History Special - Accrington Memories

Kerrins gives Vital QPR his memories of a past encounter with Accrington Stanley.

Date: Saturday 21st March 1959

Venue: Loftus Road

Division Football League Division Three

A 3-1 triumph for the R's and a very welcome and important victory it was too. Our form at the turn of the year had taken a nosedive placing us just above the drop zone and in peril of being relegated to division four. Furthermore the supporters anger and frustration was getting out of control and recent pitch invasions and serious missile throwing incidents threatened QPR FC with possible ground closure. One particular football league ref Reg Leafe even went on public record to declare that the 'BushRanger' supporters of Loftus Rd were the worst behaved crowd he knew. Yes this was getting serious folks. The ritual hurling of peanut shells at the opposition keeper from the Loftus Rd Boys Pen would simply have to cease!

George Whitelaw, eccentric hard man QPR Centre forward signed a week earlier from Sunderland (thanks to a £2,000 donation from the QPR Supporters club commitee- God bless you Daphne Biggs Ken Blackburn and Charlie Jackson) was to be the spark required to salvage some respect from the 1958/59 campaign. Although George did not score in this fixture he never the less gave his all and I suspect the Accrington keeper if he is currently alive will have the bruises to prove it. Clive Clark our Will o the wisp young winger also produced a good display with several dashing runs down the left flank.

On the day the R's forward line was very depleted. There was no Pat Kerrins Bobby Cameron or Arthur Longbottom but the 'stand ins' Tom Anderson and John Pearson did their job and both were on target.....OK then everything all right with the world so no cause for those unruly 'BushRangers' to throw sundry objects from the terraces or attempt pitch invasions!

The two points gained from this match plus the 3-0 win against Bradford City at Loftus Rd the previous Monday evening gave the team a much needed lift up the league table and thankfully we subsequently pulled safely away from the relegation dogfight to finish in 13th place.

Alls well that ends well I suppose but alas the writing was already on the wall(as well as the warning notices from the FA!!) for QPR manager Jack Taylor and he duly departed for Leeds United during the close season to make way for the Alec Stock era.

Final Score: QPR 3 Accrington Stanley 1

Attendance: 8,005

QPR Team: Drinkwater Woods Ingham Petchey Rutter Angell Anderson Pearson Whitelaw Locke Clark

Goals: Anderson, Pearson, Tighe og




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