As QPR prepare to face Watford in Paulo Sousa's first game in charge we look back on some of the players that have played for both clubs and a memorable match between the sides.
This Saturday at Watford QPR fans get their first glimpse of a Rangers team managed by former Portugal international Paulo Sousa. Every sentence he has uttered since taking the job has contained the words “hard work, loyalty and ambition” and his opening gambit to the players on Thursday certainly left them in no doubt what he expects to see from them right from the word go. Watford have it right at one end of the pitch but not the other – the worst defence in the league married up with the third best attack – and represent a reasonable opportunity for Sousa to get off to a good start.
As QPR come out of caretaker control this column goes into it, Ash is moving house and is currently sitting in amongst a pile of boxes somewhere in deepest Charlton Athletic country. That means you’re stuck with me for a couple of matches and while I’m sure some of you won’t, most will understand if I ‘cheat’ and go for a nice easy recent game this week in the interests of getting everything finished before the actual game kicks off. Still, you can’t argue with a 4-2 away win can you?
Memorable Match
Watford 2 QPR 4
Championship
December 29, 2007
The thing I remember most from this match was the surreal sight of QPR scoring three goals in the first half without me actually believing it was happening. I remember going up the steps before the match as the teams were read out and turning back over my shoulder to speak to Northern the Elder and we both said at exactly the same time “well we won’t be winning with that team.”
Watford came into the game flying high in the top four of the Championship as they looked for an immediate return following their summer relegation from the top flight. QPR were struggling down at the foot of the table and faced a relegation six pointer with Leicester 48 hours later – something that was clearly playing on manager Luigi De Canio’s mind as he left out star turns Akos Buzsaky and Rowan Vine in favour of Marc Nygaard and Angelo Balanta who made a full debut wide on the left.
Still Watford could have been said to be in a false league position at the time as their performances were declining at an alarming rate and they had failed to win any of their previous six home games prior to this one, losing to Plymouth, Bristol City, Burnley and West Brom and drawing two. QPR attacked from the off and had the game dead and buried by half time.
QPR opened the scoring inside a quarter of an hour when a through ball from Balanta had Blackstock through on goal until he was barged off the ball by Jordan Stewart. It was an obvious penalty and Premiership referee Chris Foy has certainly never been shy of giving those – Martin Rowlands stepped up and swept the ball home in front of 2500 travelling QPR fans. QPR’s defence had cost them points on Boxing Day at Plymouth when a 1-0 lead turned to a 2-1 defeat late in the second half so confidence was hardly brimming over in the away end despite the early lead, although a few were daring to dream on the half hour when a near post corner from Rowlands was bulleted into the roof of the net by Damion Stewart.
Rowlands had been absolutely outstanding to this point and he capped a fine first half display with an emphatic finish at the end of a tidy move between himself, Adam Bolder and Balanta on the edge of the penalty area.
In the second half Watford sent on former QPR man Danny Shittu as a makeshift striker and pummelled the visitors with an ugly long ball game as they hunted for a way back into the game. Lee Camp mad crucial saves and Watford were profligate in their finishing but they did pull one back when a wild goal line clearance from Zesh Rehman flew into his own net off Camp.
Never before can I recall an away end so nervous at 3-1 up but the party was back in full swing ten minutes from time when Akos Buzsaky climbed off the bench to collect another assist from Rowlands and score after waltzing around the keeper. Buzsaky ran the length of the field to celebrate the crucial fourth goal in front of the QPR fans. Danny Shittu hammered in a consolation goal in the last minute but his most memorable contribution to the game was his rapport with the visiting fans to whom he threw his shirt after the final whistle.
Watford: Lee 5, Doyley 6 (O'Toole 79, -), DeMerit 4, Jackson 3 (Shittu 46, 7), Stewart 5, Smith 6, Williamson 6, Francis 6, McAnuff 6, Darius Henderson 6, Ellington 5 (King 68, 6)
Subs Not Used: Mariappa, Ainsworth
Booked: Doyley (throwing the ball away), Smith (foul)
Goals: Camp og 52, Shittu 84 (assisted Henderson)
QPR: Camp 7, Barker 7, Rehman 7, Stewart 8, Malcolm 7, Bolder 7, Rowlands 9, Ainsworth 6 (Vine 64, 6), Balanta 6 (Buzsaky 73, 7), Nygaard 6 (Walton 90, -), Blackstock 6
Subs Not Used: Cole, Moore
Booked: Nygaard (foul), Barker (foul)
Goals: Rowlands 13 pen, Stewart 29 (assisted Rowlands), Rowlands 40 (assisted Balanta), Buzsaky 80 (assisted Rowlands)
Match Report
Postscript: Watford ended up squeezing into the top six based largely on their form in the first three months of the season and were soundly beaten in the play offs by a Hull side that had come into form at the right time. QPR comfortably climbed away from the drop zone but were prevented from making an unlikely play off push of their own by a series of last minute goals against.
