No, this isn’t an nod to the majority of you lovely lot. I’m not interested in crowd less football, means nothing to me, I can’t deny it. If crowds never returned to stadia, I’d end my relationship with the game. I’d probably still watch old games from when I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s to trigger that indescribable feeling. I’d familiarise myself with the legendary team of the mid 70’s and momentarily regret not being 15 years older. I’d remember the way grounds looked, kits looked, teams evolved. I’d enjoy remembering other areas of my life around the time of whichever game. Just watched some old highlights of a few games against West Ham. This one’s electric, but it wasn’t until I read the comments that I realised that the school end, not having fences at the front of the stand, was the reason that many hammers fans were able to escape onto the pitch to avoid a crush. Ironically, you can hear the West Ham fans singing something like “****ty ground “. Hillsborough was shortly after.
I was at that game. I think the crowd problems were caused by West Ham fans buying up a whole load of forged tickets - including in Rangers areas - which meant that were way too many people in the ground.
I was at that game as well (i believe... now they all seem to blend into one) Funny Woody I was only thinking yesterday how fab it would be for a thread discussing old games... a bit spooky maybe I saw it on another QPR site or Facebook! That's it Facebook showing Ale Faurlin goals! good idea I will see what I can find.
Someone in the comments section said they didn’t have a ticket, but just gave the turnstile bloke a fiver and was let in. The atmosphere is electric in that footage. The roar for Pizante’s goal was fierce, but the equaliser! Sounds like there might have been more hammers than R’s.
Can we change the title on this thread to "show your age thread" lol. I was at the original game too. 1972 Stan, now, that is really old. I have a bit of that plastic pitch somewhere. It really gave us a huge advantage. I'd love to know what our win percentage was on it. I was at Loftus Road the day Hillsborough happened. Can't remember who we played, anybody? Edit, 15th April 1989, QPR 0 Middlesborough 0. That's why I couldn't remember the game.
There’s loads. Just watched 1986 league cup quarter final 1st leg v Chelsea. Confirms my childhood memory that big teams would bring a lot of fans to LR and they’d be all around the ground.
It’s interesting looking at the stadium. Love how the loft looks and South Africa Road’s bigger lower tier. I assume the ‘new’ Ellerslie Road stand brought the stadium capacity down. Was it standing before? I watched the last home game against Leeds in 1976 the other day. 35,353 record attendance.
Yep, l had started supporting QPR just the year before and watching these clips really brought back some great old memories. Keep in mind, here in Oz, all we had was the weekly Shoot magazines which my brother and l would pester the local news agent as when they would arrive. Thankfully, we did get Brian Moore and The Match of The Day on the ABC. Observations for this clip................ They were all long haired gits. Mutton chops were all the rage. QPR had no badges / emblems of the shirt. What a great team we had then. Bowles .................. was as brilliant as ever. Thanks for posting.
That was Stan’s fourth or fifth game for the club. I liked the badge less shirts. The paddock was bigger because we had no corporate hospitality boxes, they came early eighties I think. That was my first visit to LR, but I think Ellerslie Road was a low stand of wooden bench seats before, very old fashioned. One of the really old gits can confirm or otherwise. This was the period when Jim Gregory was really being a chairman, developing the club as well as the team. He was also a bit of a wide boy, but who cares?
This was around the time I was going every week... I wish I had that same buzz Like most on here I would get excited from Tuesday onwards. I enjoyed 86/87/88 the most.
Used to have a season ticket in the old wooden stand & where players came out of different tunnels to the pitch, never saw that at other grounds
One of my best days out with Rangers was the Arsenal away (1-3). The game where John Jensen scored that wonder goal only for us to score three. I was in the Arsenal end with 8 others. I remember us going mad when we scored and all the Arsenal fans giving us abuse. The highlight was the Arsenal fanzine fella outside who kept shouting "get the Arsenal fanzine one-nil down, two-one up!" you can imagine my response to the delight of my mates "get the Arsenal fanzine one-nil down, three-one down!" Then we went for a few beers in the Arsenal pub seeing two of the drunkest fellas at the bar dropping their trousers with the whole pub looking at them and one singing Rangers Rangers! good old days.