[Lord Snooty]

Queens Park Rangers v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday March 13th - 15:00 ko
at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel down to that there London to play Queens Park Rangers at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium on Saturday afternoon for another in a series of MUST WIN games.

Well you never know, we might just do it. Bear with!

After playing on bogey grounds recently at Middlesbrough, Derby and Preston. And playing Birmingham and Cardiff at home, who we never beat at home, we come up against a team that we are the bogey team for. QPR haven't beaten us in the last six meetings and we have won four of those. They haven't beaten us since 2015, which compared to not winning in Derby since 1957 is nothing to get excited about. But if I wanna clutch at straws, then I will clutch at straws!  

QPR have played twice since we played out a drab goal less draw at home to Cardiff on Friday night. And they've won both of them, which has shot them up the table to halfway. They won 2-0 down at Bristol City with goals from Ilias Chair and Rob Dickie. And then on Tuesday night they beat Wycombe Wanderers at home 1-0, with the boy Chair scoring against the Chairboys.

I don't have any up to date team news yet, Head Coach Carlos Corberan will be giving his press conference on Thursday. But Wednesday afternoon saw some more minutes on the pitch for some returning injured players in a B team game against Rochdale. Tommy Elphick played the full 90, Alex Pritchard got 65 in and yes, the lesser spotted Danny Ward played a full thirty minutes.




A brief history of QPR: formed in 1886 when two teams merged. They were St Judes and Christchurch Rangers and the team became known as Queens Park Rangers, not because they played in Queens Park, but because most of the players came from that area. They turned professional in 1889 and joined the Southern League, winning it in 1908 and 1912. When the Football League was extended in 1920, QPR were elected in, as were most other Southern League teams, to form Division Three (South).

They had played in 20 different home grounds before settling on Loftus Road in 1917, but did return on a couple of occasions to White City in the hope of attracting larger crowds. They spent the whole time pre war in Div 3(S), but shortly after the war they won their first promotion. That was in 1947/48 when they won the Division Three (South) title under the management of Huddersfield Town legend, Dave Mangnall. He managed them in the 2nd division for four seasons before they got relegated again and then resigned. He did sign Tony Ingham before he left though and he went on to be their record appearance holder, with a grand total of 548 games.

Tony Ingham

Mangnall had been manager for over eight years and the next one, Jack Taylor took over for the next seven. When he left, Alec Stock came in and was manager for nine years and those three are the longest serving managers of the club. They were placed in Division 3 when the two regionalised 3rd divisions were nationalised in 1958 and Stock won promotion for them in 1967 as Division Three champions. The star of that team was Rodney Marsh, scoring 44 goals in the campaign. Not only did they win the title that season though, they also won their one and only major trophy to date when they became the first 3rd Division team to win the League Cup (Swindon being the 2nd in 1969).

Their opponents in the Final were First Division West Bromwich Albion and it was the Baggies who got off to the better start, leading 2-0 by half time with two goals from Clive Clark. Rangers weren't out of it though and after 63 minutes they were definitely back in it when Mark Lazarus crossed for Roger Morgan to head in. They were level on 75 minutes when that man Marsh equalised. They were on top now and took the lead 7 minutes from time when some poor Albion defending allowed Lazarus to tap into an empty net. The same player almost made it 4-2 in the last minute but his shot hit the post. QPR had the trophy, but no place in Europe as being a 3rd division side they were denied entry to the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, their place instead going to Liverpool.

This was a great football team and they didn't stay long in the 2nd Division, winning promotion again straight away as runners up to Ipswich Town, to reach Division One for the first time. Unfortunately, the Board of Directors lost it's mind, firstly sacking Stock for being ill at the end of the promotion season. He was replaced by Bill Dodgin Jr, who stepped down to be replaced by Tommy Docherty, who in turn resigned saying he couldn't work with that Board and was in turn replaced by Les Allen as player/manager. Unsurprisingly with all this upset going on, they finished bottom of the table.

Allen signed Terry Venables from Spurs, but lost star man Marsh to Man City. However, Marsh's replacement was another star man of the 70s, the magical Stan Bowles. Gordon Jago took over from Allen and with Gerry Francis as skipper, they won promotion back to the top flight in 1973 as runners up to Burnley.

Dave Sexton took over as manager when Jago resigned in 1974 and he took QPR to their highest ever finish in 1976 when they finished as runners up to Liverpool. They were top of the league after finishing their 42 games, with the Reds still having one game to play, in the days before Sky insisted that everybody finish at the same time in a live televised game. They had to wait an agonising ten days for Liverpool, who had a two legged UEFA Cup Final to get out of the way first, played Wolves in their final league match. Wolves led for most of the game, but three late goals gave Bob Paisley his first league title at Anfield.

They never reached such dizzy heights again. In the following season,they finished mid table, but did reach the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup in their first European campaign, losing on penalties to AEK Athens. They also reached the League Cup semis, getting beaten in a replay by Aston Villa. Sexton was then head hunted by Man Utd and the club struggled in the league, eventually getting relegated in 1979. The man Sexton replaced at Old Trafford was former QPR manager, Tommy Doc and he returned to Loftus Road for a season, getting nowhere significant and so in turn was replaced by former player Venables.

