QPR 2-3 Hull: Jarrod Bowen scores twice to lift visitors out of relegation zone

Jarrod Bowen scored twice for Hull as they won 3-2 at QPR to move out of the relegation zone in the Sky Bet Championship.

Goals from Bowen and Markus Henriksen put the Tigers two up before Pawel Wszolek pulled a goal back for Rangers.

Bowen effectively sealed the Tigers' victory with 21 minutes remaining, scoring at the second attempt after being set up by Kamil Grosicki.

Luke Freeman reduced the deficit in injury time by adding the finishing touch after Bright Osayi-Samuel's cross had been headed down by Tomer Hemed.

But Steve McClaren's side were unable to avoid only their fourth defeat in 16 Sky Bet Championship matches - a run stretching back to August.

Bowen opened the scoring after just six minutes when he collected Fraizer Campbell's lay-off and cut inside Joel Lynch before shooting past keeper Joe Lumley from just inside the penalty area.

Worse followed for the home side in the 22nd minute, when Henriksen was allowed to flick Bowen's right-wing corner into the net from close range - the Norwegian's first goal of the season.

Polish winger Wszolek hit back less than two minutes later by finishing off a lovely Rangers move.

After nice link-up play involving Massimo Luongo and Nahki Wells, Angel Rangel threaded a pass through to Wszolek, who slotted the ball between keeper David Marshall's legs.

The home side were galvanised by their goal but continued to look vulnerable at the back.

They had a lucky escape when Grosicki breezed past Rangel and crossed from the left to an unmarked Jackson Irvine, who headed over.

Nevertheless, QPR were unfortunate not to be level by the interval. Veteran full-back Rangel rattled the post with a volley after Hull had only half-cleared another Freeman corner.

A second-half onslaught from QPR seemed certain, but it never materialised, and Hull carved the hosts open with ease and helped themselves to a third goal.

Bowen was sent through on goal by Grosicki and tucked away the loose ball after his first effort had been saved by Lumley.

Hull were then comfortable until Freeman netted his second goal in as many games before going close with a free-kick in the final seconds.

The managers

Steve McClaren: "When you gamble - and we had to gamble - you can be on the wrong end of it. I still felt at half-time that we'd win, but we were always susceptible to that third goal. That's what happens when you throw caution to the wind, which we had to do. It didn't pay off today."

"That was our second defeat in 10 games. Over that 10-game spell we've been very good defensively and have kept clean sheets. Now we're not keeping clean sheets and we need to get back to that. We dust ourselves down and go again.

Nigel Adkins: "I'm really pleased for all the staff and players. We've come away from home and again played really good football. We've got a team that are so committed to the cause. The team ethos is there and they've run their socks off.

"Jarrod [Bowen] hadn't scored for a few weeks and I said to him before the game to just go and enjoy playing football. Sometimes things can start to build up a little bit and you just need to go and enjoy playing football."

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