Sub Bersant Celina celebrated his 21st birthday with a brilliant late goal but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Blues from falling to a 2-1 defeat at QPR. Jamie Mackie and Luke Freeman struck either side of the break to give Rangers a two-goal advantage before Celina smashed home his stunning strike to set up a nervy end for the home team, who held on to claim the three points and inflict Town's first away defeat in this year's Championship.

New loanee Callum Connolly was handed his Blues debut at right-back with Jordan Spence the right centre-half, Dominic Iorfa to his left and Jonas Knudsen returning to left-back.

Town, in their red and black away kit, started with a four-man midfield with Martyn Waghorn on the left, Grant Ward on the right and Cole Skuse and Flynn Downes in the middle with Joe Garner partnering David McGoldrick up front.

Celina was on the bench alongside Freddie Sears and Myles Kenlock - who both dropped out of the team having started the 2-0 home defeat to Fulham a fortnight ago - while Tom Adeyemi was included in the 18 for the first time since his summer move to the Blues.

QPR made three changes with Jack Robinson, Alex Baptiste and Pawel Wszolek replacing Steven Caulker, Darnell Furlong and Matt Smith.

The home side struck the game’s first shot, one-time Town target Conor Washington hitting a low effort through to Bartosz Bialkowski from 25 yards which the keeper claimed comfortably.

QPR went closer in the seventh minute when Massimo Luongo crossed from the right and Washington flicked a header wide at the far post when stretching.

The Blues threatened for the first time soon afterwards, McGoldrick crossing from the right after showing his skills but the ball was headed behind before it reached Garner.

Bialkowski was called into serious action for the first time on 12 when a cross from Wszolek following a corner somehow avoided everyone in the box but was returned from the byline by Luke Freeman, the Blues keeper doing well to punch it out of the danger area.

Town switched to the 4-3-3 system which had looked more likely given the personnel as the game approached the quarter of an hour mark with Waghorn moving to wide on the right.

The Blues had the ball in the net in the 25th minute after Garner had been fed in after good work from Waghorn and McGoldrick but the Blues number 14 had strayed offside.

Just before the half hour, Knudsen crossed from the left. Waghorn sent it back in from the right after Garner claimed to have been fouled - referee Andy Davies wasn’t interested - but McGoldrick was unable to trouble Alex Smithies with his header.

There was a scare for the Blues at the other end almost immediately when a Downes slip allowed Freeman a shot at goal from the edge of the box but Bialkowski batted it away.

Moments later, Iorfa slid in to make a superb challenge as Washington looked to break into the area. On 34 Downes was booked for a foul onMackie.

The home side were continuing to have most of the ball and look the more dangerous side and in the 37th minute Josh Scowen struck a powerful effort from a tight angle on the right which Bialkowski palmed over.

In the 42nd minute Downes sent McGoldrick away with a superb pass but despite several twists and turns the Irish international was unable to find himself the space to shoot. Soon after, Waghorn hit a low effort from distance which Smithies claimed.

However, a minute later, QPR took the lead. After what had looked like a clear handball early in the move by Luongo, Mackie turned Wszolek’s right-wing cross past Bialkowski.

While the Rangers players celebrated stand-in skipper Skuse and Garner remonstrated with referee Davies regarding the handball.

Neither side threatened again before the break with Rangers having deserved to go in ahead, despite the contentious nature of the goal.

The home side had had most of the ball and created most of the game’s chances with Bialkowski much the busier of the keepers.

But, while Smithies hadn’t been seriously tested, Town had got themselves in decent positions on the break on one or two occasions but without making the most of those rare opportunities.

However, they needed a significant improvement after the break if they were to maintain their 100 per cent Championship away record.

McGoldrick curled an effort well over from distance soon after the restart, but in the 48th minute the home side doubled their lead.

Freeman broke towards the edge of the box and wasn’t closed down by Town defenders and was able to toe-poke a shot past Bialkowski to his right.

McGoldrick hit a low shot which failed to trouble Smithies in the 55th minute after being played in by Waghorn, then at the other end Washington hit a low shot which Bialkowski claimed similarly comfortably.

Just after the hour, one-time Blues loanee Luongo unleashed a powerful strike from distance which Bialkowski saved well to his right.

On 64 Washington took down a long ball following a Town attack and hit a shot which Bialkowski again saved well to his right.

