QPR head straight back out on the road tonight to face Southampton at St Mary’s, a tough game on paper but a venue Rangers have had happy times at in the past.

Southampton (12-11-10 WDWWWD 11th) v QPR (13-8-12 DLWDLW 13th)

Mercantile Credit Trophy >>> Tuesday February 24, 2026 >>> Kick Off 19.45 >>> Weather – Relatively nice >>> St Mary’s, Southampton

The old away end terrace at The Dell was divided up like a chocolate box. How many compartments of it you got depended on how many you’d brought. They’d cram you into two pens (cages) if they didn’t think your following warranted four and to hell with however overcrowded or uncomfortable it felt for you in there.

That was in keeping with the general feel and vibe of the place which was very much ‘death comes to thee’ in those days. The home terrace at the opposite end of the ground was a larger but no less higgledy-piggledy affair crammed in between the pitch and a road onto which had been perched another very slightly smaller terrace suspended above the home faithful on concrete stilts. If you think that sounds a bit precarious you should have tried the entirely wooden side stand where the away fans ended up in its latter days where I spent a troubled afternoon next to a gentleman who chain smoked throughout and kept stubbing the ashes out on the bone-dry boards beneath our feet. What is going to football if not to inject a little bit of excitement into our lives?

For a QPR fan from Grimsby it’s a logistical miracle that this place was actually my first experience of Rangers. My rabidly obsessed father had been forbidden from indoctrinating me in the traditional “my dad says I support QPR” baby bib style unless I brought the interest to him first. That position held for a good eight years, despite the piss taking at school about my total lack of care for the national sport, until Gerry Francis’ men went to Old Trafford one New Year’s Day and ran an impressively large pork sword right through the rectum of “Sir Alex’s” first title charge at Manchester United – an outcome only slightly degraded in its hilarity by it presenting Leeds with the championship instead, but still… have that ya twats.

Walking past the TV as Dennis Bailey breathed fire over the wheatfields of the Stretford End, I ruined the rest of my life by noticing this was dad’s team, thrashing the team all the little pricks at my school supported, and there was finally a chance for me to go back after the Christmas hols and poke my pencil dick around a little bit. Don’t know what “FC” means, I’ll show you Stuart Clydesdale. I know who Andy Sinton is. Now.

Allowed to wait up past bedtime for dad to make it home from the “Theatre of Dreams”, I sat on the stairs formulating a list of questions for him about who Alan McDonald was and writing them down in a little pad ready for his (as it turned out, paralytic) arrival. This counted as “showing interest” and so just a few days and an eight-hour car journey from Grimsby to the South Coast later there I was, at the front of The Dell’s chocolate box terrace, peering through the fence at the front trying to work out what was going on.

What was going on was the conquerors of Fergie, Giggs, Hughes, Robson et al were making a right pig’s ear of the FA Cup Third Round, losing 2-0 and missing a penalty through Roy Wegerle. Didn’t even merit a highlights clip on the end of season video, just Terry Cinzano in open necked shirt talking about “after the Lord Mayor’s show” as a quick graphic flashed up saying “fucked it”, or words to that effect.

Southampton, though, is one of those weird places you go with QPR where the memories are more good than bad. Six months later we were back behind that goal watching Sinton curl a free kick into the top corner as the Premier League lurched into insane life with Rangers top by the end of August and fifth in the end. We won the year after as well when Ken Monkou kindly took Dave ‘Lurch’ Beasant out of the game with a ludicrous first minute back pass allowing Les Ferdinand an empty netted opener – that my afternoon spent with young life in the hands of whoever won out between the X Files’ Cigarette Man and the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service

The sort of defeat Tony Roberts used to inflict on us once a fortnight in those times followed a year later, but every QPR fan there that day will tell you it was all about the couple down to the right of the away end. He a picture of manhood, increasingly irate at the taunts from the away end and demanding police action; she with a wide-on the size of the mouth of the Solent. The angrier he got, the more she seemed to enjoy. The greater the threat, the bigger the prize. Inevitable apoplectic meltdown achieved, she turned round and lifted her skirt at the travelling Rangers before following him out with the stewards amidst a hail of flailing arms and promise of recrimination. What was the score? Who cares?

Recounting this story later over the dinner table reinforced my mother’s idea that this was “no way to raise a child” and also taught me a valuable lesson – what goes at the football, stays at the football.

