Queens Park Rangers v Middlesbrough

HOOPS
an artificial surface to grass. In fact, the
pitches weren’t as good back then as
they are now so we could have been
playing away from home on a mud
patch at times.
On to the draw for the semi-finals
and in those days the draws used to
be live on BBC Radio Two on Monday
lunchtimes. Would all the players
come in after training and huddle
around a transistor radio to listen?
Everybody wanted to know who you
had got in the next round. It was
different back then, that’s for sure!
For that semi-final against top-flight
West Brom at Highbury, all the
build-up before the game was about
Albion’s in-form striker Cyrille Regis.
The pundits said he was unstoppable…
Well, our centre-half Bob Hazell was
fantastic on the day. We know how
good Cyrille Regis was as a player back
in that period but Bob kept him quiet.
Rangers were the underdogs and West
Brom were by far the better team in
terms of the players they had within
their squad. But sometimes the
underdogs come through and win in
football. We had some good support
from our fans over at Highbury and it
was a great atmosphere. For the entire
QPR team to play in that environment,
with that atmosphere and that crowd,
was all new to us. It was an exciting
time and to be able to appear there in
the semi-final of the FA Cup was
brilliant. Then to go through to the final
was a huge achievement.
We won the semi-final 1-0, with Clive
Allen scoring the only goal for us in
the 72nd minute when he blocked a
clearance by West Brom defender Ally
Robertson and the ball cannoned into
the net. Would you say it was a
scruffy but glorious moment?
For us, we didn’t mind how the goal
went in, whether it was a 30-yarder or
a volley from the edge of the box. But
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