With kit very much the subject of the day, it was perhaps more than a coincidence that the annual sponsors’ evening was held at Loftus Road on Thursday.

The LFW crew at the annual kit sponsors' event on Thursday evening consisted of my good self and one other (who, in deference to her burgeoning Internet reputation born of being cited for her adventures in various QPR-related situations, wishes to remain nameless). (Tracey - ed)

I started sponsoring a player's shirt in the 01-02 season when we didn't have the proverbial pot to piss in. My Dad, born and raised in Willesden, passed away in February 01 and I thought it would be a good idea to sponsor a shirt in memory of him. I was offered Paul Bruce who was a promising player in those days. Honest. This started a nine-year association with the names of various players who will not, in all probability, feature highly in any future history of QPR. The sponsorship has been in the name of my son Nik and me since the 2003-04 season and this year - unusually for the second year running - we were associated with Angelo Balanta. Given that his home shirt was sponsored by a certain party from WATRB there was a brief moment where I wondered what would have happened had young Northern been present when we went up to receive our respective shirts. Anyhoo, despite his lack of appearances this year, I do hope Angelo has a good future in the game. At least he has done two full seasons under the curse of the Speller shirt sponsorship, which is more than most of his predecessors.

In the past the sponsors' evenings I have attended have ranged from 'stiff' to 'dire' with many of the elements of last year's Player of the Year Dinner on display - surly players huddled together texting and phoning whilst the punters tried to mingle with them, all this in spite of the efforts of the relevant QPR staff to make the evenings a success. Some events were better than others, notably when Ian Holloway held forth at length and the night when Dan Shittu was MC. Before anyone writes in, I have not been to all the events in my nine-year stint, so I may have missed some good ones. Anyway, hats off to the club for this year's effort which was by far the best yet.

We assembled in the W12 area and after initial drinks at the pay bar we were invited to take seats set out in theatre style at one end of the room. Billy Rice was MC and one by one the players came forward to present the kit to the sponsors whilst pictures were taken. It was all done in fine humour with good craic from Billy. Neil Warnock joked about his kit not having a number because of the change of managers and mentioned that he had said to his sponsor, tongue in cheek, 'you might not see me again next year'. He thanked the fans and said he would be working hard to build bridges between the players and the fans in the coming seasons. He talked of the ‘promised land’ of the Premiership but said it would not be easy.

We then retired to the bar area where players and fans mingled whilst consuming the decent food (in good quantities) that was on offer. There was no headlong rush to the door by the players - indeed many of the senior pros were still around long after they could have decently left.

If this was part of the attempt to re-kindle a good relationship between players and fans then it worked and worked well. Most years I have invited someone to join me for the evening and, on the basis of previous experience, this year's invite to my young companion was the hardest undersell you will ever hear. But, the evening exceeded the expectations of both of us and we tottered away afterwards having enjoyed the event a lot more than I thought we would.

If you have never considered kit sponsorship before, I can actually say this time it's worth a whirl. Hopefully next year's event will be a celebratory one and, well, you never know the ultimate value of the shirts, boots or shin pads you will get to keep. My cunning plan is to wait until we achieve Premiership status then offer my Bruce, Bean, et al shirts on eBay to 'Johnny Come Lately' fans so that they can pretend they were here when we were shit. I sincerely hope, though, that young Angelo's proves to be a more significant souvenir and, provided he sticks around, we will soon enter the unchartered waters of a third consecutive year sponsoring the same player. I think I will wait until I see what the away kit looks like, though, before making a final choice.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters