QPR simply have to beat Stoke City at Loftus Road this Sunday if they’re to stay in the Premiership. Luckily, they’re not adverse to overcoming the odds and beating the Potters in recent times.
Stoke City 2 QPR 3, Saturday November 19, 2011, Premiership
It’s hard to believe that QPR are even the same club from the one that went to Stoke and won back in November. A 3-2 win at the Britannia Stadium moved Neil Warnock’s team up to eighth in the league and was their third away win from the first six road trips of the season. They were good value for it as well, out passing and outplaying Stoke to recover from an early Jon Walters goal and not only equalise when Luke Young got on the end of a flowing move to score his first goal for the club but then take the lead when Traore crossed and Helguson rammed in an unstoppable header. The lead was extended still further after half time when Helguson got on the end of Barton’s excellent cross and moments later Shaun Wright-Phillips hit the post in pursuit of a fourth. A typically direct goal from Ryan Shawcross made for a nervous last 25 minutes but Stoke completed just 117 passes in the entire game and QPR were good value for the win. Since then they have drawn two and lost ten of their 12 away matches.
Stoke: Sorensen 6, Wilkinson 5, Shawcross 6, Huth 6, Higginbotham 6, Pennant 5 (Fuller 68, 6), Whitehead 5 (Whelan 85, -), Delap 5, Etherington 6, Walters 7, Crouch 6 (Jones 65, 6)
Subs Not Used: Begovic, Wilson, Upson, Palacios
Booked: Wilkinson (foul), Shawcross (foul), Delap (foul), Fuller (foul)
Goals: Walters 8 (assisted Crouch), Shawcross 64 (assisted Crouch)
QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7 (Orr 77, 6), Ferdinand 6, Gabbidon 7, Hill 7, Wright-Phillips 7, Barton 7, Faurlin 8, Traore 8, Mackie 7, Helguson 9
Subs Not Used: Derry, Buzsaky, Smith, Hewitt
Booked: Barton (handball), Helguson (foul)
Goals: Helguson 22 (assisted Traore), 54 (assisted Barton), Young 44 (assisted Mackie)
QPR 3 Stoke 0, Sunday March 2, 2008, Championship
Stoke City were second in the Championship when these sides last met at Loftus Road, and were heading for promotion to the Premiership. QPR were in the early throws of the Flavio Briatore reign and his first manager Luigi De Canio was doing an excellent job of hauling the R’s away from the bottom three – nevertheless they were only fifteenth in the table when Tony Pulis’ men arrived in W12 and were heavy odds against for the live Sky clash. Stoke dominated the early proceedings and, as at the Britannia Stadium in the earlier meeting that season, Rangers really struggled to deal with their set piece threat – Mamady Sidibe headed against the underside of the bar from an early corner. Within a minute of that near miss though Mikele Leigertwood had drilled a spectacular opener in from fully 30 yards out. The quickly became 2-0 as Vine headed Buzsaky’s cross back into the path of Leigertwood once more who lashed into the roof of the net after arriving in the penalty box unchecked. Stoke made much of a the harsh straight red card handed out to Andy Griffin by referee Andy D’Urso just before half time for what seemed to be a fair tackle on Hogan Ephraim but Rangers were already well on their way to victory by then and the game was over when a counter attack from a dire Liam Lawrence free kick ended with Agyemany teeing up Buzsaky for a crisply struck third.
