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Alejandro Faurlín
QPR's Alejandro Faurlín points in the direction his team are going after defeating Watford at Vicarage Road. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images
QPR's Alejandro Faurlín points in the direction his team are going after defeating Watford at Vicarage Road. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images

Adel Taarabt breaks Watford's resistance to leave QPR champions

This article is more than 12 years old

From a forgettable encounter came a golden memory for Queens Park Rangers. Denied promotion by Norwich's late winner last Monday, they got the win they so keenly wanted here, one that sees QPR back in the Premier League for the first time since 1996 and also secures them the Championship title. Their performance was far from convincing but all that was forgotten after Adel Taarabt and then Tommy Smith scored to send those in blue and white into ecstasy.

For all the splendour of a sun-kissed afternoon in Hertfordshire there remains, however, a dark cloud for QPR. In two days time, the Football Association's hearing into the club's purchase of the Argentinean midfielder Alejandro Faurlín will begin and, if recent reports are to believed, could result in a 15-point deduction for the champions over a breach of third-party ownership, plunging them into the play-offs and a likely legal challenge not only from them but also, possibly, from the 15 teams that have been beaten by QPR.

Uncertainly, then, remains, but all their players, staff and fans could feel yesterday was joy. Emotions became unruly after the final whistle when some of the 2,171 away supporters swarmed on to the pitch and despite repeated warnings from Watford's public address announcer, refused to leave promptly. Neil Warnock, the QPR manager, also become embroiled in the chaos, telling the man with the microphone to keep his orders to himself. Ignoring instructions from stewards, Warnock then refused to leave the pitch until he had saluted the QPR fans himself.

The defiance was unbecoming of a 62-year-old man but he deserved his moment. After all, Warnock has achieved a seventh promotion with six different clubs with this his proudest of the lot given QPR were in relegation trouble when the former Sheffield United manager took over 13 months ago.

"To get this team out of relegation to winning the league in such a short space of time is incredible, it's the best job I've done," said Warnock. "You have to roll your sleeves up in the Championship, and the players have done that, they've been magnificent. I can't fault anyone.

"I'm pleased for the fans, too. Some of them probably had raised eyebrows when they heard Neil Warnock was the QPR manager but they have helped bring pride back to this club. The whole experience has been interesting for me, you don't plan too far ahead at QPR but I told the owners when I came that I wanted to be in the Premier League within a season and that's what we've done."

Possibly not if Friday's story regarding the heavy punishment QPR will receive over their £3.5m purchase of Faurlín in July 2009 proves correct. "The timing of the story was diabolical," added Warnock. "It turned our training ground into a morgue and could have destroyed us today. Like everyone, I'll wait until Friday's verdict."

To see QPR compete in the play-offs would be perverse given their domination of this division, which began with a 4-0 victory over Barnsley and has since seen the Londoners rack up another 24 victories. Yesterday's win also saw the team gather an unrivalled 25th clean sheet of the season. That outcome was threatened when QPR'S regular goalkeeper, Paddy Kenny, injured his shoulder in the warm-up and had to be replaced by the 37-year-old Radek Cerny. The change, allied to the importance of the occasion, appeared to unsteady the visitors as they struggled to maintain their usual fluid, attacking play.

A stalemate seemed likely – a result which would have handed QPR promotion but left them needing to beat Leeds next week to guarantee the title. However, on 73 minutes, Taarabt, the champions' outstanding performer of the season, broke the deadlock with a close-range flick following Tommy Smith's cross before the former Watford forward doubled the visitors' lead in stoppage time with a drive from the edge of the area. Cue bedlam and one of the most fraught legal battles in football history.

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