The LFW History column returns for the new season, reflecting on a troubled individual who played for QPR and Swansea, and a key pair of meetings between the two sides in 1966.
QPR 3 Swansea 0, Wednesday April 11, 2012, Premiership
Rangers kept up their formidable recent record against the Swans with a crucial 3-0 home victory back in April. Desperate for maximum point hauls to keep them in with a shout of survival, QPR overcame a nervous beginning in which Swansea, predictably, dominated the possession to seize control of the game on the stroke of half time. In a minute of time added on at the end of the first half Swansea full back Neil Taylor climbed on Bobby Zamora to try and head a ball he was never likely to win fairly and conceded a soft free kick in a wide area. A low delivery from the set piece from Adel Taarabt was only half cleared and the ball eventually fell to Joey Barton at the back post who drilled in a crisp volley from 15 yards out. Swansea, in poor form at the time, allowed their heads to drop and Rangers ran away with the game in the second half. First Jamie Mackie, looking suspiciously offside, collected the ball on the edge of the Swansea area and fired in a deflected second, then Akos Buzsaky let rip with a screamer from 25 yards that rocketed into Michel Vorm’s top corner.
QPR: Kenny 6, Onuoha 6, Ferdinand 7, Hill 8, Taiwo 7, Barton 8, Diakite 8, Buzsaky 7, Taarabt 6 (Smith 88, -), Mackie 7 (Wright-Phillips 77, 6), Zamora 6 (Bothroyd 78, 5)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Gabbidon, Campbell, Young
Booked: Taiwo (tackling a man with his face), Diakite (hacking a man’s leg off)
Goals: Barton 45 (assisted Taarabt), Mackie 55 (assisted Ferdinand), Buzsaky 67 (assisted Taarabt)
Swansea: Vorm 5, Rangel 5, Caulker 6, Williams 5, Taylor 5 (Tate 46, 5), Sigurdsson 7, Britton 6 (Moore 62, 5), Allen 6, Routledge 5 (Dyer 46, 6), Graham 7, Sinclair 6
Subs Not Used: Tremmel, Monk, McEachran, Gower
Swansea 1 QPR 1, Tuesday December 27, 2011, Premiership
QPR were good value for a point at the Liberty Stadium when these sides met at Christmas, and possibly could have had more had they shown more ambition to push for a winner in the closing stages. Things started poorly for Neil Warnock’s men when Danny Graham was allowed to bring the ball down with the palm of his hand by referee Lee Probert and then stroke in a well taken opening goal. But the R’s roared back in the second half and Jamie Mackie got a well deserved equaliser when the home defence misjudged a long clearance from goalkeeper Paddy Kenny and Mackie stole in to nutmeg Vorm and score.
Swansea: Vorm 7, Rangel 7 (Moore 57, 4), Williams 7, Caulker 6, Richards 6, Sinclair 6, Britton 6, Agustien 7, Allen 6, Routledge 7 (Dyer 56, 6), Graham 7
Subs Not Used: Tremmel, Dobbie, Monk, Lita, Gower
Booked: Richards (foul)
Goals: Graham 14 (assisted Routledge)
QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7, Hill 7, Hall 7, Traore 6, Mackie 7, Barton 6, Derry 6, Faurlin 7, Taarabt 7, Helguson 6
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Orr, Gabbidon, Bothroyd, Connolly, Smith, Wright-Phillips
Booked: Hill (foul), Barton (foul), Taarabt (kicking ball away)
Goals: Mackie 58 (assisted Kenny)
QPR 4 Swansea 0, Sunday December 26, 2010, Championship
In the 2010/11 fight for promotion from the Championship QPR were helped on their way by four point hauls from both clubs in South Wales who were competing with them at the top of the table. The pick of the results came on Boxing Day as Rangers - top of the league but hotly pursued by the Swans, Cardiff and others - took their visitors apart in emphatic fashion. Rangers had gone 19 matches unbeaten at the start of the season but faltered heading into the Christmas period with quick fire defeats against Watford at Loftus Road and at Leeds so Swansea fancied their chances in W12 but Jamie Mackie planted a firm shot beyond Dorus De Vries for the opening goal. The game then took a dramatic turn when Alan Tate hacked down Kyle Walker as he raced through on goal and then went to headbutt Clint Hill in the ensuing melee. Tate was rightly sent off, but Hill followed him in a strange decision from referee Phil Crossley that was later overturned by the authorities. QPR coped much better with ten men and romped away to victory inspired by Adel Taarabt. The Moroccan won an obvious penalty from Ashley Williams, who was lucky not to be sent off himself, after half time and allowed Heidar Helguson to convert it. Taarabt smashed in a third on the volley, with De Vries at fault for allowing it to squeeze through him, and then added a fourth with an outrageous goal of the season candidate from 25 yards after two back flicks and an outrageous nutmeg through Joe Allen.
