Seven decades of Cardiff City v Queens Park Rangers matches.

Posted on December 23, 2022 by The other Bob Wilson

Firstly can I wish all readers of the blog a Merry Christmas which I hope will be made all the merrier by a win on Monday. It’s a pretty bleak time for the club at the moment, but a couple of victories in the last few days have offered some light to creep in.

On Tuesday night, there was a thriller of a Youth Cup tie at Crewe which was edged 4-3 by City to book them a trip to Oxford United in the Fourth Round – Cole Fleming, Japhet Mpadi with two and Lewys Ware got the goals.

The following day, City entertained Sunderland at under 21 level in the Premier League Cup at Leckwith. I say under 21s, but there were an awful lot of players with first team experience in the side. Vontae Campbell, Sean Morrison, Curtis Nelson, Joel Bagan, Tom Sang, Rubin Colwill, Jaden Philogene and Isaak Davies all started and under 21s boss Darren Purse issued a could have done better verdict after a routine looking 2-0 win.

There were plenty of chances created, but, rather like the first team last Saturday against Blackpool, the killer touch in front of goal was absent. The goals were scored one in either half with Colwill deceiving a goalkeeper who was expecting a cross with a Whittingham like free kick from twenty five yards – it was a lovely effort which deserved a better setting than a virtually deserted athletics stadium in the pouring rain.

The second goal was gifted to City as they countered well after a Sunderland attack had broken down. A back pass was played short of the keeper and James Crole closed in on the ball along with a visiting defender – the video pictures weren’t conclusive, but, although the striker challenged for it, the ball seemed to come off the defender last and roll gently into the net with the goalkeeper helpless.

Moving on, here’s the usual quiz with questions on our next opponents dating back to the sixties, I’ll post the answers on here on the morning after the game.

60s. Nicknamed “Chippy”, this Yorkshireman started off at the club from the city of his birth, but never got to play a first team game for them as he moved to QPR for what was a pretty short stay, The reason for this was that his form was good enough to attract the attention of a First Division club who signed him at the start of a new decade. Still wearing blue and white, he was to spend the best part of ten years at this club reaching three Cup Finals in the process. Two of them were won and he scored in one of those, but went one better in a match which was lost against old acquaintances. When the time came for him to move, he returned to QPR for a short, unsuccessful, spell before a move to contented whites in the north. His final season in the Football League saw him representing a town built on sand before he ventured overseas to be a mediator in a capital. Who is he?

70s. This defender started off with QPR, but it was when he took what was a downward step at the time to another London club that he made more of an impression. An injury sustained in a challenge with a superstar kept him out for two years, but, by then, he was an international. He scored for his country in a big game, but it was in a losing cause. His international career did not last too much longer after that and he moved north to represent a team that wore the same colour shirts as the ones he wore for his country. There were also loan moves to the west country to play in stripes and a bit further south to wear amber/yellow. After his playing days, he went into management/coaching – he only managed the one club, spending most of his time working as an assistant to a future City manager, can you name him?

80s. A Raving mug that is presents a gift to the Germans! (5.7)

90s. Dull metalworker?

00s. Right stygian flavouring!

10s. He made his QPR debut against City and scored the winning goal. He also scored a winner within three minutes of coming on for his debut for his country, who I am describing?

20s. Which current member of the QPR first team has played club football for the Coasters at Mill Farm, the Hawks at the Enclosed Ground and the Beavers at the Rocket Hospitality Beveree Stadium?

Answers.

60s. Clive Clark never played a game for Leeds, but his form with QPR was so good that he secured a move to West Brom in 1960 and spent virtually all of the sixties at the Hawthorns. Clark scored in a two leg League Cup Final against West Ham in 1966 and when the Final was played at Wembley for the first time a year later, his two first half goals had the Baggies in a comfortable lead at half time, only for his old club QPR, then in the Third Division, to turn things around by scoring three unanswered goals in the second half. Clark would return to Wembley again in 1968 as Albion beat Everton 1-0 in the FA Cup Final. In 1969, Clark returned to QPR and then signed for “Proud” Preston North End before ending his career in this country at Southport, There was one more move though for him – to America to play for the Washington Diplomats.

