Flashback: 12 Years Ago : October 4, 2007: Mick HarfordMick Harford's debut game as Acting Manager: 2-4 Loss to Colchester and QPR Bottom
After Colchester's first home league win of the season against QPR,
QPR were bottom of the Championship and the only club in the country yet without a win...Supposedly looking to QPRLeicester 8 8
Norwich 9 8
Sheff Wed 9 6
QPR 8 3
QPR: Camp, Barker, Cullip, Bolder, Blackstock, Ainsworth, Rowlands, Jarrett, Ephraim, Vine, Leigertwood. -- Subs: Cole, Bignot, Stewart, Sahar, Moore.
qprreport.blogspot.com/2007/10/qprs-colchester-lossmanagerial.htmlThursday, October 04, 2007
QPR's Colchester Loss...Managerial Speculation...Post Match Comments
The Times - October 4, 2007 - Mick Harford's job prospects look grim as QPR slump - Colchester 4 QPR 2
Queens Park Rangers have spent most of this season stumbling in a fog of uncertainty, but at least one murky issue has now been clarified. A comically inept defensive performance against Colchester United last night virtually ensured that Mick Harford will not be handed the manager’s position on a full-time basis.
Flavio Briatore, the new QPR co-owner, is keen to appoint a successor to the dismissed John Gregory before the club slip any deeper into relegation trouble but, as Harford gloomily admitted, his name is unlikely to be on the shortlist. Briatore is apparently keen to speak to Kevin Keegan, although it is unlikely that the former England manager will be persuaded to come out of retirement.
“The result tonight doesn’t help the football club, it doesn’t help the players and it doesn’t help me, so we have to get our heads down and start working harder,” Harford said. “I’ve been given no indication. I can only prepare the team and I will do that until I am told differently.”
Harford, returning to the club where he had enjoyed a successful spell as assistant manager last season, had been in good humour while chatting with Briatore and a gaggle of sharp-suited men on the Layer Road pitch before kick-off, but his chirpiness did not last. QPR are not anchored to the foot of the Coca-Cola Championship for nothing and their defending last night bore the hallmarks of a doomed side.
After a bright start, the visiting team quickly crumbled. In the nineteenth minute, they only half-cleared Mark Yeates’s corner and, after the ball was played back to the former Tottenham Hotspur winger, he cut inside and struck a venomous shot that clattered against the crossbar. The rebound bounced off the hapless Mikele Leigertwood and bobbled past Lee Camp.
QPR at least showed some resolve in striking back 11 minutes later, Hogan Ephraim, the midfield player, capping a swift, silky move with a precise finish under Dean Gerken but, within seconds, Danny Granville had torn downfield and crossed for Kemal Izzet to head into the bottom corner.
Harford might have salvaged something from a miserable evening had QPR kept the deficit to a minimum until half-time, but those hopes were dashed by more crass defending. Adam Bolder’s foul on Kevin Lisbie on the edge of the penalty area was needless and, sure enough, Yeates’s free kick sped past Camp with the help of a deflection.
The second half yielded more chaotic entertainment. Rowan Vine, the on-loan Birmingham City forward, raised QPR’s hopes of a comeback with a close-range finish in the 59th minute but Colchester were in no mood to grant a reprieve. Three minutes later, Lisbie nodded in Yeates’s cross to complete Harford’s misery.
“I would like to be considered for the job,” he said. “I’ve met the new owners before: they’re good people who have got themselves a great club, even though it has stood still for a few years.”
Sadly for Harford, if QPR do move forward, it will almost certainly be without him. The Times
Mail - Former club sink Harford's job chances - Colchester 4 QPR 2 -
By IAN GIBB - 3rd October 2007
Mick Harford's chances of landing the QPR manager's job looked bleak last night as his caretaker spell started with a weak showing against the team where he was assistant manager last season.
Put in charge after John Gregory was sacked following a 5-1 defeat by West Brom, Harford was hoping for at least a four-game run to show what he could do, but Rangers' porous defence had leaked three more goals by half time.
With former QPR player Glenn Roeder tipped as an odds-on favourite and former Italy star Gianluca Vialli also in the frame, defeat by a team who had not won at home all season did little for Harford's prospects.
QPR's new joint owner Flavio Briatore was in the crowd to see if Harford could work a miracle, and he should have seen his side take the lead, but Rowan Vine, on loan from Birm ingham, completely missed in front of an open goal.
Rangers paid for that by going behind on 19 minutes. A Mark Yeates corner was only halfcleared, and the ball played back to him by Karl Duguid.
