Hull City vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
MKM StadiumAttendance14,181.
Saturday 7 April 2018 18:56, UK
Hull moved one step closer to maintaining their Championship status with a convincing 4-0 victory over 10-man QPR.
Fellow strugglers Barnsley defeated Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United in the earlier kick-off to drag 18th-placed Hull back into the relegation battle prior to kick-off - but a first win in four matches moved the Tigers seven points clear of the drop zone.
Two goals in three first-half minutes from Harry Wilson and an Alex Smithies own goal set Hull on their way and substitute Kamil Grosicki and Abel Hernandez rounded off an emphatic performance, before QPR captain Nedum Onuoha saw red in stoppage time.
Both sets of supporters paid tribute to former QPR player-manager Ray Wilkins with a minute's applause following his death on Wednesday at the age of 61, with the visiting fans also chanting the ex-England international's name.
Hernandez shanked an effort well wide before Jarrod Bowen went even closer on 11 minutes when his curling effort deflected just wide - but chances were at a premium during a cagey first half-hour.
Bowen was in the thick of the action once more when he put a 25-yard free-kick narrowly over the crossbar, with Smithies well beaten before QPR had their first notable effort nine minutes before the break.
A lovely passing move saw Luke Freeman find Darnell Furlong inside the penalty area but his effort was deflected wide by Michael Hector.
However, Hull should have taken the lead when a pass by Michael Dawson set Wilson free and found Bowen at the far post to cushion to Hernandez, but he failed to connect from 10 yards.
Hernandez made amends with a perfectly-weighted pass into the path of Wilson and the Wales international composed himself to slot in off the far post two minutes before half-time.
Massimo Luongo broke into the penalty area for QPR but he could not keep his effort down and the visitors were made to pay for their wasted chance in first-half stoppage-time.
Jon Toral stole possession before playing in Markus Henriksen, who in turn found Hernandez. The Uruguayan striker rattled a shot off the crossbar which ricocheted off the back of the unfortunate Smithies and into the net.
After the restart, Freeman fired just wide from 20 yards before Ebere Eze spurned two decent openings as QPR searched for a way back into the match with a positive start to the second half.
Hull took advantage of their opponents' profligacy in front of goal just after the hour mark to extend their lead through Grosicki, who collected a slide-rule pass from Wilson and slotted under the body of Smithies for his first goal since December.
It was 4-0 to the hosts after 69 minutes when Sebastian Larsson's searching ball to the far post was met first time by Henriksen, who cushioned a pass across the six-yard box for Hernandez to tap into an empty net.
Substitute Fraizer Campbell came close to adding a fifth as Hull eased down the clock, but there was still time for Onuoha to earn a straight red card as he steamed into Henriksen with his shoulder after the Norwegian midfielder shoved Josh Scowen.
Nigel Adkins: "We need more points. The points we have now are not going to be enough. What are we on now, 45? 44? That's not enough points to stay up.
"So we have to keep driving everybody to keep working hard for the next one. That's the way I'm viewing it. Likewise, we want to be building towards next season."
Ian Holloway: "Life is tough as we all found out this week. I wanted my team to give a performance that would have made my old team-mate, my old manager proud. Unfortunately I didn't see any of them do that.
"We got beat by the better team on the day. We gave the ball away so badly that it is almost unrecognisable. We didn't press well. They are good going forward. They have talented people going forward. They have some ex-Premier League players and you could see that and unfortunately we needed to score the second goal, and we didn't."
