Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Hull City at Loftus Road on Saturday | Chris Willock and Ilias Chair scores as revitalised QPR win again.
Saturday 9 December 2023 18:41, UK
QPR's resurgence under Marti Cifuentes continued as they beat Hull 2-0 to make it three wins in a row.
The rejuvenated Chris Willock put the hosts ahead with his third goal in as many matches and Ilias Chair's second-half finish sealed the victory.
Rangers remain in the Sky Bet Championship bottom three but have lost just one of their six matches since Cifuentes took over a side which had suffered six straight defeats and were in danger of being cut adrift.
They had also won just one home game in more than a year but have now registered two successive wins at Loftus Road.
Their improvement under Cifuentes is encapsulated by the form of Willock, who was previously their talisman but was shunned by the Spaniard's predecessor Gareth Ainsworth.
While Ainsworth's direct style of play scuppered playmakers Willock and Chair, both have flourished since Cifuentes' arrival.
Willock gave the R's the lead in first-half stoppage time with a fantastic goal.
He collected Sam Field's pass near the left-hand edge of the penalty area, shifted the ball onto his right foot and sent an unstoppable strike beyond keeper Ryan Allsop and into the top corner of the net.
Rangers had looked dangerous, with striker Lyndon Dykes just failing to connect with Chair's ball across the box and later dragging an effort wide of the target.
Hull also posed a threat in the first half, with keeper Asmir Begovic saving an effort from Liam Delap before Willock's opener.
Begovic denied Delap again early in the second half, superbly keeping out his low strike after the on-loan Manchester City player had evaded two challenges.
And as the Tigers searched for an equaliser, Begovic produced another fine save this time to keep out an effort from Scott Twine shortly before Hull appealed in vain for a penalty when Aaron Connolly went down under a challenge from Reggie Cannon.
But just as Rangers seemed to be fading, Chair doubled their lead on 73 minutes.
After substitute Sinclair Armstrong pressured Allsop, the ball fell to Willock who calmly laid the ball across for Chair to slot home.
QPR were deserved winners but Hull had their moments, with Begovic's second-half saves proving to be crucial.
The veteran produced another excellent stop late on, reacting quickly to push away a long-range curler from Sean McLoughlin.
Back-to-back defeats have seen Liam Rosenior's side, who made an excellent start to the campaign, drop out of the play-off places.
QPR's Marti Cifuentes:
"He (Willock) showed the quality he has. But I'm not surprised - I said from day one that Chris and Ilias will be very important for us.
"I'm pleased about Chris recovering a smile, because I felt he was a bit low on confidence.
"That was very natural when a player has not been playing for a while. Now he is playing at a level where it's not easy to take the ball from him and he's also working hard when we don't have the ball.
"He's starting to be decisive for us in the last third and I think he is a player that, with his quality and potential, he can score more than he has done earlier in his career."
Hull's Liam Rosenior:
"We've made a lot of progress, but the next step for this team is to be pragmatic in key moments and understand the context of the game.
"At that point of the game we had complete control and then gave them a goal. It was a great finish from Willock but it comes from our possession.
"A goal just before half-time changes everything in terms of QPR's confidence levels and energy from the crowd."
