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What a night to remember. I chucked a sickie at work to get the box office to buy my ticket. The usual “Been sick, must have been something I ate, I’ll be alright tomorrow” excuse. I’d rarely had those symptoms, once when I was a kid and my mum left an entire box of After Eight mints at my disposal — that was the only time I can remember. After purchasing my ticket I whipped round to my girlfriend at the time’s house, we’d only just started going out. She was looking after her nephew who was about a year old. “He’s had a bit of a virus. In fact, we’ve all been a bit sick here” she told me. The words went in one ear out the other and she made me a tuna pasta salad. We sat and chilled out on that gorgeous Spring afternoon, the shiny playoff semi final ticket safely tucked into my back pocket full of promise.
The next day at work I became ill with food poisoning like it was some kind of punishment, every orifice. I was lucky to make that semi-final leg and even on the night days later I was still feeling a bit rough, no alcohol and lots of Imodium to see me through about seven pounds lighter. Tense atmosphere, men, women and children celebrating the renaissance of Ian Holloway’s QPR and against very tough opposition. The goal, the out-pour of emotion in the lower loft like nothing I’d seen or to this day witnessed since. Like 8 years of struggle and turmoil being exercised in one gigantic goal celebration. We were there, weren’t we? Chris Day makes a wonder save at the death, a red card somewhere, who cares? A row us standing on our seats all fell at the same time like dominoes, it didn’t matter, we were going to Cardiff.
[Post edited 14 May 2019 14:33]
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 09:46 - May 14 with 2500 views
Remember the day vividly. I worked irregular evenings then, so had no problem getting the night off in advance. Been to Oldham, which was nervy, but got the result we needed.
That whole second half of that season was about living from one game to the next, holding off Tranmere frantically, so many late goals. Everyone was on edge. And you have to remember at that point we had had years and years of nothing - 2 relegations, awful players, awful teams (far worse than now, despite what people have claimed at the end of this season), embarrassments like Vauxhall. And this was finally the season the worm turned and it came to a head at LR that night.
Everyone - everyone - was up for it. Everyone went to yell and support the team no matter what. Against Wigan it's often forgotten how awful we were in the first leg and for the first half hour of the second thanks to Redknapp's diabolical team selection and the fans were almost in revolt. The Oldham night was nothing like that. We wouldn't lose because we were all pulling in the same direction. The fans wouldn't let them lose and the noise buoyed them. It wasn't a vintage performance, but it was strong, determined, tight and had two major incidents: the furlong goal and the Day save - both fabulous.
The noise was like nothing before or since. Maybe 3-2 v Liverpool is the closest, but it wasn't the same. I knew people inside the BBC TV Centre building who heard the roar when we scored. That's how loud it was.
I loved Wembley. But I still think this is my best ever QPR memory. It was so special, and with a team and management made up of fans. That meant so much more. Grown men crying. Culkin hugging Day, even though Culkin never got a look in all season. That summed up the team spirit. The culmination of sheer bloody-mindedness, the rehabilitation of Furs was complete. Guts and glory. Brilliant.
Bare bones.
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 10:18 - May 14 with 2418 views
easily the noisiest I have ever seen (heard) at LR.
easily the most nervous I have been before I football match
I was right behind the goal, and after Chris Day saved from Fitz Hall, I just remember jumping up and down like a toddler screaming "your the man, your the man" for about a minute.
As Antti says, the fact that we had suffered so much in the previous 5 years or so made this all the sweeter.
How long did we all spend in the ground after the game?
It was certainly the noisiest I've known LR in my fifty years of coming & possibly the biggest/best celebration. Only Villa Park 1968 & Hillsborough 2004 can come close to those. If I'd been at Wembley in 1967 I'm sure that would be right up there as well!
Of course I celebrated in 2014, but the thought of retaining Redknapp put a dampener on that for me!
That season I was secrertary of a club in the Eastern Counties League & so I only saw a few ganes. Away to Norwich United saw the biggest celebration that ground has seen when we scored the winner at Cardiff!
I bought two tickets for the game on the previous Saturday along with watching the beamback from Oldham & I met my son in the pub next to Watford Junction station as he came down from uni at Lancaster & spent the night at my parents in Chesham.
THAT save from Chris Day still gives me goosebumps. A long way from being our best goalkeeper, but definitely one of my favourites. That match & his performance at Blackpool the next season were equal to any goalkeeping I've seen!
At the time I was a self employed pub stocktaker & had arranged to carry out two stocktakes the following day. Both were managed by Rangers supporters & knew I wouldn't be turning up if we hadn't won!
"Oh, what a night"!
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 11:31 - May 14 with 2265 views
What a night we had years and years of let downs , poor players who didn’t care , admin issues, buckets for collections for that night it made it all worth while, that was a special night at the time it was up there with the Chelsea/Liverpool milk cup run I went mental when furs scored and hugged so many random people, I had a little tear at the end it was our night even though I knew deep down we wouldn’t beat Cardiff , for those who slag off Holloway have a think back to that night and the season before it and the pride he installed whenntbis club was on its knees and dying
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 11:39 - May 14 with 2239 views
16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 11:11 - May 14 by terryb
How long did we all spend in the ground after the game?
It was certainly the noisiest I've known LR in my fifty years of coming & possibly the biggest/best celebration. Only Villa Park 1968 & Hillsborough 2004 can come close to those. If I'd been at Wembley in 1967 I'm sure that would be right up there as well!
Of course I celebrated in 2014, but the thought of retaining Redknapp put a dampener on that for me!
That season I was secrertary of a club in the Eastern Counties League & so I only saw a few ganes. Away to Norwich United saw the biggest celebration that ground has seen when we scored the winner at Cardiff!
I bought two tickets for the game on the previous Saturday along with watching the beamback from Oldham & I met my son in the pub next to Watford Junction station as he came down from uni at Lancaster & spent the night at my parents in Chesham.
THAT save from Chris Day still gives me goosebumps. A long way from being our best goalkeeper, but definitely one of my favourites. That match & his performance at Blackpool the next season were equal to any goalkeeping I've seen!
At the time I was a self employed pub stocktaker & had arranged to carry out two stocktakes the following day. Both were managed by Rangers supporters & knew I wouldn't be turning up if we hadn't won!
"Oh, what a night"!
difficult to add anything to the above but as a slight aside I remember being in the Upper Loft for the Beamback of the first leg. It seemed really wierd being able to have beer in the stands and when the equaliser went in it seemed all that beer became airborne a split second after the goal went in... There was beer everywhere but no-one got upset as the celebrations were way too important!
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 13:31 - May 14 with 2117 views
I was there and what a night! How Loftus Road held together and didn't collapse during the goal celebrations I will never know. You Rsssssss!
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
Still think that's the happiest day of my life. Stuart and me came down early doors and went round all my dad's old favourite pubs in London, finishing up with all his old mates in The Brackenbury which was absolutely buzzing. There was a stunning girl in there that night, never seen at QPR before or since, nearly did a Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting
GNER used to very kindly run a 2330 back to Leeds after midweek games so we were on that, grinning like a couple of school kids. So, so happy. I can still see Furlong going through on the goal now. What a player.
Week before for the away leg was a funny one. That year away tickets for high demand games you had to fill a form in and post it to the box office with a cheque and five ticket stubs from other away games attended that year. Suddenly for the play offs they changed it to personal callers only, which rather fcked us up living 200 miles away, so we didn't have tickets to Oldham away and it wasn't on the TV and we'd resigned ourselves to missing it which was a shame.
Anyway, there was some controversy the week before because Oldham only gave us half that end of the ground, and hadn't sold the other half. There was some story going round that Dowie didn't want 4,500 Rangers there so had told them to only give us half the stand. They put the other half on sale a couple of days before the game to personal callers only at Boundary Park. I'm driving into college in Scunny on the Friday and just cracked, kept on driving, skipped lessons, went all the way over the M62 to Oldham, got there about 11am and bought two tickets for us. They gave us a free Oldham Athletic scarf with it (which I've still got somewhere) and Dowie was in the box office shaking hands with all of us and thanking us in advance for our support
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 13:56 - May 14 with 2068 views
16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 13:46 - May 14 by Northernr
Still think that's the happiest day of my life. Stuart and me came down early doors and went round all my dad's old favourite pubs in London, finishing up with all his old mates in The Brackenbury which was absolutely buzzing. There was a stunning girl in there that night, never seen at QPR before or since, nearly did a Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting
GNER used to very kindly run a 2330 back to Leeds after midweek games so we were on that, grinning like a couple of school kids. So, so happy. I can still see Furlong going through on the goal now. What a player.
Week before for the away leg was a funny one. That year away tickets for high demand games you had to fill a form in and post it to the box office with a cheque and five ticket stubs from other away games attended that year. Suddenly for the play offs they changed it to personal callers only, which rather fcked us up living 200 miles away, so we didn't have tickets to Oldham away and it wasn't on the TV and we'd resigned ourselves to missing it which was a shame.
Anyway, there was some controversy the week before because Oldham only gave us half that end of the ground, and hadn't sold the other half. There was some story going round that Dowie didn't want 4,500 Rangers there so had told them to only give us half the stand. They put the other half on sale a couple of days before the game to personal callers only at Boundary Park. I'm driving into college in Scunny on the Friday and just cracked, kept on driving, skipped lessons, went all the way over the M62 to Oldham, got there about 11am and bought two tickets for us. They gave us a free Oldham Athletic scarf with it (which I've still got somewhere) and Dowie was in the box office shaking hands with all of us and thanking us in advance for our support
This stunning girl in the Brackenbury, what did she look like? Could've been my Mrs!
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 14:20 - May 14 with 2021 views
...and another strange thing is that I have no recollection of the Oldham fans. It’s only when I see reruns of that goal that I even realize they were there. Not sure if it was the pre-match in the Bushranger or the noise level in the Lower Loft over toward the Ellerslie where we were stood, but I’ve blanked ‘em.
16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 13:46 - May 14 by Northernr
Still think that's the happiest day of my life. Stuart and me came down early doors and went round all my dad's old favourite pubs in London, finishing up with all his old mates in The Brackenbury which was absolutely buzzing. There was a stunning girl in there that night, never seen at QPR before or since, nearly did a Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting
GNER used to very kindly run a 2330 back to Leeds after midweek games so we were on that, grinning like a couple of school kids. So, so happy. I can still see Furlong going through on the goal now. What a player.
Week before for the away leg was a funny one. That year away tickets for high demand games you had to fill a form in and post it to the box office with a cheque and five ticket stubs from other away games attended that year. Suddenly for the play offs they changed it to personal callers only, which rather fcked us up living 200 miles away, so we didn't have tickets to Oldham away and it wasn't on the TV and we'd resigned ourselves to missing it which was a shame.
Anyway, there was some controversy the week before because Oldham only gave us half that end of the ground, and hadn't sold the other half. There was some story going round that Dowie didn't want 4,500 Rangers there so had told them to only give us half the stand. They put the other half on sale a couple of days before the game to personal callers only at Boundary Park. I'm driving into college in Scunny on the Friday and just cracked, kept on driving, skipped lessons, went all the way over the M62 to Oldham, got there about 11am and bought two tickets for us. They gave us a free Oldham Athletic scarf with it (which I've still got somewhere) and Dowie was in the box office shaking hands with all of us and thanking us in advance for our support
I missed the final because of that policy. I booked a last minute week in Tenerife between the semi final and final purposely so I didn't miss it should we get there. When they announced that like the semi finals you could only buy a ticket in person at the box office, I knew I was screwed. I phoned the box office from some dodgy Spanish pay phone outside our holiday resort with a pre-paid phonecard and explained my predicament. The arsehole in the box office showed no quarter and told me adamantly I couldn't get one unless I came in person. They went off sale the day after I returned. I was gutted at the time and had to settle to watch it in the local. In the end obviously I was glad I didn't go and only had the semi final memory to cherish. Worked out for the best.
[Post edited 14 May 2019 14:42]
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16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 14:42 - May 14 with 1966 views
16 Years Ago Today — Memories? on 13:46 - May 14 by Northernr
Still think that's the happiest day of my life. Stuart and me came down early doors and went round all my dad's old favourite pubs in London, finishing up with all his old mates in The Brackenbury which was absolutely buzzing. There was a stunning girl in there that night, never seen at QPR before or since, nearly did a Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting
GNER used to very kindly run a 2330 back to Leeds after midweek games so we were on that, grinning like a couple of school kids. So, so happy. I can still see Furlong going through on the goal now. What a player.
Week before for the away leg was a funny one. That year away tickets for high demand games you had to fill a form in and post it to the box office with a cheque and five ticket stubs from other away games attended that year. Suddenly for the play offs they changed it to personal callers only, which rather fcked us up living 200 miles away, so we didn't have tickets to Oldham away and it wasn't on the TV and we'd resigned ourselves to missing it which was a shame.
Anyway, there was some controversy the week before because Oldham only gave us half that end of the ground, and hadn't sold the other half. There was some story going round that Dowie didn't want 4,500 Rangers there so had told them to only give us half the stand. They put the other half on sale a couple of days before the game to personal callers only at Boundary Park. I'm driving into college in Scunny on the Friday and just cracked, kept on driving, skipped lessons, went all the way over the M62 to Oldham, got there about 11am and bought two tickets for us. They gave us a free Oldham Athletic scarf with it (which I've still got somewhere) and Dowie was in the box office shaking hands with all of us and thanking us in advance for our support
Yeah the ticket situation for the away leg was ridiculous. I couldn't get one in the away end but had a mate who was an Oldham season ticket holder and he got me one in that same home part of the away stand, right next to away end. Thought it was going to be an awful experience because when I got to my seat I was sat next to the hardest looking bloke in the world. But then just before kick off, the Rangers fans started singing who are ya at us and this bloke stood up and shouted YOU R'S. Cue about 20 other people around us doing the same. The stewards came over pretty sharpish but the hardest looking bloke in the world had a word with them and they must have sh*t their pants a bit because next thing you know all 20 of us are being ushered out of the stand, back through the turnstiles and then into the away end where they told us just to stand at the back. Magnificent stuff. We were stood by the toilets and when Langley equalised some bloke came running out with his trousers still down and piss all down his legs. What a time to be alive.
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