Queens Park Rangers vs Reading

HOOPS
1981/82
QPR 5
BLACKPOOL 1
Date: Tuesday 26th January 1982
Competition: FA Cup fourth round replay
Attendance: 11,712
The Programme: 16 pages, price 40p
STRIKER supreme Clive Allen trotted off the
pitch at the end with the match ball tucked
safely under his arm after poaching four goals
for Rangers in their comfortable victory.
This FA Cup fourth round replay took place
following a 0-0 draw in swirling weather
conditions up at Blackpool three days earlier.
Hoops boss Terry Venables promised that
there would be a different outcome on the
Loftus Road plastic pitch and he was correct
with his prediction.
On a mild, clear evening, Division Two
promotion contenders QPR ripped into their
fourth-tier opponents. And once that first
goal had arrived, the floodgates opened.
The breakthrough came in the 26th minute.
Midfield maestro Tony Currie fired over
a dipping cross shot which visiting keeper
Iain Hesford spilled and Allen applied
a simple finish.
On the stroke of half-time, Simon Stainrod
made it 2-0 to Rangers from the penalty spot
with his 17th goal of the season. That award
came after Blackpool’s veteran defender
Peter Noble fouled Terry Fenwick in the box.
In the 54th minute, QPR struck again. Mike
Flanagan spotted Hesford off his line and
executed a crafty chip but the ball bounced
off the crossbar. Allen nipped in to convert
from 10 yards out.
Seven minutes later, the R’s striker sealed his
hat-trick with the best goal of the game. Ian
Gillard’s cross from the left was headed back
at the far post by John Gregory, allowing Allen
to do the rest.
Blackpool notched a consolation strike on 72
minutes through substitute Wayne Entwistle.
Then with 13 minutes to go, Allen capitalised
on a Keystone Kops-style defensive mix-up to
lash home from 20 yards. He thereby became
the first QPR player to score four times in a
game since the great Rodney Marsh.
In his match report in The Sun newspaper,
Steve Allan wrote: “Clive Allen last night hit
the goal trail again…and how. He blasted QPR
through to the fifth round of the FA Cup with
a superb four-goal show which devastated
poor Blackpool.”
RANGERS: Hucker, Fenwick, Gillard, Waddock,
Howe, Roeder, Allen, Flanagan (Stewart 69),
Currie, Stainrod, Gregory.
42 WWW.QPR.CO.UK // @QPR // @OFFICIALQPR // OFFICIALQPRFC