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To start a review of this season, you have to go back to the end of the previous season.

After the game against WBA, rumours were sufficing that Gigi De Canio who taken us from bottom of the league table to a respectable mid-table finish, was not able to commit his long term-future to the club for personal reasons. The feel good factor that was ever present during his reign, was about to be thrown out of the window within a very short space of time, with the increase in season ticket prices and the appointment of Iain Dowie.

During the month of May/June we discovered that many fans would be asked to move from prime seats in South Africa Road and others would be bracketed into categories and would be asked to pay through the nose to watch the club they have followed through the good but mostly bad times. Off the pitch, it was a difficult time for fans, knowing that in many cases that indivdually they would have to find an extra £200 to watch the club througout the season.

The appointment of Dowie was never a popular one, but intially we were filled with optimism with the loan signings of potential stars in Parejo, Ledesma and De carmine. With Flavio's contacts at Real Madrid and Fiorentina, it was believed we were getting fine young talents from the respective clubs. The fact Parejo played well for Real madrid in a pre-season tournament involving Arsenal made us think we were indeed going places. The on/off transfer of Kasper Gorkss at the time did not fill us with so much confidence, but pre-season had given rise to a degree of confidence coming into August

AUGUST

Would turn out to be the best of the season, with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 heavy defeat at Sheffield United. At that time we thought a star was born in Emmanuel Ledesma and that Kaspers Gorkss would probably be one of our worst signings for years.
The marketing department were obviosuly taken in by Ledesma, as within a day of him scoring a great hat-trick versus Carlisle United, you could buy the "LA LA LEDESMA" t-shirt for under £20. That song was given to me by a very good friend and shows what an impact a simple song can acheive if a player replicates good performances on the pitch.

That month saw us gain a creditable point versus Bristol City after we went down to 10 men and great support from the QPR fans, which also saw the start and finish of the "best midfield song". For about 20 minutes of the second half it was catching on and being sang by the majority, but after that game due to players getting injured or not playing together it would never be sang again. We had comfortable wins during this month to Barnsley and Doncaster Rovers

By the end of August, we were not sure about Parejo, but thought in Ledesma we had a class player in the blue and white hoops

SEPTEMBER This month offered to fans what was both good and bad within the club at the time. From a fans point of view anyone who managed to visit Villa Park, will never forget it. A tense first half, but in the second half we managed to score with a perfect header from Damien Stewart, after good work on the right by Danny Parejo. The crowd were fantastic on the night. During this week one of the most pivotal moments of the season in my view took place on the build up to the Derby County Game. We were 4th in the league at the time, but we were about to embark on a slice of negativitiy which squashed any feel good factor that we were trying to embrace. The club decided to make the Derby County a Category A game, which had a devastating effect not only in the press but also to the fans, then I'm sure this got to the players. It did show at the time, the club tended to react to circumstance. Ledesma scores hat-trick=T-shirt, win a few games= lets take advantage and increase prices.

The club should have introduced the Category A games, prior to the start of the season, in trying to increase them 7-10 days before the game, led to much resentment. Personally, it allowed the press to overhype the story to make supporters believe that they would have to pay £50, when in reality they did not, but the damage had been done. The "family feel factor" from the day they tried to increase prices in my view, will now be very hard to reverse. Prior to this game, we were the highest placed in the league we had been all season, by the end it was the players who were feeling the heat from a series of boos by fans after a flat performance and a 2-0 defeat.

The following week to the Derby game we played Blackpool at home and only managed a 1-1 draw. With the fans still no getting over the previous week, it was now the manager and players who were starting to feel the heat.

OCTOBER

Another month that will never be forgotten. After only 12 league games Iain Dowie would be sacked and be replaced by Gareth Ainsworth. It was rumoured that after Blackpool, that the owners and manager started to have more arguments about who and who should not be playing. We will never know the truth and I suspect this will only come out publically in years to come, but we do know that anyone visiting Swansea City when we drew 0-0, knew that Dowie was probably more scared to lose then actually win. A toothless performance by a squad of players who had promised so much, back in August. How much we the fans played in the players confidence is also anyone's guess, but it did go downhill after that Derby County game.

Dowie was sacked a day before I went to a holiday/wedding in Antigua and I was only able to get the scores, but have heard the Birmingham City home game, was probably the best atmosphere this season. Down to 10 men and with such treacherous conditions down at HQ with the snow and the wind, De carmine was able to produce one piece of magic and send the QPR fans home away and we win the game 1-0 this came after a verey respectable scoreline of 0-0 at Reading, what would November bring?

NOVEMBER

One of the higlights of this month was the visit to Old Trafford, but the negativity of the Derby game was still ringing in many fans ears. Despite this, over 6,000 made the trip to Manchester to see a performance in which we matched United in most departments, only for a late penalty from Tevez to deny us the opportunity of going into extra time. Back to the league and the first two games saw us take 3 points from a possible 6, with a defeat at Ipswich and late winner from gavin Mahon to see off 9 men Cardiff City

This month, Saw us only win 2 games, and suffer at the hands of Watford 3-0, easily our worst performance of the season. During the week of the Watford game and after being beaten by Burnley, QPR appointed PAULO SOUSA. A name which took everyone by surprise but you could not fail to be impressed with the manner in which he spoke. He had charisma and character and certainly gave the impression, he would take this club forward from the current 9th postion we found us ourselves in at the time he took charge. The two games he took charge officially resulted in a 2-1 victory at home to Charlton and a creditable draw at Crystal Palace.