Ahead of Saturday’s trip to promotion-chasing Burnley, LFW looks back to a midweek meeting with a dramatic end that kept Luigi De Canio in his job.
Burnley 0 QPR 2, Tuesday December 11, 2007, Championship
Charlie Austin’s success during the last 18 months at QPR continues a tradition of fine players transferring between Burnley and Rangers which is led by awesome 1970s winger Dave Thomas and has since been continued by, errr, Arthur 'Fingers' Gnohere. Well, Clarke Carlisle was pretty decent.
Anyway, the success of Thomas for both clubs, and reasonably classy way the whole Austin transfer was handled - Burnley have clapped their former charge on the two occasions he’s played against them since leaving which is rare in the modern game - means there feels like a better relationship between Burnley and QPR than you would normally find.
A large part of that, however, is nothing to do with sharing players at all. Back in August 2007, QPR were scheduled to head to Turf Moor for their second away game of the campaign. The team, and the Rangers supporters, set off north, but never made it as far as the kick off. The evening before, while out in East London with his friends, promising youth team product Ray Jones smashed his car into the side of a bus killing himself and three others. The game was postponed as a mark of respect, and because the QPR squad was in no fit state to take the field.
It’s a difficult case. Jones’ reckless driving caused the crash, and the death of his friends. QPR fans will also tell you he was destined to be some sort of new Les Ferdinand at Loftus Road, but the fact was he wasn’t even in John Gregory’s squad - hence he was out the night before - and was about to be sold to Colchester for £250,000 in another one of the Gianni Paladini-reign’s fine ideas to keep the wolf from the door and him in a job for another month.
Regardless, it was a tragic waste of a young life, and a very promising footballer the likes of which the club has failed to produce ever since.
Burnley were wonderful on the day - inviting the QPR fans who’d already made it as far as the town to come to the ground anyway where free food and hot drinks were laid on and an open training session held by the home team. The game could wait - re-arranged for early December.
The QPR team and club that eventually fulfilled that fixture, on a typically bracing night in the Pennines, was unrecognisable from the one the Clarets almost certainly would have beaten with plenty to spare had the original game taken place.
Gregory’s men had staged a dramatic escape from relegation the previous year. The former R’s midfielder, back at the club as manager in place of Gary Waddock, added Danny Cullip and Lee Camp to his defence, Adam Bolder to his midfield, and got Jimmy Smith and Michael Mancienne on loan from Chelsea. With Lee Cook supplying Dexter Blackstock and Ray Jones up front the team that had been the club’s worst ever on paper at the start of the season beat Coventry and Leicester away, Luton and Preston at home in a dramatic rally that lifted them clear of the bottom three just in time.
But that summer had been tough. The club was at death’s door, Paladini struggling to keep plates spinning and bills paid. Simon Walton, the big transfer window acquisition from Charlton, broke his leg in a pre-season friendly against Fulham. Lee Cook, who’d carried the team for 18 months, left for Craven Cottage before that match. The other incomers included John Curtis and Daniel Nardiello. Rangers started an opening day draw at Bristol City with a Zesh Rehman-Stefan Moore combination down their right side. They subsequently lost at home to Cardiff and Orient in the cup. The Burnley game was the safest home victory on the coupon.
But while the Loftus Road faithful mourned the passing of Jones, negotiations were in full swing behind the scenes to secure a takeover which changed the club as we know it forever. Formula One magnates Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, along with steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, bought QPR and set about turning it into a "boutique” football club in West London. They made promises of Premier League and eventually Champions League football, they gutted the South Africa Road stand and installed Ciprianis-style restaurants and a bar that looked more like a nightclub. Gregory was swiftly shifted after a 5-1 loss at West Brom and Italian Luigi De Canio was appointed.
It was an exciting time, one filled with optimism. Briatore won a London Evening Standard poll for football’s most popular owner. Of course, he would turn out to be a megalomaniac who wanted to pick the team himself. He was a serial sacker of managers and showed utter disdain for the supporters - doubling the price of tickets, then attempting to increase them again mid-season until the opponents for the first game, Derby County, objected to the league. He repeatedly said that "people who turn up once a week and pay £20 should not get a say.”
And we all might have realised just what a lunatic we’d been lumbered with a good deal sooner, had QPR lost that return fixture at Turf Moor. De Canio had started with a win against Hull at home in his first match, but a recovery of sorts had already been kick-started by caretaker manager Mick Harford who secured victories against Norwich at home live on Sky, and Charlton away. De Canio didn’t win again in the next seven matches.
