Following the final international break of the season QPR now just have eight games left to play, starting with the visit of Sheffield United to Loftus Road on Monday night.
Npower Championship >>> Monday, April 4 >>> Kick Off 7.45pm >>> Loftus Road, London, W12 >>> Live on Sky Sports 1
It suddenly dawned on me a week or so back, admittedly while somewhat intoxicated, that I might actually be about to see QPR lift a piece of silverware. I mean a real, proper trophy that other clubs want to win - something to be really proud of – rather than the London Masters, Cope del Ibiza, Evening Standard Five-a-Sides and whatever other tin pots we’ve slung in the back of the cabinet during my lifetime. In eight games time I could be standing there in my usual spot with my brother and best mates watching Adel Taarabt hoist the Championship trophy over his head in front of the Loft End.
Clearly this image has occurred to a lot of people over the past few months, and probably brought about the same day dream like state and lazy lob that it did for me, because when the spare 3,000 tickets for the final game of the season against Leeds went on sale last Friday they were gone inside six hours, with hundreds of fans left without and bemoaning their luck and internet connection.
There’s been a bit of an unhappy atmosphere around the message boards since then. The issue of season ticket holders being allowed to buy two guest tickets (which I freely admit I took full advantage of) while some paid up members were left without one at all has angered some. Those without have come over all hard done to and accused season ticket holders of wanting to bring their “Aunt Nelly” to the game at the expense of genuine fans, while those clutching season tickets and guests besides have, in some cases, adopted a regrettable “I’m alright Jack” attitude to those who will have to make do with catching the Leeds match through another medium.
The club’s decision to then distribute the pitiful allocations we have at both Watford and Cardiff one at a time to season ticket holders and members with loyalty points blew the embers of the fire in to life again somewhat during this week. Needless to say those who branded the loyalty point system as just a ruse to get you to part with a booking fee for buying in advance, have been nowhere to be seen this week.
I’ve stated my opinion on the Leeds ticketing often enough so I won’t go over it again except to make two points. Firstly – when you only have 18,000 seats in your home ground - at least 1,800 and often as many as 3,100 of which have to go to away fans, 9,000 of which belong to season ticket holders, and many are taken up in ticket bundle deals and hospitality - every now and again you are going to end up with a situation where everybody cannot get in. The same applies when a club with a much bigger ground sees fit to only send you 1,800 tickets for a massive end of season promotion battle. So however the club decided to divide it all up - and whatever your sob story about long distances travelled, massive expenses occurred, years of support ignored – people were always going to be disappointed at some point.
Secondly, and most importantly, it’s unlikely that our fate will depend on the Leeds game. While I maintain it’s a dangerous attitude to have adopted the party seemed to well and truly get going at Doncaster last week. We only need 12 points (my therapist says I shouldn’t talk about the Faurlin hearing issue until we know for sure) which means the actual promotion could be achieved as soon as Derby. This is a once in a generation opportunity for QPR fans and yet there are tickets still available for this Monday’s game, the Derby match, even the mouthwatering Bank Holiday Monday game with Hull. You can still go and see us at Scunthorpe and at Barnsley. It seems strange to me that so many people were so keen to say how desperately unfair it was that they wouldn’t be able to go to Leeds, Cardiff or Watford and yet we have five other massive matches including several where the deal could be sealed that have tickets available.
If I appear uncaring, arrogant, cocky or anything else because I have a season ticket and my mates got the tickets they needed for Leeds then I apologise. It’s genuinely not meant and I really hope that as many actual fans of QPR get to see us lift a trophy (if that’s what’s going to happen, touch wood) as possible. But if, for whatever reason, you can’t be at the Leeds game then get yourself down to W12 this Monday, or up to Scunthorpe next Saturday, or to Barnsley, or to the Derby and Hull games. This may never happen again. Make sure you’re there for at least part of it.