QPR: Camp 7, Mancienne 7, Connolly 7, Hall 7 (Stewart 79, -), Delaney 8, Buzsaky 8, Leigertwood 9, Rowlands 8 (Ainsworth 81, -), Ephraim 8, Agyemang 7, Vine 8 (Blackstock 75, 7)
Subs Not Used: Pickens, Lee
Booked: Mancienne (foul)
Goals: Leigertwood 12 (assisted Buzsaky) 21 (assisted Vine), Buzsaky 56 (assisted Agyemang)
Stoke: Simonsen 7, Griffin 3, Cort 5, Shawcross 5, Pugh 5, Lawrence 5 (Buxton 62, 6), Diao 6 (Gallagher 55, 5), Whelan 6, Cresswell 5, Sidibe 5 (Wilkinson 46, 5), Fuller 7
Subs Not Used: Hoult, Parkin
Sent Off: Griffin (two footed tackle)
Booked: Cresswell (dissent)
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 16 >>> Draws 8 >>> Stoke wins 8
2011/12 Stoke 2 QPR 3 (Helguson 2, Young)
2007/07 QPR 3 Stoke 0 (Leigertwood 2, Buzsaky)
2007/08 Stoke 3 QPR 1 (Vine)
2006/07 QPR 1 Stoke 1 (Rowlands)
2006/07 Stoke 1 QPR 0
2005/06 QPR 1 Stoke 2 (Ainsworth)
2005/06 Stoke 1 QPR 2 (Furlong, Langley)
2004/05 QPR 1 Stoke 0 (Cook)
2004/05 Stoke 0 QPR 1 (Gallen)
2000/01 Stoke 0 QPR 1 (Peacock)
2000/01 QPR 1 Stoke 0 (Thomson)
1997/98 Stoke 2 QPR 1 (Barker)
1997/98 QPR 1 Stoke 1 (Barker)
1996/97 Stoke 0 QPR 0
1996/97 QPR 1 Stoke 1 (Sinclair)
1984/85 Stoke 0 QPR 2 (James, Fillery)
1984/85 QPR 2 Stoke 0 (Bannister, Gregory)
1983/84 Stoke 1 QPR 2 (Allen, Fereday)
1983/84 QPR 6 Stoke 0 (Charles 2, Stainrod, Gregory, Stewart, Fillery)
1976/77 Stoke 1 QPR 0
1976/77 QPR 2 Stoke 0 (Bowles, Givens)
1975/76 Stoke 0 QPR 1 (Webb)
1975/76 QPR 3 Stoke 2 (Webb, Masson, Clement)
1974/75 Stoke 1 QPR 0
1974/75 QPR 0 Stoke 1
1973/74 Stoke 4 QPR 1 (Leach)
1973/74 QPR 3 Stoke 3 (Bowles 2, Givens)
1968/69 QPR 2 Stoke 1 (Leach 2)
1968/69 Stoke 1 QPR 1 (R Morgan)
1947/48 QPR 3 Stoke 0* (Hatton 2, Ramscar)
* - FA Cup
Little did we know it at the time, but Mike Sheron would represent the final role of the dice from chairman Chris Wright at Loftus Road before the club plunged into a world of financial difficulties and administration.
Sheron came through the youth ranks at Manchester City and averaged a goal every four games in the top flight in four seasons with the club that was flying high at the time under the management of Peter Reid. He scored 14 times in the inaugural Premiership season, moving the previous season’s top scorer David White out of the team and forging a prolific partnership with Niall Quinn. He won 16 England Under 21 caps and scored four goals but the signings of Paul Walsh and Uwe Rosler cleared the way for a £1m move to Norwich. He suffered with injuries at Carrow Road scoring only twice, one of them against QPR needless to say having also scored against us once for City as well.
Stoke paid £450,000 for his services in 1995, a move which saw Keith Scott go the other way in part exchange, and it was there in the final few months of the Victoria Ground’s existence that he really made a name for himself. He scored 39 goals in 71 starts for Lou Macari’s team including a 23 goal haul in the 1996/97 First Division season when Stoke finished twelfth.
In the league Sheron scored 18 times, one more than QPR’s John Spencer who had been in superb form at Loftus Road since joining from Chelsea midway through the campaign. Manager Stewart Houston promised Chris Wright promotion if he was allowed to team Sheron and Spencer up together in W12 and Rangers became embroiled in a bidding war with Stoke that eventually peaked at a club record transfer fee of £2.75m. Meanwhile the man QPR should have appointed as manager instead of Houston, Alan Curbishley, was quietly picking up the striker QPR should have bought instead, Clive Mendonca, from Grimsby Town for less than half Sheron’s price. Mendonca also scored 18 goals in the First Division in 1996/97.
