With Norwich in W12 to face QPR this Saturday, LFW looks back at a Second Division meeting between the two sides from 1967 as the R’s powered their way through the league structure to reach the top flight for the first time.

Recent Meetings

Norwich 1 QPR 1, Saturday August 25, 2012, Premier League

QPR and Norwich had both been given stark reality checks on the opening day of this campaign as they both embarked on that difficult second season in the top flight. At Loftus Road the R’s had been thrashed 5-0 by Swansea while the Canaries lost by the same scoreline down the road at Fulham. There were plenty of nerves around therefore as the teams met for their second games of the season at Carrow Road. Norwich settled quicker and opened the scoring in the eleventh minute when a slick move around a static defence allowed Anthony Pilkington to cross for Simeon Jackson to head in from almost on the goalline. Rangers could have caved in – and in fact for the next three months that’s pretty much all they did – but they fought their way back into this one and equalised ten minutes after going behind when Djibril Cisse was felled in the area and Bobby Zamora slotted in the rebound from the resulting penalty after the Frenchman’s initial effort had been saved by John Ruddy. Replays showed Zamora was several yards inside the area when the kick was taken and the goal should not have stood but given how poor and shambolic the QPR performance was on the day, the London side didn’t need asking twice and were grateful for a point they scarcely deserved.

Norwich: Ruddy 6, R Martin 6, Barnett 6, Bassong 6, Garrido 6, Snodgrass 7, Johnson 6, Howson 6, Pilkington 6, Holt 7 (Morison 87, -), Jackson 7 (C. Martin 87, -)

Subs: Rudd, Surman, Hoolahan, Tierney, R. Bennett

Goals: Jackson 11 (assisted Pilkington)

QPR: Green 6, Fabio 6, Ferdinand 5, Hill 4 (Onuoha 6), Traore 6 (Bosingwa 70, 6), Mackie 6, Diakite 5 (Derry 85, -), Park 6, Hoilett 6, Cissé 5, Zamora 6

Subs: Murphy, Johnson, Taarabt, Wright-Phillips

Goals: Zamora 19 (unassisted)

Bookings: Hill 24 (repetitive fouling), Ferdinand 82 (foul)

QPR 1 Norwich 2, Monday January 2, 2012, Premier League

QPR suffered a frustrating home defeat to Norwich last season as Neil Warnock’s reign as manager came to a sad end. Things had started well for the home team when Joey Barton lashed in a well executed volley to give them an early lead, but Barton quickly turned from hero to villain. At the midway point of the half he squared up to Norwich midfielder Bradley Johnson after being kicked in an off the ball incident. Johnson jerked his head back, pretending he’d been headbutted, but referee Neil Swarbrick and linesman Dave Richardson initially played on with QPR in possession suggesting they’d seen nothing wrong. When play came to a halt Grant Holt and the Norwich players surrounded the officials and after prolonged discussion Barton was sent off. Anthony Pilkington scored a fine equaliser before half time and it came as no surprise when former Millwall man Steve Morrison won the game with seven minutes remaining.

QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7, Ferdinand 7, Gabbidon 6, Hill 6, Derry 6, Faurlin 6, Barton 6, Taarabt 7 (Campbell 85, -), Mackie 5 (Wright-Phillips 46, 7), Helguson 6 (Macheda 80, -)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Connolly, Hulse

Sent Off: Barton 36 (“attempted headbutt”)

Booked: Helguson (foul), Wright-Phillips (foul)

Goals: Barton 11 (assisted Hill)

Norwich: Ruddy 7, Martin 6, Whitbread 7, Ayala 7, Drury 6 (Fox 66, 6), Bennett 6, Johnson 6, Lappin 6 (Hoolahan 66, 6), Pilkington 7, Holt 7 (Morison 66, 7), Jackson 6

Subs Not Used: Rudd, Surman, Wilbraham, Naughton

Booked: Ayala (foul)

