2006 started with rumours abound, Ian Holloway going to be sacked, the club was preparing to sell it’s best players to stave off the inland revenue and an old face was going to return to take over. All of this was denied through a board statement. 

"The board unanimously condemns recent allegations …. we would like to clarify that there is absolutely no need to sell players in order to settle monies due to the Inland Revenue as we are fully up to date with our repayments. Furthermore, stories claiming that Jim Smith is to become the Director of Football at Loftus Road are completely unfounded."

Within five weeks of this statement two of those three comments would prove to have some truth behind them.

Rangers opened the year with a 1-1 home draw with Burnley, after going behind to a Chris McCann strike it was Gareth Ainsworth once again who dug us out of a hole to earn a point with his 45th minute goal.

A week later and it was off to Blackburn for Rangers’ first FA Cup third round tie in five years. Extra coaches were laid on for the travelling R’s fans as over 2000 away tickets were sold. Ian Holloway went into the game with a more defensive mindset, drafting Georges Santos into midfield, pushing Rowly out wide and, surprisingly, dropping Blackburn born Gareth Ainsworth to the bench. The match predictably ended in a comfortable looking win for Blackburn who scored three times without ever really breaking a sweat.

Club Chaplin, Dave Langdon, sadly passed after ten years at QPR. His memory was honoured with a minutes silence before the match against Southampton.

QPR World posted a much derided video featuring the pre-match preparations for the Blackburn game, in it a rambling Ian Holloway made the bemused looking squad sit through the most bizarre multiple choice quiz you’re ever likely to see whilst Gary Penrice demonstrated how not to get everyone’s attention with his pre-match talk.

Rangers were charged by The FA for the events at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium, the club appealed the charge of 'failing to ensure its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from threatening and/or provocative behaviour' with no success.

Martin Rowlands pulled up in training once again, a calf injury proved to be the problem this time, he was set to miss the Southampton game but return just a week later. He didn’t play for the rest of the season.

There was something of a fire sale during the transfer window, well more of a fire-giveaway actually. Aaron Brown made his loan move to Swindon permanent when he moved to The County Ground on a free transfer, Marcus Bean was offloaded to Blackpool, Adam Miller dropped back into the Conference with Stevenage and Ryan Johnson was loaned out to Dagenham after spending most of the season at Maidenhead.

Blackburn left back Andy Taylor joined Rangers on a month loan, "It's very exciting. I've never been to London before” said the 19 year old whilst Polish right back Marcin Kus joined on loan until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent move.

Rangers beat Southampton 1-0 at Loftus Road thanks to a Richard Langley penalty after twenty minutes. The game has become most noted for being the last time Theo Walcott played a full league match before being selected in this summers World Cup squad.  

Tommy Doherty returned to full training after a few months on the sidelines with his mystery leg ailments, both Marc Bircham and Kevin Gallen were said to be suffering from mystery back problems whilst Martin Rowlands apparently imminent return was pushed back another week…. 

Rangers were unchanged for the trip to picturesque Kenilworth Road to face Luton Town but couldn’t repeat the performance they’d put in against Southampton. We were beaten 2-0 and Luton had two goals chalked off and saw one comeback off the woodwork. Afterwards Ian Holloway said "I thought 2-0 flattered them.”

Chief Financial Officer Chris Pennington announced he was leaving the club at the end of February, this was eventually reversed and Pennington is still at the club today.  

The under 18’s recorded their best win of the season, beating Southend United 7-2 helped in no small part by a Ricky Sappleton hatrick.  

Our new shirt sponsor for the 2006/07 season was announced as being Car Giant. "The deal is the most lucrative in QPR's history” said Gianni Paladini.  

A new signing was unveiled towards the end of the month, 29 year old Danish striker Sammy Youssouf joined the club on a six month contract.  

He signed too late to feature against Leicester City but in truth it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. Rangers were, to a man, appalling against the manager-less Foxes and lost 3-2, despite taking an early lead through Gareth Ainsworth. Ian Holloway was visibly shocked in the post match interviews and the team were roundly booed off, it would be Olly’s last game in charge at Loftus Road.  

At the close of the month two players joined on loan from Wolves, striker Leon Clarke and defender Keith Lowe signed until the end of the season and were available for the trip to Leeds.

< CONTINUE TO FEBRUARY 2006 >