Things started well for the new look QPR side. Despite a 4-0 reverse at Nottingham Forest a four game winning run in September carried them to joint top of the table and although Sheron missed the opening month injured he scored on his home debut, a 2-0 victory against West Brom. Then a run of one win from nine matches sparked by assistant manager Bruce Rioch’s fall out with Spencer that saw him loaned out to Everton saw the team slip to eighth and Houston was ditched after a meak surrender at Middlesbrough. Meanwhile that West Brom side QPR had beaten so comfortably at Loftus Road had climbed to the summit of the league in their place under the guidance of Ray Harford who, like Houston, promised Chris Wright he would win promotion if he had QPR’s forwards at his disposal. Harford controversially walked out of the Hawthorns to replace Houston, but by the end of the season QPR needed a famous 2-2 draw at Man City, in which Sheron scored, to secure safety.
In what was a low period in history for Rangers and in an undeniably poor team Sheron’s haul of 11 goals in his first season and nine in the first half of his second wasn’t that bad. It’s just for the transfer fee paid, and the wages he earned, he seemed very poor value and attracted more than his fair share of criticism from the terraces. When the financial shit hit the fan at Loftus Road Sheron was one of the first out of the door – unloaded for £1m to Barnsley just 18 months after he first arrived.
He played more for Barnsley than anybody else in his career, 172 appearances and 40 goals, before drifting down through the leagues with first Blackpool, then Macclesfield and Shrewsbury, and finally non-league Warrington Town. Now coaches the youth team at Bury.
Others >>>Jay Bothroyd, Stoke (loan) 2008, QPR 2011-present >>> Peter Crouch, QPR 2000-2001, Stoke 2011-present >>> Clint Hill, Stoke 2003-2008, QPR 2010-present >>> Jason Jarrett, Stoke (loan) 2005, QPR (loan) 2007-2008 >>> Chris Barker, Stoke (loan) 2004, QPR 2007-2008 >>> Andrew Davies, QPR (loan) 2005, Stoke 2008-present >>> Richard Johnson, Stoke 2004, QPR 2004-2005 >>> Paul Peschisolido, Stoke 1994-1996, QPR (loan) 2000 >>> Tony Scully, Stoke (loan) 1998, QPR 1998-2001 >>> Mark Stein, QPR 1988-1989, Stoke (loan) 1991, (loan) 1996-1997 >>> Gary Bannister, QPR 1984-1988, Stoke 1993 >>> Paul Barron, Stoke (loan) 1985, QPR 1985-1988 >>> Simon Stainrod, QPR 1980-1985, Stoke 1987-1988 >>> Robbie James, Stoke 1983-1984, QPR 1984-1987 >>> George Mountford, Stoke 1946-1950, QPR 1953-1954 >>> Des Farrow, QPR 1948-1952, Stoke 1952-1954 >>> John Bowman, Stoke 1899-1900, QPR 1901-1905
QPR 1 Stoke City 0, Saturday August 11, 2001
Scrapping out a result against the odds with your backs to the wall is the order of the day for QPR this weekend at Loftus Road , and luckily they have form against our visitors Stoke City . Rangers' recent record at the Britannia Stadium is formidable (four wins from six visits in a variety of circumstances) but for the memorable match this week we're going back a decade to a game at Loftus Road that signalled the start of a new era that reconnected the disenfranchised QPR fans with their team and led to a wonderful 18 months that involved a first ever play off final for the club and ultimately promotion.
