As QPR prepare to welcome Blackpool to Loftus Road on Saturday, LFW looks back at a big win for the Super Hoops against the Tangerines on this ground in 2003.

Recent Meetings:

Blackpool 0 QPR 2, Saturday December 14, 2013, Championship

QPR won by two clear goals in end of days conditions at Bloomfield Road back in December. It was probably Harry Redknapp’s finest hour this season as a lacklustre first half performance was turned around completely by second half substitutions — notably the introduction of Niko Kranjcar for Gary O’Neil. The Croatian calmed QPR down and made light of the driving rain and heavy pitch to inspire an excellent second half performance. Matt Phillips scored from long range against his former club to open the scoring — goalkeeper Matt Gilks was probably disappointed to concede so weakly — and then he crossed for Charlie Austin to thump home a second with his head.

Blackpool: Gilks 7; Basham 6, Broadfoot 6, Cathcart 6, Robinson 6; Osbourne 6 (Barkhuizen 72, 6), Ferguson 6, Gosling 6; Ince 6, Delfouneso 5 (Grant 80, -), Davies 6 (Chopra 68, 5)

Subs not used: Warner, Dobbie, Blackett, Harris

QPR: Green 7; Simpson 6, Dunne 7, Hill 6 (Onuoha 45, 7), Assou-Ekotto 7; Carroll 6, Barton 6; Phillips 7, Jenas 6 (Henry 84, -), O’Neil 5 (Kranjcar 54, 7); Austin 7

Subs not used: Traore, Chevanton, Hoilett Murphy

Goals: Phillips 61 (unassisted), Austin 73 (assisted Phillips)

Blackpool 2 QPR 2, Saturday January 16, 2010, Championship

QPR were in disarray when they visited Bloomfield Road in 2010, under the caretaker/permanent charge of manager Mick Harford following Paul Hart’s resignation after just a month with the club. Harford was Rangers’ third manager of the season already and League One was starting to look a distinct possibility for the R’s who had won just two of the previous 12 games. When Charlie Adam scored after nine minutes from a Barry Bannan assist a familiar story seemed ready to play out but when referee Trevor Kettle uncharacteristically awarded Rangers a generous penalty after half time for a dubious handball by Alex Baptiste, Adel Taarabt was on hand to cheekily chip the London side leve. Gary Taylor Fletcher struck what seemed certain to be the winner through a crowded penalty box 13 minutes from time but Matt Connolly proved an unlikely hero with an exquisite piece of thigh control and a 20 yard volleyed finish to win the R’s a point.

Blackpool: Rachubka 5, Eardley 6, Evatt 7, Baptiste 5, Crainey 6,Southern 6, Vaughan 7 (Euell 90, -), Adam 7, Ormerod 8,Taylor-Fletcher 7 (Nardiello 89, -), Bannan 8 (Burgess 60, 6)

Subs Not Used: Gilks, Martin, Edwards, Butler

Booked: Adam (foul)

Goals: Adam 9 (assisted Bannan), Taylor-Fletcher 77 (assisted Adam)

QPR: Ikeme 6, Hall 4 (Ramage 79, 6), Gorkss 7, Stewart 6, Connolly 7, Routledge 6, Leigertwood 5, Faurlin 6 (German 81, 7), Buzsaky 5 (Ephraim 46, 8), Taarabt 7, Agyemang 5

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Balanta, Simpson, Borrowdale

Booked: Routledge (foul)

Goals: Taarabt 55 (penalty), Connolly 84 (assisted German)

QPR 1 Blackpool 1, Saturday August 8, 2009, Championship

At Loftus Road on the opening day of the 2009/10 season QPR were both lucky to escape with a draw, and unlucky not to win the game. They were lucky to get the point they did from a 1-1 because they equalised late and the goal when it did come, through the most unlikeliest source, was a mishit cross from Peter Ramage that deceived the goalkeeper. However QPR had been the dominant force for much of the match and Ben Burgess’ first half opener after defensive hesitancy was against the overall run of play of the game.

