February began with a goalkeeping crisis at Loftus Road, Jake Cole was already sidelined with an injury going into the away trip to Leeds and Simon Royce joined him on the treatment table after pulling an abdominal muscle in training. Ian Holloway moved quickly to sign Phil Barnes from Sheffield United on an emergency loan deal as cover. He became Olly’s last ever signing for QPR.

After the shambles against Leicester Olly shocked everyone by handing out five full debuts for the match at Elland Road. As well as Barnes, Marcin Kus, Andy Taylor, Keith Lowe and Leon Clarke all came into the starting eleven for the first time. The match ended 2-0 to Leeds but despite scoring a blank in front of goal the overall performance wasn’t all bad and there looked to be something to work from.

And then on the Monday following that game came the news that it had been Ian Holloway’s last match in charge, however he hadn’t been sacked, we had taken the unusual step of placing him on gardening leave. The excuse was that he had wanted to speak to Leicester about their managerial vacancy and once he’d said that Gianni Paladini had deemed his presence unsettling.  

That doesn’t quite add up when you consider that Gary Penrice and Tim Breaker were also let go and a cynic might think that Paladini used it all as excuse to finally get rid of the man he’s wanted out since the day he arrived. Regardless, there was no arguing about the teams form and performances of late, they had been quite abysmal and however badly it was handled, Ian Holloway had paid the price.

Gary Waddock was the man tasked with reviving Rangers fortunes, he was made caretaker manager with immediate effect and made no bones about the changes he wanted to make.  

"The style of play will change overnight. Everyone has their own football philosophy and I have mine,” he said “I want the players to be able to express themselves and enjoy the style of play. We will pass it and there will be lots of movement."  

He also confirmed that the club were looking to bring in an experienced man to work alongside him and that we had, after all, offered this role to Jim Smith but he had turned it down.  

Following the events at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium, Jake Cole received a three match ban for aiding Simon Royce while he was being attacked by a home fan. The club didn’t appeal and with Cole sidelined with an injury anyway it made no real difference. Tim Breaker was warned as to his future conduct after he had been charged with using insulting words to Rob Styles, The FA must be onto a right money spinner with that one. It was a busy time on the disciplinary front, after already receiving two other FA censures this season we must have been on the verge of having a meeting room at Soho Square named after us in our honour.  

New Media Manager Billy Rice became the latest member of staff to depart the club as he headed off for a new job at PTV, the people behind the clubs official website.  

Luke Townsend joined Woking on a work experience loan deal. 

Gary Waddock made his first signing as QPR boss when he snapped up former Wolves ‘keeper Paul Jones on a free transfer. The Welsh international signed on until the end of the season. 

Waddo’s second signing was the most exciting though, after nearly ten years away Alan McDonald returned to Loftus Road as his assistant. It was great to see Macca back at the club he should never have been allowed to leave and was surely some recompense for the atrocious way he was bombed out by Stewart Houston.

Gary began to shape his squad ahead of his first game in charge by sending all the loan players, Andy Taylor, Keith Lowe and Leon Clarke, back to their own clubs.  

The first team line up under the new era saw recalls for Paul Furlong, Ian Evatt and Mauro Milanese, a return to fitness for Marc Bircham and places on the bench for youngsters Sean Thomas, Scott Donnelly and Shabazz Baidoo. Millwall were the visitors to Loftus Road and Waddock got one over on his old club, winning the game 1-0 through a Marc Nygaard goal.  

There were thunderous receptions for both Waddock and McDonald before the game plus a resounding rendition of “thank you Ian Holloway” from the R’s fans, which was met by a classy round applause from the new man in the dug out.

Despite Waddock’s win the press was alive with reports that John Gregory was set to brought in over his head. Paladini swiftly denied this, saying "I don't know where these rumours surface from. Just when you think a win and a great performance will go a long way to making people happy, something is dragged up.” Unfortunately having denied he was going to sack “the most fantastic human being I have met in my life”, then doing it and then denying that Jim Smith was going to be offered a job before admitting that was true Paladini was having trouble convincing sceptical R’s fans on this one.

Waddock’s second game in charge was a tricky affair, as Rangers travelled to face Crystal Palace at Selhurt Park, Scott Donnelly was given his full debut for this one as the new boss tinkered with a 4-5-1 formation. Unfortunately it didn’t work but at least he had the balls to try something different and when he saw it floundering he didn’t hesitate to change it immediately. After the poor start left us two down Rangers struggled to get back into the game and Palace deservedly won 2-1 with Paul Furlong’s goal not enough to spur us onto the equaliser. 

Martin Rowlands’ season was officially over in February after he injured his knee. "It looks as if Martin has suffered a tear to his medial ligament on his right knee,” Rangers physio Prav Mathema said “This is the same injury that he had earlier in the season, but with three months full training and eight first teams starts I am 100% confident that this is a totally new injury." 

Next seasons kits were unveiled for the first time, the home shirt was an 80’s influenced affair with our blue and white hoops trimmed with red “pin hoops” whilst the Dennis the Menace away kit was changed in favour of a mainly black shirt. 

Youngsters Scott Donnelly and Stefan Bailey both signed their first professional contracts with the club, both lads penned two year deals to keep them at Loftus Road until the end of the 2007/08 season.  

Waddo returned to a 4-4-2 for his next game, another tough looking away trip, this time to face Sheffield United. Ainsworth and Milanese were both suspended which meant a return to the side for Marc Bircham whilst Paul Furlong regained his place upfront with Marc Nygaard. Things started well for The R’s as Nygaard put us one up after five minutes but twenty minutes later and we were 2-1 down. However we turned it around thanks to a Chris Morgan own goal and a Paul Furlong winner to pull off a fantastic win against the promotion chasers. You couldn’t help think that had this game happened a few weeks back then the same players would probably have let their heads drop and faded out of the game after losing the lead.  

February ended on a positive note. Despite Ian Holloway’s departure no one would ever forget his contribution to the club but Gary Waddock had begun to stamp his authority on team affairs, the football was starting to improve, the boss was trying new things and we’d pulled off two wins from three under him including the fine fight back against Sheffield United. It looked set to be an entertaining end to the season.

< CONTINUE TO MARCH 2006 >