QPR spend their annual 90 minutes in the League Cup tonight at Cambridge United, a ground they seldom visit but usually have something big building when they do.

Cambridge United v QPR

Rumbelows Cup first round >>> Tuesday August 13, 2024 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather – Scorchio >> Abbey Stadium, Cambridge

I you haven’t got lost on that allotment, or picked your way through the field of cow pat, then you haven’t been to Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium – conveniently situated miles away from all the bits of Cambridge you’d like to spend time in.

That’s probably understandable if you’re a QPR fan. There have only been ten competitive meetings between these two sides, the vast majority in a little clump at the start of the 1980s (Stan Bowles scored the last of his 97 goals for the club here in fine style in 1979/80), and the sides haven’t faced each other in the league since 2001.

The Queens Park Rangers sides that do find themselves coming here, though, tend to be going places.

The Clive Allen finishing masterclass we featured in this week’s History column helped Terry Venables’s side to a 4-1 win on this ground as they pushed on towards winning the Second Division title. They’d been here the year before and lost, a season that would end at Wembley in an FA Cup final replay against Spurs, but made no mistake second time round with a thumping victory as part of four wins on the spin that really cemented the R’s in the promotion picture.

Rangers would go on to finish fifth in their first season back in the top flight, playing on a plastic pitch at Loftus Road, and qualify for Europe in the 1984/85 season. Unfortunately all that genius was spotted by Barcelona, who had Venables away, and the decision to replace him with Alan Mullery was a disaster. The European campaign ended in ignominy in Partizan Belgrade when Rangers let slip a 6-2 first leg lead with a 4-0 defeat. Mullery, allegedly not aware of the away goals situation, chased his team down the tunnel at full time to ask where they were going. Fans and players forced to endure a flight back surrounded by blue and white streamers and balloons staff had decorated the cabin with thinking the result was a foregone conclusion.

It was a very different situation facing our beloved team by the time they made it back here in 2001/02.

The buy-low, sell-high, lather-rinse-repeat transfer policy of the early 1990s, which had seen David Seaman, Paul Parker and Andy Sinton sold at enormous profit, with the likes of Jan Stejskal, Darren Peacock and Trevor Sinclair calmly stepping in to replace them (not you Roberts) had tilted too far towards the selling part. Peacock himself was replaced by Karl Ready, who wasn’t up to the level. Clive Wilson by Rufus Brevett. Les Ferdinand by Mark Hateley. QPR needed to cut their cloth, fair enough, but that team was only a Kasey Keller in goal and perhaps an Alex Rae in midfield away from seriously competing for trophies and European football. Leicester City, a Premier League whipping boy in 1994/95, went on to achieve exactly that, having started miles behind QPR, with those sort of Keller, Matt Elliott signings that were well within QPR’s purview.

Chris Wright’s attempt to restore the team to the top flight by chucking money at a First Division season turned into a financial disaster when first Stuart Houston and the Ray Harford failed to get a well furnished side, with an outstanding collection of strikers for the level, even into the play-offs. Having collapsed financially, and with administration looming, several near scrapes with relegation finally ended with demotion in 2000/01.

Rangers infamously only had eight professionals signed up for their first tier three campaign since 1967. The best two of those – Richard Langley and Clarke Carlisle – had blown ACLs and would miss most of the year. Just as well, they’d have been sold along with Peter Crouch, Jermaine Darlington and the rest had they not. A weird and wonderful summer of pre-season friendlies took place where triallists were sourced from across Europe, the free transfer list, and non-league. Weirdly it’s the ones we didn’t sign from that clutch that stick in my mind, though perhaps that’s just because Martin Bullock would go on to terrorise us for Blackpool, and Mamdy Sidibe did similar for Swansea in the FA Cup. Who could forget, though, Leroy Griffiths' destruction of Marcel Desailly?

That remarkable 3-1 win against Chelsea gave fans genuine optimism the stay in the Second Division would be short lived. Out of the ashes, Ian Holloway and Kenny Jackett had put together a very good side. Chris Day was a fine goalkeeper, Steve Palmer a terrific captain, Aziz Ben-Askar a quality player with no business at that level, Andy Thomson would score 21 league goals, Kevin Gallen’s return was just around the corner.

To begin with it was a real laugh. Up to Bury for the first away game, £35 for a meal in hospitality and slightly racist comedian at half time, won 2-1. Thomson got a hat trick at home to Port Vale, and two more as we knocked over Cardiff. Ged Brennan scored a last minute own goal winner for us on a first ever trip to Wigan. Soon, though, a long winter set in and reality struck home. There was a 3-0 cup defeat at Yeovil on the horizon, and a 4-1 loss at Peterborough on Danny Shittu’s debut.

That run started with a chastening loss at Cambridge where a young Dave Kitson crawled all over Rangers all afternoon, scoring after three minutes, setting up Tom Youngs for a second, and generally just being a gigantic pain in the arse. It always mystified me that we were so happy to let him go to Reading after that without having a dig at signing him ourselves – the fee was £150,000, and at this point you just asked Harold, Alex and Matt Winton for that money if you wanted to sign a Marc Bircham or Danny Shittu type, much to Ron Noades’ annoyance.

