QPR visit Scunthorpe and then Barnsley over the coming days on what should (if the FA behaves) be something of a prolonged celebration tour.
I felt like the young lad who wakes up in the morning to find that ugly girl he pulled in a nightclub ten months ago standing on his doorstep clutching a baby when the Alejandro Faurlin charges returned to the sport pages this week. I had tried my best to put it all to the back of my mind, but it was always lurking there ready to spring out just when I was at my most euphoric.
The idea of holding the three day hearing into the whole farce in the three days before the final game of the season is absolutely typical of the Football Association - which has had since October to bring the charges, announced them a full month ago without naming a date, and will now allow another month to pass before hearing them. It's yet another ludicrous decision from a ridiculous organisation and while many are seeing it as a good thing, because any appeal against any points deduction would throw the whole league into chaos which you would think is the last thing the FA wants, there is always the frightening possibility of them refusing us leave to appeal.
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said of the FA earlier this week: "Football is the worst-governed sport in this country. The governance arrangements around the Football Association Board are so poor that they are a disgrace. There are 12 people on the Board, all of whom are conflicted to some extent or another, all of whom are white, late middle-aged males." And who can really argue with him? What's he doing about it? Absolutely nothing of course. In the meantime, it's the fans that suffer most from this nonsense.
All we can do for the next month, before we find out whether the Leeds game will indeed turn out to be the big party we all expect it to be or the ugliest scenes at a British football ground since Millwall decided to make some modifications to Kenilworth Road, is continue to try and enjoy the fantastic football our team is playing.
If anything they seem to have grown stronger together since the charges were announced. The performance against Sheffield United on Monday was as good as we have produced this season against anybody and should have resulted in a victory many more times convincing than it turned out to be. Play like that against the league's ailing bottom placed side Scunthorpe this Saturday and a further comfortable win will surely be ours, but on a pudding of a pitch against a team with a new manager in his first home game, it's unlikely to be quite that simple.
For QPR though it's becoming increasingly straightforward. It's ours, all ours, mwahahahaha, unless a giant spanner is thrown in the works right at the very last minute.
Scunthorpe are my former home town team so I always keep an eye out for them, and I think I’ve seen every single one of the excuses listed there and more posted on their message board and Evening Telegraph website this year – it’s only very recently that the acceptance of their fate, and the reasons for it, seems to have sunk in.
I remember when I lived in the town they won promotion from the Third to the Second Division with a 1-0 Play Off Final victory against Leyton Orient thanks to a goal from Alex Calvo Garcia – one of those bizarre Roberto Martinez types who somehow finds himself swapping sandy beaches and warm winters for the sandy soils and driving rain of a northern steel town. Brian Laws was in charge of that Scunthorpe team which included Jamie Forrester, Chris Hope who went on to play for years in our division with Gillingham and a young Andy Dawson who is now an impressive performer for Hull City.
My granddad always scoffed at the idea of going to watch the Iron despite living in the town for 50 years because he said they had “no ambition” and objected to the idea of queuing at the club shop to pay £1 for a ‘day membership’ before then queueing again at the turnstile to fork over your hard earned. A daft system, that continued until amazingly recently all things considered. He wasn’t wrong about the lack of ambition accusation though, after decades in the bottom tier Scunthorpe responded to a rare promotion by offloading their two best strikers – John Eyre went for a bigger pay packet at Hull and former Leeds youth teamer Forrester did likewise at Utrecht. Laws didn’t/wasn’t allowed to replace either of them (a free transfer punt on Ian Ormondroyd hardly counts) until deadline day three quarters of the way through the season and when he did finally pick up a couple of strikers Steve Torpey and Brian Quailey hardly struck fear into many Second Division hearts. They were immediately relegated, and people in the town laughed when a “bounce back brochure” was delivered to every house detailing their intention to be an established First Division (Championship now) club within the next five years.