This was the era of the plastic pitch at Loftus Road, which proved to be somewhat of an advantage to them. They narrowly missed promotion, but did reach their one and only FA Cup Final in 1982. Their opponents were Tottenham Hotspur, who were the holders and huge favourites. Clive Allen, who would later go on to star at Spurs, was back at QPR for his second spell and was leading scorer. Unfortunately he got injured early on and had to be subbed in the second half, making Spurs even bigger favourites. They couldn't get there though and a dull 90 minutes finished at 0-0. Glenn Hoddle went and gave Spurs the lead ten minutes from time and the Cup was heading back to White Hart Lane. But wait! Rangers weren't done. Big Bob Hazell flicked on a near post header from a long throw in and Terry Fenwick nodded the ball in to equalise and take the Final to a replay. The replay was another dull affair, which all London Cup Finals tend to be. It was won 1-0 by Spurs with Hoddle scoring from the penalty spot in the 6th minute.

QPR didn't let the result get them down though and won promotion in the next season, winning the 2nd division title by ten points from runners up Wolves. They qualified for another European campaign by finishing 5th in their first season back at the top, but Venables was off. He landed the job of managing Barcelona and the tabloid nickname, El Tel.

Alan Mullery, then Frank Sibley took over and then Jim Smith, who took them to another Final, this time the 1986 League Cup Final. Embarrassingly for Smith, they were up against his former club Oxford United, a First Division club back then, who pumped them 3-0. They were holding on well in the league though, finishing regularly in the top half. Smith left to manage Newcastle and Trevor Francis became player/manager. His namesake, former player Gerry, took over in 91 and QPR became one of the founder members of the Premier League in 92.

They were still regularly finishing in the top half, but when in 1995 the club sold Les Ferdinand to Newcastle, things started to go downhill as he wasn't adequately replaced and they were relegated in 96. They had a few years in the 2nd tier, but then took on another former player, West Country bumpkin Ian Holloway and he took them down to the 3rd tier for the first time in 30 years. He did get them to their first Play Off Final in 2003 but they lost 0-1 to Cardiff City. But then he did get them back up in the next season as runners up to Plymouth Argyle.

They had a mid table finish, but then Holloway left to manage Leicester City and they slumped, only just missing relegation. They were having financial troubles now and had been in administration. There were hostile takeover bids, one of them allegedly at gun point and then, even worse, their youth team player Kiyan Prince, was murdered in 2006. He was only 15.

Things started to improve in 2010 when Neil Warnock became manager. We all know he's the King of the Play Offs, but he baffled us all by winning the Championship title in his first season. So they were back in the Premier League and had finally been taken over. Tony Fernandes was the new owner and one of his first jobs was to get shut of Colin and replace him with Mark Hughes. He didn't last long and speculation in the media over the name of the new manager led to fans unfurling a banner at Loftus Road that read Save Us Harry. That Harry was of course, Harry Redknapp and he didn't. They got relegated.

They did bounce straight back again when Bobby Zamora scored in the 90th minute of the Play Off Final to give them a 1-0 victory over Derby County. But Harry resigned after a poor start and they came straight back down to the Championship, where they have been ever since.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 14 wins to QPR's 13, with 9 draws.

The programme in that picture is my own. It's from my first ever football match in 1967, when Town beat QPR 1-0 at Leeds Road. Frank Worthington scored and I had the good fortune of watching two of the game's legends in my first game in young Frank and the brilliant Rodney Marsh of the Hoops. Of course I didn't know that then and they weren't yet the icons they became. It isn't the original programme my dad bought on the day though. This one I got at an open day at the McAlpine Stadium, many years later.

Anyway, that was the first league meeting between the two clubs after they had won promotion to the 2nd division. Whenever they had gone up before, we had been in the 1st division, obviously. They went above us for the first time at the end of that season though, winning promotion to Division One for a season. They came back down again and we met for another season, when we went and won promotion, in 69/70. Frank scored against them again. We lost 2-4 at Loftus Road in September. Frank scored one and Jimmy McGill got the other. But we beat them 2-0 at Leeds Road in January, with Frank getting both. That win put us top of the league, where we stayed for the rest of the season.

Those weren't the first meetings though. We have been drawn against each other five times in the FA Cup and the first of those was way back in 1932. We won 5-0 on our way to the quarter finals, which was the one where we lost at Leeds Road 0-1 to Arsenal in front of the record crowd of 67,037. I have mentioned already the name of Dave Mangnall, he went on to manage QPR later in his career, well he was on his record breaking run of scoring in consecutive matches. The game against Arsenal was the one where he failed to score, bringing an end to a run of eleven consecutive scoring games and the Cup match against QPR was one of them. It was a 4th round match at Leeds Road and he scored twice, with Charlie Luke also getting a couple and one from Austen Campbell.

