 Thursday, 9th Feb 2012 00:27 by Clive Whittingham QPR desperately need a victory at Blackburn this weekend in their quest to beat the drop. In 1994 an out of form Rangers side came here against the champions elect and won a point against the odds.
Recent MeetingsQPR 1 Blackburn 1, Saturday October 15, 2011, Premiership Fresh from a 6-0 trouncing at Fulham QPR played it steady and cautious against fellow strugglers Blackburn Rovers at Loftus Road in October. Heidar Helguson was restored to the starting line up and rewarded Neil Warnock with a goal, although his chipped effort after a quarter of an hour that dipped into the far corner looked suspiciously like a cross. But Rangers failed to cope with the aerial threat posed by Chris Samba all afternoon and barely ten minutes after falling behind Rovers were level when he towered over Fitz Hall to head home a well flighted free kick. QPR: Kenny 7, Young 7, Ferdinand 6, Hall 5, Traore 6, Derry 5, Faurlin 6, Wright-Phillips 6 (Smith 83, -), Barton 6, Mackie 6 (Taarabt 64, 5), Helguson 7 Subs Not Used: Murphy, Orr, Bothroyd, Buzsaky, Puncheon Booked: Hall (foul), Wright-Phillips (foul), Traore (foul) Goals: Helguson 16 (unassisted) Blackburn: Robinson 6, Salgado 6, Samba 8, Dann 6, Givet 6, Lowe 7, Petrovic 6, Nzonzi 7, Olsson 7, Hoilett 7, Roberts 5 (Goodwillie 67, 4) Subs Not Used: Bunn, Formica, Rochina, Yakubu, Vukcevic, Hanley Booked: Nzonzi (foul), Lowe (foul) Goals: Samba 24 (assisted Lowe)
Blackburn 1 QPR 0, FA Cup Third Round, Saturday January 8, 2011 The magic of the FA Cup was in short supply at Ewood Park last 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)
Previous ResultsHead to Head >>> Blackburn wins 17 >>> Draws 8 >>> QPR wins 14
2011/12 QPR 1 Blackburn 1 (Helguson) 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
Player ConnectionsRoy Wegerle >>> QPR 1990-1992 >>> Blackburn 1992 American international striker Roy Wegerle was one of those players who just seemed to really suit QPR. He followed in a long and illustrious history of maverick number 10s at Loftus Road and led the line superbly through the Don Howe and early Gerry Francis days at Loftus Road. One of his predecessors in that role and shirt number, Rodney Marsh, spotted the South African born striker playing for Tampa Bay Rowdies in the MLS and recommended him to Rangers for a trial. Jim Smith, QPR manager in 1986, passed on him as Manchester United had done in 1980 but he was picked up by our near neighbours Chelsea and received a grounding in English football during a loan spell at Swindon. He never played regularly at Stamford Bridge and was eventually offloaded to Luton for £75,000. He starred at Kenilworth Road and 18 months after arriving went back to QPR to sign permanently and become QPR’s first million pound player in the process. There he became a Loft hero, specialising in spectacular tricks and goals, and cooly taken penalties. He scored 31 goals in 89 league and four cup appearances. In 1990/91 he top scored with 18. That included an incredible run of six goals from his first six games and in fact by the time QPR played their fifth game of that season, at home to Luton on September 15, he was the only player to have scored for Rangers at all. Of course that day, after Wegerle had given the R’s the lead, the team went crazy and bagged six including Paul Parker’s only ever goal for the club. He continued to score prolifically and the highlight of his time with the club came in October 1990 at Elland Road where Rangers came from two goals down to win 3-2 on goalkeeper Jan Stejskal’s debut. One of Wegerle’s two goals that day saw him ghost past five Leeds players before smashing the ball in from 20 yards and it was later named the Match of the Day Goal of the Season, only the second time a QPR player had won the award at that point and only Trevor Sinclair has won it since.
