Goals from Pawel Wszolek, Joel Lynch and Nahki Wells saw QPR to a comfortable 3-0 victory over the Blues at Loftus Road. Wszolek profited from Town mistakes to open the scoring on the half hour, Lynch headed the second on 34 and Wells added the third on 74 as the bottom-of-the-table Blues slipped back to seven points from safety.

Town boss Paul Lambert made two changes from the team which drew 1-1 with Sheffield United on Saturday with Flynn Downes and Grant Ward coming into the side for Andre Dozzell and Gwion Edwards, who dropped to the bench.

Ward played in the wide right role Edwards occupied against the Blades, while Downes came into the centre of midfield. The home side made one change with Lynch replacing Jordan Cousins, who was among their subs.

QPR struck the game’s first shot, Ebere Eze cutting in from the left and hitting a low effort which Dean Gerken claimed comfortably, while ex-Blues loanee Massimo Luongo was in their midfield.

In the fifth minute Blues skipper Luke Chambers was yellow-carded for colliding with Darnell Furlong just outside the area, the central defender feeling he was the man fouled.

Luke Freeman curled the resultant freekick just under Gerken’s bar and the keeper turned it over with little fanfare.

QPR enjoyed much the greater share of the ball in the opening minutes without threatening further, but on 10 Downes won the ball in midfield and fed Ward, who in turn played it to Jon Nolan to his right. However, the ex-Shrewsbury man’s cross was too long for Downes, who had broken into the box.

Moments later, Ellis Harrison was played on on the left but the Welshman sent the ball in before any of his team-mates had made a run.

But it was still QPR for the most part and they could well have gone in front in the 17th minute. Freeman rode a couple of tackles down the left before cutting back but slightly behind one-time Blues trialist Wells and the ball ricocheted off his heels and away from goal.

The Blues, with owner Marcus Evans watching from the stands, threatened again in the 20th minute when Matthew Pennington flicked a header from a corner on the left towards the far post but no one was able to apply the final touch.

Town’s best passage of play of the half led to a Nolan chance in the 23rd minute. After good work from Sears and Harrison, Downes played a clever ball for Nolan to chase and, with no options in the centre, the midfielder hit a low shot from an angle on the left which QPR keeper Joe Lumley palmed away to safety.

The Blues were beginning to get more into the game and in the 26th minute, shortly after skipper Luke Chambers had been treated for a head injury, Nolan played a delightful ball over the QPR backline for Harrison. The former Bristol Rovers man looped the ball towards goal from a tight angle on the right but just over.

However, right on the half hour the home side took the lead with Town playing a major part in their own downfall.

Nolan tried to play the ball back to his central defenders from wide on the right but only found Wells. The Bermudian brought it forward before hitting a low shot which Gerken could only paw away to his left and Wszolek was the first to react to hammer the rebound home from close range.

Four minutes later, it was 2-0. Freeman sent a freekick over from deep on the left and Lynch got ahead of Pennington to nod to Gerken’s right and into the net of the keeper’s despairing right hand.

The Blues looked to get back into the game after QPR’s quick-fire double. On 37 Pennington headed well over from a corner on the left when he will feel he ought to have done better.

Goalscorer Wszolek was booked for wiping out Nolan in the 43rd minute with neither team going close to adding to the goals before the break.

Having remained resolute in the early part of the half which QPR had dominated, the Blues started to make some headway and created a couple of chances before gifting the home side their opener.

Nolan presumably didn’t see Wells when he made his pass while Gerken will feel he ought to have bundled the ball away from goal if he wasn’t going to keep hold of it.

The second goal two minutes later came from a well-taken freekick but boss Lambert will believe it should have been defended far better.

Town needed a big second half if they were to take anything from the game but it was the home side who started the period brightest, Freeman hitting an early low effort towards the near post which Gerken claimed at the second attempt. On 49 Jordan Spence was booked for a foul on Lynch.

Following a 52nd minute Blues corner, Nolan stabbed the ball out to Trevoh Chalobah, who hit a 20-yard shot which looked goalbound until Lumley got across to palm it wide.

Ten minutes later, Ward was replaced by Jack Lankester having suffered a knock in a challenge moments earlier and been carried to the tunnel on a stretcher.

Town were seeing a lot of the ball and competently passed it around but rarely in dangerous areas and without creating a chance, while QPR were happy enough with their two-goal lead and didn’t looked particularly concerned about adding to it. On 70 Nolan was replaced by Jordan Roberts as the Blues moved to 4-4-1-1, while Ilias Chair took over from Eze for Rangers.

The home side completed what was a victory won at a canter in the 74th minute when sub Chair was somehow allowed to cut the ball back from the byline on the right to Wells, who had time to hit a shot on the turn across Gerken and into the corner of the net.

Having netted their third, QPR loosened the shackles and went looking for a fourth. Wszolek was thwarted by Gerken, then Chambers blocked Wells from the rebound, before Roberts curled a shot just over at the other end.

