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Live Coverage: Chris Ramsey's weekly Queens Park Rangers press conference

Follow Sports Mole's live coverage of Queens Park Rangers head coach Chris Ramsey talking to the media ahead of his side's match against Tottenham Hotspur.
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Chris Ramsey has said that Queens Park Rangers' fans deserve to be watching Premier League football ahead of their match against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.

The Hoops sit in the relegation zone ahead of the match, but have a game in hand over the sides above them.

Ramsey is a former assistant at Spurs, and admits that the side is "stacked with talent".

Read what else the head coach discussed below.


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Good morning! Queens Park Rangers head coach Chris Ramsey will be speaking with the media shortly as he prepares his side to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League tomorrow afternoon.

QPR spent last weekend at a warm-weather training camp in Dubai, as their fixture with Spurs was postponed because of Mauricio Pochettino's side's involvement in the League Cup final. With neither club still in the FA Cup, this weekend allows them to play their game in hand.

QPR currently sit 18th in the table, three points from safety. However, their goal difference is better than Aston Villa's, so a win would move them back out of the bottom three. QPR's home form has been solid this season, but they did suffer a closely-fought 2-1 loss to Arsenal at Loftus Road earlier this week.

QPR have been playing well since Ramsey's appointment, but they've been on the wrong side of a string of narrow defeats. They've lost three of their four Premier League matches since Harry Redknapp's departure by a single goals, with the only win coming against Sunderland last month. That victory is their only win in 10.

The next month will potentially decide whether or not QPR avoid the drop. They face Crystal Palace next weekend, before matches against Everton and West Brom. They need to get points on the board, as their last seven matches of the season will include ties with last year's top three - Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea.

We'll be covering this match live from an hour before kickoff, while also bringing you team news, post-match reaction, player ratings and much more, so make sure you're with us tomorrow to find out if QPR can climb out of the relegation zone.

The home side a likely to be without a number of their regulars for this match. Leroy Fer and Adel Taarabt are both out injured, while Nedum Onuoha is a doubt after picking up an injury against Arsenal, and Joey Barton remains suspended. Ramsey is likely to provide a full update on his injury list when he speaks shortly.

Right then, Ramsey has just arrived ready for his press conference, so let's see what's up for discussion this week...

Straight into the injury news, Ramsey reveals: "We've got a few knocks, Nedum has got a big cut on his face. Mauricio Isla's knee is sore. Darnell Furlong has a sore calf. We will know more on Nedum after training today, and the same with Mauricio."

Ramsey is asked about the relegation battle, and he admits. "I think there's about six teams in it. The players are well aware and the pressure is always there in the Premier League. We just need to stick to the play, to the best of our abilities. That's what we are striving to do. The fans here deserve to have Premier League football at Loftus Road, that's what we all want for this great club."

Ramsey, a former assistant coach at Spurs, says on the subject of this weekend's opponents: "I enjoyed nine great years at Spurs. They've got a very good manager in Mauricio. Harry [Kane] learnt a lot from us, especially Les [Ferdinand, QPR's director of football]. He's a great trainer, at his maximum every time. He's a fine role model."

Sticking with Kane, Ramsey adds: "Harry's technical ability and game awareness is top notch, so we'll need to be aware of him obviously. We got a lot of flack from Spurs fans last year for playing Harry Kane, but we stuck with it and he's flourished."

However, Ramsey admits that Spurs are not a one-man team: "Spurs are stacked with talent, but we know how important this game is and we've focusing and what we do."

Ramsey is asked about the spitting incident involving Papiss Cisse and Jonny Evans earlier this week, and the head coach is quick to condemn it: "Spitting in football, it's a slight on someone's emotions it's so low. I don't know what ban they should get. Most players in the game would think spitting is the lowest of the low, it's something that needs looking at."

On the team's performance in their defeat to Arsenal, Ramsey tells the media: "We were well in the game for the first hour against Arsenal, but we lost our concentration. If we can replicate the first hour's performance for the entire 90 minutes we'll be fine, I'm confident of that. All in all, performance-wise, I took a lot of positives from Wednesday. We need to build on that now."

Sandro came off early against Arsenal after making his return from injury. Ramsey is hopeful that he will have a bigger role tomorrow: "Sandro had to come off because we didn't want to risk him getting injured again. He is growing in stature though. Hopefully Sandro will be able to last longer than an hour tomorrow, it's part of his conditioning process."

Back on tomorrow's game, Ramsey reiterates: "Regardless of what happens tomorrow, the fight remains on for us. We know how important the game in hand is though. Am I the best equipped to stop Spurs? I don't know, but it's up to me to maximise our players' abilities. I need to get the best out of the players we have at QPR, that's my focus for tomorrow."

With Barton suspended, Bobby Zamora is likely to continue as captain, and Ramsey says: "Bobby conducted himself very well as captain on Wednesday, he's a handful for the opposition."

That's all from Ramsey for now, so join us again tomorrow to find out if QPR can pull away from the bottom three. Until then, thanks for joining me this morning. Goodbye.

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Caretaker manager Chris Ramsey of QPR gives direction during the Barclays Premier League match between Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers at Stadium of Light on February 10, 2015
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