QPR were famed through the 1990s for immediately selling their best players as soon as a half decent offer came along and in March 1992 they did so again, offloading Wegerle to Jack Walker’s Blackburn Rovers revolution for £1.2m – a record fee paid by a Second Division club at the time. The money was rarely all invested back into the playing squad and indeed it wasn’t on this occasion, the spiral staircases at the back of the South Africa Road stand are still known as the “Wegerle stairs” to this day as that’s apparently where a chunk of the money went. To be fair Gerry Francis had taken over as manager and Les Ferdinand had finally developed into a world class striker by that stage so Wegerle’s star was on the wane slightly in W12. Wegerle was part of a Blackburn team that won the play offs in 1992 to earn a place in the inaugural Premier League but they then then signed Alan Shearer from Southampton and, as happened to him at Loftus Road after Ferdinand’s emergence, he was sidelined and offloaded – this time to Coventry City. He played just 22 times for Blackburn, and only clocked up 53 appearances for the Sky Blues due to injury but scored nine goals and eventually won 41 USA caps scoring seven times. When his contract expired at Highfield Road in 1995 he left and went onto play for Colarado, DC United and Tampa Bay Mutiny in the US. After retirement he tried his hand at professional golf and television pundit in the US. Others >>> Bradley Orr, QPR 2010-2012, Blackburn 2012-present >>> 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 >>> Simon Barker, Blackburn 1982-1988, QPR 1988-1998 >>> 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
Memorable MatchBlackburn 1 QPR 1, Sunday April 24, 1994, Premiership A two hour Wednesday afternoon train ride up to Birmingham for our recent game at Aston Villa provided ample opportunity for the LoftforWords travelling crew to put together our worst every QPR XI over a sack full of Becks lager. The rules were that at least one of the group had to have seen the player play for QPR live for them to be included and the goalkeeper, Ademole Bankole, was selected in roughly two and a half seconds. But much debate followed with all four around the table insisting on certain names being included. Once I’d refused to play any more unless Sammy Koejoe was named as one of the strikers I turned my attention to the centre back positions where LFW official photographer (not a salaried position) Neil wanted Georges Santos including but I wouldn’t budge from my initial call that Karl Ready had to be in there somewhere. Karl Ready was a professional with Queens Park Rangers for 11 very long, very hard, very trying years. During that time he scored 11 goals from centre back and QPR actually never lost a game where he did find the net. But he went through roughly twice as many ridiculous haircuts in that time too and cost us at least four times as many goals as he scored. He was a dog of a centre back: gangly, awkward, lacking in confidence, accident prone, indecisive and so on. He was a nightmare. And so it’s understandable that the Sky coverage of our trip to big spending Blackburn Rovers in 1994 featured several vox popped QPR fans heading into the away end expressing their ire that chairman Richard Thompson had seen fit to sell Player of the Year elect Darren Peacock to Newcastle for £2.7m and forcing Gerry Francis to replace him with youth team graduate Ready. The task looked especially daunting for a chronically out of form QPR team that day because Blackburn, now at the height of the Jack Walker revolution, were pushing Manchester United all the way for the league title. They had however already been beaten at Loftus Road 1-0 earlier in the season thanks to a Les Ferdinand goal. With Ferdinand in the QPR team anything was possible, no matter how bad the situation was elsewhere within the club. Blackburn knew this only too well, and had tried to buy Ferdinand several times prior to this to partner with Alan Shearer. Having failed to do so they then nullified his threat here through one of the worst tackles ever committed without receiving a yellow card. Midway through the first half Ferdinand, turning on halfway, suddenly found Tim Sherwood heading his way with one intention in mind. Sherwood was airbourn when he connected with Ferdinand, two feet off the ground with his right foot outstretched straight out in front of him. He planted the soul of his boot square on Ferdinand’s knee and pushed off like an Olympic swimmer turning for home and kicking back off the wall. It was a horror, probably the worst tackle I’ve ever seen in a football game. Sherwood received a quiet word from the referee while Ferdinand left the scene on a stretcher to be replaced by Simon Barker. The refereeing didn’t get a lot more favourable for QPR either. In time added on at the end of the first half for the Ferdinand injury Karl Ready was penalised for a foul on the edge of the QPR penalty box and while Tony Roberts was lining his wall up Alan Shearer hooked the free kick over the wall and into the corner. Rangers turned to the official, who turned and headed for halfway. Behind against what would turn out to be the second best team in the league, relying on a strike force of Devon White and Trevor Sinclair, out of form and facing the prospect of a second half with Alan Shearer attacking a centre back pairing of Ready and Steve Yates I can’t imagine there was much support among the television audience for QPR’s chances. But strangely (because he was crap and shouldn’t really have been up there in the first place) Ready redeemed himself with seven minutes of this encounter left. A QPR free kick from a similar position to Shearer’s earlier goal rebounded off the wall into the penalty area and Ready, rather sheepishly, poked it past Flowers and in for the equaliser. Blackburn finished second, eight points behind champions Manchester United, but closed the gap and won the title a year later. QPR rallied in the closing weeks and finished ninth. Karl Ready was eventually, mercifully, released in 2001 after Rangers were relegated to the Second Division. He played briefly, and unsuccessfully, for Motherwell and now runs a Christian mission in Mali. And he should definitely be in an all time worst QPR XI. Blackburn: Flowers, Berg, Hendry, May, Le Saux, Wilcox, Batty, Sherwood, Ripley, Shearer, Newell (Warhurst 14) Subs not used: Mimms, Wright Goals: Shearer 45 QPR: Roberts, Bardsley, Yates, Ready, Wilson, Impey, Holloway, Wilkins, Sinclair, White, Ferdinand (Barker 22) Subs not used: McDonald, Stejskal Goals: Ready 83 Highlights >>>Blackburn 1 QPR 0, FA Cup 2011 >>> QPR 0 Blackburn 3, 1993 >>> QPR 2 Blackburn 0, 1981 Tweet @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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