The next one was in the 3rd round of 1949 and Mangnall was by now the manager of QPR. This was a replay at home after a 0-0 draw down there and we won 5-0 again. There was another iconic number 9 on the score sheet for this one, Jimmy Glazzard and he scored twice in the game. Albert Nightingale, Johnny McKenna and Albert Bateman got the others. Did us no good though. In the next round, we were famously "giant killed" by Newport County.

Albert Nightingale

So back to the League action and we met up once again in our 1970s downward spiral in the 2nd division on 72/73. A defeat down there and a 2-2 draw at home. But it was back to the FA Cup for our next meeting. This was 1984 and they were a First Division team and we had just got back up to Division Two for the first time in yonks, under the management of Mick Buxton. And we beat them again. This was a 2-1 win at Leeds Road with Mark Lillis and Kevin Stonehouse grabbing the goals. A magnificent win, in front of a disappointing crowd of only 11,984.

They stayed above us in the league until we met again in the 2nd tier in 96/97 and we played them 4 times that season. We didn't win any of them, losing twice in the league, with the only partial success being a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road in the FA Cup 3rd round, with Gary Crosby scoring. QPR won the replay 2-1 for their only Cup win over us.

That was the start of being in the same division as each other for seven seasons and in the second of those, we played them for the final time in the FA Cup. We'd already beaten them 2-0 at home in the league with Rob Edwards and Ben Thornley goals, when we travelled down to London for the Cup. And we came away with another win, with the Chief, Wayne Allison grabbing the only goal of the game. This was the season we got to the 5th round and lost in a replay at Pride Park against Premier League Derby.

The next season was won by the home team on both occasions, but the one after that, 2000/01, we both got relegated. Ex QPR player Kevin Gallen scored for us on his return to Loftus Road, but we let them equalise and the game finished 1-1. The return fixture at the McAlpine was an emotional affair. We won it 2-1. Dean Gorré had given us a first half lead, but by the 90th minute, with the scores level, the Hoops needed a win to stay up. They had a corner but Town broke away with the devastating pace of Andy Booth leaving the retreating defenders in his slipstream. His shot was saved but the rebound fell to Delroy Facey, who slotted the ball into the empty net, to send QPR down to the 3rd tier for the first time in 30 years. That took us out of the bottom three, but draws against West Brom and Wimbledon left us needing a point at home to Birmingham on the final day, which of course we didn't get and so joined the R's in a devastating relegation.

Del boy

We made the Play Offs and lost to Brentford. QPR finished 8th. The season after, they made the Play Offs and got beat in the Final by Cardiff, but we got relegated to the 4th tier. They played a huge part in our demise, beating us 3-0 in both games. And so it would be another decade before we played each other. We had been promoted to the Championship in 2012 and they were relegated from the Prem in 2013.

They won promotion straight back again, drawing at the Galpharm in the 2nd game of the season, before beating us 2-1 in Shepherd's Bush in January. A certain Charlie Austin scoring twice in the second half, with a Nahki Wells equaliser in between. They came back down again and won at ours in August. By the time the trip down to theirs came around, David Wagner had replaced Chris Powell at Town and it was young Nahki who scored a late equaliser as the "we're not getting beaten" attitude was starting to develop.

The next season was our promotion season and we did the double over them. Both matches were won 2-1, with Kasey Palmer and Elias Kachunga giving us a 2-0 lead before Idrissa Sylla gave us a few nervous final minutes. And it was the same down there. Izzy Brown and Nahki again putting us two up. Luke Freeman got one back on the hour mark, but we held on quite easily if I recall correctly.

We have gone unbeaten against them since we departed the Premier League, drawing one and winning twice, taking our run to six games unbeaten against the Hoops. The draw was at Loftus Road in the second game of the 19/20 season. Jan Siewert was still our boss and Karlan Grant put us ahead from the penalty spot before Grant Hall got a late equaliser. Then just before lockdown, QPR came up to the John Smith's and left with a 0-2 defeat. Kachunga got his second goal of the season and then Steve Mounié scored from the spot.

And then finally, in December, we beat them 2-0 again at the JSS, a fairly easy win where we should've gone on to win by more. Josh Koroma putting us into an early lead, with Harry Toffolo making it two before half time.

Josh Koroma (remember him?)

So what's going on down at Loftus Road? Managed nowadays by Mark Warburton, the former Boreham Wood defender. He's a Londoner, born in 1962, but started his youth career at Leicester City. He never made it, so dropped down to non league and played for Enfield and Boreham Wood. He then went to play non league in Scotland and then over to America, before a cruciate injury ended his playing days.

He left football to become a baker with his dad's baking firm, but had a part time job coaching some school kids, before going to Watford and coaching their kids. This led to him becoming assistant coach at Brentford, which eventually ended up with him as manager, taking the job when Uwe Rösler left for Wigan in 2014. Success was instant, winning promotion from League One as runners up to Wolves. He had his differences with the Board though, who announced during that first Championship season that Warburton would not be having his contract renewed at the end of the season. This affected the team's form, but they still managed to reach the Play Offs, losing 1-5 against Middlesbrough.

