Queens Park Rangers vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance15,376.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn Rovers at Loftus Road on Saturday | Gareth Ainsworth's side condemned to another miserable home defeat.
Saturday 7 October 2023 18:40, UK
Arnor Sigurdsson scored twice as Blackburn thrashed QPR 4-0 to increase the pressure on R's boss Gareth Ainsworth.
Tyrhys Dolan and Sammie Szmodics also netted in a thumping away victory for Rovers, who had lost their previous four league matches.
Ainsworth's future as Rangers boss is in doubt after another diabolical performance at Loftus Road, where the west London side have won just once since last October and have lost five of their six home matches so far this season.
The R's are in the bottom three, have gone six games without a win, and look both defensively vulnerable and devoid of attacking ideas.
They almost went down under Ainsworth last season and have so far fully justified being among the favourites for relegation this term.
Blackburn took control of the game by punishing woeful QPR defending to score twice in the space of four minutes midway through the first half.
The opener came on 19 minutes, when Joe Rankin-Costello drifted away from Jack Colback to collect Dilan Markanday's pass and pull the ball back from the right for Dolan to score his first goal of the season.
Rangers were carved open again soon afterwards, with Markanday once more involved in the build-up on the right-hand side.
This time Szmodics was found by Markanday and laid the ball across to Sigurdsson, who got in front of Ziyad Larkeche to apply the finish.
Rangers had made a decent start, with Sinclair Armstrong bringing a near-post save from keeper Leopold Wahlstedt after combining with Ilias Chair, before Wahlstedt gathered Lyndon Dykes' header from Larkeche's right-wing corner.
After finding themselves two down, the hosts tried in vain to reduce the deficit before the interval, with Andre Dozzell seeing a shot saved by Wahlstedt shortly before crossing for Dykes, who headed wide.
Any realistic chance of a Rangers comeback evaporated when Sigurdsson struck again after 59 minutes, collecting Dolan's pass near the left of the penalty area and curling a low shot beyond keeper Asmir Begovic and into the far corner of the net.
Andy Moran should have made it four but missed the target from close range after Begovic had parried Szmodics' shot.
But Szmodics added the fourth in the 66th minute following an error by Larkeche.
Left-back Larkeche, operating as a makeshift right-back in place of the dropped Osman Kakay, made a mess of an attempted clearance and presented the ball straight to Szmodics, who calmly slotted past Begovic.
QPR's Gareth Ainsworth:
"I'm a fighter and a scrapper. I'll get this team out of this, no problem - I'll get this team higher in the league. I'm going to work really hard to get out of this.
"For some reason it's not clicking at the moment. I've got to work really hard on the training ground and I will do that.
"I believe we've got a better squad than when I first came. It didn't show today, but I'm super-confident we'll get points.
"I can stand in the mirror and know I give my best. If that's not good enough then I'll be told. But at the moment I intend to keep going and make myself and these players better."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson:
"Sometimes players can lose confidence, but they stuck to the plan.
"We've been playing good stuff, there have been a lot of positive things, and it's great to have a win before the international break.
"I'm just sticking to the plan and the progress with this young team. We've played some great football and normally if you do the right things you will get wins.
"There's maybe been a bit of noise, but if you keep playing you will get results."