Five minutes on Sheff Utd
The Story So Far: We know from bitter experience 12 months ago that working your way through four managers in a season doesn’t do a lot for a team, and when you consider that despite getting plenty of practice Mickey Adams is still the best the Bramall Lane board can come up with as an appointment for their top job it’s little wonder that their season has turned out to be an absolute track wreck. With eight games left to play the Blades are four points adrift of safety, and that could well have grown by the time they take to the field in this game.
As a former Sheffield resident I’ve always kept half an eye on the results of the two clubs, and as United’s plight this season has deepened with every passing dire result I’ve always harked back to the programme notes Kevin Blackwell penned for their opening home game of this season against QPR at Bramall Lane. They’d won a point at Cardiff thanks to an outstanding goalkeeping display by Steve Simonsen on the opening day, despite playing for a good portion of the game with ten men after Matt Lowton was sent off, but had been beaten in the first round of the League Cup by Hartlepool a couple of days prior to our visit. Blackwell finished his column by telling the club’s supporters: “we have a lot going for us.”
And that’s the thing, Sheffield United should have a lot going for them. For a start, don’t believe all this rubbish you read about QPR being the richest club in the Championship – which other side in this league could boast a £30m compensation package on top of Premiership parachute payments? The money United were paid while in the Premier League, and after being relegated, combined with the huge settlement they received from West Ham over the Carlos Tevez affair should have both secured the club’s long term future and enabled a reasonably swift return to the top flight. We’re talking the thick end of £50m in total there, and another £50m upon promotion. They should have returned to the top flight immediately, and not been seen again for some time by the likes of us.
But one thing Blackwell forgot to add (and who can blame him really?) was that one of the things definitely not going for them was the manager, or indeed the board’s ability to choose a manager. Sheffield United wasted precious time and money in their first season back in this league after relegation by putting Bryan Robson in charge. Now clearly the news of Robson’s recent throat cancer diagnosis is terribly sad, and having watched that disease ravage my own father to death I can only wish him the very best of luck in his battle, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the former Man Utd and England captain was, is and always will be a bloody terrible football manager.
Having realised their mistake just too late (an astonishing run of winning form after Robson’s departure would have resulted in the play offs had it started just one week earlier) the board replaced Robson with Kevin Blackwell. He was unfortunate to find himself first at Leeds and then at Luton at a time when the accounts of both clubs looked like those of Baring’s Bank after Nick Leeson had worked the weekend shift but he did very little with either. He lost a play off final with Leeds against Watford when overwhelming favourites and then spent the summer turning the side into one that would go on to be relegated, and at Luton the place fell apart around his ears – but under the circumstances people were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and even praise him for hiss work, at both clubs. Given the chance to manage a more stable and financially well off club at Bramall Lane was Blackwell’s chance to shine but he merely resorted to the hoof and hope tactics he’d used when in a position to do little else, and in fact his Sheffield United team became more and more direct and less and less effective the longer he stayed there. It was all very similar to Ian Holloway arriving at Leicester and declaring his delight at finally being able to work with a decent transfer budget after years at Bristol Rovers, QPR and Plymouth – King Lear compared to Eastenders I believe was the phrase he used – only to then go out and buy the same old crusty Barry Hayles he’d always bought and play him out of position on the right wing.
Sheffield United had the clout to make signings that were the envy of other clubs in the division. They attracted players who excelled elsewhere but for some reason upon pulling on a United shirt they all immediately became pale shadows of their former selves. Barnsley’s FA Cup hero Brian Howard, Man City’s Welsh international striker Ched Evans who’d ripped the division apart in a poor Norwich side before moving to South Yorkshire, Doncaster’s current talismanic striker Billy Sharp who’d previously excelled at Scunthorpe and then this season Swansea’s midfield dynamo Leon Britton to name but four. They’ve become what Aston Villa were for most of the 1990s – a club you thought should be doing a lot better, but one that just swallowed up talented players and smothered them one after the other at a frightening rate.
