It’s been more than a decade since QPR and Walsall last met in a competitive fixture. Stuart Wardley and Chris Kiwomya scored in both league meetings in 1999/00 as Gerry Francis’ bargain basement side staged an unlikely play off push.
Walsall 2 QPR 3, Saturday March 18, 2000, First Division
QPR and Walsall went into their last meeting back in 2000 with very different aims and aspirations for the remaining two months of the season. The R’s had enjoyed a successful campaign to this point, buoyed by Gerry Francis’ ability to pluck Jermain Darlington and Stuart Wardley from the non-league pyramid and marry them up with intelligent loan signings and promising youngsters like Richard Langley. They came into the game on an eight match unbeaten run fresh from a 3-1 win at title chasing Manchester City. Walsall, managed by former QPR youth team coach Ray Graydon and counting one Gino Padula among their number, were fighting to stay in the second tier and had won just one of their previous eight prior to this one. Things went to script early on as first Bjarni Larusson put through his own net and then Wardley continued his remarkable first season as a professional player with his fourteenth, and as it turned out final, goal of the campaign. But QPR have never made life easy for themselves and after conceding a sloppy first goal to centre back Tony Barras before half time they then shipped an equaliser to Jamaican winger Paul Hall on the hour. The R’s came roaring back though and Chris Kiwomya got a late winner in front of a sizeable travelling support behind the goal. Strangely, my abiding memory of this game is that the teams emerged at the start of the match to Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship which is probably the lamest run out music I’ve ever heard at a sporting fixture.
Walsall: J Walker, C Marsh, A Barras, A Viveash, G Padula, P Hall (S Eyjolfsson, 80), B Larusson, M Vlachos, P Matias, G Fenton (D Wrack, 80), M Robins
Subs: D Keates, I Roper, I Brightwell
Goals: Barras 36, Hall 63
QPR: L Harper, C Plummer (M Perry, 59), I Baraclough, K Ready, J Darlington (G Kulcsar, 65), S Wardley, R Langley, M Rose, P Murray, M Beck (G Taylor, 86), C Kiwomya
Subs: K Gallen, L Miklosko
Goals: Larusson og 11, Wardley 15, Kiwomya 73
Attendance: 6414
QPR 2 Walsall 1, Saturday November 20, 1999, First Division
Earlier in the season Rangers had been slightly fortunate to escape from the home game against Graydon’s side with all three points after surrendering an early advantage in farcical circumstances. Stuart Wardley and Chris Kiwomya did the damage initially, bagging a goal each in three minutes around the half hour mark. But before half time accident prone defender Steve Morrow slipped when in possession as last man and allowed a young Michael Ricketts a clear run on the Loft End goal and the chance to halve the deficit which he took. The R’s hung on to stretch their run of impressive form to one defeat from 11 matches as Gerry Francis continued to work a minor miracle on a tiny budget.
QPR: L Harper, T Breacker, I Baraclough, S Morrow, M Rose, J Darlington, S Wardley, R Langley (K Rowland , 65), G Peacock, R Steiner, C Kiwomya (R Weare, 82)
Subs: P Murray, L Miklosko, G Kulcsar
Bookings: Langley, Rowland
Goals: Wardley 30, Kiwomya 33
Walsall: J Walker, C Marsh, A Viveash , I Roper , N Pointon, D Wrack, G Bukran (W Thomas, 67), B Larusson, P Matias (G Padula, 60), M Robins, M Ricketts (A Rammell, 60)
Subs: S Eyjolfsson, M Gadsby
Bookings: Viveash, Roper
Goals: Ricketts 41
Head to Head >>> QPR wins 29 >>> Draws 10 >>> Walsall wins 8
1999/00 Walsall 2 QPR 3 (Larusson og, Wardley, Kiwomya)
1999/00 QPR 2 Walsall 1 (Wardley, Kiwomya)
