Queen’s Park Rangers v Newcastle United
The date is 22nd
September 1985. The venue is
Loftus Road and the
infamous ‘plastic pitch’. The visitors
are Newcastle United.
Newcastle were
promoted in 3rd place from Division Two the previous season. That ended a period of 6 seasons out of England’s
top division. QPR themselves had only
come back up a season earlier, when Newcastle
missed out by just 3pts.
Newcastle had begun the season with 3 straight wins against
Leicester (3-2), Sheffield Wednesday (2-1) and Aston Villa (3-0), before
turning their form right around with 3 straight defeats, to Arsenal (0-2),
Manchester United (0-5) and Everton (2-3).
QPR had lost just once but it was a 0-5 thumping at
Tottenham. They’d drawn at Liverpool
(1-1) and Watford (1-1) and won both home matches
against West Brom (3-1) and Nottingham
Forest (3-0).
QPR were now managed by Alan Mullery, after Terry Venables
had taken up the Barcelona job
during the summer of 1984. They had
future manager John Gregory in midfield and still had much of the side who lost
in the FA Cup Final to Spurs in 1982. Newcastle
were managed by Jack Charlton, and included future manager, Glenn Roeder as
well as future England
stars, Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle.
Charlton lined up his side with three centre-backs in an
attempt to stem the flow of goals against them.
QUEEN’S PARK RANGERS
Hucker
Neill Fenwick Wicks Dawes
Micklewhite Gregory Fereday Fillery
Bannister Stainrod
==============================
Waddle
Beardsley
Wharton McCreery MacDonald
Saunders Brown
Haddock Roeder Anderson
Carr
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Three minutes in and a long kick from the keeper, finds
Waddle on the left. He skins Warren
Neil, crosses to the far post where Neil MacDonald heads Newcastle
into the lead
QPR 0 – 1 NEWCASTLE
Most of the play by-passes the midfield as both teams try
and beat the opposing defences. Then QPR
have a good shout for a penalty turned down as Bannister is pulled down in the
area, but the referee waves it away and gives a free-kick to Newcastle as
Bannister picked the ball up to appeal.
Rangers’ pressure gradually forced the visitors back and
Carr was called upon to make a couple of important saves. Then a long ball from the Newcastle
defence was headed down by Waddle to MacDonald, who then put Waddle through and
as the keeper came out, he coolly slotted it home. 18 minutes in and Newcastle
were 2-up
QPR 0 – 2 NEWCASTLE
By now Newcastle
seemed in complete control and had dispensed with the long ball as QPR struggled
to gain some sort of hold on the game.
Five minutes after the 2nd goal, Newcastle
get a free-kick in the centre circle.
Glen Roeder floats it into the area where Neil fails to clear his header
convincingly and it falls to Wharton on the edge of the area, who volleys it
onto the near post. Just to sum up QPR’s
day so far, the ball falls kindly to the nearest player who is Waddle and he
calmly slides the ball home for his 2nd goal in quick time.
Rangers tried to claim offside, but they just looked to have
given up already.
QPR 0 – 3 NEWCASTLE
Almost immediately, a long ball from the back is headed on
by Stainrod to Bannister who lobs Carr in the Newcastle
goal. But the referee has already blown
for a foul on Stainrod rather than play the advantage. To say the home fans weren’t pleased was an
understatement and their anger was further stoked when Carr easily dealt with
the free-kick.
As the half reached a conclusion, QPR were really struggling
to force a way through the Newcastle
defence, whereas the visitors always seemed to have more space when coming
forward. During a Newcastle
attack, they had a throw-in down near the QPR’s left-side corner flag. The ball was half cleared but only to Waddle,
on his own about 25yds out. He
controlled the ball, and in that languid style of his just curled a left-foot
shot inside the far post, past the despairing Hucker.
Rangers had lost just 7 times in 63 games on their artificial
turf, yet here they were 4 down at half-time.
QPR 0
- 4 NEWCASTLE
Somewhere in Rangers folklore they talk about a teamtalk
Alan Mullery gave at half-time, and it came in this game. Whatever he said had the desired affect as
QPR were a completely different side in the second 45 minutes
As the second half kicks off, Rangers are immediately
positive, forcing a dubious free-kick which culminated in a good save from Carr
as they finally work the keeper.
