As another Championship season passes us by, we have a few short months to reflect on what we've seen - before it all kicks off again.
It is fair to say that QPR's season has had many ups and downs, unfortunately with the downs dominating.
The campaign didn’t get of to the perfect start with the 7-1 drubbing at the Hawthorns providing a cause for doubt from the Rs supporters. Things started to slightly improve and once the first win finally arrived, the rocky start calmed down.
By October the season had really picked up, with back-to-back away victories only being trumped by an impressive win in W12 over highly tipped Aston Villa.
This created a case of optimism with Steve McClaren’s men starting to look up the table, rather than over their shoulders.
Rangers continued to push on, and the record-breaking victory at the City Ground over play off hopefuls Nottingham Forest, wrote Toni Leistner’s name into QPR folk law.
However, after the Christmas period the downs started to comfortably out-weigh the ups. With victories in the league being hard to come by for the Super Hoops.
The Rs were able to break another record by reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in 22 years, but disappointment under the lights to local rivals Watford ended an historic cup run for QPR.
After the cup exit results were hard to come to terms with, the threat of relegation starting to loom larger and larger.
With such a poor run of results, manager Steve McClaren was sacked with John Eustace being placed in temporary charge. This didn’t really have the desired impact, with a defeat to high flyers Norwich City giving Eustace the worst possible start.
The 4-0 drubbing of Swansea City towards the end of the season offered a sense of optimism that the future can be bright, with Bright Osayi-Samuel providing a man of the match performance.
However, with another season seemingly ready to fizzle out, until the very last moment of the campaign when Matt Smith struck home at Hillsborough to send Rangers fans into the summer with a positive memory.
QPR are now looking for a new manager, with former player Gareth Ainsworth being the current bookies favourite.
From the fans perspective, so long as the new manager understands the clubs values I am sure he will succeed.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
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