QPR: Cerny 6, Ramage 7, Hall 6, Gorkss 6, Borrowdale 7, Routledge 6, Rowlands 7 (Agyemang 60, 7), Mahon 6, Balanta 7 (Buzsaky 56, 6), Helguson 5 (Vine 56, 5), Taarabt 6

Subs Not Used: Putnins, Stewart, Connolly, Ephraim

Booked: Helguson (foul), Routledge (foul), Buzsaky (foul), Hall (obstructing goalkeeper)

Goals: Ramage 86 (assisted Vine)

Blackpool: Rachubka 8, Crainey 6, Evatt 6, Baptiste 6, Edwards 6,Vaughan 6 (Clarke 73, 6), Adam 6, Southern 6, Euell 7, Burgess 7,Taylor-Fletcher 7 (Ormerod 68, 6)

Subs Not Used: Gilks, Eardley, Martin, Nardiello, Demontagnac

Booked: Adam (foul)

Goals: Burgess 37 (assisted Taylor-Fletcher)

Blackpool 0 QPR 3, Tuesday January 27, 2009, Championship

Rangers’ previous trip to Bloomfield Road saw them defy their poor away form under Paulo Sousa, and wild weather conditions, to record a comfortable 3-0 win. Wayne Routledge’s strong wing play set up Heidar Helguson for a first half headed opener and the Icelandic international, more than used to playing in the driving sleet that battered the players and uncovered QPR fans throughout the night, made it two after half time when he slid in a penalty after a foul on Lee Cook. Hogan Ephraim added a deserved third five minutes from time in what was one of QPR’s best away performances of the season.

Blackpool: Rachubka 7, Barker 6, Evatt 5, Edwards 5, Harte 3 (Crainey 64, 4), O'Donovan 5 (Nemeth 59, 5), Fox 5, Vaughan 6, Martin 4 (Owens 46, 6), Campbell 6, Taylor-Fletcher 6

Subs Not Used: Gilks, Baptiste

QPR: Camp 7, Connolly 6 (Hall 88, -), Stewart 7, Gorkss 8, Delaney 6, Routledge 8, Cook 7, Leigertwood 7, Mahon 7, Miller 6 (Ephraim 54, 7), Helguson 7 (Blackstock 75, 7)

Subs Not Used: Bulmer, Di Carmine

Booked: Cook (foul), Routledge (kicking the ball away)

Goals: Helguson 17 (assisted Routledge), 58 (penalty) Ephraim 90 (assisted Cook)

Previous Results

Head to Head >>> QPR wins — 14 >>> Draws — 9 >>> Blackpool wins — 3

2013/14 http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/33572/phillips-haun 0 QPR 2 (Austin, Phillips)

2009/10 http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/fb_news.php?storyid 1 Blackpool 1 (Ramage)

2008/09 Blackpool 0 QPR 3 (Helguson 2, Ephraim)

2008/09 QPR 1 Blackpool 1 (Blackstock)

2007/08 QPR 3 Blackpool 2 (Buzsaky, Vine, Rowlands)

2007/08 Blackpool 1 QPR 0

2003/04 Blackpool 0 QPR 1 (Rowlands)

2003/04 QPR 5 Blackpool 0 (Ainsworth 2, Langley, Gallen, Palmer)

2002/03 Blackpool 1 QPR 3 (Langley 3)

2002/03 QPR 2 Blackpool 1 (Langley, Clarke og)

2001/02 QPR 2 Blackpool 0 (Langley, Gallen)

2001/02 Blackpool 2 QPR 2 (Griffiths 2)

1989/90 QPR 3 Blackpool 0* (Sinton, Sansom, Barker)

1989/90 QPR 0 Blackpool 0*

1989/90 Blackpool 2 QPR 2* (Clarke 2)

1981/82 QPR 5 Blackpool 1* (C Allen 4, Stainrod)

1981/82 Blackpool 0 QPR 0*

1972/73 QPR 4 Blackpool 0 (Bowles, Francis, Thomas, Haton og)

1972/73 Blackpool 2 QPR 0

1971/72 QPR 0 Blackpool 1

1971/72 Blackpool 1 QPR 1 (Marsh)

