Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and QPR at Kenilworth Road; Rob Dickie's late goal saw Rangers leapfrog their play-off rivals to move into fourth place after a 2-1 win
Monday 14 March 2022 12:06, UK
Rob Dickie's late goal saw QPR leapfrog play-off rivals Luton to move into fourth place in the Championship after a 2-1 victory at Kenilworth Road.
It had looked like the Hatters were well set to claim yet another home victory, Cameron Jerome giving the hosts a first-half lead, but Rangers hit back after the break, Andre Gray's penalty and Dickie's close-range flick sealing the victory.
Town had begun well, midfielder Allan Campbell trying his luck from range, David Marshall gathering low down to his right.
The Scottish midfielder was then released in the box by Jordan Clark's flick, but off balance, could only slice wide.
Town were then forced into a change after 15 minutes, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu suffering a knee injury and Henri Lansbury coming on.
The visitors threatened an opener, Moses Odubajo's effort from outside the box drawing an unconvincing stop from James Shea.
Luton thought they had broken the deadlock after 25 minutes, Jordan Clark's superb spin and through ball finished off expertly by Elijah Adebayo, but the striker had gone just too early and was flagged offside.
The hosts did take the lead, though, with 37 minutes gone when Jerome's snapshot from 22 yards caught out Marshall, the Scottish international unable to keep it out despite getting a more than a decent hand to it. There was an element of controversy, however, as it appeared Clark had handballed it on the edge of the box when controlling the ball in the build-up.
Clark went close to a second, his two efforts charged down inside the area, as the visitors were lucky to start the second period with 11 men, Ilias Chair only seeing yellow when raising his hands to Tom Lockyer on the stroke of half-time.
Luton might have led 2-0 within seconds of the restart, Campbell picked out on the edge of the box, but his shot was too close to Marshall.
Mark Warburton's side equalised after 55 minutes, though, when Kal Naismith slid in needlessly on Gray inside the area for a spot-kick that the former Luton striker coolly converted.
Town tried to hit back, Lockyer diverting his header wide from a deep James Bree corner, as full-back Amari'i Bell went close with 12 minutes left, blasting into the side-netting from 18 yards.
With seven minutes remaining, Naismith's sliced clearance gave away a corner and Chris Willock's delivery was flicked over the line by Dickie to put the visitors 2-1 in front. Although, much like Luton's opener, there were question marks over whether it should have counted as Luke Amos was offside and impeding Shea as Dickie headed in.
Five minutes of stoppage time followed, but the Hatters never came close to what would have been a deserved equaliser, falling to a first home defeat since November 27.
Luton boss Nathan Jones said: "I feel low, I've got to be honest with you, the manner of it, just disappointed. The decisions to give them the goals were poor, I felt we were decent all afternoon, we were excellent first half and this is a tough one to take. These have never got to play well to beat us, I don't know what it is, because we have chance after chance against them away from home and we gift them the goals and then here exactly the same. Just stay on your feet, you don't have to dive in, so I'm just disappointed with the goals, it's killed me and I'm finding it hard to speak.
"We've been in the top six, should have been fourth today - if you just do the basics well enough you're fourth in the league today which is the biggest over-achievement in history. I thought we were fine, we were excellent first half, came out second half and could have scored again but these have just never got to work hard to beat us and they beat us all the time."
QPR boss Mark Warburton: "It was three very important points for us. An excellent second-half performance - first half I thought we were hurried, didn't get the ball down, thought the balance second half was much better, matched their physicality, a lot of balls won aerially, we stepped in and looked a good team second half. It was an important goal, a really important goal after being on a run of below-par form. We've had a massive dip and people have been writing us off, now we're fourth in the table.
"They're a very, very hard team to beat home and away, especially here, but you have to match them with their physicality and their pace and power and then you have to apply the gameplan and second half we got it right. It's amazing how fickle some people are, some said we would be lucky to finish mid-table and it was doom and gloom, now everybody's suddenly jumping around. There's a lot of points to play for, 30 points in our case and teams above us have played more games, so don't form an opinion on us too early."