Briatore’s wealth had already been used to make a clutch of loan signings outside the transfer window - Rowan Vine from Birmingham, Martin Cranie from Portsmouth and Akos Buzsaky from Plymouth were the headline acquisitions along with Mikele Leigertwood who’d cost £600,000 right on the deadline, and Hogan Ephraim who John Gregory had loaned from West Ham. By the time the R’s got to Lancashire Scott Sinclair had been added from Chelsea but this was still a team fielding Rehman, Damion Stewart, Chris Barker and the infamous Bob Malcolm as its back four. The Saturday before the rearranged game the Super Hoops had been lucky to escape lowly Scunthorpe with a 2-2 draw, secured almost entirely by Akos Buzsaky by himself - a game notable mainly for Flavio Briatore landing his helicopter in the tiny North Lincolnshire steel town only to be told he couldn’t sit in the director’s box for the game because he’d come in jeans. His own Billionaire clothing label branded jeans, worth more than the average weekly wage of the players at Glanford Park, but rules are rules.
The story goes that defeat to Owen Coyle’s Clarets would have seen De Canio sacked after nine matches in charge. Far-fetched at the time, but given that Briatore subsequently appointed and dismissed Iain Dowie, Paulo Sousa, Jim Magilton, Paul Hart and Mick Harford over the next 18 months almost certainly true.
QPR didn’t lose that night though. Damion Stewart powered in a corner in front of a tiny clutch of away fans after an hour setting up a tense 30 minutes in which the visiting team sat deep on the edge of their own box and tried to run the clock down. Lee Camp saved brilliantly from James O’Connor and Kyle Lafferty and Rehman and Leigertwood both survived claims for a penalty for handball in the same bizarre incident.
As the game moved into stoppage time, Coyle ordered tracksuited Hungarian goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly up for a corner, and almost got his rewards when the stopper tried to force the ball home almost on the goal line only for Lee Camp to shuffle it behind for another set piece. Kiraly stayed forward, but Burnley botched the delivery, and suddenly there was Vine, with the ball at his feet, and the best part of 90 yards of clear pitch ahead of him with an empty goal at the other end.
Vine, a tremendous player at that level before his leg break, set off with the ball at his feet. Kiraly, tracksuit flapping in the gale, was in hot pursuit. Time seemed to stand still as Vine sprinted in a straight line right down the very centre of the field, home defenders and goalkeepers tearing after him Keystone Cops style. It was a ludicrous spectacle. The naturally pessimistic QPR fans behind the goal were doing the opposite of what you would expect, willing him to bring it closer still and risk getting caught, rather than shoot from long range and miss the target. Vine was much more composed, knew he had the legs to get him there, and eventually rolled it in from about eight yards with the home chasers out on their feet, blowing through their arses, and beaten.
It was one of those grab-a-random-stranger moment in the away end. An extraordinary piece of football. A goal you’ll never see repeated. It felt like we’d won a cup.
There was more of that to come. De Canio spoke little English and spent all his training sessions working on pattern of play and how the team would counter attack down the field in shape and formation. He didn’t seem much interested in polishing that turd of a defence and so the long-suffering R’s fans were treated to such lunacy as a 4-2 win at Watford, a 4-2 defeat in the return fixture with Burnley having led 2-0, a 3-3 at Wolves having led on three occasions, a 2-2 at home to Preston having trailed 2-0 in the first minute of injury time, a 3-2 at home to Blackpool with an outrageous Akos Buzsaky goal, a 3-2 at Southampton. Hell, Patrick Agyemang scored eight goals in his first six games. Patrick Agyemang! A man who couldn’t find his own arse with both hands. De Canio turned up to one home game sporting black eyes after a dispute in a casino.
It was fun while it lasted. And it started that night at Turf Moor.
Burnley Kiraly 6, Alexander 8, Carlisle 7 (Gudjonsson 48, 6) Unsworth 6, Harley 6, Elliott 7, Mahon 7 (O'Connor 63, 7) McCann 6, Lafferty 6, Blake 7 (Jones 63, 6) Gray 6
Subs Not Used: Jensen, Akinbiyi
QPR: Camp 8, Rehman 7, Stewart 8, Malcolm 7, Barker 7, Ainsworth 7 (Moore 90, -), Bolder 7, Leigertwood 7 (Walton 88, -), Sinclair 6 (Blackstock 75, 6), Nygaard 7, Vine 7
Subs Not Used: Cole, Balanta
Booked: Barker (time wasting)
Goals: Stewart 60 (assisted Sinclair), Vine 90 (unassisted)
Burnley 1 QPR 2, Saturday April 22, 2023, Championship
Gareth Ainsworth’s QPR saved their Championship status by producing the most unlikely of 2-1 wins at champions-elect Burnley. On a run of seven without a win, and with two of the final three games away, League One looked odds on for a team that had won nly one of its previous 21 games. Burnley were unbeaten at home all season as they paraded to the Championship title under Vincent Kompany. Sam Field, however, stunned Turf Moor by hooking in the opening goal just after half time. Benson’s spectacular equaliser a quarter of an hour from time looked to have killed the dream, but Chris Martin entered himself into Rangers’ folklore with a headed winner in the 87th minute.