That trip to the Abbey Stadium was a fraught affair with a dramatic end. Karl Connolly had pulled one back with 15 minutes to go, Stevland Angus was sent off for the hosts, and when a member of the local constabulary decided to start chucking conkers at the away fans the tinderbox away end was lit. Days later, around a kitchen table in Royston, another Cambridgeshire Police Officer came to take a statement on the whole thing from a friend of mine. He placed on the table a large lever arch file, with all threads on the matter from the Rivals and .Org boards printed out onto reems of A4 paper. Opening the file he began: “So, sir. Tell me, how does this internet work?”

QPR would spend three seasons eventually putting together a team with Martin Rowlands one side, Gareth Ainsworth the other, and Paul Furlong up front, on top of Gallen, Bircham, Shittu et al. Even QPR couldn’t fail to be promoted with that lot.

More recently we were back here to play a testimonial for Cambridge’s long serving QPR supporting defender Harrison Dunk. Again it felt like a team with bright prospects as Mark Warburton prepared to enter his third season in charge, with Ebere Eze money to spend, and fans back in the ground after lockdown. A huge following from West London made the trip, glad to have their freedom back, and a new song was coined for great white hope Stefan Johansen. The whole division had QPR down as a dark horse that season having finished the previous with 15 wins from 23 games through the second half. It looked good up to the end of January too, when the R’s were in the top four and pushing Bournemouth hard for second, but fell apart thereafter and it was back to chucking stuff overboard and fighting a financial fight once more.

It feels, cautiously, like Rangers are emerging from the two years of hell that overspend unleashed as they prepare to head back to Cambridge tonight in the League Cup.

By the time last season’s escape from relegation was completed by running a large pork sword through Leeds and then finishing with a flourish at Coventry the good people of Shepherd’s Bush were torn between fetching the HMS Piss The League memes and crowning Marti Cifuentes their new king. That optimism undoubtedly remains, but it’s been curtailed somewhat by the team’s long standing problem of creating and scoring chances rearing its head through four scoreless pre-season friendlies, and then Saturday’s fairly insipid opener against West Brom where QPR were punished severely for a soft approach to playing a physical side.

The problems at the weekend are well known to the club. Kenneth Paal had a nightmare, but the club have clearly been trying to shift him on and replace him all summer. Liverpool’s three time soapbox derby champion Owen Beck is linked as a loan option. Watching Alex Mowatt against Sam Field and Jack Colback was enough to make you cry, but a highlight from the game was the late cameo by Jonathan Varane – be keen to see more of him this evening as he gets up to speed following a move from Sporting Gijon. And while Zan Celar was undoubtedly anonymous, the standard of the supporting cast wasn’t really at Championship level. We’ve got Ilias Chair, still this team’s best player, to come back into that while an exciting deal for another tiny treasure in Karamoko Dembele should be announced shortly. It seems Japanese attacker Koki Saito might not be too far behind him, potentially transforming the team we saw on Saturday.

As ever though, for clubs towards the bottom of the Championship food chain, we have to endure this irritating first month where the team is taking on competitive fixtures clearly under-nourished and far from the finished product. While our season starts in August and the transfer window has to align with the rest of Europe in September it’s difficult to see a way around this, but it’s always frustrating trying to work out where your team, and the rest of the league, stand when there’s still a month of window left. Hull were unrecognisable from August 1 by the time September 1 rolled around last year. That frustration appears to be bleeding through into Cifuentes’ press conferences, which he again used on Saturday to bat questions on team strengthening away with “it’s a good question for Christian, and the club”.

So, we wait and see. Wait and see who we sign, who we sell, what the team looks like at Sheff Wed a month from now. Wait and see whether last season’s momentum continues, or drains away into another false dawn. And wait and see what we do with tonight’s cup tie. QPR were punted out of a cup competition by a League One side at least once a season every season for six years prior to last term when Norwich and Bournemouth were our conquerors. They haven’t won a cup tie away from home sans penalty shoot out since 2015.

Links >>> Allen’s 80s double – History >>> Monks’ Cambridge impact – Oppo profile >>> Newbie – Referee >>> Cambridge Official Website >>> Abbey Stadium ground guide >>> Under The Abbey Stand – Contributor’s Pod >>> Unofficial Forum – Message Board

Below the fold

Team News: As ever, probably the most interesting bit of the night will be the team sheet. QPR have a number of young players who’ve impressed in pre-season and may be worth a go here – Alfies Tuck and Lloyd, Crocodile Bennie, Rayan Kolli. They also have a clutch of new signings who haven’t had many minutes and could perhaps do with this game as almost an extra season warm-up – Morrison, Santos, Varane, Celar. Ilias Chair remains sidelined and moves for Karamoko Dembele, Koki Saito and others have not been finalised in time.

One would expect Taylor Richards will not be allowed to play against his parent club under the terms of his loan deal. Mind you, the way he’s gone for us so far perhaps we should have insisted upon it.

Elsewhere: Plenty of low hanging fruit around for those looking for cup upsets in tonight’s first round ties.

