Queens Park Rangers vs Reading

HOOPS
If you get this every
couple of years in your
career, it’s brilliant!
our way. On reflection, it was
marvellous to get to the final, it really
was. To win it would have been the
icing on the cake.
Tottenham had some world-famous
players but we were a very good
Division Two side, weren’t we?
An exceptionally good team when you
look at the players that we had…Clive
Allen, John Gregory, Terry Fenwick,
Simon Stainrod, Peter Hucker, Warren
Neill. There was real quality
throughout the whole Rangers squad.
So it was no surprise at all that Terry
Venables got us going. In many ways,
Terry played a major part in all our
careers. He was a coach who was just
on a different planet to everybody
else. He got us organised and closing
down, showing opposition players
inside and everything. Teams close
down in the modern era but Terry had
us doing that way back in 1982. When
you achieve that organisation with
decent players, all of a sudden Terry
had a very good team at QPR. After
reaching the FA Cup final, we won
Division Two the following season and
12 months later we finished fifth in
the top flight to qualify for the UEFA
Cup. But unfortunately Terry decided
to go off to manage Barcelona and
the Rangers team broke up soon
afterwards. It was a real shame.
How would you sum up your own
style of play?
Most of the time, Terry played me on
the right. But throughout my career, I
appeared in several different positions
in midfield and I finished up as a
right-back, playing for Gillingham
under Tony Pulis.
You’re 60 years old now, Gary – what
are you up to?
I was a professional footballer for 19
years and now I have been a black cab
driver for 20 years. I don’t work loads
of hours these days, I just do what I
have to do and get myself home. I got
married last year and moved house a
couple of years ago. It’s nice being
settled – I have three daughters and
five grandchildren and my wife has
three children, so it’s a big family for
us. Looking back, I loved my time at
QPR and remember that spell fondly.
The crowd were so close to the pitch
at Loftus Road that the atmosphere
was always electric. Those fans at
QPR were very kind to me and it was
such an enjoyable part of my life. I
wish I could do it again, in all honesty! I
am so pleased that the R’s are doing
well this season as I always look out
for their results.
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