Burnley: Muric 6; Roberts 6, Harwood-Bellis 5, Beyer 5, Maatsen 6 (Obafemi 76, 5); Brownhill 6, Cullen 7; Benson 7, Gudmundsson 6 (Twine 57, 6), Zaroury 7; Barnes 5 (Rodriguez 57, 5)
Subs not used: Taylor, Clark, Peacock-Farrell, da Silva
Goals: Benson 76 (assisted Roberts)
Bookings: Harwood Bellis 63 (foul), Twine 90+2 (foul)
QPR: Dieng 6; Drewe 5 (Laird 45, 6), Dickie 8, Dunne 7, Paal 6; Adomah 5 (Armstrong 59, 7), Iroegbunam 5 (Amos 68, 6), Field 7, Chair 6; Lowe 6, Dykes 7 (Martin 85, -)
Subs not used: Willock, Archer, Richards
Goals (actual goals): Field 58 (unassisted), Martin 87 (assisted Lowe)
Bookings: Armstrong 80 (Brick killed a guy), Laird 89 (time wasting)
QPR 0 Burnley 3, Sunday December 11, 2022, Championship
With Paul Hall in caretaker charge, QPR suffered the first of their collection of 3-0 home defeats, against Burnley live on Sky in December. Rangers should have had a penalty in the opening minute when visiting keeper Muric slid underneath George Thomas without touching the ball, but after that it was one way traffic. Gudmundsson’s whipped free kick into the far corner got the scoring underway and Ian Maatsen converted calmly off a Seny Dieng save to make it two before half time. A collection of shambolic pieces of defending culminating in Jimmy Dunne not getting enough on a chest back to Seny Dieng let Nathan Tella in for a fairly pathetic third late in the day.
QPR: Dieng 4; Laird 5, Dunne 5, Clarke-Salter 4, Paal 6; Field 6, Dozzell 5 (Armstrong 76, 6), Iroegbunam 5; Thomas 4 (Shodipo 46, 6), Dykes 6, Willock 4 (Adomah 46, 5)
Subs not used: Kakay, Dickie, Archer, Richards
Bookings: Iroegbunam 56 (foul)
Burnley: Muric 6; Vitinho 7, Harwood-Bellis 7, Beyer 7, Maatsen 8 (Taylor 89, -); Cork 7 (Churlinov 89, -), Cullen 8; Gudmundsson 7 (Manuel 74, 6), Brownhill 8, Tella 8 (Twine 89, -); Rodriguez 7 (Barnes 81, -)
Subs not used: Peacock-Farrell, Bastien
Goals: Gudmundsson 17 (free kick, won Cork), Maatsen 45+2 (assisted Vitinho), Tella 71 (unassisted)
Bookings: Cork 52 (foul), Cullen 90+2 (foul)
Burnley 1 QPR 0, Monday May 2, 2016, Championship
Burnley needed a win from their final home match of 2015/16 to clinch the Championship crown and promotion back to the Premier League. QPR are usually terrific party guests in such circumstances but put up unusually strong resistance for the best part of an hour to increase nerves in the home ranks. The game played out mostly through a series of goalmouth scrambles in front of Matt Ingram’s goal until Sam Vokes glanced in Jones’ free kick at the near post to break the deadlock. Ale Faurlin came close to breaking Burnley hearts late on with a 25 yarder that struck the outside of the post with the keeper beaten.
Burnley: Heaton 7; Lowton 6, Keane 6, Mee 7, Ward 6; Boyd 6, Barton 5, Jones 6, Arfield 7; Vokes 7, Gray 5 (Barnes 76, 6)
Subs not used: Taylor, Dyer, Robinson, Hennings, Tarkowski, Darikwa
Goals: Vokes 61 (assisted Jones)
QPR: Ingram 6; Onuoha 6, Hall 6, Hill 6, Kpekawa 7; Henry 6; Petrasso 6 (El Khayati 70, 5), Phillips 5, Faurlin 7, Hoilett 5 (Washington 63, 5); Polter 6 (Gladwin 71, 5)
Subs not used: Lumley, Perch, Prohouly, Grego-Cox
Bookings: Polter 3 (living the dream), Kpekawa 45 (foul)
QPR 0 Burnley 0, Saturday December 12, 2015, Championship
The first meeting between the sides that season was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s first match in charge of QPR and saw the scoreline finish level. A tight first half saw Robert Green get away with an amateurish fumble of a long-range Joey Barton free kick, while Tom Heaton saved well from Junior Hoilett and Matt Phillips at the other end. QPR introduced Charlie Austin in the second half and he teed up Karl Henry for a decent chance which he took too long over while at the School End Sam Vokes headed over with the keeper beaten.
