Match Day Thread QPR v Rotherham Utd #StanBowlesDay

Thought we could have a thread dedicated to the #StanBowlesDay and the man himself. Please share photos and stories of the great man. So that we can have a proper build up to what promises to be a special day.

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

What is your favourite Stan Bowles story or anecdote? Please share.

YOU R'S!​

 

#StanBowlesDay: ‘Stan was so special... it shocked me just how good he was, reveals Frank McLintock

07:00 21 August 2015 By Jem Maidment and Sean Gallagher

please log in to view this image

QPR legend Stan Bowles (top) leapfrogs his team-mate Frank McLintock to celebrate his England call-up in March 1974

EXCLUSIVE: It’s been 38 years since the pair last played together and Frank McLintock still struggles to understand why Stan Bowles’s talents were not given more recognition outside of QPR headquarters.

Bowles, who was recently diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s, will be in attendance at Loftus Road with members of his family on Saturday for QPR’s game against Rotherham United, after the club decided to dedicate the match in support of their former player.

McLintock, who spent the last four years of his career at Loftus Road after joining from Arsenal, has heaped praise on a man commonly regarded by supporters as Rangers’ greatest-ever player, who to his shock was only capped five times by England.

He told the Times: “What I did not expect was the fantastic quality of the squad at Loftus Road when I first arrived - I did not realise the quality of the players. It was superb - and Stan was the key man. To be honest, he was such a good player I could not believe just how talented he was.

Honestly, I am not saying this to be nice to him, but he was so special. “He had a super turn of pace, he could play a pass others would not see, and he was ice cool in front of goal. Ice cool! “I still cannot fathom why his talents were not recognised more outside of west London because it actually shocked me just how good he was.”

Bowles was a maverick off the field as well as on it, with the former striker known to love a trip down the bookies before games as well as a knees-up in the pub afterwards, something McLintock said just made more unique. He added: “He was a very funny guy and, as we all know, he liked a gamble! He’d still be in the betting shop at 2pm and then at around 2.45 he would turn up, get changed - no warm up for Stan - and then go out and play a blinder.

Stan was a unique individual – one of a kind.” McLintock and Bowles both played an integral role in the Rangers side that went agonisingly close to winning the First Division title in the 1975-76 season, as they were pipped to the championship by Liverpool in dramatic circumstances on the final day.

Despite suffering that disappointment, the 75-year-old only has fond memories of that season in blue and white. “I’ll never forget the year we nearly won the league at QPR. We had such a great side - with 10 full internationals, like Don Masson, Gerry Francis, Dave Thomas and all - and I knew early on this squad could achieve something very special,” he said.

“We needed Wolves to beat Liverpool on the final day of the season and they were 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go. But like all great sides - and that Liverpool team were fantastic - they scored three in the final 15 minutes and snatched the title from us.

“We’d had a wonderful season and we should not lose sight of that - and it was an absolute pleasure to play with all those great players, especially Stan.”

QPR will be wearing charity shirts carrying the Alzheimer’s society logo against Rotherham.

To donate to the Stan Bowles GoFundMe account, http://www.gofundme.com/StanBowles/

To donate to the Alzheimer’s Society, https://www.justgiving.com/stanbowlesday

And to learn more about the Alzheimer’s Society, http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

http://www.london24.com/sport/footb...good_he_was_reveals_frank_mclintock_1_4203317

 

30 September 1972, my first QPR game, and probably only the 4th or 5th for Stan. The team performance that day, but especially Stan's goal at about 6.40 on this clip, hooked me. It's all his fault!

 

I'm too young to have seen Stan play for Rangers but was lucky enough to see him strutting his stuff in a celebrity 5-a-side tournament at a music festival in 1998 (I think...maybe 1999). The football wasn't up to much but I waited for the end of a game and managed to have a chat with Stan and get a photo with him. I don't remember much about the music I heard that weekend but I'll never forget meeting Stan!

Funnily enough we were talking about how the club were doing and the struggles it was going through having been relegated from the Premier League...that conversation is probably still pretty relevant.

I like the look of the shirts the players are going to be wearing on Saturday, I know sponsorship is a big deal for a lot of clubs but I can't help but feel that promotion of a charity on a shirt and say a small contribution from each replica shirt sold would help to improve the image of football on the whole. Maybe as part of the "Getting our Rangers back" we could ditch the self promotion sponsorship from Air Asia and promote a charity instead...just a thought.

 

I was hoping that the Alzhiemer's Society shirts will be on sale on Saturday, but I get the impression that they will just be auctioning off the players shirts at an event later in the season. I'm not a great fan of replica shirts, but would definitely get one of these (or probably several). I'll try to get to the gala and bid, but it may be an opportunity missed for raising funds.