Rangers sub Bright Osayi-Samuel saw an effort blocked from close range moments after coming on, just prior to the fourth official indicating three additional minutes.

The final whistle confirmed a thoroughly disappointing afternoon for the Blues who had begun to make some headway when they conceded QPR’s two first-half goals, the first of which was seasonally gift-wrapped for Steve McClaren’s side.

In the second half, although Town saw more of the ball and moved the ball around well at times, they rarely did so in dangerous areas and never laid a glove on the visitors who were given another late Christmas present to cement their lead with 16 minutes remaining.

A bad afternoon all round for the Blues with results elsewhere seeing the sides above them move away and the gap to safety stretch back to seven points plus goal difference ahead of a difficult trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

QPR: Lumley, Furlong, Leistner, Lynch, Bidwell, Wszolek, Scowen, Luongo, Freeman (Osayi-Samuel 88), Eze (Chair 70), Wells (Oteh 84). Unused: Ingram, Hall, Cousins, Smith.

Town: Gerken, Spence, Chambers (c), Pennington, Knudsen, Chalobah, Downes, Nolan (Roberts 70), Ward (Lankester 62), Sears, Harrison. Unused: Bialkowski, Edwards, Jackson, Dozzell, Kenlock. Referee: Keith Stroud (Hampshire). Att: 14,584 (Town: 1,288).

Photo: Pagepix

Bluearmy_81 added 17:39 - Dec 26 Bluearmy81. Don't worry. As I write this Evans is on the phone, securing 2 CBs, a DM, a couple of wingers with flair and creativity....oh....and sponsorship with Viagra. As long as they are free agents from the US no-one else wants or loans mate. Can't be spending appropriate funds on decent players which stand a chance of getting us out of the mess he's created can we?!!

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IpswichToon added 17:41 - Dec 26 The worst performance we've had since the last time we faced QPR. I'm a fan onlf Jon Nolan, but that was a shocking performance from him. Two incredibly sloppy backwards passes within about a minute - the second of which lead to their first goal. What a gift! Then the second goal comes from the softest free kick you'll see all season. So nearly turned off the game after it went 2-0. Wish I had now.

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Suffolkboy added 17:42 - Dec 26 We DO need to step back a little : try to put everything into its true perspective ,and remind ourselves just how we came to arrive here . A terrible decision replacing MM with an inadequate indidual ,and the “ LOSS “ of a handful of key players ,coupled with too many inexperienced characters imported, proved traumatic . We shan't easily recover ,and PL has pointed out that he and his team are thus effectively some 6 months behind where they'd want to be right now : the patient is making progress but some infusion of new blood is prescribed and we must hope will happen ! It's very sad to be reminded of our inadequacies ,but we've a good man managing ,with splendid qualities and good colleagues : what they most need is our understanding and positive support . COYB

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blueboy1981 added 17:44 - Dec 26 Spot on .... Gilesy.
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EssexTractor added 17:44 - Dec 26 Paul Lambert has tried to encourage our supporters feelings that miracles might happen , but on the evidence of today he will to be the most successful manager ever in the Clubs history during the last 20 matches, firstly to attract the January 2019 " new staff" and then pull the rabbit out of the hat to lift ourselves over three clubs The individual and collective performance today was woeful throughout ... Mick Mills loyal as he might be to the Clubs pedigree, as indeed are the majority of supporters, needs to be honest as supporters are....we were woeful and embarrassing ..we hate those feelings but they are sadly the truth.

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pragmatic added 17:45 - Dec 26 Agree blue boy the damage that hurst & Doug did whilst “allowed to fck this club up” is criminal & they will go down as possibly the worst appointments ever made, basically we were all “mugged” by those clowns. Yes people will moan about Evans etc, but right now we need to stay behind Lambert @ the team whoever plays, & if worst happens rebuild mentally & positively for nxt season.

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Bluearmy_81 added 17:47 - Dec 26 Even if someone did come along and buy the club off him for £1, would they fork out the £5m a year needed to keep the club afloat? Err... yes, of course, thats what people who buy football clubs do! Don't make it sound like it would've the strangest thing to ever happen in the game! Clinically fascinating? Really? Are you a clinician then? What I find more fascinating is how so called fans can simply roll over and let one man kill the club without even the merest whimper. Fascinating and pathetic in equal measure. Complete melts

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Saxonblue74 added 17:48 - Dec 26 Realistically are we really going to see a billionaire saviour appear from nowhere to buy our club? I for one would not want to see our club slide down the corporate route that so many have. My heart sank when I saw our current sponsors plastered over our shirts, first step toward becoming just another "clone club". Let's hang in there for a while and hope that PL, a very capable manager, receives the kind of financial backing that was wasted on the likes of Keane and Jewell. Hate to say it but we've been down the "be careful what you wish for" road recently, let's not do it again!

