Queens Park Rangers vs Middlesbrough; Sky Bet Championship
Queens Park Rangers vs Middlesbrough. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road Stadium.
Queens Park Rangers 0-1 Middlesbrough: Will Lankshear scores again in Boro win
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Middlesbrough at Loftus Road on Saturday; Will Lankshear scores again as Kim Hellberg's Boro win in west London.
Saturday 5 September 2026 18:46, UK
Will Lankshear's seventh goal in as many matches gave Middlesbrough a 1-0 victory against previously-unbeaten QPR.
The striker has been a revelation since his summer move from Tottenham and his predatory first-half finish at Loftus Road took Boro up to second in the Championship table.
Boro led at half-time in their previous two away games this season and did not manage to win, but this time they held on.
Rangers had taken 10 points from their opening four matches, leaving them second and in high spirits ahead of this test of their credentials against one of the division's heavyweights.
And having been plagued by injuries to key players last term, the early-season sharpness of the likes of Ilias Chair, Jake Clarke-Salter and Kwame Poku, who previously struggled for fitness, was another reason for optimism for the west London side.
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However, by the end of a first half dominated by Boro, Chair and striker Richard Kone had gone off injured and the hosts were a goal down.
The 20th-minute breakthrough came when Callum Brittain won a challenge against Paul Smyth on the right and drilled a low cross across the face of goal, with Lankshear netting at the far post.
Kyle Joseph then had a chance to double the lead but was unable to add the finish to Brittain's deflected cross.
With Rangers reeling after Chair's latest injury and Boro's goal being followed by the loss of Kone, Lankshear was denied by keeper Pierce Charles after being set up by Sebastian Berhalter's ball over the top.
QPR responded with a high-tempo start to the second half, with Amadou Mbengue and Rumarn Burrell - who came on to replace Kone - bringing saves from keeper Radek Vitek, and Chair's replacement Koki Saito shooting wide.
Boro remained a threat on the counter-attack, though, and after Mbengue had given the ball away, Tommy Conway should have scored when through on goal but Charles did well to deflect his shot onto the post.
That was a rare second-half attack by the visitors, who came under sustained pressure - and had a lucky escape when Harvey Vale's 77th-minute strike crashed against the inside of the post.
As Rangers continued to search in vain for an equaliser, Tariq Lamptey fired over, Jimmy Dunne was just unable to connect with Nicolas Madsen's corner and Middlesbrough defended well, particularly in the final minutes, to secure a hard-fought but deserved win.
The managers
QPR's Julien Stephan:
"I think it was a top second half. We just have to remind that in March when we played against them - it was not two years ago, it was just a few months ago - we lost 4-0 and we didn't exist in that game. We were so far.
"This team (Boro) played in the final of the play-offs just three or four months ago, spent £50m in the transfer market, and we are now in the beginning of September, just the fifth game, and we are able to compete like this in the second half. What an improvement.
"We had good ideas but we didn't do well enough with the ball and we didn't have enough tempo (in the first half).
"It was a big change between the first half and the second. We won most of the duels, but the big difference was the quality with the ball and the quality of the passes.
"I think we are very close to competing with this kind of team. We have reduced a lot the gap between them and us in a short time.
"I think we have the quality to compete against this kind of team and I'm not sure a lot of teams are able to push them like this.
"We created enough chances in the second half to score a minimum of one."
Middlesbrough's Kim Hellberg:
"Will was a little bit sick in the night. He felt a bit better in the morning. It was questionable if I could start him. I think you could see that his energy was a little bit lower.
"I always knew that the energy was going to run out. But in the six-yard box his movement is very good.
"Over 90 minutes we showed absolutely everything that football is about, including all aspects of the game. It was important to see the game out.
"You come here to a team that have maybe started the season the best of all teams. If you look at the statistics, they have been very strong, and in the first half we gave them problems.
"Then in the last 20 minutes we had to defend in a very good way, so you could see everything that you want to see in a football team; good with the ball, good with transitions, and we can do different things."
