The visit of Blackburn Rovers to Loftus Road this Saturday gives LFW a chance to look back to 1982/83 when a goal Stuart Attwell would have been proud to award won Rovers a point in W12.
The magic of the FA Cup was in short supply at Ewood Park in January when these sides last met in competitive action. In front of a sparse crowd both teams turned out largely second string outfits in what proved to be a drab encounter. Blackburn won the game through a fine late goal from the impressive Junior Hoilett – QPR went close to forcing a replay with near misses either side of that from long range by Petter Vaagan Moen and a headed effort from a corner by Kaspars Gorkss. The whole event was completely overshadowed though by a broken leg suffered by Rangers’ Jamie Mackie from which he is only now recovering. Mackie flung himself into a fool’s mission against Givet and came off much the worse. The mood soured further when El Hadji Diouf stood over the stricken QPR player and accused him of faking injury among other allegations. This sparked angry scenes at the time, and again at the final whistle, and Neil Warnock branded the Senegal striker a “sewer rat” in his after match interviews. The defeat extended QPR’s run of games in the FA Cup without a win to 11 years, the worst record of any team at any level in the entire country.
Blackburn Bunn 6, Salgado 8 (Linganzi 81, -), Hanley 6, Nelsen 7, Givet 6 (Morris 30, 6), Hoilett 8, Lowe 6, Pedersen 6, El-Hadji Diouf 7, Mame Diouf 7, Mwaruwari 6 (Roberts 46, 6)
Subs Not Used: Fielding, Goulon, Doran, Cotton
Goals: Hoilett 77 (assisted E H Diouf)
QPR: Kenny 8, Orr 7, Gorkss 6, Hill 6, Borrowdale 5, Derry 7, Faurlin 7 (Cook 81, -), Clarke 5, Mackie 6 (Andrade 31, 6), Moen 7, Hulse 6 (Doughty 88, -)
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Tofas, Harryman
Booked: Borrowdale (foul), Derry (foul)
Blackburn 3 QPR 0, FA Cup Third Round, Saturday January 7, 2006
These sides haven’t shared a division for ten years but did meet again in 2006 at the same stage of the same competition. QPR were coming towards the end of Ian Holloway’s reign and took 4,000 fans with them to Ewood Park for the third round clash. Blackburn were under the guidance of Mark Hughes and still included the likes of Brad Friedel, Lucas Neill and Craig Bellamy against the R’s despite a host of changes to the usual starting 11. Rovers were just too strong for Rangers on the day, Holloway’s decision to leave out Gareth Ainsworth against the club he started his career with and desperately wanted to face was shown up to be a mistake when the Hoops only really started to have an effect on the game after his second half introduction. By then Blackburn were two up thanks to goals from Todd and Bellamy, and everybody’s favourite Welshman made it 3-0 before the end. The game became infamous at QPR when the club’s official website aired a video of behind the scenes footage which showed Holloway explaining in detail how they would deal with Stephen Reid (who was suspended and couldn’t play) while the players generally pissed around and didn’t listen to him.
Blackburn: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Khizanishvili, Matteo, Thompson, Savage (Pedersen, 77 ) , Tugay, Peter, Dickov (Kuqi, 77 ) , Bellamy
Subs not used: Enckelman, Nelsen, Emerton
Goals: Bellamy 36, 86, Todd 17
Bookings: Matteo, Neill
QPR: Royce, Bignot, Shittu, Rose, Milanese, Rowlands, Santos ( Ainsworth, 55 ) , Langley, Cook ( Donnelly, 75 ) , Baidoo, Furlong ( Moore, 75 )
Subs not used: Cole, Evatt
Bookings Milanese (QPR)
QPR 1 Blackburn 3, First Division, Saturday April 7, 2001
The last time these sides shared a division was in 2000/01 when QPR were relegated to the Second Division and Blackburn were promoted into the Premiership under Graeme Souness. Ironically, considering what happened five years later, this was one of the first games under Ian Holloway’ charge for Rangers. The only real surprise of the April meeting at Loftus Road was that Rangers took a first half lead through Chris Plummer – Rovers soon pegged them back with goals from David Dunn and Matt Jansen before half time and Eyal Berkovic four minutes from the end.