Be grateful if someone on Twitter could ask Ian Taylor about whether the shirts will be on sale on Saturday. Cheers in advance.

 

I remember back in the 1990's when Stan had just brought out his Autobiography.
I was in The Volume One Bookshop in Uxbridge, and saw a sign that Stan Bowles was doing a book sigining that evening, so I hung around brought my copy ready for Stan to sign. A few minutes later Stan walked in with a swagger in his stride and asked the Sales Assistant if he could use the toilet.
The Sales Assistant said "sorry sir customers have to user the public toilets, at the other end of the shopping centre."
Stan just nodded and just then the Shop Manager came over and said "Sorry Mr Bowles u can use the toliets at the back". He gave the Shop Assistant a really dirty look !!
The Shop Assistant suddenly realised who he was & went really pale and was really apologetic, but Stan just brushed it off and told him not worry about it.

Stan walked off to the toilets, and the Shop Assistant started banging his head on the Wall !!

 

Great story Raj, love it

 

I love this story

Football icon Stan Bowles doesn't care who goes down... as long as it's Sunderland
EXCLUSIVE By IVAN SPECK FOR MAILONLINE
UPDATED: 23:50 GMT, 21 May 2009

A Mancunian showboater of the Seventies often mistaken as a Cockney wide boy would be the last person you would expect to carry a mischievously burning desire to see Sunderland relegated.

Then again, Stan Bowles never did stereotypes.

The hair is white now, the face weathered by age and a steady diet of cigarettes and alcohol, yet the chirpiness which once saw him knock the FA Cup off its perch at Roker Park and cause a riot that shattered Sunderland's post-Cup final honeymoon still swims impishly in the crystal-clear blue waters of his 60-year-old eyes.

please log in to view this image

What a player: Bowles (left) with model Jenny Clarke in 1976

'I don't care who goes down on Sunday as long as it's Sunderland,' Bowles says, a half-smile running across his lips.

'They don't like me to this day up there. Do I like them? No, not really.'

One of English football's generation of entertainers - alongside the likes of George Best, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Rodney Marsh - Bowles cared not for protocol or respect, especially on that Roker evening in May 1973.

Second Division Sunderland had beaten mighty Leeds to lift the FA Cup. Four days later, they hosted already-promoted Queens Park Rangers in their final league game.

The Cup was paraded, celebration was in the air. Not content with kicking a ball at the Cup and tipping it off its table, Bowles goaded the Sunderland players throughout QPR's 3-0 win, in which he scored twice.

One Wembley hero, midfielder Mick Horswill, was sent off for a tackle on him, and Bowles then pulled the ultimate stunt on keeper Jim Montgomery, whose double save had passed into Cup final legend.

'I went round him and put the ball almost on the line waiting for him to scramble across his goalmouth before I tapped it in,' Bowles said.

'That was it. All of a sudden from the top end the fans came on the pitch. It was madness, seeing a few thousand people running at you. I made sure I got down the tunnel sharpish.

please log in to view this image

The man: Stan Bowles strides confidently away from the goalmouth after scoring against Manchester United for QPR

'The fans had seen I was taking the p***. Asking the Sunderland players how the f*** they had beaten Leeds and getting them angrier and angrier by the moment.

'We weren't allowed to go out after that game because the fans gathered outside the hotel where we were staying. I think they got fined for it afterwards, for something I caused. F****** good job. I never played at Sunderland again. If I'd seen the fixture coming up, though, I'd have thought about inventing a groin strain to get out of playing there.

'If I had a choice of who's going down on Sunday it would be them.'

That's Stanley Bowles. As irreverent and irrational today as during a playing career that many believed could have been glorious had he committed as much attention to his football as he did to gambling. He was given his first racing tip at 16, when he pressed raincoats in a Manchester factory. He put a fiver on the horse at 10-1. It won. Just about the last time he backed a winner, if you believe the stories.

please log in to view this image

Mad for it: The legendary Bowles poses with Oasis guitarist and Man City supporter, Noel Gallagher

'I was renowned for being arrogant. I wasn't really. I just knew what I was doing on the pitch. When I was on my game I felt unstoppable and I let them know. I'd go past a fella trying to tackle me, look back at him and say, "Come on, get up, I'll let you have another go".

'That's why they never liked me in the England squad. Even the Liverpool players didn't really talk to me. Kevin Keegan was all right, but the rest - Emlyn Hughes and Phil Thompson among them - were a bit frosty because I'd taken the p*** when we played them.'

Bowles walked out on England after being substituted against Northern Ireland. He would later walk out on Brian Clough and a place in a Nottingham Forest European Cup final side - 'That medal would be worth 20 grand now'.