That they’re here at all is a miracle, that they’ve managed to be here for three of the last four seasons is astonishing, and that they’re now struggling comes as no surprise. Their Glanford Park ground is tiny and they rarely come close to filling it - while I always loathe it when armpits like Rod Liddle point to ground size and supporter base as the be all and end all for football clubs there are simple economics involved here. Even right at the start of the season when optimism is usually high, and the dire weather and poor performances are yet to put off the floating support, the Iron’s attendances were of a League Two standard. They pulled just 6,042 for their first home league game against Norwich who sold 2,000 of those seats themselves. By November that was down to 4,397 for the visit of Coventry with the local derby against Doncaster 2,000 below capacity and nearly 1,000 seats left for the visit of Leeds as well. Their last home game, a 3-0 defeat against relegation rivals Preston, drew a crowd of just 4,190 and cost Ian Barraclough his job as manager.
Now when faced with that small amount of people clicking through your turnstiles every week, at a ground that while being a new build doesn’t exactly boast (nor is there really a market for) the conferencing and hotel facilities that places like the Madejski Stadium offer, then you have a choice to make. You can do what Portsmouth did, and spend money just like all the other sides with far greater revenues than yourself in an effort to keep up and compete. You can do this either from the pockets of rich owners, or by loading debt onto your club, and QPR are doing a little of both to top the table on average gates of little over 13,000 in a traditional, old, limited stadium of their own. Or you can simply refuse to do it, say you will only spend what you can afford, and rely on your manager to keep pulling rabbits out of hats for you.
Scunthorpe have climbed into a division that is at least one above their level because first Brian Laws and then Nigel Adkins were able to do that. Chairman Steve Wharton has a tight grip of the purse strings, refusing to allow the club to work itself into debt, and yet they have managed in recent years to pick up one 25 goal a season striker after another. Paul Hayes, Martin Paterson, Andy Keogh, Billy Sharp, Jermaine Beckford and Gary Hooper were all picked up from reserve teams when nobody had ever heard of them before and used Scunthorpe as a spring board for their careers. Paterson, Keogh, Hooper and particularly Sharp were all sold on for huge profits, but the manager was given only a fraction of it to go out and find the next big thing. This year Adkins tried his luck with Rochdale’s Chris Dagnall and, while admittedly playing in a side that’s out of its depth and not capable of creating regular chances for him, it hasn’t really worked out.
Wharton’s way of running the club has cost them in the past. Beckford was here on loan from Leeds and helped Scunthorpe win promotion into this league first time around in 2007. At the time he’d failed to make any impact at Leeds in the Championship and Scunthorpe could have picked him up that summer as the teams passed each other in the league standings for a fee of around £330k. Scunthorpe wouldn’t pay it – they went for Martin Paterson from Stoke reserves instead and while he was a 14 goal success story they were relegated anyway, when a Paterson and Beckford partnership would have safely ensconced them in midtable. Beckford is now a semi regular in the Everton team having returned to Leeds and torn the third tier apart.
Similarly the policy of appointing managers from within, a real success when Adkins took over from Laws having previously been the physio, didn’t work for them this time. That need for a wily operator with a nose for a good player and an ability to motivate players to perform beyond what they should really be capable of which is so necessary for a Scunthorpe manager to have didn’t really suit a freshman – Ian Barraclough took on Adkins’ impossible job after he left for Southampton and didn’t last the season. Former Iron centre half and captain Alan Knill is the latest incumbent, just their third different manager since 1997, but a 6-0 thrashing at Norwich last week suggests not even a former club favourite can save them now.
Hard as it may be to accept, without sacrificing the financial future of the entire club, it’s hard to see how Scunthorpe can hope to become a regular on the Championship scene. The infrastructure, finances and attendances just don’t allow it to happen.
