Queens Park Rangers Savor Return to Premier League Despite Club's High Debt Picture

BALTIMORE, Maryland May 27, 2014 - It was the classic battle of wills, and Queens Park emerged from it as the winner of the Championship League's third promotion to the Premier League. The score in the game was 0-0 and the Rangers were playing with ten men after one of its players was sent off at the hour mark of the Wembley Stadium match with Derby County. But then, at time, Bobby Zamora of the Rangers scored what spectators called a miracle goal. Pictures of Zamora, whose goal in a similar circumstance sent West Ham back to the Premier in 2007, showed an absolutely delighted scorer dancing the moment.

Queens Park had to fight a virtual war with Wigan Athletic just to get to Wembley. The two-legged playoff round was scoreless through the first game at Wigan, and 1-1 after 90 minutes of the second leg on Loftus Road. In the overtime period, Charlie Austin of the Rangers scored his second goal of the match after just six minutes. The rest of the match consisted of Wigan firing away, relentlessly, for the equalizer, but the Rangers outstanding keeper, Rob Green, was equal to the task.

The match against Derby County was even more dramatic, especially for the Ranger defense. They had been sensational from the outset before a packed stadium in London, but at the hour mark Gary O'Neil of Queens Park was sent off by the referee at a time when the Rams were controlling play and pressuring Green with the teams at equal strength. Some fans, in fact, said Derby was the pressuring team throughout, and that Green played one of his best games in keeping the Rams off the scoreboard. Richard Dunne, in the center of the Ranger defense, made a mistake in the first half to give the Rams one of their best chances, a chance that Green stopped. But in that final half hour, when his team was a man down, it was Dunne, also, who rose up and anchored the defense, giving the Rangers an immediate return to the Premier after a single year in the Championship.

Club officials hinted, without actually saying it, that the largesse of the Premier will cure the club's financial problems. Of course, it doesn't take a genius to see that it could also make it worse.