QPR well beaten by dominant Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough 3Strelec (30′)
Whittaker (36′)
Conway (pen 50′)
QPR 1Madsen (70′)
QPR were well beaten in a largely one-sided game at the Riverside Stadium.
Rangers had won four of their previous five matches, raising hopes of a possible challenge for the play-offs, but they were no match for promotion-chasing Middlesbrough.
First-half goals from David Strelac and Morgan Whittaker did much of the damage, and Tommy Conway scored with a penalty early in the second half.
Nicolas Madsen reduced the deficit, also from the penalty spot.
Rangers were under pressure from the start and were saved by a brilliant challenge by Amadou Mbengue in the second minute to deny Conway, who looked certain to score.
Conway then had a goal disallowed for offside before two goals in the space of six minutes put Boro in control.
Strelac ran between R’s defenders Jake Clarke-Salter and Rhys Norrington-Davies to collect Hayden Hackney’s through-ball and fire past keeper Paul Nardi.
Rangers were then undone by keeper Sol Brynn launching the ball to the right-hand side to Whittaker, who was allowed by Norrington-Davies to cut in onto his favoured left foot and shoot into the far corner.
Any real prospect of a second-half fightback vanished five minutes after the restart, when Conway netted from the spot after a silly foul by Koki Saito on Callum Brittain, who himself gave away a penalty by fouling Paul Smyth.
QPR: Nardi, Mbengue (Morgan 78), Dunne, Clarke-Salter (Cook 61), Norrington-Davies (Esquerdinha 61); Smyth, Varane, Madsen, Saito (Dembele 61); Kone (Frey 72), Burrell.
Subs: Hamer, Hayden, Bennie, Morgan, Poku.
