Nostalgia II: 35 Years Ago Today: Rodney Marsh Played His Last Game for QPR

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March 4, 1972 - Rodney Marsh played his last-ever game for QPR. A 0-2 loss at Bristol City A few days later he joined Malcolm Allison's Title-chasing Manchester City - in what at the time was a massive, massive deal for QPR both financially and emotionally. QPR WERE Rodney Marsh. And Rodney Marsh was QPR..."Rod....neee."
The last lineup in which Marsh was in: (Note: 7 of the 12 were "home grown")
Parkes
Clement Hazell Mancini Gillard
Francis Busby Hunt
Marsh O'Rourke McCulloch
Sub: Leach

Marsh had played his last home game for QPR at Loftus Road, February 11 as QPR lost 0-1 at home to Blackpool - a game which also saw Terry Venables limp off injured. QPR then lost 1-0 at Portsmouth before the Bristol City finale.

[Lineup for Marsh's first game QPR six years previously: March 19, 1966: 1-1 away to Peterbrough -
Springett
Wastson Hunt Sanderson Langley
Keen R. Morgan Lazarus
Marsh Allen Collins

In the aftermath of Marsh's transfer: Manchester City semi-imploded and failed to win the Championship (and never won it since) and the Marsh transfer was widely blamed for the City Failure.
As for QPR: The team went undefeated the rest of the season (7 wins and 5 draws) and just failed to win promotion. The following season, they signed Givens, Bowles and Thomas and won promotion.
There was some talk about Jim Gregory wanting to re-sign Marsh (even swop Bowles for Marsh) but by then the QPR team had progressed too far as QPR evolved from being a "one man team" to an all round team.

In all, Marsh scored 106 goals in 211 League Games for QPR. In the 1966/67 season, Marsh was the country's top goalscorer with 44 goals (30 League goals. 11 Legue cup goals. 3 FA cup goals.)

Marsh's QPR Record
1965-66 -16 league games -8 goals
1966-67 - 41 league games - 30 goals
1967-68 - 25 league games - 14 goals
1968-69 - 22 league games - 4 goals
1969-70 - 38 league games- 12 goals
1970-71 - 39 league games - 21 goals
1971-72 -30 league games- 17 goals

MORE MARSH/QPR MEMORIES:

See
http://www.kabrna.com/marsh/marsh_frames.htm

http://www.ynw62.dial.pipex.com/rodney.htm

Also Marsh Q& A