Ahead of Wednesday’s crucial trip to Stoke, we look back at a QPR win on this ground in 2011 that put them eighth in the Premier League and had optimism coursing through the club – within ten games had been sacked and Mark Hughes approached.
Stoke City 2 QPR 3, Saturday November 19, 2011, Premier League
It is very easy, with the benefit of hindsight, to look back on the decisions made by QPR under the Tune Group ownership and ask what on earth they’ve been playing at.
Some of the moves they made were obviously stupid at the time – hello spending your parachute payments on Jay Emmanuel Thomas and Paul Konchesky – but some were not. There have been a few moments over the last decade where I thought we’d really cracked it, and were all set for our time at the top of the cycle, safe in the Premier League and pushing on for Europe. The capture of Junior Hoilett, from Blackburn, for example, was one of a club going serious places in my view at the time. Those places, as it turned out, were Burton, Yeovil and MK Dons.
One of those brief, glorious moments of happiness and optimism came in November 2011. Tony Fernandes had replaced this disliked Flavio Briatore and corrected a chaotic summer of recruitment with a late trolley dash for the likes of Joey barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Anton Ferdinand, Armand Traore and Luke Young. Rangers had won at Everton with a Tommy Smith goal, memorably beaten Chelsea at home in the return of that derby game which simultaneously blew up John Terry’s career, given a terrific account of themselves in a 3-2 home defeat against Man City, and turned in a superb performance in a televised home draw with Newcastle. At Wolves the R’s won 3-0, with Ale Faurlin scoring and running the midfield. It was the performance of an accomplished side and, with the win at Goodison Park, Neil Warnock’s side were well on their way to already having the number of away wins they’d need to survive. They headed to Stoke comfortably in midtable.
The Britannia Stadium in Tony Pulis’ time in charge was a graveyard of the Premier League’s more established names – a cliched difficult place to go. QPR made it look easy, winning away for a third time already in the Prem and moving up to eighth in the league.
They were good value for it as well, out passing and outplaying Stoke to recover from an early Jon Walters goal and not only equalise when Luke Young got on the end of a flowing move to score his first goal for the club but then take the lead when Traore crossed and Helguson rammed in an unstoppable header. One of those goals I can still see in my mind’s eye now, the cross arcing perfectly away from Sorensen (Traore did deliver one every now and again), Helguson striding onto the ball and meeting it perfectly, the ball flying into the top corner and net bulging right in front of us. Helguson, with a fracture cheekbone, smashed in the face during the celebrations.
The lead was extended still further after half time when Helguson got on the end of Barton’s excellent cross and moments later Shaun Wright-Phillips hit the post in pursuit of a fourth. This part of a start to life at QPR that had seen Wright Phillips hit the post against Newcastle, Wolves and Stoke and have a goal incorrectly disallowed against West Brom – how different his reputation and time in Shepherd’s Bush might have been but for those fine marhins. A typically direct goal from Ryan Shawcross made for a nervous last 25 minutes but Stoke completed just 117 passes in the entire game and QPR richly deserved their win.
It was really rather all downhill from there. This would be Neil Warnock’s last win in charge – if you’d pitched the idea of sacking the miracle working promotion winner on the way out of Staffordshire that afternoon you’d have been laughed out of the room but nine games later he was gone. Ten without a win was a poor run of results, and again let’s not pretend there wasn’t a good deal of worry and unrest when it ended with a dreadful display in the FA Cup at MK Dons and a devastating season ending injury to Faurlin. But it included narrow 1-0 losses away at Liverpool and Arsenal, a home game with Man Utd, a draw with West Brom – where, like I say, we had a goal incorrectly disallowed – and a 2-1 home defeat to Norwich where Joey Barton got himself sent off.
All the same, the mark Hughes reign of terror was imminent. For one afternoon in Stoke, though, it felt like we were really a club on the up.
Stoke: Sorensen 6, Wilkinson 5, Shawcross 6, Huth 6, Higginbotham 6, Pennant 5 (Fuller 68, 6), Whitehead 5 (Whelan 85, -), Delap 5, Etherington 6, Walters 7, Crouch 6 (Jones 65, 6)
Subs Not Used: Begovic, Wilson, Upson, Palacios
Booked: Wilkinson (foul), Shawcross (foul), Delap (foul), Fuller (foul)
Goals: Walters 8 (assisted Crouch), Shawcross 64 (assisted Crouch)
QPR: Kenny 6, Young 7 (Orr 77, 6), Ferdinand 6, Gabbidon 7, Hill 7, Wright-Phillips 7, Barton 7, Faurlin 8, Traore 8, Mackie 7, Helguson 9
Subs Not Used: Derry , Buzsaky, Smith, Hewitt
Booked: Barton (handball), Helguson (foul)
Goals: Helguson 22 (assisted Traore), 54 (assisted Barton), Young 44 (assisted Mackie)
LFW regular and AKUTR’s columnist Dave Barton has set up a QPR Memories YouTube channel, with a mixture of clips, classic games, and old highlights packages. His Stoke packages are embedded below, give him a subscribe on YouTube or follow @QPR_Memories on Twitter.