The Manager: Alan Knill hasn’t been one for doing things the easy way since he moved into management. His first job was at Rotherham United, the club he finished his playing career with, in early 2006. The Millers had been a plucky Championship side much like Scunthorpe are now for four years prior to this during Ronnie Moore’s first successful spell in charge but playing in a dilapidated Millmoor ground and punching above their weight they overstretched themselves and went into financial collapse and a spiral which ended with them stuck out at the Don Valley Athletics Stadium in Sheffield and playing in the bottom division. Knill came in after Mick Harford had been fired, but 13 months later he too was sacked with Rotherham firmly stuck to the bottom of League One.
Knill had played more than 130 times for Scunthorpe between 1993 and 1997 exclusively in the bottom division of English football, although he was part of the side that lost the 1993 Division Three Play Off Final at Wembley to a Trevor Sinclair inspired Blackpool side. Prior to that he was with Bury and that’s where his managerial career took him after Rotherham – the Shakers picked him up from Chesterfield’s coaching staff in February 2008. Bury, like Rotherham, had been as high as the second tier when Neil Warnock and Stan Ternant were in charge but were a small club over stretching themselves (spot that pattern) who found themselves mired in financial problems that saw them spiral back down the league into the basement division, and almost into the Conference on more than one occasion.
Knill has arrested that seemingly terminal decline in recent seasons. He missed automatic promotion by a point in his first full season, before a Shrewsbury Town side containing Grant Holt beat them in the play off semi final on penalties. That was no flash in the pan though and when he left Gigg Lane at the end of March Bury were again fourth in League Two, pushing hard for the automatic promotion spots with the division’s Player of the Year Ryan Lowe banging the goals in for them.
Despite the fact that Scunthorpe v Bury could easily be a league fixture next season, depending on who replaces Knill in Greater Manchester and how the Bury players respond, Knill made a big deal of the fact that this was a chance for him to manage in the Championship when he resigned his position. Almost certainly it will only be an eight game chance initially, and the first one of those ended in a disastrous 6-0 defeat at Norwich with league leading QPR in town next.
Bury are understandably angry at losing a manager who had done a good job for them – particularly to a club that seems to have a pretty bleak immediate future. Last season Bury finished midtable in League Two, the campaign undermined by an ongoing row between Irish midfielder Stephen Dawson who wanted to move to the clubs higher up the leagues showing an interest in him, and the club who didn’t want to let him go. Knill went public saying Dawson should show loyalty to the club that gave him his chance, those words will no doubt come back to haunt him should he make an immediate return to Gigg Lane with Scunthorpe next season.
I certainly didn’t expect Scunthorpe to bounce straight back up to this league the last time they were relegated. But then I didn’t expect them to get promoted in the first place, or stay in the division last season, so they continue to confound my underestimation of them. It will be Knill’s job to engineer an immediate return (assuming he can’t turn footballing water into wine in what little is left of this season) on a budget that will be one of the lowest in League One, never mind the Championship.
Three to Watch: I was a little wary of criticising Chris Dagnall’s impact since arriving from Rochdale last summer (seven goals from 35 appearances after 20 in 49 in League Two last season) because when you’re playing up front in a struggling team chances to score are often few and far between through no fault of your own. Indeed Scunthorpe have failed to score at all in any of their last four matches, and have conceded 14 in those matches as well. The same applies to Joe Garner who is a player I’ve rated since I saw him rip Nottingham Forest apart at the City Ground while playing for Carlisle in a League One promotion battle a few years back.
Garner, a Blackburn Rovers academy graduate, impressed Forest in the league below sufficiently enough for them to buy him as they came into the Championship. He’s a wiry, tough little John Spencer type of a striker who Forest paid Carlisle more than £1m for in 2008. I like him, he’s a steady player in this league and a very good one in the division below which could make him an ideal signing for Scunthorpe if/when they are relegated. I’ve found it strange that while Billy Davies has taken every opportunity to bemoan the lack of backing he has had from his board, the lack of players he has available, the lack of firepower he has available and so on – he’s allowed Garner to play for first Huddersfield and then Scunthorpe on loan this season. Especially considering he’s now floundering around with that big hairy ball of shit Kris Boyd in attack – no surprise to see Forest dropping out of the play off zone altogether on Tuesday night given their recent transfer activity and results.