1998/99 QPR 3 Walsall 1*(Sheron, Maddix, Slade)
1998/99 Walsall 0 QPR 0
1966/67 QPR 0 Walsall 0
1966/67 Walsall 2 QPR 0
1965/66 Walsall 0 QPR 1 (L Allen)
1965/66 QPR 2 Walsall 1 (Sibley, Langley)
1965/66 Walsall 3 QPR 2*(R Morgan, Collins
1965/66 QPR 1 Walsall 1*(Sissons og)
1964/65 QPR 1 Walsall 0 (Bedford)
1964/65 Walsall 4 QPR 1 (Collins)
1963/64 QPR 3 Walsall 0 (Keen 2, Collins)
1963/64 Walsall 0 QPR 2 (Lazarus, Graham)
1960/61 QPR 1 Walsall 0 (Longbottom)
1960/61 Walsall 4 QPR 3 (Bedford 2, Lazarus)
1958/59 Walsall 0 QPR 1** (Dawson)
1957/58 QPR 1 Walsall 0 (Cameron)
1957/58 Walsall 1 QPR 2 (Longbottom 2)
1956/57 Walsall 0 QPR 2 (Longbottom 2)
1956/57 QPR 1 Walsall 0 (Kerrins)
1955/56 QPR 3 Walsall 2 (Petchey, Pounder)
1955/56 Walsall 2 QPR 2 (Smith, Clark)
1954/55 QPR 1 Walsall 1 (Cameron)
1954/55 Walsall 4 QPR 1 (Smith)
1953/54 Walsall 2 QPR 0
1953/54 QPR 2 Walsall 0 (Petchey, Hawkins)
1952/53 Walsall 1 QPR 1 (Cameron)
1952/53 QPR 4 Walsall 2 (Tomkys 2, Gilberg, Smith)
1947/48 Walsall 0 QPR 1 (Addinall)
1947/48 QPR 2 Walsall 1 (Hatton, Hartburn)
1946/47 QPR 1 Walsall 0 (Boxshall)
1946/47 Walsall 0 QPR 2 (Neary 2)
1938/39 QPR 3 Walsall 0 (Cheetham, Lowe, Fitzgerald)
1938/39 Walsall 0 QPR 1 (Cheetham)
1937/38 QPR 3 Walsall 1 (Charlton, Fitzgerald, Shelton og)
1937/38 Walsall 0 QPR 3 (Prior 2, Bott)
1936/37 QPR 2 Walsall 0 (Lowe 2)
1936/37 Walsall 2 QPR 4 (Cheetham 2, J Allen, Lowe)
1930/31 Walsall 0 QPR 2 (John og, Hoten)
1930/31 QPR 3 Walsall 0 (Ferguson, Wiles, Burns)
1929/30 Walsall 4 QPR 0
1929/30 QPR 2 Walsall 2 (Goddard, Moffatt)
1928/29 QPR 2 Walsall 2 (Goddard, Young)
1928/29 Walsall 3 QPR 1 (Rounce)
1927/28 Walsall 2 QPR 2 (Lofthouse, Rounce)
1927/28 QPR 1 Walsall 1 (Young)
* - League Cup
**- FA Cup
Emmanuel Ledesma >>> QPR 2008-2009 >>> Walsall 2011, 2012
QPR supporters went into the summer of 2008 full of hope and optimism for the first time in a generation. The club had been saved from the brink of bankruptcy the year before by a consortium headed by motor racing mogul Flavio Briatore and a collection of some of the world’s richest men including Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal. The R’s had failed to win any of their first ten matches prior to the arrival of the money but had climbed into a safe midtable position and thrilled the crowds with some scintillating football under Italian manager Luigi De Canio. The good times, it seemed, were coming back to Loftus Road.
But all was not as well as it seemed. Briatore’s cheque book was exactly what QPR needed at exactly the right moment but Briatore himself quickly became a millstone around the club’s neck. De Canio’s abrupt departure at the end of a campaign in which he couldn’t have been accused of doing anything other than a magnificent job was the first warning sign but it was swiftly followed by colossal rises in season ticket prices – more than 100% across the board. When attendances were low at the start of the season Briatore attempted to jack up the price again for a match with Derby in September to make up the shortfall, and was only prevented from doing so by a complaint to the league from the visiting team. Thank God we were playing Derby that week, a more passive club may have gone along with it.
In De Canio’s place the club appointed Iain Dowie, a former QPR player and a manager who’d enjoyed decent success with Oldham and Crystal Palace. This seemed an uneasy fit, with Briatore entertaining the likes of Naomi Campbell at matches with Dowie and his brand of football down on the field of play. Things started well enough and Dowie won eight of his first 15 matches, including a League Cup giant killing at Aston Villa, but he was abruptly sacked after a 0-0 draw at Swansea.