The former Spurs wide man let fly with an angled shot that came back off the far post and rebounded into the net off unfortunate defender Mikele Leigertwood.
The visitors were level on 29 minutes when former Colchester left back Chris Barker played the ball up the left for Hogan Ephraim to play a one-two with Vine and slide the ball into the net.
Rangers barely had time to enjoy their equaliser before they were behind again a minute later.
Midfielder Johnnie Jackson sent over a left-wing cross, and Kem Izzet, hardly the biggest player on the field, was almost unchallenged as he directed his header into the corner.
The basement club were in further trouble on 38 minutes when captain Adam Bolder was booked for bringing down Kevin Lisbie on the edge of the area.
Yeates stepped up to hit a free kick through the wall and past helpless keeper Lee Camp.
Vine made amends for his earlier miss on 59 minutes when he cracked in a fierce shot to make it 3-2, but Colchester again produced a quick response.
Izzet made ground down the wing and crossed for Clive Platt to thump in a close-range header to ensure Rangers stay bottom with only three points from their first eight games. Mail
GUARDIAN - Harford's slim hopes grounded with fat cats on the way - Dave McIntyre
If there was ever any chance of Mick Harford securing the Queens Park Rangers manager's job long-term, it has almost certainly evaporated. After a lacklustre performance here the caretaker must now wait to learn if he will even be in charge for next week's game against Norwich, with Glenn Roeder joining an impressive list of contenders to succeed John Gregory.
The club's incoming owners - a group fronted by Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone - are rumoured to be looking at Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta, but Harford will not give up hope quite yet. "I'd like the job but it isn't something I can affect," he said. "The new owners have got themselves a good club. It's just one that has stood still in recent years and needs investment."
Harford was at least brave enough to try to make his mark, having been placed in caretaker charge after the weekend dismissal of Gregory. Clearly aware of the chief causes of his predecessor's demise, he moved quickly to drop the out-of-form defenders Zesh Rehman and Damion Stewart, with Mikele Leigertwood reverting from midfield to centre-back.
But the move backfired quickly as Leigertwood's 19th-minute own-goal gave Colchester the lead. The visitors' goalkeeper, Lee Camp, pushed Mark Yeates's long-range effort on to the post only for the ball to strike Leigertwood's legs and bounce into the net.
Harford's other loan signing, the Birmingham striker Rowan Vine, at least contributed to a cleverly worked equaliser 10 minutes later. Vine exchanged passes with Hogan Ephraim, who continued his run into the box and finished well. But Colchester regained the lead almost immediately. Danny Granville crossed from the left and Kem Izzet headed into the bottom corner. Worse followed for Rangers when Yeates's free-kick found the net via a deflection.
Two Camp saves early in the second half enabled Rangers to at least threaten a comeback. Vine found space in the area and fired home from 12 yards. Once again, however, the London side conceded quickly. After Kevin Lisbie's header hit the post, Yeates pounced on the loose ball and crossed for Clive Platt to head in.
Rangers did not give up but never looked like recovering. Ephraim's weak shot into the arms of Dean Gerken and Chris Barker's poorly struck free-kick summed up their evening and Colchester celebrated their first home victory of the season.
"Defensively we've been poor and it's an area that needs to be looked at," Harford said. "We created a lot of chances but at the other end we're giving teams far too many opportunities. That has got to stop. Guardian
QPR Official Site - Managerial POST-MATCH Comments - DEFENSIVE DESPAIR
Caretaker Manager Mick Harford failed to hide his disappointment, as Rangers slumped to a 4-2 defeat against his former Club.
In an end-to-end contest, Colchester led 3-1 at the break and although debutant Rowan Vine gave the R's hope early in the second half with his first goal for the Club, Clive Platt's header condemned QPR to back-to-back defeats.
"It was a very open game, but we gifted them far too many easy chances," Harford told
www.qpr.co.uk.
"We created the most chances we've created all season, but we're leaking goals for fun and it's just not good enough.
"We should have been ahead early on, but overall we gave them far too many opportunities. Too many opportunities to get balls into the box; too many free headers; too many defensive errors."
Harford praised the efforts of goal-scoring debutant Vine, commenting: "Rowan can score all kinds of goals and he took his very well tonight.
"He could have had a couple of others, but there's certainly a lot more to come from him."
Harford added: "I enjoyed coming back here, but the result wasn't what we were looking for.
"I'm hoping we can add to the squad before Monday night and I'll be working around the clock to do so." QPR
Also: Match Report - QPR Official Site - Match Report
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