what a terrible game, and yet how exciting! when i got home, my long-suffering (40 years of qpr fans in the family and could care less about football) mother said, 'so you beat the bottom team.' but, yeah. b-b-b-but we won!ok, the first half was pretty dire except for dexter's cleanly-taken goal to put us in the lead. just booting it up in the air for nygaard to try and nod on. then ainsworth went off after a clash during a header (rumour is that he broke his leg, poor chap) and o how we missed him. he may not be so fast any more, but his energy and his competitive nature and his niggling of the opposition were sorely absent. smith came on, but did not fill that space.
just before half-time, looton scored a soft goal.
the linesman down our end was useless. he kept checking with the ref before making a decision. and then he missed a blatant foul against smith not ten feet away from him and parallel - the defender had his arm across smith's neck and was pushing back so hard i thought his head was going to come off. while we were all screaming about that, play went straight down the other end and nygaard made his contribution to the score, handling for a penalty. 1 - 2.
everyone started losing their tempers. the ref made a series of questionable decisions, all against us. we had a penalty turned down. our old boy richard langley came on for looton. was he booed! we used to love him. my sister still does. i wonder what it feels like to have 10k people all screaming at you what a wanker you are.
and then, and then ... furlong is tripped in the box again and we finally get our penalty. about 5 minutes to go. langers starts mouthing off at everyone, and tries some gamesmanship to put dexter off. the woman on my right covers her face with her hands. dex waits for the ref to sort things out. he steps up to take the penalty. i cannot see where it goes because all around me are standing and screaming. GOOOOOAL! a strange man next to me is hugging me and someone is slapping me on the back. we have equalised. i am screaming. we are singing the pigbag song with glee (da da da da - hoops! - da da da). we sing for blackstock. 'langley, langley, what's the score?' we tell him to fcuk off. the noise is now non-stop. 'stand up, if you love rangers!' 'rangers' reject!' (for langers), is that the dambusters theme? something like it. the ball is down the other end and people are panicking. 'come on, get yer boot into it!' there are to be 3 minutes injury time. the drum in the r block is beating. the ellerslie road guys start the chant, 'sing your hearts out, sing your hearts out, sing your hearts out for the lads!' we are attacking again, and there is furs in the middle of the penalty area, and i am left short again as all around me rise, and pandemonium. furs has scored! we lead 3- 2 with only seconds left! the guy next to me nearly tips me over the seats in front as we dance for joy. i hold onto his jacket, as he goes into a group hug with fans to his left. we are punching the air and singing 'there's only one furlong.' i throw my head back with joy and see my outstretched hands silhouetted against the sky and i scream with the others.
after this, we all keep whistling for the ref to blow up. right at the end looton have a free kick at the right-hand corner of the penalty box. we are holding our breath, it is ok, and then the ref calls full-time and we are in ecstasy. i cannot remember anything more thrilling for years. 'the r's are staying up!' 'looton town are going down!' our subs rush onto the field to begin celebrating, and the rush for the pubs begins.
we are almost safe from relegation. almost safe. the players looked drained, but still came over to thank us. biggie stayed until last, pumping his fists to wind up the crowd. we love him. for a moment, i am happy.
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