In the penultimate part of his look back at 25 years of QPR support Ross Smith recalls the financial collapse of the club, and the green shoots of recovery.

Administration – 2001

After the relegation in 1996 bad luck just seemed to follow QPR around. The club as a whole was awash with it. For example, any player showing any mind of promise would immediately be cruelly injured. Not just your regular niggle, but a career threatening “Arthritis by the time your 30, just be thankful you can still walk” kind of injury. Kevin Gallen, Richard Ord, Rob Steiner, Richard Langley, Clarke Carlisle, Paul Murray, Oliver Burgess and others all suffered and missed out huge chunks of seasons when Rangers desperately needed them. In Ord’s case he never actually made a debut for us.

If all that wasn’t enough, they even had to deal with a potential outbreak of the dangerous Meningitis bug in 1999 when Australian midfielder George Kulscar fell ill with it. Add the terrible managerial appointments, unaffordable player contracts, players who just could not perform in a hooped shirt and general mismanagement of the club’s finances and you end up with only one conclusion. On the April 2, 2001, with the club deep in the relegation mire of Division 1, Queens Park Rangers called in the administrators.

A statement on the club's website read: "The decision has not been taken lightly and is a direct result of the losses incurred by the Group (Group being Loftus Road Plc), currently running at £570,000 per month, over a sustained period of time."

Chairman Chris Wright made a public statement "It is a very sad day for everyone involved in Loftus Road.

"The last six months have been a real struggle financially and although my intention was to secure a sale to the right buyer before having to take this decision, it has not been forthcoming.

"I will continue to fund the day to day running of the group until the end of the season and help to find a purchaser for QPR and Wasps.”

QPR were in meltdown, relegation was all but a certainty such was the ability and work rate of the squad. New manager Ian Holloway said he had no idea this was on the cards when he joined but promised to carry on trying to get Rangers out of trouble.

The club would never be the same again after this, and there was a genuine feeling of disbelief which begged the question, how the hell has this been allowed to happen and go on for so long unchallenged? The fans rallied and in doing so the QPR1st Trust was born out of a meeting of supporters from various areas. The aim to make sure the fans had a voice in any further goings on at the club both during the administration process and future running of the club.

Chris Wright, rightly or wrongly, became a figure of hate at the club. Accused by a section of the fans of rank mismanagement and rape of the club finances and for later on, not writing off the debt still owed to him by the club. It all painted a rather dark image of Wright as a sort of Nick Leeson type character. During the administration, he endured high levels of abuse from supporters which caused him to eventually resign as chairman. Having read Ian Holloway’s autobiography, Ollie describes Wright as nothing of the sort, and just rather someone who let his heart rule his head in his attempt to get QPR back to the Premiere League.

There is a story in there which describes how when Holloway was first appointed as successor to Gerry Francis in 2001 and set out some possible transfer targets, Wright was willing to sell a prized painting in a desperate attempt to raise some cash to bring Marlon Harewood to the club in a last ditch effort to help stave off relegation, The administrators gave Wright a bollocking for it as under no circumstance would they let any further money leave the club unnecessarily. I mean Marlon Harewood, really?

QPR went down whilst still in administration. A new buyer was never found despite an 18 month search and QPR had to satisfy the Football League that they were able to fulfill the 2002/03 fixtures or face being expelled. To prevent this, a loan was required to bring the club out of administration and so the ABC loan was secured against the Loftus Road Stadium, the one remaining asset the club had. Rangers were out of administration, but actually in more debt than they had been when they went in and now with a loan from a mystery lender charging £1m interest per season secured against the stadium.

Nick Blackburn, brought in by Wright to join the board when he took over in 1996 and then left holding the baby when Wright pulled out, recalled the situation in a fascinating interview with AKUTR’s. Blackburn said: “Because there were no offers to buy the club. I mean, we’ve said it very clearly at fan forums, we are not holding on to our positions jealously. If the right person wants to come in and take over, and says David Davies has got to go, or Nick Blackburn has got to go, then we’ll go. But nobody like that has come in. Nobody! We’d been in administration for a year. The Football League came in and was warning us that by the start of the next season, we had to come out of administration. The administrator helped us get this loan. He knew the company ABC, and got the loan for us. We were very near getting a loan from a bank, but they decided they didn’t want to lend to a football club. So, we were left with no choice. This was the best deal on the table to enable Queens Park Rangers to come out of administration and start the following season.”

