-
Guardian - Monday September 25, 2006
Mark Tallentire at Loftus Road
Gregory starts to paper over Rangers' cracks
John Gregory has spent 3½ years away from club football, says he missed match days most and while he concedes that the big clubs have become increasingly bloated in that time, he feels that the Football League is broadly unaltered. And despite his appointment being the 14th change of manager since Terry Venables was doing the job and signed him in 1982, another thing is also very much as it was.
"This place hasn't changed since I left here 21 years ago," Gregory said. "There's still the same wallpaper in Terry's old office, same desk and the same old leather chair which I've inherited. It all needs a spruce-up. It's like moving into an old ramshackle house and decorating it the way you want it. And it's generally going to be a case of changing the habits of everybody right the way through the club."
It will take more than a few cosmetic changes to improve the long-term outlook for the west London side who have become the capital's punch bag since finishing fifth in the inaugural Premiership table in 1993, but in Gregory they have hired a manager who needs the success as much as they do.
This is the third time that he has returned to manage a club where he was well thought of as a player but the previous two he left under clouds and the experience at the last one, Derby County, which he successfully sued for wrongful dismissal after departing in March 2003, rendered him virtually unemployable.
"I've been absolutely positive all the way through it," he said of his unscheduled career break and after a win which took QPR off the bottom and out of the relegation zone. "Every day that I didn't get up and go to work I felt I was getting closer to a job. I've been desperate to get back into the game but not to somewhere that I didn't want to go."
Working for Gianni Paladini and a Monaco-based consortium would not seem such an attractive a prospect to many but Gregory has promised to throw himself into his task, had the players training at Loftus Road on Friday and managed to get a response out of Gary Waddock's players a day later, when the former manager, now coach was given a generous cheer although he was reduced to supervising the warm-up and handing out isotonic drinks.
The Rangers goals were headers from the strikers Ray Jones and Dexter Blackstock, a pairing which Gregory feels can cause problems in the division and one which has already given Hull's manager, Phil Parkinson, something to think about as his punchless team slumped to the bottom of the table.
"The fitness of my players can be better and it will be better," said Gregory, who considers himself to be a more mellow character these days, although after Blackstock met Lee Cook's hanging cross to clinch the game the manager's display of emotion was straight out from the Martin O'Neill school of celebration. "It was a mixture of happiness and delight, and frustration and anger for things that have happened in the last few years," he said. "It has been building up for a long time."
The fans were perhaps rightly sceptical about the change at the top and the 11,381 gate was a thousand less than their previous Saturday game. Give it a few weeks.
Man of the match: Lee Cook (QPR)
Guardian
INDEPENDENT
Queen's Park Rangers 2 Hull City 0: Gregory's Rangers return begins with a bang
For more than three years John Gregory has been on our television screens but not in the way he would like, explaining results and performances to viewers but not to any footballers. The pundit's seat is a more comfortable one than the hard plastic ones in the manager's dug-out but Gregory has ached for a return to running a club once more.
Not that he didn't have some doubts after returning to the job this week with QPR. Having overseen his first training sessions back at the club he played for more than 20 years ago, he confessed to asking himself if he had done the right thing. He only took a day to deliberate over the offer of taking charge for this season. If they stay up, his deal will be extended.
Despite having left so long ago, Gregory has noticed that not much has changed. He recalled the former manager Terry Venables luring him to the club. As a comment on how the club has barely moved on, you cannot do better than his remark that the wallpaper in the manager's office is still the same. In Gregory's time as a player, QPR reached the 1982 FA Cup final. Their priority right now is to avoid relegation and the former Aston Villa and Derby County manager does not boast huge resources.
What he will do is prepare his team better than his predecessor Gary Waddock, who is now first-team coach. Gregory was shocked to find there was no research prepared for Hull's arrival.
However, headers from Ray Jones and Dexter Blackstock were enough to dispatch Phil Parkinson's feeble side. Defeat sent them to the bottom, took QPR out of the relegation zone and put Gregory back where he likes to be.
Goals: R Jones (60) 1-0; Blackstock (80) 2-0.
