[themaclad]

LAST TIME OUT



FORM GUIDE

PNE 8 QPR 5

QPR HERO

Rodney William Marsh (11 October 1944) is an English former footballer and football coach; he later worked as a broadcaster. A forward, he won nine caps for England between 1971 and 1973, scoring one international goal.

Brought up in the East End of London, he played youth football for West Ham United before he made his professional debut with Fulham in March 1963. He scored 22 goals in 63 First Division games before falling out with the management and taking a £15,000 transfer to Queens Park Rangers in March 1966. He helped the club to the 1967 League Cup and to consecutive promotions through the Third Division and Second Division. In March 1972 he was sold to Manchester City for £200,000. He featured in the 1974 League Cup final defeat but his time in Manchester was largely disappointing and he left the UK the following year to play for American club Tampa Bay Rowdies.

He had a successful career with the Rowdies and went on to coach the club from 1984 to 1986 after previously having brief spells coaching New York United and the Carolina Lightnin'. In the 1990s he began work as a broadcaster on Sky Sports, before he was sacked in January 2005. Since that time he has appeared on numerous reality television shows, and helped to run an American-based property development company with his son. In 2015, Marsh started co-hosting a radio show about football on SiriusXM, titled Grumpy Pundits. His co-host is Irish broadcaster Tommy Smyth.


Queens Park Rangers
Marsh moved across West London to join Queens Park Rangers, then in the Third Division, after manager Alec Stock paid out a £15,000 fee in March 1966.[16] QPR finished third at the end of the 1965–66 campaign, eight points outside promoted Millwall.

His first full season with Rangers was his most successful, as he formed an effective strike partnership with Les Allen, whilst Roger Morgan and Mark Lazarus delivered reliable service from the wings.[17] Marsh scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 4–0 win over Middlesbrough.[18] He scored 44 goals in 53 games as the club became Third Division champions; his 30 league goals made him the division's top-scorer. QPR also won the League Cup, with Marsh setting Rangers on their way with four goals during a 5–0 victory over Colchester United at Layer Road.[18] They needed a replay to overcome Aldershot, before they beat Swansea Town, top-flight Leicester City, Carlisle United and Birmingham City. Their opponents in the Wembley final were West Bromwich Albion, who had won the cup the previous year. The "Baggies" took a two-goal lead before half-time, but Rangers fought back in the second half and on the 75th minute Marsh scored what he described as "the defining goal of my career" when he made a mazy run past numerous defenders before finding the net with a 25-yard shot that went in off the post.[11][19] Lazarus scored QPR's third goal six minutes later to win the game 3–2.[20] A week after the final Tottenham Hotspur manager witnessed Marsh put in a strong performance against Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and he offered to pay QPR £180,000 for Marsh and Morgan, but his offer was rejected by chairman Jim Gregory.[17]

The 1967–68 season saw a second successive promotion as QPR reached the First Division as runners-up in the Second Division, ahead of Blackpool on goal average. Marsh was again top-scorer with 14 goals despite missing the start of the season with a broken foot.[11] He signed a new four-year contract in the summer.[11]

Rangers were unable to compete in the top-flight, and Marsh himself struggled with injury as the club suffered relegation with only 18 points to their name.[16] He broke his foot in pre-season training for the 1968–69 campaign and missed the opening months; during this time the club struggled as Stock resigned before the season started, and he was replaced by Bill Dodgin in a caretaker capacity.[21] By the time Marsh recovered from his injury manager Tommy Docherty's first 28-day spell in charge at Loftus Road had come and gone.[22]

In summer 1969, Marsh was sent off in a friendly against Rangers after punching Kai Johansen in retaliation for a kick Johansen gave Marsh.[23] In the 1969–70 season he and Barry Bridges shared 46 goals equally between them, as QPR finished in ninth position. They also reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, which was then the club's joint-best achievement in the competition.

Marsh again hit 23 goals in the 1970–71 campaign, as Rangers again finished in mid-table obscurity under the stewardship of Gordon Jago. However Marsh lost his captaincy to new signing Terry Venables.[24]

He hit 20 goals in the 1971–72 season to finish as the club's top-scorer for the second successive season. Before the season began he signed a new contract on the understanding that he would leave the club if they could not achieve promotion by the end of the season.[24] QPR were still in the hunt for promotion by the time that Marsh was sold – they eventually finished a few points short, however the sum offered by Manchester City was too much for the club to refuse.[25]

PNE Team News

Liam Lindsay will serve the second and final game of his suspension in this fixture following his red card in the defeat against Derby County.

Ched Evans, who missed Tuesday’s Lancashire derby victory over Blackpool through injury, will be assessed ahead of the weekend.

There are no fresh injury concerns, though, with everybody coming through the midweek win unscathed.

The Opposition


Queens Park Rangers have spent the large majority of the campaign occupying a Play-Off spot and at times even pushing towards automatics.

However, their recent form has seen their chances of finishing in the top six diminish, with the R’s having lost six of their last seven matches.

Currently five points outside of the Play-Off spots, a shot at promotion is still on the cards, but they will need to put together a strong run in their final six games of the campaign in order to get there.

Key Stats

After collecting 16 points from a possible 18 on the road between November and January, QPR have struggled away from home lately, losing six of their last seven away games.

QPR’s main creative spark this season has been Chris Willock, having scored seven and assisted 11, but a hamstring injury has ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.

Josh Earl, who scored his first professional goal in the reverse fixture against the R’s, is one appearance away from making 100 in senior football.

Our Last Victory


PNE’s last win over QPR came in October 2020 away from home, with penalties either side of half-time from Daniel Johnson and Scott Sinclair securing the three points for Alex Neil’s team.

Man In The Middle


Tony Harrington will take charge of his first Preston North End game of the season on Saturday.

Harrington has, however, refereed 19 PNE matches in his career, with the most recent of them being the defeat at home to Brentford last term.

So far this campaign, he has held the whistle in 20 matches – including one Premier League fixture – and he has shown 65 yellow cards and one red.

MACS VIEW

Need to build on the win on Wednesday against a QPR side fast running out of time if they are to get a play off place, rumours that Warburton is going to get potted before his contract runs out before summer, probably a good time to play them.