QPR: Green 6; Perch 6, Onuoha 7, Hall 8, Konchesky 7; Henry 6 (Emmanuel-Thomas 74, 5), Faurlin 6, Sandro 7, Hoilett 6 (Austin 60, 6), Phillips 5
Subs not used: Chery, Luongo, Smithies, Angella, Tozser
Burnley: Heaton 6; Darikwa 7, Duff 6, Keane 6, Mee 8; Boyd 6, Jones 6, Barton 6, Arfield 6; Vokes 5, Gray 7
Subs not used: Lowton, Marney, Taylor, Kightly, Ward, Gilks, Hennings
Head to Head >>> Burnley wins 23 >>> Draws 8 >>> QPR wins 12
2022/23 Burnley 1 QPR 2 (Field, Martin)
2022/23 QPR 0 Burnley 3
2015/16 Burnley 1 QPR 0
2015/16 QPR 0 Burnley 0
2014/15 Burnley 2 QPR 1 (Austin)
2014/15 QPR 2 Burnley 0 (Fer, Austin)
2013/14 QPR 3 Burnley 3 (Doyle, Dunne, Maiga!!!)
2013/14 Burnley 2 QPR 0
2010/11 Burnley 0 QPR 0
2010/11 QPR 1 Burnley 1 (Taraabt)
2008/09 Burnley 1 QPR 0
2008/09 Burnley 2 QPR 1* (Di Carmine)
2008/09 QPR 0 Burnley 0*
2008/09 QPR 1 Burnley 2 (Blackstock)
2007/08 QPR 2 Burnley 4 (Mahon, Agyemang)
2007/08 Burnley 0 QPR 2 (Stewart, Vine)
2006/07 QPR 3 Burnley 1 (Cook, Blackstock, Lomas)
2006/07 Burnley 2 QPR 0
2005/06 Burnley 1 QPR 0
2005/06 QPR 1 Burnley 1 (Ainsworth)
2004/05 Burnley 2 QPR 0
2004/05 QPR 3 Burnley 0 (Gallen, Santos, Furlong)
2000/01 Burnley 2 QPR 1 (Bignot)
2000/01 QPR 0 Burnley 1
1982/83 Burnley 2 QPR 1 (Sealy)
1982/83 QPR 3 Burnley 2 (Neill, Allen, Micklewhite)
1979/80 Burnley 0 QPR 3 (Gillard, Allen, Shanks)
1979/80 QPR 7 Burnley 0 (Goddard 2, Allen 2, Roeder, Shanks, McCreery)
1975/76 Burnley 1 QPR 0
1975/76 QPR 1 Burnley 0 (Bowles)
1974/75 QPR 0 Burnley 1
1974/75 Burnley 3 QPR 0
1973/74 Burnley 2 QPR 1 (Thomas)
1973/74 QPR 2 Burnley 1 (Thomas, Bowles)
1972/73 QPR 2 Burnley 0 (Leach, Givens)
1972/73 Burnley 1 QPR 1 (Busby)
1971/72 QPR 3 Burnley 1 (Leach 2, Marsh)
1971/72 Burnley 1 QPR 0
1968/69 Burnley 2 QPR 2 (Marsh, Leach)
1968/69 QPR 0 Burnley 2
1967/68 QPR 1 Burnley 2** (Sibley)
1961/62 Burnley 6 QPR 1* (Evans)
1920/21 Burnley 4 QPR 2* (Smith, Birch)
* - FA Cup
** - League Cup
Dave Thomas >>> QPR 1972-1977 >>> Burnley 1966-1972
England international winger Dave Thomas, socks rolled down to his ankles, is one of QPR’s greatest ever players.
Born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, he came through the ranks at Burnley and made his debut there aged 16 years and 220 days against Everton in the 1967/68 season. It was not an auspicious start — the Clarets were beaten 8-1 at The Hawthorns by West Bromwich Albion in one of his early games. He was Burnley’s youngest ever top flight player and won the FA Youth Cup with the club. Thomas’ father had been a miner, and later worked on the railways, but his grandfather had a football background - David Rhys Thomas, played for the victorious West Auckland team in the 1909 Sir Thomas Lipton World Football Trophy, the competition which spawned the inaugural World Cup 21 years later. He would refuse to play football in his garden with young Dave unless he kicked the ball with his weaker foot.
