On this Day in 1966: QPR (5) – Bournemouth & Boscombe (0)

Team: Springett, Watson, Langley, Sanderson, Keen, Moughton, Lazarus, Morgan (I), Allen, Marsh, Morgan (R)

Attendance: 4,732

This 5-0 thumping of Bournemouth on 21st May 1966 was the R’s final home league game of the season. Sean Kilfeather wrote the following match report:

‘Queen’s Park Rangers gave their supporters a pleasant parting gift in their last home game of the season on Saturday with a bright, if not brilliant, five-goal win over Bournemouth.

Although there was nothing at stake in this match, quite a bit of effort was put into it and with the disappointment of this season’s failure growing dimmer the hopes for next season now seem bright.

There has been no brighter spark in the Rangers’ fire this season than Mark Lazarus and he delighted the crowd and himself on Saturday with a typical devil-may-care performance in which he scored three goals, made another and was foiled at least three times by outstretched limbs.

Two notable marks were passed in this match for Les Allen brought his scoring total past 30 and Rangers topped the ton – a tribute to the constructive approach of the Loftus Road team all season.

With two matches left to play, Allen has scored 31 goals and Rangers turn the scales at 104.

Traffic was mostly one-way in Saturday’s match despite the unusual look of the Rangers middle line, which read – Moughton, Keen, Sanderson.
Colin Moughton was making his first senior appearance and showed that he has the poise to become a regular. His passing was impeccable and although his positional play was not up to first team standards, this is something which only experience can teach him.

Sanderson on the other flank was as energetic as ever, but wasted some good prompting with poor finish, while Keen was dominant in the air and held a tight grip on his troublesome opposite number.

The Morgan twins were continually busy as fighter cover for the big guns of Allen, Lazarus and Marsh and while the latter failed to score he did more than his share of work.

Springett saved well at the stat from Priscott and after a few near misses, Lazarus finally found the target in the 36th minute and then banged in another three minutes later after Allen made the opening.

Two Lazarus shots were beaten down on the line before half-time.

A bewildering run by Marsh in the 65th minute gave Allen the opportunity for the third goal and then Lazarus and Allen broke clear in the 69th minute for Lazarus to give Allen a simple chance as Bournemouth appealed in vain for offside.

Lazarus had the 4,732 strong-attendance chanting his name in the 83rd minute as he rammed in the fifth goal from a pin-point Ian Morgan cross.

There was some conviction too in the chant of “We’re Going Up” taken up by the crowd. An exciting fight lies ahead.’

The ‘Supporters’ Corner’ of the programme welcomed Miss Dawn Thomas, of 255 Western Avenue, Acton, who had been bedridden for a year after a serious motor accident.

Following two good away wins at Oldham and Walsall respectively, the R’s finished the season in third place.

However, Rangers did win the London Challenge Cup, beating Arsenal 4-0 at Highbury. Also the Youth team pipped the North Londoners at the post on goal average, to become the South East Counties League champions.

Steve Russell

One thought on “On this Day in 1966: QPR (5) – Bournemouth & Boscombe (0)

  1. If we had not underperformed from August to November that season we could have gone up.

    We got too far behind Hull and Millwall and in the end could not catch them.

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