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[Steve Russell]

QPR Won 4-0 At Highbury in 1966 to Lift the London Challenge Cup Again.

On Tuesday 10th May 1966, Rangers won the London FA Challenge Cup Final
for the fourth time. The R’s lifted the trophy at Highbury after an emphatic
4-0 victory.

The game kicked off at 7pm and oddly, apart from the line-up, there was no other
mention of QPR inside the four page programme! Sean Kilfeather wrote the following
report for the Willesden & Brent Chronicle:

‘The clouds of disappointment have lifted a little from Loftus Road and three pieces of
news have helped to push away the memories of a frustrating failure to gain promotion.

On Tuesday night came the pick of the bunch when a team made up of Rangers products –
with one exception – swamped Arsenal in the final of the London FA Challenge Cup and
John Collins walked off the Highbury pitch with a handsome trophy for the Rangers
sideboard.

This was a highly impressive display by Rangers who fielded six regular first teamers
against a strong Arsenal side with four players who appear on regular first team duty.

Rangers were well worth their win and played impressively in attack despite an early injury
to Mick Leach which limited his movements. The highlights of the night were a brilliantly
executed first goal, a tremendous swashbuckling display by Tony Hazell and a few fine saves
by Peter Springett.

Hazell played his best game for some time and laid on three of the goals as well as doing
excellent work in defence and in the middle of the field.

Next to him in industry was Keith Sanderson, the odd man out in this Rangers squad and captain
John Collins, Bobby Nash was the outstanding defender on view and on the wings the Morgan
twins kept the Gunners busy with speed and ball control.

Arsenal were really in the hunt and although they found the Rangers defence in a mood of panic
in the early stages, they failed to press their advantage home and only Sammels, Corr and Tyrer
could match their rivals in ideas and execution.

A quick flurry of zig-zag movement from a free kick saw Ian Morgan, Leach and Hazell mesmerise
Arsenal with staccato passing and Sanderson swung the ball in with the defence in a complete
tangle.

This was in the 5th minute and 10 minutes later, Roger Morgan slipped the ball through for Collins
to beat the goalkeeper with a shot off the post.

Another 3 minutes and Hazell swung a pass to Roger Morgan who swivelled past three men to beat
the advancing Burns.

Arsenal staged an attempted rally and Springett went full length to save from Walley and then had
to make a 40-yard race from his goal as Tyrer chased a long clearance down the middle. Earlier, Taylor
had cleared off his line after Springett had dropped the ball.

The fourth nail in the Arsenal coffin came after 23 minutes of the second half when a long pass through
the middle from Ian Morgan seemed to be covered by Wilkinson, but he fell over and Leach gained
possession to round him and shoot past Burns.

Team: Springett, Taylor, Nash, Hazell, Hunt, Sibley, Ian Morgan, Collins, Leach, Sanderson, Roger Morgan.

And those other pieces of good news this week, three Rangers players have been selected to travel
with the England party to the Little World Cup tournament in Yugoslavia at the end of the month.

Frank Sibley, Tony Hazell and Dave Clement will leave on the 18th. Meanwhile, the junior team has
won the South East Counties League. The less pleasant news was a defeat for the senior team by four
goals to two at Grimsby.’

In Round 1, the R’s had seen off Chelsea 1-0 at Loftus Road in October, Frank Sibley was the scorer.
A couple of weeks later, Rangers won 3-1 at Leyton Orient with goals coming from Ron Hunt,
Keith Sanderson and John Collins.

Then Brentford were defeated 2-1 on 1st November at Loftus Road in the semi-final. Alan Wilks
and Mick Leach scored the goals.

The final had originally been scheduled for the first Monday in December, but heavy rain postponed
any likelihood of a match.

Arsenal then suggested to the London FA that in view of the season being extended, the game could
be played in May which all parties agreed to.

This was Arsenal’s 15th appearance in the final, which was more than any other London club and
had won ten of them prior to this one.

The London Challenge Cup had started off as essentially a 1st team fixture in 1908 and the R’s first
match was away to Tottenham in October. The competition was suspended in 1915 and resurrected
once again in September 1919.

As from the 1931/32 season, the competition then became generally a reserve fixture. Rangers won
it twice in that decade, firstly against West Ham in 1933 and then by vanquishing Tottenham in 1939.

QPR were due to play Arsenal the following October, but once again the competition was suspended
because of the outbreak of War. Rangers won it for a third time in 1956 after beating Brentford 2-0.

The R’s final appearance in the competition was in 1974 after losing to Hayes in the semi-final following
a replay. It would be nice to think that maybe one day the competition could be resurrected again
in some way?