please log in to view this image The R's home fixture against Liverpool at Loftus Road has now been confirmed for Wednesday 21st March 2012. The initial clash - scheduled for Saturday 17th March - was postponed owing to the Reds on-going involvement in the FA Cup. The match will kick-off at 8.00pm. Meanwhile, Rangers' home fixture against Stoke City has been switched to Sunday 6th May - kick-off 2.00pm. This match, however, remains subject to possible further change due to live broadcast selections and the possibility that the Potters may progress to the FA Cup Final. http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~2627446,00.html Should be a great atmosphere under the floodlights, can't wait!
Yes! This is the game I've been waiting for all season (to many Liverpool mates), very confident we'll nick it. And we'll take something from the Arsenal game as well, hopefully all three points.
A lot of these 'top teams' will be bricking it by the end of the season, worrying about next years pay cheque. Liverpool and Arsenal severely lack bottle, Spuds are vulnerable if you run at them, only the Manc teams look real class to me. We will be on the run to end all runs by then, they will hate playing us, and this forum will echo to the sound of negative posters eating their virtual hats. I'm keeping a list........
You and Dave now!! I'm trying desparately to share your optimism! Bolton away will be the turning point, Cisse and the Dike are going to French the PL! 8th place is for us....
It's on cup final day. I'm not sure what makes people so optimistic we'll go from losing at home to Wolves and Fulham to getting something from Liverpool and Arsenal but fair play to them because I've lost faith in this bunch of ****s.
That's bad news Watford as you have been consistently positive over the last few months. I figure there are enough doom mongers on here for a few of us to take the opposite route. Sure it winds me up when we play crap, but It doesn't ruin my week, or even my evening. I follow the Rs for pleasure not anguish, if I don't like what I'm seeing today, there's always next week. Naive and self deluding perhaps, but if I wasn't these things I would support the Scum or Urinals and expect to win the league every year. This way I can just dream about it. Perhaps I'm not a real supporter because I don't let it get me down, but it's better for my blood pressure.
I don't mind us playing crap, I've even come to take some sort of pleasure from some of the really crap performances. I don't think I've ever enjoyed an away match as much as the night we lost 5-0 at Forest with Quashie bumbling around the midfield because of the gallow's humour which has always been something I've loved about QPR. I think we and fans of other clubs outside the biggest ten or so are lucky in that we can take delight in an away point at Port Vale- an Arsenal or Chelsea fan could neve be so easily pleased. Saying that, I'm of an age where I've never seen a really good QPR team and I was really up for this season at the start just for the chance to see that **** team I fell in love with have a bit of a go at the big boys. I wasn't expecting much and if you'd offered me 17th at the start I'd have been ecstatic but that was with the core of a team that I had real pride in last season. Blokes like Gorkks, Derry and Hill aren't really Prem footballers but you know it hurts them if they play crap so I can forgive their lack of ability. What gets me down is that we've signed some players of genuine quality, the sort we could only have dreamed of even months ago, but I wonder if some of them actually care if they put in a poor performance. Maybe it was just youthful naivety but most of the dross that have been able to call themselves QPR players over the years I have been going have, in my opinion, cared about QPR. They didn't just appreciate being footballers and the money and status that meant, even in Division 2, they had a genuine affinity with the club because there seemed a genuine bond between fans, players and the club itself. Not all of them, of course, I was there for Carl Leaburn's sole appearance and even saw Leon Jeanne a few times when he was probably too coked up to know what QPR stood for and dozens of others, but as a kid they mostly seemed like good lads happy to be playing football on a weekend like you or I for a Sunday league side. I still get that same buzz when they go out there and give it everything and scrap for a result but those performances have become increasingly rare. Of course I'll still be there week in week out and pay whatever ludicrous price it costs financially and otherwise but, honestly, give me a 1-0 win at Grimsby with Eric Sabin, a player barely of greater ability than myself, scoring and the lot of them being wealthy but still able to relate to over any win against Wigan, Wolves or Stoke when the players will seem fantastic for those 90 minutes but probably don't really feel any different to if they've just got done 3-0. I love it still and desperately hope we stay up and build ourselves up to being an established side at this level but I struggle to foresee a time when I can really enjoy it like I used to, but, as said, that might just be a result of growing up a bit. It's just not a laugh on a weekend like it was. It's all got a bit serious.
