Poyet hoping to extend QPR’s away day blues

Sunderland v QPR: Tonight: Gus Poyet has urged his resurgent Sunderland team not to become the first to surrender a Premier League point to struggling QPR on their own pitch.

Managerless Rangers head for the Stadium of Light tonight having emerged empty-handed from each of their previous 11 league games away from home, a return which has piled the pressure on them at Loftus Road.

They will arrive on Wearside sitting in 19th place in the league and in desperate need of ending their travel sickness if they are to drag themselves out of relegation trouble. However, Black Cats boss Poyet knows that record will end sooner rather than later, and does not want it to happen tonight.

He said: “If you asked me if I expect any team to lose every single game away from home in one season, I’d say: ‘No’. Now that they can go one extra in the wrong way, it’s up to us.”

QPR remain in a state of flux after the surprise departure of manager Harry Redknapp last week and with a replacement yet to be appointed, amid speculation Poyet’s former Tottenham team-mate Tim Sherwood could join another one-time colleague Les Ferdinand, the R’s new director of football.

In the meantime, caretaker Chris Ramsey faces the task of trying to steady the ship, doing so tonight without the services of striker Charlie Austin, whose 13 goals have kept the club in touch. Rangers will also be without Richard Dunne and Nedum Onuoha, meaning a recall for Rio Ferdinand, who has struggled this season.

“Rio is going to be huge for us tomorrow,” Ramsey said.

“We are looking for players like him — the older pros to help the younger guys to fulfil their potential. He’s prepared himself, as he always has done at Manchester United, to prove to everybody he’s still a good player.”