 Friday, 3rd Feb 2012 11:46 by Clive Whittingham QPR won 1-0 the last time Wolves came to Loftus Road, and 3-0 at Molineux in September. More of the same would not go amiss this Saturday. LFW examines the fixture’s history. Recent MeetingsWolves 0 QPR 3, Saturday September 17, 2011, Premiership The relegation scrap that has materialised since seemed a million miles away when QPR demolished Wolves on their own patch back in September. Fresh from a mad deadline day the new look QPR side was in fine form at Molineux and surged into an early two goal lead thanks to a scuffed effort from Joey Barton and a thunderous long range volley from Ale Faurlin. The Wolves team was constantly abused by its own supporters and that only got worse when the excellent Armand Traore crossed for substitute DJ Campbell to make it 3-0 three minutes from time. The game was marred by a dreadful late tackle on Barton by his old enemy Karl Henry. Barton responded to the subsequent jeers from the Wolves fans by reminding them of the score but clashed with Henry again at the final whistle and the story dominated the papers for days afterwards. Wolves: Hennessey 6, Stearman 5, Johnson 6, Berra 6, Elokobi 5 (Vokes 46, 5), Kightly 5 (Guedioura 46, 6), Henry 5, O'Hara 6, Jarvis 6 (Hunt 73, 5), Ward 5, Doyle 5 Subs Not Used: De Vries, Hammill, Milijas, Foley Booked: Guedioura (foul), Vokes (use of elbow) QPR: Kenny 7, Young 7, Gabbidon 7 (Hall 83, -), Ferdinand 8, Traore 8, Derry 7, Faurlin 8, Barton 8, Wright-Phillips 8, Taarabt 6 (Smith 75, 6), Bothroyd 6 (Campbell 73, 7), Subs Not Used: Murphy, Buzsaky, Connolly, Puncheon Booked: Bothroyd (foul), Faurlin (foul), Ferdinand (dissent) Goals: Barton 8 (assisted Wright Phillips), Faurlin 10 (unassisted), Campbell 87 (assisted Traore)
QPR 1 Wolves 0, Saturday December 6, 2008, Championship Perhaps it’s apt that we play Wolves at home this week, the first QPR home game since 2003 where Martin Rowlands hasn’t been part of the club. Rowlands scored the last, and arguably the best, of his 37 QPR goals against Mick McCarthy’s men the last time these sides met on this ground, sealing a 1-0 win for the R’s live on Sky. Manager Paulo Sousa had his tactics absolutely spot on, targeting Wolves’ talented but somewhat lightweight centre half pairing of Richard Stearman and Michael Mancienne with a physical front three of Dexter Blackstock, Patrick Agyemang and Heidar Helguson. Even though Blackstock was forced off injured in the first half QPR were good value for a 1-0 win secured by a fabulous strike from Rowlands midway through the second half. For me though it was the performance of Patrick Agyemang rather than the goal that was the most memorable thing about this game – he gave Mancienne a torrid time in his best performance in a QPR shirt. He was almost unplayable that night, which makes his performances since even harder to fathom. QPR: Cerny 8, Ramage 6, Stewart 9, Gorkss 9, Delaney 7, Ephraim 7, Mahon 7, Rowlands 8, Blackstock 6 (Cook 27, 6) (Di Carmine 90, -), Helguson 7 (Tommasi 77, 5), Agyemang 7 Subs Not Used: Cole, Borrowdale Booked: Rowlands (foul) Goals: Rowlands 63 (assisted Helguson) Wolves: Hennessey 8, Foley 6, Stearman 5, Mancienne 5, Ward 6, Kightly 5, Edwards 6, Henry 6, Jones 6 (Jarvis 58, 7), Iwelumo 5 (Vokes 72, 6), Ebanks-Blake 5 (Keogh 78, 6) Subs Not Used: Higgs, Collins Booked: Mancienne (handball)
Previous ResultsHead to Head >>> QPR win 13 >>> Draws 15 >>> Wolves wins 16 2011/12 Wolves 0 QPR 3 (Barton, Faurlin, Campbell) 2008/09 Wolves 1 QPR 0 2008/09 QPR 1 Wolves 0 (Rowlands) 2007/08 Wolves 3 QPR 3 (Buzsaky, Blackstock, Leigertwood) 2007/08 QPR 0 Wolves 0 2006/07 Wolves 2 QPR 0 2006/07 QPR 0 Wolves 1 2005/06 QPR 0 Wolves 0 2005/06 Wolves 3 QPR 1 (Gallen) 2004/05 QPR 1 Wolves 1 (Gallen) 2004/05 Wolves 2 QPR 1 (Gallen) 2000/01 Wolves 1 QPR 1 (Bruce) 2000/01 QPR 2 Wolves 2 (Peacock 2) 1999/00 Wolves 3 QPR 2 (Peacock, Slade) 1999/00 QPR 1 Wolves 1 (Peacock) 1998/99 QPR 0 Wolves 1 1998/99 Wolves 1 QPR 2 (Sheron 2) 1997/98 QPR 0 Wolves 0 1997/98 Wolves 3 QPR 2 (Sheron, Peacock) 1997/98 Wolves 1 QPR 2 (Peacock, Murray)* 1997/98 QPR 0 Wolves 