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blueboy1981 added 17:48 - Dec 26 Travelling fans - credit to you once again. The players own you an apology today - most of them anyway.
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pragmatic added 17:49 - Dec 26 Blueboy agree sorry meant to mark up
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Cloddyseedbed added 17:50 - Dec 26 Lambert is a great manager, we're lucky to have him and I hope we can hold onto him in league 1. There was not one player wearing an ITFC shirt who is comfortable on the ball, can pass the ball and who shew total commitment today. Playing out from the back is good but not when you possess a squad with the lack of quality we have. All the new additions that Hurst brought in this season are woefully short of what is needed in this league and we are lumbered with them. This is truly the worst playing squad I have witnessed since the 60's. Inadequate in every department. Good luck Paul Lambert getting better players in, years of under investment have caught up with Evans to the extent he is not now able to fund the league we are now in. My worry is it will then become a problem in div 1 too.

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speccybaz added 17:51 - Dec 26 Scary how little QPR had to do to win this one. We never looked like hurting them. I think so much of any hope we have is coming from the heart, when the head tells us that relegation is the most obvious outcome. A few new faces in January and... Oh that's the heart again!!!
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muhrensleftfoot added 17:51 - Dec 26 You can't polish a turd. From today's team: Gerken, Spence, Knudsen, Nolan, Ward, Roberts not good enough for Championship football. The rest would be just about adequate in a decent side. Not one of them outstanding. League One beckons
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Elizabeth added 17:53 - Dec 26 Watched the match on the red button ... if we had a prolific goal scorer we would have won this match ! Approach play has much improved but sadly we are lacking at the business end ! Thankfully not long until January when hopefully we will have a few new faces to turn things around for us ! Seasons greetings to all our true supporters and let's hope for better footballing days in 2019 .

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blueboy1981 added 18:01 - Dec 26 Elizabeth ....... we conceded 3 goals, just in case you've overlooked that small fact ! More realistically, had we not given 3 goals away - yes literally given - we would have had a decent single point. Could you ever see us scoring 4 goals to win this match - even with a 'goalscorer' .... ??
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bluearmy81 added 18:03 - Dec 26 26 However likeable and passionate Paul Lambert is he must be living in cloud cookoo land if he believes this shower can stay up. Now 3 wins from safety. They need to win every other game to have any sort of chance.
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TractorBeezer added 18:08 - Dec 26 I agree Elizabeth. The score doesn't reflect the nature of the game. The problem is that we never really look like scoring. Some fire power and height needed at the sharp end which would take pressure off the defence. The second goal looked off side. Good luck Marcus and Paul during the transfer window. It may cost us a few quid though. Here's to 2019!
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bluearmy81 added 18:08 - Dec 26 Elizabeth- a striker indeed would have to be prolific cos in order to have won he would have had to score 4 goals I believe
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runningout added 18:11 - Dec 26 Naivety reigns again from so called senior players.. still love em though :-/
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Bert added 18:15 - Dec 26 We get 4 points out of 6 and posters on here are positive. Lose a game to a resurgent QPR and all the negativity and Evans out bilge comes out. Hurst killed our chances so Evans has to accept some blame for his appointment aided by the ' we need a young hungry manager' romantics. He listened when he should not have done but as the January window has not opened yet it's a tad unfair for supporters to return to their fickle after game rants. I will hate relegation as much as everyone but for pity's sake it is Hurst's judgement that got us into this pickle so let's try and agree that miracles can happen if we acquire a few half decent players and get rid of those who clearly are not up to it.

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Saxonblue74 added 18:16 - Dec 26 .....it's not as obvious as they scored three, therefore we need 4 to win. Goals change the face of a game completely. Score first and the 3 they scored may not have happened. I agree that a goalscorer/target man coupled with a bit of creativity and we'll do ok.
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Kirbmeister added 18:19 - Dec 26 Even the most ardent supporter wouldn't have expected anything other than a defeat today. This side didn't have a prayer of getting a result. And we all know it only gets harder from now on till the end of the season as all the other sides all be scrapping for every point as well. We're a lower half league one side at best. How depressing.
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jayessess added 18:26 - Dec 26 Really disappointing today. The absolute key to getting anywhere this season is resilience, the ability to ride out the odd sticky moment without conceding. After Sheffield United I was hopeful we'd found a bit. They were far superior to QPR but we defended in numbers, kept organised, didn't do anything silly and earned the right to have more success the other end. Today it was back to what we saw at Stoke and Forest. We concede cheaply and make it easy for the opposition to sit back. Strikers? Forget it. We're at least one goalkeeper and four defenders away from troubling that big gap to safety.

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Foreverdon_Blue added 18:27 - Dec 26 We are down - simple. 😔
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Bildestoned added 18:30 - Dec 26 What am I missing here? From the commentary we sounded to be playing well?? So why the cries of 'rubbish' etc.. Who was there to see this display?
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