League Division Two
Team: Parkes, Clement, Gillard, Venables, Hunt, Hazell, Ferguson, Francis, Leach, Marsh, Salvage
Sub: McCullough
Attendance: 8,613
On 3rd April 1971, Rangers took on struggling Bolton Wanderers at Loftus Road. Roy Horobin later filed the following match report:
‘A sizzling hat-trick from Rodney Marsh, the idol of Loftus Road, left poor Bolton in tatters.
Marsh began his magic in the 26th minute, when he sent Ian Gillard away with a glorious pass and the left-back grazed a post with his shot.
After 35 minutes, Rangers went ahead. Terry Venables took a free kick on the left and the leaping Marsh headed the ball over the hesitant Bolton defence and into the net.
Bolton began the second-half with spirit, and after forcing two corners, Roger Hunt must have equalised but for a slip at the crucial moment. But Bolton’s hopes vanished after 62 minutes.
Marsh, playing with the ball in the penalty area for a full minute, goaded the Bolton defence into an indiscretion when at last Redfern brought him down. Marsh himself took the penalty kick and made no mistake.
Bolton were now fighting a lost cause, and Marsh chalked up his hat-trick in the 77th minute with a fierce header from a Tony Hazell cross.
Three minutes from the end, Marsh put Mick Leach through for the fourth goal.
Rangers’ manager Gordon Jago said afterwards: “Rodney is a truly great player by any standards.”
And Pat Collins’ report (edited) appeared in ‘The People’:
‘This belonged entirely to the incredible Rodney Marsh. He turned an ordinary, uninspiring game into a cracker with his second hat-trick of the season.
His first goal was a back-header from a free kick. His second was a penalty after Redfern had chopped him down in the box, and the third was a header from Hazell’s cross.
Bolton began playing the numbers game with Hulme wearing No.9 and playing as a second stopper, and strikers Hunt and Greaves wearing four and six respectively.
This was Marsh’s day, and he knew it. His second goal was sheer showmanship, when he beat Rimmer several times before Redfern frustratedly made the tackle that brought the penalty.
Typically, Marsh applauded Peter Clarke for a great save which prevented his fourth.
And he was one of the first, after supplying the chip to let in Leach for the fourth, to go across and congratulate the scorer.
It wasn’t much of a match, more a one-man show by R. Marsh, Esq,. Soccer entertainer extraordinary.’
Steve Russell
I was there! A very innocent lad then of 14 years stood on the terraces at the old school end – it was freezing and I remember clutching my Bovril just to keep my hands warm. For me, that game was really great for a number of reasons. The previous season (1969/70 ), the Bolton games turned out to be a nightmare, losing 4-6 away and I was there for the 0-4 defeat and feeling crushed that at what seemed such an end to brilliantly exciting season, then 2/3 rds of the way through, only for it to disappear very fast into mid-table oblivion. In a way, Marsh’s hat trick in 1970/71 was therefore a perfect riposte. At that time Mick Leach was so undeservedly a target for the boo-boo boys, and it was great to see him get that goal in the end.
I’ve been a QPR supporter since the 1967/68 season, when my mum finally allowed me to come to to the QPR-Cardiff game 1-0 in April of that season but I was heartbroken that Rodney Marsh was injured and not playing after all the magical things I heard about him from my mates at school (Latymer Upper). This guy was an absolute genius and my hero from from the early seventies. Despite trying my best at football, I could never even ever come close to his skills, trying pathetically to try it on at my school’s 1st eleven and at university – not to mention Stan Bowles ………………… being later another magnificent story of genius in the annals of QPR.