Queens Park Rangers vs Swansea City. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance12,770.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between QPR and Swansea at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium as the two sides played out a frustrating goalless draw on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 25 January 2022 22:56, UK
QPR were unable to extend their winning run as they were held to a drab goalless home draw by Swansea.
The west London side had won their previous four Championship matches and would have climbed to third in the table with another victory.
Instead they remain a place further back, two points behind second-placed Blackburn with a game in hand.
Swansea, who stay 17th, ended the match with 10 men after Flynn Downes was sent off in added time for tangling with Charlie Austin. Both players were booked, Downes picking up his second yellow card.
Luke Amos went closest to breaking the deadlock when he hit a post just before the hour mark.
The Rangers midfielder darted through on the right-hand side of the area and drove the ball low across the face of goal and against the woodwork.
But Swansea were a threat and veteran goalkeeper David Marshall kept them at bay in the opening stages of the second half.
The Scotland international looks a shrewd short-term signing by QPR while first-choice keeper Seny Dieng is with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Marshall, making his third appearance since being brought in from Derby, did brilliantly to keep out Joe Piroe's low shot.
Marshall was also alert to push away Cyrus Christie's dangerous cross and Matt Grimes' follow-up as the Swans put Rangers under a spell of pressure.
While Marshall is filling the void left by Dieng, QPR badly missed the creativity of Ilias Chair, whose Cup of Nations involvement with Morocco has deprived his club of one of their two main creative players.
The other, Chris Willock, caused the visitors problems, but Rangers struggled to create clear-cut chances.
Boss Mark Warburton reacted by adopting a more direct approach, sending striker Lyndon Dykes on to partner Austin up front.
And Dykes missed a great chance late on when he fired straight at keeper Ben Hamer from point-blank range after being set up by Moses Odubajo.
Swansea deserved their point and continued to show signs of improvement, despite having won just one of their past six matches.
This stalemate made it four points from two games and back-to-back clean sheets for the Welsh side.
They briefly thought they had gone ahead when Michael Obafemi netted with a couple of minutes remaining, but the striker was offside.
QPR's Mark Warburton: "I just felt we lacked a bit of quality in the final third. We know we were not at our best. You're obviously going to miss a player who plays nine times out of 10. Ilias is normally in the team and with his goals and assists he's a very talented boy. He's been away but, if you look at our run for the last eight or nine games, we're not doing bad.
"The boys have found a way to win games and tonight we couldn't quite find a way to win it. But look at the results. We've done OK and are in a decent position and come May that could be a very good point indeed."
Swansea's Russell Martin: "I thought we were great. I'm really proud of the team. I asked them to come here and show courage and be the team that we want to be and they've done that. We showed some serious character. There was a really good mentality and a real intensity to the game. With a bit more quality in the final third I think we could maybe have come away with three points, but it's back-to-back clean sheets and we got the least we deserved tonight.
"Some of the football was really good on a tight pitch against a very good team who are really aggressive. The bravery they showed to play the way they did was incredible. We've shown that on our day we're capable of producing performances that can compete against anyone. I really feel that we're growing all the time and the players fully believe in what we're asking them to do."