QPR: Kenny 7, Walker 9, Connolly 7, Gorkss 7, Hill 6, Derry 7, Faurlin 6, Mackie 7, Taarabt 9 (Rowlands 83, -), Smith 6 (Orr 21, 6), Helguson 8 (Hulse 86, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Clarke, Agyemang, Ephraim
Sent Off: Hill 19 (fighting)
Goals: Mackie 16 (assisted Taarabt), Helguson 62 (penalty won Taarabt), Taarabt 70 (assisted Helguson), 80 (unassisted)
Swansea: De Vries 3, Rangel 6, Tate 4, Monk 4, Williams 6, Agustien 6 (Dobbie 71, 5), Allen 6, Pratley 6, Dyer 5 (Taylor 20, 5), Sinclair 6, Beattie 6 (Easter 71, 5)
Subs Not Used: Ma-Kalambay, Orlandi, Serran, Gower
Sent Off: Tate 19 (fighting)
Booked: Williams (foul)
Swansea 0 QPR 0, Tuesday October 19, 2010, Championship
QPR were indebted to goalkeeper Paddy Kenny when these sides met at the Liberty Stadium earlier that season, but Jamie Mackie should have made the goalkeeper’s first half penalty save all the more crucial by snatching a winner. Kenny dived low to save David Cotterill’s easily telegraphed spot kick five minutes before half time after Darren Pratley was bundled over in the QPR penalty area. Before that Mackie had volleyed into the side netting from close range with the goal gaping after the ball dropped to him from a corner, then in the second half he took too many touches in a one on one situation and allowed Dorus De Vries to race from his goal line and save. Adel Taarabt was substituted late on, although he was lucky not to be sent off just prior to the change with the Swansea players successfully winding him up and tempting a reckless challenge while he was on a yellow card.
Swansea: De Vries 7, Williams 7, Tate 8, Monk 7, Rangel 7, Cotterill 6 (Allen 46, 8), Pratley 7, Orlandi 7 (Beattie 85, -), Dyer 5, Sinclair 6, Dobbie 7 (Nouble 65, 4)
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Serran, Ma-Kalambay, Emnes
Booked: Monk (foul), Tate (foul), Pratley (foul), Rangel (dissent)
QPR: Kenny 8, Walker 7, Gorkss 7, Connolly 8, Hill 6, Derry 7, Faurlin 7, Ephraim 5 (Clarke 88, -), Taarabt 7 (Smith 80, 7),Helguson 6 (Agyemang 80, 6), Mackie 6
Subs Not Used: Orr, Cerny, Hall, Mahon
Booked: Gorkss (kicking ball away), Faurlin (foul), Taarabt (foul)
2011/12 QPR 3 Swansea 0 (Barton, Mackie, Buzsaky)
2011/12 Swansea 1 QPR 1 (Mackie)
2010/11 QPR 4 Swansea 0 (Taarabt 2, Mackie, Helguson)
2010/11 Swansea 0 QPR 0
2009/10 QPR 1 Swansea 1 (German)
2009/10 Swansea 2 QPR 0
2008/09 QPR 1 Swansea 0 (Leigertwood)
2008/09 Swansea 0 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 3 Swansea 0** (Cureton, Rowlands, Gallen)
2001/02 Swansea 4 QPR 0*
1980/81 Swansea 1 QPR 2 (Langley, King)
1980/81 QPR 0 Swansea 0
1979/80 QPR 3 Swansea 2 (Goddard 2, C Allen)
1979/80 Swansea 1 QPR 2 (Burke, Stephenson og)
1978/79 QPR 2 Swansea 0 (McGee, Eastoe)
1966/67 Swansea 1 QPR 3 (Lazarus 3)
1966/67 Swansea 1 QPR 2** (Hazell, Keen)
1966/67 QPR 4 Swansea 2 (L Allen 2, Marsh, Sanderson)
1965/66 QPR 6 Swansea 2 (R Morgan 3, Colins 2, Lazarus)
1965/66 Swansea 4 QPR 2 (Collins, L Allen)
1962/63 Swansea 2 QPR 0*
1951/52 Swansea 2 QPR 3 (Gilberg, Hill, Addinall
1951/52 QPR 1 Swansea 1 (Smith)
1950/51 Swansea 1 QPR 0
1950/51 QPR 1 Swansea 1 (Addinall)
1949/50 Swansea 0 QPR 1 (Hudson)
1949/50 QPR 0 Swansea 0
1947/48 QPR 0 Swansea 0
1947/48 Swansea 3 QPR 1 (Durrant)
1924/25 Swansea 2 QPR 0
1924/25 QPR 0 Swansea 0
1923/24 QPR 2 Swansea 2 (Davis, Marsden)
1923/24 Swansea 2 QPR 0
1922/23 Swansea 3 QPR 0
1922/23 QPR 2 Swansea 1 (Davis, Chandler)
1921/22 Swansea 1 QPR 0
1921/22 QPR 1 Swansea 0 (Birch)
1920/21 QPR 1 Swansea 1 (Manning)
1920/21 Swansea 1 QPR 3 (Gregory, Birch, Manning)
1913/14 Swansea 1 QPR 2*
* - FA Cup
** - League Cup
Leon Knight >>> QPR (loan) 2001 >>> Swansea 2006-2007 Having covered Robbie and Leighton James in this column for previous meetings with Swansea it seems somehow wrong to turn attention this time onto a character as odious as Leon Knight but here goes nothing.
