QPR continued their unbeaten start to the season and won for the third time in four visits to Blackburn thanks to second half goals from Paul Smyth and Jimmy Dunne at Ewood Park on Saturday.

Ewood Park was once considered something of a graveyard for Queens Park Rangers sides. One iteration after another came here and failed to win over 20 years of long journeys north. This, though, was the R’s third win in four trips and each in turn has seemed to herald the hope of better things to come for the club.

A hard fought 2-1 here in February 2024 - the first time Rangers had been successful away against Blackburn since the 1999/00 season - suggested the battle against relegation under Marti Cifuentes may not be a forlorn one after all. A midweek 1-0 in this corner of Lancashire last season, with a Paul Smyth late score, showed progress being made under a new manager. Now Smyth and Jimmy Dunne have handed Julien Stéphan two wins from two away games as part of an unbeaten sequence of three to begin the new campaign. The Loftus Road faithful at least able to look up the fledgling Championship table rather than down it, and perhaps daring to dream of much more than that after such a positive start.

The difference between Rangers and Rovers on Saturday was respective strength of the benches, and if that sounds like damning with faint praise then it’s most certainly not.

The reason we often place the newly relegated teams high in our predicted league table even when - especially this season - we’ve little good to say about any of them, is because the depth of their resource and squad means they’re usually able to come on strong through the spring when everybody else is out on their feet. Last year Southampton came to Loftus Road in October on a run of one win in 12, already one manager down and languishing down around 17th place. By the time we lost the return fixture 5-0 in February they were powering towards the play-offs on an eventual run of 19 unbeaten league games. It's depressing, but sometimes this division comes down to numbers of warm bodies.

If QPR are to achieve anything they’ll need rotation and cover options to avoid burning out their best players running them on take off power longer than the manufacturer guarantee. Too many recent Rangers teams have floundered on the rocks of injury and unavailability. A bench containing the likes of Glen Kamara, Kwame Poku, Tariq Lamptey, Koki Saito, Harvey Vale and Jonathan Varane is a really positive sign. Jack Supple stat number one – this is the first time since 1987-88 that QPR haven’t named a player aged 30 or older in their starting XI in any of their opening four games.

It meant it wasn’t the end of the world when a frustrating first half drifted by with Tony Mowbray’s hosts having the better of the chances.

Dennis Cirkin got a start at left back having impressed as a substitute in the draw against Bolton, but his lack of a proper pre-season showed as he was given a torrid time by overlapping right back Ryan Alebiosu – a Nigerian from Islington who arrived in Blackburn via Kotrijk in Belgium and was terrific all afternoon. Cirkin just about clung to the task by his fingernails but twice before half time Rovers crossed from that side for Todd Cantwell to first miss a header you’d have scored yourself and then volley fractionally wide of the far top corner – Amadou Mbengue’s marking and challenge non-existent on both occasions.

They weren’t the only two who struggled in a rather bent-out-of-shape 4-4-2-style set up. Although Rumarn Burrell got Ilias Chair in for a shot saved by Toth with his legs, it was a disjointed first 45. A little bit square pegs, as it often is when we try and manoeuvre things to get Burrell and Richard Kone up front together as a two. Nicolas Madsen looked a little lost in midfield, certainly when compared to the commanding Ronnie Edwards alongside him who was unfortunate to see a curled effort from the edge of the box saved well by an unsighted goalkeeper. Kone also continues to struggle to get his season up and running – one reasonable counter attack opportunity ground to a halt when he hacked a relatively routine pass to the left flank high and into touch.

Changes were coming, and their effect was so stark it also didn’t really matter that Rovers were able to capitalise on a really slack period of play either side of half time by the visitors with an opening goal of skill and great imagination by Ryoya Morishita. The Japanese forward, who’d played so well at Loftus Road in February when Michael O’Neill won his first game in charge at Rangers’ expense, brought a ball down off his thigh and volleyed it high into the top corner from the edge of the area. Beautiful, beautiful bastard. Five goals in 43 Blackburn appearances and two of the bloody things against us. No chance for Pierce Charles - who later saved well low down from Todd Cantwell - and the two goals he’s conceded in the league since joining from Man City on loan have both been absolute worldies. In itself, something of a backwards-facing positive.