QPR disappeared into the First Division, Southampton moved grounds entirely, but our joy at a short hop out of Waterloo down to the cruise ship terminal didn’t diminish. Rangers had six visits to St Mary’s before the Saints managed to lay a glove on us.

Kelvin Davis, who did more in his career for QPR than some of the goalkeepers we’ve actually signed and played in our team, trundling out to the corner flag to shepherd a ball dead only to be robbed, turned, and beaten in one slick trick by the wonderful, late, Ray Jones. A goal of immense skill and supreme execution which shows, perhaps more than any other, what horrific lost potential that boy really was.

Rangers won that game 2-1. We signed Dexter Blackstock from the Saints’ academy, and he rejoiced in monstering them every time we faced them thereafter. That’s the sort of thing that usually happens to us, not for, but if you do want to start losing to QPR with any degree of frequency then sell your soul to an identikit stadium out near some gas tanks somewhere – we’ve got similarly, spookily good records at Pride Park, the Riverside Stadium and whatever the fuck they’re calling that thing Cardiff play in these days as well.

A year later, Jones was no longer with us. His tragic death the most horrific of multiple incidents which had led, once again, to the collapse and bankruptcy of the club. Southampton at home was the first game after the accident and while you can understand and blame the grief for the result, Saints would have won that 3-0 anyway. We were very much in the John Curtis, Zesh Rehman, Daniel Nardiello doom loop by this point.

The return fixture was post takeover, post January splurge, new age, new era, ridiculous new Rangers. Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal made us the richest club in the global sport by ownership wealth. They spent that money immediately on a four-year, £12k a week contract for Patrick Agyemang (he’d come in looking for two years at half that). Any questions or queries were quickly drowned out by eight goals in his first six appearances slipping through an apparent tear in the fabric of reality. (Agyemang barely scored that many goals again in the rest of his QPR career, and he was here for five years).

Watching him walk around the keeper, then backheel the ball into an open goal, didn’t seem real. For so many reasons. But there it was, and that’s QPR at Southampton.

When next we met, it was back in the Premier League. Saints by now a successful, well-run outfit, all cup semi-finals and European football, Ronald Koeman was manager here, Mauricio Pochettino was manager here. QPR the mule with the spinning wheel, flushed with cash and stupid ideas, digging themselves a decade-long hole and happy as a pig in shit down there with the spade. And still, in a relegation season, in a year of shame and embarrassment, with one of the most detestable teams we’ve ever put on the field, with the dressing room at war, with the papers filled with stories of a drunken shambles of a warm weather training camp to Dubai, with a manager blatantly (patently) here to pick up easy money and take the piss, we won here. It was one of four wins all season long. Ji-Sung Park’s sole contribution to life in W12 was an assist for Jay Bothroyd. Loic Remy scored in front of the away end. The home fans harangued ‘Arry all day and at full time he strode onto the pitch, hoisted a fist in the air and shouted “’ave that”. It was the only time I ever felt connected with him, and I include the play-off final which he completely fucked and was lucky the players got him out of a hole.

We’d spotted prior to that one you could travel from Southampton to London for £5 each if you got the Southern Trains service all the way along the South Coast to Brighton, and then up through Croydon to Victoria. It took three hours. Things occurred. By the time it reached Gatwick Airport a platform of stunned French tourists were plunged into a mobile 80s disco. We were those twats on the train. One of ours ended up in St Mary’s Hospital (ironic) in Paddington with acute alcohol poisoning after dropping into the gap between the train and the platform (they do tell you not to do that, to be fair) and getting fished out by the British Transport Police. They wouldn’t release him until a dependency counsellor had seen him the following morning…
How many units of alcohol do you drink a week?
Zero.
How many units of alcohol did you drink yesterday?
How many is a million?

That’s… Southampton away, with QPR. We go there and make memories. If Daniel Bennie taught us anything at the weekend, it’s that this might not be a bad use of our time between now and May. Build momentum for a new era, create away days, engage the support, hook the young and the vulnerable. You do that with days like Saturday at Hull, you don’t with 0-0 draws at Oxford. Be positive, be front foot.

Go well tonight You R’s. One day this will all be 20 years ago.

