Snippets: Nardiello on QPR...Ex-QPR John O'Rourke Birthday

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Guardian -
"It was a nightmare at QPR," he said. "The new manager [Luigi De Canio] didn't like me as a player..."
Guardian's "Man of the match Swift, lively and inventive, he dovetailed beautifully with Macken and caused West Bromwich's errant defence untold problems. Best moment The speed of mind and the calm finish for Barnsley's first goal" Guardian

Indepdent
The Barnsley striker Danny Nardiello, who played such a key part in Saturday's demolition of West Bromwich Albion, has been through hell and back. Well, Loftus Road anyway.
"I went to Queen's Park Rangers when John Gregory was manager. I got injured, played just a couple of games. Then the new manager came and he obviously didn't like me as a player and let me go out on loan. This is where I wanted to come back to and hopefully I can start repaying the manager and the fans." Independent

Former QPR Forward, John O'Rourke Turns 63
Born February 11, 1945...Ex- Luton, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, Coventry, etc....
Signed by Gordon Jago in 1970 for a then record fee of 65,000 pounds as a prolific goalscorer (a few weeks after we also signed Terry Mancini to help our defense) to help us win promotion (after a competition with Millwall to sign him)
Unfortunately he didn't score that many. The following season, he scored a few, but we then signed Stan Bowles; O'Rourke was injured and then kept out by a forward line of Bowles, Givens and Thomas. And we sold him to Bournemouth for about 40,000.
We initially almost signed him from Middlesbrough in 1967/68 to bolster our push to the First Division. We couldnt agree terms, so O'Rourke joined Ipswich. And instead we signed Frank Clarke from Shrewsbury... (And a couple of years later, O'Rourke went to Coventry and Clarke had joined Ipswich from QPR!)

From Middlesbrough Heroes
JOHN O'ROURKE 1966-68
THE crowd used to sing "Give us a goal, John O' Rourke" to the tune of "Give It To Me" by The Troggs - and he certainly did.
Arriving from Luton Town in 1966 with a formidable record of 64 goals in 84 games, O' Rourke carried on where he'd left off. In his very first game, he stuck two past Colchester and by the end of the season had chalked up 30 goals, nine of which came in hat-tricks.
His finest hour came in the last game of the season. Boro needed nothing less than victory to secure a place in the second division and O' Rourke was in the kind of form to give it to them, hammering in three goals in a 4-1 win over Oxford United.
He was capped for England under-23s against Turkey in Ankara and scored two more hat-tricks the following season, but with his marvellous goal-scoring ratio, it was only a matter of time before he was snapped up by a First Division club.
He moved to Ipswich in February 1968, moving again to Coventry, then QPR and finally Bournemouth. He must have liked it on the south coast because he stayed to open a newsagents. http://www.mfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/HeroesDetail/0,,1~52174,00.html

See also: Wikipedia Profile


Others Snippets:
Dominic Shimmin was an unused Sub for Crawley - Report