Goals: Pilkington 42 (unassisted), Morison 83 (assisted Bennett)

Norwich 2 QPR 1, Saturday November 26, 2011, Premier League

QPR suffered their annual defeat at Carrow Road in late November 2011. Buoyed by a surprise victory on the road at Stoke the week before Rangers came into the match against their fellow newly promoted side full of confidence but found themselves tormented by Norwich striker Grant Holt once again. Holt stooped to head home a late winner minutes after coming off the bench just at the point that it seemed QPR were the more likely side to go on and win the game. Russell Martin, as he did in this fixture the previous season, gave Norwich an early lead with a fine finish after poor defending but Luke Young scored a deserved equaliser when Jamie Mackie’s long range drive rebounded out to him off the base of the post. That set the scene for Holt’s super sub act that left Rangers empty handed.

Norwich: Ruddy 7, Martin 8, Barnett 5, De Laet 6 (Naughton 58, 6), Tierney 5, Pilkington 7 (Hoolahan 70, 7), Johnson 6, Crofts 6, Surman 7, Morison 8, Jackson 7 (Holt 70, 7)

Subs Not Used: Rudd, Fox, Bennett, Wilbraham

Booked: Naughton (foul)

Goals: Martin 15 (unassisted), Holt 73 (assisted Hoolahan)

QPR: Cerny 6, Young 8, Gabbidon 5, Ferdinand 5, Hill 6 (Bothroyd 57, 7), Wright-Phillips 6 (Smith 79, 6), Derry 5 (Buzsaky 77, 6), Faurlin 8, Traore 7, Mackie 7, Helguson 6

Subs Not Used: Putnins, Orr, Hall, Puncheon

Goals: Young 59 (assisted Mackie)

Norwich 1 QPR 0, Saturday January 1, 2011, Championship

Rangers met Norwich at Carrow Road in the first game of 2011. Norwich were in great form and closing in on QPR at the top of the Championship table at the time. They’d overhauled Leeds at the top of League One the season before the home supporters spent most of this game taunting the visitors that the same thing was about to happen. It didn’t, QPR went onto win the division, but Norwich did beat Rangers thanks to a fabulous early strike from full back Russell Martin. QPR’s cause wasn’t helped by Matthew Connolly’s second sending off in as many visits to Norfolk for fouling Grant Holt as he ran through on goal but the R’s should have equalised late on when Patrick Agyemang hit the post with a header that should have been scored. Norwich were promoted in second behind QPR.

Norwich: Ruddy 7, R Martin 7, Nelson 6, Whitbread 6, Drury 6, Smith 7, Crofts 7, Hoolahan 8, C Martin 7, Holt 8, Wilbraham 6 (Gill 82,-)

Subs Not Used: Rudd, Jackson, Johnson, McNamee, Tudur Jones, Berthel Askou

Goals: R Martin 10 (assisted C Martin)

QPR: Kenny 8, Walker 6, Gorkss 6, Connolly 5, Hill 6 (Orr 46, 6), Derry 7, Faurlin 6, Clarke 4, Mackie 6, Taarabt 6 (Tofas 62, 6), Helguson 5 (Agyemang 46, 7)

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Rowlands, Hulse, Borrowdale

Sent Off: Connolly 51 (denying obvious goal scoring opportunity)

Booked: Hill (foul), Taarabt (foul)

QPR 0 Norwich 0, Saturday October 16, 2010, Championship

Wes Hoolahan’s first half penalty miss was the headline of a goalless draw between these two sides when they met at Loftus Road during their promotion season. The Irishman drilled a spot kick wide of Paddy Kenny’s left hand post midway through the first half after a theatrical fall by striker Grant Holt under meagre contact from Matt Connolly in the penalty area. In truth both teams seemed happy with a point from pretty early in the second half and a goalless draw was a fair result from a drab fixture.

