Queens Park Rangers vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance13,624.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between QPR and Preston at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium as Ilias Chair scores the winner for Mark Warburton's men in a five-goal thriller
Saturday 2 October 2021 18:56, UK
Ilias Chair scored the winner as QPR came from behind to beat Preston 3-2 in a thrilling match at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium.
Lyndon Dykes put the hosts ahead and Emil Riis Jakobsen equalised for Preston, who had drawn their previous five league matches.
Josh Earl's first senior goal put the visitors ahead in the opening minute of the second half but Rangers scored twice in the space of three minutes to turn the match in their favour.
Defender Jimmy Dunne levelled after 71 minutes and Chair then struck to send the west London side into the international break with a healthy 18 points.
A counter-attack initiated by goalkeeper Seny Dieng led to QPR going ahead in the 17th minute.
Dieng threw the ball out to Chair, who galloped into the Preston half and found Andre Gray.
Greg Cunningham failed to deal with Gray's first-time cross into the penalty area and Dykes capitalised by digging the ball out from under the Preston defender to score his fourth goal of the season.
But QPR were themselves undone by a counter-attack 10 minutes later.
They have been exciting to watch under boss Mark Warburton but often defensively vulnerable.
The R's are the only team to have scored in all of their Championship matches this season - and have found the net in 25 consecutive games in all competitions.
However, they have a tendency to dominate possession and then concede goals against the run of play and it was a familiar story when Jakobsen equalised with his eighth goal of the campaign.
Sean Maguire swung in a fine ball from the left towards the Danish striker, who got away from Dunne and slotted the ball through the legs of Dieng.
QPR's defensive shortcomings were evident again as they conceded straight after the interval.
Again Maguire was involved, sending in a cross which cannoned off Dieng's shin towards Earl, presenting him with a simple tap-in.
Rangers thought they had levelled when Dykes headed in Rob Dickie's cross, but the striker was offside.
They did draw level shortly afterwards when Chair's free-kick ricocheted towards Dunne, who netted from close range.
Dykes did superbly in the build-up to the winner, showing great determination to nod the ball back to Charlie Austin despite being on the ground.
Austin's shot was saved by goalkeeper Daniel Iversen but the ball then fell to Chair, who fired home.
QPR's Mark Warburton: "The negatives are two awful goals given away. It was an individual error for the first and then straight after half-time not tracking a runner - poor basic defending. You can't give two goals away. That's an honest fact. You can't keep scoring three goals. We know we're going to be on the front foot and create chances, but we have to be better defensively.
"We're a dangerous team going forward but we need to be solid and compact behind the ball. When we do that we look very good. But it's a good three points and important. That's the bread and butter of the Championship - those type of games are easily drawn and easily lost. We're in a good place but we know we've let ourselves down in terms of not getting the results from the performances they've delivered. We should be sitting with 22 or 23 points."
Preston's Frankie McAvoy: "I'm disappointed with the outcome. I felt we were comfortable at 2-1. I felt it wasn't a free-kick which leads to their second goal, but we've got to defend it a bit better. The third goal, again we've got to defend better. We wanted to try to win the game. We felt that if chances arose our way we were good enough to take them.
"It's just disappointing because, where we've been defensively solid in terms of set-pieces going into our box, we conceded from one and should defend it better. You always know that QPR will be a threat. But I felt that if we could keep it at 2-1 we would get a third goal. At 3-2 we wanted to keep pushing to try and get a third goal and get back into it. I'm disappointed to be sitting here with nothing. I don't think we deserve that."
