As QPR prepare to travel to Blackpool tonight Ash takes his usual look back at a memorable match and players that have played for both clubs.

How was your QPR free weekend then? All felt a bit too empty for me, and no R’s game meant of course that the girlfriend got her claws firmly into me on Saturday and found myself shopping in all manner of places in South East London. So thankfully normal service resumes tomorrow night when QPR travel all the way up to Bloomfield Road to take on managerless Blackpool.

Having the weekend off has its advantages and disadvantages, and I’m sure Rangers will still be confident going into the game coming back of their first away win at Derby last time out. But Blackpool will be in confident mood themselves having won the only game in the Championship at the weekend, seeing off promotion challengers Birmingham. After what we saw at the Loft earlier in the season Paulo Sousa’s men will have to work their socks off on Tuesday night if they are to make it back-to-back away wins and continue their play-off push.


Rangers first headed up to the seaside for a Second Division match in October 1967, winning 1-0. Last season saw the same scoreline but in favour of the home side as Ben Burgess late goal for the Tangerines won it for Blackpool. So lets take a walk down the blue and white hooped path of memory lane and recall a brilliant Rangers hat-trick and the players who’ve played for both sides.




Memorable Match

Blackpool 1-3 QPR

March 29, 2003

2nd Division


Rangers went into the game against Blackpool, firmly in the play-off hunt at the top of the Second Division. However they were coming off a 1-0 defeat to leaders Wigan, it was the second defeat of 2003 for Ian Holloway’s men and they were looking to get back to winning ways against Steve McMahon’s Blackpool. The day would ultimately belong to a certain QPR midfield star- Richard Langley.



Langley’s first act was to open the scoring in what was looking like quite a tense game. But when the R’s were awarded a free-kick just outside the box on the half hour mark it was Langley who stepped up to produce a stunning right-foot strike that left keeper Phil Barnes for dead. The Blackpool stopper didn’t move a muscle as the ball sailed past him into the right corner.


After the break Blackpool came out looking for an equaliser but couldn’t get past the R’s solid back four that included ex Tangerines Shittu and Carlisle. Cue Richard Langley to put the R’s firmly into the driving seat. After collecting a cross field past from Kevin McLeod he slotted the ball from the corner of the box across the goal and into the far corner.


Five minutes from time Rangers number nine completed his hat-trick. McLeod again the provider, receiving the ball from Kevin Gallen before putting a glorious ball into the box where Langley was waiting to nod the ball home with a bullet diving header.


Blackpool got a consolation late on through Scott Taylor but the three points where QPR’s and the matchball Richard Langley’s.






Blackpool: Barnes, Richardson, Flynn, Grayson, Hills (Burns 75) Bullock, Wellens, Coid, Taylor, Robinson (Milligan 68) Walker (Blinkhorn 75)


QPR: Day, Kelly, Carlisle, Shittu, Padula, McLeod, Palmer, Bircham, Langley, Gallen, Furlong (Rose 78)



Postscript: QPR finished fourth, qualifying for the play-offs but losing in a heart-braking final to Cardiff City. Blackpool ended the season in thirteenth place.






Connections

Marcus Bean

QPR 2002-06

Blackpool 2006-08

There has been very little to shout about when it comes to players bought from the Rangers youth team in recent years. Names like Scott Donnelly, Shabazz Baidoo and Leon Jeanne all promised so much but never lived up to their possible potential. Maybe that’s why there are such high hopes for Angelo Balanta, the striker currently making waves on loan at Wycombe could be the best player to come out of our ranks this millennium. But for a while many Rangers fans were already giving that tag to combative midfielder Marcus Bean.


Bean, born and bred in Hammersmith, had been talked of a future star long before he made his first-team debut for Rangers in August 2002. The defensive midfielder had been fast-tracked to the first team after some fine displays for the youth and reserve team and many within the club thought it was the right time for the eighteen year old to make the step up. He didn’t get off to the best start in Rangers colours, getting his marching orders just seven minutes after coming on during a feisty 4-1 defeat to Wycombe in August 2002 however that game was refereed by Rob Styles so need we say more?

Thankfully Bean would only suffer one more defeat in his eight outings for the R’s that season. The following campaign Bean found himself very much part of Ian Holloway’s first-team squad and enjoyed his best season at Loftus Road. Helping Rangers to second spot and promotion to the newly named Championship. The higher league proved far tougher for Bean and although he played a part in the majority of Rangers games in the first half of their first season back in the second tier he found himself frequently out of his depth and he was soon loaned out to League One side Swansea. Despite starting Rangers’ first four games in 2005-06 Bean once again found himself back on loan with the Swans, and it wasn’t long before a permanent transfer out of W12 followed when he joined League One side Blackpool half-way through the season.