Former Rangers captain David Weir, had been his assistant at Griffin Park and he must've had some influence on Warburton's next appointment when he landed the job as manager at Ibrox. Rangers were by now in the Scottish Championship, having climbed back up the ladder after being demoted to the bottom rung for reasons I'm not going into. Weir came in as his assistant again and they won the Championship as well as the Scottish Challenge Cup. But the season back in the Scottish Prem didn't go well and the pair of them were sacked.

They were only out of work for a month, landing the management job at Nottingham Forest. That lasted only 9 months, with the pair of them sacked on New Years Eve 2017. Weir got a job at Brighton, but Warburton had to wait a bit longer for his next football job, which came along in May 2019 when he became manager at QPR.

In between the Forest and QPR jobs, he returned to the family firm, delivering bread for Warburton's Bakery.

Who's in their squad then? Well they have one name we all know. That wankspangle Charlie Austin. Infamous for kicking Jonas Lössl in the face in a match at Southampton in 2017. He had earlier taunted Town fans behind the goal after scoring, but we had the last laugh as the tosser went off with an injured hamstring that kept him out for weeks. Ironically, he should've been sent off for that kick, but did get a retrospective three match ban, which he served whilst injured.
That wasn't his first goal against Town. He scored against us in only his sixth match as a professional. That was the winner for Swindon in a match at the County Ground in 2009. Not content with that, he went and scored his second against us in the following February in a 2-2 draw at ours. Our very own Danny Ward got the other Swindon goal that day. He scored 20 goals that first season, followed by another 17 in the next, which earned him a move to the Championship with Burnley.
He never scored for the Clarets against Town, but he first moved to Loftus Road in 2013/14 and scored another couple against us. That was in January 2104 when he scored both goals in a 2-1 win for the Hoops. He moved to St Mary's in 2016 and got that fifth goal against us in the match where he should've been dismissed.
Last season he was at West Brom and gave us all a big smile when he was spotted crying after we had beaten them to secure our Championship place, whilst at the same time appearing to have cost them promotion. It didn't of course, as Brentford cocked up to allow the Baggies a place in the Premier League. He didn't hack it at the top level this time though and so now, aged 31, he's back in the Championship with QPR. He rejoined in January on loan from the Hawthorns and has scored five times already.

Let's make him cry again!

So up top with Charlie Wankstain is Scottish Aussie Lyndon Dykes. He was born and bred in Queensland, but his dad was from Dumfries. Whilst touring England with the Australian Schoolboys team, he visited family in Dumfries. He must've liked it there because in 2015 he returned there, joining Queen of the South. He later played for Livingston, but in 2019 the ex Queen of the South player from Queensland transferred to Queens Park Rangers, initially on loan, but then becoming permanent last year, with a £2m fee involved. He's gone fully kilted now and has played internationally for Scotland, making his debut against Israel.

Other attackers are Chris Willock, who we had on loan from Benfica last season. Nineteen year old Basildon born American, Charlie Kelman, who signed from Southend Utd in October. And Ipswich born Zimbabwean Macauley Bonne, who scored eleven goals in Charlton's doomed Championship campaign last season.

In goal now is Swiss keeper Seny Dieng. He was on loan at Doncaster last season, but has come back and is now first choice. The regular keeper before him was Joe Lumley. He also went on loan to Doncaster after losing his place at Loftus Road this season, but is now back.

In defence they have Robert Dickie, who signed in September from Oxford Utd. Frenchman Yoann Barbet, who played for Brentford. Todd Kane, another from the Chelsea Academy who had been on loan all over the world before settling at QPR. Dominic Ball, who came from Rotherham in 2019. Left Back Lee Wallace, who has played over a hundred games previously for both Hearts and Rangers. Westminster born Sierra Leone international Osman Kakay has also spent time in Scotland with Livingston and Partick Thistle, as well as half a season at Chesterfield when they were in League One. Florida born Finland international Niko Hämäläinen also spent last season north of the border at Kilmarnock. And Belgian Jordy de Wijs is on loan from Hull City.

Thirty five year old Geoff Cameron is the club captain. He's a USA international with 55 caps to his name. He had six seasons in the Premier League with Stoke City before joining the Hoops in 2018. With him in midfield is Norway international Stefan Johansen, who is on loan from Fulham. He also has 55 international caps to his name. Ilias Chair is a Belgian, who plays for Morocco. Sam Field is on loan from the Baggies. Albert Adomah came from Nottingham Forest in October, but previously played for Bristol City, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa. And Tom Carroll played in the Prima Donna League with Spurs but signed for QPR last year from Swansea.



