The Britannia Stadium is becoming one of Britain’s most feared grounds for visiting teams, but QPR’s recent record in this part of the world is actually very good and they’ll be hoping for more of the same this Saturday.

Recent Meetings

QPR 3 Stoke 0, Sunday March 2, 2008, Championship

Stoke City were second in the Championship when these sides last met, 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)

Stoke 3 QPR 1, Tuesday November 27, 2007, Championship

A run of three wins from four visits to the Britannia Stadium was dented by a comfortable defeat on our last visit. Rangers were caught cold on a blustery Tuesday night - struggling badly in the face of Stoke’s physical approach to the game. A long throw and a free kick, both appallingly defended, meant the R’s were two down before the game had really got going – Richard Cresswell and Liam Lawrence got the goals. Referee Uriah Rennie sent off Dexter Blackstock straight after half time but with ten men QPR played their way back into the game and scored a great goal through Rowan Vine to halve the deficit. Just as the home fans were starting to get on their own side’s back and it looked like an amazing come-back may be on Stoke bullied a third through Leon Cort and the game was up.

Stoke: Simonsen 7, Wright 7 (Wilkinson 82, -), Cort 7, Shawcross 8, Pugh 7, Lawrence 7, Eustace 6, Delap 7, Cresswell 7, Sidibe 7 (Parkin 77, 6), Fuller 8 (Phillips 86, -)

Subs Not Used: Hoult, Zakuani

Booked: Delap (foul)

Goals: Cresswell 5 (assisted Fuller), Lawrence 19 (unassisted), Cort 77 (assisted Lawrence)

QPR: Camp 5, Mancienne 5 (Malcolm 20, 5), Stewart 7, Timoska 4, Barker 6, Rowlands 7 (Bolder 81 -), Leigertwood 6, Buzsaky 6, Sinclair 7, Vine 6 (Nygaard 79, 6), Blackstock 5

Subs Not Used: Cole, Ainsworth

Sent Off: Blackstock (47) (foul)

Goals: Vine 63 (assisted Rowlands)

Previous Results

Head to Head >>> Stoke wins 8 >>> Draws 8 >>> QPR wins 15

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

Connections

Mike Sheron >>> Stoke 1995-1997 >>> QPR 1997-1999

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

Thanks to Harlow and Maude at QPR Report for spotting the later ones.

Memorable Match

Stoke 0 QPR 1, Saturday October 2, 2004, Championship

QPR have generally enjoyed visiting Stoke since they moved to the Britannia Stadium with three wins from five matches played, but rarely has the task been simple or without controversy.

In 2004 QPR were new comers to the Championship after winning promotion from what was then called the Second Division the year before. They’d found the going tough initially, taking five games to register their first league win amid reports that popular manager Ian Holloway was about to be ousted and replaced by Argentinean Ramon Diaz at the behest of new board member Gianni Paladini.

Holloway’s future apparently hung on a September home fixture with Plymouth Argyle which he duly won 3-2. Rangers, with Diaz waiting in the wings for a slip up, then embarked on a remarkable run of seven straight victories against the likes of West Ham, Leicester and Coventry that catapulted them up to fourth in the table and eventually cemented their place in the division and Holloway’s job as manager despite a decline after Christmas.

The sixth win in that series came at the Britannia against Tony Pulis’ Stoke side which had been promoted from the division below two years before us. Despite eventually winning promotion in 2001/02, Stoke did lose twice to Queens Park Rangers – once on the opening day at Loftus Road, and then again at home after Christmas. Both games finished 1-0 – the latter was settled by Gavin Peacock and followed by ugly scenes outside the ground afterwards where the visiting supporters’ coaches and bus back to the station were attacked by disgruntled home fans.

This bad blood formed the backdrop of an extraordinary afternoon of football in the Potteries. This niggly game exploded into life just after the half hour mark when another midfield skirmish brought players from both sides together for a round of handbag swinging. Suddenly giant defender Gerry Taggert, who almost joined Rangers several years previously, became embroiled in the incident and Marc Bircham hit the deck clutching his face. Birch won’t mind admitting now he’s retired I’m sure that at best he made the most of meagre contact and at worst he cheated. Referee Eddie Evans bought it hook, line and sinker – sending Taggert off and sparking ugly scenes on and off the field.

