Many people can point to a year in their lives that they'd choose to erase from their memory if they could. The trouble with supporting QPR right now is that even if you could airbrush one whole year away, the painful memories that remain from all the others would  be more than enough to keep you in a permanent state of misery.

This, let's not forget, is the club that 30 years ago came within one point of winning the league title, and that 15 years ago, almost to the day, came away from Old Trafford with a sensational 4-1 win over Manchester United.

How far away that all seems now. Perched perilously above the relegation zone in the English Championship, QPR are seeing out 2006 with their third manager of the year, only 10 league wins since January and a mountain of debt still hanging over the club. If the season ran according to the calendar year, they would certainly be consigned to League One by now.

The year began with Ian Holloway, the former QPR player who earned the club promotion from League One in 2004, still in the manager's seat. However, his usual chirpy optimism and the feel-good factor it brought to the fans had long since given way to irritability and impatience on both sides. By early February, after putting out a loan-stuffed side that he dubbed 'Queens Park Strangers' in a tame defeat at Leeds, Holloway was linked with the vacant job at Leicester City and promptly put on gardening leave by chairman Gianni Paladini.

Youth team coach and former fan favourite Gary Waddock was elevated to his dream job, albeit as caretaker, and he soon curried further favour with the supporters by bringing in Alan McDonald, another former player, as his assistant. But after a promising start, with two wins in his first three games, QPR plunged into freefall, failing to win any of their last 10 games and coming to rest just one place above the drop zone in the final standings.

Waddock promised to start the new season with his own signings in place rather than Holloway's has-beens, but his summer captures have largely been embarrassing misfits, with several looking likely to leave at the earliest opportunity - if anyone else will take them.

Meanwhile, Waddock dug his own grave still further by transfer-listing experienced and influential figures such as Steve Lomas, Marc Bircham and Marcus Bignot. Ironically, since Waddock's dismissal in September, with QPR bottom of the table, all three have not only come off the transfer list but have all worn the captain's armband under new manager John Gregory.

Gregory's Premiership track record with Aston Villa, and his hunger to return after three years out of management, augured well for a recovery. Indeed one impressive three-match winning run, culminating in a televised victory at table-topping Cardiff City, had some fans dreaming of the promotion play-offs.

But at Loftus Road these days, dreamers have a habit of being rudely awakened, and the year ends with a defence in desperate need of tightening, a goal-shy front-line struggling like last season to take their individual tallies for the season beyond single figures, and star asset Lee Cook regularly linked to a Premiership move.

So what do QPR's long-suffering fans have to look forward to in 2007? It's hard to come up with any obvious rays of light. Maybe Gregory's first foray into the transfer market in the January window (he's already lined up defenders from as far afield as Finland and Trinidad) will help them turn the corner. But if Cook and promising teenage striker Ray Jones leave the club at the same time, the future looks uncertain to say the least. Survival this season and a new deep intake of optimism over the summer seem the best we can hope for.

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