In-form left back Damien Delaney expects Nottingham Forest to provide Rangers with another stern test of their Championship credentials, when Paulo Sousa's men travel to The City Ground this weekend.
Victory on Saturday could see the R's gatecrash the top-six once again, but Delaney insists he and his team-mates will need to be at their very best against a Forest side who have tasted defeat just twice since the appointment of Billy Davies in early January.
"It's going to be a tough match," he told www.qpr.co.uk.
"Maybe under Colin Calderwood they (Forest) were struggling a little bit, but Billy Davies has come in and they're working their way up the table.
"They're in fantastic form and you know when you play against a Billy Davies side that you'll be in for a rough ride
"It's a tough place to go. They'll be fit, strong and very well organised, but we'll be ready for them and there's a good buzz about the place at the moment."
Forest's improvement in recent weeks owes much to the goalscoring form of diminutive front-man Rob Earnshaw, who has notched four goals in six outings since the turn of the year.
"Every week you play you come up against good strikers in this division, like we did against Kevin Doyle on Saturday, and Rob Earnshaw is a similar player," said Delaney.
"You can't afford to give players like him an inch because they'll have pot-shots and punish you, but we're defending well as a team, from back to front, and we head to The City Ground full of confidence."
Delaney has been part of an unchanged back four for the last four fixtures, and believes the level of consistency the R's have shown in recent weeks bodes well for the run-in.
"It's a settled back four at the moment - and if you look at the bigger picture, it's a settled team, the Manager is only making one or two changes per game," he said.
"It keeps everyone on their toes. You look at those who are sitting on the bench and those that aren't even in the matchday squad - there's great competition.
"Once you're in the team you have to produce to keep hold of the jersey and that's a great pressure to have."
Delaney is certainly testament to that. Indeed, the Irishman was in excellent form in the first month of 2009, culminating in his selection in the Football League's Championship Team of the Week following our 0-0 draw against Reading, in which he successfully stifled the threat of international team-mate Stephen Hunt.
And the 27 year-old is in bullish mood as the clock ticks down to the business end of the campaign.
"We believe we can make the play-off's - that's the aim, that's the objective," he told www.qpr.co.uk.
"It's all very well saying we'll take each game as it comes, but every player here wants to get promoted, so let's see what happens.
"We've got 16 games left and if we win our game in hand we'll be sixth in the table, which will put us in the play-off's, so I think the aim has to got to be to get there."