Another season in Division Two beckoned with a huge debt around the club like a noose, getting tighter and tighter.

The Oldham play off – 2003

On 14 May 2003 Queens Park Rangers, in front of packed expectant crowd not seen in years at Loftus Road, won a second leg play off semi final match to claim a place in the 2003 Division 2 play off final.

Ian Holloway's team had weathered a real barren period of the winter blues mid-season where they went 12 matches without clocking up a single win. That of course included the now infamous game by which all future crap at Loftus Road will be benchmarked – the FA Cup first round replay defeat to Vauxhall Motors. Other sordid results included a home 4-0 reverse at the hands of Robert Earnshaw and Cardiff and of course the obligatory defeat to Northampton. For a team with play off aspirations, things were looking very bleak indeed at Loftus Road and many believed an exit from the opposite end of the league table was a more likely outcome.

But a late penalty against Stockport in what looked like another drab goalless affair at Loftus Road, seemed to lift the gloom over this period of depression and QPR managed to find some momentum and in doing so, came back strong in Division 2 and hit fantastic form at the right time to storm into the playoffs. To do so they needed to hold off an equally impressive push from Tranmere Rovers who went with us blow for blow before they finally tailed off when QPR matched their points tally game for game. The killer blow came at Griffin Park, where Ranger were being held by local rivals Brentford while Tranmere snatched a late winner at Notts County. With the Tranmere game over, Rangers snatched a last gasp winner from Marc Bircham. Tranmere fans and players from the time say the news coming through finally broke them.

Such was the form of Rangers by the time the playoffs came round, they had avenged that 4-0 drubbing by Cardiff earlier in the season to take three points at a hostile Ninian Park and came within a gnat’s whisker of stealing an automatic promotion spot. Referee Andy Hall put paid to that in an almost perverse display of biased refereeing at Loftus Road where Rangers clung on to a solitary point against Crewe, having to play out much of the game with nine men. Had they gone on to win that match, they would have bypassed the playoffs that year and been promoted as runners up behind Wigan Athletic.

Unfortunately 0-0 it finished, and after a fine win away to Colchester in their final league match, Rangers had to settle for the playoffs. Crewe went on the clinch second and promotion back to the first division whilst Rangers faced two legs against Iain Dowie’s well drilled Oldham Athletic.

Oldham was Iain Dowie’s first crack at management having been overlooked for the QPR job at the end of Gerry Francis's reign. A decision that with the advantage of hindsight was probably the right one. Dowie of course had a good run with Oldham and Crystal Palace up until 2005 where many QPR fans would joke sarcastically about him not being good enough for League 1 bound QPR, but since his controversial walkout on Crystal Palace to join Charlton, he has done bugger all worth mentioning since, which includes a frosty time as QPR coach.

Rangers had already lost to Oldham at home early in the season in what seemed a bit of a grudge game on the back of the reasonable starts both teams had made to the season. Oldham stuck around the playoff zone for the remainder of the season after that victory; while QPR dabbled with relegation form and making non-league opponents look like Champions League contenders. However come May 2003 and Rangers had faired better over the 46 games and therefore took the advantage of playing the second leg of the tie at home.

The first leg ended in a tight 1-1 draw, Richard Langley's early second half goal canceling out a David Eyers deflected free kick, which opened the scoring in the first half. A 1-1 draw away was always going to be a good result for Rangers, and they were much fancied favorites taking the tie back to Loftus Road. The downside though was the sending off of Richard Langley for violent conduct - a damn stupid offence given the circumstances and no doubt pointless. Oldham's David Eyers cynically winding up the Ranger's playmaker, which culminated in referee Steve Bennett dismissing Langley for basically being a twat and falling for gamesmanship from Eyers and teammate John Sheridan.

Langley in the form of his career would now miss the second leg and as a double edged sword to the repercussions, it later emerged that due to another sending off in an LDV Vans trophy match early in season, he would also miss the play off final should QPR get there. Langley quoted on the official site that he was confident the official would rescind his red card once he'd seen a replay of the incident but a reverse of the decision never came. That would leave a massive gap in the Ranger's team for the second leg, as their playmaker's season would now only continue from behind the lens of a video camera.

I remember queuing up for tickets for the second leg and in order to do this I had to chuck a sickie. I phoned up work telling them I had a gut ache (the most obvious of excuses which so easily lends itself to the suspicious hangover theory) so I could get my arse down to Loftus Road early doors to get one. Buying a ticket in person was the only method the box-office were allowing that year such would be the demand for tickets. I actually thought that was a good way of selling them, until it came to the final itself where I found myself hundreds of miles away in Tenerife unable to get back by the deadline to buy one, but that's another story and will teach me to book holidays in advance of such possible finales.