Connections
Steve Palmer
Watford – 1995 to 2001
QPR – 2001 to 2004
The term ‘unsung hero’ was invented for people like Steve Palmer. Ian Holloway once memorably pointed out that at a concert you cannot have everybody playing the piano, you have to have somebody to carry the instrument onto the stage in the first place and in the nicest possible way Palmer was that piano carrier for QPR.
Palmer started his career at Ipswich Town in the late 1980s after graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in software engineering. He played mostly as a steady holding midfield player, getting and giving, winning and passing – an intelligent man on and off the pitch and very useful to Ipswich as they attempted to keep pace with the ever changing face of football around the dawn of the Premiership.
Watford, a team he had once scored an own goal against for Ipswich, paid £135,000 for him in 1995 when Glenn Roeder was the manager. The Hornets were struggling in the third tier at this stage but Palmer earned plenty of plaudits for his central midfield performances. In 1997 when Graham Taylor returned for one of his 137 spells in charge of Watford he found himself out of the team with Richard Johnson and Micah Hyde occupying the midfield roles but he acted as cover in a variety of positions and, when he started the final game of the season in goal, he set a unique record of starting in every shirt from 1 to 14 during the campaign. Palmer later went close to playing in goal for QPR in a game at Hartlepool before the last second signing of Lee Camp got us out of jail.
When promoted into the First Division for the 1997/98 season palmer moved to centre half alongside Robert page and formed a solid base for the Hornets. Palmer was voted the club’s player of the year and got a play off winners medal to go along with that after their Wembley success against Bolton took them into the Premiership. Palmer was ever present in the top flight but Watford were comfortably relegated and when Gianluca Vialli took over 12 months later, bringing the likes of Ramon Vega with him, Palmer was first sidelined and then transfer listed.
QPR meanwhile had seen their squad decimated by administration to such an extent that new manager Ian Holloway had just seven professionals signed up to start pre-season ahead of the 2001/02 season, and two of those players Richard Langley and Clarke Carlisle were out for many months to come with ruptured knee ligaments. Holloway embarked on a recruitment mission the likes of which has rarely been seen and, aided and abetted by assistant manager Kenny Jackett, Watford became something of a local convenience store for the R’s. Chris Day and Alex Bonnot joined Palmer in making free transfer moves to W12 and the veteran proved to be exactly what QPR needed. A mercilessly consistent performer and wonderful captain for a team that often had to be introduced to each other in the dressing room before matches.
He was superb in his first season – ever present and captain at centre half - but over the coming two campaigns his age and chronic lack of pace increasingly caught him out. At centre half there were few better performers in the Second Division however he was definitely a ‘manager’s player’ in that Ian Holloway would select him whenever he was fit enough to get out of bed when often supporters would have preferred to see somebody like Aziz Ben Askar given a run in the side. Holloway’s infuriating insistence that a 36 year old Palmer could still play in the centre of midfield in his last season with the club when all facts said otherwise meant that many QPR fans do not remember Palmer as fondly as they should. He was a terrific signing at just the right time at QPR and did a wonderful job with us in a difficult period.
He was offered a coaching role at the end of the 2003/04 promotion season but he turned it down to continue playing at MK Dons for a further 12 months before finally retiring. An incredibly likeable fellow and terrific pro he is now working in Tottenham’s academy set up
Magic R’s Moment - A flying header at the Loft End on the opening day of the promotion season – the fifth goal in a comprehensive demolition of Blackpool.
Devon White
QPR – 1993 to 1994
Watford – 1996 to 1997
What a fantastic stroke of luck that Ash turns this column over to me just at the very moment we play a club that gives me a chance to talk about Devon White. Regular readers of A Kick Up The R’s and our fine message board will know that Devon is, strangely, one of my all time favourite QPR players despite his time with us only being brief and his unconventional style often being confused with a lack of ability.
Devon made a big impression on me as a youngster. You see when I was ten years old QPR were a bloody good team, fifth in the Premiership, and they had international players like Les Ferdinand who would rip the teams all my school friends supported to pieces so I could go to school on Monday not only sporting a big smile because we’d just beaten Spurs again, but also because I had been there to see it. Every now and again though Les would get injured - usually his big toe as I recall, an injury often attributed by my Father after a couple of drinks to a lady called Danni Behr. If only I’d known then what I do now.
Anyway when Les was at home having his toe rubbed by whoever this Danni Behr woman was QPR would wheel out Devon White – once memorably described by The Times as being “as tall as a lamp post and about as mobile.” Needlessly cruel I thought, especially as it was a report of a victory at White Hart Lane, a victory Devon had set up by helpfully wrestled Erik Torsvedt to the ground and then laying on top of him until Trevor Sinclair had stuck the ball into the empty net. Devon was a trier and he seemed to make everybody laugh so I liked him. He also scored his fair share of goals for Rangers.