Charles’ range and accuracy of passing was outrageously good all afternoon, adding a different dimension to Rangers’ play and making them incredibly difficult to face up against with a de-facto extra outfield player on their side. We said the switch from Joe Walsh to a Radek Vitek-like Premier League goalkeeper could represent as much as a 16-goal swing for a team that conceded more goals than anybody bar Sheff Wed last season, and at the moment that’s looking like a conservative estimate. He’s making a staggering difference to Stéphan’s team with the ball for somebody who plays his position.

Mowbray had picked this out as a key aspect in his pre-game chat, and was graciously full of praise for the young stopper afterwards too. The veteran Blackburn manager felt his side had gone toe-to-toe with their opponent for a good hour, but the game started to slip away from his side immediately after they’d taken the lead when Rumarn Burrell caught a centre back sleeping (as he loves to do), nipped in behind Sean McLoughlin with a deft touch, and then quickly cut a perfect cross back into the path of Paul Smyth for a crisply finished equaliser. Seven goals in his last 40 appearances for the often unfairly maligned winger – only Kone and Burrell have scored more for the club in that time and he’s got the same number of goals across that period as Harvey Vale, Koki Saito and Kwame Poku put together.

While Mowbray could only job share between his two veterans Adam Forshaw and Sam Morsy from a bench that included four academy graduates (three of them teenagers) with a single first team start between them, Stéphan sent on Tariq Lamptey for the visibly disconsolate Cirkin and Glen Kamara for Nicolas Madsen. You wonder whether Rovers will be able to maintain a start that's seen them take four points from fancied Wolves and Middlesbrough with depth like this. Meanwhile, the QPR changes made immediate, telling difference.

Kamara exuded calm control in a midfield the Londoners came to dominate, and Rovers simply couldn’t live with Lamptey’s exciting, two-footed wide play which marauded around both sides of the pitch. When a corner was partially cleared 15 minutes from the end it was his gorgeous cross that found Jimmy Dunne at the back of a queue of three would-be goalscorers and his firm header almost tore the net off the back of the posts in front of an ecstatic away end. I stood behind a goal at Huddersfield many years ago and saw the late, great Alan McDonald steam in through a crowd of bodies and make one of those his just like this. Jimmy reminds me of Macca more and more with every passing year he’s here.

By way of thumbscrews, Stéphan then introduced Kwame Poku for goalscorer Smyth and one piece of skill he produced in front of the travelling thousand just as the stoppage time board went up was worth the journey and admission fee on its own. Now you see it, now you don’t, and there it is, round the back of your ear. Evans-Pritchard said magic exists as explanation of the otherwise inexplicable in the natural world. And this was truly fucking magical.

Alfie Lloyd also replaced the strangely off-key Kone and, look, asking Lloyd to take a breath, compose himself and get a shot on target when he blasted wide with his first touch, or again on 66 when he fell over his own feet, is like asking your dog to do your weekly shop and then being disappointed with the outcome. What Lloyd does offer you is a boundless enthusiasm and physicality on the press. He and Burrell were absolute pests to a tiring defence in a team trying to get back in a game – like two mosquito bites close together. They enabled Rangers to play much higher up the pitch for much longer, far higher than you’d usually see a Championship team 2-1 up away from home with time ticking down. There was no sitting deep for the final 20 minutes praying for full time, no desperate whistles from the away end, no groans at four minutes added to the end of the game. QPR were largely in control and really could, and should, have won by more.

Stéphan is keen to see that killer instinct from his team this year. One beautiful move ended with Smyth standing a cross up for Burrell to head wide when well placed. Then the Jamaican ran beyond a busted offside trap and cut a ball back for Smyth’s replacement Poku to put wide. Ronnie Edwards shot over with his second 20 yarder of the day when he’d probably have been better advised moving it on one more for industrious fulcrum Ilias Chair. Lamptey and Lloyd both had further efforts wide, and Lloyd stung Toth’s hands with the final effort of an effective shift two minutes from time. As against Bolton, taking the many chances this most attractive and attacking version of our team is creating is the big issue presently. Still, Jack Supple stat number two, this is the first time since consecutive 2-1 wins at Derby and Bristol City in late 2021 that Rangers have won two away games on the spin having fallen behind in each.