Blackwell almost walked out after they limply lost the 2008/09 play off final to Burnley and then when they didn’t even make the top six last season (when LoftforWords had tipped them for the title on the back of the Evans signing) that really should have been that. Fans sick to the back teeth of his prehistoric style of football and piss poor results had been chanting ‘Blackwell out’ at matches for weeks by the time last season ended. Mindlessly the Sheffield United board kept him on, gave him a summer budget to spend, let him start the season and then fired him after two league matches when QPR won 3-0 at Bramall Lane in August. This lunacy is repeated time and time and time again by club chairman and in the age of transfer windows, when a managerial sacking in August or September leaves a new man with four long months (half the season) working with another man’s players before he can do anything tangible about it, you just cannot get away with it.
Reflecting on the decision to remove Blackwell on that night’s Football League Show Steve Claridge could only say, reading aloud from a piece of paper in front of him, that it was “a bit early Manish” which summed up his understanding of a situation that had been developing for the thick end of two years, and his knowledge of the division as a whole, rather nicely.
The Blades then turned to Gary Speed, in the same way QPR turned to Ray Wilkins back in late 1994. There just didn’t really seem to be anybody else it could have been. Speed played in the top flight for four different clubs, winning the First Division title with Leeds and playing in every Premiership season from its inception in 1992 through to 2008 when he left Bolton for Sheff Utd. He was a fine player, and is an intelligent commentator on the game. Swansea and others had tried to poach him away from his job in Blackwell’s backroom team and it almost seemed as if United had to give him the job or risk losing him altogether.
But like Wilkins, and Robson, Speed could well be a fine player who doesn’t make it in management. His idea to set a God awful Wales side up as some sort of all conquering, total football, passing machine against England last week was a tactical nonsense and footballing suicide. Even Fabio Capello’s bumbling half committed side looked quality against it and Wales only very seldomly came out of their own half of the field. A better team would have put five or six through them. Speed lost half of his 18 matches in charge at Sheffield United, and won just six. Sheffield United lost his last two matches 3-0 against Bristol City and 1-0 at Barnsley. They were twentieth when he left, and I can’t recall too many tears being shed. I find it odd that Championship, and sometimes Premiership, clubs are willing to just take a punt on these Gareth Southgate types because firstly they could play a bit and secondly they can string a sentence together better than most of their colleagues. Meanwhile fine managerial talent, Rochdale’s Keith Hill for example, toils away for years in the lower leagues without getting a look in.
The Blades then spent the Christmas period with weather beaten John Carver in caretaker charge - best known for his time as an assistant to the procession of managers moving through Newcastle United but more recently the reasonably successful coach of Toronto’s MLS franchise. He won his first match against Swansea but then presided over some absurd defeats 2-3 at home to Hull, 2-4 at Norwich in a match heavily influenced by controversial refereeing decisions in the home team’s favour, and then 2-4 at home to Burnley.
With only Paul Hart sniffing around (turn the lights off, hide under the kitchen table, he gets the hint and fucks off eventually) it seemed Carver had half a chance but the defeats over Christmas turned the board in a different direction – towards Port Vale’s Mickey Adams in fact. More on him shortly - none of it complimentary. In his first match in charge the Blades battled back from two goals down at home to Doncaster to draw – Adams celebrated the last minute equaliser as if it was a promotion clincher and to be fair in his first game with the club it’s hard to begrudge him that moment of pleasure, but we’ve seen for ourselves recently just what a poor side Doncaster are at the moment and to be two nil down at home to a team that bad in the first place didn’t bode well. Consecutive defeats to Norwich, Leicester and Ipswich followed and then after a couple of draws further set backs one after the other against Palace, Scunthorpe, Derby and Portsmouth who were all lower half of the table sides at the time and in three of the four cases sat around United at the bottom of the table.
It took Adams 13 attempts to get his first win, eventually coming against high flying but out of form Nottingham Forest at the start of March, and he’s followed it up with another against Leeds either side of a heavy defeat at Watford but they are now firmly rooted in the bottom three. Incredibly, there was talk that they may even get rid of a fourth manager of the season in the midst of the dreadful run, particularly after the Scunthorpe defeat where they had led 2-0 in the first eight minutes only to surrender 3-2.