2* 1996/97 QPR 2 Wolves 2 (Peacock, Spencer) 1996/97 Wolves 1 QPR 1 (Dichio) 1983/84 QPR 2 Wolves 1 (Wicks, Gregory) 1983/84 Wolves 0 QPR 4 (C Allen, Gregory, Stainrod) 1982/83 QPR 2 Wolves 1 (Flanagan, Hazell) 1982/83 Wolves 4 QPR 0 1979/80 Wolves 1 QPR 0* 1979/80 QPR 1 Wolves 1* (C Allen) 1978/79 QPR 3 Wolves 3 (Roeder, Busby, Gillard) 1978/79 Wolves 1 QPR 0 1977/78 QPR 1 Wolves 3 (Shanks) 1977/78 Wolves 1 QPR 0 1975/76 QPR 4 Wolves 2 (Givens 2, Thomas, Francis) 1975/76 Wolves 2 QPR 2 (Givens 2) 1974/75 QPR 2 Wolves 0 (Givens, Thomas) 1974/75 Wolves 1 QPR 2 (Givens 2) 1973/74 QPR 0 Wolves 0 1973/74 Wolves 2 QPR 4 (Bowles 2, Leach, Francis) 1969/70 QPR 3 Wolves 1* (Clarke 2, Bridges) 1968/69 QPR 0 Wolves 1 1968/69 Wolves 3 QPR 1 (I Morgan) 1899/00 Wolves 0 QPR 1** (Bedingfield) 1899/00 QPR 1 Wolves 1** (Haywood) * - League Cup ** - FA Cup ConnectionsDean Sturridge >>> Wolves 2001-2005 >>> QPR 2005-2006 Ian Holloway did many good things as manager of QPR but the signing of Dean Sturridge will not go down as one of his finest moments. Born in Birmingham, Sturridge signed pro forms at Derby County in 1991 and made his debut a year later in a 1-0 defeat to Southend United. Still only a young man Sturridge had to bide his time to get a run in the County team, so spent time on loan at Torquay in 1994 - scoring five goals in just ten outings for the Gulls. Back at Derby he looked a more confident player and became the Rams first choice striker for the 1995-96 season. His 20 goals that year helped Derby to second place in the First Division and promotion to the Premier League for the first time. Sturridge and Derby made a strong Premier League debut the following campaign, with the Ram’s finishing a creditable twelfth and Sturridge netting 11 goals and impressing so much he was linked with a big money move to Arsenal. He stayed with the Rams in the top-flight for another five seasons, scoring 53 goals in all for Derby before manger Jim Smith left in 2001 and Dean found himself out of the first-team picture. He joined Leicester City in a £350,000 deal however he couldn’t capture the same kind of goal scoring form at Filbert Street, dropping behind heavyweights Trevor Benjamin and Ade Akinbyi in the pecking order. Sturridge was a small, bull like forward who would explode into games with his pace and power. That style is all well and good, but as Michael Owen and others have found out it does mean that any sort of persistent hamstring problems can be the death of your career. Injuries started to bite into Sturridge at Leicester and he left after just ten months to join Wolves on an initial loan deal. His four goals in just two outings led to a permanent move on Christmas Eve 2001. To be fair two successful seasons followed, where his goals helped the club to reach the play-offs in both campaigns, wining promotion the second time around with a 3-0 win over Sheffield United. The striker didn’t enjoy much of Wolves’ season in the top-flight though as injury again struck and new signings limited him to just five appearances and he spent time on loan at Sheffield United. Sturridge never regained his place at Molineux and in March 2005 joined QPR on a free transfer. Former chairman Gianni Paladini, in an interview with LoftforWords in 2006, takes up the story. “Well last season, at the time, we were still in with a chance of making the play offs with a good run,” Paladni explained. “Ian Holloway wanted Hayles from Millwall but we couldn't get him, so we had a report about Sturridge and Holloway was keen to get him signed up. I tried to do a deal with Wolves, you know their guy Moxey, to get him on loan until the end of the season, three months. This seemed fine but then at the last minute I got a call very early in the morning saying Dean wouldn't come on loan unless he got a deal for another year afterwards. I spoke to Jim Smith and he highly recommended against it. He said if we signed him for a year he'll waste our money. Jim says you need to keep Sturridge hungry. Holloway wanted him though, the transfer deadline was getting close so the pressure was on to get a deal done.” That