Burnley were relegated from that league in 1970/71 and they then bumped into QPR in the old Second Division for the 71/72 campaign. In 72/73 the pair would fight it out for the league title, and with Thomas excelling down the wing at Turf Moor QPR boss Gordan Jago made an audacious move in the October of that season to sign Thomas for £165k — then a record fee for a club in the Second Division. The two teams would go on to finish first and second in the table, meaning Thomas effectively won two promotions in a single season.
His pace, crossing, and ability to play on either wing made Thomas one of the hottest prospects in the country. He was an integral part of Dave Sexton’s brilliant QPR side of the 1970s, which came so close to winning the championship in 1976 only to be pipped by Liverpool in their final game in hand. A modern footballer before his time, Thomas was teetotal in an era of excess — "I owed it to my profession to look after myself”.
"We had Terry Venables, Gerry Francis and Stan Bowles, streetwise people,” said Thomas. "Terry was great with me. He was knowledgeable and charismatic, there was an aura about him. He took an interest in you personally and would do anything to help you improve. I had the best five years of my career at QPR.”
Don Revie gave him an England debut in October 1974 during a 3-0 win against Czechoslovakia and he went on to win eight caps for his country. Revie had earlier tried to break the bank to take the teenage Thomas from Burnley to Leeds prior to him making his debut for the Clarets, £30 a week with a £2k signing bonus for a 15-year-old, but was shooed out of the Thomas family home by Dave’s father.
He returned to the North West in August 1977 when Everton paid £200k to sign him from Rangers. In 1977/78 he helped Bob Latchford reach 30 goals for the season for the Goodison Park outfit, with more assists than any other player.
Later he had briefer spells with Wolves, which was never going to last long once manager John Barnwell had demanded he ditch his rubber studs and pull his socks up. The dispute came to a head at Norwich where he slipped and cost his side a goal, and during a half time sort out tore off his shirt and through it at assistant manager Richie Barker. He later played for Boro and Portsmouth. He also had a stint in the original MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps.
Now registered blind owing to an optic nerve glaucoma condition inherited from his father, Thomas has made several emotional returns to Loftus Road as part of the Forever R’s club, speaking emotionally on the pitch about the fundraising Rangers fans had done for the Guide Dogs charity — his four-year wait ended when he was paired with Hannah who stands faithfully by his side today. He had been a PE teacher in Chichester post retirement, but had to give that job up as his sight failed.
Others >>> Jimmy Dunne, QPR 2021-present, Burnley 2017-2021 >>> Charlie Austin, QPR 2021-2022, 2013-2016, Burnley 2011-2013 >>> Andre Gray, QPR (loan) 2021-2022, Burnley 2015-2017 >>> Jeff Hendrick, QPR (loan) 2022, Burnley 2016-2020 >>> Marc Pugh, QPR 2019-2020, Burnley 2004-2006 >>> Nahki Wells, QPR (loan) 2018-2020, Burnley 2017-2020 >>> Peter Crouch, Burnley 2019, QPR 2000-2001 >>> Lloyd Dyer, Burnley 2016, QPR (loan) 2005 >>> Tom Heaton, Burnley 2013-2019, QPR (loan) 2009 >>> Dean Marney, Burnley 2010-2019, QPR (loan) 2004 >>> Joey Barton, Burnley 2015-2016, QPR 2011-2015 >>> Steven Reid, Burnley 2014-2015, QPR 2009 >>> Bradley Orr, QPR 2010-2012, Burnley (loan) 2004 >>> Clarke Carlisle, Burnley 2007-2012, QPR 2000-2004 >>> Keith Lowe, QPR (loan) 2006, Burnley (loan) 2005 >>> Fingers Gnohere, QPR 2003-2005, Burnley 2001-2004 >>> Gareth Taylor, Burnley 2001-2003, QPR (loan) 2000 >>> Chris Woods, Burnley 1997-1998, QPR 1979-1981 >>> Billy Hamilton, Burnley 1979-1984, QPR 1978-1979 >>> Ian Muir, QPR 1980-1983, Burnley (loan) 1982 >>> Paul McGee, Burnley 1981-1983, QPR 1977-1979 >>> Martyn Busby, Burnley (loan) 1980, QPR 1977-1981, 1970-1976 >>> Leighton James, QPR 1977-1978, Burnley 1970-1975
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Pictures — Action Images