Queens Park Rangers Trophies & Titles

To modern football fans Queens Park Rangers don’t have a lot to offer when it comes to the discourse around successful football clubs. In fact, one of the main things they are known for is being the team that Manchester City overcome to win the club’s first title of the Premier League era in the 2011-2012 season. To those that are a bit older and that have a little bit more about them, QPR have often been the nearly club. They finished as runners-up in the First Division at the end of the 1975-1976 campaign, for example, and lost the FA Cup final in 1982. They twice lost in the Charity Shield in 1908 and 1912.

As is often the case with smaller clubs that have had periods of success, many of the Hoops’ trophies came in lesser competitions that the bigger sides wouldn’t pay much mind to. Of course, just because the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur wouldn’t put the likes of the Southern League and the West London Observer Cup high up on their achievement board doesn’t mean that other sides shouldn’t be proud of winning them. It is these lesser trophies that are the lifeblood of football, given the fact that not every side can go out and win the Premier League each season, as shown by the lack of them in London in general.

League Titles

Queens Park Rangers have come close in the league in the past, pushing Bob Paisley’s Liverpool close in the 1975-1976 season. In the end, the Merseyside club won by a single point, with QPR have actually scored one more goal than them over the course of the campaign. When you consider that this was in the age of two points for a win, it shows just how close the London side came to a team that was little short of a juggernaut. They didn’t even win the top-flight, but they did enjoy success in the lower leagues of the English Football League pyramid, as well as in some of the non-league divisions we know about.

Second Division / First Division / Championship

Nothing sums up the curious nature of English football quite like the fact that the second tier of the pyramid was known as the Second Division when it was launched, but when the First Division became the Premier League the Second Division was rebranded as the First Division, despite being the second tier. Nowadays, of course, it is known as the Championship, which at least makes a touch more sense. As well as winning it a couple of times, Queens Park Rangers also finished as runners-up, coming second to Ipswich Town in 1968 and Burnley five years later, gaining promotion both times but missing out on the title.

Here is a look at the times when QPR won the second tier, alongside the team that finished as runners-up and the points that both sides managed to accumulate to give the title win some context:

Season	Points	Second Place	Second Place Points
1982-1983	85	Wolverhampton Wanderers	75
2010-2011	88	Norwich City	84

QPR have also enjoyed some success thanks to winning the Play-Offs. Although this isn’t a trophy like the likes of the FA Cup, a trophy is presented and it is considered to be a lucrative game to win. As a result, it is worth looking at when the club has won the tournament, who they faced in the final and what the final score was:

Year of Final	Opposition	Score
2014	Derby County	1-0

Third Division South / Third Division / Second Division / League One

The madness of the naming of the Second Division as the First Division after the advent of the Premier League didn’t just affect the second tier. The third tier also went through a similar thing, briefly becoming the Second Division. Nowadays it is known as League One and when it was first introduced it was split into North and South, largely in order to limit how much travelling the teams concerned had to do. In the 2003-2004 season the Hoops came second to Plymouth Argyle, gaining promotion that way and beating Bristol City to the automatic promotion spot by a single point. They have also won the league previously.

Once again, here is a look at when they finished as league winners, who they finished in front of and how many points the two teams got:

Season	Points	Second Place	Second Place Points
1947-1948	61	Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic	57
1966-1967	67	Middlesbrough	55

Lesser Leagues

There have been a number of times when Queens Park Rangers have enjoyed successes in leagues that aren’t part of the Football League pyramid and would therefore be thought of as ‘lesser’ by many. Whilst this is unquestionably the case for some, other clubs that haven’t necessarily achieved a huge amount at the top of the pyramid are more than happy to have such leagues included in their list of honours. As you might imagine, the information about these leagues isn’t always easy to come by, but where possible we have included information on how many points QPR got, who came second and the points they managed:

Cups & Trophies

It isn’t just leagues that Queens Park Rangers have won over the years. The club has also been able to compete in the biggest trophies in the land, making it to the final of the FA Cup at the end of the 1981-1982 season, for example. That time they played in a London derby, initially drawing 1-1 with holders Tottenham Hotspur before losing 1-0 in a replay. They also came close to lifting the Charity Shield in both 1908 and 1912, losing to Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers respectively. The club has also won a number of minor trophies, including some that are arranged on friendly basis, such as the Trofeo Achille e Cesare Bortolotti.

League Cup

The League Cup is definitely considered to be the lesser tournament in English football, with the FA Cup taking pride of place over it. That doesn’t mean that the clubs that win it don’t enjoy celebrating it, however. Although few would do a bus parade because of a League Cup win, that tends to be mainly those that would also be competing for the likes of the Premier League and Champions League. If Queens Park Rangers won it in the modern area a bus parade would be quite likely. They were losing finalists in the competition at the end of the 1985-1986 season when Oxford United won won the final 3-0.

Here is a look at when Queens Park Rangers won the League Cup, including the opposition that they were up against and the final score:

Year of Final	Opposition	Score
1967	West Bromwich Albion	3-2

Lesser Cups & Trophies

There is no question that QPR have been more successful in the trophies that many would consider to be less important than the more prestigious ones. They were runners-up in the West London Challenge Cup in the 1890-1891 campaign, for example, and have also won some friendly tournaments at times. Many of the club’s successes on a cup front came in the lower leagues, meaning that records about them aren’t as readily available as the likes of the FA Cup would be. With that in mind, here is a look at the trophies that Queens Park Rangers have won that wouldn’t typically tend to get a mention:

Year of Final	Competition
West London Observer Cup	1892
West London Observer Cup	1893
London Cup	1895
Southern Charity Cup	1913