Betting column regular Lewis Jones found himself in the W12 club at Loftus Road for the recent rout of Preston and reports back to LFW on a fine afternoon at the home of football.

A perfect day is something that is incredibly hard to find. Some go looking for one and end up disappointed, Lou Reed even tried to sing about one, but a true perfect day appears from nowhere when you least expect it. This Saturday gone, I, Lewis Jones, experienced this perfect day and as mentioned above it came from absolutely nowhere.

Saturday started like Saturdays do, nice lie in, quick glance at the Soccerette (disappointed again), Rangers top on and off to Loftus Road. This Saturday, however I would be swapping my Lacoste’s for my loafers, as I was to make my debut into the world of executive match day hospitality. My good mate Mike, who I met at University (I didn’t learn much at Uni but gaining a partner in crime to share the Rangers experience with was worth the £9,000 tuition fees alone) was celebrating his 21st and his family had decided to organise a day in the W12 restaurant, and had invited me along to share the special day, which I was internally grateful for.

Now, if I’m being honest the thought of spending a day at the football from an executive view point did not fill me with huge optimism. All that posh nosh and over the top presentation should not be associated with a proper fans days out, especially at QPR where I knew that would be especially apparent with the money being thrown at the commercial aspects of the club. Also with it being QPR, the feeling of disappointment is always round the corner, so I expected the executive experience would flatter to deceive. How wrong I turned out to be.

After arriving 10/15 minutes late thanks to Mike’s usual timekeeping exploits, the six of us (Kym, Kevin, Daniel and Josh) made our way up to the W12 suite through the main entrance. It is clear to see the where most of the board’s money has gone, the interior throughout had a classy, prestige look to it and I was pleased to see that despite the club’s new found riches it still had pictures of past players hanging from the walls. Even though the halls felt like you were walking through a high class hotel in Italy, you were still well aware that you were in Loftus Road, which was a nice touch.



The W12 restaurant itself was in keeping with the classy Italian theme throughout. Blue and white were the main colours used for the decor, and the silver cast iron QPR crest’s on the wall were stunning. Throughout the day I was trying to figure ways to sneak one of them out as it would have looked fantastic along with my Rangers flag in my room but unfortunately I had to pretend I was a grown up for the day.

Things were going swimmingly on the grown up front, I was engaging in conversation across the table like grown ups do, sipping red wine like grown ups do and even had time to moan about the government like grown ups do. All was well until my act was cut short as the people at our table were told that a few ex players would be dining in the restaurant, and then doing a Q&A session after the game. I thought it would be players from past decades that would really mean nothing to me, or a Brett Angel or a Warren Barton. Instead, in walked Kevin Gallen, Matthew Rose and Marc Bircham, the heroes of my generation. All grown up actions were now out of the window as I became a blubbering mess as one by one, the three players entered the room and took their seats.

It was really quite pathetic how star struck I was, there was a four year old lad who was on the next table who barely broke sweat when Bircham came over and rustled his hair. If Birch had done that to me, I probably would have giggled and cum in my pants. It would be interesting to know if other so called ‘adult’ Rangers fans feel this way (not the ejaculating part) when they meet an ex player who made such an impact for the club.

Whilst all this carnage was going on around me, I’ve got to say I was so impressed with everything the W12 restaurant had to offer. The food really lived up to the hype they gave it on the official website, the main course buffet was exceptional, and especially the lamb, which was by far the best I had ever eaten. The service was also very efficient and a big mention has to go out to the manager/organiser (her name has deserted me) of the restaurant. She organised the day, including Mike being the programme sponsor and him receiving a framed programme which was signed by the first team squad. A fantastic memento of a 21st birthday he will never forget.

Anyways, after brief visit to the dessert cart, I was reminded that we had a QPR game to attend. My mind was so caught up in the fantastic experience in the restaurant surrounded by a couple of personal heroes, that it had slipped my mind that Rangers had a massively important match against a fellow promotion contender.

We left our table to make the short journey to the W12 seating section of the stadium, which was situated just next to the directors’ box. On the way I briefly bumped in to Lee Cook, who shook my hand, as he was exchanging banter with Kevin Gallen, that’s a sentence I thought I’d never write. Also Angelo Balanta was lurking in the background along with a couple of youth team players. As I made my way into the W12 section, it was hard not to feel kind of important. The everyday Rangers fans, or peasants as I like to call them for that day, were probably expecting someone a bit more important than an unemployed graduate from Essex to come through the executive entrance, but I had my pen on me just in case any autographs were required.

As we took our seats Kym and Kevin finally got their dose of star spotting for the day, it was really hard for them to understand why two 21 year old men were getting uncontrollably giddy over sitting in the same restaurant as what seemed to them as three regular thirt somethings (Rose, Gallen and Bircham). But they started to understand our feelings as a certain Rodney Marsh sat on the same row as our party. Just a couple of points on the great Rodney, firstly his wife, if you look up M.I.L.F in the dictionary you will see a picture of this lady, top stuff. Also when Taarabt scored that goal, I was jumping around like a mad-man, screaming, I caught a brief look at Rodney and he was motionless in his chair and seemed rather unimpressed – strange I thought.