The tales he tells are part of his after-dinner speaking routine. How he was sacked by Manchester City for missing a flight to play Ajax. 'I told them I was on my way, but what I didn't know was that the flight was delayed for three hours. I didn't actually try to go at all.'

How he was shown the door again after five weeks at Bury. 'I took a cab to training and told the manager to take the fare out of my wages. He wouldn't, so I jumped back in the cab and went back to Manchester.'

please log in to view this image

Down in one: Bowles, who wants Sunderland to get relegated on Sunday, enjoys a pint at his local during his interview with Sportsmail reporter Ivan Speck

How he would arrive at the QPR ground from the bookies at 2.50pm and throw on his kit, how he asked fans with radios which horse had won the 3.20pm at Kempton.

Then there were his drinking sessions with the late George Best.

'It was always at an Irish pub in Chelsea Harbour. George used to have white wine and soda in a glass bigger than a pint glass and double brandies with it. I couldn't keep up with him. I normally just drank beer, so I'd come out of there and start walking the wrong way, over one of the bridges. That's how drunk I was.'

Thankfully for Sunderland fans, they don't make them like Stan Bowles any more.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...Bowles-doesnt-care-goes--long-Sunderland.html

 

Stan,

As it should be, you blame Stanley.

Roller blames TV. I blame the abject relegation of 68-69 (a sense of pity).

Who do others blame for making them waste their life supporting the one & only Queens Park Rangers?

Even in the darkest days they will dredge up a result that brings back that little bit of hope & keeps us all hanging on!

COME ON MY TEAM & a big thank you to Stan for giving me many a wonderful memory!

 

Loved that clip. Voice of Brian Moore brings back memories. Cardiff with their tiny gold satin shorts and long hair cuts - it was like something from a trans-gender musical (I imagine...)

What a great first game to go to. Mine was pre-Bowles, 1 January 1971, from memory, against Swindon. There was a fog that day that meant, sitting in the South Africa Road stand, you could barely see half way across the pitch. We don't get fogs like that now, and a match would never be allowed to proceed if we did. I just remember all my heroes coming out of the mist and then disappearing again. Almost mystical.

I'm sure they'll be showing a number of Stanley's goals tomorrow, but what really made him QPR for me was that, until quite recently, he came to each match at LR, ambling up the South Africa Road in his mac, stopping for autographs and photos with kids who'd never seen him play but knew from their dads that he was something special. Rodney Marsh is a legend, but I always felt later in life he preferred to be associated with Man City. Stan's club is QPR. I hope he's able to enjoy the day tomorrow

 

It wasn't a bad side to have playing in the second tier!

Five future England internationals. Add in Leach, Venables & Givens.

Perhaps we were a little bit spoilt!

 

One of my favourite memories of Stan was an evening UEFA Cup game at LR. I can't remember the opposition, but he was absolutely majestic against good European opposition. I was in Ellerslie Rd with my Brother and Stan raced past us down the right, away from a couple of players and then cut inside and beat another. He waved "bye bye" to that player and raced into the penalty area. Stan then slowed right down, looked over his shoulder and waited for the defender to slam into him from behind and give away a penalty. Stan just laughed.

What a player he was.

I hope and trust he gets a massive ovation tomorrow. I have a feeling it could be a little emotional!

 

I think I have some great thoughts of Stan the Man but I've forgotten them!

 

My greatest memory was a goal he scored in front of the Loft when I was there about 75 / 77 against whoever Banks or was it Shilton played for then, Leicester maybe or possibly Stoke. Stan ran in on goal right side, confronted by 2 nervous looking defenders on the edge of their box, he dummied first outside, then inside very quick, which left both horizontal facing different ways, he stuck back and took himself and the ball in between and over their 4 flailing horizont legs into the box, advanced just enough, then calmly stroked it curled low into the far corner out of reach of whoever of those 2 was in goal that day, didnt matter ,no Keeper would have had a chace. All with a big laugh! Think it won the game for us 1-0, and it was the best goal ever, honest.

 

More recently, a few years ago we did the stadium tour and Stan was helping out by coming round with us. When we got to the pitch they said we could chat with him if we wanted to. I'd brought Stans book with me and I asked if he would sign it. He asked me where I'd got it and I told him I'd had it ages. He said he wanted to know as he'd lent his to Bradley Orr and he hadn't given it back yet. I told him there were some on eBay and we had a real chuckle at the thought of him bidding for his own book. Fly fishing by J R Hartley was mentioned for the older ones here!!

He was a real laugh though, really friendly.

 

Great photos.

 

Stan is apparently on the pitch at 2.45, so I'll be finishing my pre match pint a bit earlier than usual. It could get emotional.

 

Top stuff 9's, and fair play, wish I was around to witness his greatness