Bobby Gould spent a total of two months at Queens Park Rangers in December and January of 1990 during his roving playing and coaching career, which lasted from 1963 to 2012. However, it is a spell that has become part of Rangers history and is still talked about in the area of Loftus Road today.
During his previous managerial tenure at underdog Wimbledon, Gould had won the FA Cup and led his team to finishes of sixth and seventh in the First Division. Don Howe had been his deputy at Plough Lane for a significant chunk of that time, therefore his move to Loftus Road represented somewhat of a role reversal, with Howe now serving as the main manager of Rangers following the miserable, unsuccessful, and thankfully brief Trevor Francis stint.
However, Howe’s potential young team was severely hindered by a biblical injury list, with the absence of centre backs Alan McDonald, Danny Maddix, and Paul Parker all at once being one of the major problems. Only a last-minute 3-2 home victory over fellow bottom-dwellers Sunderland could break their eight-game losing streak during the autumn. That victory was promptly followed by three more losses and a tie.
It was primarily thanks to Gould’s emergency winter recruitment push and his in-depth understanding of the lesser levels that Howe was able to guide the squad through a successful second half of the season with only one loss and eight victories out of 13 games. Both Darren Peacock and Rufus Brevett, who came from Doncaster and Hereford, respectively, would develop into Rangers mainstays for years to come. While not quite as effective, Andy Tillson was nonetheless a highly reliable addition from Grimsby Town. It helped QPR avoid danger with ease, record their first-ever league victory away at Liverpool (3-1) and go on to defeat title contenders Man Utd and Leeds 4-1 the following year.
After a few months, Gould left to become the manager of West Brom. He later returned to Coventry City, where he had begun his playing career in the 1960s and scored 40 goals in 82 league games while a teen, for a second term as manager in 1992. He had the Sky Blues fourth in the first Premier League in 1992–93 up until January before a late-season slump to fifteenth, but it didn’t seem to have carried over too severely into the next season as they defeated Arsenal 3-0 on the opening day with a hat trick from Micky Quinn. In reality, City started the season with eight straight victories in the league, including a 1-0 victory over Liverpool.
A bad run started in mid-September with a 2-0 home loss to Leeds, 1-0 defeat at Norwich, and 4-2 League Cup shock at lower division Wycombe. A 1-1 draw at home to Southampton steadied the ship somewhat before they arrived at Loftus Road. Gerry Francis had taken Howe’s team, and the burgeoning talent of a young Les Ferdinand, onto a fifth place finish in the first Premier League, and despite losing the first two games of 1993/94 heavily to Villa and Liverpool were already looking good to at least match that. West Ham had been slayed 4-0 at Upton Park, Ipswich dismantled 3-0 at Loftus Road, and the week before the Sky Blues’ visited Ferdinand had been in unplayable form for a 2-1 away win at Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle with Jan Stejskal saving a penalty with the final kick of the game at St James’ Park. The Coventry game would be part of a run of five consecutive league and cup wins.
How, too. Rangers surprised everyone by attacking the Loft End in the first half and lost no time in putting the guests to shame. After 15 minutes, Ferdinand received a long ball from Alan McDonald and instead of taking a touch, drawing the goalkeeper, or doing anything else, he just casually sent his boot through a wonderfully placed first-timer into the far bottom corner from the edge of the box. On the half-hour mark, that advantage was extended when Simon Barker skillfully flicked Bradley Allen into the left channel, where he hit the opposite corner to Ferdinand with a customarily precise finish. Ferdinand had recovered the initial ball following a Stejskal clearance.
The third goal came in stoppage time of the first half and was all about the same kind of searching ball behind a defense that Ray Wilkins made a specialty of when playing for Rangers. This one forced Jonathan Gould’s son out of goal to engage Phil Babb in a collision, which caused the ball to squirt out to Allen, who hardly missed an open goal from 12 yards. A fast free kick was sent up for Ferdinand to nudge toward Andy Impey, who expertly finished into the bottom corner from just inside the box. Wilkins repeated the maneuver in the second half with the same intent.
There was a sighting of latter days Roy Wegerle from the Coventry bench, and Peter Ndlovu profited from a collective catastrophe in which David Bardsley, Darren Peacock and Jan Stejskal all played a part to make it 4-1. But the sort of clever, cute, perfectly executed, outside-of-the-boot pass that only Ray Wilkins was capable of soon had Ferdinand hitting the bar with another header and Simon Barker followed in for an unmissable fifth.
Gould resigned in the tunnel at full time. “Gentlemen, this will be short and sweet,” he told the waiting press. “I have just informed the players and the chairman that I have resigned. A statement will be made on Monday and that is all I am going to say.”
There were memorable days still to come for that QPR team. A 3-0 win at Everton with a hat trick from Allen followed soon after, and further classic away days at Coventry (1-0, Devon White), Ipswich (3-1, Wilkins masterclass), Norwich (4-3, Bruno, Bruno), and Spurs (2-1, a Sinclair double) would cheer the masses. But it struggled to fulfil its potential, rather limping home in ninth in a season when two more wins would have had them sixth, and four more fourth and into Europe. Darren Peacock’s sale to Newcastle two thirds of the way through, with the player of the year award likely heading his way, sparked a hale of anti Richard Thompson protests and pitch invasions at home games and Rangers would win only two of their final 11 home games — a run that most egregiously included a 3-1 home loss to whipping boys Swindon, their only away win all season.
Gould, who went onto a banterous spell in charge of Wales (“let’s circle”), was replaced at Highfield Road by Phil Neal and they were able to climb clear of relegation trouble into an eleventh placed finish with exactly the sort of late flurry of results that became a trademark of theirs, and Southampton, around this time — Norwich, Ipswich, Spurs, Blackburn and Chelsea all beaten, Sheff Wed, Everton and Man Utd all held to draws, in their final nine fixtures.
QPR: Stejskal; Bardsley, McDonald, Peacock, Wilson; Impey (Holloway 86), Wilkins, Barker, Sinclair; Allen, Ferdinand
Goals: Ferdinand 15, Allen 30, 45, IMpey 74, Barker 88
Coventry: Gould; Atherton, Babb, Borrows, Morgan; Boland (Williams 73), McGrath, Flynn; Ndlovu, Quinn, Jenkinson (Wegerle 60)
Goals: Ndlovu 75
