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"Where were you at 11.44 a.m.on Saturday 7th May 2011?" will be a question that no Rangers fan will have trouble answering for years to come! Me? I was in "The Adelaide" pub on the Uxbridge Road, enjoying a pre-match brunch and pint (or two!) with friends. Whilst there was certainly a celebratory air evident within the pub, it was all rather muted until THE news came through from Wembley. A Hoops fan sitting near me received a text instructing him to check the BBC website. Informing everyone that important news had come in, and commanding all around him to be quiet, he announced that there was to be no points deduction. The collective outpouring of relief and then unadulterated joy displayed by the Rangers fans around me is something that I will never forgot! After all the conjecture, the speculation about the Alejandro Faurlin enquiry outcome, that has for weeks dampened spirits and held celebrations in check, justice was seen to be done as QPR were rightfully crowned Football League Champions!
Events on the pitch during the match against Leeds that followed were largely irrelevant. Promotion had been secured, and the Championship had been won, and so it was all about celebrating these achievements! Celebrate I did, alongside the same group of people that I see every other week during the season as we make our fortnightly pilgrimage to Loftus Road. We've kept the faith, held onto the dream as the club lurched from one crisis to another, and now our commitment and belief had finally been rewarded! The celebrations taking place on the Uxbridge Road, after the game, will long live in the memory, as fans from various packed out hostelries spilt out onto the streets. Handshakes, high fives, embraces, celebratory chants, the popping and imbibing of much champagne, even impromptu conga dancing in the streets, were all in evidence!
Looking ahead to next season, in the Premiership, and inevitably there has already been much speculation in the media as to who's in and who's out amongst the playing and coaching staff. Marcello Lippi anyone? No thanks, I'd rather stick with Neil Warnock - he may not have the best Premiership track record, but he's worked wonders in getting us up and surely deserves the opportunity to prove himself in the top flight. No one can doubt that the playing squad needs a considerable overhaul. Warnock will have to be somewhat ruthless as he attempts to mould and shape a team capable of holding their own in the top flight. He may well have to dispense wih the likes of Clint Hill and Shaun Derry, outstanding foot soldiers both during this promotion winning campaign, but whose aging, creaking bodies are unlikely to be able to cope with the weekly rigours of Premiership football. Whatever changes are made, I know most Rangers fans share a hope that the club don't go down the road of the likes of Blackburn, Chelsea and Manchester City and simply go out and buy success. Despite having a board of directors with considerable financial muscle, for a few years now, the club has retained its core identity, that of being a friendly, family club with a relatively small but loyal fanbase, and a cramped but atmopheric ground. I think it's very important that this identity is not significantly compromised in the quest for success - no invasion from the prawn sandwich eating, faceless corporate brigade please!
Let's go back in time to Saturday 27th April 1996. QPR, literally clinging on to their Premiership status by their fingernails, face West Ham United in front of a packed Loftus Road. A Kevin Gallen brace, and a goal from Karl Ready see Rangers coast to a 3-0 lead mid-way through the second half, and spark scenes of wild jubiliation in the stands. I find myself in the middle of a spontaneous embrace with two strangers, which I break away from to find out the all important news from the games involving our rivals striving for survival at the wrong end of the table. This being 1996, mobile phones and the internet were in their relative infancy, so it was a case of tuning in to Radio London on my Sony Walkman. Alas, Manchester City, Southampton and Coventry, the three teams above us, were all winning away from home, devasting news that I had to relay to the small group of R's fans that had gathered around me. We watched the rest of the game in relative silence, knowing that our 13 year stay in the top flight was about to come to an end. I can still recall Rangers player-manager, Ray Wilkins, trudging off the pitch, disconsolately, and then taking out his frustration out on an approaching photographer by spraying him with the contents of a water bottle. I could but only empathise with his disappointment, as I contemplated the prospect of second tier football the following season.
Fast forward 15 years, and again I'm in the South Africa Road Stand as Rangers face Hull City needing a victory to secure a return to the promised land of the Premiership. An early Wayne Routledge strike results in pandemonium in the stands and we look calm and comfortable as the game is played out. Even a late Hull equaliser fails to dampen the spirits - nearest rivals Norwich are drawing at home to Derby, so a point is enough to ensure promotion. The game ends in a draw, and the full-time whistle is cue for the inevitable pitch invasion. I look down from my vantage point in the upper tier of the stand, and as I'm surveying the scene, I receive a text from a friend telling me that Norwich have scored again, in the 96th minute! I break the news to the people around me, and sure enough confirmation of the Norwich result is announced over the tannoy. It's all a bit of an anti-climax, but it's only a few days to the next match, away at Watford, where a point will be enough to clinch promotion. A cautious optimism prevails amongst the Rangers faithful:
Well, the Watford match has now been and gone, and promotion and the Chamionship has been secured. I couldn't get a ticket for the game, and celebrated in a rather low key manner with a few beers in some local hostelries. I've been waiting 15 years for my beloved Superhoops to return to the top flight, but I can not be sure whether the moment has truly arrived. There is a dirty big black cloud overhead, in the shape of a possible points deduction, and the FA have chosen to pronounce their verdict on May 6th, a day before the end of the season! The issue in question is, of course, the ownership of key Argentine midfielder Alessandro Faurlin, signed in July 2009. Last September, Rangers applied to the FA to buy out a third party that owned Faurlin's economic rights, and the FA have been investigating the case ever since. Quite why they have taken so long to arrange a hearing is anyone's guess, and as for the timing of their verdict, it potentially throws the denouement of the Championship season into utter chaos! Having found out that Rangers were making use of a player that they did not actually own, why didn't the FA simply ban Faurlin from playing till he was registered as a legitimate QPR player, and fine the club retrospectively for his use during the previous season? It all threatens to conclude a wonderful season on a farcical note, something that Rangers fans have sadly become all too familiar with during the last 15 years. Administration, relegation to the third tier, the chairman allegedly being held at gun point in the boardroom, collection buckets around the ground, we thought we'd seen it all! Then came the billionaires, and so supermodels and African kings in the directors' box, the chairman picking the team, and numerous management changes, one of which allegedly resulted from a headbutt on a star player! Add tragedy to farce, in the shape of the deaths of promising young players, Kiyan Prince and Ray Jones and no one can deny that we Rangers fans have certainly been through the mill!
Whatever the FA verdict, it's important that we do not lose sight of the miraculous turnaround achieved by Neil Warnock, his backroom staff and the team in little over a year. We sit at the top of the table as Champions, and deservedly so in my opinion. A championship winning team is not necessarily a team that plays the other team off the park, game after game (Steve Claridge please take note!). A team that are worthy champions surely prove to be consistently hard to beat, and just five defeats in one season is an outstanding effort! Add to that, the best overall home and away records, the most wins, the least goals conceded, the most clean sheets, the best goal difference....I could go on! Rangers' success has been founded on hard work, organisation, great team spirit, and a potent mix of grit and flair. Let's hope that that they get their rightful reward, and that come next Saturday, the pubs and bars down the Bush are jumping for all the right reasons!