Now in all my years of watching football I don’t think I have ever sat bang in the middle of the stadium, over the dugout. Without a doubt it was the best view I have ever experienced at Loftus Road and watching the R’s spray the ball around the pitch like they did on Saturday was made even more enjoyable from the impeccable view. I won’t go into details on the match as Clive summed it up perfectly in his report, but Rangers were absolutely stunning. At times it really was a privilege to watch a team in Blue and White Hoops play to that standard and Adel’s goal was a piece of genius, the best I’ve ever seen at Loftus Road. The amount of times me and Mike looked at each other with our mouths open (meaning a great passage of play had been created) happened more in 90 minutes than it did in the whole 2070 minutes of football played at Loftus Road last season.

So, the final whistle was blown and Rangers had produced a spectacular performance on a day that we were treated to a first class match day experience. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.

It didn’t end there either as after the game, Bircham was hosting a Q and A session with Gallen and Rose in the W12 restaurant. Bircham was a brilliant host and kept the banter flowing throughout the post match entertainment. Most of the jokes were either aimed at Gallen’s legendary status at the club in comparison to a ‘real’ legend like Marsh or the constant mocking of how injury prone Matthew Rose was in his time with Rangers. With all the excitement of the day so far, I had totally forgot to prepare a witty question to ask. So imagine my arse hole when Mr Bircham wanders over to me and sticks the microphone in my face and tells me to ask a question. Luckily from no-where a question popped into my mind and asked the lads who scored the most important goal in their career. After minutes of discussing the Bircham volley against Brentford and Gallen’s at Hillsborough, they came to an agreement that Gallen’s had more importance. My moment of fame had come and gone.

Some interesting things picked up from the Q and A were that Matty Rose now runs a property company which apparently is doing very well, and he was happy that I reminded him about his goals against West Ham and Brighton a few years back despite Gallen and Bircham bickering over the important goal question.

Gallen, who gets down to QPR whenever he gets the chance, made it clear that despite Bircham having a pop at him for playing for Luton he still is a professional and believes he can still play at a good level for a few more years yet. He was missing from the Luton squad because of a shoulder injury for their weekend game.

But much like his performances for the R’s Bircham stole the show with a passionate and entertaining hosting display on the microphone. He clearly feels at home being back at the club coaching the youth teams and his personality behind the scenes can only be a positive thing. An interesting story that Bircham revealed was that during the pre season tour in Ibiza a few years back the players were pissed four days from five, which brought a great roar of laughter from the room. You can tell a huge reason why the side of 2004 was so successful was down to the team morale between the players; they clearly get on tremendously well and were constantly laughing and joking throughout the afternoon.

After grabbing a few pictures with Birch, Rose and Gallen, the day ended on a brilliant note when Mike was presented with his framed programme by Bircham in front of the 150+ crowd, a really nice touch by the club who had organised a day that Mike and myself would never forget. A big thank you has to go out to Mike’s wonderful mum Kym, who without a doubt put on a magical day for her birthday boy, and it was a pleasure to be a part of.

As we left the W12 restaurant we were escorted out through the player’s entrance where the Preston team bus was waiting. Kevin who had been punishing the wine all afternoon had time to have a nice chat with a fuming Chris Sedgwick on the way out, who was clearly rattled by Kevin’s view on the game. Which made me chuckle. A few of the Rangers players were lurking in the reception, and I managed to grab a quick hand shake with Mahon, Faurlin and Hall. Once again the ‘peasants’ seemed disappointed to see us emerge from the entrance, and once again no-one wanted a Lewis Jones autograph which was a shame. You would have thought my work for LFW’s would shoot me to stardom and I obviously haven’t reached the great heights of Clive Whittingham yet, who I know for a fact signs at least 20 autographs at every home game.

It is clear that Flavio and his associates have made a QPR a supurb place for executives and people who can afford this wonderful match day experience week in week out. But from a regular fans point of view, it would be nice to see an improvement to the facilities in other areas of the ground. Surely it wouldn’t take much time or effort to enhance the facilities and I think all the fans want is to see the board make the changes for the people who have followed this club for years and years. I don’t think the board are too far away from developing a strong relationship with the fans now the team are playing at a level that the season ticket prices demand, all it would take is for a little bit more money thrown at the match day experience for the ‘peasant’ fans such as myself and we could finally see the start of rebuilding the beautiful relationship between the club and the fans.

So, a dream of day had come to an end. To say the whole experience had taken me by surprise would be the understatement of the century. Considering just a few days earlier I had written an article about how the club was loosing its traits that made me fall in love with it due to new found investment. I did not have high hopes for my executive experience, trust me I would have loved to have turned up and been incredibly critical of the whole experience but everything about the day was faultless, from the organisation of the club’s staff, to the performance on the pitch and the added chance to mingle with the likes of Bircham and Gallen. Everything just clicked to make it a day I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Photo: Action Images

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