Queens Park Rangers vs Bolton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance12,638.
Saturday 17 February 2018 19:23, UK
Goals from Joel Lynch and Matt Smith gave QPR a 2-0 victory over 10-man Bolton at Loftus Road.
Wanderers right-back Mark Little was harshly shown a straight red card for a challenge on Massimo Luongo near the left-hand touchline four minutes into the second half.
The visitors defended resolutely but were undone when Smith met Luke Freeman's left-wing free-kick with a far-post header and Lynch applied the finishing touch from a yard out.
Smith sealed Rangers' win after being found by a right-wing cross from substitute Paul Smyth.
It took QPR 11 points clear of the drop zone, while Bolton remain in the thick of the battle against relegation and have now lost six of their last seven away matches in the Sky Bet Championship.
Rangers were on top for much of the game, although keeper Alex Smithies produced a superb save to prevent them going behind early on when he kept out Derik Osede's header from Josh Vela's right-wing corner.
Rangers responded after the early scare and went close to scoring when Smith's header from Jake Bidwell's cross was pushed away by Alnwick.
Reece Burke then turned the ball into his own net after Conor Washington and Smith had both failed to connect with Pawel Wszolek's low cross, but the on-loan defender's blushes were spared by an offside flag.
Smithies was called into action a couple of minutes into the second half, stopping David Wheater's far-post header from Sammy Ameobi's free-kick.
Wanderers were then put under sustained pressure, with Alnwick tipping over a shot from Freeman and Smith heading over before the deadlock was eventually broken.
Lynch almost scored a second but was just unable to connect after Nedum Onuoha had headed the ball back across goal.
Having missed a number of chances, Smith was rewarded for his persistence - his goal was the striker's seventh of the season.
Phil Parkinson: "Mark's (feet) left the ground and he's given the ref a decision to make. Away from home, when you've got the weak officials we had today, it was always going to end up in a red.
"I can see why he's given that one, but I thought the all-round performance of all four officials was very poor.
"Loftus Road is a tight ground, the crowd are on top of you and Ian Holloway's jumping up and down appealing for everything and having a go at the ref at half-time.
"At half-time, Ian was waiting for the ref. I said to the ref: 'Don't get influenced by that' and I thought he was.
"You need strong officials and we didn't have them today. I think if that had been a QPR player it would have been a yellow card.
"Sometimes you say a ref's a 'homer' and every decision goes for the home team. It certainly was that today."
Ian Holloway: "We were professional today and we did what we needed to do. I'm delighted with that.
"Even though we didn't get what we deserved in the first half, we still kept going and we looked dangerous.
"Hopefully our fans will go away feeling happy and feeling that actually that wasn't bad.
"The performance today I thought merited a pat on the back for my lads because I thought they were professional."
