booing and whistling our way to survival

Rise and shine, QPR fans. For today we face yet another must win match. Another do or die moment. Now, finally, the fat lady really is about to let rip. Because by the end of this afternoon, we may well know what next season holds.

If the Rangers beat Stoke City and if Bolton contrive to lose at home to West Brom, then our Premier League status is secure. If the results pan out the other way around, though, we will surely be looking at relegation as a near certainty.

Today's opponents are Stoke City, whose latest stint as a top flight side is now in its fourth year. Manager Tony Pulis appears to have found a formula which guarantees mid-table safety and along the way has established a reputation for leading a well-organised and physically robust team that can be very hard to beat. This approach is not without critics, one of the more notable of whom is Arsenal supremo Arsène Wenger, who has derided the Potteries side for what he sees as their rugby-style tactics.

As with yesterday’s home draw against Norwich, then, Wenger will have been very disappointed to have returned from the Britannia Stadium with just one point last weekend. Doubtless, Arsenal fans everywhere were frustrated by the failure to beat Stoke. After all, supporters of glamorous and well-resourced clubs such as Arsenal seem to think in terms of success being something that is expected or even demanded. Success, many of them appear to feel, is something that they deserve. How dare the likes of Stoke or Norwich or QPR stand in their way?

Perhaps this attitude seems just about fair enough when expressed by those who have spent vast sums on match tickets over a long period of time. Maybe this attitude is not overly obnoxious when articulated by lifelong die-hards who have shelled out many, many times for expensive European away-days and for lots of glossily expensive club-branded merchandise. But dedicated QPR fans will surely always look with scorn at any armchair fans of the more successful clubs who express disgust when some dogged and unglamorous opponent refuses to roll over and take a beating. Glory-hunters, we think. Plastic fans.

Think back to the fourteen-year spell during which the late lamented Wimbledon F.C. occupied a slot in English football's top division. For most of that time, the Dons played their home matches in another club's stadium. Crowds were sparse and the style of football was pretty basic. Big, physical players got stuck in. Long balls were pumped relentlessly forward. It wasn’t pretty - and critics were not afraid of saying so. Gary Lineker once derisively commented that "the best way to watch Wimbledon is on Ceefax". But it worked. It kept a club on a tiny budget in the company of moneybags opponents. It even led to the name Wimbledon F.C. being engraved on the F.A. Cup in 1988.

QPR supporters might not look back at tussles with Wimbledon with very much fondness. But can we really go along with the view that the Dons didn’t play proper football or that their place in the Premier League was somehow undeserved? They were very good at making the most of what little they had. They knew that trying to play the same way as more gifted sides with bigger wage bills would only lead to defeat. So they pumped and harassed their way to the massive achievement of managing to compete effectively for so many seasons. Can we really condemn this?

None of this is to suggest that the most effective route to survival for the Rangers is the adoption of route one football or a cynically brutal approach to the physical side of the game. Indeed, some of our unlikely-seeming late season wins against more fancied opposition have involved some pretty pleasing passages of play from the men in hooped shirts. But one aspect of the Loftus Road experience has definitely not been to the liking of some of our opponents' players and fans. 

For visiting teams, the most jarring aspect of a trip to Shepherds Bush has not been about any treatment meted out by tough-tackling midfield enforcers or rough-and-tough defenders. No, what seems to have rattled some opponents as much as anything on the pitch is the uniquely hostile atmosphere the crowd can sometimes generate. The ties against Chelsea and Spurs, particularly, were notable for the degree to which the Loftus Road crowd were able to take full advantage of their closeness to the pitch in our tight little ground. Reports abound of a Pensioners' midfielder relinquishing his corner taking duties because he was scared of the home fans all around him. More recently, the expensively assembled Tottenham side clearly did not enjoy the near-constant haranguing to which they were subjected. They don’t like it up 'em – and it works. So let's do it again today. Let the Stoke players feel the same kind of heat and let's do more than just hope for win. Let's do our part in making it happen…

…and while we’re making all that noise and making the visiting side feel intimidated, let's do so in the full knowledge that we’ll be criticised for doing it. Let’s keep in mind the priceless quotes we have harvested from the Internet messageboards of vanquished opponents. Let’s remember the poor dear Chelsea fan who opined thus: 

"To be honest I am not a fan of a hostile environment like what Chelsea faced at Loftus Road. Atmosphere like at Anfield or Spurs I don´t mind at all, but what the QPR lot created there was bang out of order."

Let's take further encouragement from the Tottenham follower whose whining went like this:

"What a horrible, grubby bunch of fans the QPR supporters are. Booing every time Spurs were on the ball. What's that all about? Arsenal, and to an extent Chelsea, are supposed to hate Spurs. I can't remember either set of their fans doing that, or us to them. Totally ruins the spectacle. And the hatred and vitriol they showed to our players when they were taking corners or asking for the ball to come out of the crowd seemed genuinely menacing."

Aw diddums. Did the nasty west London yobbos spoil your day out? Did the awful brutes forget that they're supposed to be grateful to play your wonderfully talented team? Don’t they know that Chelsea, Spurs and other Premier League glamour boys are like the Harlem Globetrotters? Don’t they appreciate that the big clubs must be allowed to demonstrate their silky skills without harassment? Don’t they realise that Gareth Bale and Juan Mata are the Meadowlark Lemon and Wilt Chamberlain of the Premier League? Don’t they know that little teams are just there to offer token resistance and make the superstars look good? QPR are just the Washington Generals in this analogy – hapless nobodies whose role is to get beaten. Why don’t these terrible Loftus Road oiks know their place?

This is what they think of us, and this opinion is hardened any time our team capitulates as embarrassingly as they did in the debacle at Stamford Bridge a week ago. But we have to put that rain-lashed and shit-stained afternoon behind us now. We have to get on with the business of willing our lads to victory, knowing that even a win today might not be enough to keep us in this division. Boo, hiss, jeer and whistle every time the ball is not in our possession. Flay each Stoke City corner taker with your acid tongue. Greet each Potters throw-in with loud abuse directed at the fellow taking it. We don’t need to win friends. We need to win points. 

Let’s fucking ‘ave it.

U RRRRRRRRRRssssssssssssssss