WHICH team gained the quickest, fastest and earliest promotion to English football’s second tier?
Many people would point to big spending Birmingham City’s exploits last season.
They sealed the deal with six games to go courtesy of a 2-1 victory at Peterborough United on Tuesday 8th April 2025. Overall League 1 outright betting interest certainly exploded throughout the evening.
So surely that is the all-time record? Especially since Blues went on to grab the League One title by a massive 19 point margin over runners-up Wrexham.
Well the answer is an emphatic no! I’ve been delving back into the football history books and managed to unearth an earlier promotion from the third tier…
Queen’s Park Rangers – 1966/67.
A midweek trip to Walsall on Tuesday April 11th 1966 saw the R’s needing a win to cement elevation out of the old Third Division. But they confounded football betting odds by going down 2-0 in front of 11,881 spectators.
The result shattered QPR’s 20 match unbeaten League run under much admired manager Alec Stock.
But they still finalised promotion that night as other contenders Bristol Rovers and Mansfield Town lost their respective games. Significantly, the Hoops had seven Division Three fixtures left to play.
On the following Saturday, Queen’s Park Rangers edged a single goal victory at Oldham Athletic. Alan Wilks delivered the all-important goal and this result made them champions.
A matchday programme article at Oldham entitled: 'HAIL! THE CONQUERING HEROES COME' read: “PROMOTION has come one year later than Queen’s Park Rangers felt it should have done. They found the success formula last season – but only ended up in third place. Yet they didn’t feel inclined to mess around with the mixture when they launched out on the present campaign…and now there’s not a club within touching distance of them as they steam towards the Third Division title.”
QPR secretary and club spokesperson Ron Phillips said at the time: “We would like our fans to realise this has been as tough a season for the players as any they are likely to encounter. The pressure was on from the very start and it is a great tribute to the boys that they never allowed their concentration to slip away.
“We have won more matches than anyone else in the League, have lost fewer matches than anyone else, have scored more goals than anyone else and have conceded fewer than anyone else and still some football writers say we are struggling or we are failing in some respect or other. The only thing we have failed to do this season is bore either our own supporters or the supporters of other sides.”
QPR also won the League Cup Final in 1966/67 overcoming top flight West Bromwich Albion 3-2 at Wembley Stadium. Their leading marksman during the campaign was maverick number 10 Rodney Marsh. He notched 30 goals in the League, three in the FA Cup and 11 in the League Cup. This is by far the all-time R’s scoring record by one player in a season.
In later years, Marsh told me: “That 1966/67 campaign where I scored 44 goals cannot be duplicated - it will never happen again. In fact, it got to the stage where I didn’t think I could miss the target.
“So it was just one of those once in a lifetime seasons for me. There was no rhyme, reason or logic to it. I was picking up possession 20 yards out and thinking: ‘SHOT’! Not only did I score 44, but I hit the post, I hit the bar and keepers made saves.
“I was perfectly fit. I was in my early 20’s and I didn’t get an injury over the whole season. I played out of complete love for the Rangers fans. I enjoyed the supporters and they enjoyed me.
“If our manager Alec Stock had tried to get me off the pitch, I would have gone mad! If he had said: ‘Rodney, come off – I am sending on a substitute for the last 20 minutes,’ I would have said to him: ‘Shut up! I’m trying to get a hat-trick! I’ve only scored two!’
“Maybe it was because I came from the Post-War generation where everything was so hard for everybody. Your older relatives will tell you exactly the same about that period.
“So I felt it was an honour and a privilege to be a professional football player. I just wanted to play every minute of every game until I couldn’t play anymore. And that’s what I did!
“Playing at Loftus Road was absolutely wonderful. Back in the 1960’s, there was just the old wooden Ellerslie Road Stand and three sides of terracing. But the atmosphere was always electric.
“I used to love it when the Rangers crowd started singing my name. They had that “ROD-NEEE…ROD-NEEE…” chant. It used to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Alec Stock was one of the greatest managers I ever played under. He wasn’t the best tactically or technically, but he had an indefinable ability to get his team to perform in a certain way which really suited the players that we had. So it was superb man-management.
“I always had a superstition throughout my career where I had to wear the number 10 shirt. Since I first wore it at Loftus Road, the QPR number 10 shirt has become very special.
“My generation played football purely for the love of it all. I simply relished appearing in games, scoring goals and winning matches for Rangers.”
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*Credit for the image belongs to Alamy*
