A tricky opening day, The Bald Eagle, and a cup final to forget - History Monday, 23rd Aug 2021 22:33 by Clive Whittingham Oxford's visit to Loftus Road on Tuesday night sees us look back to the opening day of the 1996/97 season, the often overlooked QPR achievements of Jim Smith, and, yes, the 1986 League Cup final. Memorable MatchQPR 2 Oxford 1, Saturday August 17, 1996, First Division QPR were relegated from the Premier League in 1995/96. For years they’d successfully sold their best player each summer (Paul Parker, Andy Sinton, Darren Peacock) but been able to replace well on a tight budget — Trevor Sinclair from Blackpool to replace Sinton arguably the outstanding example. But the loss of Les Ferdinand, the team’s talismanic centre forward, to be replaced by Mark Hateley and the inexperienced Danny Dichio, allied to Clive Wilson leaving for Spurs after a contract wrangle and David Bardsley getting a long term injury, was too much quality going out of the side all at once without adequate replacement. Richard Thompson’s failure to invest in a team arguably only a goalkeeper and Ray Wilkins replacement away from serious tilts at league, cups and European football cost him and the club dearly, as they departed the top table for the first time since the early 1980s just as the television money started to get astronomical. Optimism, nevertheless, was high going into the first season back in the second tier. There would be new grounds to visit, and we’d be doing it with a team that would almost certainly be coming straight back. The hated boards of the past had finally been prised out of the club after years of protest, and QPR fan and Chrysalis boss Chris Wright was finally in charge willing to spend money to rebuild the team. Kevin Gallen and Trevor Sinclair had remained, Wilkins was kept on as manager, and Loftus Road expected in the sunshine on opening day.
Oxford, though, were an awkward opponent. Denis Smith was leading them on a climb up the Football League for which he’d be rewarded with a bigger gig at West Brom. They’d given QPR a fright over two legs in the League Cup a year prior, and gone on to win promotion from the Second Division in second place, a point ahead of Blackpool in third courtesy of a remarkable run of one loss in their final 17 fixtures. They won 13 of those, including the last four to clinch the promotion, and along the way beat hated local rivals Swindon 3-0, Peterborough 4-0, Burnley 5-0 and Shrewsbury 6-0. This was a team with Matt Elliott at centre half, who would go on to win League Cup and play in Europe with Leicester, former Forest starlet Nigel Jemson in attack, and perennial scourge of QPR Joey Beauchamp on the wing, fresh from blowing up his big money move from Swindon to West Ha, because he was “homesick”. That momentum, and QPR’s hangover, looked like it might produce an upset on day one when Jemson made the most of a fast start with the opening goal. Wilkins’ blind faith in Hateley had stretched into a second season, with the old carthorse started up top ahead of Danny Dichio, and QPR were labouring until Kevin Gallen got in on Trevor Sinclair’s assist on a narrow angle and finished sharply across the goalkeeper into the far corner. Dichio replaced Hateley soon after and scored the winner with ten to play, striding onto a back post cross and bulleting a header into the top corner.
The partnership of Dichio, and especially Gallen, was another great hope for that season. Man Utd had been linked with the latter and it was seen as a coup for QPR to hang onto both him and Sinclair at the lower level. The following Friday, in a televised away game at Portsmouth, Gallen scored twice in another 2-1 win to leave Rangers six for six at the start of the season. Sadly, infamously, he blew his knee out in the process of turning home the winning goal and didn’t play again that season. A draw at Wolves, with a spectacular Dichio goal, followed before Bolton won at Loftus Road. Backroom politics between the new board, Wilkins and CEO Clive Berlin saw the manager depart after that game. Although Stuart Houston was recruited at great expense from Arsenal where he’d impressed in prolonged caretaker spells, his decision to bring his old boss Bruce Rioch with him as a role-reversal assistant was not a conspicuous success and he took too long to spend the money available to him, costing the R’s the permanent addition of impressive loanee Matt Jackson and leaving too much ground to make up when Gavin Peacock and the superb John Spencer were belatedly recruited in November. By that point Rangers had won just five of 20 games, and although Spencer and Peacock sparked a run of five from five the gap was too great and QPR ended up ninth in the First Division with a team that included Spencer, Peacock, Sinclair, Rufus Brevett, Paul Murray, Andy Impey, Danny Dichio, Alan McDonald, Simon Barker and others. A chronic, terrible waste of an opportunity that would come back to haunt them as the Wright-era quickly unravelled in mismanagement and financial catastrophe. Oxford finished seventeenth, and would stay in the division another two seasons under first Smith and later Malcolm Shotton. They haven’t been back at this level since. QPR: J Sommer, K Ready, A McDonald, S Yates, R Brevett, S Barker, M Brazier, R Wilkins, M Hateley (D Dichio, 66), K Gallen, T Sinclair Subs not used: Roberts, Maddix Goals: Gallen 60, Dichio 77 Bookings: Ready, Brazier, Sinclair, Dichio Oxford: P Whitehead, L Robinson, M Ford, D Smith, M Elliott, P Gilchrist, D Rush (M Murphy, 82), R Ford, M Aldridge (P