QPR: Harper, Rose, Plummer (Koejoe, 83 ) , Ready, Baraclough (Burgess, 60 ) , Wardley, Bignot, Peacock, Bruce, Thomson, Crouch (Knight, 61 )
Subs not used: Miklosko, Kulcsar
Goals: Plummer 15
Bookings: Ready
Blackburn: Friedel, Curtis, Berg, Short, Gillespie ( Hignett, 69 ) , Mahon ( Berkovic, 75 ) , Flitcroft, Dunn, Duff, Jansen ( Hughes, 86 ) , Bent
Subs not used: Filan, Bjornebye
Goals: Dunn 25, Jansen 45, Berkovic 86
2010/11 Blackburn 1 QPR 0*
2005/06 Blackburn 3 QPR 0*
2000/01 QPR 1 Blackburn 3 (Plummer)
2000/01 Blackburn 0 QPR 0
1999/00 Blackburn 0 QPR 2 (Wardley, Gallen)
1999/00 QPR 0 Blackburn 0
1995/96 QPR 0 Blackburn 1
1995/96 Blackburn 1 QPR 0
1994/95 QPR 0 Blackburn 1
1994/95 Blackburn 4 QPR 0
1993/94 Blackburn 1 QPR 1 (Ready)
1993/94 QPR 1 Blackburn 0 (Ferdinand)
1992/93 Blackburn 1 QPR 0
1992/93 QPR 0 Blackburn 3
1990/91 QPR 2 Blackburn 1** (Falco, Barker)
1986/87 Blackburn 2 QPR 2** (Bannister, Walker)
1986/87 QPR 2 Blackburn 1** (Byrne, Brazil)
1982/83 Blackburn 1 QPR 3 (Stainrod 2, Flanagan)
1982/83 QPR 2 Blackburn 2 (Allen, Fenwick)
1981/82 Blackburn 2 QPR 1 (Allen)
1981/82 QPR 2 Blackburn 0 (Gregory, Allen)
1980/81 QPR 1 Blackburn 1 (Francis)
1980/81 Blackburn 2 QPR 1 (Neal)
1970/71 QPR 2 Blackburn 0 (Marsh, Francis)
1970/71 Blackburn 0 QPR 2 (Leach, Saul)
1969/70 QPR 2 Blackburn 3 (Venables pen, Hazell)
1969/70 Blackburn 0 QPR 1 (Leach)
1967/68 Blackburn 0 QPR 1 (F Clarke)
1967/68 QPR 3 Blackburn 1 (Marsh, Wilks, Sanderson)
1951/52 Blackburn 4 QPR 2 (Nicholas, Addinall)
1951/52 QPR 2 Blackburn 1 (Addinall 2)
1950/51 Blackburn 2 QPR 1 (Hatton)
1950/51 QPR 3 Blackburn 1 (Addinall 2, Hatton pen)
1949/50 QPR 2 Blackburn 3 (Addinall, Hatton)
1949/50 Blackburn 0 QPR 0
1948/49 QPR 4 Blackburn 2 (Parkinson 2, Hatton, Hartburn)
1948/49 Blackburn 0 QPR 0
1911/12 Blackburn 2 QPR 1 (Revill)***
* - FA Cup
** - League Cup
*** - Charity Shield, played at White Hart Lane
The story goes, certainly from Jim Smith’s perspective anyway, that QPR had been watching Blackburn trainee Simon Barker for the thick end of two years before actually buying him for £400,000 in 1988. Barker, a YT at Blackburn before the Jack Walker revolution, came through the Ewood Park ranks to sign senior forms in 1982 and made 182 league appearances for Rovers in which he scored 35 goals. He was tipped as a ‘new Paul Gascoigne’ in the press at the time but when Smith first came calling Rovers manager at the time Bobby Saxton told Smith he wasn’t ready to step up to the First Division but promised to call the QPR boss when he felt he was. In July 1986 the call came, the deal was done, and Barker became an integral part of the QPR team for the next decade.
Despite being at the end of his contract at Ewood Park Barker cost the R’s £400,000 in the pre-Bosman days and admitted in an interview with QPRnet that he found it difficult to settle at first and would liked to have returned to Blackburn given the chance. In the end a change of manager in W12 gave him his big break. Don Howe really rated Barker and after stepping up from assistant to the top job he put him straight in the team and was rewarded immediately with a memorable goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
The England Under 21 international initially made his name at Loftus Road as a goal scoring midfielder under Don Howe and then Gerry Francis although he found his opportunities limited in the early Premier League years by the superb Indian summer enjoyed by Ray Wilkins. He scored memorable goals, including a fabulous strike at the Loft End in a 3-1 win against Everton in the 1991/92 season that ended a long run of home games without a win.