The real problem seemed to be who was signing the players, and ultimately who was picking the team itself. Dowie insisted upon his appointment that he was the manager, unaware that on the same day Briatore was giving and interview saying that in no uncertain terms Dowie was the head coach. QPR were linked with Clinton Morrison and Mark Hudson from Dowie’s old Palace team but instead signed Samuel Di Carmine on loan from Fiorentina, Danny Parejo on loan from Real Madrid and Emmanuel Ledesma on loan from Genoa. Any notion that Dowie was responsible for the incoming transfers was quickly blown out of the water with those three acquisitions. Rangers also signed Radek Cerny from Tottenham and when Briatore discovered that Dowie intended to start the existing number one Lee Camp for the opening game of the season against Barnsley he ordered his ‘manager’ to pick Cerny instead. Dowie was a dead man walking before a ball had been kicked.
Ledesma looked the best of the three foreign youngsters. While Parejo struggled with the vagaries of the Championship, and Di Carmine struggled to display any footballing ability whatsoever, Ledesma looked like he could pose some threat. He mesmerised Swindon Town in a 3-2 League Cup First Round victory then bagged a hat trick in the next round at home to Carlisle – an event that saw the club rather prematurely produce a range of Emmanuel Ledesma t-shirts. A collector’s item these days I’m sure. He also bagged one in the league against Doncaster Rovers.
Ledesma, a winger of Argentinean parentage, struggled more as the campaign wore on. The Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday grind of the Championship took its toll, the cold weather and dark nights drew in, Dowie left and was replaced by first Gareth Ainsworth and then Paulo Sousa, and Ledesma dropped out of the first team reckoning. He found his loan spell cut short early, and returned to Genoa in January having made 15 starts, eight sub appearances and scored three goals.
This early return became a bit of a recurring theme once he was back in Italy. Genoa loaned him first Salernitana for half a season and then in 2009/10 he signed a co-ownership agreement with Novara. Despite winning promotion into Serie B with them the club opted not to take up the opportunity to buy him at the end of the season and he returned to Genoa who promptly signed a second co-ownership agreement with Serie B side Crotone. They kept Ledesma for half a season then sent him back to Genoa early too and he was then released on a free transfer.
There was talk of Ledesma returning to Loftus Road during the promotion season of 2010/11, and indeed it came as something of a shock to me to find myself standing next to him at the urinals in the away end at Burnley’s Turf Moor ground in January that year. That, and a subsequent trial with Brighton, came to nothing and in the end he turned up at Walsall in League One for the remainder of the campaign and scored once in ten appearances.
He left at the end of the season, returning to Argentina to play for Defensa y Justicia with the usual stories about struggling to settle in the Midlands, wife unhappy etc etc doing the rounds. It was therefore something of a surprise when, in March last season, he returned to the Banks Stadium on a contract to the end of the season.
Saddlers manager Dean Smith told the Express and Star at the time: “We have stayed in contact with him and we knew that there was a possibility of him coming back. He really enjoyed his time with us but his girlfriend struggled to settle in England, which is why he returned home last summer. She’s now pregnant and Emmy is, quite rightly, looking for something more long-term, so we will see how the next two months go.
“We are delighted to have him back. He has great technical ability, is good with both feet and can score goals. He knows a lot of the lads from last season and has settled in immediately. He’s trained all week and looks really sharp. He’s a lively character and I’m sure he will play his part between now and the end of the season.”
Another ten appearances, and four goals, later and he’d done enough to catch the eye of Tony Mowbray at Middlesbrough and he moved to Teeside this summer. He has started three of Boro’s first four matches.
Ledesma always seemed like a nice, popular member of the squad at QPR but for me he’ll always be one of those names that brings back horrible memories of when our club was being run as the play thing of a megalomaniac Italian.
Others >>> Gino Padula, Walsall 1999-2000, QPR 2002-2005 >>>Stefan Moore, QPR 2005-2008, Walsall 2008 >>>Andrew Davies QPR (loan) 2005, Walsall (loan) 2010 >>> Gareth Ainsworth, Walsall (loan) 2002-2003, QPR 2003-2010 >>> Tommy Williams, QPR (loan) 2002-2003, (loan) 2009, Walsall 2011 >>> Brett Angell , 2000-2002, QPR 2002-2003 >>> Rob Steiner QPR (loan) 1998, (loan) 1999, 1999-2000, Walsall (loan) 1999 >>> Lee Harper, QPR 1997-2001, Walsall 2001-2002 >>> Simon Osborn, QPR 1995, Walsall 2003-2006 >>> Andy Tillson, QPR 1990-1992, Walsall 2000-2002 >>> Phil Parkes, Walsall 1968-1970, QPR 1970-1979 >>> Frank Sibley, QPR 1963-1971, (manager) 1977-1978, Walsall (manager) 1979 >>> Andy Wilson QPR 1931-1932, Wasall (manager) 1934-1937
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Pictures – Action Images