Tuesday night's line up at home to Wycombe:

13 Dieng
4 Dickie
5 de Wijs
6 Barbet
2 Kane
14 Johansen
15 Field
3 Wallace
10 Chair
21 Willock
45 Austin

Subs:                                        
1 Lumley
7 Bonne
9 Dykes
12 Ball
19 Thomas
20 Cameron
24 Kakay
25 Hämäläinen
37 Adomah


Club connections: We'll start with the son of a Town legend. Conway Smith was the son of Town's record appearance holder Billy Smith, but did actually play for Town himself. He was born in Huddersfield in 1926, just a few weeks after dad had won the League for the third time in a row with Huddersfield Town. He made his Town debut in a 1-2 defeat at Aston Villa in 1947 and played in that season's FA Cup defeat when we became one of only a handful of First Division sides to lose to a non league team, when we lost 0-1 at Colchester. In 1951, he transferred to QPR, where he played for five years, scoring 81 goals. He had scored five for Town and when he came back north in 56 to join Halifax Town, he took his personal goal tally past the hundred mark, thus making him and Billy the first father and son to score a hundred goals each in the Football League. The Cloughs have done it since. Can you think of any more?

The manager who signed him at QPR was Dave Mangnall, who I've mentioned already. He signed for Town in 1929 after originally being turned down after a trial and going back to work darn t' pit and playing part time for Doncaster Rovers. When he did eventually make the first XI at Leeds Road in 1929, he went on to set records that still stand today. He is one of only three players to score five goals in a match (Alf Lythgoe and Jordan Rhodes being the others). He scored 42 goals in 1931/32, equalling the record set in 19/20 by Sammy Taylor. During that season he set the record for scoring in consecutive matches when he scored in 11 straight matches (7 league, 4 FA Cup, 19 goals). And he has the best goals to games ratio of all the top scorers, scoring 73 goals in 90 games.
After leaving us, he had more success at Birmingham, West Ham and Millwall, before first landing at QPR in 1939. That was when the war started and Dave's Football League career ended. He did take the manager's job at Loftus Road in 1944 and became the first manager to achieve promotion there in 1948.
He must've been some kind of celebrity because he became friends with the American singer/comedian/film star Sophie Tucker, who became Godmother to his son. He remained in the post until 1952. It was his only managers job as he left football to go live in Cornwall as landlord of the Navy Inn in Penzance. It was here that he died in 1962, aged 57.

Dave Mangnall

A team mate of Dave's in the 30s, who also went on to play for QPR was winger Wilf Bott. He signed for us from Doncaster and played in all but one of the league matches in 33/34 when we finished as runners up in the First Division behind Arsenal. He was one of five players to score double figures that season, but then was transferred to Newcastle. After a couple of seasons up there in the north east, he went down south to QPR, where he scored 34 goals in the three pre war seasons.

Jack Swann was mentioned in the Watford thread. He played for Town in the 1920 FA Cup Final, and helped us win promotion in the same season. He scored 36 goals for us, including 3 in the cup run. After a spell at Leeds, he went to Watford and scored 27 for them. After Watford he had a season at QPR scoring five times in 28 games. Later in life, when he was 89 years old, he was the special VIP guest at the centenary FA Cup Final at Wembley as he was the oldest surviving footballer from an FA Cup Final.

The oldest club connection is James Howie. He played for us in our first season in the Football League in 1910/11 and scored one of the goals in our record (at the time) 7-1 win against Birmingham. He signed for us from Newcastle where he had won three League titles and one FA Cup winners medal. In 1913 he retired from playing when he got the job as manager of Queens Park Rangers. Most of his time there was interrupted by the war and in 1920 he went back north to manage Middlesbrough.

Ninety years after Howie left Loftus Road, another Town connection took the job. That was ex Town manager Neil Warnock. He managed to get both clubs promoted. Town from the 3rd tier to the 2nd via the Play Offs. Later he got QPR promoted from the Championship to the Premier League in 2010/11. And now, like Howie, a hundred years later, he's manager of Boro.

Defender Norman Smith played for Town in the 20s. He was there for the triple championships, but didn't make enough appearances to win a medal. He made his debut in 1925 against Spurs, but didn't really become a regular until 26/27 when we only finished as runners up. He then moved to Sheffield Wednesday and then had three seasons at QPR in the 1930s. He then spent the rest of his life at Newcastle Utd. He became assistant manager to Stan Seymour in 1939 and was still there in 1961/62 when the club were struggling to avoid relegation to Division Three. Norman was made manager and kept them up, but resigned at the end of the season. He stayed at St James Park and sadly died there suddenly, after a match in 1978, aged 80.

There were a few more who played for both between the wars. Frank Lumsden only had one game for the blue n white stripes in the 30s but played 38 times for the Hoops. Jimmy Allen, similarly, one game for us and 44 for them.

The rest are more recent, well since I've been watching. Peter Eastoe played for them in the 70s (yes I call that recent) in the First Division and came on loan to us from WBA in the 80s. All the rest are from this century.

Michel Ngonge came on loan in 2000 from Watford and then went to QPR for a season.

Centre back Damien Delaney had a short loan with us from Leicester in 2002, went to Hull for six years and then went to Loftus Road for a couple of seasons.

