Vauxhall Motors: The Replay! Four Years Ago Today

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Vauxhall Motors - Need say no more!
Four years ago today! To fail to beat a non-league team at home in the cup, is not unique. But to be given a second bite of the apple; a replay at home...and still fail. Perhaps THE most embarassing cup defeat in QPR History (and there have been a number of embarassing defeats.) QPR Manager Ian Holloway called it "the worst day I've ever had in the office."
And this was the QPR team that did it (or failed to do it)
Digby, Forbes, Carlisle, Palmer, Padula, Burgess, Bircham, Langley, Williams, Thomson, Furlong. Subs: Culkin, Connolly, Murphy, Oli, Daly.
BBC - Tuesday, 26 November, 2002, -Vauxhall Motors stun QPR
QPR 1-1 Vauxhall Motors (aet)(Vauxhall won 4-3 on penalties)
Vauxhall Motors caused the upset of the FA Cup first round as they dumped out Second Division QPR on penalties at Loftus Road.
The Unibond League outfit thoroughly deserved their victory and should have won in normal time.
But it was left to goalkeeper Andy Ralph to save from Paul Furlong in the shootout before Karl Connolly's miss sent the part-timers through 4-3.
There did not look to be an upset on the cards when Andy Thomson shot QPR ahead after 18 minutes.
But when Vauxhall skipper Phil Brazier levelled four minutes later the game swung towards the part-timers.
They were denied four times in the first half after superb efforts by Terry Fearns, Robbie Lawton, Peter Cumiskey and Nicky Young as they dominated their opponents.
QPR hit back after the break as the non-League side tired. But Thomson, Clarke Carlisle and Connolly all missed chances as the game went first into extra time and then to penalties.
Vauxhall earned a second-round tie at Macclesfield with successful kicks from Cumiskey, Fearns, Carl Nesbitt and Kevin Lynch, and were given a standing ovation at the end.
QPR: Digby, Forbes, Carlisle, Palmer, Padula, Burgess, Bircham, Langley, Williams, Thomson, Furlong. Subs: Culkin, Connolly, Murphy, Oli, Daly.
Vauxhall Motors: Ralph, Lawton, Brazier, Collins, McDermott, Nesbitt, Aspinall, Haddrell, Cumiskey, Fearns, Young. Subs: Hogg, Thompson, Lynch, Derek Ward, Welton.
Referee: S Tomlin (E Sussex).
BBC

Guardian - QPR caught in Vauxhall spotlights
Matthew Hancock at Loftus Road Wednesday November 27, 2002
This was not meant to happen. Vauxhall Motors of the Unibond Premier League humiliated Second Division Queens Park Rangers by knocking them out of the Cup on penalties after two matches and 210 minutes of competition had failed to find a winner.
In surmounting the three- division gap between the sides Vauxhall found a hero in their 19-year-old goalkeeper Andy Ralph, who flung himself to his right to save Paul Furlong's opening spot-kick for Rangers.
Then, after seven successful penalties, the pressure was on Karl Connolly to score. He side-footed wide and the small band of supporters who had travelled down from the Wirral received their reward.
Not only had they achieved one of the great first-round upsets but they had banked £120,000 and TV bonuses as their second-round match at Macclesfield on Saturday week will be shown live on Sky.
"We fully deserved victory; it's an historic day for the club and tremendous publicity for us," said Tony Woodley, Vauxhall's chairman, who was also the club's first manager when it was formed in 1963. "It gives us extra finance to grow and build the club."
Any ambitions, however realistic, to join the Conference can wait for another day. Vauxhall will dwell on their biggest night for a while.
They were the true Cup underdogs, grittily fighting back after Andy Thomson put Rangers ahead in the 18th minute. But they equalised four minutes later. Peter Cumiskey sent in a cross that allowed Robbie Lawton to feed his captain Phil Brazier, who in turn slammed the ball into the net.
Rangers could have won the match in the second half and should have won in extra-time as the non-leaguers, understandably, tired. Marc Bircham came closest to scoring when he forced Ralph to dive to his left and parry a fierce effort and another shot rebounded to safety off the crossbar. When Thomson headed over from close range in the last minute it was down to penalties.
Rangers' manager Ian Holloway, who has yet to win any cup match from seven attempts, was disconsolate. "Where was the passion? Where was the commitment? We looked like we were on a different planet," he said. "It's the worst day I've ever had in the office."
But Vauxhall's manager Alvin McDonald did not care. He could barely keep the smile from his face. "The things these boys keep achieving just get better and better," he said. "It's absolutely fabulous. I would never write these lads off."
Then he put the whole night into perspective. "We had better get going because some of these lads have got to be at work tomorrow morning."


See also Vauxhall Motors: The First Game - QPR Report/Vauxhall Motors