Guest columnist Ross Smith continues his look back at his 25 years of following QPR, recalling a memorable New Year fixture with Man Utd and Gerry Francis walking away.

Man Utd 1 QPR 4 – 1992

Why do we talk about and regard this result as one of our finest in living memory?

United had not been champions for 25 years at that point and prior to that season had often been shaky at the best of times. They didn’t have the million pound signings on film star wages they have today and Old Trafford, although still a big ground, was then still terraced along the Stretford End giving a more traditional feel to the “Theatre of Dreams” you see now.

Well I suppose you could say it was the genesis period of the total dominance they would hold over English football for the next 20 years, coupled with the fact a QPR player scored an unprecedented hat trick at Old Trafford. QPR had never won on a visit to either United or Manchester City before this either.

Over the years since, the result has grown in stature, especially when we were scrambling around in the Second Division not too long ago. If next season we play them live on Sky or ESPN, I am willing to bet my house that the commentator will mention that result at some point during the coverage. Infact, it still gets mentioned now if a hatrick is beckoning there for a visiting side or Man Utd are playing on New Years Day at Old Trafford, such is its significance and historic value to football.

My dad often tells me that fixtures over the festive period can throw up strange results and refers to a time when he watched his beloved Fulham annihilate an Ipswich team 10-1 one Boxing Day morning and then watched the same hopeless Ipswich team beat Fulham 3-1 less than a week later.

This was one of those games where everything went right on the night. Queens Park Rangers traveled to Old Trafford on New Year’s Day 1992 and everyone was expecting a win for the hosts. This was a time when Alex Ferguson’s rule in the red half on Manchester was on the cusp of the dynasty you see now. They were leading the First Division and were favorites to gain the title for this first time since 1967.

The improvement in United under Ferguson had been very gradual since he’d taken control in 1986. He'd slowly steadied a huge drifting ship and even he would admit, as it’s been well documented since, he came close to the chop once or twice in the process. He guided them to their first trophy under his reign in 1990, winning an FA Cup final replay against Crystal Palace, a run that allegedly saved his job. The 1990-91 season saw a stark improvement in United and the finished sixth in the league, won the European Cup Winners Cup and were runners up in the Rumbelows Cup. By 1991-92 United were gunning for the First Division title again and the decline of Liverpool and Arsenal's dominance gave them their first genuine chance for 25 years. The nucleus of his future champions was added this season with the arrival of Peter Schmeichel in goal and Andre Kanchelskis on the wing. Ryan Giggs had broken through from their academy and joined an already established Lee Sharpe in the first team. Paul Ince was beginning to justify his much talked about transfer from West Ham a couple of seasons earlier.

From a personal view, this was a dream result for me. My best friend at the time was a glory hunting Man Utd obsessive. The stereotype kind: posters on his bedroom walls, videos, replica tops home and away which he would wear every day without fail. He even convinced his dad to take us to Old Trafford for his birthday on one occasion when they played Wimbledon. Not just any trip though, one of his dad's business associates had an executive box there so we watched the game from the comfort of that complete with complimentary drinks and a meal whilst the cold Mancs outside glared through the glass at us probably wondering how these two snotty nosed kids managed to get so privileged. I've never to this day quite had a cheeseburger like one they served up at Old Trafford hospitality. A surreal experience that would have me accused of bull shitting for many years later.

He loved Manchester United and I think my hatred towards them stemmed from that along with all the gloating and Manchester United brand overkill in 90 Minutes magazine and then the sudden emergence of other Man U fans around school and the streets in general as the Liverpool shirts began to disappear.

I was expecting Man U to hammer us and to have to take the flack and humiliation for the next week non stop. It's funny how fearing the worst is something of a defence mechanism. But you have to genuinely believe that the worst will happen, and then when it doesn’t, it's a surprising elation. An adage my grandfather was accustomed to: "To be forewarned is to be forearmed," he would say. He'd come out with crap like that quite often but it has never been so relevant when supporting QPR. Anyway I sat down to watch this rather like going through Facebook the morning after a big night out where you see loads of pictures some tart has tagged of you looking very pissed.

