Queens Park Rangers vs Crystal Palace

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hoops Columnist BEN SUMMER ‘R’ GENERATION WRITER BEN SUMMER SHARES HIS LATEST COLUMN The new season’s getting closer, and as we welcome <strong>Crystal</strong> <strong>Palace</strong> to Loftus Road, I thought it would be interesting to look back on where we were a year ago – almost to the day – when Manchester United rolled into town. A couple of goals from Lyndon Dykes, including a lovely low finish past Tom Heaton, an outrageous strike from Moses Odubajo and a goal by Charlie Austin that took full advantage of a lovely, wide-open space where a United full-back ought to have been… Yes, it’s “small club mentality” to be so chuffed with the result in a friendly. No, it wasn’t a full-strength United team, but that was one of the initial sparks of that odd feeling: ‘Maybe, this could be our year.’ The momentum kept going. A strong performance against Leicester (in which the crowd had their fun chanting at Jamie Vardy), a satisfactory result viewed through the opera binoculars in the Abbey Stadium away end and we were good to go. The opening moments of our first league game against Millwall felt like a crash back down to earth – the memory of watching Jed Wallace opening the scoring and sprinting towards the mass of fans in the away end still makes me feel a bit queasy – and despite the incredible, soaring oh-my-god-we’re-finallyhome feeling when Rob Dickie scored an equaliser, the game served as a reminder that not every team would be as easy to beat as Man United. But then, it kept going. Not winning every week, but winning enough to be sniffing around the top end of the division. Dominance up at Hull, spirit against Barnsley and Reading with two late equalisers, *that* Preston game… Listen, we all know how it ended up. It didn’t go the way anyone – fans, club, players – would have wanted. I kind of struggled to write this column towards the end of the season because trying to find a positive spin on what was, ultimately, a fall from grace was hard to write without being patronising. I still love following the club on a bad day, but nobody needs to be told to be happy on those bad days. But the reason I’m casting my mind back to a year ago is because of that pre-season feeling. It’s like taking the plastic film off a new toy. It’s all the familiar faces but with a summer holiday and a week in Germany under their belt. Johansen, Chair, and co maybe 10 per cent more nippy, 10 per cent sharper in the tackle, 10 per cent shorter hair than when we last saw them. The sting of the end of last season still in the memory, but the crushing weight of expectation lifted. Chuck in some new faces, a few weeks of coaching in the art of BealeBall, and who knows? I for one am looking forward to seeing how it goes. 30 WWW.QPR.CO.UK // @QPR // @OFFICIALQPR // OFFICIALQPRFC
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Page 1 and 2: THE OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMME OF
Page 3 and 4: #QPR @QPR on Twitter Contents hoops
Page 5 and 6: hoops OFFICIALQPRFC // @OFFICIALQPR
Page 7 and 8: hoops EVIE RAE To Evie, our Rae of
Page 9 and 10: hoops INTERVIEW: BEN KOSKY MAKING A
Page 11 and 12: hoops good for us. Hopefully we can
Page 13 and 14: hoops Visiting W12: CRYSTAL PALACE
Page 15 and 16: hoops YEAR ON YEAR 1921: Palace bec
Page 17 and 18: hoops OFFICIALQPRFC // @OFFICIALQPR
Page 19 and 20: hoops to THE NEW BOYS… Jake CLARK
Page 21 and 22: hoops A Blast From the Past TONY SC
Page 23 and 24: hoops Scully started his career wit
Page 25 and 26: BIRTHDAYS! Big birthday wishes to a
Page 27 and 28: hoops I know our lads have been wor
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Queens Park Rangers vs Crystal Palace

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