As hard as it is to sympathise with anybody who treats Chris Morgan with anything other than complete contempt it is hard not to feel for Sheff Utd fans because the blame for the current plight of their team lays fairly and squarely at the feet of a board of directors who have appointed one thoroughly dreadful manager after another and allowed them to squander millions that should have made the club a reasonable force for a decade or more. Short term, having four different people picking the team during the same season is never going to be conducive to success, but medium term to appoint first Bryan Robson (relegated with Middlesbrough, Bradford and West Brom in his three previous roles), then Kevin Blackwell with his hit and hope style, and now Mickey Adams has absolutely killed them. Could you find three worst managers if you tried?
If they escape, and in my opinion it’s unlikely they will, they can count themselves very lucky indeed and they must learn from the many, many mistakes they have made.
The Manager: Regular readers have probably sensed the tone already, and know this is not going to be the most glowing reference Mickey Adams is ever likely to have written about him. He’s one of those managers who always gets a job, his many failures and dreary style of football overlooked by one chairman after another who seem blinded by his very occasional moderate success stories.
CV first of all – as a player Mickey Adams was a steady full back. He played more than 150 games for Southampton, more than 100 for Gillingham and Coventry, and a good few for Leeds as well. While at Southampton, in 1992, he was sent off at Loftus Road during a 3-1 QPR win for dissent, so writing himself into the history books as the first ever red card in the new Premier League. As a manager he has worked his way through nine clubs prior to arriving at Sheffield United who he supported as a boy.
He started his managerial career at Fulham in March 1996. He’d been taken there by the previous boss Ian Brantfoot, who had previously managed him at Southampton, and then with Fulham second bottom of the entire Football league took over from Brantfoot himself. Fulham first avoided relegation, then a year later won promotion, but Adam was sacked early in the following season after Mohammed al Fayed arrived with Kevin Keegan on his arm. Still, a very bright start to his managerial career and widespread sympathy came his way from those in the game about the manner of his departure.
Then, failure. Adams was appointed the new Swansea manager but resigned after 13 days in a row over money for players. He then took over from Eddie May at Brentford but couldn’t save them from relegation to Division Three and left at the end of the season when new owner Ron Noades installed himself as the team’s manager. He turned up as assistant manager to Dave Bassett at Nottingham Forest but the pair were dismissed midway through a dismal Premiership season and replaced by Ron Atkinson.
In his next job he signed Bobby Zamora for just £100,000 for Brighton and won the Third Division title after Chesterfield were deducted points. This, Adams believed, entitled him to a better job and he complained publicly about not being offered the positions at Southampton and West Ham. It’s this inflated sense of self importance that sets many people against Adams, and makes him look like a right pillock when he ends up presiding over the dire situation he currently has on his hands now. He walked out on Brighton to assist Bassett again at Leicester but the Foxes were relegated from the top flight. He took over as the main man at the Foxes towards the end of that season, and promoted them straight back to the top flight despite administration, transfer embargoes and debts of £30m but they came straight back at the first attempt – keep count of these relegations as we go along will you?
He is one of many managers suckered into the dire situation at Coventry for less than a year, and spent six months back at Brighton as well before resigning on the back of some terrible results. His rebuilding job at Port Vale through last season was impressive, and they beat QPR in the League Cup at the start of this season during a fantastic start which had them set out as promotion contenders before Adams upped and left for Sheff Utd early in the New Year. Both the Blades and Vale have since fallen apart completely.
Adams, for me, is a mediocre manager at best. He has achieved notable success with Brighton, Leicester and Fulham but he’s been a disaster on several other occasions.