But this time, the humiliation never came. For once in my life, something completely unexpectedly orgasmicaly brilliant happened. If Erika Eleniak, Pamela Anderson and Demi Moore had walked into my living room butt naked it wouldn’t have got near the sight of QPR trouncing Man U that day - and even to a 13-year-old-boy, in 1992 those 3 were definitely worth the flowers.

Rangers started like a train, Andy Sinton capitalising on a sloppy bit of defending and minutes later Bailey added a second. We were 2-0 up at Old Trafford inside five minutes and it was raining QPR chances. We should have been out of sight by halftime but as it was two up at the break was beyond our wildest of dreams. At that point I was hoping at least we could get a draw here. Co-commentator Dennis Law seemed strangely subdued.

One can only imagine the hairdryer that was handed out to the United players during that break, and so Manchester United looked to take the initiative as the second half started. They introduced rising starlet Ryan Giggs for the woeful Mike Phelan. The stage was now set for a United comeback with the pace and trickery of Giggs on one side coupled with the speed of Lee Sharpe on the other. Giggs forced a free kick on the edge of the Rangers box in a dangerous position but couldn’t do anything with it. Rangers then fashioned another chance down the opposite end and another near miss from Sinton. Just as the TV replays were showing this, the live action flashed back onto the screen as Dennis Bailey was lobbing a through ball over Peter Smiechel in the United goal to silence Old Trafford. We were now 3-0 up - quite remarkable. Bailey was having the game of his life and was literally bullying Steve Bruce and Paul Parker all over the show and they could not live with him. Such was the sheer dominance of Rangers, this should have been the biggest away win at Old Trafford of all time and I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

United did however claw one back eight minutes from time and the feeling of dread came over me that we still had plenty of time to blow this. When Bailey completed his hat trick QPR's 4-1 victory was sealed and I was in dreamland. I couldn’t believe quite what I’d seen. Dennis Bailey stood on the goal line after the easiest of tap ins following in a Sinton lob which rebounded back off the post. He turned round with that unforgettable big smile on his face half checking to see if his goal was onside, arm raised and fist twirling in the night air in celebration. He had played a blinder and will forever be remembered in English football folklore for his well deserved hatrick and Man of the Match performance at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day 1992. During his post match interview on ITV’s The Match programme, he humbly admitted that he loved every minute of it, and spoke like a man who was grateful for his chance to play football at a level he had only dreamed about. He even had it in him to wish his mother a Happy New Year. A true gentleman.

As for United, we killed them in their own backyard live on TV. We'd humiliated them; they were the laughing stock, not us. Roy Wegerle should have made it five late on and only he will know how he didn’t and trust me 5-1 would have flattered the home team, but 4-1 was more ammunition to bait the nearest Man U fans with then I could ever possibly need. They went on to lose out on that elusive title to Leeds United, who QPR also beat 4-1 a couple of months later at Loftus Road.

I was round my mate’s house next morning, sharp with my QPR shirt under my coat ready to start the jibes. Terribly childish and some would say cruel admittedly but given half the chance, I'd still do the same to this day. Unfortunately I haven't seen him in years and years now, we drifted apart in secondary school. I bumped into his old man a short while ago as his parents still live a few doors up from mine in Merton Park. He informed me that my ex best friend was now a season ticket holder at Fulham. I shit you not... go figure.

You Tube Footage

Gerry Francis Resigns - 1994

Ray Wilkins botched tenure as manager, Chris Wright's ill-judged running of the club’s finances, the sale of Les Ferdinand, the purchase of Mike Sheron, the contract given to Trevor Sinclair, the contract given to Vinnie Jones, the employment of Stewart Houeston, the employment of the late Ray Harford... it goes on and on until we reach the present day, and some to this day would contest that Rangers are still on shaky ground.

Much in the way the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand sparked a chain of events that led to the Great War, the resignation of Gerry Francis of manager of Queens Park Rangers proved to be the defining moment of this generation - the day the long standing stability of the club in the top flight began to collapse.

