QUEENS Park Rangers arrested a slide of six successive defeats to secure Championship safety for another season.
The warning signs were growing and a painful ending to a mediocre season was looming large on the horizon – this was a fixture that Rangers not only could not afford to lose, but also needed to win at Nottingham Forest’s expense – the archetypal relegation six-pointer.
Both sides served out a dour first half – fraught with all the nerves one would expect from a fixture of this magnitude. With the game on a knife edge though it would be QPR that would steal the show and seal their safety.
After watching Matt Smith miss a gilt-edged header, the fans did not have to wait long for the opening goal – Massimo Luongo’s routine ball over the top was not dealt with by Joe Worrall and Conor Washington stole a march on the defender before lifting the ball over the advancing Jordan Smith.
When Joel Lynch rifled home a header from a Ryan Manning centre, the home team’s job was done with Forest offering little to nothing by way of clear-cut opportunities in the latter stages.
News coming in from St Andrews and Ewood Park made for grim reading from an underpopulated visiting support – while Ian Holloway’s men can officially plan for next season after a tumultuous couple of months.
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