Queens Park Rangers vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance14,620.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Queens Park Rangers and Preston North End at Loftus Road as Tom Cannon scored a second-half double to seal victory on Good Friday.
Friday 7 April 2023 19:10, UK
Tom Cannon scored both goals as Preston won 2-0 at QPR to continue the west London side's horrific slump towards the relegation zone.
The on-loan Everton youngster netted twice in the space of four second-half minutes to boost North End's play-off push and pile more misery on Rangers.
QPR, who were top of the table in October, have now lost nine of their past 10 matches and all but one of their seven since Gareth Ainsworth took over as boss.
Their latest loss, and Huddersfield's win at Watford, means Ainsworth's team are now one place above the relegation zone - and only outside it by virtue of Reading's recent six-point deduction.
Not even the return of key players such as Chris Willock and Ilias Chair has halted a slide which looks increasingly like sending QPR into the third tier - 30 years after they finished fifth in the inaugural Premier League.
They are just one point above Reading and only bottom-side Wigan have a worse goal difference than the R's.
Both teams had chances to score during the first half at Loftus Road.
After Alan Browne's strike hit the post for Preston, QPR broke forward on the counter-attack and Willock sent Chair through one-on-one with goalkeeper Freddie Woodman only for the Morocco international to shoot wide.
The visitors missed a similar opportunity, with Troy Parrott shooting wide when through on goal after Leon Balogun had given the ball away.
There was another scare for Rangers before the interval when they failed to deal with Robbie Brady's corner and keeper Seny Dieng managed to keep out Jordan Storey's far-post header.
But Dieng was unable to stop Cannon scoring twice in quick succession either side of the hour mark to condemn QPR to another defeat.
The opening goal, scored after 59 minutes, was a near-post header across Dieng and into the far corner from Brady's cross.
The second - Cannon's sixth goal in five matches - came after he was teed up by Parrott's flick, with the defensive shortcomings which have plagued QPR's season evident once again.
Centre-backs Balogun and Jimmy Dunne both went for the ball but failed to reach it and Cannon nipped in to finish coolly.
While QPR continue to drop like a stone - this was their 10th home defeat of the season - Preston are in fine form.
The Lilywhites are eighth in the Championship table, two points away from the play-off places, and have won four of their past five games and lost just once in 10.
QPR's Gareth Ainsworth:
"I came into this job with my eyes wide open. I have absolutely zero regrets. I love this place, it's a fantastic football club, but it's been on a hell of a journey this year and I'm picking up the end of it and trying my best to change the fortunes.
"The slide this club has been on has been evident for a long time and I think there's a fragility in some of the players. They've had such a whack over the past three or four months that they're now playing within themselves."
Preston's Ryan Lowe:
"The lads were professional and resolute. We knew what QPR could do and we nullified their strengths and capitalised on their weaknesses. Without being disrespectful, we know QPR are low on confidence and sometimes you really have to smell that and go for it. Tom will get the credit because he scored the goals but if you ask Tom he'll probably give the credit to someone else. It's not just about him. It's about the team. He knows scoring goals is his job. He'll praise the lads around him.
"It was a good performance. We created good opportunities, scored a couple of good goals and could have had more. We totally dominated from start to finish. Our possession was good and we defended solidly. We were resolute as always and said that if we could keep the back door shut we'd give ourselves an opportunity to go down the other end and create."