Queen's Park Rangers (4-4-2): P Jones; Bignot, Rehman, Stewart, Rose (Kanyuka, h-t); Rowlands, Bircham (Ward, 65), Bailey (Lomas, 65), Cook; Blackstock, R Jones. Substitutes not used: Royce (gk), Baidoo.
Hull City (4-4-2): Myhill; Mills, Turner, Collins, Dawson; Fagan, Ashbee, Livermore (Marney, 75), France (Forster, 67); Parkin, Bridges (Yeates, 67). Substitutes not used: Duke (gk), Thelwell.
Referee: D Deadman (Cambridgeshire).
Booked: QPR: R Jones, P Jones.
Man of the Match: R Jones.
Attendance: 11,381.
Independent
Telegraph - Lift for Gregory
By Nick Hoult
Queens Park Rangers (0) 2 Hull City (0) 0
The pitch is now made of grass and Terry Venables' sheepskin coat is nowhere to be seen, but Loftus Road has a familiar feel about it for John Gregory.
As a Rangers player in the 1980s, he was used to winning matches. Now, as the club's manager, he has restored that feeling and lifted them off the bottom of the table.
It was a comfortable start for Gregory; Hull offered nothing in attacking ambition.
In contrast, Ray Jones and Dexter Blackstock are both decent forwards; both scored, with headers, for Gregory. Lee Cook's invention on the right adds a dash of class and it was his cross, 10 minutes from time, to an unmarked Blackstock for the second goal, that decided the match.
Gregory's demeanour – arms folded, dark eyes piercing the play – suddenly dashed off on a victory jig. After three and a half years without a job, Rangers seems to suit him. "It hasn't changed since I was a player, 21 years ago. There is still the same wallpaper in Venables' office. I'm sat in his chair, at his old desk. He didn't leave his coat behind though. Or his wallet."
Telegraph
Welcome to QPR REPORT - A completely unofficial and unaffiliated fan site focusing on G-d's Chosen Team, Queen's Park Rangers (QPR) FC. (Visit also QPR Report Messageboard and Follow on Twitter.) QPR Report accepts no sponsorship, advertising or financial contributions. In 2008, QPR Report was named as one of the top two blogs in the Football League
QPR Report Twitter Feed
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(945)
-
▼
September
(112)
- When QPR Were Top! Eight Years ago... "QPR Top Lo...
- One Year Ago: QPR's Paladini Profiled in The Time...
- Ex-QPR's Dean Wilkins Appointed Brighton Manager
- Two Supporters Groups Issue Statements re AKUTRs &...
- Southampton Preview: Southampton going for Fifth C...
- "Paladini's Threat to Fans" - Evening Standard
- Forthcoming Staff Changes at QPR: Announcement Nex...
- Ex-QPR: Breaker & Penrice, Holloway & Bulpin all a...
- FA Cup Final Sub Steve Burke Turns 46
- Rowlands Signs New Contract...Stewart in Jamaica S...
- Marking One Year: Gianni Paladini Completes His Fi...
- Birthday: Stefan Moore Turns 23
- QPR's New Loan Signing from Chelsea, Teenage Midfi...
- Staff Changes at QPR
- Ainsworth on Changes at QPR
- Birthday: Ex-QPR (and Plymouth) John Delve - 53!
- Year ago Today: Sturridge, Dyer, Shittu, Santos an...
- Reposting John Gregory's Comments re Terry Venable...
- No Nick Ward Call up by Australia...Paul Jones set...
- Meanwhile at Swindon: Official Statement re Bill P...
- Paladini Taking Legal Action re "A Kick Up The Rs"...
- Ten Years Ago today: Home Cup Exit for QPR!
- A Year Ago, Taking Issue with the Standard
- QPR 2 Hull 0 - Additional Match Reports
- Another Interesting Week for QPR Fans
- Birthdays: Current Defender Matt Rose & Former Def...
- Further Reports - QPR 2 Hull 0
- Comments - Gregory AND Paladini Commenting on QPR'...
- QPR Win...Climb out of Bottom Three! Reports & Com...
- Ex-QPR Chris Day Cites His Times at QPR and Promotion
- Holloway Speaking Out in Plymouth!