70s. Ian Evans played just under forty times for QPR before joining Crystal Palace, but he had a ,long spell out because of an injury sustained in a collision with George Best who was playing for Fulham at the time. A few months before that, Evans scored for Wales in their 3-1 aggregate loss to Yugoslavia in the Quarter Finals of the 1976 Euros and moved on to Barnsley in 1979. He was loaned out to Exeter City and Cambridge United before managing Swansea for a season and then working with Mick McCarthy at Sunderland, Wolves and the Republic of Ireland.

80s. One time QPR defender Gavin Maguire inadvertently provided a perfect assist for one of Germany’s goal in a 4-1 win over Wales.

90s. Matt Brazier (a brazier is someone who works in brass).

00s. Dexter Blackstock.

10s. Paul Smyth scored the winner in QPR’s 2-1 win over us on New Year’s Day 2018 and also netted the decisive goal in a 2-1 win for Northern Ireland against South Korea within three minutes of coming on as a sub on his debut for his country two months later.

20s. QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng has played for, among others, AFC Fylde, Whytehawk and Hampton and Richmond Borough.

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Some memories of pre season training with City in 75/76.

Posted on December 21, 2022 by The other Bob Wilson

The publication of Tony Evans Walks on Water on the weekend prompted Paul Williams , who has contributed to the Feedback section on here in the past, to contact me about his memories of pre season training with the City squad in the summer of 1975. Here’s what he had to say:

“A few weeks later, out of the blue there came a call, a personal call no less, from the then manager (head coach) Jimmy Andrews. He introduced himself in his soft, dulcet Scottish tones and asked me if I’d like to join the pre-season training, with the first team squad no less, who were just back together at the beginning for the 75-76 season.

So, barely able to believe what was happening, one sunny morning in early mid July my Dad dropped me off at the Guest Keen Sports Club, just down the road from Ninian Park, where the players were assembled. I went there every day for about a month and it was one of the single most amazing experiences of my life. There I was kicking a ball around and hanging out for a whole month with my heroes! These were the very players I cheered on every other week at home games, some of whose pics had been on my bedroom wall the whole time I was growing up.

I’d got there mid-morning and someone greeted me at the door and showed me around, where to change etc and gave me a locker. He then took me out onto the fields, where the players were going through their paces. I saw Jimmy Andrews was there, not 30 yards away. I saw his back first, he was talking with a couple of assistant coaches by the looks. The guy was ushering me in his direction and I realised I was about to meet him. He turned around and looked blankly at me at first, then once I said my name a big smile broke across his face and he shook my hand warmly and welcomed me along. ‘Ah, so you’re the goalkeeper’, he said.

He asked if I knew where everything was, I said yes, and he told me to go get changed, which I duly did. There was something dreamlike and utterly unreal about the whole scenario. It turned out there were only three non-first teamers there that month, of which I was one. The other two were kids about my age, but they didn’t seem interested in chatting and I never got to know who they were. They were gone after the first week anyway though, so for the most of that month only I remained.

All the familiar faces were there, but there were some unfamiliar ones too, which surprised me since as a big fan I thought I knew all the players. At lunch that first day I was sitting on my own at a table in the cafeteria when a guy I didn’t recognise wandered up with his tray, caught my eye and asked if he could sit down. He looked a little lost and I was only too glad of the company, so I at once said yes. ‘Is is your first day?’ he asked me. When I replied it was, he said ‘Mine too’.

Chatting there over lunch, he told me he’d just been released by Blackpool and was on two weeks trial, and that he was a striker. He seemed surprised to hear I was just 16 and still in school. He confessed he was nervous about whether it was going to work out for him at Cardiff but said that he was going to give it very best shot. And that he certainly did. It turned out to be Tony Evans, and he became a Cardiff legend that season, going on to score nearly 50 goals in four very successful years at the club.

He was about to form a very exciting and effective striking partnership with Australian international Adrian Allston and between them their goals fired Cardiff back into Division 2 that year. We shared a special bond after that, even though we didn’t see all that much of each other from then on, and it always made me feel chuffed that none other than Tony Evans had latched onto me at lunch on that first day.”

Thanks very much Paul – much appreciated.

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