I've never been one for chucking sickie's before. Don't get me wrong, I'll take time off when I've a cold or a genuine illness that admittedly other people would gladly work through suffering in silence, but my theory is that as I hate being around people who when infected, cough, snot and spread their virus to everyone else, I see it as my duty to keep my own bacteria to myself by going sick when I'm ill. So having got my ticket early and with the rest of the day to lay low on my day off based on a lie, I went to my then girlfriend’s house where she was babysitting her brother’s six month old son while he and his wife were at work. She made me lunch and in passing conversation told me the kid had a mild stomach bug, which I ignored guessing it was not that uncommon for a young human being to contract such a thing, seeing as they were pretty fresh out the womb and hadn't exactly experienced the delights of beer and curry just yet.

The next day I went back to work looking well and telling them the usual 24 hour bug story and things were going along as normal. By about 4pm my guts were going mental but this time genuinely. That evening I got home from work and was as white as a virgin's bed sheets. I puked the entire contents of my stomach up around 6pm and repeated the trend several times that evening before passing out on my bed in a cold sweat, feeling that the slightest movement would set a repeat performance of the whole sorry saga. I phoned up work the next morning form the comfort of my toilet (safest place by that stage) telling them I was in a world of shit (literally) and that the bug must have been called away for day in-between. Ironically I'd never been ill like that in my life and not only had my lie come back to bite me on the arse, it was now a rush against time to see if my guts would recover in time for the Oldham fixtures. As it turned out I decided against going to the beam back at Loftus Road for the first leg and opted to listen in on the radio from my sick bed. Thankfully I was feeling alright by the Wednesday and having doped up on Imodium, I wasn't going to miss the second leg even if it meant I'd have to sit in the Lower Loft wearing a nappy.

It was a glorious May evening when Oldham came to town for the second time that season and I took my seat in the Lower Loft a few rows up behind the goal. The atmosphere was like nothing I'd seen since the Arsenal FA Cup fixture a couple of years earlier and that only lasted until 5 minutes past 3pm when it descended into a big drunken ruck near where I was sitting as it rained Arsenal goals. This time there was nothing but joy and anticipation on the faces of the Rangers faithful. The match was a very tight affair as many predicted with teams giving no quarter.

Kevin Gallen filled the missing Langley on the right and the attack was Paul Furlong and Andy Thomson. Oldham had called the coin toss and decided to kick towards their own fans in the first half as it if to upset the trend somewhat. I've never liked it when that happens as we seem to lose the psychological security of having the second half kicking towards the Loft End to make any necessary amends for a piss poor first half showing. Watford this season did the same and the effect was there for all to see.

In the first half both teams held their own. The second half was much the same with the game looking like it could go either way and that one goal would appear to settle it. The fresh pace of Richard Paquette replaced the tiring Andy Thomson and Tommy Williams replaced the fatigued Gino Padula. The impact these changes made swung the momentum Rangers’ way. The defining moment came in the second half on 81 minutes when the deadlock was finally broken. A header back up field over the top from Carlisle caught the Oldham offside trap by surprise and Paul Furlong held off the recovering Fitz Hall to brush the ball passed the advancing Pogliacomi in the Oldham goal and Loftus Road for the first time in years, went completely mental.

It was a real cometh the man moment. Furlong had an unpopular injury plagued loan spell at Loftus Road in the 2000/01 season. His transfer from Birmingham early in the 2002/03 campaign wasn't met with much enthusiasm to start with and I clearly remember our own fans chanting "Chelsea Reject" at him when he seemed to bottle out of a goal line scramble during that 4-0 defeat to Cardiff at Loftus Road. But he managed to sort his body out that year and he seemed to go from injury plagued has-been to Mr Marvel as the season went on and turned the fans opinion towards him to such an extent that he is now considered on eof our all time heroes and rightly so. The fact that his football league playing career went on well into his 40's speaks volumes. His teammates mobbed him. The euphoria that goal brought I'd never quite witnessed at Loftus Road before or since as the game entered the final minutes there were Rangers fans around me willing the final whistle with tears rolling down their faces, one young bloke in particular was almost inconsolable, but no one cared, everyone’s emotions were on red alert.