1969/70 Blackpool 1 QPR 1 (Leach)

1969/70 QPR 6 Blackpool 1 (Marsh 3, Bridges 2, Venables)

1967/68 QPR 2 Blackpool 0 (I Morgan, Clarke)

1967/68 Blackpool 0 QPR 1 (L Allen)

* - FA Cup

Memorable Match

QPR 5 Blackpool 0, Saturday August 3, 2003, Second Division

You’d have perhaps forgiven QPR for making a slow start to the 2003/04 season, given the crushing disappointment they’d suffered at the end of the previous campaign.

A run of 12 matches without a win, including the infamous Vauxhall Motors debacle, looked like it might cost manager Ian Holloway his job during 2002/03 despite the admirable job he’d done rebuilding a side to be really proud of from a starting position of seven fit professionals while in administration. QPR rallied in the second half of that campaign though, boosted by the loan signing of Lee Cook and the transformation in striker Paul Furlong who went from public enemy number one to a modern day legend of the club in four extraordinary months.

The R’s lost only three of 24 games in the second half of the campaign, a run that included memorable last second wins at Cardiff City and Brentford with fantastic goals from Richard Langley and Marc Bircham respectively. That held off a spirited fight from Tranmere Rovers for the final play off spot but in actual fact, while most Rangers fans were busy looking for the Wirral side’s results over their shoulders, Holloway’s men had quietly closed the gap on the top two to the point where a victory against Crewe in the final home match would take the fight for automatic promotion between the R’s and the Alex right down to the last day. Of course, Andy Hall’s outrageous refereeing display, which featured two incredibly harsh red cards for Clarke Carlisle and Stephen Kelly, put paid to that dream and Dario Gradi’s men were able to celebrate promotion on the pitch.

The R’s rallied to beat Colchester on the final day, then secured a memorable, emotional play-off semi final victory against Oldham Athletic with a late Paul Furlong goal at the School End sealing a 2-1 aggregate success that almost literally brought the house down at Loftus Road. The momentum seemed to be entirely with Rangers but they contrived to lose a closely fought play-off final against Cardiff in Cardiff with almost the very last kick of extra time from striker Andy Campbell.

So near and yet so far, so much expended energy, so much disappointment, how would QPR respond?

Well, these were the days when Ian Holloway was the bubbly, enthusiastic, effervescent, inspiration behind the rebirth of a football club, as opposed to the gaunt, depressed, hollow shell of a great man we have seen this season at first Crystal Palace and then Millwall. He added Martin Rowlands from Brentford on a free transfer, despite him suffering a broken leg at the end of the previous season, and Gareth Ainsworth on a free transfer from Cardiff. They played left and right wing, feeding into a strike force of Furlong and Kevin Gallen, with Marc Bircham anchoring the midfield. It was a set up far too good for the Second Division and it absolutely annihilated Blackpool on the first day of the 2003/04 season.

Pool, managed by former Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon at the time, didn’t do themselves many favours by turning up for a match on the hottest day W12 had seen for many a long year in an all black kit. The place was baking hot that day, with pitch side temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees and the tube almost unusable because of the heat down there. Despite the referee allowing regular water breaks during play - a decision that was roundly applauded by the fans who seemed to feel the players’ pain as they sweated in their seats — Pool wilted and eventually collapsed under the weight of QPR pressure.

Ainsworth, who’d been flying during pre-season, scored first via a heavy deflection when he snuck in unmarked at the back post and slid a typically devilish corner from Gino Padula back towards goal. He was heavily involved in the second as well, bustling into the penalty area and teeing up Furlong for a shot that goalkeeper Phil Barnes parried up into the air. The ball looked like it would fall into the net anyway before it was cleared from the goal line but the pressure stayed on and when Ainsworth smashed the ball back into the six yard box Richard Langley collected his customary goal against Pool from close range.

Langley would score a spectacular winner for the R’s in a League Cup game at Cheltenham a few days later before being sold to newly promoted Cardiff with money that allowed the R’s to purchase Kevin McLeod permanently after a successful loan spell and Luton striker Tony Thorpe.

