QPR continued their impressive early-season form with a thumping 4-1 win at home to struggling Derby County.

Three of the goals came in the first half, with Alfie Lloyd scoring, Nicolas Madsen tucking away a penalty, and Harvey Vale adding the third.

Paul Smyth made it four with a deflected effort midway through the second half and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen scored a consolation goal for Derby in the final seconds.

Rangers' victory, marred only by Amadou Mbengue being stretchered off late on, leaves them fifth in the Championship table - they would have gone fourth had they not conceded the late goal - while John Eustace's side are one off the bottom and now without a win in six matches.

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Derby, with their defensive options already limited by injuries, lost centre-back Sondre Langas after just 12 minutes.

Langas' block prevented Rayan Kolli from scoring after good work by Smyth, but the Norwegian was hurt in the process and had to be taken off.

Within 10 minutes the Rams were two down and on their way to another defeat.

Boy Kemper set up Rangers' 18th-minute opener, going past Mohammed Fuseini on the left and cleverly back-heeling the ball towards Lloyd, who fired into the far corner.

Madsen doubled the lead four minutes later with a coolly taken penalty after Dion Sanderson was adjudged to have fouled Smyth.

Then in the final minute of normal time at the end of the first half, Vale made it three.

The visiting defence closed down Lloyd near the edge of the penalty area as he collected Kolli's flick, but with a group of Derby players close by, Vale pinched the ball and sent a right-footed shot past keeper Josh Vickers.

Rangers continued to dominate after the interval and Smyth should have added a fourth when he headed Kemper's cross over the bar.

But Smyth got on the scoresheet on 68 minutes when his strike took a heavy deflection off Joe Ward.

Matt Clarke was then denied by keeper Pierce Charles, but that was a rare threat from woeful Derby, who were totally outplayed.

Substitute Kwame Poku almost added a fifth for Rangers when he was set up by a superb pass from Ronnie Edwards, but he dragged his shot wide.

Defender Mbengue, also on as a substitute for the hosts, suffered a worrying-looking knee injury when he went down awkwardly.

It meant QPR had to play the final few minutes with 10 men as they had already made all their permitted changes.

In the final throes Salvesen poked in the loose ball after Ronnie Edwards' tackle had thwarted Ryan Hedges.

The managers

QPR head coach Julien Stephan:

"I have a mix of emotions, because I'm very happy of course with the win but very sad with Amadou's situation and his injury.

"We don't know exactly what the situation is with his knee, but it's never good to see a player like this come off with a lot of pain. It's never a good sign.

"Now we have to fight for Amadou (against Birmingham) on Saturday. This is the message that I wanted to deliver to the players.

"We have to keep our energy very positive and our mindset very positive, and use our sadness for Amadou on Saturday and fight for him.

"Normally, when you play a game like this and you score four, you are very happy and very positive - and I have to be very positive about the way we played.

"Unfortunately we had the Amadou situation and that's why it's a mix of feelings for us."

Derby head coach John Eustace:

"It's a long season. We've had some difficult moments and I'm confident we'll come through it.

"I don't think the players will need picking up. I think they'll be angry and ready to go for the next game.

"The manner we conceded the first goal in was really poor. We need to be much better than that individually.

"In that first 20 minutes I felt comfortable with our shape. Obviously losing Langas doesn't help as we had to adjust things, and individually we just needed to be better defending the box.

"I'm never going to criticise any player individually. Collectively, we need to defend better from the front and at the back.

"If you miss a tackle or lose a duel in basic defending, then good teams are going to punish you.

"The Championship has got top quality this year and if you don't defend properly you're going to get punished."

What the result means and next fixtures...

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