Sheff Utd v QPR Connections and Memories
Thursday, 14th Aug 2008 20:22

QPR head north this weekend to face Sheffield United - in his regular column Ashleigh Rose looks back at a memorable trip to Bramall Lane and at some of the good, bad and ugly who've played for both sides.

I’m still recovering from the shock of surviving the first round of a cup competition for God knows how long but its back to league action this weekend, as the R’s hit the road for the first time in the Championship this season with a trip to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United. The Blades will be looking to come back from the injury time to defeat to Birmingham on Saturday and will give Iain Dowie’s new QPR side their first real test of the season.

Our first ever visit to the red and white half of Sheffield was in October 1949 ending in a 1-1 draw, while last season’s encounter saw Rangers go down 2-1 despite taking the lead through Patrick Agyemang. Our record over the years isn’t too bad either at the Lane as we take a walk down the blue and whit hooped path of memory lane…

Memorable Match
Sheffield United 2-3 QPR
Championship
February 25, 2006
In Gary Waddock’s short stint as manager of Queens Park Rangers there were few highs, however this week’s feature game was very much one of them. At the time Waddock was still only caretaker boss at Loftus Road, after Ian Holloway was put on gardening leave at the start of the month as punishment for talking to Leicester City. To this point he’d seen Rangers overcome a poor Millwall team but lose out somewhat unluckily in another London derby to Crystal Palace and Neil Warknock’s promotion chasing United would prove much sterner opposition.

Rangers made the perfect start to the game when after just six minutes they opened the scoring thanks to Marc Nygaard. The big Dane raced clear of the United defence and slid the ball past Paddy Kenny to put the Super Hoops 1-0 up. The lead didn’t last long though and United were soon level thanks to an Akinbiyi header and it got worse for Rangers on the half hour mark when Marc Bircham turned the ball into his own net to put the home side ahead for the first time. Bircham appealed for a foul with some justification but the goal was allowed to stand.

Straight after half time the Blades had the chance to put the game beyond QPR when Ian Evatt bought down Chris Morgan in the box and referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot. Paul Ifill stepped up to take the penalty but Paul Jones used all his 39 years of experience to make a magnificent save down to his right to keep Rangers in the match. The penalty save seem to give the R’s a new belief and ten minutes later they forced an equaliser. Again Chris Morgan was involved as the big United centre-half followed Marc Bircham by helping the ball into his own net and the game was all square once again – this time it was Morgan’s turn to appeal to Friend for a push.

Most R’s fans would have been over the moon with a point at Bramall Lane and thanks to some dogged defending it looked like though they would return to London happy. Then fifteen minutes from the end Paul Furlong ran onto a Lee Cook ball and buried left-foot finish past Kenny to win the game for QPR.

Waddock said after the game "The group of players that are downstairs and were training this week have worked their socks off. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck and we got that". Too bad Gary didn’t have too much more of that luck in his time as Rangers manager.

Sheff Utd: Kenny, Morgan, Kozluk, Collins, Armstrong, Ifill, Jagielka, Tonge, Montgomery (Unsworth 63), Akinbiyi (Shipperley 78), Horsfield (Webber 66)

QPR: Jones, Bignot, Evatt, Shittu, Rose, Bircham, Cook, Lomas (Santos 90), Langley, Furlong, Nygaard (Youssouf 72)

Full LFW Match Report

Postscript: Despite not winning a game for the rest of the season, Rangers escaped relegation and finished 21st in the Championship. Gary Waddock was given the manager’s job on a permanent basis but a poor start to the following season saw Waddock lose his post to John Gregory. Sheffield United under Neil Warknock were finally promoted to the Premier League as Championship runners-up, but their stay in the top flight would only last one season.

Connections
Tony Currie
Sheffield United 1968-1974
QPR 1979-82
Currie was one of those players lovingly called an entertainer and one of Sheffield United’s and Rangers’ best loved players. Currie turned pro in 1967 on the books at Watford, a year later though he found himself surplus to requirement at the Hornets and joined Sheffield United for £26,000. His impact was instant scoring on his debut for the Blades against Tottenham. Over the next seven seasons Currie would become an instrumental part of the Blades midfield and was key to their promotion back to division one in the 1970-71 season. He scored 54 goals for United in over 300 appearances and skippered them in his final season at the club. He gained international recognition too while at Bramall Lane earning the first of his 17 England caps against Northern Ireland in 1972. But when United were relegated once again two years later, Currie stayed in the top flight by joining Leeds for £250,000 which was huge a profit for the Blades even if that was scant consolation to the fans. In his time at Elland Road, TC as he was now known reached two League Cup semi finals and helped Leeds reach the UEFA Cup. But disputes with the manager and a desire to return to London saw Currie quickly on the move once again to join Queens Park Rangers. Tommy Docherty brought him to Loftus Road to aid QPR’s push for promotion but it would be his successor Terry Venables who get the best out of him. As the experienced head in quite a youthful looking Rangers team he helped the R’s win promotion back to the top flight and captained them to the FA Cup final defeat to Spurs in 1982 - unfortunately it was Currie who gave away Tottenham’s winning penalty. The following season saw TC suffer a knee injury and would only go on to play one more game for the R’s before he spent time in Canada playing for the Toronto Nationals. Spells at Southend and Torquay followed but Currie retired from football in 1988. Since then he’s been the Football in the Community Officer back at Sheffield United a position he still holds today.
Did you know? Before joining Watford, Currie was on QPR’s books but was never offered a contract after a trial.

