League Cup South (Group 3)
Team: Brown, Rose, Jefferson, Fitzgerald, Ridyard, Mallett, Abel, Daniels, Heathcote, Burley, Nevins
Attendance: 7,700
In their opening League Cup (South) tie the previous week, QPR drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane.
Then on 10th February 1945, Rangers took on Aldershot at Loftus Road. The following match report later appeared in the Aldershot News:
‘After leading at the interval, Aldershot were beaten 2-1 at Shepherd’s Bush on Saturday by Queen’s Park Rangers, who had drawn with Spurs away a week earlier.
Aldershot had to rearrange their attack in the absence of both selected wingers, Jones and Cuncliffe, followed by the late news that Wallace, who was to have played at inside-right, was not available.
Stewart, an amateur, came in at outside-right, and the other wing consisted of White (Preston North End), who gave a creditable display, and Hewitt (Northampton).
An unusual feature of the scoring was that all three goals were headed.
Aldershot took the lead after 35 minutes when Brooks crossed the ball beautifully following neat work with White on the left, and Stewart headed it past Brown.
Aldershot were the better side up to the interval, but the Rangers played with great determination in the second-half and equalised after 14 minutes through Daniels, from Mallett’s centre.
The winning goal was scored after 34 minutes, Ridyardheading in from a doubtful corner.’
As was often the case throughout that season, the Rangers line-up included a guest player, namely; Larry Nevins from Newcastle.
The West Ham home programme a week later reported that:
‘We gained two very useful points last Saturday in our game with Aldershot, which gives us a very good chance in this Cup Competition.
The game was very patchy during the first-half, and we were indeed lucky not to have been further in arrears at the interval, but our lads made a remarkable recovery to finish with a 2-1 lead.
It was gratifying to see Alf Ridyard score one of his rare goals; it may prove a very valuable one.
We may have won by a much bigger margin had Harry Daniels and Larry Nevins had a little more luck with their efforts during the second-half.
I refer to the occasions when Harry hit the top-corner of the upright and when Nevins cut-in from the wing and sent in a beautiful shot which unfortunately hit one of the full-backs.
We are all very pleased to see Arthur Jefferson playing with us again and hope to see more of him.’
The following week, Rangers drew 1-1 at Loftus Road against West Ham United.
Steve Russell
(Thanks to Colin Woodley for forwarding the match report. Both programmes are from my collection)