Steve Yates had six years at QPR in the 90s. Peter Jackson made him his first signing in 2003 and he played in the Play Off Final against Mansfield Town. Word was that he would've been the next penalty taker had Lee Fowler missed in the shoot out, but he didn't. He's now the kit man at Bristol Rovers.

Leon Knight played for both in 2001 on loan from Chelsea, helping us reach the Play Offs, but missing them due to being suspended for getting sent off.

Kevin Gallen scored 36 goals for QPR between 1994 and 2000 but after losing his place in the first team, opted to come north to Huddersfield Town. He only stayed for one season, scoring ten goals, one of them against the Hoops at Loftus Road. He then had a short spell at Barnsley before returning to QPR, where he was made captain and took his goal tally to 97, putting him in 6th position in their all time goal scorers chart. Apparently he is now a cult hero after appearing on the Magic Sponge podcast with Rob Beckett and that prick Jimmy Bullard.

Jack Robinson signed for QPR from Liverpool in 2014 and on the same day was sent out on loan to us. He played 30 games for us, but we sent him back broken. He hardly played for them in his first couple of seasons due to various injuries. He's now back in the Prem (not for much longer) with Sheffield United.

Oscar Gobern played 79 games for us (really?). He then went to QPR but only turned out twice for them. He's now at Dover Athletic in the National League on furlough at a club who haven't played a match since January 30th. Don't know how that one's gonna end up.

Martin Cranie seems to feature in every match thread I do. He had a loan at QPR in 2007 from Portsmouth. Got promoted with us and played three times for us in the Premier League.

Ishmael Miller fired West Brom to promotion to the Premier League with 16 goals in the 2007/08 season. He went on loan to QPR from there in 2010/11, scoring once in 12 matches. Later on in his career, he came to us in 2014 and was very disappointing.

Joel Lynch was class. He was a very competent defender and scored some humdingers in his time with us. Who can forget that over head kick he scored against errm, whoever it was. Brilliant it was. Not just that, he must've won Goal of the Season in every one of the four seasons he had with us. Then most disappointingly in 2016 he was let go and joined QPR for something like a million and a half quid. Robbed us. He had three years there and now plays in League One for Sunderland.

Robert Green made over 650 appearances in goal over his long career. None of those were for Huddersfield Town, but he did sit on our bench for a full season in the Premier League. He had four seasons at Loftus Road, two in the Prem and two in the Championship.

Talking of goalkeepers, he's one of our own, but Alex Smithies was sold to QPR after 274 appearances for us. He had three seasons with the R's playing 107 times before moving to Cardiff.

Jason Puncheon had a short loan at QPR from Southampton in 2011. He played for us in the Premier League. Let's just say, it didn't work out well. He's now playing in Cyprus.

Danny Simpson played for us last season and helped QPR get promoted to the Premier League via the Play Offs in 2014. In between us and Rangers, he won the Premier League title with Leicester City. Now doing a bit of punditry on Sky.

Chris Willock played for us last season and plays for them this season. For us he played 8 games and scored two crucial goals. One was a beauty against Bristol City just before lockdown. The other was in the game against West Brom that sealed our place in the Championship. He was on loan from Benfica with us but has now transferred permanently to QPR.

And finally, a proper legend. Nahki Wells was born in Bermuda 30 years ago and started playing football for Dandy Town Hornets and Bermuda Hogges. After having a trial with Ajax, he came to Yorkshire and played at Bradford. Not City though,he signed for Eccleshill United in the North Counties East League. From there, he moved on to Carlisle United in 2011 on a short term contract, but they didn't keep him at the end of the season and so he moved back to Bradford and had a trial with the Billy Bantams. That went well and manager Peter Jackson signed him on. Always knew a good player did Jacko.
He scored plenty for City and after scoring 12 goals in his first season there, he really got going in 2012/13. He scored 26 that season as he helped them get to the League Cup Final and promoted through the Play Offs. His first goal in the next season came in a League Cup defeat at the Galpharm and so later on in that season, we decided to sign him ourselves.
He scored on his Town debut, coming on as a sub to score a last minute winner against Millwall and it was all upwards from then on. He became our leading scorer, with his goals helping us get promoted to the Premier League in 2017. However, his contract had by now expired and somehow the club decided we would be better off without him, so he was allowed to leave and signed for Burnley.
That didn't work out for him. He got injured and missed the whole of his first season and so was sent out on loan for a couple of seasons at Queens Park Rangers, where he scored 9 times in the first and 15 in the second. He now plays for Bristol City.

QPR in popular culture: Can only find three celebrity fans, Bill Bailey, Nick Cave and Pete Doherty.

Bill is one of the best human beings on the planet so supporting a London club is forgivable, I suppose. Why he does is a bit odd, seeing as he's from down there in the West Country. He was a long standing captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, was in the sitcom Black Books, is one of the country's funniest stand ups and of course, last year became the oldest winner of Strictly Come Dancing. But not just his comedy is great. The bloke's a member of the Labour Party, patron of animal charities and loves bird watching. He's the best mate I never had.