At Bloomfield Road he failed to nail down a regular place in the Tangerines midfield and despite helping them to promotion via the play-offs, he was once again sent on loan this time to Rotherham before being released last summer. Now plying his trade back in West London with League Two Brentford having never lived up to the early promise of his QPR days. Won the League Two player of the month award in December.
Magic R’s moment: Bean’s ‘Maradona’ moment at Prestfield, where he punched the winner in a vital 1-0 victory against Gillingham much to Andy Hessanthaler’s hilarious disgust.


Ian Evatt

QPR 2005-07

Blackpool 2007-present

Spotted by Derby County when he was just 10 years old, Ian Evatt rose up the Derby ranks and signed professional terms with the club on his seventeenth birthday. Three year’s later the young midfielder turned centre back made his debut for the first team, coming on as a substitute for Doddi Gudjosson in a 1-1 Premier League draw with Ipswich Town. To gain some first-team experience Evatt was then sent on loan to Northampton for the majority of the 2001-02 season, a season which Derby were eventually relegated from the top flight. Evatt actually scored an own goal for QPR in a League Cup match during his time at the Sixfields.

The following year, Evatt established himself in the Derby team now under John Gregory. But the team struggled and when Gregory was replaced by George Burley, Evatt found himself out of the new manager plans so joined League One side Chesterfield on a free transfer. At Saltergate Evatt quickly earned a reputation as one of the best centre-backs outside the top two divisions and was voted the clubs player of the year in his first season and then later club captain. His displays weren’t getting unnoticed and after two seasons at Chesterfield, Evatt signed for QPR in a £150,000 deal. At the time it was seen as quite a coup for Ian Holloway, securing the centre-backs services but he quickly made the wrong impression with the R’s fans getting sent off just 45 minutes into a miserable debut that saw Rangers dumped out of the League Cup against his former club Northampton. He went on to play a further 28 times for the club but never really convinced the Loftus Road crowd and was no surprise when he joined Blackpool on an initial loan deal at the start of the 2006-07 season. Halfway through that campaign, Rangers released Evatt and he joined the Tangerines on a permanent basis where he was part of the side promoted to the Championship via the play-offs in 2007.

Magic R’s moment: Erm…allegedly hitting a Stoke fan after he was attacked on the pitch during the a game between the sides in December 2005, or an own goal scored for the R’s while at Northampton before even joining us.



Others:

John Burridge Blackpool 1971-75, QPR 1980-82. Now Oman Goalkeeping coach

Mickey Walsh Blackpool 1973-78, QPR 1978-81. Now unknown.

David Barsdsley Blackpool 1981-83 & 1998-2000, QPR 1989-1998. Now works for an Ajax academy in Florida.

Trevor Sinclair Blackpool 1989-1993, QPR 1993-1998. Now retired after spending last season with Cardiff

Marvin Bryan QPR 1992-95, Blackpool 1995-2000. Now free agent.

Matt Jackson QPR 1996 (loan), Blackpool 2007 (loan). Now a TV pundit

Mike Sheron QPR 1997-1999, Blackpool 2003-04. Now youth team manager at Bury.

Clarke Carlisle Blackpool 1997-2000, QPR 2000-04. Now at Burnley.

Marlon Broomes QPR 2000 (loan), Blackpool 2008-present. Currently on loan at Crewe

Zesh Rehman QPR 2006-present, Blackpool 2008 (loan) Now at Bradford

Daniel Nardiello QPR 2007-08, Blackpool 2008-present

Kaspars Gorkss Blackpool 2007-08, QPR 2008-present.



Fans’ Memories


We were all in the hospitality when Langley got his hat trick. You have a meal in the restaurant and then go out and sit on the balcony that runs right round the back of the two new stands. They said away fans were welcome and a few even went in QPR shirts, no problem at all both sets of fans getting on fine having a good laugh. Langley scores, we cheer and it all bloody kicks off. People who had been chatting to us all day suddenly turned nasty, even following my mate into the bog and saying we should leave now if we knew what was good for us. Their mood didn't improve much with the second and third goals. The two blokes sitting with us were fine with it all though, and even let us join in their drinking game where you swigged from a hip flask with 'Come on you Pool' engraved on it whenever the home fans sang said song.

Anyway all the QPR players came up and signed autographs for the kids. Young North went up to Blackpool's Chris Clarke and got him to sign a piece of paper that said "thanks for the own goal" on it after he had scored for us at Loftus Road earlier in the season and we all hung around longer than we should have done to watch England v Liechtenstein in the evening. Spent the night in copper faced jacks getting copper faced.-Northernr



The FA cup 1990, one of the best weekends on the lash I have ever had. -loftboy



Chris Day making saves in a one nil victory that would have made The Almighty Schmeichel proud. I believe it was a tad windy too. -Metallica



Mate, we drank with arsenal fans every Saturday. There was so much on that game - victory v Arsenal + a weekend in Blackpool!! The 2-0 - and what goals!! Has to be one of my favourite games! The weekend in Blackpool was lively, too. -distortR




To add your memories to this article e-mail them to loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk, use the commenting facility below or post on the Message Board thread.

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