Rejuvenated QPR hit six against Portsmouth
QPR 6
Smyth (7′, 29′)
Kolli (24′, 55′)
Kone (86′ (pen), 87′)
Portsmouth 1Swift (38′)
Paul Smyth, Rayan Kolli and Richard Kone all scored twice as QPR thrashed relegation-threatened Portsmouth.
Rangers were three up within half an hour, with Smyth putting them ahead and the netting again after Kolli’s first goal.
John Swift gave Pompey hope with a goal before the interval, but Kolli scored again in the second half and Kone added two late goals, one of them a penalty.
Rangers, who had lost three home games in a row, were on top from the start and went in front after seven minutes.
Harvey Vale’s attempt to slip Kolli in on goal was cut out by Regan Poole, but the loose ball dropped to Smyth, whose strike from near the edge of the penalty area was helped in by a deflection off Pompey defender Connor Ogilvie.
Kolli doubled Rangers’ lead on 24 minutes, collecting Smyth’s pass and firing a low, right-footed shot beyond keeper Nicolas Schmid from 25 yards.
It was 3-0 five minutes later. Vale, included in the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off squad this week after switching his international allegiance from England, was involved again, supplying a perfect pass in behind the Portsmouth defence to Smyth, who slotted past Schmid.
The visiting fans were irate, with chants of “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” bellowing out from the away end as John Mousinho’s side struggled to string a couple of passes together.
But they pulled a goal back out of nothing seven minutes before half-time when Swift, who gave the ball away in the build-up to the opening goal, scored with a right-footed strike from 25 yards that went in off the post.
Soon afterwards, QPR keeper Joe Walsh nervously fumbled Terry Devlin’s shot over the bar, and, early in the second half, an unmarked Jacob Brown side-footed over after being found by Ogilvie’s cross from the left.
Portsmouth appeared to be finding a way back into the game, but Kolli’s 55th-minute goal essentially sealed Rangers’ win.
The young striker got the better of Conor Shaughnessy on the right, galloped towards goal and netted with a flamboyant finish, firing into the far corner of the net.
Kone made it 4-1 with an 87th-minute penalty after Esquerdinha was adjudged to have been tripped by Colby Bishop on the left-hand side of the box.
And the striker netted again just over a minute later, racing onto Vale’s through-ball and thumping home.
QPR: Walsh; Mbengue (Clarke-Salter 65), Dunne, Edwards, Norrington-Davies (Esquerdinha 83); Vale, Hayden (Varane 50), Morgan, Smyth (Poku 65); Kolli (Bennie 83), Kone.
Subs not used Hamer, Adamson, Cook, Saito.
