Fitz Hall joined QPR from Wigan in the January 2008 on a four and a half year contract but his time at Loftus Road has been hit with numerous injuries so far.

DOB – 20/12/80
Height – 6ft 4in
Weight – 13st
Contract Expires - 2012

Fitz Hall started out life as a trainee at West Ham in a youth set up apparantly run by a blind man, or certainly somebody with no clue about professional football. Unbelievably J’Lloyd Samual (now Bolton), Paul Konchesky (now Fulham) and Bobby Zamora (now Fulham) were all released from Upton Park on the same day as Hall and told they wouldn’t make it. Hall tried again at Barnet with little success and dropped into the non-league world with Chesham United after failing to make the grade at Underhill.

Chesham at that time were managed by Bob Dowie and when his brother Iain got his managerial break at Oldham Athletic in 2002 he wasted no time in spending £30k on the giant centre half. QPR fans first encountered Hall that season as we shared four matches with Oldham, two in the league and two in the play offs. Indeed it was Hall up from the back for a set piece who almost equalised in stoppage time at the death of the second leg with Oldham down to ten men following the sending off of Wayne Andrews. Hall’s scuffed shot from eight yards deflected and looked destined for the bottom corner until Chris Day produced one of the greatest saves ever seen at the Loft End to claw the ball away.

Neither Oldham nor Rangers succeeded in the knock out of course, but Hall got his promotion regardless when Southampton paid £250k for his services that summer – a fee that owed more to Oldham’s growing financial crisis than anything else. He only made 11 appearances for the Saints and it seemed another backwards step to move forwards would be necessary but Iain Dowie came to his rescue again and paid £1.5m to take him to Crystal Palace for their 04/05 Premiership season. Hall started well but his performances seemed to suffer after he was made captain and Palace were relegated on the final day of the season after a draw at Charlton.

Hall stayed at Selhurst Park after relegation but with a £3m release clause in his contract Wigan Athletic swooped 12 months later. He made 25 appearances under Paul Jewell in 06/07 but Chris Hutchings replaced him with Titus Bramble for 07/08 and he was sold to QPR midway through the season after just one appearance against Hull in the League Cup in the previous eight months.

His lack of match practice was clearly evident in his early performances at Loftus Road which were steady and little else. He proved to be strong in the air and composed in the tackle but very injury prone and regularly missed games or limped off with a troublesome groin injury. The 2008/09 season started very well for Hall who scored twice in an opening day win at Barnsley but he was all over the place a week later in a defeat at Sheff Utd and his form was again very patchy and punctuated with regular groin and hamstring injuries. Hall lost his place in the team for good when he was sent off for a rash tackle at Watford in November and replaced in the team by Kaspars Gorkss who seized the opportunity and never relinquished the spot again. Hall, on a long contract as one of the club's top earners, certainly has a great deal to prove in 2009/10.

Acted alongside Bruce Willis in the film ‘The Fifth Element’.

Photo: Action Images

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