QPR: Kenny 7, Walker 8, Connolly 8, Gorkss 8, Hill 7, Derry 6, Buzsaky 7 (Leigertwood 27, 4), Mackie 6, Taarabt 6 (Smith 76), Ephraim 5 (Agyemang 69, 5), Helguson 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Clarke, Faurlin

Booked: Derry (dissent), Mackie (foul)

Norwich: Ruddy 7, R Martin 7, Barnett 6, Ward 7, Drury 6 (Steven Smith 58, 6), Crofts 7, Hoolahan 5 (C Martin 69, 6), Smith 6, Lappin 6, Holt 7, Jackson 5

Subs Not Used: Rudd, Fox, Johnson, McNamee, Berthel Askou

Booked: Ward (foul), Barnett (impeding throw in), Lappin (foul)

Previous Results

2012/13 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Zamora)

2011/12 QPR 1 Norwich 2 (Barton)

2011/12 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Young)

2010/11 Norwich 1 QPR 0

2010/11 QPR 0 Norwich 0

2008/09 QPR 0 Norwich 1

2008/09 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Rowlands)

2007/08 Norwich 3 QPR 0

2007/08 QPR 1 Norwich 0 (Rowlands)

2006/07 Norwich 1 QPR 0

2006/07 QPR 3 Norwich 3 (Rowlands 2, Smith)

2005/06 Norwich 3 QPR 2 (Ainsworth, Cook)

2005/06 QPR 3 Norwich 0 (Furlong, Santos, Nygaard)

2000/01 Norwich 1 QPR 0

2000/01 QPR 2 Norwich 3 (Carlisle, Wardley)

1999/00 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Kiwomya 2)

1999/00 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Wardley)

1998/99 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Murray, Peacock)

1998/99 Norwich 4 QPR 2 (Sheron, Peacock)

1997/98 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1997/98 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Peacock)

1996/97 QPR 3 Norwich 2 (Peacock, Dichio, McDermott)

1996/97 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Impey)

1994/95 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Ferdinand, Gallen)

1994/95 Norwich 4 QPR 2 (Barker, Gallen)

1993/94 Norwich 3 QPR 4 (Barker, Penrice, Peacock, White)

1993/94 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Sinclair, Ferdinand)

1992/93 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Ferdinand 2, Wilson)

1992/93 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Allen)

1991/92 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Bailey)

1991/92 QPR 0 Norwich 2

1990/91 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1990/91 QPR 1 Norwich 3 (Wegerle)

1989/90 QPR 2 Norwich 1 (Falco, Clarke)

1989/90 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1988/89 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Falco)

1988/89 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1987/88 QPR 3 Norwich 0 (Channing, Coney, Fereday)

1987/88 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Allen)

1986/87 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Rosenior)

1986/87 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1984/85 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Fereday, Wicks)

1984/85 Norwich 2 QPR 0

1983/84 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Dawes, Waddock)

1983/84 Norwich 0 QPR 3 (Stainrod, Fenwick 2)

1981/82 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Roeder)

1981/82 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Stainrod, Gregory)

1978/79 QPR 0 Norwich 0

1978/79 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (G Francis)

1977/78 QPR 2 Norwich 1 (Eastoe, Cunningham)

1977/78 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Needham)

1976/77 Norwich 2 QPR 0

1976/77 QPR 2 Norwich 3 (Masson, Webb)

1975/76 Norwich 3 QPR 2 (Thomas, Powell og)

1975/76 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Masson, Bowles)

1973/74 QPR 1 Norwich 2 (Bowles

1973/74 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1971/72 QPR 0 Norwich 0

1971/72 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1970/71 Norwich 3 QPR 0

1970/71 QPR 0 Norwich 1

1969/70 QPR 4 Norwich 0 (Marsh, Venables, Clarke, Bridges)

1969/70 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1967/68 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1967/68 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Keen, I Morgan)

