Bristol City boss teases late fitness boost ahead of QPR clash

Bristol City could get a key player back for their clash with QPR on Saturday. The Robins are in the midst of a battle for a play-off spot, currently fifth and with a three-point advantage of Middlesbrough in seventh place.

Liam Manning’s men have won three of their last four games, and they will feel confident of continuing their match towards the post-season, although they have a couple of tricky games left to place, yet to face Sunderland and Leeds United for a second time.

QPR are now all-but safe having picked up a big three points last time out, now on 49 points and seven clear of the drop zone. The Hoops are not mathematically safe by any means, but another two points should do it, keeping in mind they have five games left to play.

This one will be a tricky game, though, and especially with the Robins potentially getting key man Scott Twine back. Twine has scored six and assisted three so far this season, and he could return from injury here.

"He's alright," Manning told Bristol Live. "He's got a chance for the weekend, you just have to see how he settles. He's desperate to play and be involved. He's pushing really hard but yeah, it's one of those where you just have to see how it settles and how it responds to doing certain work. We'll see."

On Bristol City’s latest push and dealing with injuries, Manning added: “It's a credit to the lads. That's the mad thing, arguably we weakened in January by letting three go and not adding but what it's probably done is brought us tighter and provided more opportunities for people.

"We've stuck together, it is what it is, we'll have a right push and I think that's the biggest bit. I think it may have been the other day I said about after Cardiff, doing us, being us, playing us, whatever happens at the end of the season happens but what you want to be able to do is look back at the end of the season and have no regrets. When you look at it, the lads turn up and give everything, play the way that we want to play and be brave, have purpose, ask questions, press aggressively and what happens happens."

Cifuentes on QPR

QPR boss Cifuentes also spoke ahead of this game, saying: “I know that's a certain distance and obviously I'm aware of the feelings that we got over the last weeks. But my target has been always just to focus on the next game and try to win the next game.

“We always talk about how we can improve as a club, how we can improve as a team. And for me, the mindset, the mentality is extremely important. I want to go to these five games thinking that we can beat anyone, thinking that we should have a lot of energy to try to push and try to improve the position that we finished last season, and try to get as many points as we can and improve the results that we got last season.

“So that should be the target. So that's why I'm just focusing on seeing how we can beat Bristol City and see how we can build on the last victory and try to push as much as we can with our fans. We have been quite strong at home lately and we need to keep pushing.”

Your next QPR read, QPR handed huge relegation boost in Oxford United blow