You'd never have guessed it would go that way at the beginning. Ian Holloway took over a beleaguered QPR side that was meekly surrendering to relegation from the First Division in 2000. He had plenty of time to save the R's that season after succeeding Gerry Francis, but there was a malaise around a playing squad largely out of contract in the summer and shorn of its two England Under 21 stars Richard Langley and Clarke Carlisle by identical cruciate ligament injuries sustained within ten minute s of each other in a home game against Fulham. Despite the welcome additions of Andy Thomson and Marcus Bignot and the form of a young Peter Crouch Rangers were indeed relegated two games before the end of the season with a defeat at Huddersfield Town.
By then Rangers were in administration and that summer every out of contract player was released and both Crouch and Jermaine Darlington sold to Portsmouth and Wimbledon respectively for a fraction of their true worth. Langley and Carlisle surely would have gone as well had they been able to walk. Holloway was left with a squad of eight professionals, two of whom were already ruled out for the majority of the 2000/01 season with injury, and no kind of budget to deal with the situation.
There followed a bizarre summer when a vast and eclectic range of players made their way to Loftus Road from all over the world (but mostly Watford) looking to earn deals. New assistant manager Kenny Jackett recommended Vicarage Road stalwart Steve Palmer as a base for the project and he brought goalkeeper Chris Day and French midfielder Alex Bonnot with him. But they were the more sensible acquisitions. Aziz Ben Askar arrived unheralded from France on loan – he'd later win 14 caps for Morocco . Tiny Congolese striker Dou Dou was paid for by supporters after impressing in a friendly at Hampton and Richmond Borough from whom Holloway picked up barrel chested forward and non-league journeyman Leroy Griffiths who promptly destroyed Marcel Desailly in a stunning 3-1 pre-season victory against Chelsea .
There were mistakes made – Martin Bullock trialled but was turned down and then tormented Rangers for the following three seasons in Blackbpool colours – but overall Holloway did a magnificent job to not only get a squad together, but get it competitive. The acid test came in the blazing sunshine on the opening day of the season when much fancied Stoke City were in town.
Stoke had ambitious Icelandic owners and were managed by Gudjohn Thordarson. They'd won the Auto Windscreens Shield in 2000 but narrowly missed out on promotion in 2000/01 and were among the favourites to rectify that in 2001/02. As it turned out they'd succeed, but they suffered two 1-0 defeats to QPR that season along the way.
Holloway's QPR teams at this time were famed for their passion and spirit in adversity. They'd subsequently twice go on horrendous runs of form through the autumn but bounce back when all hope seemed to be lost and on this occasion they toughed out a highly impressive 1-0 success. Stuart Wardley, one of the six who remained from the Championship side, played out of position up front for the first hour and teed up Andy Thomson for the only goal of the game at the School End in the first half. Thomson was superb that season, scoring 21 goals in 38 games, but his impact at Rangers diminished thereafter because of a back problem.
Wardley was replaced in the second half by Griffiths, of whom much was expected after the Chelsea miracle, but he lasted only ten minutes before leaving the field injured. He reappeared two months later with a quick two goal blast in a midweek away match at Blackpool but never really hit the same heights again and soon dropped back into non-league.
The loan of Jerome Thomas late in the season sent QPR ona six game winning run that lifted them artificially high (they finished eighth) but Holloway added Marc Bircham, Paul Furlong and Gino Padula to that base he'd scrabbled together in three months and Rangers were at Cardiff for a play off final two years later. One year after that they won promotion back to the Championship with a 3-1 win at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday.
QPR: Day, Forbes, Ben Askar, Palmer, Bruce, Perry, Bignot, Bonnot, Connolly (Warren 89), Thomson, Wardley (Griffiths 59, (Koejoe 69))
Subs not used: Bull, Rose
Booked: Thomson
Stoke: Ward, Thomas, Handyside, Shtanuk, Clarke (Rowson 79), Gudjonsson, Vandeurzen, O’Connor, Hoekstra, Thorne, Cooke (Iwelumo 80)
Subs not used: Henry, Thordarson, Cutler
Booked: Thomas, Handyside, Shtanuk, Cooke
Highlights >>> QPR 3 Stoke 2 1975 >>> QPR 0 Stoke 1 1974
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