As Sebastien Pocognoli stood over the dead ball at Loftus Road there was only one thing in his mind – to try and score.
Looking back on the memorable effort that helped the Seagulls to a 2-1 win in the 2016/17 promotion season, the Spaniard fondly recalled his emotions as he curled an unstoppable free-kick into the top corner to spark wild celebrations in the away end.
He said, “It was a great moment. I wanted to take it because it was in a tough place, but I’d scored from there before in my career when I was younger.
“I wasn’t meant to shoot from set-pieces – it was usually Anthony Knockaert or Solly March – but I had a good feeling about it.
“Some people were surprised because they didn’t expect it. The feeling was unbelievable and it’s a great memory, to be able to celebrate with the fans made it even better. It was a special situation.”
The victory over Ian Holloway’s men was followed by another success on the road seven days later against Wolves at Molineux, and Albion would seal promotion to the Premier League in the following game against Wigan at the Amex.
Pocognoli says the win over QPR kickstarted what turned out to be a crucial run of wins.
“It was a pivotal night, you could feel that at full time,” he said. “We had spoken as a team about the importance of the games we had coming up at that time.
“We had three in ten days, and after the QPR win we went to Wolves before hosting Wigan at the Amex so we knew what we had to do.
“The mentality of the group has strong that year and we felt that we had a real togetherness.
“I remember the atmosphere between the players was very good and we were all friends who had a real understanding as a unit. I wouldn’t say we felt invincible, but we were always confident in our ability that season.”
Fans can relive all the action from the memorable win on the club's Twitter channel this evening. The game is the first of six in our 'Matches Rebooted' series.