Links >>> Saints’ strange season – Oppo Profile >>> Allen’s NYE screamer – History >>> Langford straight back in charge – Referee >>> Southampton Official Website >>> Southampton Echo – Local Press >>> Ugly Inside – Forum >>> Saints Marching – Blog >>> Saints Analysis – Blog >>> Football Martin – YouTube Channel >>> Saints Web – Message Board

Below the fold

Team News: The news of QPR’s mini-army of absentees only gets more confusing, convoluted and conspiratorial by the day. The good news is Jonathan Varane and Jake Clarke-Salter did make it back as far as short cameo appearances from the bench at Hull on Saturday. However, Paul Smyth and Steve Cook were both unbilled absentees for that one while Ilias Chair, who was said to be fit again and set for a return, is now not training and set to miss all three games this week. Likewise, Justin Obikwu, who will now make it to six weeks since signing from Coventry without playing a single minute for the club. As far as I’m aware neither of those two players have ever had their problems publicly specified and clearly defined other than they’re not serious and they’ll be back soon. Chair is now approaching month three of his ‘knock’. Kwame Poku did return to training on Monday after his latest hamstring blow out but will not be considered this week. Rumarn Burrell, Ziyad Larkeche and Karamoko Dembele are long term absentees. Amadou Mbengue remains on the hire wire of nine yellow cards, now facing the referee who sent him off against Wrexham in his latest test of temper and patience.

Somebody’s put the boot in on Brazilian full back Welington and he will miss Southampton’s next few games. Jay Robinson, who scored in the first meeting, is doubtful with a quad problem.

Elsewhere: With the likes of Ipswich, Wrexham, Birmingham, Southampton and Sheff Utd coming into form there’s plenty to suggest the extra finance and resources, and the deeper squads they afford clubs, are starting to tell as the season moves towards its business end. Three months since a last international break, some of the Stoke, Preston, Watford and Hull early surprise packages are starting to fall away.

Plenty of opportunity to see if that continues tonight with Hull at home to Derby, Preston heading to Swansea, Watford hosting Ipswich and Wrexham facing Portsmouth.

Intrigue at the bottom where Blackburn’s pair of victories since Michael O’Neill’s arrival have lifted Rovers five points clear of the drop zone ahead of another winnable homer against Bristol City. If they don’t get their act together it’s looking increasingly likely that an unthinkable relegation for one of West Brom or Leicester could come to pass. The Foxes have a tough trip up to second placed Middlesbrough this evening while Eric Ramsay will surely not survive another loss at The Hawthorns against Charlton.

Four games tomorrow includes leaders Coventry, settling back down with a couple of wins after their recent wobble, heading to Sheff Utd in the game of the night.

Millwall v Birmingham is an eye-catching tie between two play-off chasers while the list is rounded out by Stoke v Oxford and Norwich hosting Sheff Wed whose relegation was confirmed with defeat against their bitter rivals Sheff Utd at the weekend.

Referee: Fresh from sending off Amadou Mbengue against Wrexham, veteran Oliver Langford is straight back in charge of QPR again here. We shouldn’t be surprised, Langford has refereed Rangers 31 times which is more than any other club. Details.

Form

- These two sides are caught up in the mad, quirky midtable picture of this year’s Championship in which just four points separate sixth from 13th. QPR occupy that last spot because they remain in negative goal difference (that’ll happen when you lose game three 7-1) but their 47 points is the same as Bristol City and Southampton immediately above them. The Saints are 11th despite winning one fewer game than the R’s (12).

- QPR have scored 46 goals this season after a three-goal haul at the weekend – more than Millwall in third and Birmingham in seventh. However they have conceded 47 – the division’s worst defensive record bar Sheff wed (24th, 66), Leicester (22nd, 53) and West Brom (21st, 49). Oxford, second bottom, have conceded two fewer than Rangers.

- The win at Hull on Saturday was QPR’s first on the road since Blackburn on November 26 and first on a Saturday since Bristol City on October 4. Rangers had won one of 11 away games prior to Saturday and none of their prior nine. It’s only the second time they’ve scored more than two goals in an away game, the other being another 3-1 at Wrexham at the start of September.

- The victory on Humberside once again came with just 40.7% possession. QPR’s last 17 victories have all come with less of the ball than the opponent, dating back to a 2-1 against Blackburn at Loftus Road last February.

- Southampton have been extremely streaky this season. They won two of their first 13 games which cost Will Still his first big gig in England. Tonda Eckert then set off on a run of six wins in seven games, starting with the 2-1 at Loftus Road naturally, to get the job permanently. The Saints immediately fell in a hole six winless league games deep. However, more recently they’ve climbed back on the horse and come into this unbeaten in six Championship games, winning four.

