HISTORY TODAY: 24th APRIL
Thursday 24th April 2008
by Ron Norris

Another look back through some memorable, and not so memorable moments from our history. We delve into the archives to find a great win, a poor defeat, a debut, a hatrick and the birth of a former Rangers player from April 24th in years gone by.  

Win

1982 was memorable for our great run to The FA Cup final and having secured that in the semi final win over West Brom, Rangers went on a four game winning streak shortly after. On this day, in that year, we won the second of those games beating Cardiff City at Ninian Park 2-1 with Clive Allen and Gary Micklewhite scoring our goals.

The following two games would be even more comprehensive, a 4-0 away win at Newcastle was proceeded by a magnificent 7-1 home win over Bolton Wanderers. 

Defeat

In 2004 Rangers were headed for promotion from (the then) Division Two under Ian Holloway. That season ended with some great memories but if it hadn't been for a poor run of results around this time then we might have gone up as Champions.

On this day four years ago we travelled to face leaders Plymouth having seen our title chances start to slip away the previous week thanks to a disappointing 1-1 home draw with Stockport. Plymouth saw us off 2-0 in this game and sealed a deserved Championship win for themselves in the process.

Born

Andy Neil might not be the most instantly recognisable name in Rangers history but he made 112 appearances for us after joining from Brighton and Hove Albion in 1927.

At 32 years of age the Scotsman might have been seen as reaching the end of his career however he went on to play for a further seven years before finally retiring in 1930 aged 39.

This was a key period for the club, for several years we had been struggling at the wrong end of the Division Three South table and the club had suffered from a high turnover of players every summer as a result of this. However as the squad finally started to settle and gel things started to improve and Rangers improved season on season.

Neil became a regular member of the side alongside another recent signing George Goddard, who would go on to set goalscoring records that still stand. 

Debut

Basil Loney is another one of the unsung heroes who helped keep football going during the First World War. He joined QPR and made his debut on this day in 1915 and went on to make 65 wartime appearances for Rangers scoring 2 goals.

His debut came on the last day of the 1914/15 season in a 3-2 home win over Crystal Palace. This season was to be the last of the standard Southern League set up before the divisional competitions were regionalised for the duration of the war.

Hatrick

This isn't a great date for Hooped goalscoring exploits as Rangers have never scored a hatrick on this day in history. The closest one to this date was scored by Bernard Evans on the 22nd April 1961 when Rangers beat Torquay United 6-1 in the old third division.

His was the fourth QPR hatrick of that season, with the prolific Brian Bedford scoring the other three.