Rarely can there have been a player of such meagre ability with such a colossal sense of self worth as Leon Knight. He is the professional football equivalent of Tim Lovejoy: both contribute nothing for the oxygen they steal and neither seems to quite grasp why they’re so widely hated, or that they’re hated at all. It’s like they’re both laughing at a joke they don’t quite get.
Knight, standing four foot nothing with a brain the size of a pea and an ego the size of the Royal Albert Hall, was brought to QPR on loan in 2001 by new manager Ian Holloway. The R’s were struggling against relegation from the (then) First Division and a financial crisis that would shortly lead them into administration. They had appointed former player Holloway to replace Gerry Francis in the hope of cobbling together enough points to preserve their second tier status, ultimately without success. Holloway added Andy Thomson and Marcus Bignot – solid, likeable, reliable, committed players – to his ranks, and loaned Knight from Chelsea only to discover he was one of the life’s genuine arseholes.
Knight made 11 appearances, mostly on the right wing, for Rangers as they were relegated to the third tier. He spent the next two seasons out on loan: first at Huddersfield in the Second Division where he scored 14 goals, then at Sheffield Wednesday in the First where he only managed three. By this time it was clear that his level was somewhere at the upper end of the Second Division, and Chelsea ceased looking for first team experience for him and started courting buyers.
Ian Holloway and QPR were keen and bid for his services permanently in August 2003. Knight responded by criticising the style of football played at Loftus Road and joined Brighton instead, scoring against Rangers early in the 2003/04 season and commenting that Brighton would leave QPR trailing in their wake over the coming campaigns. His mouth, and penchant for outrageous play acting, won him few friends and in an LDV Trophy match between Brighton and QPR at Loftus Road the referee turned a blind eye to Danny Shittu and Clarke Carlisle handing Knight a physical battering of severity rarely seen outside the world of professional cage fighting. Albion were, however, promoted along with QPR at the end of the 2003/04 season.
Knight’s career since then has been a standing joke. In 2006 his time at Brighton came to an abrupt end when he argued with manager Mark McGhee on the team bus home from a game at Southampton and was thrown out onto the roadside to make his own way home. By the end he was known on the south coast as the Poison Dwarf. Swansea took a chance, with former QPR assistant manager Kenny Jackett now in charge there, and Knight scored 19 in 35 appearances but was again transfer listed and shipped out abruptly with the club citing his poor attitude.
Unsuccessful spells with Barnsley (loan), MK Dons and Wycombe were all cut short before he dropped into the Conference with Rushden and Diamonds. There his behaviour and form was so poor that four months into a three year deal he was suspended and then sacked, although the club retained his registration which scuppered a potential move to rivals Darlington and forced him out of the UK to play his football. Knight responded by unleashing reams of allegations about tax avoidance and unlawful payments to players being made by the Diamonds.
He made three appearances in Greece for Thrasivoulos Filis, and then joined SPL side Hamilton in August 2009. One start and six substitute appearances later he was sent off for his part in a tunnel brawl after a match against Hearts in which he’d been an unused substitute. Hamilton released him to Queen of the South where he again made six appearances without scoring and was released.
He moved then to Northern Ireland and Coleraine where he initially scored prolifically but then (shockingly) fell out with the club over failing to appear for training and matches and stating his desire to leave. A trial with Swindon Town was cut short because of his poor fitness levels. In the summer of 2011 he then changed his mind, made peace with Coleraine and signed a two year contract only to leave six months later when the club asked him to move to Northern Ireland as they were tired of paying for his commute. He joined Glentoran but was released after six months when he made homophobic remarks on Twitter.
And ultimately it’s Twitter that Knight is going to end up being remembered for. A useful tool for some, but often a forum for the terminally moronic who were previously ignored by society but are now able to broadcast their worthless streams of rank nothingness to a colossal audience. Knight was an England Youth International who ended up being kicked out of Northern Irish football by two different clubs but that colossal waste of a career hasn’t perturbed him from taking to the Twittersphere to hound others in the name of “free speech.”
