With QPR back in action this weekend at Fulham, LFW looks back at Adel Taarabt’s majestic performance against the Whites in December, and recalls the genius of Rodney Marsh who played for both clubs.

Recent Meetings

QPR 2 Fulham 1, Saturday December 15, 2012, Premier League

It took Queens Park Rangers 17 attempts to win a Premier League game this season, a diabolical run that stretched right into December and looks highly likely to condemn the R’s to relegation come May. Mark Hughes paid the price with his job and Harry Redknapp finally put three points on the board ten days before Christmas against near neighbours Fulham. The game had been billed as the battle of two maverick forwards – Adel Taarabt and Dimitar Berbatov – and it was QPR’s Moroccan who dominated proceedings. Despite referee Martin Atkinson allowing Steve Sidwell to kick lumps out of him all afternoon, Taarabt was at his unplayable best scoring first with a deflected shot off Brede Hangelaand and then with a sumptuous shot with the outside of his boot after he’d nutmegged the Norwegian centre half in back play. A late goal by Mladen Petric set pulses racing, but the scoreline flattered Fulham and Rangers finally had their win.

QPR: Green 6, Onuoha 7, Nelsen 7, Hill 7, Traore 7, Wright-Phillips 7 (Fabio 85, -), Faurlin 8, Mbia 8, Mackie 6, Taarabt 9, Ciise 7 (Ferdinand 90, -)

Subs not used: Cesar, Derry, Diakite, Granero, Hoilett

Goals: Taarabt 52 (assisted Faurlin), 68 (unassisted)

Bookings: Taarabt 52 (overcelebrating)

Fulham: Schwarzer 5, Riether 6 (Kelly 45, 6), Hangeland 5, Hughes 5, Riise 6, Duff 6, Sidwell 5, Baird 5, Richardson 5 (Petric 63, 7), Berbatov 6, Rodallega 6 (Dejagah 72, 5)

Subs not used: Etheridge, Senderos, Karagounis, Kacaniklic

Goals: Petric 88 (unassisted)

Bookings: Sidwell 75 (repetitive fouling), Dejagah 77 (foul)

QPR 0 Fulham 1, Saturday February 25, 2012, Premier League

QPR fans attending last season’s home match with Fulham were treated to the most farcical debut since Bob Malcolm when Samba Diakite took to the field in Rangers colours for the first time. Having lost crucial relegation six pointers against Wolves and Blackburn in the two previous matches the R’s were in need of points but Andy Johnson had a header disallowed for a marginal offside decision inside a minute and with the time still in single figures Pavel Pogrebnyak waltzed around Kenny and opened the scoring for the visitors. Any remaining hope quickly drained away when referee Phil Dowd was left with no option but to dismiss Diakite for two yellow cards before half time after half an hour of unchecked gratuitous violence. Things could have been worse had Dickson Etuhu shown more composure when played through on goal late in the second half but he rolled the chance wide.

QPR: Kenny 6, Onuoha 6, Ferdinand 6, Hill 7, Taiwo 5 (Traore 72, 6), Diakite 5, Barton 6, Wright-Phillips 5 (Buzsaky 83, -), Mackie 6, Taarabt 7, Zamora 6

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Derry, Gabbidon, Bothroyd, Smith

Sent Off: Diakite 33 (two yellows)

Booked: Diakite (repetitive fouling), Diakite (repetitive fouling)

Fulham: Schwarzer 7, Kelly 6, Hughes 7, Hangeland 8, Riise 6, Ruiz 6 (Duff 78, -), Murphy 7 (Baird 74, 6), Dembele 8, Dempsey 7, Pogrebnyak 7, Johnson 7 (Etuhu 81, -)

Subs Not Used: Stockdale, Orlando Sa, Senderos, Frei

Booked: Pogrebnyak (over celebrating), Dembele (foul), Riise (foul), Baird (foul)

Goals: Pogrebnyak 7 (assisted Dembele)

Fulham 6 QPR 0, Sunday October 2, 2011, Premier League

Neil Warnock said his QPR teams would take some thrashings in their first Premiership season, and he was proved more than correct early in October when an abject display resulted in a crushing 6-0 defeat at Craven Cottage. Optimism had been high before the game with a host of new players bringing about three excellent performances and five points from games with Newcastle, Wolves and Aston Villa but Fulham scored through Andy Johnson inside the first two minutes and kept scoring at regular intervals after that. Paddy Kenny embarked on a fool’s mission to retrieve a ball Fitz Hall should have cleared in the twentieth minute resulting in a foul on Johnson and a penalty from Danny Muprhy for 2-0 and Johnson made it three himself before half time. With Adel Taarabt substituted and allegedly standing on the Fulham Palace Road waiting for a bus Rangers shipped three more with Johnson completing his hat trick and Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora filling their boots in a rout.