Waddle continues to cause the home side problems, but then
Hucker kicks downfield and Stainrod heads on for Bannister to try and chip the
keeper, who just gets a hand to his shot.
Bannister’s momentum takes him on and as the ball drops, he is there to
head the ball into the empty net.
QPR 1 -
4 NEWCASTLE
Rangers seem to be really up for it now and the crowd has
been lifted too. Carr is forced to make
a good save lowdown to his right to deny Wicks.
QPR are beginning to get time on the ball, something they
just didn’t have in the first half and there then a really comical moment. QPR are attacking down the right and there is
so much more movement than they showed before.
A nice series of passes sees Micklewhite into the area, but Roeder
forces him wide and the ball runs loose.
Suddenly, Haddock appears facing his own goal and attempts to blast the
ball towards his corner flag, but it hits Wharton full in the face, and
ricochets off past Carr for the home side’s 2nd goal
QPR 2 – 4 NEWCASTLE
Not to be outdone, QPR almost score a more impressive
own-goal themselves, as Wicks attempts a back-pass (allowed in those days) from
the centre circle but meets the ball on the half volley and it loops up and
almost beats Hucker, who just gets his fingers to tip it over as he
back-peddles.
QPR then have another goal chalked off as Stainrod scores
but the ref penalises them for some reason.
Even watching the coverage back it’s unclear what the infringement was,
but I assume the ref knew.
But then with just over 15 minutes to go, John Gregory makes
a run from deep and is not picked up.
Carr comes charging out of his goal and Gregory simply chips it over him
and the comeback continues
QPR 3 – 4 NEWCASTLE
QPR are completely dominant.
There are players moving in all positions, and even the long ball game
isn’t working for Newcastle as a
Rangers player always seems to be on the end of it.
Into the final 10 minutes and under this pressure some magic
from Peter Beardsley. The ball is hoofed
clear from Newcastle’s defence to
the halfway line. Wicks beats Waddle to
it and as the ball bounces to the left of the centre-circle, Waddle makes a run
forward as he sees it’s Beardsley who the ball has run to. Beardsley looks up and plays a 30 yard ball
into the vacant right-wing position where Waddle takes it down and dribbles into
the area. As the defender commits himself,
Waddle jinks outside to the bye-line and squares the ball where Wharton scores
a simple tap in.
QPR 3
- 5 NEWCASTLE
Newcastle
must’ve thought they’d finally won it, but straight from the kick-off, Rangers
get a free-kick on the edge of the area.
Gregory plays it wide to Micklewhite who crosses to the far post and
Steve Wicks gets up to head in for the home side
QPR 4 – 5 NEWCASTLE
As Newcastle were desperate to run the clock down by lumping
the ball into Rangers’ half, the home side were still pressing for a point they
looked nowhere near deserving 45 minutes earlier. Substitute Ian Stewart, played a through ball
which Gregory dummied to allow Micklewhite to run onto into the area, and yet
again this afternoon, Carr was chipped for the equaliser.
QPR 5 – 5 NEWCASTLE
No one in the ground could really believe what they’d
seen. The Newcastle
players looked utterly dejected, some QPR fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate
with their heroes and all this just for 1pt.
A fantastic afternoon’s entertainment.
The reaction from both managers couldn’t have been more
different. Newcastle’s
Jack Charlton was not pleased at all
"Saturdays game was a total embarrassment, absolutely diabolical.
I have never seen anything like it in my 32 years in the game. I went mad at
the players because there were times when they were going to give me a heart
attack. They just stopped playing"
Big Jack obviously thought the problems went deeper than
just the one game.
"There are so many things wrong at Newcastle it is incredible. People are asking me
where I intend to start with the problems, but I just don't know. It will take
years to put right. Some of the players couldn't even breathe in the second
half. I don't know where they got their education from before, but, believe me they'll
get it from me in the months to come."
QPR manager Alan Mullery added
"These kind of games are great for the fans but they give managers
heart attacks. We needed a miracle in the second half and we got it"
GOALS
QPR : Bannister, Wharton o.g., Gregory, Wicks,
Micklewhite
NEWCASTLE:
MacDonald, Waddle (3), Wharton
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