QPR thumped at home by Ipswich
QPR 1Burrell (21′)
Ipswich 4Hirst (2′, 57′)
Nunez (47′, 64′)
QPR slumped to a heavy defeat at Loftus Road, where they have won just two of their past 12 Championship matches.
George Hirst and Marcelino Nunez both scored twice as Ipswich stormed to victory.
Hirst opened the scoring after barely a minute and Rumarn Burrell equalised midway through the first half.
Both Nunez’s goals were from free-kicks, with the first restoring the visitors’ lead at the start of the second half.
Hirst made it 3-1 on 57 minutes, and Nunez added a fourth seven minutes later to seal a resounding win for the Suffolk side.
Rangers were poor despite recently being boosted by the return of several key players, including Ilias Chair, who started a match for the first time since August.
Chair, so often his team’s talisman, helped them hit back after their nightmare start, with a trademark cut in from the left flank to make room for a right-footed shot.
Keeper Christian Walton could only parry Chair’s low strike and Burrell pounced on the loose ball to score his third goal in his past four appearances.
It hauled QPR level after Hirst had put Ipswich ahead with the first attack of the match.
Sindre Walle Egeli went past teenage left-back Esquerdinha with ease and crossed towards Hirst, who climbed above R’s defender Liam Morrison to head home from six yards.
Rangers’ spirits were lifted by their 21st-minute goal but it was a similar story at the start of the second half, with Ipswich again scoring in the opening couple of minutes.
After Isaac Hayden’s clumsy foul on Jaden Philogene near the left-hand edge of the penalty area, Nunez whipped the resulting free-kick past keeper Paul Nardi and into the far corner of the net. It was a fine strike, but Nardi was positioned towards that corner and should have done better.
Ipswich then took total control and a sweeping move from back to front culminated in Darnell Furlong, playing against his former club, crossing from the right for Hirst to score again with a header.
And there was no way back for Rangers after Nunez struck again from a free-kick, this time firing into the bottom corner.
QPR: Nardi, Dunne, Morrison, Cook (Mbengue 78), Esquerdinha (Norrington-Davies 62), Vale (Poku 62), Hayden, Madsen, Chair (Saito 68), Kone (Frey 68), Burrell.
Subs not used: Hamer, Field, Varane, Smyth.