The Blues created their best opportunity of the half moments later when Connolly crossed from the right and Knudsen headed wide beyond the far post, the ball have been just too high for Garner.

While Smithies prepared to take the goal-kick and with rain by now falling heavily, Town switched Waghorn and Downes for Sears and debutant Adeyemi.

The Blues just about survived a goalmouth scramble following a corner in the 69th minute before Knudsen required treatment for a head injury after receiving a kick to the head as he nodded clear a subsequent flag-kick.

On 76 Celina took over from Ward with the Blues getting into good positions on occasion but with the final ball all too often behind or short of their target.

Referee Davies was also frustrating the Town players, pulling play back when Garner was in a decent position, then failing to penalise a home defender for a foul on McGoldrick. A minute later, QPR swapped Wszolek for debutant former Exeter winger David Wheeler.

As the final scheduled 10 minutes approached the home side were looking more likely to add to their lead than the Blues were to reduce it. Sub Wheeler went close to a debut goal with a low effort which he screwed past the post following a corner.

On 82 QPR replaced Mackie, who had suffered a knock, and Washington for Kazenga LuaLua and Matt Smith, who almost scored seconds after coming on.

Iorfa beat him to a cross from the left but the ball bounced on top of the grounded on-loan Wolves man before Bialkowski could claim it and the former Fulham man hit a shot which caught a Town player and then the bar on its way into the stand.

Luongo curled a strike not too far wide in the 84th minute, then a minute later Celina gave the Blues late hope with a brilliant first league goal for the Blues.

The Kosovan international received the ball from Knudsen on the left following a throw-in then brought the ball in across several defenders before smashing a brilliant strike past Smithies.

A wonder strike! @BersantCelina smashes one in from range to pull one back for @Official_ITFC ➡️ @EFL highlights from 9pm on @channel5_tv. pic.twitter.com/lkPpBOGJ30– Channel 5 Sport (@Channel5Sport) September 9, 2017

The goal set up a frantic final few minutes. After Freeman was booked for pulling back Sears, Celina returned the cleared resultant freekick to the far post to Connolly, whose goal-bound shot was blocked.

As the game moved into five minutes of injury time, the Blues had an even better chance, Iorfa nodded a Celina freekick to Adeyemi, who took it down with his thigh but hit his shot over.

Debutant Connolly was booked for a foul on LuaLua in the final moments before referee Davies brought the game to a close.

On the balance of the game the home side deserved the three points with the Blues showing little sign of getting back into the match before Celina’s brilliant strike, which if anything was even better than Tom Lawrence’s during the Blues’ last visit to Loftus Road, which ended in the same result.

Town were poor on the ball aside from brief spells and the makeshift defence was somewhat chaotic at times, while the midfield still seemed to be too centred on shoehorning another striker into the side, despite Sears dropping to the bench.

The defeat - Town's first away from home in the Championship this season - sees the Blues drop to fourth in the table.

QPR: Smithies, Bidwell, Onuoha (c), Freeman, Washington (Smith 82), Scowen, Mackie (LuaLua 82), Robinson, Baptiste, Luongo, Wszolek (Wheeler 77). Unused: Lumley, Furlong, Manning, Osayi-Samuel, Wheeler.

Town: Bialkowski, Connolly, Iorfa, Spence, Knudsen, Skuse (c), Downes (Adeyemi 68), Ward (Celina 76), Waghorn (Sears 68), McGoldrick, Garner. Unused: Gerken, Rowe, Kenlock, Woolfenden. Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire). Att: 14,060 (Town: 2,384).

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Pip50 added 18:14 - Sep 9 Stirling I think he is referring to the game stats. We have been pretty outplayed even when winning. Mick doesn't have a clue. But it's not all his fault. You can't build a side to challenge top six in current climate on financial scraps. True Mick could put round pegs in round holes and injuries aren't helping, but the bottom liine is we aren't very good. Don't worry only 38 points from safely.

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martin587 added 18:14 - Sep 9 Celina now deserves a chance and in my opinion for what it's worth should start against Bolton.Town played well in patches but still don't have that killer instinct and for me still lack a good quality midfielder with vision to give that final telling pass. MM is still playing certain players out of position and it does show.Ok,we have a lot of injuries but there are still enough players to fill the correct positions without putting square pegs in round holes. For me MM is still doing a good job but needs to understand that playing players out of position does NOT work. Unhappy drive home but on the whole we got what we deserved.Lets just home a few players return next week and we can back to a winning way again.

