A Very Different QPR Since The Club's Last Visit to Hull

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A Kevin Gallen absent (bereft!) QPR have a crucial relegation game at Hull this Saturday. It's a very different QPR since the club's last visit to Hull back on opening Day, in August 2005 - when perhaps the biggest controversy then for QPR were the chants of some of the Hull fans.
Back then, QPR had Bill Power as Chairman, Ian Holloway as Manager, Tim Breacker and Gary Penrice as Coaches (and Waddock as Youth Coach) and on the field, Kevin Gallen and Danny Shittu inspiring the club...Since then much has happened on - and off - the field. Suffice it to say: All the above are gone; QPR have had three managers; and Gianni Paladini and Antonio Caliendo are now running the club.

QPR Team back on the club's previous visit to Hull
Simon Royce, Marcus Bignot, Matthew Rose, Danny Shittu, Marc Bircham, Tommy Doherty (Gareth Ainsworth), Martin Rowlands (Dean Sturridge (Stefan Moore)), Georges Santos, Lee Cook, Paul Furlong, Kevin Gallen

Match Report - Observer, Paul Wilson at KC Stadium Sunday August 7, 2005
Holloway rues misses as Tigers prove toothless
Pretentious, Hull? One would scarcely believe such a thing possible, but as the KC Stadium built up to its first Championship occasion with an amplified rendition of William Blake's 'Tiger' (geddit?) followed by a blast of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' one certainly started to wonder.

Then Nick Barmby ran on and we all remembered we were at a football match.

Initially an entertaining one too, even if a few goals would have helped the party go with a swing. There were plenty of chances, most of them falling to the visitors. Hull will be satisfied with a solid, if unspectacular start in their new division, though had Kevin Gallen or Paul Furlong shown anything like the required composure in front of goal they would not have claimed their first point so easily.

Gallen's miss after 14 minutes, after Leon Cort and Damien Delaney had left a long ball to each other, was the most glaring. The once prolific striker failed to hit the target with only Bo Myhill to beat. Furlong was no better with two decent chances at the end of the first half, wanting too much time on the first occasion then putting a header wide from a Marc Bircham cross from the left that picked him out perfectly.

Peter Taylor's Tigers are not yet the sabre-toothed variety either. In fairness they had to reshuffle as early as the fourth minute when debutant Mark Lynch was clattered by Furlong, incurring the wrath of the crowd but no action from the referee.

'His kneecap actually popped out,' Taylor explained afterwards. 'He's very unlucky to make a start like that. He'll be out for at least a couple of months, but I don't blame Furlong. We tell our centre forwards to close people down, too. I thought we adjusted well, keeping a clean sheet is not easy against QPR. They have two good strikers and their back two come up and score goals as well.

'We played with confidence and played with belief. We were under pressure, but this is always going to happen at this level. The longer the game went on I felt that we were getting stronger and stronger and thought we were going to score a goal.'

Another new Hull signing, Steve McPhee, all the way from Beira Mar in Portugal by way of Vitesse Arnhem in Holland and Port Vale in Burslem, led the line enthusiastically without ever being presented with the sort of clear-cut opportunity Rangers kept wasting. He went close on a couple of occasions, but when he hit the bar with a flick in the first half it was from an offside position.

Barmby did not contribute anything like as much in his 65 minutes on the field, and if he continues to ration his energy as carefully as this there is no reason why the former England player cannot carry on at this level for another couple of decades. That is approximately how long the second half could have carried on without a goal, had not Dermot Gallagher brought it to a conclusion after a mercifully brief three minutes of added time.

Cort came closest to scoring for the home side, with a header from a corner that went straight at Simon Royce, and Martin Rowlands brought a flying save from Myhill with a long shot that was possibly flying wide. But that was it.

'The game sort of fizzled out in the second half, I was enjoying it in the first,' Ian Holloway, the QPR manager, admitted. 'I expected my strikers to be a bit crisper and a bit sharper, but I'm not too disappointed with a point away from home. Ask Crystal Palace how they feel about their first day,' the pre-season favourites having been beaten at home by Luton.
'I just hope Furs was going for the ball, I don't think he is a cheat. The tackle didn't look too clever, I thought it might have been worth a yellow card, but who the hell am I to tell Dermot Gallagher his job? He was a lot closer to it than I was.'
Man of the Match
Marc Bircham Beckhamesque in gait and temperament (mind you, from the top of the West Stand Dermot Gallagher looked a bit like Pierluigi Collina) the midfielder caused problems all afternoon, particularly when he moved to the left. Helped out at the back at the end and with better finishing his crossing could have won the game.
ObserverPhotos from that August game at Hull - Photos

Also: " Hull to probe 'appalling' chants" Guardian