History doesn’t repeat, but it does echo. QPR coming and winning at your ground as a matter of routine is one of the Championship’s headless horsemen. When you start regularly losing at home to QPR you’re in trouble (Birmingham, Cardiff, Preston, Derby) and Blackburn have now lost three of four here against the Hoops. Mowbray was typically classy and magnanimous in defeat, praising his opponent for the way they’d played and holding his hands up to the obvious difference in squad depth. He’s one of the game's good guys, and why he’s chosen to take this one on again God only knows. He looks… tired.

This was a match between two clubs with very different ambitions and recruitment operations. Rovers seem determined to sell any half decent player they ever accidentally lay their hands on, while tasking one manager after another with retaining Championship status in front of a grizzly crowd in a half full stadium. QPR are accumulating assets rather than selling them and had a number of high class individuals on display here.

There’s much tougher than Portsmouth, Bolton and Blackburn to come on the other side of the international break, and the five games in 15 days that heralds the dawn of September is exactly the sort of logistical nightmare that has hobbled our teams in the past, but if you ask me whether I’m excited about travelling around this winter watching people like Tariq Lamptey, Kwame Poku, Rumarn Burrell, Glen Kamara and Ronnie Edwards cutting about like this? Well, yes. Yes, I am. As excited as I’ve been for some time, actually.

And the possession? 45.3% since you ask. Because of course.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

Blackburn: Toth 6; Alebiosu 7, Atchison 6, McLoughlin 5, Ribeiro 6 (Pates 81, -); Forshaw 6 (Morsy 57, 6), Montgomery 6 (Garrett 81, -); Morishtia 7, Cantwell 5 (Vare 88, -), Afolayan 6 (Fevrier 81, -); Gudjohnsen 6

Subs not used: Edmondson, Houghton, Lister, Pears

Goals: Morishita 49 (assisted Gudjohnsen)

Yellow Cards: Gudjohnsen 65 (foul), McLoughlin 76 (foul)

QPR: Charles 7; Mbengue 5 (Adamson 80, -), Dunne 7, Clarke-Salter 6, Cirkin 5 (Lamptey 45, 8); Smyth 6 (Poku 64, 7), Edwards 7, Madsen 5 (Kamara 46, 7), Chair 7; Kone 5 (Lloyd 57, 6), Burrell 7

Subs not used: Varane, Saito, Vale, Ward

Goals: Smyth 51 (assisted Burrell), Dunne 74 (assisted Lamptey)

Yellow Cards: Clarke-Salter 30 (foul), Edwards 40 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Tariq Lamptey 8 Exemplified QPR’s strength from the bench.

Referee – Gavin Ward (Surrey) 6 An erratic first half drawing the ire of both sets of supporters followed by a much more steady second. If you want to know why Gavin Ward grates so much on Championship fans I think there were two great examples in the first half here. Firstly, Paul Smyth breaks over halfway on a QPR counter attack with men in support and Blackburn shorthanded. Blackburn defender, recognising this, swipes his legs for what is generally considered a pretty mandatory yellow card these days. Ward settled for a stern lecture. Fine, as long as that’s the standard. The next two Blackburn attacks were also interrupted in a similarly cynical way by Jake Clarke-Salter and Ronnie Edwards… both of whom were booked. That’s infuriating. Likewise, Amadou Mbengue diving to get a free kick by his own corner flag when his flop should have been ignored and a throw in awarded to the home side. We then spend a minute getting the game restarted while Ward insists that a free kick he’s erroneously awarded is taken from exactly the right place some 110 yards away from the opposition goal. Causes his own problems.

Attendance – 12,905 (918 QPR) One of the longest, grimmest, most tedious trips on the calendar of a team that has now been in the Championship more than any other, so God love it when it goes well and you see all the happy, smiling faces on those that made the considerable effort at full time. It’s feeling good around town at the moment.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

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