Queens Park Rangers vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance13,760.
Saturday 14 April 2018 21:01, UK
Callum Robinson scored twice as Preston kept their Championship play-off hopes alive with a 2-1 victory at QPR.
North End came from behind to win at Loftus Road, where Robinson equalised in first-half injury-time after Matt Smith's 13th-minute goal had put Rangers ahead.
The home side struggled in the second half and Preston had a goal disallowed for offside when Tom Clarke's header from Paul Gallagher's free-kick was touched over the line by Robinson.
But there was no let-off for Rangers in the 74th minute, when another Gallagher free-kick similarly led to Robinson touching the ball in, this time after a header from Alan Browne.
Browne's header to the far corner was going in and might have crossed the line before Robinson added the final touch, leaving North End three points off the top six.
Target man Smith's 10th of the campaign had put QPR in the driving seat.
When Ryan Manning's free-kick from the left was cleared straight back to the Irish youngster, he volleyed the ball high into the box where it dropped to Smith, who stabbed it past goalkeeper Declan Rudd from close range.
The same pair combined again when Smith nodded Jake Bidwell's cross back towards Manning, whose header was tipped over by Rudd.
The inclusions of Manning and Smith were among five changes made by Rangers boss Ian Holloway, who recalled Massimo Luongo and Ebere Eze and also played keeper Matt Ingram.
Ingram was shown a yellow card eight minutes before half-time for fouling Browne after the Preston midfielder had charged down his clearance.
From the resulting free-kick from the right-hand side, delivered by Billy Bodin, Paul Huntington's goal-bound header was hacked away by Bidwell.
However, neither Ingram nor Alex Baptiste were able to prevent Robinson's tap-in crossing the line after Darnell Fisher had pulled the ball back from the right.
Manning's weak shot was comfortably gathered by Rudd as both teams initially struggled to create chances after the interval.
But as Rangers ran out of ideas, Preston were able to impose themselves and Robinson secured a second win in four days.
Ingram denied them a third goal when he saved from Tom Barkhuizen in stoppage time.
Ian Holloway: "I'm bitterly disappointed. I probably made too many changes, but I put people in to try and express themselves again.
"We couldn't get them on the ball. But we're here to try to move forward.
"We didn't pass the ball well enough. Did anybody do what I really expected? No. That today was very disappointing.
"When we change too much, it's a big ask. I tried to pick a team that would cause Preston problems but unfortunately we didn't understand where the space was and didn't create what we should have done."
Alex Neil: "We've got as good a chance as anybody else in that area. What we've got to do is focus on ourselves. Whatever happens elsewhere, if we don't win we're not going to get there.
"We've got to keep going, win our games and then we'll see what happens.
"A lot of the teams around us have got each other to play, but we have got some points to claw back.
"We've managed to claw points back today and I think it makes for a really exciting end to the season. We're up for the challenge."