The third goal, after half time, actually started with QPR repelling a Blackpool attack but when Flynn slipped attempting to clear Ainsworth’s punt away down field it let Furlong in for a clear run on the Blackpool goal and although Barnes made the first save the ball fell nicely for Kevin Gallen to open his account for the season at the Loft End.

Ainsworth made it 4-0 through sheer persistence after being freed into the area by Furlong and then right at the end the inspirational club captain Steve Palmer climbed high and headed home a deep Padula free kick after being left unmarked at the far post.

Rangers went on to win promotion, second behind Plymouth Argyle, with a 3-1 win at Hillsborough against Sheffield Wednesday in front of 7,000 travelling fans on the final day of the season. Blackpool recovered sufficiently to finish fourteenth.

QPR: C Day, T Forbes, G Padula, C Carlisle, D Shittu, R Langley, G Ainsworth (M Rowlands, 75), S Palmer, M Bircham, K Gallen (T Williams, 81), P Furlong (E Sabin, 75)

Subs not used: N Culkin, D Oli

Bookings: Furlong

Blackpool: P Barnes, S Grayson (L Richardson, 71), K Hilton, M Flynn (C Clarke, 71), S Davis, D Coid (J Douglas, 45), M Bullock, R Wellens, N Danns, M Sheron, S Taylor

Subs not used: R Walker, L Jones

Red Cards: Wellens 90 (two bookings)

Bookings: Davis

Referee: Paul Taylor

Attendance: 14,581

Highlights >>> 0 QPR 2, 2013/14 >>> 2 QPR 2, 2009/10 >>> 5 Blackpool 0 2003/04 >>> 2 QPR 2, 2001/02 >>> Blackpool 1 QPR 1, 1969/70 >>>

Connections

Trevor Sinclair >>> Blackpool 1989-1993 >>> QPR 1993-1998

I was actually fortunate enough to see Trevor Sinclair before he arrived at QPR to replace Andy Sinton in the summer of 1993. A year prior to that he'd been a second half substitute for Division Four side Blackpool at Wembley as they beat my home town Scunthorpe United in the play off final on penalties. Sinclair was eye catching — a black lad in an almost entirely white team, bouncing and tricking his way up and down the wing with his mop of a dreadlocks and enormous backside trailing behind him — and had attracted the attention of plenty of higher division clubs by the time Gerry Francis moved in with Richard Thompson's moth-eaten cheque book.

Sinclair was very different to Sinton. He'd go around the houses and trick full backs to get past them, whereas Sinton was far more direct and reliant on pace. A fabulous goal in a Sunday clash with West ham in 1995 when Sinclair picked the ball up on halfway and drove straight towards goal before lashing in from the edge of the box showed he did have some of Sinton's strengths in his locker, but goals at Leeds the following season and two at Spurs the previous year were far more typical of him.

At the time he represented exactly what QPR needed to do in the transfer market. They'd bought Sinton from nearby Brentford for a few hundred thousand and sold him onto big spending Sheffield Wednesday for £2.5m, then replaced him with Sinclair for £600,000. Sadly the model went awry soon after he'd arrived when Darren Peacock, initially a well scouted bargain basement purchase from Hereford, was sold on to Newcastle at a big profit but only replaced by Karl Ready, a wholly inadequate waste of space from our youth team who miraculously, and infuriatingly, went on to clock up a decade of, most dreadful, service at Loftus Road.

Sinclair quickly forced his way into the England Under 21 reckoning, making his debut against Denmark at Griffin Park in 1994, and became a real hit at Loftus Road . Sadly, at that time, becoming a hit at Loftus Road meant QPR fans would have to read rather a lot about your impending move to Arsenal/Spurs/Man Utd/Blackburn in the gutter press and Sinclair certainly wasn't short of admirers by the time Rangers dropped out of the top flight in 1996. That relegation was the direct result of the sale, and failure to replace, talismanic striker Les Ferdinand the summer before and in fact Sinclair found himself pressed into action as a central striker that season as Kevin Gallen and Danny Dichio's inexperienced partnership, supplemented unsuccessfully and only very occasionally by Mark Hateley, failed to fire. Sinclair won the club's Player of the Year award as the club dropped down a level but stayed with the R's in Division One.
That paved the way for him to score arguably the club's greatest ever goal in an FA Cup Third Round tie with Barnsley.