Expect weakened Championship team selections across the board, and that’ll leave a few sides in particular extremely vulnerable. None more so than Blackburn away at newly promoted Stockport, who beat our opponents Cambridge 2-0 in their opening game on Saturday. Chesterfield are also well fancied on their return to League Two this season and a short hop down the A61 to Derby could bear fruit for them, given how woeful Derby’s first team looked on Friday night at Ewood Park.

Of those facing awkward away trips, Stoke are up to Carlisle and West Brom go to the coast to play Fleetwood. Clinging on to home advantage are Norwich against Stevenage, Cardiff v Bristol Rovers, Watford v MK Dons, Swansea v Gillingham and Oxford v Peterborough.

There are a couple of those most boring things of all – a cup tie against another Championship side you play all the time – as Preston host Sunderland in the Alan Browne derby just a day after Ryan Lowe walked away from Deepdale, Portsmouth play Millwall and Bristol City host Coventry.

Bromley play a first ever game in this competition at home to near neighbours Wimbledon. And, of course, there’s the circus that is Sheff Utd v Wrexham all over again.

Referee: London’s Paul Howard, promoted out of non-league for the 2020/21 season, referees his first QPR game as the R’s go to Cambridge in the League Cup on Tuesday. Thomas works as an operational improvement manager at TFL, “interrogating data and identifying trends in order to focus on improving structures and processes within the trains and service control teams on London Underground.” So now you know. Details.

Form

Cambridge: Survival in League One has gone down to the final day for Cambridge in each of the last two seasons. The 2023/24 campaign saw them rattle through three managers with long serving local hero Mark Bonner jettisoned after a poor start, Neil Harris walking out on them almost as quickly as he’d walked in to go back to Millwall, and Garry Monk overseeing a torturous end to the campaign which included nine defeats, four draws and just two victories. They finished 18th.

The U’s started this season with a 2-0 loss at Stockport. It means they’ve won only twice in 18 games back to February 17 and five times in 30 attempts going back to Boxing Day. Their overall home record in 23/24 was 8-7-8. Only the bottom five, plus Exeter, won fewer than eight home games and they’re currently on a run of one win in nine at The Abbey Stadium. The 22 goals scored at home in 23 games was the division’s fourth worst total behind only Exeter, Shrewsbury and the bottom club Carlisle. Cambridge scored just 39 league goals last season, their lowest total for 19 years – all four relegated teams in League One scored more, and only Shrewsbury (35) scored fewer. Won just 17 points away last season only Carlisle (15) picked up fewer on travels. Ipswich loanee Gassan Ahadme was top scorer here last year with 13 but is now at Charlton, Fejiri Okenabirhie was second with nine including two in the League Cup but he’s been released.

Cambridge haven’t been further than round two of this competition since 1999/00, although they did spend a decade in the Conference in that time during which they obviously weren’t entered. Their best ever performance was a run to the quarter finals under John Beck in 1992/93 when, despite being relegated from the second tier, they knocked out Stoke, Notts County and Oldham before losing to Blackburn. Last year they went out in the first round, losing 6-5 on penalties to Sutton after a 2-2 draw in South London. Since 2019, however, they have beaten higher division opposition on three occasions – Brentford (2019), Birmingham City (2020) and Millwall (2022).

QPR: Rangers went out at this stage of the competition last year when Norwich City scored with the final kick of the first round at Loftus Road. With Premier League Bournemouth coming from two down to win 3-2 in W12 in the FA Cup it halted a concerning run of cup exists against League One sides – which of course now rears its head again with a trip to Cambridge.

The defeat on penalties to Charlton at this stage of the 2022/23 competition, and loss at Fleetwood in the FA Cup, meant QPR had been eliminated from cup competitions by League One opposition at least once for six seasons running: Charlton 2022/23, Fleetwood (FA Cup) 2022/23, Sunderland 2021/22, Plymouth 2020/21, Pompey 2019/20, Blackpool 2018/19, MK Dons 17/18 (FA Cup). Rangers beat Orient on penalties after a 1-1 draw in 2021/22 and subsequently beat Oxford 2-0 at home and Premier League Everton on pens after a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road to reach round four. It was their best performance in the competition since 2008//09 when a shock win against Aston Villa at Villa Park took us into a fourth round 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Of course, but for the latest Keith Stroud-supervised catastrophe, Charlie Austin’s legitimate late goal would have stood and QPR would have had a quarter final at Arsenal — the R’s haven’t been that deep into the competition since 1988/89 when they lost 5-2 at Nottingham Forest. Rangers have still only been to one cup quarter final, in either competition, since 1990 — the 1994/95 FA Cup quarter final away to Man Utd.

Rangers haven’t won a cup tie away from home without a penalty shoot out since August 2015, when they won at this stage of the comp 3-0 at Yeovil with goals from Polter, JET and Onuoha.

Prediction: As ever, no Prediction League for cup ties and, also continuing a tradition, I am of course going for a draw, a penalty shoot out, and a long old night.

LFW’s Prediction: Cambridge 1-1 QPR. Scorer – Jimmy Dunne.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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