- Power & Devlin - "Developments" at Swindon
- Remembering 22 Years Ago Today: QPR 5 Newcastle 5
- Former QPR Chairman Bill Power "Leaves" Swindon
- McDonald Departs QPR: "Given Notice to Terminate h...
- QPR Captain, Kevin Gallen Turns 31
- John Gregory on Past Transfer Slurs Against Him & ...
- Gregory Warns of Relegation Fight & Notes Finances
- Gary Penrice FINALLY Joins Plymouth
- John Gregory Takes Over at QPR
- QPR Announce Press Conference (2:00 PM)
- Waddock on Tommy Doherty: Could Still have Future ...
- Waddock - "We Have to Win" Against Hull...Against ...
- QPR Out of the Cup: Port Vale 3 QPR 2
- Ex-QPR Birthdays: Tony Hazell Starts 60th Year .....
- Supposed Newell Assertion re Langley in Tonight's ...
- Marc Bircham Criticizes QPR's Performance "..We're...
- Waddock's Managerial Record
- Ex-QPR Dean Coney Turns 43
- Colchester 2 QPR 1 - Further Reports
- Marking a Decade Since Stuart Houston Was Appointe...
- Birthdays: Mauro Milanese Turns 35...Ex-QPR, Mike ...
- QPR Sink into the Mire...Colchester 2 QPR 1
- Penrice & Breaker Joining Plymouth - Hopefully - N...
- Ray Wilkins Turns 50
- Mark Devlin & Son - Update
- Cureton Speaks about QPR (Ben Kosky/Kilburn Times)
- Birthdays Today: Bradley Allen & Andy Impey - Both...
- League Table: QPR One from the Bottom
- QPR 0 Birmingham 2 - Reports & Comments
- Penrice to Plymouth in Next Couple of Days?
- Holloway's Comments re QPR Included in BBC's Quote...
- Ex-QPR News
- Ex-QPR Youth Player Giles Coke Now Highly Rated
- Holloway on Penrice's Hoped-for Arrival...and on W...
- QPR Play Birmingham - Not Beaten them since 1985
- BIrthdays: David Bardsley Turns 44...John Spencer ...
- After 216 Days, Penrice & Breaker Remain on Garden...
- How Ex-QPRs Fared on Saturday
- Holloway - Additional Post Match Comments re Gary ...
- Ex-QPR's Irish International Winger, Ian Stewart, ...
- Holloway Expressing Himself About QPR!
- Plymouth 1 QPR 1 - Reports & Comments
- A Year Ago Today, Paladini Spoke about the Recent ...
- Holloway: Penrice & Breaker Still NOT Yet at Plymouth
- Birthdays: Simon Royce Turns 35...Ex-QPR Kevin Bro...
- Plymouth Look at QPR
- Holloway on His Time at QPR
- Plymouth Look at QPR
- Nostalgia! 35 Years Ago Today - "The Battle of th...
- Kevin Gallen on Holloway, Plymouth, QPR & Winning ...
- QPR Fans NOT Among The Loudest!
- One Month Ago: Paladini's "Bullet-proof Vest" & "...
- Mark Devlin Recuperation Update
- Gary Waddock on Moore Loan & Loaning out one of ou...
- Ainsworth on Plymouth Game & Contrasts Ian Hollow...
- Aldershot's Perspective/Report - Aldershot Reserve...
- Snideness From The Guardian's "Knowledge"
- Birthdays - Bruce Rioch Turns 59...Stephen Kelly i...
- Ex-QPR Youth Goalie, Tim Sandercombe now at Plymouth
- Barry Hayles, Ian Holloway & QPR - Strange, ostens...
- QPR Reserves Win 3-0 at Aldershot
- Nick Ward on Playing *and Needing to learn a littl...
- Stoke Fight FA Charges re Fan Attack Against QPR's...
- QPR Away to Ian Holloway's Plymouth
- Ex-QPRs in the Non-League...QPR Coach, Tony Robert...
- Headline, Two Years Ago Today - "QPR line up Argen...
- Refocusing on QPR's "Mysterious" ABC Loan
- Court News re Past Attempted QPR "Investor" - Paul...
- Part IV: May-August 2006 - Off The Field Statements
-
▼
September
(112)