The clubs are only separated by three miles of West London, but competitive meetings between QPR and Fulham have been sporadic over the years.

Recent Meetings

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 Gerry Francis had recently left his post with Rangers very firmly in the relegation zone and been replaced by his former midfield charge Ian Holloway.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

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 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 saying he was ready to play for England. 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 anyway from Stock’s point of view.

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.

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 since.

Others >>> Heidar Helguson, Fulham 2005-2007, QPR 2008-present >>> Stephen Kelly, QPR (loan) 2003, Fulham 2009-present >>> 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 >>> 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

In case you weren’t aware, Rodney Marsh follows @loftforwords on Twitter. And you can too.

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

Photo: Action Images

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