Rambled on a bit there. Forgot to say that you're certainly a real fan. I'm slowly starting to become the same way which is good in a way because I can forget most games a few hours afterwards. I just dislike some of this current QPR squad because they get paid to care and graft for the club but some do not.
That's a really good post Watford. I really feel for my 12 year old son. He was so excited that we were in the Premiership and that his wonderful Dad was buying him a season ticket. We always get there early and watch the players warm up, with my son staring, awe-struck. He was so excited when Cisse joined, jumping to his feet when Cisse left a Wolves player for dead with a trick and turn of speed, but then sat with his head in his hands as the idiot got himself sent off. Same scenario with Diakite! Now we face relegation and more disappointment. I know that's all about growing up, but I was hoping to share a few more great days with him at LR than just beating Wigan...obviously the chelsea game will live long in his memory. We had many, many great days at the ground last season, culminating in watching us lift the league trophy!! Sorry....rambled on too!
It's a tough age that, Col, especially given most of his mates are probably Chelsea and Arsenal and rip the piss out of him having not been to half a dozen games in their lives. I think that going home and away with a club that disappoints more often than not is character-building for kids. All my earliest memories are from my first away games at ****holes that I was for some reason dragged to like Walsall and Crewe and I think it instils a greater desire to win in other areas of life as you grow up when seeing your team win isn't a given and it means so much to you, assuming he's like I was at that age. I think QPR certainly was a special club and I feel lucky to have caught the end of those years. I just hope for people like him that that soul hasn't been lost and that there will be some proper QPR people within the team/club to keep it alive however successful we become or, quite possibly, descend into oblivion.
You're right about his mates ripping the piss....and yeah, they're all Chelsea, Man Utd etc and never go to a game!! He's a strong little ****er though...he loves the Rs. Roll on Saturday and hopefully give us all something to cheer eh?
Watford and Col, great posts. My boy is 15 and, because we can't get to every game, he has NEVER seen us win in the Premiership. We'll be in the Upper Loft next Saturday and this team owe him one big time. Your points about the players, cash etc are very well made Watford. I think my detachment comes from not really caring about them as people or characters and a general dislike of the 'industry' since the TV cash kicked in. I certainly didn't feel like this in the 70s as a teenager, but because we didn't have this wall to wall media coverage and addictive sites like this, it was easier to keep in a box, footy was about being at the game, listening to the results on Sports Report on the way home, Match of the Day and The Big Match. By Sunday afternoon it was all over until the next week. I may be an anarchist, but I genuinely hope the money deserts this sport and it becomes what it started as - cheap entertainment for working people, real escapism. I know it won't happen, so I'm grateful that I am old enough to have seen the game in the 70s at least. The last vestige of this is sites like Not606, with real people showing real passion. And yes, I am hopelessly nostalgic.....
Mate, there's many of us in the same boat! My lad insists on getting there early. Chips and a drink outside, pitch side for the warm up and then up to the seats for the match. He loves it but gets so much crap at school says he supports united or the scum to shut them up. He can't understand why we would boo own team and players. I for one remain positive. If I wanted glory I'd go for the big boys but I don't, I want success with the r's. It is these rough times that make the success sweeter. At the moment every game is a cup final and will be to the end. When we survive on goal difference in the last game with a last minute wonder strike you will experience a buzz like never before!!! All the negativity will disappear in a flash and it will be all about improving next year. It is the fear of going down that is causing people to crack because its far from reality yet. It's all about nerve and I'm going to hold mine and let the Blackburn, wolves, Wigan and boltons buckle first!
My nephew just tells them they're glory hunting bastards and that QPR are a proper team - although in slightly softer words I imagine!
All part of being a QPR fan, I wouldn't want it any other way. We've always done things the hard way, so much despair, anger and frustration and then we go and beat Chelsea or something akin to that. I reckon we'll stay up but by a thread. Keep the faith Watford, it'll come good, I was lucky enough to watch Stainrod, Allen, Wegerle and Sir Les in their pomp so I can understand that frustration, you've done it hard mate just like this infuriating football club of ours!