While Garner may well be a summer target for Scunthorpe after relegation, one of their permanent players may well be moving on if they are to take the drop. Goalkeeper Joe Murphy is a little bit mad, even by goalkeeping standards, and he has been prone to some daft moments this season, although given then amount of work he’s had to get through perhaps he can be forgiven some of his mistakes. Murphy is an Irish international, who started life at Tranmere and has since spent time with Walsall, West Brom and Sunderland. He may well be on the move again this summer with his contract set to expire, but having returned to the side at Norwich after a three month lay off with an ankle injury the Iron are keen to keep hold of their man.
New keeper coach Neil Cutler told the Scunthorpe Telegraph: “Murf is top class. Before I came in I'd heard rumours about him being a little bit lazy, things like that, but as soon as I walked in the door I found him to be the opposite. He's a talker and he's his own biggest critic. Every day he comes in he wants to be better – I can't fault that. He admitted when I came in that he's a bit stuck in his ways and has his own comfort zone, but we'll work on that. He's a top class goalkeeper, but if he just pushes himself that little bit more with his gym work and other little bits and pieces, he's a top class Championship goalie at least."
He may get a move this summer, especially if his old boss Adkins brings Southampton up with Kelvin Davis not getting any younger, but to be honest I think he missed the boat somewhat by agreeing a new contract after their last relegation when his form had been excellent and other clubs were sniffing. Watch out for Lee Camp style day trips out of the penalty area (he was lucky not to be sent off for hacking down Jay Simpson over by the corner flag in the opening minute of our last game here) and his comical over the top bollocking of his hapless defenders.
The decision to allow dead ball specialist Grant McCann to leave the club on a free transfer to Peterborough last summer left the Iron woefully short of midfield quality. Martyn Woolford has since followed him through the exit door to Bristol City to further exacerbate the problem which leaves Michael O’Connor as the only real possessor of ability in that Scunthorpe midfield area. You don’t often go far wrong picking up graudates from Dario Gradi’s Crewe academy and although O’Connor has been afflicted with injuries since the turn of the year he has a good eye for a shot and a pass and would be a good starting point for Knill to begin building a new look Scunthorpe side in my opinion. He has ten caps for Northern Ireland having initially been called up by the Republic at youth level.
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QPR: Kenny 6, Orr 7, Gorkss 7, Connolly 7, Hill 7, Faurlin 8, Derry 8 (Leigertwood 87, -), Mackie 7, Taarabt 8 (Buzsaky 73, 6), Ephraim 8, Helguson 8 (German 90, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Clarke, Ramage, Parker
Booked: Taarabt (diving)
Goals: Orr 17 (assisted Taarabt), Helguson 41 (assisted Taarabt)
Scunthorpe: Murphy 9, Nolan 6, Raynes 5, Canavan 4, McNulty 6 (Byrne 82, -) Togwell 5, Woolford 6 (Grant 76, 5), Wright 6, O'Connor 6, Forte 5,Dagnall 4
Subs Not Used: Slocombe, Andrew Wright, Collins, McClenahan
As we played Scunthorpe away at the start of last season and the end of this one it’s been the best part of 18 months since our last visit. Back then QPR picked up their first win of the season with Jim Magilton in charge despite a pretty disjointed performance. A neat move on the edge of the box sent Adel Taarabt in for the only goal of the game after five minutes on Jay Simpson’s full debut for QPR. However any hope of a comfortable win was quickly extinguished by a nervous display and in the end the result owed more to the performances of Matt Connolly and Fitz Hall in the defence than anybody else as QPR gave away possession time and time again.