Francis had done wonders at QPR, leading them to a top five Premiere League finish in 1993, and had the club playing an exciting brand of winning football at the top end of English league. He'd shown a shrewd eye in the transfer market bringing in rough diamonds while balancing the books with sales (mostly forced) of players who had perhaps sadly outgrown the club’s ambition. He had become a sought after manager by some of the bigger clubs and was even being talked about as a successor to Graham Taylor as England manager.

Rangers were languishing somewhat in the Premiere league by the autumn of 1994 but still looking more then capable of a decent run and climb up the table if they could just sort out some defensive consistency. Many believed a domestic trophy or even a place in Europe should have been the aim by this stage of Gerry Francis’s reign, but the stubbornness of the board not to back Francis was proving to be the sticking point in the clubs progress. However Kevin Gallen had finally broken into the first team that his exuberance at youth level demanded. This reputation had propelled him to hero status before his 1st team career had even got into second gear. Such was his goal scoring record at youth team level; much was expected of Kevin Gallen. For QPR, the future was looking bright.

Chairman Richard Thompson, never a well liked figure at Loftus Road in his time for reasons stated above, decided for whatever reason to boost his popularity with the fans still further by appointing a Director of Football to the club. Now whether or not this was done maliciously (the events that followed shortly make me doubt that) and made to undermine the role Francis had in signing players for QPR, is unknown. What we do know is QPR offered a Director of Football position to Rodney Marsh in an attempt to bring him back to the club in a professional role. On first hearing the news, I thought it sounded reasonable, maybe a way of winning a few of the supporters over by bringing in another famous QPR name to the club. Again it looked like another positive step to improve the club and make it more about Queens Park Rangers then Richard Thompson.

Something was seriously wrong though. A day after Rangers went public with the news about Marsh's job offer, after a week of press speculation, Francis tendered his resignation. Francis stated in a press conference that he felt betrayed by the club’s board that he was at no point consulted about the proposal of having Rodney Marsh as director of football at the club. He had lost the trust he felt necessary to have in order to carry on working as manager of Queens Park Rangers.

Obviously shocked by this, the board of QPR rejected his resignation and withdrew the Director of Football offer to Rodney Marsh in an ill-fated attempt to keep Francis as manager at all costs. Unfortunately Francis, being a man of principle, seemed to feel carrying as manager was now untenable under the circumstances that had occurred. If Francis had aspirations to go on and manage another team with a bigger budget at his disposal, now was a perfect time to execute that urge. Francis left Queens Park Rangers in November 1994.

Now we all know from a TV personality perspective what Rodney's about. A loud mouth self opinionated knowall who often knows virtually buggerall about whatever it is he's babbling on about, topped off with the big ego which needs massaging every once in a while. Rodney's spell on Sky’s football phone in show “You’re on Sky Sports” started out as some kind of gimmick but after a couple of weeks did no more than highlight his ignorance. His unprofessional behavior came to a head when he stupidly got the tin tack for making a joke about Newcastle in a bad taste reference to the devastating 2004 Tsunami disaster. A great football talent and player for QPR undoubted, but as a pundit, and as a potential director of football at QPR, he wasn’t for me. Maybe Francis’s resignation stopping that happening was the one saving grace to come out of that whole horrible affair.

The QPR board had been left looking rather stupid, and in an attempt to appease supporters, set about making amends by appointing a new manager. They needed someone who would be as popular with the supporters as Gerry Francis was. There was only one choice, and as an added bonus this choice would also return to the first team as an experienced and arguably at the time, sorely missed midfield player.

On 15 November 1994, Ray Wilkins, quit his player role at Crystal Palace and was appointed as player manager of QPR.

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Photo: Action Images

Monahoop added 09:08 - Jul 6 An enjoyable read this Ross and a breath of fresh air when one considers all the depressing down beat stuff being posted on this site of late. Reminds me I must search for and dust down my old video recording of that Man Utd game. That result was truly a one off always to be treasured.
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