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carsey added 18:17 - Sep 9 Stirling Archer equally saying Town are good when it's perfectly clear we are not with McCarthy running the show doesn't make us good. Four wins against weak teams prove nothing. I shall reserve judgement until after Bolton next week because if ever there is a fixture for McCarthy to adopt different tactics this is it. Sadly I don't expect to see anything different to the usual turgid approach he has always employed where ever he has been. He could turn Real Madrid into a poor side

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TimmyH added 18:17 - Sep 9 SterlingArcher the 'FACT' was referring to the statistics of possession and shots on and off goal which we have consistently been the poorer team (other than the Birmingham game which we shaded on shots). No I'm not moaning being realistic (even McCarthy has stated we've had our share of luck) and as mentioned brilliant start in terms of maximum points which can not be beaten not in performances. Nice to see you've piped up from somewhere...

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Sam added 18:21 - Sep 9 Only go to the home games but one thing is certain, Celina has to start next game.
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blue75 added 18:22 - Sep 9 Let's look at the positives 45% possession very high for us, 10 shots obviously Bart. Now to my gripe I know we've got players injured but 58% pass completion is crap for a club of our history home or away it should be better. McCarthy will never get us relegated but his way won't work for us the same as allerdyce's didn't at Newcastle he's just not a Ipswich manager. Mark me down but it's true his teams will huff and puff but once he's gone he'll only be remembered for the bad things he did, not what he did in his first 18 months. I'll continue to support the team and club but that man in the dugout never again. I believe we need to move forward the Ipswich way. Mr Evans pay McCarthy off and find a manager that can make us proud to be Ipswich Town supporters again been a long while that has!!

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therein61 added 18:33 - Sep 9 Bert re your comments, yes we have an inexperienced disjointed back 4 at present(due to injuries) all the more reason to give them some help from a proper holding midfielder who will not continually play them into trouble with injury threatening passes(that's when he can keep up with the speed of the game) that cause havoc at the back and has the audacity to stand and point his finger when his ineptitude results in a goal against us but of course he is a premiership class footballer(eh Mick!!??) and an stonewall favourite for selection, the only guarantee with this man is he will continue to cost us valuable points for heavens sake get him out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Warkys_Tash added 18:34 - Sep 9 The team got lucky in August, but in reality is still a new team with players needing to gel, get a run in the team & quite a few key players to come back from Injury. Celina looks good but was also flicked off the ball easily against Fulham. He doesnt look as strong as Lawrence so maybe thats why he not starting just yet? Lets see how we get on this month before starting all the negativity.

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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 18:41 - Sep 9 We looked very average today, but I don't think it's as bad as last season. At least we're trying to pass the ball around and not just hoofing it. Hoping we can get a win soon so that all that early season (over)optimism doesn't evaporate completetly.
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runaround added 19:02 - Sep 9 Given the players unavailable I think the correct starting XI was picked but seems like we came up short again. Hopefully Celina will force his way into the line up now. Home next Saturday to a bottom of the table side is the perfect opportunity to turn things around but failure to do that will mean all the good things from August will be forgotten
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BlueMachines added 19:08 - Sep 9 Walktheline. I totally agree about the stats. Others said the only stat that matters was the result. We've lost the last 3. We had the rub of the green to start with but the scoring from every shot was never likely to last .
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Townie29 added 19:30 - Sep 9 Celine looks class as did Waghorn for me. Today Grant Ward was an absolute mess and Ifora is not a centre back!
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jas0999 added 19:35 - Sep 9 Geminimustang - with respect Berra, Digby and Taylor all left months ago leaving us with just three known CBs. The Smith and Webster injuries were known for some time along with the fact both are injury prone. Leaving it until the last day of the transfer window, with no Plan B is at best incompetence. No excuses.
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htb added 19:44 - Sep 9 My first game of the season and I was hoping to see some improvement on the dross I have become fed up watching in the previous seasons. Unfortunately no noticeable change overall very poor performance other than one moment of quality from Celina which meant the scoreline flattered us. I will be surprised if we are any better than a lower mid table team again.
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Mick_Mills_Tache added 19:47 - Sep 9 I've lost 95% interest in Ipswich (hence the lack of posts) but I have been following the results, reading the reports and listening to the games...here's my opinion: No different to last year. Yes, we won the first 4 league games....Birmingham, Millwall and Barnsley were amongst the favourites to be relegated at the beginning of the season (alongside us). Barnsley, Millwall, Brentford and Fulham all battered us. If it wasn't for Bart (as per usual!) and and some freaky striking stats (9 goals scored off 12 shots) we'd have been languishing second from bottom. Yes, we have a lot injuries....You almost have to ask why? It's not a common problem that a club suffers injuries to 11 first team players within weeks of the season starting. Is it the training? Training pitch quality? Some witch (possibly Delia) has put a voodoo on us? Who knows? However, the centre back situation is quite frankly a joke. We had 5 senior centre backs on our books last term; we let Berra and Taylor go and knew pretty early about Smiths and eventually Websters injuries. We shouldn't have been looking at getting a loan in on the last day of the window that depended on whether the parent club signed one themselves. We should've been permanently signing one earlier in the window and then possibly looking for a loan towards the end for another back up. Skuse is no captain and he's also not good enough. I can understand the need of playing a holding mid at the moment but, Skuse just isn't good enough. Our luck has ended and I still maintain my prediction of 16th or below finish again. Hopefully the last season with Mick in charge. Fingers crossed.