Scunthorpe: Murphy 6, Spence 7, Byrne 6, Mirfin 6, Williams 6,Sparrow 5 (Thompson 70, 6), Togwell 5 (McCann 61, 6), O'Connor 6 (Wright 61, 6), Woolford 6, Hayes 5, Hooper 5
Subs Not Used: Lillis, Forte, Morris, Crosby
Booked: Murphy (foul)
QPR: Cerny 7, Ramage 6, Hall 7, Connolly 7, Borrowdale 6, Routledge 6,Leigertwood 4, Faurlin 7 (Mahon 81, 5), Ephraim 6, Taarabt 6 (Vine 56, 5),Simpson 6 (Helguson 70, 6)
Subs Not Used: Heaton, Stewart, Buzsaky, Pellicori
Booked: Routledge (diving)
Goals: Taarabt 3 (assisted Faurlin)
Head to Head >>> Scunthorpe wins 2 >>> Draws 1 >>> QPR wins – 9
Previous Results:
2010/11 QPR 2 Scunthorpe 0 (Orr, Helguson)
2009/10 QPR 0 Scunthorpe 1
2009/10 Scunthorpe 0 QPR 1 (Taarabt)
2007/08 QPR 3 Scunthorpe 1 (Rowlands, Agyemang, Vine)
2007/08 Scunthorpe 2 QPR 2 (Buzsaky 2)
1966/67 QPR 5 Scunthorpe 1 (Marsh 2, Lazarus 2, Keen)
1966/67 Scunthorpe 0 QPR 2 (Marsh 2)
1965/66 QPR 1 Scunthorpe 0 (Keen)
1965/66 Scunthorpe 1 QPR 2 (Allen, Collins)
1964/65 Scunthorpe 2 QPR 1 (McAdams)
1964/65 QPR 2 Scunthorpe 1 (Keen 2)
1931/32 Scunthorpe 1 QPR 4 (Rounce 3, Cribb)
Played for both clubs – Brian Bedford
QPR 1959 – 1965 >>> Scunthorpe 1965 – 1966
Welsh born centre forward with an astonishing goal scoring record during his six years with QPR – second only to George Goddard in our all time scoring charts. Bedford initially attracted the attention of Charlton while in the RAF but went on to make only a handful of appearances for Reading and Southampton as a youngster before catching QPR’s eye with 32 league goals in 75 appearances along the south coast at Bournemouth.
Alec Stock paid a whopping £750 to bring him to Loftus Road from Dean Court and he proceeded to terrorise the Third Division over the coming years. He scored 180 goals for Rangers in 283 appearances. In 1960/61 he scored 37 goals in 48 appearances but QPR narrowly missed out on promotion into the Second Division. Two seasons after he left for Scunthorpe Stock’s QPR side cruised to the title and League Cup success while Bedford scored a respectable 23 goals in 37 appearances for the Iron in 1965/66. He spent our double year down the road at Brentford before winding down his football career with the Atlanta Chiefs. He retired from the game aged 36 and then went on to be a professional tennis player for the next 17 years.
Bedford said: “I didn't pick up a tennis racket until I was 33, when I was playing football in the American league for Atlanta and living in Williamsburg. Some friends over there got me hooked on tennis and I carried on playing when I got back from England. After I retried in 1968 I got all the necessary tennis coaching qualifications and turned pro in 1970. I carried on in tennis until my knees have out but I spent a very happy 17 years coaching at the Barn Elms Sports Centre in Barnes.
"When I signed for QPR, Alec Stock had just been named as the new manager. I travelled up to West London to be interviewed by the Club and Alec said: 'You'll score 30 goals a year for me son.’ Just like that! So I said 'You're joking?' as my record down at Bournemouth was something like 32 goals over three years. But Alec said 'Yes you will!' And he wasn't far wrong, was he? Alec played a big part in my goalscoring. We used to play with those old fashioned players called wingers. We always seemed to get good wide men at the club like Mark Lazarus who could provide excellent crosses. So I was the benefactor of that. "I recall that the top wage in the Third Division - which Rangers were in at the time - was about £35 to £40 a week. Ridiculous really! But it was still much better than the average working man's salary. Not only that, as far as I was concerned I was getting paid for something I loved doing. That was a big thing for me.
