ALEC Stock has been voted as QPR’s greatest manager by the club’s fans in a poll conducted as part of The Football League's 125th Anniversary celebrations.





Stock’s playing career with QPR was interrupted by the Second World War but by the time he took the Loftus Road manager’s job in 1959 he was already making a name for himself on the back of his spells in charge of Yeovil Town, Leyton Orient and Italian side AS Roma.





He spent nine years in charge of QPR and in that time they became the first Third Division club to win the League Cup, beating First Division West Bromwich Albion in the Wembley final in 1967, before winning promotion that season then going up again a year later to reach the top flight for the first time in their history.





Stock, who introduced the likes of Rodney Marsh and Frank Sibley to the team, edged a tight vote with 38% of the tally to Terry Venables’ 33%, with Dave Sexton not far behind. Stock was also voted Yeovil Town’s greatest boss, one of only four managers to make the list for two different clubs.











The vote for the greatest QPR player went the way of Stan Bowles, who was with Rangers from 1972 to 1979 and played well over 300 times for the club. He was an integral part of the team that went up from the Second Division in 1975 then finished as runners-up in the top flight the following season, and as well as being a tremendously talented player he was a mercurial figure on and off the pitch.





Bowles, who replaced Marsh in the number ten shirt, polled 52% of the vote to finish ahead of his predecessor, with Gerry Francis in third. Francis did, however, win the vote as the club’s greatest captain having led Rangers through their great years in the 1970s before returning for a second spell in the early 1980s. He picked up 55% of the votes, ahead of Alan McDonald and Mike Keen.





The 1975/76 season was voted as the club’s greatest after Rangers came desperately close to winning The League for the first time in their history. They completed their 42-game season at the top of the table and with a one-point advantage over Liverpool, who still had a match to play – which they won to clinch the title and deny QPR the glory. That season was voted top on 47% to see off 1966/67, 2010/11, 1982/83 and 1967/68.





Stock and Bowles sit alongside legends of the game including Brian Clough, Sir Bobby Robson, Sir Tom Finney, Billy Wright, Sir Stanley Matthews, Trevor Francis, Billy Bremner and Herbert Chapman who have all been named in a list of the greatest contributors to clubs’ league history in a vote as part of The Football League’s 125th Anniversary celebrations.





The names feature in lists for each of the current 72 Football League clubs’ greatest in various categories including managers, players, captains, fan favourites, matches and seasons. The polls were run by The Football League to celebrate each club’s own contribution to the last 125 years of league football. The results have been announced on the anniversary of The Football League’s formation on 17th April 1888 to bring down the curtain on a year of activity celebrating the start of the world’s original league football competition.





Nearly 100,000 votes were cast in the polls after clubs were first invited to compile their own shortlist for each category based on fans’ nominations via social media.





A list of the winners in each category can be seen at www.FL125.co.uk/vote, and a club-by-club breakdown for each vote with more detail on the winners can be seen at www.fl125.co.uk/queens-park-rangers.





Supporters can find out more about The Football League’s 125th Anniversary at www.FL125.co.uk. Fans also still have a chance to visit a special exhibition called ‘Game Changers’ at the National Football Museum in Manchester celebrating 125 years of The Football League, with contributions from every club. The exhibition is free to enter and open 7 days a week – for more details click HERE.