Moody, 65), N Jemson (M Angel, 65), J Beauchamp Goals: Jemson 17 Bookings: Elliott, Gilchrist Attendance: 14,703 Recent MeetingsQPR 1 Oxford United 0, Wednesday March 3, 1999, First Division Gerry Francis’ attempt to rescue QPR from relegation to the Second Division was hanging by a thread when Oxford were last in W12 for a competitive fixture. Stricken by financial problems and beset with injuries, Francis had been called back in the autumn for a second spell in charge, and quickly picked up six invaluable wins against Barnsley, Bolton, Crewe, Bradford, Port Vale and Norwich. The latter was on Boxing Day, and sadly it was the last the team managed for three months. By the time fellow strugglers Oxford came to town for a midweek game in early March, Rangers were nine games without a win. They did, crucially, win this one though. Rob Steiner, a super signing from Bradford to cover Chris Kiwomya’s injury and Iain Dowie’s crapness, got in goallside and onside onto a hooked through ball just after half time and just got enough power on the shot to bundle it under Paul Gerrard for a scrambled winner. Rangers subsequently won well at home to Swindon and West Brom, but they were their only successes in the final 12 games and when the lost five in a row through to the final day of the season relegation seemed certain. A highly suspicious 6-0 victory against Crystal Palace on the final day saved their bacon. Oxford went down with Bury and Bristol City. QPR: L Miklosko, T Breacker, I Baraclough, M Rose, K Ready, D Maddix (C Plummer 44), G Kulcsar, G Peacock, R Steiner, K Gallen, L Jeanne (P Murray 87) Subs not used: I Dowie Goals: Steiner 46 Bookings: Breacker, Jeanne Oxford: P Gerrard, L Robinson, C Remy (M Murphy, 81), M Gray, M Watson, P Gilchrist, N Banger, P Tait, K Francis (A Thomson, 66), D Windass, J Beauchamp Subs not used: A Rose Bookings: Watson Attendance: 9040 Oxford United 4 QPR 1, Saturday September 26, 1998, First Division There are many pub debates about the lowest moments in QPR’s recent history, and obviously Vauxhall Motors is always front of mind, but Oxford away in September 1998 is right up there. The Chris Wright money had been spent by Stuart Houston, Ray Harford’s promise that he’d definitely win promotion with a strikeforce of Spencer, Sheron and Gallen had turned into a disaster, and Rangers were circling the drain financially and football-wise. They’d won only one of the first 11 games, at home to lowly Stockport, and were soundly trounced by Oxford, and regular foe Joey Beauchamp, in a defensive horror show. Andy Thomson, who’d later help spark the revival of the club as part of Ian Holloway’s Second Division side, bagged the third. The second is one of the worst goals you’ll ever see a professional football team concede. Randomly, Tony Scully’s last minute consolation, was QPR’s Goal of the Season. Harford’s car was vandalised by disgruntled supporters in the car park and he resigned after the match. Oxford: P Whitehead, L Robinson, S Marsh, M Gray, P Whelan (M Murphy, 55), P Gilchrist, P Powell, D Smith (D Hill, 81), A Thomson, D Windass (J Cook, 83), J Beauchamp Goals: Beauchamp 15, Murphy 64, Thomson 72, Windass 75 QPR: L Harper, A Heinola (A Scully, 53), I Baraclough, S Yates, K Ready, D Maddix, S Slade, G Peacock, G Kulcsar (M Sheron, 70), K Gallen, P Murray (M Rose, 63) Goals: Scully 90 Attendance: 7849 Previous ResultsHead to Head >>> QPR wins 14 >>> Draws 6 >>> Oxford wins 9 1998/99 QPR 1 Oxford 0 (Steiner) ConnectionsJim Smith >>> QPR (manager) 1985-1988 >>> Oxford (manager) 1982-1985 When Jim Smith, The Bald Eagle, passed away in December 2019 it left QPR fans to reflect on his Loftus Road legacy. Smith is rarely mentioned in conversations about the club’s greatest managers, with Gordon Jago, Alec Stock, Dave Sexton and Terry Venables obviously out in front, and then a second tier behind them including but not limited to Gerry Francis, Ian Holloway first time around and Neil Warnock. The reason for that, and the elephant in the room all the way through this midweek round of History, is the 1986 League Cup, QPR’s last major trophy final at Wembley. Rangers had beaten Brian Clough’s storied cup specialists Nottingham Forest, bitter near neighbours Chelsea with an extra time goal from the halfway line by Michael Robinson, and the Liverpool of the 1980s over two legs including an extraordinary 2-2 draw in the second game at Anfield. They were red hot favourites to beat unfancied Oxford in the final, but choked and were beaten 3-0 thanks to goals from Trevor Hebberd, former QPR man Jeremy Charles, and nearly QPR man Ray Houghton. Smith had built that Oxford team. He’d won leagues early in his managerial career with Boston, Blackburn and Birmingham before pitching up at Oxford having been unceremoniously dumped by the Blues in favour of Ron Saunders despite promoting them and consolidating them in the top flight. With Oxford he took them from Third Division to First, the first time in the club’s history it had played in the top flight. He only left the Manor Ground to move to QPR after a contract wrangle with club owner Robert Maxwell and when Rangers were beaten at Wembley by his old side his comments pre and post game angered many in Shepherd’s Bush, with it almost seemingly like Smith was pleased the team he’d built at a club he loved had won the cup even though it was at the expense of his then employer. His decision midway through 1988/89 to walk out and join Newcastle, who he tried and failed to save from First Division relegation, possibly also counts against him.