Plenty of people laughed when I recently wrote a feature entitled ‘top nine goals every scored for QPR by Devon White’ for AKUTRs because I had originally planned a top ten only to realise he never quite made it into double figures. Still, as unconventional cover for the best striker in the country at that time and a man whose background was more in re-wiring plugs than playing premiership football he did bloody well.
After QPR Devon played for Notts County and won them the Anglo Italian Cup (the campaign to bring that competition back starts here by the way) with a bullet header at Wembley against Brescia. This was enough for Watford to splash £100k on him in 1996 but despite two goals on his debut the Vicarage Road fans never took to him as much as those at QPR had done and he moved back to Notts County 12 months later. He finished his career touring the lower leagues and non-league pyramid with the likes of Shrewsbury and Ilkeston and now works as a leccy again in Nottingham.
I don’t care what anybody says, Devon is a cult hero in my eyes and a breath of fresh air compared to some of the over paid tossers currently playing in our top flight. A record of 126 goals in 417 goals when he was ostensibly a target man speaks for itself – Kevin Davies would kill for it.
Magic R’s Moment A brace of goals at the Loft End in a 3-0 win against Ipswich in 1994, the second of which was headed in from 12 yards out harder than most football players can kick it. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaamer. Indeed.
Others:
David Bardsley – Watford 1983-1987, QPR 1989-1998, currently running soccer schools in America
Alex Bonnot – Watford 1991-2001, QPR 2001-2002, now retired
Tony Currie – Watford 1967, QPR 1979-1982, now football in the community officer at Sheffield United
Chris Day – Watford 1997-2001, QPR 2001-2005, now with Stevenage Borough
Paul Furlong – Watford 1992-1994, QPR 2000, 2002-2007, now with Southend and still a legend
Heidar Helguson – Watford 1999-2005, QPR since yesterday
Kenny Jackett – Watford 1980-1990 (player) 1996-1997 (manager), QPR 2001-2004 (coach), now Millwall manager
Richard Johnson – Watford 1991-2003, QPR 2004-2005, now back ‘down under’ playing for Wellington although he only escaped jail for drink driving on appeal last year
Mike Keen – QPR 1959-1969, Watford 1972-1975, now retired since managing Wycombe up to 1984
Gavin Mahon – Watford 2002-2007, QPR 2008 to present
Ian Morgan – QPR 1964-1973, Watford 1973-1974, now a sports consultant.
Gary Penrice – Watford 1989-1991, 1995-1997, QPR 1991-95, currently out of work but normally coaches and scouts for Ian Holloway
Glenn Roeder – QPR 1978-1983, Watford 1989-1992 (player), 1993-1996 (manager), now Norwich boss
Danny Shittu – QPR 2001 -2006, Watford 2006 – 2008, now with Bolton
Frank Sibley – QPR’s youngest ever player at 15 and now scouting for Watford
Fans’ Memories
Last year was great of course, I remember surrendering any hope of winning when I heard our team and it seemed LDC was resting people for the more important Leicester match but then we went and scored four! Also the day Steve Slade scored and Vinnie Jones turned up fists flailing demanding to play then maimed some Watford player in the first three minutes.-Northernr
Many years ago, Roeder using his shuffle to bamboozle two defenders, trot through and calmly slot the ball away for the winner. 2-1 I think. -WatfordR
I remember standing on an open terrace in a pre-season friendly watching Stan Bowles an Tony Currie absolutely tear Watford apart. What a season of promise beckoned. Then Bowles was sold, we were devastated! -BazWot
The Simod cup circa 1990,Seaman saving 4 penalties in a shoot out -loftboy
Macca scoring the only goal with a peach of a volley, I think it was on a very Good Friday. -ChrisPTenner
Beating them 1 nil on the way to Wembley in 86. -zranger
6 or 7 thousand turning up in the mid 90's for a league game and being locked out for ages. We got in around 3.15. Also, Steve Slade scoring then cupping his ears at us. Never cheered a QPR goal before then slated the player. What an obnoxious up his own arris wanka of a player he was. -charlie
Gary Bannister hat trick -officerdibble
Seemed to go up there a lot late 70s/80s and getting soundly spanked. -Parker64
I remember about 1981 and playing them in the 3rd FA CUP at home, we lost 2-1. I think big Bob Hazell got our goal, an own goal and gave away a penalty for their winner. Time may have clouded my memory. Last year Danny Shittu throwing his shirt into our fans would have given me the hump had it been the other way round. -Tourettes_R
I was going to go to Vicarage Road last year, but then after our mini-bad run at the start of December, culminating in the 2-1 defeat at home to Palace I decided not to bother. That'll teach me. I've only been to Vicarage Road once, in the 00/01 season. I vaguely remember us dominating, conceding two sloppy goals and going on to tamely lose 3-1. Same old! -Mr Foxy
If you want to add your memories e-mail us loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk, post on the message board thread or use the commenting facility below.