Guest columnist Nick Reinis toured the hostelries of Shepherd's Bush prior to the recent home game with Reading, asking the QPR loyalists what keeps them coming back for more punishment.
It’s just after midday on a Saturday afternoon and, just like thousands of football fans up and down the country, Stuart Worth is about to meet with his brother, Ivor. The Crown and Sceptre pub, in Melina Road, has become the regular pre-match haunt for the pair and later on, they’re due to meet a group of fellow QPR fans. The big game may be different - today it’s the arrival of Reading to Loftus Road - but routines take over. Discussions focus on family - updates on their father, their children, their grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
But with the smell of Thai food whetting the appetite, it’s not long before food is safely ordered and it cues a shift in conversation to today’s fixture, which will see the launch of the Forever R’s, the club’s newly-formed ex-player association. Players such as Stan Bowles, Peter Hucker, Clive Wilson and Kevin Gallenare amongst those to be introduced on the pitch to fans at half-time. For the Worth brothers, it evokes memories of a time when football was a different day out:
"I never thought I’d see him (Bowles) again; we saw him last year at a game and it was fantastic to see him on the pitch and all the fans chanting ‘Stanley, Stanley’ again. It has been 40 years for me,” says Stuart, before Ivor adds. "I remember lots of games with that team. But, you remember crowd experiences even more - we had 30,000 people at Loftus Road and you were like sardines. Games like Leicester City in the cup and Leeds United towards the end of the season.”
Stuart jumps in: "Arsenal at home on Easter Sunday of the 75/76 season. That was memorable for all the upturned cars down Loftus Road after the game. Like the other guys we’ll meet, you’ve got other players who were perhaps more their generation.”
"That generation, the Gallens, the Birchams,” says Ivor. "We met them face-to-face at some of the social side events with the club, the family fun days, but that 40 years ago generation, you didn’t have that going on, so you couldn’t meet them face-to-face, away from the football ground. That just really didn’t happen.”
"Unless it was in the pub with Stan, or the bookies”, jokes Stuart, before adding: "Even times like when Mark Hateley was with us. We were walking down Uxbridge Road and this guy leans out of the window of a car and says ‘can you tell me where Loftus Road is?’. I told him, but the boys (one of those, I must confuse, was a more youthful me) said ‘that’s Mark Hateley!’. It’s memories like that which are bigger than what happens on the pitch for me. You don’t support QPR for the three points every week. What we’re doing now, meeting up with family and friends before a game, it’s added a new dimension for me.”
It’s not long before we’re joined by another pair of siblings; Alison Jamieson and Steve Murphy. Once again, football takes a backseat - pleasantries are exchanged, drinks are ordered and the quartet share stories from the last few days. It’s a seemingly rare situation in this digital age, but Ivor is one of the few without social media, so QPR’s new "make some noise” campaign is explained and it shifts the focus.
Steve says: "If I’m honest, Loftus Road hasn’t had the same atmosphere for the last couple of years. We’ve always been the 12th man, but based on the last couple of seasons with ups and downs, a lot of stuff has happened with the club, it’s not been a real fixated, happy family for a couple of years.”
One of the main bones of contention in the week leading up to the game has been the impact of the family stand in the Lower Loft. Alison, despite regularly taking seven-year-old son Luke to matches, chooses to sit in the R block in Ellerslie Road instead. She says: "We’re right on the edge of the noisy lot and it’s a great place for us to be. Luke likes it because it’s loud. He has his own season ticket, he knows where he sits and he has his own number. He shakes hands with everyone around us, some of whom having been going since they were 10. For Luke, the build-up starts in the week on a Thursday. The excitement builds and it goes down to getting on the train, having his £5 note for the game and it’s silly things like, ‘what are you going to have to eat?’. So he says ‘I’ll get my programme and some chips’. You get your shirt on, your scarf on, you go to the station. Whenever he comes, he walks up the stairs, stops at the top and looks at the pitch - as a parent that’s so special and for Steve as his uncle, it’s so special.”
This draws Steve in: "I still get the same buzz on a Saturday. I still think every game, there’s a performance we’ll never see again for years. Being at Fulham a couple of weeks ago, we witnessed history. The last time I left again going ‘I can’t believe I’ve seen that’ was Liverpool when we won 3-2 in 2012.” Of course, there was the small matter of Bobby Zamora and Wembley.
Sadly, though, this match doesn’t quite live up to those lofty expectations - it’s largely a forgettable affair, punctuated by two goals in an entertaining 10 minute spell in the first-half. After a quiet opening, Mide Shodipo sends a lofted ball into the path of Polish winger Pawel Wszolek to give the R’s the lead on 14 minutes. It lasts just six minutes, though, as Garath McCleary - the game’s star performer - sends over a cross from the left that finds Danny Williams in acres of space to slot past Alex Smithies.
The second half at least raises the temperature from cool to simmering, but neither side is able to find boiling point. McCleary does his best to seize the initiative, but he finds Smithies in imperious form - thwarting the winger on several occasions to keep the scores level. At the final whistle, there’s barely a sound as both sets of fans make their way home; perhaps grateful the previous 94 minutes of football are over. Outside, the weather is doing its best to provide a summary of the game - dark clouds and heavy rain over west London reminiscent of the drab draw that’s just taken place inside Loftus Road.
At the White Horse pub, in Uxbridge Road, the game is dissected - selections are deliberated, the substitutions are debated and tactics discoursed. However, thoughts shift to the next outing. Rob Kerr and 11-year-old daughter Chloe are reunited with the group for a post-game catch up, having spent their pre-match time at QPR’s Family Fan Zone. Chloe is a keen watcher of QPR’s Ladies team - she’s also been the side’s mascot on many occasions.
"I always enjoy the social side of the game and coming here with Chloe,” says Rob. "I’ll see the gang in the ground and Chloe enjoys the Fan Zone. She gets on well with the Ladies team players and they asked her to be mascot; they don’t get a lot of stuff, but they’re great and brilliant people. She’s got great memories from it and has been in her school magazine. It’s made her confidence fly and hopefully she’ll be a long-term fan."
However, it’s not always easy and Rob bemoans the next run of fixtures, which see QPR playing just one 3pm fixture at home on a Saturday in the next six matches.
The chances of Chloe making many, or any, are slim-to-none. The next generation of football fan - it would seem - isn’t considered when fixtures are changed at the will of a television schedule, but Chloe will get her football fix watching QPR Ladies.
Even the adults discuss whether to continue with season tickets - justifying the expenditure is increasingly difficult, for some, if fixture changes mean many a game will be missed. What they’re watching on the pitch, becomes a part of it, but at heart they know they’ll be back. Despite what they have just seen - it’s a passion for their club and "the day out” mentality.
It’s easy to forget, but there are many reasons for this - earlier in the day, Ivor best explained it: "It’s a social event, unlike in the mid-70s - it was totally different then, partly because of health and safety, partly all the civil unrest going on in the 70s, some of which was political and some of it was racial. And, of course, in west London you had the rival gangs, as it were, from the different clubs - it wasn’t a social thing. Now, you haven’t just got the game, you’ve got a couple of hours before the game and sometimes a couple of hours after, where you’ve got a group of people and it’s a lot more light-hearted than it used to be, which for someone at my age, is much better.”
The day continues into the evening and the group head their separate ways, but plans are set and dates organised for the next instalment as conservations drift long into the night over social media.
While the next game will be the reason for the next time they meet, football has become much, more than just the match.
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Pictures — Action Images