pressure led to a catastrophic set of decisions that would ultimately cost Rangers, according to Paladini, £180,000 in Sturridge’s wages, signing on fee and relocation allowance. Paldini admitted that the medical conducted on Strurridge consisted of little more than a conversation with the medical people at Wolves who, no doubt keen to get shot of him, said there was nothing “major” wrong with him and we’d be able to sort him out. We spoke to Wolves' medical people about him and they said we could put him right. There was nothing major wrong with him and we'd be able to sort him out. I took him to Italy and everywhere trying to get him fit, it was no good. In 18 months Sturridge appeared just 11 times for QPR and on one of those occasions, at Hull, he was on the field for little more than two minutes as a substitute before being removed when his hamstrings gave up again. The highlight of his time at Rangers was a performance and goal in a 3-2 win against Coventry in a pre-season tournament in Ibiza. Incredibly (never under estimate the arrogance of football managers) he conned another club into taking a chance on him after Rangers. He joined Kidderminster in the Conference on a free but again made little impact. He retired to do his coaching badges and work as a pundit on BBC Radio and Sky Sports. Others >>> Jay Bothroyd, Wolves 2006-2008, QPR 2011-present >>> Keith Curle, Wolves 1996-2000, QPR (coach) 2009-2011>>> Marcus Bent, QPR (loan) 2010, Wolves (loan) 2010-2011 >>> Leon Clarke, Wolves 2003-2007, QPR (loan) 2006, 2010-2011 >>> Carl Ikeme, Wolves 2003-present, QPR (loan) 2010 >>> Matt Hill, Wolves 2008-2011, QPR (loan) 2010 >>> Gavin Mahon, Wolves 1995-1996, QPR 2008-2011 >>> Tim Flowers, Wolves 1984-1986, QPR (coach) 2008 >>> Michael Mancienne, QPR (loan) 2006-2008, Wolves (loan) 2008-2011 >>> Paul Jones, Wolves 1991-1996, 2004-2006, QPR 2006-2007 >>> Rohan Ricketts, Wolves 2005-2007, QPR (loan) 2007 >>> Keith Lowe, Wolves 2004-2008, QPR (loan) 2006 >>> Bob Taylor, Wolves 2000-2002, QPR (loan) 2001 >>> Darren Ward, QPR (loan) 1999-2000, Wolves 2007-2010 >>> Mark Kennedy, QPR (loan) 1998, Wolves 2001-2006 >>> Simon Osborn, QPR 1995-1996, Wolves 1996-2001 >>> Dougie Freedman, QPR 1993-1994, Wolves 1997-1998 >>> Darren Peacock, QPR 1990-1994, Wolves 2000 >>> Brian Law, QPR 1987-1991, Wolves 1994-1997 >>> Andy Sinton, QPR 1989-1993, Wolves 1999-2002 >>> Bob Hazell, Wolves 1977-1979, QPR 1979-1983 >>>John Burridge, QPR 1980-1982, Wolves 1982-1984 >>> Keith Pritchett, Wolves 1972-1973, QPR 1974-1975 >>> Dave Thomas, QPR 1972-1977, Wolves 1979-1980 >>> Tommy Docherty, QPR (manager) 1968, 1979-1980, Wolves (manager) 1984-1985 >>> Peter Eastoe, Wolves 1971-1973, QPR 1976-1979 >>> Mark Lazarus, QPR 1960-1961, 1962-1964, 1966-1968, Wolves 1961-1962 >>> Fred Ramscar, Wolves 1946-1947, QPR 1947-1949 Memorable MatchQPR 2 Wolves 2, Monday March 31, 1997, First Division There are many reasons why it has taken QPR 15 years to return to the Premiership after relegation in 1996, but fairly high up on the list is the way they wasted the 1996/97 season in the First Division. Flush with new money from Chris Wright Rangers blew the rest of the division out of the water with transfer fees spending significant seven figure sums on John Spencer, Gavin Peacock, Steve Morrow and others. But they made fundamental mistakes as well. They started the season with Ray Wilkins in charge despite relegation the previous season. Nothing wrong with giving a manager another chance after relegation per se but having allowed Wilkins to shape the team as he wished over the summer and conduct pre-season training he then left (still debate about whether he was sacked or resigned) four games into the campaign after a home defeat by Bolton. Rangers then appointed Stewart Houston who’d done a sound job as caretaker manager at Arsenal on several occasions but didn’t have any experience of a number one role. He first of all appointed Bruce Rioch as his assistant and then took an age to spend any of Wright’s money improving the squad. Director Nick Blackburn later told A Kick Up The R’s: “Well, Clive Berlin prepared his contract. One of the things Clive said Stewart insisted on putting in his contract was that he appointed his own number two. Later, Stewart called us and he said I want to come over to Chris Wright’s office and tell you who my number two is. So we all go over. There’s Clive, me, Chris, and somebody else I can’t remember. He told us that his number two is going to be Bruce Rioch. We said: “Are you sure?” But he thought it was fantastic. We went, “Are you sure?”