BURNLEY boss Owen Coyle is confident that his players won’t suffer a Carling Cup hangover after Wednesday’s famous win over Chelsea.
The Clarets booked their place in today’s quarter-final draw after their penalty shoot-out win over the Premier League leaders in midweek.
But Coyle said his players will have their minds firmly on winning three Championship points at QPR this afternoon to strengthen their position in the play-off places and will guard against coming down from dreamland with a bump.
He said: “There’s no question about our focus being a problem. I’ve always said that the Championship is our bread and butter. We had a marvellous win over Chelsea and we’re into the quarter-finals, but the game against QPR is massive because we want the three points that are at stake.
“The Carling Cup and the Championship are completely different competitions and have no bearing on each other.
“The boys are focused and we’re looking forward to another good game this afternoon.
“Steven Caldwell is suspended but Clarke Carlisle and Steven Thompson are back so we will be able to freshen the squad up a bit.
“The boys had a hard game on Wednesday night, with the game going into extra time, so it’s good to have some players we can bring in.
“But we won’t know what the exertions of the other night have had until the first whistle blows.”
Rangers are managed on a caretaker basis by Gareth Ainsworth, the Blackburn-born former Rovers trainee, after Iain Dowie was sacked at the end of October.
But Clarets supremo Coyle believes that QPR will be dangerous despite being in a state of managerial limbo at the moment.
He added: “QPR are a quality side with some top quality players.They are doing very well at home and they’re only a point behind us in the table.
“We have to make sure they don’t over-take us and we’ll be striving to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“The fans were magnificent on Saturday night and hopefully they will be at Loftus Road in force.
“They’ve been first class ever since I arrived at the club and they have a big part to play in our development.”
The quarter-final draw for the Carling Cup is made at lunchtime and Coyle admitted he was hoping for a home draw in the last eight after their giant-killing act at Stamford Bridge.
He added: “All the big boys are still in there but we won’t be keeping an eye on it because there’s nothing we can do. It’s just the luck of the draw.
“We’d like a home draw but we’ll start to plan for it after the QPR game. But, before then, our minds are totally focused on QPR.”
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