But when judged overall, his record at Loftus Road was very creditable. He inherited a shambles after the brilliance of Terry Venables’ reign in W12 had collapsed into the farce of Alan Mullery’s mismanagement, and took that on not only to the club’s last domestic cup final, but also a fifth-placed finish in the top flight in 87/88 for which Gerry Francis is revered having repeated in 1993. QPR were top that season heading to Liverpool in October after registering their best ever start to a league season — eight wins, a draw and a loss to… Oxford away. Many of the players that formed the basis of great sides for Don Howe and Francis later on were brought in during Smith’s reign. Chief among them, a young Les Ferdinand from Hayes, and Paul Parker on the cheap from Fulham, and David Seaman from Birmingham but also Simon Barker, Danny Maddix, Trevor Francis, Mark Falco and others. Much is made of the buy-low-sell-high recruitment during Francis’ time, and Bobby Gould’s ‘little black book’ that bailed Don Howe out of an injury-riddled hole, but the signings made by Smith don’t get nearly as much coverage. He was an early pioneer of wing backs, utilising the pace of Wayne Fereday, the sweeping ability of Terry Fenwick, and the outright angry violence of Mark Dennis. Though how much of that was down to assistant Peter Shreeves is up for debate. He was also in charge for the 6-0 Easter win at home to Chelsea. Later in his career he won promotion to the Premier League, and consolidated there, with Derby County. He was Harry Redknapp’s assistant for Portsmouth’s ascent from First Division to Premier League mainstay and FA Cup winner. He took on Oxford again, at a low ebb, and lost narrowly in the Conference play-offs prior to his retirement. Others >>> Jordan Archer, QPR 2021-present, Oxford 2019-2020 >>> Mide Shodipo, QPR 2015-present, Oxford (loan) 2020-2021 >>> Rob Dickie, QPR 2020-present, Oxford 2018-2020 >>> Todd Kane, QPR 2019-present, Oxford (loan) 2018 >>> Jamie Mackie, Oxford 2018-2020, QPR 2015-2018, 2010-2013 >>> Steve McClaren, QPR (manager) 2018-2019, Oxford 1989-1992 >>> Gary Waddock, Oxford (manager) 2014, QPR (manager) 2006, 1991-1992, 1979-1987 >>> Jim Magilton, QPR (manager) 2009, Oxford 1990-1994 >>> Stefan Bailey, QPR 2005-2008, Oxford (loan) 2007 >>> georges Santos, Oxford (loan) 2007, QPR 2004-2006 >>> Rufus Brevett, Oxford 2006-2007, QPR 1991-1998 >>> Eric Sabin, Oxford 2005-2006, QPR 2003-2004 >>> DouDou, Oxford 2005, QPR 2001-2004 >>> Andy Thomson, QPR 2001-2003, Oxford 1998-1999 >>> David Bardsley, QPR 1989-1998, Oxford 1987-1989 >>> John Byrne, Oxford 1993-1995, QPR 1984-1988 >>> Gary Bannister, Oxford (loan) 1992, QPR 1984-1988 >>> Mark Stein, Oxford 1989-1991, QPR 1988-1989 >>> Kevin Brock, QPR 1987-1989, Oxford 1979-1987 >>> Peter Hucker, Oxford 1986-1989, QPR 1980-1986 >>> Jeremy Charles, Oxford 1985-1987, QPR 1983-1985 >>> Billy Hamilton, Oxford 1984-1987, QPR 1978-1979 >>> Andy McCulloch, Oxford 1974-1976, QPR 1970-1972 If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via PayPal Pictures — Action Images The Twitter @loftforwords Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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