The Cave boy comes from even further away from Shepherd's Bush than Bill. He was born in Warracknabeal, Victoria in Australia. He did move to Brighton in 2000, but that's nowhere near Loftus Road either. Here's a happy little ditty about a murdered girl he did with little Kylie Minogue in 2010.



Peter Doherty was one of the finest footballers of his time and played for Huddersfield Town between 1946 and 49. But this one, the QPR fan, is probably best known as the smackhead who dated Kate Moss. Have to admit, I know very little about his music. Wikipedia says he's best known for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are indie band Babyshambles and Peter Doherty and the Puta Madres. However, before all this nonsense, he produced the QPR fanzine All Quiet on the Western Avenue.
Like I say, I know nowt about his music but this video has a bit of football in it so......





'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: If for some reason, you end up with a ticket for this match and have to travel down to London, just be careful. They're not very friendly and you could end up getting your collar felt, like this poor bloke.

Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Blackburn Rovers v Brentford

Saturday:
Luton Town v Swansea City (12:15)
Birmingham City v Bristol City
AFC Bournemouth v Barnsley
Cardiff City v Watford
Derby County v Millwall
Middlesbrough v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Reading
Rotherham United v Coventry City (postponed)
Wycombe Wanderers v Preston North End

Sunday:
Sheffield Wednesday v Norwich City (12:15)


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Town 0-0 Cardiff
Town 1-1 Birmingham
PNE 3-0 Town
Derby 2-0 Town
Town 4-1 Swansea
Boro 2-1 Town

QPR 1-0 Wycombe
Bristol C 0-2 QPR
QPR 1-3 Barnsley
Birmingham 2-1 QPR
PNE 0-0 QPR
QPR 2-1 Bournemouth

Town are 19th with 38 points, QPR are in 12th with 46.

Leading scorers:
Terriers:
Frazier Campbell (7)
Josh Koroma (6)
Isaac Mbenza (5)
Naby Sarr (4)

Hoops:
Ilias Chair (7)
Lyndon Dykes (5)
Charlie Austin (5)
Bright Samuel (3)
Macauley Bonne (3)


March the 13th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1915: Leeds City (a) Div 2, lost 0-1
1920: Hull City (h) Div 2, WON 2-0 (Sammy Taylor 2)
1926: Manchester Utd (h) Div 1, WON 5-0 (George Cook 2, William Devlin 2, Billy Smith)
1937: Manchester City (a) Div 1, lost 0-3
1943: Bradford (Park Avenue) (h) Wartime League North, lost 2-3 (Willie Watson 2)
1948: Middlesbrough (h) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Vic Metcalfe, Albert Nightingale)
1954: Newcastle Utd (h) Div 1, WON 3-2 (Tommy Cavanagh 2, Jimmy Glazzard)
1965: Leyton Orient (h) Div 2, drew 0-0
1971: Burnley (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1976: Swansea City (h) Div 4, WON 2-0 (Mick Butler, Franny Firth)
1979: Bournemouth (h) Div 4, WON 2-1 (Peter Fletcher, Terry Armstrong)
1990: Crewe Alexandra (a) Div 3, lost 0-3
1991: Exeter City (a) Div 3, drew 2-2 (Garry Haylock 2)
1993: Mansfield Town (a) Div 3, WON 2-1 (Iffy Onuora, Gary Barnett)
1999: Ipswich Town (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-3
2004: Macclesfield Town (h) Div Three (4th tier), WON 4-0 (Andy Booth, Pawel Abbott, Efe Sodje, John McAliskey)
2010: Norwich City (h) League One (2nd tier), lost 1-3 (Neal Trotman)



Well we've won more than we've lost. P17 W8 D2 L7.  

The game in 1915 was a defeat at Bellend Road against Leeds City, who were managed by Herbert Chapman. This was to be their last full Football League season as the war had already started and after 8 games of the first post war season, they were expelled for financial irregularities.

In the 1920 match, Sammy Taylor scored twice. He would finish the season with 42 goals, a club record that has only been equalled once, by Dave Mangnall in 31/32.

William Devlin, who scored twice in the 1926 5-0 win against Manchester Utd was, and still is, the all time leading scorer for Cowdenbeath with 124 goals. This was his home debut and unfortunately for him, he hadn't signed in enough time to play enough matches to win a League Champions Medal. Billy Smith, who also scored in that game, is of course, our all time appearances record holder with 574. That's never getting beaten!