Barker remained with Rangers through the Ray Wilkins era when we were relegated from the Premiership and continued to score goals in the First Division although by this stage his rather inoffensive style had earned him the unfortunate nickname ‘Mavis’ among the QPR fans. He was eventually released on a free transfer to Port Vale, after a sell out testimonial match at Loftus Road against the Jamaican World Cup side of 1998. Naturally he scored for Vale on his first return to Loftus Road but retired after two seasons at Vale Park and after failing to secure a management position he now works for the PFA.
Others >>> Jay Bothroyd, QPR 2011-present, Blackburn (loan) 2004-2005 >>> Pascal Chimbonda, QPR 2011, Blackburn 2009-2011 >>> Marcus Bent, Blackburn 2000-2001, QPR (loan) 2010 >>> Steven Reid, Blackburn 2003-2010, QPR (loan) 2009 >>> Tim Flowers, Blackburn 1993-1999, QPR (coach) 2008 >>> Gareth Ainsworth, Blackburn (trainee) 1989-1991, QPR 2003-2010 >>> John Curtis, Blackburn 2000-2003, QPR 2007 >>> Andy Taylor, Blackburn 2004-2008, QPR (loan) 2006 >>> Marlon Broomes, Blackburn 1994-2001, QPR (loan) 2000 >>> Darren Peacock, QPR 1990-1994, Blackburn 1998-2000 >>> Ray Harford, Blackburn (manager) 1995-1996, QPR (manager) 1997-1998 >>> Roy Wegerle, QPR 1990-1992, Blackburn 1992 >>> Ossie Ardiles, Blackburn 1988, QPR 1988-1989 >>> Jim Smith, Blackburn (manager) 1975-1978, QPR (manager) 1985-1988 >>> Mike Ferguson, QPR 1969-1973, Blackburn 1962-1968
QPR’s lucky referee Mark Clattenburg is in charge at Loftus Road this Saturday, but how Rangers could have done with the County Durham official back in 1982 when Blackburn came calling for a mid November First Division clash.
QPR had reached the FA Cup final as a second tier team the season before and would go onto win promotion in the 1982/83 season under the guidance of manager Terry Venables. Blackburn were a steady midtable side playing in a ramshackle old ground at this stage before Jack Walker moved in with his millions and made them English champions.
So far so routine, and that was how the match panned out for the first 80 minutes with the score tied at 1-1 thanks to a goal from Miller for the visitors and one from Clive Allen for Rangers. Then, the controversy. A cross into the QPR penalty area by David Hamilton from the Blackburn left down at the School End went out of play for a goal kick but in doing so caught the back stanchion holding up the net and rebounded back into play. Norman Bell swept the ball into the net and looked to the referee who awarded the goal.
Pandemonium ensued with all 9,000 people in the ground well aware the ball had gone off and QPR players Bob Hazell and Peter Hucker incandescent with rage. The story goes that John Gregory kicked the ball into the Ellerslie Road stand and told QPR fans to keep hold of it while they argued with the referee and Venables also made his way onto the field to speak with the officials.
Afterwards Venables said: “It was a bad mistake. The ball clearly went out of play before it was bundled into the net. I saw it hit the stanchion and as it happened I turned to my coach George Graham and said straight away that centre has gone out.”
Bell said: “I thought the ball hit the bar and when the Rangers players started shouting I just assumed they thought I was offside.”
There was more to come though. In the spirit of evening things up Rangers were awarded a highly questionable late penalty when Clive Allen theatrically tumbled under meagre contact from Derek Fazackerley. Captain Terry Fenwick stepped forward to ram the penalty home, but it barely relieved the frustration of the home crowd after an extraordinary end to the game.
QPR immediately changed the design of the goals at Loftus Road, removing the full length back stanchions and replacing them with the smaller curved ones at the top of the post – although as the ball struck the stanchion at the top in this case it probably wouldn’t have made any difference.
QPR: Hucker, Neill, Dawes, Sealy, Hazell, Fenwick, Mickelwhite (O’Connor), Stewart, Gregory, Currie, Allen.
Blackburn: O’Keefe, Branagan, Randell, Mail, Fazackerley, Miller, Hamilton, Bell, Garner (Arnott), Rathbone, Brotherstone.
Links >>> Blackburn 1 QPR 0 Match Report