Roy Keane says Town are entering a crucial time with the visit to QPR kicking off a run of four successive away games in two weeks.

Blues travel to Loftus Road tonight then face Peterborough, Sheffield Wednesday and Scunthorpe before returning to home soil against Bristol City on February 27.

"It's an important time for the Football Club, definitely," the Town boss told the Club website.

"We need wins, we know that and the fact that we are away from home for our next four games makes it tougher.

"We will have to be a lot better than we were in our last two away matches, at Southampton and Preston, if we are going get the victories we need, although our general form recently has been okay.

"As much as we talk about playing some decent football lately though, we know we have to get away from the position we are in at the moment and we're only going to do that with victories.

"Sometimes you have to win ugly and we've not done that this season. Maybe the Club has not done that enough over the last few years and the table doesn't lie, we are fourth from bottom because we deserve to be.

"I'm confident though that with the new lads we have brought in and with Jon Walters back, we can start climbing the table."

While Town needs win, QPR are sliding down the table and have yet to win in 2010. A victory for Blues would take the Club to within a point of the Londoners, who looked real contenders for promotion earlier in the campaign.

They have won only once in 10 games since former Town boss Jim Magilton parted company with the club in December, with Mick Harford now in charge following Paul Hart's brief stay, their third permanent manager this season.