. But we couldn’t change it because it was in his contract that he could appoint his number two. “We didn’t think it was a good idea at all. Not because we thought Bruce was a bad manager. In fact Bruce’s track record is pretty good. But we didn’t think the chemistry between the two of them would work. I then heard that in the first training session he took, Houston called Rioch “Gaffer” in front of the players. “The other thing about Stewart was that he was a remarkably honest and decent man, and I think he was a very good coach, But he was very slow to make decisions. We had Matt Jackson on loan at the time, who I thought was a decent player, and Stewart said, “I’m not going to sign him until I’ve watched him a few more times.” So Matt said, “I’m not going to stay here on trial” and went back to Everton. I always remember, Stewart started quite well and then the club slipped down the table, yet he had money available. But he just wouldn’t sign anyone. Chris was away and he rang me up one day and said,“Tell Stewart, if he doesn’t sign anybody, I’m going to sign some fucking players”, because we were still slipping down the table.” When he did spend money he initially spent it very well, signing Gavin Peacock and John Spencer from Chelsea who were both excellent for Rangers. But that period of uncertainty and indecision pre-Christmas cost QPR at the other end of the season and when Wolves came to town on Easter Monday it was getting to do or die time. For half an hour QPR were absolutely magnificent in the blazing London sunshine. A beautifully worked and typically well finished John Spencer goal gave them the lead after 13 minutes and Gavin Peacock lashed in a fabulous second before the half hour. I remember my mum randomly went to this game and even she turned around and said after half an hour “I didn’t realise QPR were actually this good.” The problem is, they weren’t. They couldn’t hold their lead until half time and Don Goodman stole in to halve the deficit before the break. The second half was a tense and increasingly bad tempered affair. Six players were shown yellow cards including Wolves goalkeeper Mike Stowell who objected to some rough contact in his penalty area and started a melee – but strangely didn’t concede a penalty for it. A spot kick was awarded at the other end however and Keith Curle, a perennial scourge of QPR before he became their assistant manager more recently, converted at the Loft End. Cue another melee. Curle had become involved in an argument with Rangers’ American goalkeeper Jurgeon Sommer before taking the kick as the pair tried to put each other off and having scored he celebrated in the goalkeeper’s face sparking another round of handbags. Rangers had to settle for a draw and ended up finishing eighth, missing out on the play off positions altogether. Wolves finished third but lost out in the play offs as sixth placed Crystal Palace came roaring through to take the final promotion spot behind Barnsley and Bolton. QPR: Sommer, Yates, McDonald, Maddix, Brevett, Impey, Barker (Quashie 77), Peacock, Murray, Spencer, Dichio (Slade 77) Subs not used: M Graham Goals: Spencer 13, Peacock 27 Bookings: McDonald, Barker, Spencer Wolves: Stowell, Smith, Venus (Law 40), Curle, Atkins, Froggatt, Corica (Thomas 33), Osborn, Ferguson, Goodman, Roberts Subs not used: Thompson Goals: Goodman 39, Curle (penalty) 70 Bookings: Thomas, Roberts, Stowell Highlights >>> Wolves 0 QPR 3, 2011 >>> Wolves 1 QPR 1, 1996 >>> Wolves 4 QPR 0, 1982 >>> Wolves 2 QPR 4, 1973 Tweet @loftforwords Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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