"Jim Gregory was appointed as chairman of QPR and he started pouring some money in with new players being signed. Unfortunately, I was just starting to go a little bit over the hill as far as age was concerned. I was nearly 32 years old then. The Club had to offload some of the playing staff and I was one of them, I'm afraid. I had six very happy seasons at Rangers. Then they transferred me to that Godforsaken place called Scunthorpe. I don't think Alec Stock wanted me to sign for any other London team or any nearby club in case I embarrassed him. It was very sad. I didn't like leaving Loftus Road. But you have to move on don't you? That's life."
He worked later as a tennis coach, and the stadium manager at Loftus Road, before returning to Wales for his retirement.
For more details and quotes visit Dave Barton’s excellent unofficial QPR website.
Links >>> QPR 2 Scunthorpe 0 Match Report >>> Scunthorpe 0 QPR 1 Match Report >>> QPR 0 Scunthorpe 1 Match Report
For Scunthorpe former Bristol City striker Lee Miller (back) and left back Marcus Williams (groin) missed the mauling at Norwich but are both fit to return. Michael Raynes is also ready for selection despite missing training earlier this week with a thigh problem. Garry Thompson has had a groin op and misses the rest of the season while one paced defender Cliff Byrne (calf) is also a long term absentee. Defender Paul Reid is suspended after being sent off last week at Norwich.
Elsewhere: The game of the day in the Championship is at 5.20pm live on Sky with second placed Norwich travelling to fourth placed Swansea. Norwich can pull seven points clear of the Swans with a win. Cardiff currently sit third, they play at Doncaster at 3pm and can be anywhere between one and seven points behind Norwich by the close of play themselves. Reading have crept into the play off places very quietly this week and are in the middle of their traditional good run of form in the second half of seasons – they travel to Nottingham Forest this weekend, the team they knocked out of the top six earlier this week. Goal difference is such that even a Forest win is unlikely to see them return to the six, but they can ill afford to lose another game. Leeds travel to Millwall in a battle of fifth v eighth and I get the feeling ‘battle’ is probably the operative word there. For the bottom three the plight looks desperate – Sheff Utd are seven points from safety, Preston and Scunthorpe are eight. The nearest team to them, Palace, have the division’s worst away record and are unlikely to improve on their 14 defeats and one win on the road at Ipswich. But can Scunthorpe (QPR H), Preston (Portsmouth A) or the Blades (Boro H) really do anything about it? I’m not sure I’d back any of the bottom four for a win this weekend.
Referee: Perhaps its fitting that the referee from one of our lowest points in recent times finally catches up with us again with us sitting on the cusp of one of our greatest. Eddie Ilderton was the man in the middle for our 5-0 humiliation at Nottingham Forest last season, one of three QPR games he has refereed during a league career dating back to 2002. For a full case file please click here.
QPR: Far from feeling the pressure of either leading the league or facing FA charges, QPR actually seem to be getting better. The win against Sheffield United on Monday was the sixth win in the last seven matches and it equalled a club record of 22 clean sheets in a season. Rangers have lost just one of their last 15 league games, at Millwall, and have only been beaten four times this season in total – three of which came during the busy December/Christmas period of fixtures. Away from home the R’s have won eight (only Norwich, Cardiff and Swansea have won that many), lost three (only Norwich can match that) and conceded just 11 goals which is the best in the league by 11. They are nine points clear of Norwich in second, and 13 clear of Swansea and Cardiff further back.
Prediction: The poor state of the Glanford Park pitch may be a bit of an evener, as will new manager bounce although there wasn’t much of that in evidence at Carrow Road last week. This is an away win all day long if QPR turn up and play anything like their best.
3-0 QPR 12/1 with Sky Bet, 4-0 QPR 28/1 with Sky Bet.