His football is from an era that has now passed us by. When you look at the way teams are setting up formation wise and the style of football they’re playing in the Championship these days it’s no longer good enough to simply stick a big lad up top and knock balls into the channels behind the full backs to try and turn defenders around and win throw ins and corners. Neil Warnock has adapted superbly during his time with Palace and now QPR to the point where QPR are now playing a continental style 4-2-3-1 formation with spare men and roaming roles here there and everywhere. Meanwhile Adams keeps flogging away with the same tired old ideas. United are currently deeply embroiled in a relegation battle and yet Jamie Ward, one of their best players in my opinion, is so out of favour he’s actually on loan at Derby who are one of the teams United should be trying to catch. Presumably Ward’s diminutive figure counts against him under a manager who always has valued physical presence over actual ability.
Sheffield United fan Adams may well be, but he’s not a manager capable of achieving success in the modern day Championship by any stretch of anybody’s imagination.
Three to Watch: I may be making a rod for my own back by starting with Ched Evans but I shall do so anyway. The reason I say that is because I’ve been probably his biggest fan for quite a long time now, despite his distinctly mediocre performances and goalscoring record in almost two years with United now. I thought their decision to spend £3m on him from man City back in 2009 was a good one and despite a pathetic haul of just 13 goals in the best part of two seasons since then I still believe there is hope for the lad.
Sheffield United drain players. The style of football employed by first Blackwell and now Adams means that people like Billy Sharp look absolutely dreadful playing for them, but excel in other places where the ball is actually supplied to them on the ground in dangerous areas. I’m convinced that were he to play in a better, more fluid football team then Ched Evans would be one of this division’s top marksmen. No doubt Sheffield united fans who have suffered his distinct averageness while earning top money are laughing at this point and saying this is proof that I knock rock all but in this league, in a struggling but nonetheless more attractive Norwich side managed by Glenn Roeder, Evans looked absolutely fantastic. Not only did he lead the line superbly, but he scored a wide variety of goals from 30 yard blockbusters at Cardiff, to your standard tap ins. He averaged a goal every other start for them over half a season, and like I say that was a poor Norwich side.
Sooner or later United will either grow tired of waiting for him to find serious form, or get to a stage where they cannot justify his huge wages any more and then they will offload him on the cheap. And somebody will get a real bargain.
The other person worth keeping an eye on may well be Nick Montgomery. Not for any sophisticated reasons you understand, a more limited footballer you’d struggle to find in this whole division – although to be fair Adams has had a bloody good crack at that challenge by bringing in Michael Doyle from Coventry to play alongside him in the most dire central midfield pairing there has been in the second tier for decades. The reason you may want to keep Montgomery in mind, particularly very early on in the game, is that if he is fit to start he may well be used to man mark Adel Taarabt.
Obviously Taarabt’s roaming role makes him quite difficult to man mark, and a more effective approach is often the one that Hull used at the KC Stadium where no one man is detailed to deal with him but three players crowd him out and niggle him every time he touches the ball. But Montgomery has been used several times before to do a man marking job. A myth has grown up around the Steel City since their one season in the Premiership that he managed to mark Frank Lampard and Patrick Viera out of the games with Chelsea and Arsenal, and that both players had praised him as some sort of defensive demi-God. Neither is really true, but Sheff Utd need to clutch at every straw they can find at the moment. Knowing how negative Adams can be, and the style of football he promotes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Montgomery not only seconded on a ‘stop Taarabt’ mission, but also given license to complete that task by any (probably violent) means necessary.
And I suppose we better make the third man to watch Richard Cresswell given that he scored in all four meetings between these two sides last season, and bagged one against us for Stoke the season before last. There's a few of these mediocre strikers that love to score against QPR knocking around the Championship, although with Cresswell it's especially hard to understand exactly why we deal with him so incompetently. As bog standard and limited striker as we're like to face all season and yet we gave him four goals last season. Mind blowing.
