QPR captain Jimmy Dunne rescued a point to keep his side in the hunt for the play-offs with a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth.

Terry Devlin had put John Mousinho's side ahead on the stroke of half-time but Rangers deservedly equalised through Dunne's header after an improved second-half showing.

Pompey were much the better side in the first half of this Sky Bet Championship contest and QPR dominated after the break, with the result a fair reflection of the 90 minutes.

Four points from their previous two games had eased some of the pressure on Pompey and edged them out of the relegation zone but they dropped back into the bottom three on goal difference after this result and with Oxford winning against Southampton.

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There was a pre-match blow for Mousinho with influential winger Josh Murphy ruled out with a hamstring injury sustained in the 1-1 draw at Derby.

Murphy's absence meant a first start of the season for former Liverpool academy product Harvey Blair and he was Pompey's liveliest player in the opening stages, causing plenty of problems on the left flank.

Pompey were making all the running and almost took the lead when Colby Bishop headed Conor Chaplin's corner against the foot of the post after 20 minutes.

That was pretty much as good as it got for goal-scoring opportunities until the last few minutes of the half, when Bishop's curling save was brilliantly saved by Ben Hamer at full stretch.

Then, moments later, Regan Poole headed a cross back across the six-yard box but Hayden Matthews failed to get the final touch.

The home side took a deserved lead on the stroke of half-time when Devlin fired in a loose ball after Chapin's corner had bounced loose off Amadou Mbengue.

QPR were brighter in the second half and Richard Kone had their first effort on target, seeing his header tipped away to safety after Karamoko Dembele had nodded the ball across goal.

They equalised soon after when Rangers captain Dunne scored at Fratton Park for the second season running, heading in Nicolas Madsen's corner.

Pompey were struggling to gain a foothold in the game at that point and Mousinho responded by bringing on the experienced Marlon Pack to bolster his midfield.

But it was QPR who continued to look the more dangerous, with Kone bringing a decent save from Nicolas Schmid after a sharp turn and shot from the edge of the area.

But neither side did enough to win it and had to settle for a share of the Boxing Day spoils.

The managers

Portsmouth's John Mousinho:

"It's very tight and the most important thing for us is to not worry about that. It's to worry about what it looks like above us with a few of those places where it's really tightened up.

"It is important for us just over the next couple of weeks to make sure we try and draw in as many of those teams as possible.

"I thought we were excellent in the first half and well-deserving of the lead. (We) could have had a couple more, I think, and that was the only disappointing thing.

"I think on the balance of the game, it's a fair result. But certainly the way that we were playing and the way that we dominated the first 45, we definitely should have won the game.

"So it does feel like there's an opportunity there to have taken all three points, albeit QPR have a really good side. They've got the ability to really hurt teams like we saw last week when they were 4-0 up at half-time against Leicester."

QPR's Julien Stephan:

"Two different halves. Very difficult first half for us. It was not good enough in terms of intensity, in terms of quality, with the ball, without the ball, position was not good as well.

"We lost a lot of duels, so it was a poor first half for us. And good reaction in the second half because we needed to fix some different problems during half-time…in terms of position and in terms of intensity as well."

QPR levelled when Dunne rose highest to meet Nicolas Madsen's corner during a period of sustained pressure for the away side.

Stephan added: "We scored after a set-piece and we had two or three good opportunities to score another one. But when you play only one half away, it's difficult to imagine a top, top result."

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