The Official Bristol City v Queens Park Rangers Match Day Thread

[havanatopia]

It was the hottest and driest summer for centuries. It even surpassed the year before which we thought would not be beaten in our life time but when it did we all thought this was perhaps the new norm. The year was 1976 and England was bathed in a long idyllic summer. I remember it well, not yet a teenager, living by the coast, it was heaven. Bristol City's promotion back to the top flight under Alan Dicks and QPR finishing 2nd in the First Division, being pipped by Liverpool on the final day that sent Wolves down hardly registered. Even a Rover won car of the year; the last British name to do so as it happens, the SD1. But In 1976 the UK was in a financial mess with IMF bailouts being discussed, we had shockingly bad food, British made cars, apart from that Rover or maybe including it, were shockingly awful and the clothes people wore left style on the cutting table. For me it was a halcyon year in my childhood and had I been the slightest bit interested in football at the time I would no doubt have missed many of those wonderful beach and boat trips on a match day.

So, QPR, in 1976 was their finest 'league hour'. Stanley Bowles was already discarding British Leyland and knocking around in a MK3 Ford Cortina as, in fact, was my Dad which we thought was a bit of a class step up from the more roomier Morris 1800; we also thought he was being a bit unpatriotic though even if we traded for a Dagenham made 'dustbin'; A bit of an unfair tag I thought as it took us to Scotland and back and even France.

QPR have played in more football grounds than any other club in the history of English professional football and perhaps even world football, one for the statisticians there. Starting life in Queens Park, Kilburn, they moved no less than 20 times from their humble beginnings in 1882 returning to one or more grounds to make it 16 different locations. From several playing fields in Queens Park they went to Welford's Fields in 1886, taking in the Gun Club and, perhaps for that, going to Wormwood Scrubs, previously taking in a bit of Rugby by sharing with London Scottish then preferring a bit of Cricket and Athletics at Kilburn and Kensal Rise respectively, they fancied a bit of green fingered gardening by playing at the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds from 1904-7, had delusions of grandeur in Park Royal where they must have been close to Mulliner Park Ward's coach works for Rolls Royce before ding donging between Loftus Road and the old White City from 1917 until 1963. And in 1963 the hot cross bun MK1 Cortina was out on British roads and, according to CBS news, it was the year that 'everything happened'. Kennedy, Please Please Me by the Beatles was released on January 11th which obviously got the year off to a good start, Martin Luther King and Christine Keeler.. so much happened in fact that QPR moving to Loftus Road which was to be their last move to date, went totally under the radar as did, thankfully, our 3-1 loss to them and hardly anybody bothered to turn up on that March day in London, just 5,700. I suppose the worst winter since 1947 was the reason. Snow just about everywhere.

QPR, largely due to their nomadic existence, have probably a greater number of football rivalries within such a short distance than any other club in London. Fulham, Chelsea and Brentford the main ones. And perhaps all of these facts suggest why they have never really garnered sufficient support, since 1963 that is, to move away from their rather pokey but cosy home ground.

So those halcyon days of Bowles and Francis have long gone and ignominious falls from grace, including as we will recall, 3rd division sojourns on several occasions before and since and today in the Championship have, in my view, landed the club in their rightful place in the pyramid, bit like us really. In fact a close look at the historical tables and both clubs are about bang on with their median league positions respectively.

I do not doubt that Hasselbaink will give QPR a lift. I am sure he already has. What with our topsy turvy season largely looking like it will hugely disappoint I suppose a bit of realism and another humbling defeat is on the cards today at Ashton Gate. That said Steve Cotterill and John Pemberton will have been pouring over permutations all week since that thrashing in the east Midlands. The wisdom of dropping Kodjia and Wilbs to the bench and using a lone striker may not be apparent now, to any of us, but for all we know the thinking might have been to try and play it safe and effectively sacrifice that game for this one. Hypothesising is never a good thing in football but its what we all do to try and keep sane. Perhaps the changes today will be sufficient to bring much needed confidence, that all important ingredient.