1959/60 QPR 0 Norwich 0

1959/60 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1958/59 Norwich 5 QPR 1 (Longbottom)

1958/59 QPR 2 Norwich 1 (Longbottom, Kerrins)

1957/58 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Cameron)

1957/58 Norwich 2 QPR 0

1956/57 Norwich 1 QPR 2 (Longbottom, Painter)

1956/57 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Angell, Locke, Quigley)

1955/56 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1955/56 QPR 2 Norwich 3 (Petchley, Smith)

1954/55 QPR 2 Norwich 1 (Angell, Cameron)

1954/55 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Smith)

1953/54 QPR 0 Norwich 2

1953/54 Norwich 2 QPR 2 (Clayton, Hawkins)

1952/53 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Waugh 2, Tomkys)

1952/53 Norwich 2 QPR 0

1947/48 Norwich 5 QPR 2 (Hatton, Smith)

1947/48 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Hatton, McEwan, Pettison)

1946/47 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Mills)

1946/47 QPR 2 Norwich 0*(Hatton, Mills)

1946/47 Norwich 4 QPR 4* (Mills 2, McEwen, Pattison)

1946/47 QPR 1 Norwich 1 (Hatton)

1933/34 Norwich 1 QPR 0

1933/34 QPR 5 Norwich 2 (Blackman 2, Emmerson 2, Clarke)

1932/33 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Goodier, Howe)

1932/33 Norwich 3 QPR 2 (Marcroft, Goddard)

1931/32 QPR 2 Norwich 2 (Blackman, Cribb)

1931/32 Norwich 2 QPR 1 (Lewis)

1930/31 QPR 3 Norwich 1 (Goddard 2, Rounce)

1930/31 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Goddard)

1929/30 QPR 3 Norwich 2 (Goddard 3)

1929/30 Norwich 3 QPR 0

1928/29 Norwich 3 QPR 1 (Goddard)

1928/29 QPR 3 Norwich 0 (Coward 2, Rounce)

1927/28 QPR 0 Norwich 0

1927/28 Norwich 3 QPR 1 (Johnson)

1926/27 Norwich 0 QPR 1 (Lofthouse)

1926/27 QPR 4 Norwich 0 (Goddard 2, Lofthouse, Vargo)

1925/26 QPR 0 Norwich 1

1925/26 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Whitehead)

1924/25 Norwich 5 QPR 0

1924/25 QPR 1 Norwich 2 (Ogley)

1923/24 Norwich 5 QPR 0

1923/24 QPR 2 Norwich 1 (Parker, Johnson)

1922/23 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Gregory, Birch)

1922/23 Norwich 1 QPR 1 (Davis)

1921/22 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Gregory, Smith)

1921/22 Norwich 0 QPR 0

1920/21 QPR 2 Norwich 0 (Gregory, Birch)

1920/21 Norwich 2 QPR 0

1909/10 QPR 3 Norwich 0* (Steer, McNaught, Whyman)

1909/10 Norwich 0 QPR 0*

* - FA Cup

Memorable Match

QPR 2 Norwich 0, Saturday August 26, 1967, Second Division

QPR had been standard Third Division, and Third Division South, fodder for their entire existence until the 1960s when Jim Gregory took over as chairman and started to build the club, and the stadium, into the modern Rangers we see today. The 1966/67 campaign was the one that really put a marker down, with Rangers winning the Third Division championship and the League Cup at Wembley by beating First Division West Brom 3-2 having trailed 2-0 at half time.

The core of that team – Mark Lazarus who scored the winning goal at Wembley in his third spell with the club, the Morgan twins, former Spurs double-winning striker Les Allen – was still in place for an assault on the Second Division in 1967/68 and although talismanic striker Rodney Marsh was injured and didn’t feature at all for the R’s until November it didn’t bother Stock’s men as they ripped into the higher division. Stock added Allan Harris from Chelsea for £30,000 to strengthen the side during the summer and an opening day draw at Portsmouth was followed by a 2-0 win at Bristol City where Mick Leach scored both goals. Leach led the attack for the opening home match of the campaign against Norwich City for which 14, 526 packed into the old style Loftus Road.