QPR: Kenny 5, Ferdinand 5, Hall 4, Young 5, Orr 5, Faurlin 5, Derry 4 (Smith 45, 5), Wright-Phillips 5, Taarabt 4 (Campbell 45, 6), Barton 5, Bothroyd 4 (Mackie 72, 7)

Subs Not Used: Murphy, Perone, Buzsaky, Helguson

Booked: Hall (foul), Faurlin (foul), Wright-Phillips (dissent)

Fulham: Schwarzer 7, JA Riise 6, Hangeland 6, Baird 6, Grygera 7, Sidwell 8, Murphy 7 (Etuhu 83 6), Dempsey 6, Johnson 8 (Ruiz 75 6), Zamora 7, Dembele 7 (Sa 87, -)

Subs Not Used: Etheridge, Kelly, Senderos, Duff

Goals: Johnson 2, 38, 59, Murphy (penalty) 20, Dempsey 65, Zamora 70.

Booked: Sidwell (foul), Hangeland (foul)

Fulham 2 QPR 0, Saturday March 10, 2001

The writing was well and truly on the wall for QPR when these sides last met at Craven Cottage. Gerry Francis had recently left his post with Rangers very firmly in the relegation zone and been replaced by his former midfield charge Ian Holloway. Despite impending administration Holloway was able to add Leon Knight, and later Marcus Bignot and Andy Thomson to his line up, but it was no match for Jean Tigana’s Fulham side which was marching towards promotion. Louis Saha scored a penalty before halftime and Lee Clark stuck home a second in injury time to seal a 2-0 win which could have been many more. The Fulham fans taunted their visitors with the old “we’ll never play you again” chant. These were two sides very firmly heading in opposite directions, and when you look down the respective starting elevens it’s not hard to see why.

Fulham: Taylor, Finnan, Symons, Melville, Brevett, Clark, Davis, Collins, Goldbaek (Riedle 69), Saha (Stolcers 80), Hayles (Boa Morte 64)

Subs not used: Hahnemann, Nielson

Goals: Saha (penalty, 37), Clark 90

QPR: Harper, Perry, Ready, Plummer, Baraclough, Darlington, Rose (Kulscar 79), Peacock, Murray (Kiwomya 57), Knight (Warren 72), Crouch

Subs not used: Miklosko, Wardley

Bookings: Baraclough, Crouch

QPR 0 Fulham 2, Wednesday January 31, 2001

In many ways Rangers’ fate was finally sealed in the first meeting that season at Loftus Road. Not with the result, because given the respective resources and starting elevens that was never really in doubt, but the legacy of the match would last long after the final whistle. After ten minutes England Under 21 international Clarke Carlisle was stretchered off with a ruptured cruciate knee ligament that would keep him out of the QPR team for more than a year and lead him into a personal battle with alcohol. Twenty minutes later Richard Langley followed him to hospital – incredibly with exactly the same injury. It almost seemed cruel when Fulham took advantage with goals from Peter Moller and Karlheinz Riedle. This was already a very poor QPR side, but shorn of Richard Langley and Clarke Carlisle it was doomed.

QPR: Miklosko, Perry, Plummer, Carlisle (Bruce 11), Baraclough, Langley (Kulscar 37), Rose, Peacock, Connolly (Ngonge 79), Kiwomya, Crouch

Subs not used: Harper, Morrow

Fulham: Taylor, Finnan, Melville, Symons, Brevett, Goldbaek, Davis, Clark, Fernandes, Saha, Moller (Riedle 70)

Subs not used: Hahnemann, Stolcers, Neilson, Sahnoun

Goals: Moller 45, Riedle 77

Booked: Davis

Previous Results

2012/13 QPR 2 Fulham 1 (Taarabt 2)