Oldham threw everything at Rangers from then on but the defence held firm, in a moment of retribution for the first leg Oldham were reduced to ten men when Wayne Andrews got into a scrap with Stephen Kelly on the touchline kicking Kelly as he lost his cool. The night seemed destined to belong to Rangers now but not before a massive scare at the death as a loose ball around the area fell to Fitz Hall who from eight yards hit a low shot that looked destined to break Rangers hearts until Chris Day made a stunning save diving low to his bottom right to keep it out. The loose ball was eventually cleared to safety and the Rangers team gave their shop stopper a deserved pat on the back for it. Day was a good keeper for us in his time; he suffered a bad injury ironically against Oldham the season before which kept him out for over a year so that save must have been an extra sweet moment for him.

The final whistle blew and the picture of Paul Furlong on his knees with his arms outstretched to the heavens with his fists clenched celebrating, rather summed up the whole feeling. We all celebrated a playoff final place, and the players gave their end of season lap of hour donned with Nationwide "We're Going to Cardiff" banners to the sound of Hi Ho Silver Lining. I remember loads of us standing on our seats to get a better view of the celebrations and the whole row nearly capsizing like dominoes as some lost their balance, all good humored. After the celebrations had died down and prospects of facing West Ham if we managed to get promoted loomed large, I remember traipsing back to White City in the warm May night air with a real glow in my gut, this time not from the bug that had me shed half a stone the week before. That famous night will always go down as one of my all time favorite moments of being a QPR fan. You Tube Footage Follow @loftforwords on Twitter for drunken updates from this Saturday’s London Masters tournament.

Photo: Action Images

SomersetHoops added 09:56 - Jul 8 Great article, but despite his reputation Dowie did get results for QPR. Below is an article I wrote some while back about his performance compared to other managers which led to a surprising conclusion. (sorry the table won't format on here). At the time I didn't see NW as a possible manager for the R's and still wonder if Curbs could have done a job for us. Best QPR Managers There can little doubt that Alex Stock was the best manager that QPR have had so far, although like many since he did not have a perfect relationship with Jim Gregory, the club chairman at the time. Of those who followed Terry Venables managed good results, but on a purely results based assessment who did the best during their time as manager of the club? To make things fair lets apply the current system of 3 points for a win and one for a draw and make some comparisons:- Manager Period Games Possible Points* Points Gained* % Alex Stock 1959-68 439 1317 722 55 Terry Venables 1980-84 166 498 285 57 Ian Dowie 1998 (2) 2008 (15) 17 51 30 59 Luigi De Canio 2007-8 35 105 47 45 *based on 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw source wikepedia Alex Stock may not have had the absolute best results on this basis and much of his time we were in the old 3rd Division, but for consistency of results over a long period and gaining our only trophy I believe he was the best. El Tel did well and got us into the top division and to an FA Cup final in the days of the plastic pitch all achievements to be applauded. Gerry Francis also achieved well at the club in the top division (we all remember the years we were top London Club). But what do we see from the table above – Mr. Ian Dowie appears to have the best results ever - surely some mistake? Well no, its true, even allowing for his two games as caretaker, (Won 1,Lost 1) purely on results he is our best manager ever. If you took only his recent full managerial period he achieved a 60% return on available points. If this could have been sustained all season we would have finished the season with 83 points – level with Birmingham City who were second. There were other factors involved of course; the influx of players, the positive attitude in the team generated during the stewardship of Luigi De Canio and the expectation that we were going to do well. I'm not sure we all appreciated the way the team played under Dowie, but he was there to do a job and given the chance he may have done it. I believe he would have got us at least to the play-offs, which was the minimum most fans expected at the start of the season. It seems regrettable that this opportunity was lost over what appears to have been an argument over who runs the playing side of the club, because the results since seem to indicate Mr Dowie was better than what followed. It is also expected that the number of managerial changes suffered by QPR disrupt the team. Perhaps its too much to hope that our owners and directors could accept a good 'old style' English manager with control over all playing matters, but if they could I think Alan Curbishly could bring QPR the success we all hope for. Otherwise perhaps we could be successful after the return of 'Gigi' De Canio who has had success in turbulent times and appeared to work well alongside Paladini and the rest of the shadow management team whilst playing entertaining football.

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AshteadR added 13:50 - Jul 8 Good memories - the Oldham game that is. Best atmosphere I can remember in 35 years of support. The ground literally (and physically) felt like it was rocking.
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