The Canaries were stalwarts of the division, promoted in 1959/60 and resident there ever since. They’d begun with two home games – a 1-0 win against Aston Villa and 3-1 loss to Preston – but would prove to be no match for newly promoted QPR on their first road game of the season.

Rangers opened the scoring when leach fed Allen on the edge of the box and despite being out by the corner of the area with his back to goal and with two defenders for company he managed to control the ball, turn the first man, beat the second and then collapse to ground under challenge from a third. Leach followed up with a shot that was well saved by Kevin Keelan but it wouldn’t have counted as the referee had already awarded a penalty.

Keelan made a staggering 571 appearances for Norwich in goal, playing for the club from 1963 right the way through until 1980 having come through the ranks at Aston Villa initially, but he was no match for Rangers skipper Mike Keen who calmly sent him the wrong way from the penalty spot and scored with a right footed shot into the keeper’s bottom left hand corner.

If he’d been pretty helpless to prevent that one, there was certainly no excuse for what was to come. Ian Morgan, with support from his brother to the left and several other team mates to his right, almost lazily decided to try his luck with a left footed shot from the best part of 25 yards that carried little venom but somehow squeezed under Keelan as he dived on top of it, rolled a foot over the line and stopped dead. That made it 2-0 and Rangers were on their way to a second win of the season.

The R’s won ten of their first 14 matches to lay the platform for a second consecutive promotion – they finished second to champions Ipswich while Norwich ended up ninth. The pace of change in W12 was clear when they kicked off a First Division campaign for the first time in their history the following year in front of a building site on the South Africa Road side of the ground – perhaps not surprisingly they were relegated with just 18 points and four wins (all at home) but they returned to the top flight in 1973 under Gordan Jago and went agonisingly close to winning the whole thing in 1976 with Dave Sexton in charge only to blow it late in the campaign with a 3-2 defeat to Norwich at Carrow Road. A win there and the R’s would have been champions of England for the only time in their history.

QPR: Springett, Clement, Hunt, Hazell, Harris, Keen, I Morgan, Lazarus, Allen, Leach, R Mogan

Sub: Watson

Attendance: 14,526

Highlights >>> Norwich 2 QPR 1 2011/12 >>> QPR 0 Norwich 0 2010/11 >>> QPR 3 Norwich 0 04/05 >>> Norwich 2 QPR 0 1984/85 >>> Norwich 3 QPR 2 1976 >>> QPR 2 Norwich 0 1967

Connections

Although born a West Country boy of Bristol, Cureton actually started his footballing career over in Norfolk with Norwich City. He made his debut for the Canaries in their last Premier League season before relegation and scored an impressive eight goals in just 17 games for City. However Cureton struggled to get into the team the following season and despite becoming a cult-hero at Carrow Road for dying his hair green and yellow for a match against rivals Ipswich in 1996, Cureton moved onto Second Division Bristol Rovers under manager Ian Holloway. It was at The Memorial Stadium that Cureton really showed his goal-scoring prowess, twice scoring more than twenty goals in one season to finish as Rovers top scorer.

A move to promotion hopefuls Reading followed and he continued his goal-scoring feats with the Royals and helped them gain promotion to the First Division in 2002. A year later though Cureton decided to try his luck abroad and signed for South Korean club Buscan Icons, turning down a summer move to Loftus Road in the process. The gamble never really paid off for Jamie though and a year on with just four goals to his name in Asia, Cureton decided to come back to England.