Links >>> Sheff Utd Official Website >>> Sheff Utd Message Board
History
Recent Meetings:
QPR gave their supporters the first real indication that they were in for a special season with a thumping 3-0 win at Bramall Lane on the second weekend of the campaign – a result that quickly lead to the sacking of Blades boss Kevin Blackwell immediately after the final whistle. The R’s were three goals up inside the first 23 minutes. First man of the match Hogan Ephraim strode onto an Adel Taarabt through ball and slipped home a cool opener, then Jamie Mackie nodded in at the back post after Ephraim had picked him out with a looping cross. When keeper Steve Simonsen upended Heidar Helguson after spilling a free kick into his path Adel Taarabt was able to make it three from the penalty spot and although the Blades had a blatant spot kick waved away in the second half despite Clint Hill obviously chopping down Ched Evans the victory was fully deserved.
Sheffield United: Simonsen 5, Ertl 5, Morgan 4, Bartley 4, Taylor 5 (Kozluk 76, 5), Britton 6, Taylor (Kozluk 76), Ward 5, Montgomery 5, Quinn 4 (Yeates 76, 6) Cresswell 5, Evans 5 (Bogdanovic 68, 5),
Subs not used: Aksalu, James, Chapell
Bookings: Montgomery 14 (foul), Bartley 47 (foul)
QPR: Kenny 7, Orr 7, Hall 7 (Ramage 50, 6) Gorkss 8, Hill 7, Derry 7, Faurlin 7, Taarabt 8 (Clarke 69, 6) Mackie 7, Ephraim 8 (Leigertwood 82, -) Helguson 7
Subs not used: Cerny, Connolly, German, Parker
Bookings: Faurlin 45 (foul), Helguson 45 (foul), Ephraim 75 (foul)
Goals: Ephraim 11 (assisted Taarabt), Mackie 20 (assisted Ephraim), Taarabt 23 (penalty won Helguson)
Paul Hart was mercifully only in charge for five games at QPR last season, but three of those came against Sheffield United including the last meeting between the sides on this ground in an FA Cup Third Round Replay. The R’s haven’t won an FA Cup game for 11 years and never really looked like changing that on a bitterly cold night in W12 despite a spirited late fightback. United, a poor team away from home in general took the R's apart in the first 70 minutes to apply further pressure to the beleaguered QPR manager. Lee Williamson scored before half time and then two goals in a minute from Ward and Cresswell yet again put the tie out of Rangers' reach and led to a mass exodus of an already sparse 6000 crowd. A very harsh penalty decision for handball gave Buzsaky a chance to pull a goal back and when Damion Stewart headed home late on an unlikely comeback looked on - especially as substitute Antonio German ran the Blades ragged late on and twice went close to bagging an equaliser. This merely papered over substantial cracks though and Hart had walked out within a week.
QPR: Cerny 4, Borrowdale 5, Ramage 6, Gorrks 7, Stewart 6, Buzsaky 6, Faurlin 7 (Taarabt 69, 6), Leigetwood 6, Routledge 6, Simpson 5 (German 80, 7), Agyemang 7
Subs not used: McWeeney, Hall, Connolly, Balanta, Ephraim
Bookings: Gorkss (foul)
Goals: Buzsaky 71 (penalty), Stewart 88 (assisted Buzsaky)
Sheff Utd: Bunn, Geary (Walker 80), Morgan, Seip, Taylor,Quinn, Harper, Montgomery, Williamson (Ward 67), Evans,Cresswell (Henderson 74)
Subs Not Used: Bennett, France, Stewart, Little
Booked: Evans, Seip, Quinn
Goals: Williamson 19, Ward 68, Cresswell 70
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 16 >>> Draws 19 >>> Sheff Utd wins 14
Previous Sheff Utd v QPR results:
2010/11 Sheff Utd 0 QPR 3 (Ephraim, Mackie, Taarabt pen)
2009/10 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Taarabt)
2009/10 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 3 (Buzsaky, Stewart) FA Cup
2009/10 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Simpson) FA Cup
2009/10 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 1 (Leigertwood)
2008/09 QPR 0 Sheff Utd 0
2008/09 Sheff Utd 3 QPR 0
2007/08 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 1 (Balanta)
2007/08 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 1 (Agyemang)
2005/06 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 3 (Nygaard, Morgan og, Furlong)
2005/06 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 1 (Bircham, Moore)
2004/05 Sheff Utd 3 QPR 2 (Rowlands, Gallen)
2004/05 QPR 0 Sheff Utd 1
2003/04 Sheff Utd 0 QPR 2 (Rowlands 2)
2000/01 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 3 (Ngonge)
2000/01 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Koejoe)