His most recent episode came after Wolves player Jamie O’Hara called him up on a comment which provoked a two-day long string of abuse directed at his wife, and mother of his children, Danielle Lloyd. Now, let’s be frank here, everybody knows that the lovely Danielle has been around the block a few times and her nether regions are probably built like a clown’s pocket these days. But is it really necessary to hammer that point home to her husband in full view of everybody else, repeatedly, for two days? Is it really necessary to tell a story about your friend “banging her” while she was “on her reds” during a Spanish holiday? Does this not say more about the person saying it than the previously happy couple on the receiving end? Has it really come to this?
Thankfully Knight himself has provided the answer in this YouTube video, which shows him racing around his living room (alone) screaming a commentary over a series of scrappy goals from his time across the Irish sea. Mystery solved: what we have here is quite an unwell young man with issues who should be pitied and offered professional help rather than mocked or encouraged.
Others >>> Wayne Routledge, Swansea 2011-present, QPR (loan) 2011, 2009-2010 >>> Scott Sinclair, Swansea 2010-present, QPR (loan) 2007 >>> Scott Donnelly, QPR 2004-2007, Swansea 2010-present >>> Paulo Sousa, Swansea (manager) 2009-2010, QPR (manager) 2008-2009 >>> Brian Murphy, Swansea 2003-2006, QPR 2011-present >>> Jordi Lopez, Swansea 2009-2011, QPR 2009 >>> Tommy Williams, QPR (loan) 2002-2003, (loan) 2003, (loan) 2009, Swansea 2006-2007 >>> Leon Knight, QPR (loan) 2001, Swansea 2006-2007 >>> Marcus Bean, QPR 2002-2006, Swansea (loan) 2005 >>> Kenny Jackett, QPR (coach) 2001-2004, Swansea (manager) 2004-2007 >>> Karl Connolly, QPR 2000-2003, Swansea 2003-2004 >>> John Hollins, QPR 1975-1977, QPR (coach) 1995-1998, Swansea (manager) 1998-2001 >>> Robbie James, Swansea 1973-1983, 1988-1990, QPR 1984-1987 >>> Leighton James, QPR 1977-1978, Swansea 1980-1983 >>> Jeremy Charles, Swansea 1976-1983, QPR 1983-1985
QPR 4 Swansea 2, Saturday October 8, 1966, Third Division
QPR’s transition from mainstays of the Third Division (and Third Division South previously) into a regular in the top two tiers of English football began in earnest in 1966/67. Under the astute management of Alec Stock and led from the front by talismanic striker Rodney Marsh the R’s not only won the Third Division that season, but completed a historic double by also winning the League Cup at Wembley.
A key moment in both successes came at the beginning of October when Swansea, then known as Swansea Town, visited Loftus Road twice in four days in league and cup. Rangers had started the season like a runaway train and went into the first meeting having seen off Grimsby (5-1), Doncaster (6-0) and Middlesbrough (4-0) in the previous three home games. The game drew Loftus Road’s first five figure crowd of the campaign with 11,047 packed onto the old terraces and the majority went home happy. A good job too, as the editorial on the front of the programme that day told the supporters in no uncertain terms that he crowd of 9097 that had turned out for the demolition of Grimsby the week before was “far from what the players have a right to expect.”
Against Swansea in the league Rangers romped to a 4-2 home win with two goals from Les Allen, and one each from Keith Sanderson and Rodney Marsh. The Swans, who would ultimately finish fourth bottom of the table that season, made more of a game of it four days later in the cup but still succumbed to a 2-1 defeat thanks to goals from Tony Hazell and Mike Keen.
Rangers had already beaten Colchester and Aldershot in the previous rounds and the victory against Swansea set up a home tie against First Division Leicester City and England’s World Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks. Stock’s men made light work of them too, running in another four goals thanks to another brace from Allen and one each from Roger Morgan and Mark Lazarus. The R’s ultimately beat another First Division side West Brom 3-2 at Wembley in the final having trailed 2-0.
In the league the R’s were crowned champions long before the end of the season, beating Middlesbrough into second place by 12 points in the days of two points for a win.
QPR: Springett, Hazell, Langley, Keen, Hunt, Sibley, Lazarus, Sanderson, Allen, Marsh, R Morgan
Swansea: Hayes, R Evans, Gonersall, Jones, Purcell, Hughes, Humphries, McLaughlin, Todd, Allchurch, B Evans
Highlights >>> QPR 4 Swansea 0, 2010/11 >>>QPR 1 Swansea 0, 2008/09
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Pictures – Action Images