It look as though it would be with Peterborough until former gaffer Ian Holloway got his man at the second attempt with the help of the ‘Our QPR’ fund. This was somewhat controversial at the time as the fund had initially been started to pay bills and keep the threat of administration away from a potentially promotion winning QPR side – chief executive David Davies had said earlier in the season that players may have to be sold to meet costs. QPR had also bought Tony Thorpe after being rejected by Cureton that summer so the move was a strange one all round. He struggled to get into the side that won promotion back to the Championship that season with a last day win over Sheffield Wednesday, but did contribute two vital goals, including one with the last kick of the game, to a 3-2 win against Port Vale at Loftus Road without which Bristol City would have beaten us to second place.

The goals never quite came for him, mainly due to Holloway repeatedly playing him out of a position on the right-wing to accommodate Tony Thorpe along with Kevin Gallen and Paul Furlong. His only goals in the Championship the following season strangely came against Coventry, with a memorable hat-trick that included a Van Basten like volley at Loftus Road and another at Highfield Road but he soon found himself surplus to requirement and was farmed out first on loan to Swindon then Colchester before landing a permanent moved to Layer Road in 2006. It was here he rediscovered his shooting boots winning the Championship Golden Boot award with 24 in the 2006/07 season and securing a move back to his first club Norwich City.

Cureton has been very hit and miss for his entire career – enjoying great spells with Bristol Rovers and Reading, and poor ones with QPR and then Norwich second time around. Cureton managed just 48 starts, and a further 28 substitute appearances across three years in his second spell with the club – a time that saw Norwich quickly rattle through four managers and sink down into League One. He spent time on loan with Barnsley and then Shrewsbury looking for first team football before joining Exeter City in 2010. His time at St James’ Park was prolific, he scored 17 League One goals last season but left to join Leyton Orient where he managed just one in 23 last season suggesting his career was winding down. Not a bit of it, now aged 37 he’s back at Exeter and has an impressive 16 goals in 28 appearances for the Grecians who are now in League Two.

Others >>> Lee Camp, QPR (loan) 2004, (loan) 2007, 2007-2009, Norwich (loan) 2006, Norwich 2013-present >>> Jimmy Smith, QPR (loan) 2006-2007, Norwich (loan) 2007 >>> Jason Jarrett, Norwich 2005-2006, QPR (loan) 2007-2008 >>> Zesh Rehman, Norwich (loan) 2006, QPR 2006-2009 >>> Jamie Cureton, Norwich 1993-1996, 2007-2010, QPR 2004-2005 >>> Dean Marney, QPR (loan) 2004, Norwich (loan) 2005 >>> Robert Taylor, Norwich 1990-1991, QPR (loan) 2001 >>> Peter Crouch, QPR 2000-2001, Norwich (loan) 2003 >>>Paul Peschisolido, QPR (loan) 2000, Norwich (loan) 2001>>> Brian McGovern, QPR (loan) 1999-2000, Norwich 2000-2002 >>> Bruce Rioch, QPR (coach) 1996-1997, Norwich (manager) 1998-2000 >>> Matt Jackson, QPR (loan) 1996, Norwich 1996-2001 >>> Mike Sheron, Norwich 1994-1995, QPR 1997-1999 >>> Andy Linighan, Norwich 1988-1990, QPR (loan) 1999 >>> Dean Coney, QPR 1987-1989, Norwich 1989-1991 >>> John O’Neill, QPR 1987, Norwich 1987-1988 >>> Glenn Roeder , QPR 1978-1983, Norwich (manager) 2007-2009 >>> Chris Woods, QPR 1979-1981, Norwich 1981-1986

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qprmick added 09:28 - Feb 2 I don't think we powered our way to the First Division, in fact it was fairly dour stuff. March out for a long spell. 4 teams scored more goals than us, which we were just not used to.The defence really carried us home. Many of us went to Villa for the last game and there was a collective sigh of relief as we finally made it. Lovely own goal it was an all. On to the First Division, surprising to say I enjoyed watching our young fellows come of age, we just about got the hang of it at the tail end of the season. Oh well, better days were in front of us.

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