on with the bottom half, but he’s weirdly effective.

We lack depth, as all clubs on budgets like ours do. We’ve got injuries to key players, particularly at centre half. The food’s crap and expensive. There’s no legroom in the main stand. And that’s before we get to the fans forum staple of the water pressure in the ladies toilets.

How do you see the game on Saturday going?

Says here Plymouth haven’t won in 12 league games? Seen this film before.

And what of the season generally? Is it too late for a play off push?

We’re miles and miles off a play-off standard team. I said at the start of the season that success would be…

1 – Progressing into midtable. 11th-14th. Somewhere that doesn’t have us all terrified and checking other results over the Easter weekend.

2 – Of the ten signings, five of them become good, steady Championship players for us. One of them becomes a big money sale.

After a dreadful start, point one now feels possible.

After a dreadful start, Nardi, Varane, Morrison, Morgan and maybe Saito/Dembele might satisfy the point two.

If we continue on the current trajectory that will be significant progress and probably about par for the course with our budget.