Danny Shittu knows all about play-off agony and says the current QPR crop must draw on all of their experience to ensure they don't face the same fate he suffered 11 years ago.
With Rangers 10 points behind second-placed Burnley with just eight games to go, it looks increasingly likely Harry Redknapp’s men will have to settle for a place in the end-of-season lottery.
And Millwall defender Shittu, who was part of the Rs team which lost the Division Two play-off final against Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium, says there is nothing worse than losing a game with so much significance riding on it.
He recalled: “I remember that game at Cardiff like it was yesterday. It was a game we went into full of confidence, so that extra-time winner really cut us up bad. It was a career low point that’s for sure.
“If QPR want to get promoted this time around their big-name players have to step up to the plate, be that in order to achieve promotion automatically or through the play-offs, because believe me they don’t want to go through what me and my team-mates did all those years ago if they got to the final and lost.”
The 33-year-old has happier memories of the play-offs with Blackpool, another of his former sides, who the Rs face in W12 this afternoon.
After impressing on a short-term loan spell at Bloomfield Road, Shittu became an integral part of Steve McMahon’s side, who eventually gained promotion to Division Two following a 4-2 final win over Leyton Orient.
However, it was a bittersweet moment for the towering centre-half as he was ineligible for the 2001 final, although he admits he was just happy the Tangerines were promoted.
He added: “I remember speaking to Alan Curbishley (then Charlton manager) a few weeks earlier to see if we could work something out but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
"It was obviously really disappointing that I didn’t get to play in the final but at the end of the day we won, which was the most important thing.
“I had a fantastic time at Blackpool and I can't ever stop thanking everyone at the club for what they did for me.
"I certainly wouldn’t have made the step-up and gone and signed for QPR if it wasn’t for my spell there."
Shittu's current employers could do with some of his experience and fighting spirit as they find themselves embroiled in a relegation dogfight, three points shy of fourth-bottom Charlton but having played three games more.
But the Nigerian will play no further part this campaign after effectively being ruled out for the season with an Achilles injury. Time will tell how critical a blow that will be to the Lions' survival hopes.