Vinnie Jones
Sheffield United 1990-91
QPR 1999
Few names from Rangers past can get the blood boiling more than Vincent Peter Jones, after his now infamous spell at Loftus Road. Picked up from the Swedish second division by Wimbledon in 1986, Jones quickly gained a reputation of a hardman which was highlighted in the famous picture of him grabbing Paul Gascoinge’s crown jewels in a match against Newcastle. Whist at the Dons Jones was part of the ‘Crazy Gang’ that would go on to cause one of the biggest ever FA Cup shocks by beating Liverpool in the 1988 final. A year later he joined Leeds and curbed his hardman image, receiving only three yellow cards in his one season at Elland Road helping the Yorkshire club to promotion back to division one. After only a season Vinnie was on the move again this time joining Sheffield United. He played 35 times for the Blades in his spell at Brammal Lane but longed to move back to London. Chelsea took him back to the capital but again only lasted a year and he then re-joined Wimbledon. This time Jones stuck around and would go on to stay at Selhurst Park for four seasons before getting a call from Ray Harford down at Loftus Road. Harford bought in Jones as player/coach along with Neil Ruddock to beef up the R’s as they battled relegation from Division One. However when Harford was sacked and the job was given to the returning Gerry Francis, Jones threw a wobbly because he was overlooked from the post. Jones was so angry he left the club and retired from the game, but the cash-strapped club were still paying the petulant ‘coach’ as he chased his new dream as a Hollywood actor. Few have forgiven him since for both sucking an obscene amount of money out of Rangers and for some of the truly awful film roles we’ve had to put up with since.
Did you know? Jones was the first ever host of Channel 4’s Friday Night Project in February 2005.

Mikele Leigertwood
Sheffield United 2006-07
QPR 2007-Present
In years to come when fans look up the history behind the a financial clout that saved QPR and helped them become one of England’s biggest clubs (well we can dream cant we?) they will see that the first signing of their revolution was not some superstar household name, no what they will see is the name Mikele Leigertwood. The Enfield born midfielder started his career at Wimbledon but made his professional debut while on loan at Leyton Orient. In January 2004, he became Iain Dowie’s first permanent signing for Crystal Palace and was part of the Palace team that won promotion to Premier League under Dowie through the play-offs. Unfortunately Palace stay in the top flight was brief and they were relegated the following season. But Mikele was given another shot at the big time when Neil Warknock bought him to Sheff Utd after their promotion. Despite another impressive season for Mikele it was the same story and he felt the pain of relegation for a second time. That summer Bryan Robson was appointed Blades manager and Mikele saw the opportunity to move back to London on deadline day when Rangers new found investment was used for the first time to bring him to Loftus Road. His first season at the Loft saw some memorable moments from Legs notably the quality double in the 3-0 win over Stoke in front of the Sky Cameras. Now reunited with Dowie once again, he remains an important part of the R’s squad.
Did you know? Mikele’s Icons website diary has yet to updated from January 2007. C’mon Legs!

Others:
Danny Cullip Sheff Utd 2004-05, QPR 2007-08. Now at Lewes.
Georges Santos Sheff Utd 2000-2002 QPR 2004-2006 Now with Farsley Celtic
Richard Edgehill Sheff Utd 2002-03, QPR 2003-05. Now at Macclesfield
Phil Barnes Sheff Utd 2004-05, QPR 2006 loan. Now at Grimsby
Paul Peschisolido QPR 2000 loan, Sheff Utd 2001 loan. Released by Luton in the summer
Nigel Spackman QPR 1989, Sheff Utd 1996-98. Now a TV pundit

Fans’ Memories
That Waddock game was a strange one because even though we played very well we probably would have lost had Paul Jones not saved the penalty from Ifill. I remember Warnock put David Unsworth on shortly after that and he had a shocker and we ran riot. Should have been more than 3-2 - Kenny made great saves to deny furlong and Youssouf. We've actually got a pretty decent record in this part of the world although I remember Holloway losing his rag with Probert after a pathetic late penalty decision in a 3-2 defeat the other year. The 2-0 win in the league cup in 2003 was a great night, I was rather ill on a tram that night and got slung off. It was the wrong tram in the first place, ended up out at crystal peaks and had to walk back into town! -Northernr

The 2-0 cup win was great and very unexpected. Rowlands was brilliant that night. Last time I went we lost 3-2 and the ref gave a very soft penalty in the last minute which cost us. -DaveB

Talking of penalties, my favourite recent memory of Bramall Lane was the twice-saved penalty by Lee Harper. Going back a few years, to 75/76, I have a miserable memory of the 0-0 draw that we should have won. Close to the end of the season, and it partly cost us the title. -Drewla

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