Tenacious Tigers bring halt to QPR’s unbeaten run

QPR 2 : 3 Hull City

Two goals from young winger Jarrod Bowen helped Hull to an impressive 3-2 win over QPR at Loftus Road to end QPR’s nine match unbeaten run.

Hull started the brighter of the two sides with Frazier Campbell, Jackson Irvine and Bowen linking up well and it didn’t take long for the visitors to take the lead. After good work by Markus Henriksen and Campbell, the ball was fed to Bowen on the right hand side, who cut inside of his defender to fire a low driven shot past Joe Lumley.

QPR began to grow into the game and saw a Massimo Luongo effort blocked from ten yards out, but were failing to build momentum with injuries and stoppages often interrupting the flow of the game. Rangers’ frustration grew as referee Jeremy Simpson waved away several appeals for handball and Nahki Wells scuffed a good chance wide from a Jake Bidwell cross.

Bowen continued to be a danger at the other end, on this occasion, forcing a corner off Joel Lynch after a mazy run. Bowen took the resulting corner for Henriksen to turn home with a smart flick and double the Tigers advantage.

Their two goal advantage lasted less than two minutes as QPR hit back instantly, Pavel Wszolek finishing off a QPR attack sliding a shot under David Marshall. 
It seemed as though the R’s had drawn level just moments later, but Wells’ shot deflected agonisingly wide.

Both sides continued to have chances in an end to end first half as Campbell and Irvine came close before Rangel hit the post for Rangers from 20 yards but the Tigers survived to go in with a 2-1 half-time lead.

Luke Freeman failed to make an impact until late on (Photo: QPR)

The home side had failed to get creative duo Ebereche Eze and Luke Freeman into the game, although the latter could have brought Rangers level with a chance he blasted over after the restart. Hull looked dangerous on the counter throughout and after opportunities were missed by Kamil Grosicki and Henriksen, their third eventually arrived.

After sloppy play from substitute Tomer Hemed allowed Bowen to latch onto a loose touch, the winger exchanged passes with Grosicki before shooting towards goal, eventually converting the rebound after a decent stop by Lumley to make it 3-1.

Not long afterwards, the visitors had a chance to put the game beyond doubt when Grosicki broke away and squared to Irvine, only to have his shot brilliantly kept out by Lumley. Steve McClaren did look to change the course of the game by bringing on Matt Smith and playing with three up top, looking for any flick-ons. The change almost worked immediately as Smith saw two chances fall his way, blasting both over the crossbar.

They did find a way back into the game in injury time when sub Bright Oyasi-Samuel floated a ball towards the back post which was eventually sliced into the roof of the net by Freeman to make the deficit only one. QPR’s talisman, then had the chance to snatch a point for Rangers just a minute later, but his 25 yard free-kick flew agonisingly past the right hand post.

Hull eventually saw out the victory to see them climb out of the relegation zone into 19th, whilst the defeat sees QPR fall to 11th and now face tough fixtures against Leeds and Middlesbrough.