Stoke, propelled by a sense of injustice and fury, attacked the game with real vigour thereafter and QPR did well to hang in there and not go under in the face of a constant barrage of pressure from the ten men. After Evans failed to dismiss Paul Furlong in the second half for a horrendous two footed lunge the mood darkened further and when Kevin Gallen, playing in a new central midfield role, calmly slotted home the only goal of the game from the edge of the area it was clear that getting out of the game afterwards was going to be a challenge.

The Stoke fans, labouring under the misapprehension that the QPR fans had anything to do with the sending off or the refereeing, surrounded the pen behind the away end after the match and pelted them with rocks from the car park surface. The club had to smuggle Marc Bircham out with the team bus also coming in for some fearful abuse.

A season later QPR came and repeated the trick – winning by a single goal aided by another sending off, this time John Halls, and a penalty kick. After this game things got properly out of hand. The double decker bus taking QPR fans back to Stoke station became lodged on a roundabout outside the stadium as it tried to escape a gang of Stoke fans who then set about trying to topple it over. On the pitch two Stoke fans ran onto the playing surface, wrestled QPR goalkeeper Simon Royce into the back of the net and started to beat him up.

Stoke escaped FA punishment for this while QPR were fined £20,000 for failing to control the players who rushed to their team mate’s aid.

Stoke: E de Goey, J Halls, W Thomas, G Taggart (s/o 38), M Hall, D Russell , D Brammer (C Asaba, 45), C Clarke , L Neal (C Hill, 41), G Noel-Williams (K Henry, 45), A Akinbiyi

Subs: S Simonsen, C Greenacre

Sent off: Taggert 38

Booked: Russell, Clarke, Noel Williams, Akinbiyi

QPR: C Day, M Bignot, D Shittu, G Santos, M Rose, M Rowlands (K McLeod, 78), M Bircham (M Bean, 78), K Gallen, L Cook (S Branco, 79), J Cureton , P Furlong

Subs: R Edghill, G Padula

Goals: Gallen 69

Booked: Cureton, Furlong.

Links >>> QPR 3 Stoke 0 Match Report >>> Stoke 3 QPR 1 Match Report >>> QPR 3 Stoke 2 1975 Highlights >>> QPR 0 Stoke 1 1974 Highlights

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All pictures copyright Action Images

Photo: Action Images

gingerranger added 19:38 - Nov 16 The thing I remember most about that game was the disgraceful behaviour of Ade Akinbiyi. He did enough to be sent off 3 times over and became a pantomime villain in the eyes of Rangers fans for years. Idiot!
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poznanpaul added 20:38 - Nov 16 Remember going to the game with Bircham's old man, Lee. He was meant to be taking Marc and Martin Rowlands back afterwards, as they were going straight out and didn't want to catch the team bus. The Old Bill had other ideas, made the coach pull up to the exit so nobody could get down the side and we had to journey off not knowing where we were picking them up (eventually turned out to be one of the service stations around Birmingham, talk about cloak and dagger). If I remember, the Royce incident, the stewards allowed two 'fans' to get on the pitch, hit Royce, they got let off and Royce got either a ban or a fine. Also, that time or maybe another, their 'fans' trying to get over that great chicken wire deterrent to prove yet another point.

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derbyhoop added 20:46 - Nov 16 Bircham went down like he'd taken one flush on the chin from a World class heavyweight. Then Gallen ran the show, second half, spraying the ball from one side to the other. Pulis was on the radio afterwards, saying they tried to get back into it but were shattered from all the running they had done. An object lesson in how to play against 10 men. And then the neanderthal, knuckle draggers took over, while the Old Bill stood watching.

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themodfather added 16:49 - Nov 17 stoke really is not a pleasant place.....experience proves that their fans will hit any man,woman,child and beast....even if they win! didn't we have bother when pulis was in charge at plymuff|?? anyway these days a tough place to go, in every sense of the word.... we'll need to be cute on the pitch, they have a decent sqaud and a draw could turn out to be a good pt!.

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