2011/12 QPR 0 Fulham 1

2011/12 Fulham 6 QPR 0

2000/01 Fulham 2 QPR 0

2000/01 QPR 0 Fulham 2

1999/00 QPR 0 Fulham 0

1999/00 Fulham 1 QPR 0

1982/83 QPR 3 Fulham 1 (Gregory, Sealy, Stainrod)

1982/83 Fulham 1 QPR 1 (Stainrod)

1979/80 Fulham 0 QPR 2 (Waddock, Burke)

1979/80 QPR 3 Fulham 0 (P Goddard, Allen, Currie)

1978/79 Fulham 2 QPR 0*

1972/73 QPR 2 Fulham 0 (Bowles, Clement)

1972/73 Fulham 0 QPR 2 (Bowles, Givens)

1971/72 QPR 0 Fulham 0

1971/72 QPR 1 Fulham 1* (Mancini)

1971/72 Fulham 2 QPR 1* (Clement)

1971/72 Fulham 0 QPR 3 (Saul, McCulloch, Matthewson og)

1970/71 Fulham 2 QPR 0**

1948/49 QPR 1 Fulham 0 (Ramscar)

1948/49 Fulham 5 QPR 0

1931/32 QPR 3 Fulham 1 (Wiles, 2, Haley)

1931/32 Fulham 1 QPR 3 (G Goddard 2, Cribb)

1930/31 Fulham 0 QPR 2 (G Goddard, Coward)

1930/31 QPR 0 Fulham 2

1929/30 Fulham 0 QPR 2 (G Goddard, Rounce)

1929/30 QPR 0 Fulham 0

1928/29 Fulham 5 QPR 0

1928/29 QPR 2 Fulham 1 (G Goddard, Young)

1905/06 Fulham 1 QPR 0

Player Connections

Rodney Marsh >>> Fulham, 1962-1966 >>> QPR 1966-1972

Rodney Marsh is remembered to this day as one of the finest players ever to wear a QPR shirt. He was the maverick talisman in the Rangers side that swept from the Third Division to the First in the 1960s.

A combination of injuries and a fall out with then Fulham manager Vic Buckingham saw his time at Craven Cottage, where he started his career after a spell with West Ham juniors, cut short and he moved to Loftus Road for £15,000 in 1966. Despite his struggles with Fulham, Marsh immediately became a big hit at Rangers, scoring an astonishing 44 goals in 53 matches in his first season. One of those goals was a particularly crucial one - coming at Wembley as the R’s came from two down to win the League Cup 3-2 against First Division West Brom while still a Third Division side.

QPR won the Third Division by 12 points in an age of two points for a win, and scored more than 100 goals into the bargain with Marsh at the pinnacle of an exciting team that included the Morgan twins, Les Allen and Mark Lazarus with Mike Keen as captain. This was during the chairmanship of Jim Gregory who transformed Rangers from a Third Division South outfit into a top flight club playing in a brand new stadium.

Marsh eventually left Rangers in 1972 to join Manchester City for a then record fee of £200,000. He played in an era of somewhat flawed geniuses – our own Stan Bowles was another but there was also George Best and later Tony Currie – and his time at City did not begin well. He joined in March with Malcolm Allison’s side four points clear at the top of the league but by May they had slipped to fourth with Marsh struggling to settle in the team. He did nevertheless bag 19 goals the following year and made the League Cup final again but this time he was defeated.

As ever with players of this type he never really received the international recognition his skill deserved. He won nine caps (Phil Neville has 59, Gareth Barry 53) and scored once but was not a regular under World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey. At the QPR Player of the Year dinner a couple of years ago Marsh told a story about how, when QPR were in the Third Division, a national newspaper had offered him a handsome sum of money to put his name to a story headlined “I’m Ready for England Alf – Marsh”. Having discussed it with his QPR manager Alec Stock they decided it would be a foolish idea, but a day later Marsh woke to find the same story published under the headline “Rodney’s ready for England Alf – Stock”.

He spent more than ten years at the end of his career playing for Tampa Bay Rowdies in Florida, where he still lives today, but did briefly return to Fulham to link up with George Best and Bobby Moore in a briefly lived veteran dream team set up.

