Leicester 1-3 QPR

Match Report

QPR put an end to their losing streak – four losses in a row without a goal scored – with a convincing victory away to Leicester City this afternoon, coming back from a goal down to win 1–3. I didn’t go, having seen the Hoops lose away too often this season, but watched it at home on QPR+.

We hadn’t scored in four games going in to this and had only won once in our last six. Leicester, meanwhile, had just ended a run of 13 without a win by beating Bristol City in midweek – Gary Rowett’s first victory in the job at the fifth attempt. So much for the form book.

Julien Stéphan made four changes to the side he’d fielded against Birmingham. Ronnie Edwards was back in at centre back alongside Jimmy Dunne, replacing Steve Cook; Rhys Norrington-Davies returned at left back in place of Jake Clarke-Salter; Isaac Hayden came back into midfield instead of Jonathan Varane; and Rayan Kolli started up front alongside Richard Kone, with Koki Saito dropping to the bench. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Joe Walsh between the sticks; Amadou Mbengue, Dunne, Edwards and Norrington-Davies in defence; Harvey Vale, Hayden, Kieran Morgan and Paul Smyth in midfield; and Kolli and Kone leading the line.

The last time we played the Foxes – back in December – we scored four goals in the first half in what was probably our best performance of the season. They’ve tightened up since then, with one win, three draws and two losses in their last six, but they still looked more beatable than our previous four opponents.

The opening exchanges didn’t do much to settle the nerves. Kolli gave it away in the fourth minute on the edge of the Leicester box, snuffing out a promising attack. Mbengue, too, was frequently caught giving the ball away or kicking it into touch – a habit we’ve become all to familiar with recently. Hayden kicked it into touch in our half in the 29th minute, under no pressure whatsoever. Even when Hayden or Morgan didn’t give it away, their passes had a wild, hopeful quality about them. Few signs of improvement there.

To add to our travails, Jordan James scored in the 14th minute. It was a decent strike from outside the box, and while Walsh could have done better – the shot wasn’t even in the corner – the real culprit was Hayden, who was tracking James but made no attempt to get a foot in. The Leicester attacker took three touches, having far too much time on the ball, and then picked his spot. That made it thirteen goals conceded and and none scored in five games. It’s frankly baffling that Stéphan keeps picking Walsh, given that Ben Hamer is available.

But the players showed some fight, which was good to see. Within four minutes of going behind, we’d won two corners. A strike from Morgan after another QPR corner looked on target, but hit one of our own players in the box, and an attempt from Norrington-Davies two minutes later was blocked. You got the impression that if we could just get a goal, the confidence would come flooding back – and that theory was about to be tested.

We scored in the 43rd minute, with Edwards putting in a brilliant ball from well inside our own half that Vale ran on to, chipped over the head of Jakub Stolarczyk and then rolled into the back of the net. The Leicester keeper could have done better – he’d probably have kept it out if he’d stayed on his line – but we’ll take it. You could hear the 1,500 visiting fans ironic celebration – “We scored a goal!” – shortly afterwards.

The statistics at half time weren’t bad. We had eight shots to their five, a big improvement on our first half at Birmingham in which we managed precisely zero. Our passing accuracy was 86% and our possession 52%, also better than last time out. We had four corners to their none, and our xG was 1.10 to their 0.20.

We scored again five minutes into the second half. Vale made a good surging run on the right, flashed a cross into the box, and Ben Nelson, attempting to clear, stuck it into his own net. We were due a stroke of luck, and this was it. That goal took us up to 16th place from 18th, where we ended the afternoon.

Leicester were rattled and came back hard, putting us under pressure in the next five minutes as they pressed for an equaliser. But we held firm, and then Smyth – having his best game in some time – did wonderful work in the 57th minute, beating his man on the left and putting in a stinging strike that Stolarczyk could only punch away for a corner. Vale took it and Edwards raised himself above the pack and headed the ball into the net. One-three, with Vale repaying Ronnie for his earlier assist with one of his own for the former Southampton man.

Walsh made a decent save in the 66th minute, keeping out a reasonable effort from outside the box, which was a reminder that the game wasn’t over yet. Kwame Poku and Varane came on for Kolli and Morgan in the 72nd minute, Saito replaced Smyth in the 84th minute and Daniel Bennie took over from Vale in the last minute of injury time. It was enough to see the game out.

In the match as a whole, we had 14 shots to their nine, with our xG a healthy 1.54 to their 0.42. Leicester had 62% of the possession – no surprise given their pressure in the second period – but we were more clinical when it counted, which makes for a pleasant change.

Edwards, who was named player of the match on Fotmob with a rating of 8.7, had his best game since arriving in the January window, getting a goal and an assist and commanding his area with a calm authority. Vale was also excellent, with a goal and two assists if you count the own goal. Leicester are the second side we’ve done the double over this season, the other being Hull.

That win takes us to 50 points, six fewer than we had at the end of last season with eight games to go – so it’s still possible that Stéphan will steer us to a better finish than Martí Cifuentes. Had we lost this one, I’m not sure the Frenchman would have stayed.

Our next game is also winnable – third-from-bottom Portsmouth at home on Saturday. But after the international break we’ve got Watford (H), Preston (A), Bristol City (H) and Millwall (A). Fifty points is usually enough for survival in this league, but there’s work still to do.

You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.