1999/00 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Beck)
1999/00 QPR 3 Sheff Utd 1 (Breaker, Wardley, Steiner)
1998/99 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 0
1998/99 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 2 (Peacock pen)
1997/98 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 2 (Sheron, Ready)
1997/98 Sheff Utd 2 QPR 2 (Murray, Morrow)
1996/07 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 0 (Spencer pen)
1996/97 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Slade)
1993/94 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 (Barker)
1993/94 QPR 2 Sheff Utd 1 (Wilson pen, Sinclair)
1992/93 Sheff Utd 1 QPR 2 (Allen, Holloway)
1992/93 QPR 3 Sheff Utd 2 (Ferdinand, Barker, Bailey)
1991/92 Sheff Utd 0 QPR 0
1991/92 QPR 1 Sheff Utd 0 (Wegerle)
Played for both clubs: Tony Currie
Sheffield United 1968 to 1974 >>> QPR 1979 to 1982
Tony Currie is often forgotten by QPR fans when the debate about Marsh, Bowles, Francis (and Taarabt) comes up in conversation – in fact his player profile is omitted from A to Z of QPR stars in the older version of the club’s complete record - but he was a fine, fine player and a genuine entertainer. Certainly among the best players ever to pull on the QPR and Sheffield United shirts. Typically, his career began after QPR’s youth set up had released him and he’d been picked up, after a brief spell in the ranks at Chelsea, by Watford in 1967.
To be fair to the coaches at QPR at the time within a year he was deemed surplus to requirements at Vicarage Road as well and was allowed to join Sheffield United for £26,000. His impact at Bramall Lane was instant, a goal on his debut for the Blades against Tottenham, and he went on to become arguably their greatest ever player – still revered in the city to this day. During the next seven seasons Currie would become an instrumental part of the Blades midfield and was key to their promotion back to Division One in the 1970-71 season. He scored 54 goals for United in more than 300 appearances and skippered them in his final season at the club. He gained international recognition too while at Bramall Lane earning the first of his 17 England caps against Northern Ireland in 1972. But when United were relegated once again two years later, Currie stayed in the top flight by joining Leeds for £250,000 which was huge a profit for the Blades even if that was scant consolation to the fans.
In his time at Elland Road TC, as he was known, reached two League Cup semi finals and helped Leeds qualify for the UEFA Cup. But disputes with the manager and a desire to return to London saw Currie quickly on the move once again to join Queens Park Rangers. Tommy Docherty brought him to Loftus Road to aid QPR’s push for promotion but like so many QPR players of that era it would be his successor Terry Venables who get the best out of him. As the experienced head in quite a youthful looking Rangers team he helped the R’s win promotion back to the top flight and captained them to the FA Cup final defeat to Spurs in 1982 - unfortunately it was Currie who gave away Tottenham’s winning penalty.
The following season saw TC suffer a knee injury and would only go on to play one more game for the R’s before he spent time in Canada playing for the Toronto Nationals. Spells at Southend and Torquay followed but Currie retired from football in 1988. Since then he’s been the Football in the Community Officer back at Sheffield United.
Links >>> Sheff Utd 0 QPR 3 Match Report >>> Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 Match Report >>> Sheff Utd 1 QPR 1 Match Report >>> Connections and Memories
This Monday
Team News: Adel Taarabt missed his first league game of the season at Doncaster a fortnight ago following the death of a family member, but Neil Warnock spent time with him in Morocco during last week’s international break and he is set for a return to the line up in this game. Peter Ramage and Jamie Mackie are the long term absentees but Patrick Agyemang returned from his stress fractured shin much earlier than expected on the bench at Doncaster and Lee Cook came through 70 minutes of reserve team action unscathed during the week alongside Martin Rowlands. Danny Shittu, Matt Connolly, Akos Buzsaky, Ishmael Miller and others all wait in the wings for their chance.