A rather flat 2-2 draw to thwart the doom? That might just propel us downwards into the relegation spots. There are often plenty of goals in this fixture down the years. I did not mention in the same 62-63 season we lost in November at home to QPR 2-4 although our attendance that day, at nearly 13,500, was 2.5 times theirs.. They really are a small west London club with delusions of grandeur or maybe no delusions at all maybe just a nice friendly club. I am not really into historical stats but, for anyone interested: we have won 26, lost 31 and drawn 23. Our biggest win and loss are the same - 5-0.. both decades ago.

Enjoy the game all of those going and not going. I hope this lingering typhoon will give me an acceptable audio feed from the delightfully eccentric Bristol City Player 'machine'.

Here are a few possible score permutations:-

Super City 1 Quite Possibly Rubbish 0 ( we can but hope)

Boring City 2 Quintessentially Posh Rabelaisian's 2 

UTC

Edited December 19, 2015 by havanatopia

[Turbored]

Another great post Havana .. I really do fear for us today though and hope the best we could do is a draw. If our heads drop like at Derby on Tuesday I can see a heavy defeat we just got to not let them score early on in the game and we may hang on. Just all us going today have really got to get behind them today and give good vocal support and intimidating for the R's.

[Phileas Fogg]

Hopefully brings us more luck than @Aizoon! A good read.

Would you mind using a different word to 'retard' at the end though please?

[havanatopia]

6 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Hopefully brings us more luck than @Aizoon! A good read.

Would you mind using a different word to 'retard' at the end though please?

I have done that for you Foggers.. I agreed.. it was a lazy end now with a far more appropriate word. Get your dictionary out

Or put another way i was being a right old ragabash by using retard instead of rabelaisian.

Edited December 19, 2015 by havanatopia

[Phileas Fogg]

2 minutes ago, havanatopia said:

I have done that for you Foggers.. I agreed.. it was a lazy end now with a far more appropriate word. Get your dictionary out

Thanks, not much I'm uneasy with humour wise but that's just a word that doesn't sit well with me!

Your alternative is much better but what on earth does it mean !

Edited December 19, 2015 by Phileas Fogg

[havanatopia]

3 minutes ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Thanks, not much I'm uneasy with humour wise but that's just a word that doesn't sit well with me!

Your alternative is much better but what on earth does it mean !

Rabelaisian = coarsely hilarious

And i was being a ragabash or coarsely idle fellow for using the other word which i agree was total nonsense!

Edited December 19, 2015 by havanatopia

[mikep]

Brilliant post Havana. Made me feel old reading that as some of the events I can still remember. The rest were just mopped up in an alcoholic fuelled youth. I am going to put my rose tinted specs on and go for a 2 - 1 win.

[...]

24 minutes ago, havanatopia said:

It was the hottest and driest summer for centuries. It even surpassed the year before which we thought would not be beaten in our life time but when it did we all thought this was perhaps the new norm. The year was 1976 and England was bathed in a long idyllic summer. I remember it well, not yet a teenager, living by the coast, it was heaven. Bristol City's promotion back to the top flight under Alan Dicks and QPR finishing 2nd in the First Division, being pipped by Liverpool on the final day that sent Wolves down hardly registered. Even a Rover won car of the year; the last British name to do so as it happens, the SD1. But In 1976 the UK was in a financial mess with IMF bailouts being discussed, we had shockingly bad food, British made cars, apart from that Rover or maybe including it, were shockingly awful and the clothes people wore left style on the cutting table. For me it was a halcyon year in my childhood and had I been the slightest bit interested in football at the time I would no doubt have missed many of those wonderful beach and boat trips on a match day.

