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QPR 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
by Dan Nolan
at Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium
MARK WARBURTON admitted that Yoann Barbet’s scrappy winner was “no goal-of-the-month contender,” but credited QPR for their hard graft in shutting out in-form visitors Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Travelling to west London after an unbeaten January, Blackburn enjoyed the best of a goalless first half and could easily have gone ahead had Adam Armstrong’s 21st-minute free-kick not been tipped over by flying Seny Dieng.
But after the visitors squandered several gilt-edged chances, QPR made the most of their best period of the match — a set-piece-laden restart which put Rovers under heavy pressure — as Barbet fired them to their fourth win in five.
It came from Charlie Austin’s free-kick on 54 minutes which set off a game of six-yard pinball — Blackburn bodies blocking QPR shots at close range till Jarrad Branthwaite’s push away finally opened up Barbet for an easy slot across Thomas Kaminski.
“It wasn’t pretty at times,” Warburton admitted of QPR’s first win at home since late November.
“We’ve had some good performances here, we’ve played a lot better than that, and not won.
“But that’s the Championship and it’s about defending your goal, understanding the key moments of the game and getting the rewards.
“We got a scrappy goal — that’s no goal-of-the-month contender that’s for sure — but it’s an important three points.”
It lifted the hosts from 18th towards mid-table, and though the goal was nothing to write home about, more exciting elements like the mazy midfield running of Ilias Chair and top wing-back play from Todd Kane seemed to lift Warburton’s hopes that his season is not simply about avoiding relegation.
“This divisions’s all about consistency,” he said. “If you can get four, five, six in a row — or five wins and a draw — in those type of runs you go from 18th to 8th quickly. That’s the Championship, that’s the beauty of it.
“You see teams at the bottom now winning and the gap’s getting closer and closer.
“So it’s a great division, it’s a great league for the neutral — it can cause you to lose a bit of hair when you’re involved in it — but it’s a great league.”