QPR have beaten Barnsley at Loftus Road since dinosaurs roamed the earth and did so twice in 1996/97 despite the Tykes ascension to the Premier League at the end of that season. They were struggling somewhat in the cup game — reduced to ten men by one of Andy Impey's trademark Floyd Mayweather impressions and a goal down early on thanks to a vintage piece of Tony Roberts goalkeeping — but Sinclair settled nerves and wowed the nation with a 20 yard, airborne bicycle kick into the roof of the net down at the School End. It won the BBC's Goal of the Season that year, the third time a QPR player had taken the award.

His relationship with the W12 faithful was testy by this stage though. He was booed prior to a league game with Man City the following season after apparently requesting a transfer — boos turned to cheers when he instinctively lobbed in the opening goal from fully 40 yards. His time at Loftus Road was coming to an end, and Harry Redknapp was waiting to pounce. The deal that took Sinclair from Loftus Road to Upton Park went down in the QPR annuls as just about the worst piece of business the club has ever done. The Hammers were able to secure QPR's best player, previously linked with a £6m Premiership move and later called up by England for four appearances at the 2002 World Cup, for little over £1m with the truly dreadful trio of Iain Dowie, Keith Rowland and Tim Breaker to sour the deal. It was the sort of deal you'd do on Championship Manager having taken over a club with the clear intention of destroying it for sport.

Sinclair didn't make the same mistake he had at QPR when West Ham were relegated in 2003 — he jumped ship immediately and made a £3m move to Manchester City, the club he'd supported as a boy. He'd become more versatile during his time in East London and played both left and right wing for City, scoring the club's first ever goal at Eastlands in a UEFA Cup game against Welsh side TNS. He was released to join Cardiff City alongside fellow veterans Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in 2007 but injuries restricted his impact. He appeared for the final four minutes of the club's 2008 FA Cup final defeat against Portsmouth but never appeared against QPR after leaving.

He retired to a television presenting job on the Abu Dhabi Sports channel where he fronts Final Score, a weekly Premier League highlights programme.

Others >>> Matt Phillips, QPR 2013-present, Blackpool 2010-2013 >>> DJ Campbell, QPR 2011-2013, Blackpool 2010-2011 >>> Ian Holloway, Blackpool (manager) 2009-2012, QPR (manager) 2001-2006, 1991-1996 >>> Kaspars Gorkss, QPR 2008-2011, Blackpool 2006-2008 >>> Paul Hart, QPR (manager) 2009-2010, Blackpool 1973-1978 >>> Danny Nardiello, Blackpool 2008-2010, QPR 2007-2008 >>> Zesh Rehman, Blackpool (loan) 2008, QPR 2006-2009 >>> Marcus Bean, Blackpool 2006-2008, QPR 2001-2006 >>> Phil Barnes, QPR (loan) 2006, Blackpool 1997-2004 >>> Ian Evatt Blackpool 2006-2013, QPR 2005-2007 >>> Danny Shittu QPR 2011-2012, 2001-2006, Blackpool (loan) 2001 >>> Clarke Carlisle, QPR 2000-2004, Blackpool 1997-2000 >>> Marvin Bryan, 1995-2000, QPR 1992-1995 >>> David Bardsley, Blackpool 1998-2000, 1981-1983, QPR 1989-1998 >>> John Burridge, QPR 1980-1982, Blackpool 1971-1975 >>> Mickey Walsh, QPR 1978-1981, Blackpool 1973-1978

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Photo: Action Images

MTG added 09:42 - Mar 29 Tim Breacker actually joined the following season, I believe signed by Dowie when in Caretaker charge. Just to emphasise how bad the Sinclair deal was!
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