So, QPR, in 1976 was their finest 'league hour'. Stanley Bowles was already discarding British Leyland and knocking around in a MK3 Ford Cortina as, in fact, was my Dad which we thought was a bit of a class step up from the more roomier Morris 1800; we also thought he was being a bit unpatriotic though even if we traded for a Dagenham made 'dustbin'; A bit of an unfair tag I thought as it took us to Scotland and back and even France.

QPR have played in more football grounds than any other club in the history of English professional football and perhaps even world football, one for the statisticians there. Starting life in Queens Park, Kilburn, they moved no less than 20 times from their humble beginnings in 1882 returning to one or more grounds to make it 16 different locations. From several playing fields in Queens Park they went to Welford's Fields in 1886, taking in the Gun Club and, perhaps for that, going to Wormwood Scrubs, previously taking in a bit of Rugby by sharing with London Scottish then preferring a bit of Cricket and Athletics at Kilburn and Kensal Rise respectively, they fancied a bit of green fingered gardening by playing at the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds from 1904-7, had delusions of grandeur in Park Royal where they must have been close to Mulliner Park Ward's coach works for Rolls Royce before ding donging between Loftus Road and the old White City from 1917 until 1963. And in 1963 the hot cross bun MK1 Cortina was out on British roads and, according to CBS news, it was the year that 'everything happened'. Kennedy, Please Please Me by the Beatles was released on January 11th which obviously got the year off to a good start, Martin Luther King and Christine Keeler.. so much happened in fact that QPR moving to Loftus Road which was to be their last move to date, went totally under the radar as did, thankfully, our 3-1 loss to them and hardly anybody bothered to turn up on that March day in London, just 5,700. I suppose the worst winter since 1947 was the reason. Snow just about everywhere.

QPR, largely due to their nomadic existence, have probably a greater number of football rivalries within such a short distance than any other club in London. Fulham, Chelsea and Brentford the main ones. And perhaps all of these facts suggest why they have never really garnered sufficient support, since 1963 that is, to move away from their rather pokey but cosy home ground.

So those halcyon days of Bowles and Francis have long gone and ignominious falls from grace, including as we will recall, 3rd division sojourns on several occasions before and since and today in the Championship have, in my view, landed the club in their rightful place in the pyramid, bit like us really. In fact a close look at the historical tables and both clubs are about bang on with their median league positions respectively.

I do not doubt that Hasselbaink will give QPR a lift. I am sure he already has. What with our topsy turvy season largely looking like it will hugely disappoint I suppose a bit of realism and another humbling defeat is on the cards today at Ashton Gate. That said Steve Cotterill and John Pemberton will have been pouring over permutations all week since that thrashing in the east Midlands. The wisdom of dropping Kodjia and Wilbs to the bench and using a lone striker may not be apparent now, to any of us, but for all we know the thinking might have been to try and play it safe and effectively sacrifice that game for this one. Hypothesising is never a good thing in football but its what we all do to try and keep sane. Perhaps the changes today will be sufficient to bring much needed confidence, that all important ingredient.

A rather flat 2-2 draw to thwart the doom? That might just propel us downwards into the relegation spots. There are often plenty of goals in this fixture down the years. I did not mention in the same 62-63 season we lost in November at home to QPR 2-4 although our attendance that day, at nearly 13,500, was 2.5 times theirs.. They really are a small west London club with delusions of grandeur or maybe no delusions at all maybe just a nice friendly club. I am not really into historical stats but, for anyone interested: we have won 26, lost 31 and drawn 23. Our biggest win and loss are the same - 5-0.. both decades ago.

Enjoy the game all of those going and not going. I hope this lingering typhoon will give me an acceptable audio feed from the delightfully eccentric Bristol City Player 'machine'.

Here are a few possible score permutations:-

Super City 1 Quite Possibly Rubbish 0 ( we can but hope)

Boring City 2 Quintessentially Posh Rabelaisian's 2 

UTC

You see?

THIS is how a match thread SHOULD be started.

