Milk Cup final 1986
Oxford United 3-0 QPR; attendance: 90,396
Hebberd 40, Houghton 52, Charles 86
Almost 30 years have since passed, but Martin Allen admits QPR's capitulation in the 1986 Milk Cup final still hurts today.
Rs were hot favourites going into the Wembley showdown, making the short trip across west London on the back of an eight match unbeaten run which included a 6-0 hammering of Chelsea and a two-legged semi final victory over Liverpool, who were on their way to a league and FA Cup double.
Throw in the fact that they had comfortably beaten Oxford in the league a few months before, and you could forgive Rs fans for thinking one hand was already on the trophy. A 3-0 defeat did not even enter the realms of possibility.
But that's exactly what happened after Trevor Hebberd's first-half opener was followed by second-half strikes from Ray Houghton and Jeremy Charles. QPR boss Jim Smith was quoted as saying his side froze, and while Allen, who played in the midfield for Rs that day, agrees, he reckons what went before did not help either.
He said: “You could say we froze, but with hindsight, Sir Alex Ferguson always said play the game rather than the occasion. For a month before the game, the media seemed to be with us the whole time. There were trips up the West End to get suits and parties being organised. There were far too many extras to our normal routine.
“Maurice Evans (the Oxford manager) was one of my dad's best friends, and I probably done him a favour. I was awful – I couldn't move, couldn't make my first tackle or header – I was probably Oxford's best player!
“Only a few weeks previously, I had put in what I consider to be the best performance of my whole career, when we drew the second leg of our semi final at Anfield, where nobody got a result in those days.
“We were a good side, no doubt about it, but so were Oxford. We were in form and hot favourites, but Oxford had some good players too. However, we were in a strong position and still expected to win, but just didn't turn up on the day.
“It was very quiet in the dressing room afterwards. We just hadn't played, it was an empty feeling. Jim Smith just told us to get showered and get out of there. It only hit home when we got back to the Royal Lancaster Hotel and saw the effect it had had on our families. I had tears in my eyes.
“It's taken a long time get over it, but even talking about it now is upsetting. It remains a massive disappointment in my life, and it's still quite upsetting now to be honest.”
Allen never did get to return to Wembley as player or manager, missing out three times in as many years from 2005 to 2007 when his Brentford (twice) and MK Dons sides were losing play-off semi finalists. By coincidence, the man who replaced him as a sub at Wembley in 1986, Leroy Rosenior, also replaced him as Brentford manager 20 years later.
QPR: Paul Barron, Alan McDonald, Ian Dawes, Warren Neill, Steve Wicks, Terry Fenwick, Martin Allen (Leroy Rosenior), Robbie James, Gary Bannister, John Byrne, Michael Robinson.
Smith's assistant in 1986 was Frank Sibley, who was part of the QPR side which shocked West Brom in the 1967 final. But while the Class of '67 were Wembley heroes, it was very different for Sibley 19 years later.
He said: "I still don't understand 1986. It would have been difficult to play poorer. It was all the more baffling considering we had beaten Oxford earlier in the season, and were just off the back of a 6-0 win over Chelsea and 4-1 against Leicester."
Follows these links to re-live Sibley's memories of the 1967 final, as well as Gary Waddock's recollections of the 1982 FA Cup final, in the first two pieces of our series.