- Charlton got a 1-1 draw at St Mary’s at the weekend to derail that progress slightly. Southampton’s home record this season is 7-6-3 – only Birmingham (seven) have drawn more home games, only the top two, Birmingham and Ipswich have lost fewer on their own patch.

- Two pretty strong midweek teams here. Southampton have won six of their eight Tuesday/Wednesday games this year including the one at Loftus Road. QPR are unbeaten in their last four away midweekers (W3 D1) and have kept clean sheets in each of the last three.

- The overall head to head between these sides is 32 Southampton wins, 27 for QPR with 21 draws.

- Southampton have won the last five meetings between these sides, including their 2-1 success on Bonfire Night earlier this season. QPR’s last win over the Saints was a shock 2-1 here in March 2013 with goals from Jay Bothroyd and Loic Remy – one of only four Premier League wins Rangers managed through that entire season.

- QPR have lost their last two visits here 2-1, but had a great record at St Mary’s prior to that. The R’s went unbeaten through their first five meetings to the new ground (W3 D2)

- Both sides will be missing their top scorers on Tuesday night. Rumarn Burrell is still top of the pops for QPR with 10 goals even though he hasn’t played since the win, and his last goal, against Sheff Wed on January 4. The Jamaican scored against the Saints in the first meeting. Southampton’s chart is still topped by Adam Armstrong with 11, but he joined Wolves on deadline day.

- Finn Azaz has an assist in each of his last three appearances against QPR.

Prediction

In our Prediction League for 2025/26 we’ll once again be handing out prizes for being top at Christmas and overall winner from The Art of Football - sample the merch from our sponsor’s newly extended QPR collection here. QPR_Hibs won last season’s Prediction League at a canter and is lending his thoughts to this year’s previews…

“My 21-year-old nephew is currently in his final year at Southampton University and is a season ticket holder at St Mary’s, despite the fact that he is actually a Manchester United supporter from Surrey (I know, I know.) During his first year there, he didn’t see Southampton lose a single game as they got promoted to the Premier League via the play-offs. He very much enjoyed his day out at Wembley celebrating their victory. Last season he saw them beat Everton, in their only home win of a miserable relegation season.

“I have been gradually trying to persuade him to follow the Rangers, and for the last couple of years I have bought him QPR Guiness retro shirts for his birthday. To be fair, he does love attending games at Loftus Road, and he even joined in the ‘Ryan Manning is a banker’ (please check spelling) chants the last time we played against Southampton. The good news is that he has assured me that he will be supporting the Super Hoops from the home end on Tuesday night. He’s either a very good nephew or a very good liar.

“The weekend’s football matches provided two unexpected away wins. First of all, the R’s put on a polished performance to beat Hull on Saturday and then, on Sunday, Hibs won at Celtic Park for the first time since 2010, a sequence of 23 games without a victory finally ended. It was like watching Toni Leistner scoring at the City Ground in December 2018 all over again.

“Trying to predict what QPR are going to do next is becoming increasingly difficult. After playing so badly against Blackburn at home, they were really impressive against Hull and should have won by a bigger margin. I was pleased for Daniel Bennie, and his wonder strike must be in with a shout for ‘goal of the month.’ And with Harvey Vale taking corners from the right and Nico Madsen from the left, we now have two players who can strike a dead ball without hitting the first man, as opposed to none last season.

“It will be interesting to see if Richard Kone gets a deserved rest on Tuesday and, if so, will Julien try Kolli and Bennie together up front? Steve Cook was rested on Saturday, presumably to start against Southampton – it wouldn’t totally surprise me to see JCS alongside him at centre back. Ilias Chair is supposed to be available again and may be eased back into the team via the bench. Varane may start ahead of Hayden.

“Southampton, who sit level in the league with Rangers on 47 points, seem to have the edge over us in recent fixtures, winning the last five games by an odd goal and that seems to me to be the most likely outcome once again. Please be aware, though, that the last time that I actually made a correct prediction was back in December, so I wouldn’t take too much notice of anything I say.”

QPR_Hibs Prediction: Southampton 2-1 QPR. Scorer – Nicolas Madsen

LFW’s Prediction: Southampton 2-0 QPR. No scorer.

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