Queens Park Rangers 1975–76: The 10-day dream
- Graham Dunn
- Feb 6, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 3, 2025
Even though Queens Park Rangers 1975–76 began their campaign with a stylish 2–0 home win against Liverpool, few expected the West London club to emerge as genuine title contenders. Yet this QPR side went on to produce one of English football’s great near-misses — taking the First Division title race right to the final day, waiting anxiously as Liverpool completed their fixtures ten days later.
That they followed victory over Liverpool by thumping champions Derby County 5-1 in their first away game, probably should have underlined how good this QPR side were.
Curiously, though beating the champions was perhaps not such an unusual feat back then. It may seem an anathema to the dominance of title-winning machines like Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City over the past four decades, but in 1975 football was in a run where seemingly anyone could win the title.
Not since 1959 had a team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, retained the Division 1 title. Since then, 10 different teams had won the league; the only period of mini-dominance being four years between 1964-67 when Liverpool and Manchester United swapped titles between them.
Key facts
Title wins between 1959-1976
4 wins – Liverpool;
2 wins - Derby County, Manchester United, Everton, Leeds;
1 win – Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur, Ipswich, Manchester City, Arsenal;
Even then QPR would still have seemed outsiders given their lack of top-flight pedigree. They had only returned to Division 1 two years earlier in 1973 and their only previous season in the top-flight, in 1967-68, yielded just four wins.
QPR had been promoted under Gordon Jago, who had assembled a squad high on flair as well as experience. The addition of Dave Thomas from Burnley - the epitome of a socks round the ankles winger – and natural born maverick Stan Bowles as a successor to Rodney Marsh provided the former. Arsenal’s double-winning captain Frank Mclintock meanwhile brought top-level experience. He would be followed Chelsea pair David Webb and ultimately John Hollins.
The latter had been brought in by his former manager Dave Sexton, who had taken over from Jago in November 1974 with QPR bottom. A thoughtful and tactically progressive coach, Sexton had himself enjoyed a success at Chelsea – including their 1970 FA Cup win over Leeds United in which Webb scored the winner.
QPR ‘s first goal of the season – scored by Gerry Francis after a one-two set in motion by a touch of Stan Bowles’ magic – against Liverpool also set the tone for the way they played. It won the BBC’s Goal of the Season, as QPR ‘s attractive brand of football brought the best out of captain, England international and mullet icon Francis – who alongside Thomas, Bowles and striker Don Givens all reached double figures for goals that year.
The strong start meant QPR had only lost in the league once by the time they played the return fixture against Derby County in mid-December. And while this run contained a fair share of draws, QPR topped the table before losing to Liverpool in their next game.
That was the first of four defeats in six – including a third-round cup exit to Newcastle – which seemed to suggest QPR had run out of steam as they fell to fifth. It turns out the complete opposite was true. QPR won 11 of their next 12 games to storm back. They topped the table for six games before a costly 3-2 loss at Norwich on 17 April saw them slip back to second.
QPR ‘s attractive brand of football brought the best out of captain, England international and mullet icon Francis
Both QPR and Liverpool won two days later on Easter Monday, leaving Rangers a point behind their rivals. Five days later, on 24 April, QPR finished their scheduled season by beating Leeds 2-0 – ending the year unbeaten at Loftus Road.
The champagne however was kept on ice, as Liverpool’s final game against relegation-threatened Wolves had been pushed back from 24 April to 4 May. That was in part after Liverpool had reached the final of the two-legged UEFA Cup against Bruges – the first leg of which was mystifyingly scheduled for 28 April, some 21 days before the return leg. But Wales were also playing Yugoslavia in a European Championship qualifier on 24 April, for whom Liverpool top-scorer John Toshack would be playing.
In the end it was one of three games rescheduled for 4 May to complete the season. The Manchester derby was also scheduled that night, but played second fiddle to matters at top and bottom. Liverpool would win the title if they won – or with a low-scoring draw thanks to the oddities of goal ratio in place at the time – while victory for Wolves would keep them up if Birmingham lost at Sheffield United in the other game.
For most of the night the dream was alive for Wolves and QPR alike. Wolves had taken an early lead through Steve Kindon, while Birmingham were a goal down at Brammall Lane. But Birmingham levelled on 74 minutes to keep themselves up and in the 76th minutes Kevin Keegan equalised for Liverpool. That would have been enough for Liverpool, even without Toshack and Ray Kennedy’s goals. Liverpool won the league by one point.
Fifteen days later they would go on to win the UEFA Cup as well.
And the following season Liverpool would break another run, becoming the first team to retain the league title for 17 seasons – something that would become a habit for them over the following decade.
QPR meanwhile, despite a flourish in the following season’s UEFA Cup in which Bowles scored a record 11 goals, were never to finish that high again.
Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.
How Did They Rank
We have five categories of greatness from our five-star All-Time Greats category at the top to our one-star Blinkered Greats category at the bottom. Whether it was the style of this QPR team or just the style of the 70s, we couldn’t help but like this team and ranked them
***
TOUCH OF GREATNESS
🎙️ Listen to the full podcast:
Join hosts Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney with London football correspondent Stuart Burgess as they celebrate the Queens Park Rangers 1975–76 team — a glorious side that came within a whisker of the First Division title.
Some real crowbarring necessary on this one, but worth noting that as Dave Sexton left QPR to take over at Manchester United in July 1977, Peter Hucker turned professional. Hucker, presumably bewitched by Oxford’s humbling of QPR in the Milk Cup final in 1986, joined the yellows for a three-year spell in 1987.
Comments