None of that half-hearted shyte like last week.

A top thread by a top professional thread starter.

"Keep this standard up".

 

Uncle TFR

[kingswood red]

22 minutes ago, Taxi for Rennie said:

You see?

THIS is how a match thread SHOULD be started.

None of that half-hearted shyte like last week.

A top thread by a top professional thread starter.

"Keep this standard up".

 

Uncle TFR

Just wait until Bigtone puts it into perspective, :laugh:

[pongo88]

Bit of a car theme in Havana's great post. This could a good omen for us as we have a Marina! Therefore a 4-1 win for City!

[Marina's Rolls Royce]

12 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

Bit of a car theme in Havana's great post. This could a good omen for us as we have a Marina! Therefore a 4-1 win for City!

We most certainly do 

and 4-1 it is.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Marina's Rolls Royce

[Offside]

I don't like QPR, mainly because I've seen us play there several times and every time we have lost, apart from in the 1998-1999 season when they equalised in injury time which seemed to set the tone for that season.

Worried about this game like I'm now worried about every game. 3 points would be very welcome.

 

[Coombsy]

HASSELBAINK WARY OF ‘DANGEROUS’ BRISTOL CITY

“The mood is good here after two very good matches for us. We just need to keep going, and keep putting on those performances with that kind of intensity and workload. We have to build on them.” 

Hasselbaink will have to do without the services of James Perch, while midfielder Sandro is in a race-against-time to be fit for the game at Ashton Gate. Perch limped out of the action against the Seagulls with what seemed a serious knee injury, but Hasselbaink has revealed the defender should be back in contention sooner rather than later. 

“Perch's injury is not as serious as we thought, luckily. It will be a few weeks (before he is back) but it is more bruising around the knee than a big problem. Hopefully he is a quick healer and we get him back sooner. There is bruising under the kneecap as well, so it is an awkward one. 

Sandro is going to be touch-and-go. He has a calf problem, but we are going to have a look and hopefully he will make it.

Bristol City are dangerous, period. I think they are in a false position. They are a very good team with very good ethics. They are a very dangerous team going forward, and have several players who can give you a very difficult game. We have to respect them, and go there with the right attitude. And we have to be on our game.

I like my teams to dictate the tempo of the game. We have to go there with the intent to take the game to the opponent, and make it really difficult for them. There are several ways of doing that, and we might have to do it a different way against Bristol City, but we do like to play with tempo.” 

Read more at http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/ji...qVJw3xGgSfJ.99

[Major Isewater]

25 minutes ago, pongo88 said:

Bit of a car theme in Havana's great post. This could a good omen for us as we have a Marina! Therefore a 4-1 win for City!

Down Rover.

[Major Isewater]

11 minutes ago, Offside said:

I don't like QPR, mainly because I've seen us play there several times and every time we have lost, apart from in the 1998-1999 season when they equalised in injury time which seemed to set the tone for that season.

Worried about this game like I'm now worried about every game. 3 points would be very welcome.

 

You , stay at home today .

[One BCFC]

14 minutes ago, Offside said:

I don't like QPR, mainly because I've seen us play there several times and every time we have lost, apart from in the 1998-1999 season when they equalised in injury time which seemed to set the tone for that season.

Worried about this game like I'm now worried about every game. 3 points would be very welcome.

 

Our recent record going back to when they were in League 1 isn't great. I seem to remember our start to the 02/03 season didn't concede a goal at home and won every game until QPR came and beat us 3-1. Always seemed to have one over us.

[ChippenhamRed]

Understandable concern about today's opponents, but let's not forget it it was only two home games ago that we got a good battling point against Hull, who are arguably an even better side.

With confidence fragile, the first goal will be especially important today.

[East Yorkshire CideRed]

I've a few QPR-supporting friends from my time in London (although, bizarrely one of them is from Bridgwater). The general consensus is always highly negative from their side - Green dropping clangers left, right & centre, Konchesky & Henry dodgy in defence. However, with Austin up front & Hasselbaink getting a bit more out of the players I'd go for a 2-2 draw.