Darius Henderson missed the 2-0 home win against Leeds before the break with a one match ban, he returns to the travelling party heading for London. Neill Collins missed that game with a knock but is fit again. Lee Williamson is midway through a four game ban and Johnny Ertl has a knee injury and neither will feature. Everybody’s favourite hate figure Chris Morgan is a long term absentee along with Ryan France and Andy Taylor.
Elsewhere: QPR go last this weekend which means a full couple of days watching how our nearest and dearest get on in the increasingly forlorn looking chase towards us at the top. Surely only a serious sanction from the FA over the Faurlin deal can stop us now? A few weeks ago Rangers fans would have been watching the Saturday lunchtime clash between Leeds and Forest on the BBC with bated breath but they are now 15 and 16 points behind us respectively. Swansea and Norwich have the best chances of catching us, and they have gimme fixtures this weekend with the Swans at bottom side Preston and Norwich at home to relegation haunted Scunthorpe who now have Alan Knill in charge. The other side in the play offs, Cardiff, welcome Derby necessitating a goalkeeper change as Stephen Bywater is on loan to them from the Rams. Reading v Portsmouth is probably the pick of the rest of the games, although our opponents Sheffield United need Palace and Coventry to start dropping points – they host Barnsley and Watford this weekend.
Referee: Keith Stroud from Hampshire is the man in the middle for this game. It’s the third time this season he has been in charge of the R’s and given that we have won the previous two games, against Middlesbrough and Ipswich, 3-0 hopefully there will be more of the same on Monday night. In fact this is Stroud’s tenth career appointment with QPR and the R’s are yet to lose a game with him so the omens are very good indeed. For his full case file click here.
Form
QPR: Far from feeling the pressure, the R’s seem to be kicking for home. Rangers have won five of their last six and eight of their last 12 with just that one defeat at Millwall blotting the copy book in that time. They have lost only four games all season, and only one at home to Watford. They have won six and drawn two of their last eight matches at Loftus Road. No team has won more home games than Rangers’ 13 this season, only Nottingham Forest can match the record of losing just once, only Swansea have conceded less than our 12 at home, only Leeds have scored more than our 38. QPR currently have a nine point and +22 goal difference advantage over the team in second, Norwich.
Sheffield United: A run of 15 games without a win came to an end in early March with a 1-0 home success against Nottingham Forest and the Blades have since beaten Leeds 2-0 as well – but both games were at home, either side of a 3-0 set back at Watford. Away from home Sheffield United have won just three games this season – at Derby, Hull and Millwall – and their last road success was at The Den in early November. Since then they have lost nine, drawn one, and failed to score in seven of their ten away matches. Their total of 13 goals scored away from home this season is the league’s joint worst along with Crystal Palace.
Prediction: I felt at Doncaster last time out that there was a bit of an attitude creeping in, both on the pitch and the terrace, that we only had to turn up to win the game. Luckily Rovers were so poor it didn’t really matter, but the rush to buy tickets for the Leeds game (when we would be crowned champions if indeed that’s what we are by then) only further enhanced a feeling that we’re already there and it’s simply a case of getting these eight games out of the way and then partying. As we only need 12 more points for promotion that probably is the case, but it’s still a dangerous attitude to allow to fester this far out from the end of the season. QPR are also notoriously bad on the television, and Neil Warnock’s career record shows an odd tendency to drop silly points after international breaks. But I’m not building up to my usual ‘draw’ prediction here I’m afraid – Sheffield United are a poor side, deeply mired in a farcical season and managed by somebody who has had his day at this level.
QPR 2-0, best priced 6/1 with Coral