Is it really as long as four years ago that City played at QPR on New Years Day and were thrashed 6-1? -What a way to begin a new decade!
What tends to get forgotten about that match is that a few months later, we were contesting the Play Offs and, after what has become our traditional defeat in the home leg of a Play Off Semi Final, we gave Fulham the fright of their lives at Craven Cottage and were not far short of making the Final.
I think a repeat of that end of season outcome is very unlikely this time around unless Erol Bulut is able to come up with some superb signings during the next few weeks and we get a few months free from injury from an Aaron Ramsey playing like he was back in September, but, famous last words, I’m not expecting another New Year’s Day massacre tomorrow – I’d say a tight affair with no more than a single goal winning margin either way is more likely.
Whatever happens, a Happy New Year to all readers and good luck with these questions on tomorrow’s opponents – the answers will be posted on here on Tuesday.
60s. Born in an area of London that’s football club used to be have the word Avenue in its title, this forward played nearly all of his league football with QPR and, although not an automatic choice in the first eleven during the period in the late sixties which transformed the club, he was a regular member of it, as can be evidenced by his one hundred and seventy odd league appearances for them. His visits to Ninian Park were, apart from one occasion, always in a losing cause and when it was time to move on, he had a lower division reunion with a former QPR captain at a club not too far to the north. By now though, his career was on the wane and he dropped into non league football after a season going on to play for Barking and then Ware where there was another reunion at both clubs. Who am I describing?
70s. This defender started his career in London playing for a team which never really came close to regaining the top flight place it had lost a few years earlier while he was with them, but they did have a memorable day which, unfortunately, he played no part in. QPR were his second club and he was a part of a promotion squad there although the rise in standards involved meant that he was, to a large extent, the sort of casualty you always tend to find when a team goes up as some regulars turn into bit part players. Eventually, he opted to leave London and move south to a club that became a promotion rival of City’s in his first season there. He scored in his first and last home matches for this club with the latter occasion being not too long after they’d gone up – that signalled the end of his playing career, although he did manage a couple of clubs at non leaguer level, the second of which are now members of the EFL, can you name him?
80s. Stand in room only is the way you would have had to watch this forward at his peak! (5,8)
90s. He played thirty nine times for his country and played in three Cup Finals (two in European competition) for his first team. He scored the winning goal in one of those matches, but is probably best remembered now for something that happened after the game had ended. He also played a couple of matches against City for QPR during this decade, who is he?
00s. A Ramsay, Oliver or Stein used only in a shelter?
10s. Name the six former or future City players who were on QPR’s books in 13/14.
20s. Who or what links the following grounds, Plainmoor, the Bob Lucas Stadium, the Recreation Ground, York Road and Cardiff City Stadium?
Answers
60s. Ian Morgan played on the wing for QPR between 1964 and 1973 before following long time club captain Mike Keen to Watford for a season. He finished his playing days in non league football where he was joined in the Barking and Ware teams he played for by his twin brother Roger who had also been a team mate of Ian’s at QPR.
70s. Ernie Howe was a team mate of Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery at Fulham in the mid seventies, but he missed out on an appearance in the 1975 FA Cup Final against West Ham. Howe played for QPR between 1977 and 1982 before finishing his playing career with Portsmouth where he was a member of the team which won the 82/83 Third Division Championship with City finishing runners up. Howe later managed Basingstoke Town and Sutton United.
80s. Simon Stainrod.
90s. Northern Ireland international Steve Morrow was a member of the Arsenal side which beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in the 1993 League Cup Final – in fact, he scored the winning goal, but, when captain Tony Adams attempted to pick Morrow up and carry him on his shoulders, he slipped and Morrow broke his arm in the resulting fall. This injury caused Morrow to miss the replayed FA Cup Final against the same opposition, thus robbing Morrow of two more probable Final appearances, but he went on to play in the Arsenal teams that contested the European Cup Winners’ Cup Finals in 1994 and 1995, the first of which was won. In August 1999, Morrow was in the QPR side beaten over two legs by City in a League Cup tie.
00s. Lee Cook.
10s. Brian Murphy. Armand Traore, Gary O’Neil, Junior Hoilett, Jay Bothroyd (on further checking, it may be that Bothroyd left QPR on a Bosman before pre season training for 13/14 started) and Ravel Morrison,
20s. QPR forward Sinclair Armstrong has terrorised the City defence in recent games against his club. Armstong scored QPR’s first goal in their 2-1 win at Cardiff City Stadium in August, but that remains the only goal he’s scored in forty four EFL appearances for QPR and his only other goals have come in loan spells to Torquay and Aldershot. He scored in a home match for Torquay against King’s Lynn (Plainmoor), a win at Weymouth (the Bob Lucas Stadium) for Torquay, a draw with Aldershot at Maidenhead (York Road) and a home win for Aldershot (Recreation Ground) over Notts County.