In retirement he sullied his reputation with QPR fans somewhat by inadvertently playing a part in the departure of Gerry Francis from his first spell as manager at the club. Relations between Francis and chairman Richard Thompson were already strained when Thompson approached Marsh to be a director of football at the club. Marsh wanted to discuss the role with Gerry Francis first but was not given the chance before he turned up to a televised home match with Liverpool in a QPR scarf. Francis was furious, apparently believing that Marsh would be taking over responsibility for the transfers from him, and resigned later that week. Marsh never did take up the post and has since expressed regret about the incident.

Since then he has been making his living as an outspoken football pundit, but he was sacked from his regular job on Sky Sports for making an inappropriate joke about Newcastle United’s Toon Army in the wake of the Boxing Day Tsunami in Asia. He apologised but it didn’t save his job. He has appeared on numerous television reality shows and football phone ins since.

Others >>> Heidar Helguson, Fulham 2005-2007, QPR 2008-present >>> Stephen Kelly, QPR (loan) 2003, Fulham 2009-2013 >>> Zesh Rehman 2004-2006, QPR 2006-2009 >>> Callum Willock, Fulham 2000-2003, QPR (loan) 2002 >>> Paul Peschisolido, Fulham 1997-2001, QPR (loan) 2000 >>> Ray Wilkins, QPR 1989-1994, (manager) 1994-1996, Fulham (manager) 1997-1998 >>> Rufus Brevett, QPR 1991-1998, Fulham 1998-2003 >>> Robbie Herrera, QPR 1988-1993, Fulham 1993-1998 >>> Leroy Rosenior, Fulham 1982-1985, 1987-1988, (loan) 1990-1991, QPR 1985-1987 >>> Paul Parker, Fulham 1982-1987, QPR 1987-1991 >>> Dean Coney, Fulham 1980-1987, QPR 1987-1989 >>> Bobby Keetch, Fulham 1964-1966, QPR 1966-1969 >>> Jim Langley, Fulham 1957-1965, QPR 1965-1967 >>> Dave Metchick, Fulham 1961-1964, QPR 1968-1970

Links >>> QPRNet Rodney Marsh Interview >>> Marsh hat trick v Birmingham

Tweet @loftforwords

Pictures – Action Images

Photo: Action Images

TacticalR added 22:03 - Mar 27 Here were my thoughts on the QPR 0 Fulham 2, Wednesday January 31, 2001 match. You will see I failed to mention the injuries! The thing that is interesting in retrospect is that Fulham did a Swanselona on us: "I was quite suprised that the gap between the two sides didn't seem as great as it might have been. Fulham play methodical possession football. Always looking for the simple pass. They always had a man showing to be passed to. They didn't seem to have any outstanding individual players, but maybe thats because Tigana got them all playing to the same pattern, and they're not allowed to hang onto the ball too long (as individuals) or try anything flashy. They were quite happy to pass the ball right to the back if there was no room in midfield. At the individual level our players were at least as good as Fulham (although we did have quite a few bad touches). But at the end of the day QPR are a one-trick pony. The aim seems to be get it into the box, preferably onto the head of Crouch, and then maybe it wil bobble around a bit in the box, and maybe Kiwomya will get on the end of it (though as we all saw tonight Kiwomya seems able to miss the easiest chances). We were not dire, or completely outclassed, but at the end of the day Fulham were more likely to win given their degree of possession, and our predictable attack."

1

Myke added 15:19 - Mar 28 The problem Clive, with your own extremely high journalism standards and in particular your meticulous research, is that a very minor error seems like a glaring omission. I refer to the absence of Zamora and Johnston in your 'played for both clubs' connection. Looking through the list, I had great time for Rufus Brefett. I was surprised to see Coney only stayed two seasons - I remember when we signed him being singularly underwhelmed as he had a poor (or at least that was my perception at the time) goalscoring record for Fulham. However, he had at least one decent season for us in front of goal if memory serves, and i thought he was around longer than that. Great article - apologies for being pedantic

0

TacticalR added 16:30 - Mar 28 Marsh was interviewed on 'My Sporting Life' on Talksport last year, and some of the things that he said about his time at City do suggest uncomfortable parallels with our problems integrating Taarabt into our team. This is Marsh's account of how he lost Man City the Championship: 'I played a very individual game...so the other players had to fit around me, and most of the Man City players were great enough players to be able to do that. It's just that I upset the balance of the team by holding the ball sometimes where they were used to playing quick one-twos.'

0

Blogs 31 bloggers

Queens Park Rangers Polls