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Mick_Mills_Tache added 19:49 - Sep 9 6 centre backs, sorry, forgot the wonder kid that was Digby! Was Polish Pete still with us last year as well? As that'd have been 7.
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grumpyoldman added 19:53 - Sep 9 I said I will not judge MM until he has a full strength squad before deciding if he has made any progress or not and will stick to that. Really an expected result.
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tractorboybig added 19:57 - Sep 9 FACT:- DIV one here we come...
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warktheline added 20:01 - Sep 9 @bluemachines, when you're winning stats are secondary to the majority of fans, but surely 'most' knew defying such stats couldn't continue over any length of time. Unlike last season our potential to score goals this time round is viable, thus I'll wait until the squad frees up from injuries before I condemn McCarthy! A fully fit squad should be more than capable of 'competitiveness' in Championship! Rope and hanging spring to mind!

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midastouch added 20:33 - Sep 9 It's no secret I've been a Mick critic for some time but I can't fault our start to the season and had anybody of offered me 12 from from the first 6 games just before the season started I'd of snapped their hand off. So I'm not going to take a pop at him as I think we've punched above our weight so far this season. However, I have scratched my head as to why Celina has not had more involvement this season and I don't think I'll ever be converted to appreciating Cole Skuse as I just don't think he's up to the job. Hopefully Celina will have shown Mick with his goal that he needs to be involved far more from now on. If Mick doesn't start him next match or at the very least sub him on a lot earlier then I might not be quite so forgiving! Hopefully it will be a lesson learned for Mick and he'll let Celina off his leash far more to work his magic. If he doesn't he's leaving himself wide-open to further fan criticism which I think would be well justified as a lot of us can see Celina is top quality and needs to be out on the pitch and not stuck going to waste on the bench. If Mick can't see the same then there's something badly wrong but he's still got enough credit in the bank this season for me to be justly start ripping into him just yet. COYB!!!

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corkblue added 20:42 - Sep 9 'They were better than us!' Where have I heard that before. Are we now heading for mid to lower table mediocrity!
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midastouch added 20:49 - Sep 9 Funky Cold Celina! :-)
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corkblue added 21:08 - Sep 9 Elightenment please on 'funky cold' Celina?
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Surco72 added 21:14 - Sep 9 Tone Loc... @ Cork blue about the same time MM's tactics were any good
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BrettenhamBlue added 22:02 - Sep 9 QPR match ratings from their forum kind of says it all: 9.3 Bartosz Bialkowski 3.3 Callum Connolly 4.8 Jordan Spence 4.7 Dominic Iorfa 4.0 Jonas Knudsen 3.0 Grant Ward 3.0 Cole Skuse 3.0 Flynn Downes 2.5 Martyn Waghorn 5.8 David McGoldrick 2.5 Joe Garner 5.0 Bersant Celina 3.0 Tom Adeyemi 3.0 Freddie Sears They are raving about Bialkowski. They also think Luongo was outstanding and controlled the game.

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