GARETH Ainsworth feels the current international break has come at the right time for his QPR side with some big home games on the horizon.
Rangers’ improving performances on the pitch were finally rewarded on Saturday with a 2-0 win at Middlsbrough, their second victory of the season.
When Ainsworth gets his full squad back together late next week, the Hoops will then face two quick-fire home games with Sunderland and Swansea in the space of three days.
And the Loftus Road boss sees the timing of the current pause in domestic action as a positive rather than a negative.
“I think it is because we want to get more work into the boys,” he said.
“We are getting closer with Jimmy Dunne and Lyndon Dykes will hopefully be back.
“The caveat is I think we’ve had about 10 people called up, so I’m just praying that they all come back.
“All of these have got to come back fit but I do believe the pitch will be ready, we can have a number of home games on there.
“The pitch will be up to standard and able to take it.
“At home we were good against Ipswich in the league and were good against Norwich in the cup.
“There is definitely a shift here and I do believe that although the start of the season has been a tough one for us, I’m looking forward to having the international break like you wouldn’t believe.”
Aside from those encounters with the Tractor Boys and Canaries, all of QPR’s remaining games thus far have been on the road.
That will all change in September, with three of this month’s four fixtures taking place at Loftus Road with Ainsworth calling on supporters to give their all in the stands.
He said: “All I’m asking is for the fans to get behind us – and they will.
“Last season there was a whole range of emotions that they went through and I understand the emotion of last year.
“But this year I think they know where we are and are getting right behind us.
“I don’t do social media. But what I’ve been told from people I meet on the street and here at work is that on the whole, everyone has been really positive about where we are at the moment and which way this club is facing now.
“I’ve always said success will come again, I guarantee that.
“Forget time, success will come and when it does, we will have a backbone and a structure to it where it won’t just be a one-hit wonder, it will be over time.
“I think building that is the right way to do it.
“Putting the club on a secure foundation – that is what I want to do. Hopefully people have seen that.”