Willie Watson, who scored twice on this day in the Wartime League, was the son of Billy Watson, who played wing back for the club during the Glory Years of the 20s. Young Willie had a brother called Albert, who also played for Town before, during and after the war. They all came from Bolton-on-Dearne, but Willie went on to have the illustrious post war career. Not just in football, but also in cricket.
He became a dual international, playing for England in both sports. He had made his Yorkshire debut in 1939 and played on for the County after the war. But after the war, he left Town for Sunderland, having only 11 official league games under his belt. Obviously he had a load of Wartime League games, but these don't count on official statistics. At Sunderland, he stayed for seven seasons, making 211 appearances and scoring 16 goals. And it was whilst at Roker Park he was picked for England, making his debut in 1949 against Northern Ireland. He was also in the squad for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, but never got a game.
He then made his test match debut at the age of 31 in 1951 against South Africa. That was the first of 23 tests. His most famous match was against the Aussies at Lords in the 2nd test in 1953, making 109 as he and Trevor Bailey batted for six hours to save the country from defeat. England went on to win the Ashes, although Willie had been dropped for the final test. He did however make it onto Wisden's Cricketers of the Year list.
He toured the West Indies in 53/54, making his second test century over there. Then back home, he left Sunderland to join Halifax Town as player/manager. His cricket career kept going though and he left Yorkshire for Leicestershire in 1958 and made his final test appearance in 1959 against New Zealand at the age of 39.
Meanwhile, back in Sunderland, he opened Willie Watson Sports shop, which gave brother Albert a job running it. Willie then had another spell in charge at the Shay in the 60s, followed by a stint in charge of Bradford City, before emigrating to South Africa in 1968, back to cricket, coaching the Wanderers. He died in 2004 in Johannesburg, aged 84.

Vic Metcalfe, who scored in the 1948 win against Middlesbrough came close to Smith's appearance record. He played 459 times and is 3rd in the list. My auntie used to tell us that when she worked at the ICI, Vic would get on the same bus from Mirfield as her on his way to training.

Garry Haylock, who scored twice against Exeter in 1991, only scored two more in his Town career. Although he was a Yorkshire lad, he spent the majority of his career in Ireland, winning the FAI Cup five times.

Iffy Onuora who scored in the 1993 win at Mansfield is now the current equalities coach for the Professional Footballers Association. I remember that match, particularly the Gary Barnett winner. When I picked up the Unexamined on the Monday teatime, there was a picture of Gary celebrating in front of the Town fans, with my great big dopey (some say gormless) grin, staring back at me from the back page.  
Gary went to Barry and became manager of the Welsh club Barry Town, where he became a legend by taking them to the First Round proper of the UEFA Cup in 96/97.

The 2004 4-0 home win against Macclesfield was a bit of atonement for one of the lowest points in the club's history. Three months earlier, we had been beaten 4-0 at their Moss Rose ground.  

Classy defender Neal Trotman, who scored on this day in 2010 at Norwich, is still only 33 years old. Unfortunately, injury ended his career at only 28 when he was at Bristol Rovers.


QPR related anagrams:

1. Colin Wanker
   
2. Lava Mad Glenn
   
3. Selby Taverner
   
4. Lucia Hairnets
   
5. Dry Horseman
   

[jjamez]

Joel lynch is currently unemployed I think, he was on trial at Bolton but not sure if anything came from that. He recently did an interview where he spoke about Wagner. Said he was foolish to complain about the fancy training times and everything because in hindsight it was the new way forward for footballers and that he feels wagner is a genius that could have taken his game to a different level had he focused.

Just imagine schindy and lynch together... Although it was the sale of lynch that allowed schindy to come in

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Also does number happen to be our good friend Neil warnock

[Lord Snooty]

Correct, jjamez.

[ritchiebaby]

Drat and double drat - I'll just have to go for Dave Mangnall for the second one.

[Lord Snooty]

Correct, Ritchiebaby.

[WakeyTerrier]

You had to love Lynch, quality footballer for Town at the time but for some reason always got suspended just in time for Xmas

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Terry Venables no. 3

[jjamez]

Number 4 our good friend Charlie austin

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Sorry Charlie wankstain

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Last one is Rodney marsh

[theo_luddite]

Keep grasping Snoots

but be careful

[WakeyTerrier]

Not wanting hijack this match thread but wasn't sure where else to put it.

Dean has done a YouTube interview with one of his lads mates.

Some quick notes.

We couldve signed Harry Maguire from Sheff Utd for £1m following our League 1 play off win, Ross Wilson said he was too slow

When we played Reading at Wembley it was agreed beforehand that the winner would give the loser £4million plus all the gate receipts(the gate receipts is standard practice)

The squad had a £10m Survival bonus in the first PL season
This was reduced to £7m in the second season but could've been as much as £12 depending on final position

We overpaid for Pritchard

We had a £20m deal to bring Traore from Boro but Dean was away on holiday and before they had the chance to seal the deal AT played for Boro in a pre season game and got injured. Wagner said he couldn't wait 6 weeks and so we bought Mbenza instead.

Loan repayments are now spread over 1-7years

Dean had offers from 2 foreign consortiums but they wanted to charge double figures in interest on loans, he didn't think that was right.
He didn't know Phil.
He is prepared to gift Canalside to the Club providing the payments come in on time for the loans, effectively writing off the £5m he invested in it and the remaining £10m he is owed. We have a rent agreement for Canalside for the next 10 years.
It sounds like a deal is in place for Deans remaining shares to be bought for a nominal fee/ £1m and £1.4m were the figures mentioned.

DH has no say in the running of the club.
DH says maybe he needs a break from Town, doubts he will watch them next season