Ipswich Town vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance18,345.
Ipswich slip to bottom of the Sky Bet Championship
Saturday 20 October 2018 21:32, UK
Ipswich's search for a first home win in the Sky Bet Championship this season continued as QPR won 2-0 at Portman Road.
An own goal by Town keeper Dean Gerken and a penalty from Tomer Hemed in the first half saw Steve McClaren's team achieve back-to-back away victories for the first time since January 2017. Town's second consecutive home defeat of the season saw them slump to the bottom of the table, while QPR move up to 16th.
In a quiet opening to the match, QPR had the first effort at goal when Australian Massimo Luongo fired wide from the edge of the box. Hemed then headed over for the visitors from Luke Freeman's deep corner as Rangers began to apply some early pressure.
The opening goal came two minutes later when Freeman's inswinging corner from the right was palmed into his own net by Gerken. The hosts were struggling to find any rhythm with striker Freddie Sears isolated as the lone frontman, while Rangers looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
The Blues missed a golden opportunity to equalise in the 36th minute when Grant Ward sliced his shot inside the box following Trevoh Chalobah's driving run and cross.
In added time in the first half, another Freeman inswinger from the right caused problems and Eberechi Eze was brought down by Tota Nsiala in the box. Hemed sent Gerken the wrong way from the resultant penalty to double Rangers' lead.
The visitors immediately had a chance to increase their lead seconds after the break when Town skipper Luke Chambers gifted the ball to Eze but Gerken made a smart save to deny the QPR striker.
Ward then headed straight at visiting keeper Joe Lumley from Chalobah's cross as the Blues looked for a way back into the game. Ipswich substitutes Kayden Jackson and Jack Lankester almost made an immediate impact after coming on in the 66th minute when Jackson's low-drilled cross was cleared just ahead of teenage debutant Lankester.
Impressive England U20 international Eze curled a left-footed effort against the crossbar in the 73rd minute as Rangers looked to kill the game off. Rangers were able to see out the match comfortably in the latter stages and the final whistle brought boos from the home crowd.
Paul Hurst: "Not a good enough reaction overall to going behind made for a very disappointing afternoon. At the end of the day I'm the manager and we all know whoever's the manager of the team gets criticised and I understand that, and can accept that.
"But those things, the mistakes, I've just said downstairs I've never been involved in a season - and we're not even a third of the way through yet - when there's been so many mistakes in that period of time."
"[It was] certainly the worst [performance] at home, and I think probably overall. All we had was a spell where we were better and could have quite easily got back into the game but I understand why there was frustration today, 100 per cent."
Steve McClaren: "[It was] very professional. That's what we said at the beginning, this was an opportunity if we are professional and do our job, then we've got a chance of winning and that's what we did right from the first whistle.
"[We] controlled the game, got the goals and saw the game through, clean sheet, two goals and should have been more. I think we're slowly going forward with this team and I always thought we would do. We're gaining in confidence, a little bit more belief but still a long way to go and still a lot more to come from this team."
