Can City tiptoe to victory at QPR?

Perhaps there is hope for Leicester City at Loftus Road tomorrow night after all...because with any luck the Queens Park Rangers team will be sleeping off a supposed hangover!!!.

Gretna might be famous as the romantic destination of runaway lovers but relationships between a Gretna football club website editor and QPR fans are decidedly frosty.

In fact one doubts they will ever be harmoniously joined together in anything they say or do.

And if anyone wants to know of any just reason or impediment why the clubs should not be joined together I'd have to say yes.....because, basically, the Gretna guy has likened the Londoners to a tippler on a park bench.

Anyway, I'll just let you read the edited story though I wouldn't recommend anyone putting it in the coach windows when they get to the match tomorrow.

Certainly though, it has ignited the fires of passion on both sides of the border, and what a great piece for a cartoonist to get his teeth into.

Neil Baker from Vitalfootball Gretna lit the fuse of controversy with his tale about Linfield striker Peter Thompson.

Impressive player is Thompson. Neat footballer. Good goalscorer. And although a target of Gretna the 21-year-old postman has apparently turned them down and might instead be heading for QPR.

That has upset Gretna fan Baker who says:

'Perhaps Peter Thompson has headed one too many footballs.

Something is definitely troubling him because, just a week or so after turning down a move to Gretna, the 21-year-old postman might join the great and mighty Queens Park Rangers.

'Wow; Loftus Road, the Theatre of Dreams - so-called because the standard of football played there would make even the most committed insomniac fall asleep.

'QPR boss Ian Holloway went to watch Thompson, who has been capped for Northern Ireland, at Linfield's 1-0 win over Glentoran in the County Antrim Shield on January 24.

'After the match, Holloway told the BBC he was impressed by Thompson, whose goal-scoring record is outstanding.

'Holloway said: “The lad was neat and tidy and worked his socks off. Now I've got to think about the state of my club and whether we've got the finance and what we can do.'

'Ahem – I’m sure Thompson really wants to play for a club whose boss admits they might not be able to afford a postman.

'So where does this leave Gretna? As far as I am concerned, outraged.

'Gretna may be in the Scottish Second Division, but they have practically won the title and next season should see them winning instant promotion to the SPL.

'What can QPR offer, they are going nowhere in the long-run, they are a washed up relic of what they once were – unless Thompson has been offered a new postal round near the ground.

'In fact, Queens Park Rangers remind me of a friendly, alcoholic, London tramp kipping on a park bench.

'They’re fairly jolly, not really doing anyone any harm, but you wouldn’t notice if they weren’t there.

'Peter Thompson has the chance to allow his career to flourish – but only if he chooses Gretna over QPR.'

Who says braveheart days have ended in Scotland.

There's nothing like speaking from the soul in these days when free expression is so often diluted like two spoons of cordial in a bucket of water.

I can't in good faith share his sentiments about QPR because, sleepy though they might be, they are invariably sober enough, fit enough and capable enough to give Leicester City a good hiding in London.

So I'm just hoping no-one wakes them from their supposedly inebriatted state....

Leicester could badly do with three points and the tactical message from our caretaker manager Rob Kelly should now be obvious.....replace your football boots with carpet slippers and play quietly lads. Not a sound til we're on our way home!.

***The full text of the story can be found on

http://www.gretna.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7829