DECISIONS: Ian Holloway

AFTER Newcastle belted six past QPR at Loftus Road in September, a mate of mine called to express his incredulity. A Toon supporter, he’d smuggled himself into the home end and quietly – if smugly – watched the carnage unfold.
“Totally surreal,” he said. “I’ve never seen a game like it. The way QPR were playing… it was like they’d gone on strike.” It appeared the Hoops were sleep-walking into a relegation battle.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s boot camp had failed. Even the arrival of I...