[KernowRed]

1 hour ago, pongo88 said:

Bit of a car theme in Havana's great post. This could a good omen for us as we have a Marina! Therefore a 4-1 win for City!

We have our own car, a 'Bristol' made at Filton. I have a restorative 401.

A win would be good, but a draw seems likely.

[Major Isewater]

7 minutes ago, KernowRed said:

We have our own car, a 'Bristol' made at Filton. I have a restorative 401.

A win would be good, but a draw seems likely.

Just 'wow'

[havanatopia]

2 hours ago, pongo88 said:

Bit of a car theme in Havana's great post. This could a good omen for us as we have a Marina! Therefore a 4-1 win for City!

Cheers for that as in all positive feedbacks. You are word playing with Marina Dolman or do you actually possess a Marina? I suppose it is marginally better looking than an Allegro.. not much else going for it.

[Offside]

1 hour ago, Major Isewater said:

You , stay at home today .

Sorry, I'll be at the game - but I'm happy to take full responsibility for whatever happens.

[bissellredhead]

JET (thought I'd start @RedYoshi off counting) 

[AshtonGreat]

Is this game on TV?

[Redderland]

Didn't Stan Bowles slip and break his leg on our pitch? Omen?

 

[Aizoon]

4 hours ago, Phileas Fogg said:

Hopefully brings us more luck than @Aizoon! A good read.

Would you mind using a different word to 'retard' at the end though please?

1.5 points per game away from home is promotion form. I only hope @havanatopia keeps it up

Edited December 19, 2015 by Aizoon

[Aizoon]

To sum up, QPR have played in more shitholes than anybody else, including the Sags.

[havanatopia]

1 hour ago, Offside said:

Sorry, I'll be at the game - but I'm happy to take full responsibility for whatever happens.

I'll chip in for some stocks.

Where is Yoshi with her prediction thingy?

Double stocks needed perhaps.

[...]

3 hours ago, Coombsy said:

HASSELBAINK WARY OF ‘DANGEROUS’ BRISTOL CITY

“The mood is good here after two very good matches for us. We just need to keep going, and keep putting on those performances with that kind of intensity and workload. We have to build on them.” 

Hasselbaink will have to do without the services of James Perch, while midfielder Sandro is in a race-against-time to be fit for the game at Ashton Gate. Perch limped out of the action against the Seagulls with what seemed a serious knee injury, but Hasselbaink has revealed the defender should be back in contention sooner rather than later. 

“Perch's injury is not as serious as we thought, luckily. It will be a few weeks (before he is back) but it is more bruising around the knee than a big problem. Hopefully he is a quick healer and we get him back sooner. There is bruising under the kneecap as well, so it is an awkward one. 

Sandro is going to be touch-and-go. He has a calf problem, but we are going to have a look and hopefully he will make it.

Bristol City are dangerous, period. I think they are in a false position. They are a very good team with very good ethics. They are a very dangerous team going forward, and have several players who can give you a very difficult game. We have to respect them, and go there with the right attitude. And we have to be on our game.

I like my teams to dictate the tempo of the game. We have to go there with the intent to take the game to the opponent, and make it really difficult for them. There are several ways of doing that, and we might have to do it a different way against Bristol City, but we do like to play with tempo.” 

Read more at http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/ji...qVJw3xGgSfJ.99

Dangerous to whom / what?

 

Uncle TFR

[pongo88]

1 hour ago, havanatopia said:

Cheers for that as in all positive feedbacks. You are word playing with Marina Dolman or do you actually possess a Marina? I suppose it is marginally better looking than an Allegro.. not much else going for it.

I feel insulted that you could beleive I own a Morris Marina!  I was, of course, referring to the legendary Marina Dolman.