Les Allen has given much to Queens Park Rangers over the last 40 years. Les scored many goals during the exciting late sixties then had a spell as manager before his two sons Clive and Bradley became QPR stars in the 80's and 90's.

Les saw his children start their career at Loftus Road but Les ended his career at QPR after giving great service to Chelsea and Tottenham.

Les was born in Dagenham in 1937 and joined Chelsea after leaving school but only signed on a part time basis as his father insisted he should complete his apprenticeship in the model making business.

Les remained at Chelsea as a part timer until he became a full time professional at the age of 21. By that time he had already made his mark. He made his debut as a 17 year old against Leeds and was part of the youngest forward line to ever appearing the first division. Three of the other members of the five man attack were also 17 whilst 19 year old Frank Blunstone was known as the veteran.

Les enjoyed his time at Chelsea but moved to Spurs in 1959 and became part of the side which won the league and cup double for the first time ever in English football. During his five and a half years at Spurs he won representative honours as well as collecting many trophies at club level. He played for the Football League XI against the Italian league and won an England under 23 cap against Wales.

The arrival of Jimmy Greaves at Spurs saw Les eventually leave and move across London to QPR in 1965.

To move from one of the countries biggest clubs to a thirds division club was seen by many as a huge gamble but Les saw the great potential at Loftus Road and he was encouraged by the positive attitude of Jim Gregory.

In an interview with the QPR matchday magazine in 1992 he spoke fondly of his time at QPR saying "The chairmen told me he would make QPR into a first division side and that's what we soon became. Mind you when I first started playing for the club I wondered what I had let myself in for.

"Everybody was wellying the ball and there was no real finesse, but the older players like Jim Langley and myself encouraged the youngsters to play football and gradually we became a very good team. The years I had at Rangers were very enjoyable.

It was a good club to play for and the supporters were great. When I arrived the crowds were around the 3,000 mark, but a couple of years later they were up to 15,20,000 and the atmosphere in the ground was terrific."

The highlight of Les's time at the club was the 1966/67 season. Les was part of the team, which wont he old third division to gain promotion and win the league cup against first division West Brom. Les played a big part in turning round a two goal deficit into a 3-2 win for Rangers.

Les remembers those days with great fondness. He said: "Winning the league cup and going up the divisions was a tremendous experience, but in many ways the most satisfying thing for me was seeing the ground developed. The team I played in certainly brought a lot of cash that went towards paying for ground improvements, and I like to think I did my bit helping to provide the facilities that just weren't there when I first joined the club."

Les spent the last few months of his playing career combining his on field duties with those of manager when he took over from Tommy Docherty at a stage when relegation from the first division was inevitable. It became a difficult time for Les and Rangers. The successful side he had been a part of was breaking up but a new one was in the melting pot.

Les handed over the managerial reigns to Gordon Jago and left QPR to join Swindon as a Scout.

Les Says: "The year we went down from the first division we were unlucky in some ways - we lost 1-0 11 times, for example - but we weren't quite good enough to be up there in the top flight. "I left Rangers to join Swindon as chief scout but when Dave Mackay went to Nottingham Forest I took over as manager. The financial situation wasn't good though and in the end I had a disagreement and packed it in, but then I had an approach from Greece and went to manage Aris Salonika."

Les never enjoyed his time in Greece and ended up leaving football management and trying his hand at scouting for a few years before deciding to turn his back on football and go back to his old job of model making.

Les still stayed involved in some ways though as his son Clive made a big impact at QPR and Spurs just as Les had done in the 1960's. Another of Les's sons Bradley broke into the QPR team in the early 1990's and has always scored goals on a regular basis for QPR and now for his current club Grimsby Town.

Les now lives in Hornchurch and is a professional model maker, but QPR fans will always fondly remember Les Allen as a vital member of the 1967 team, which won the league cup and put Queens Park Rangers on the footballing map.