QUEENS Park Rangers rounded off the season at Loftus Road with a first home victory in 2015 over a beleaguered Newcastle United.
Rangers hadn’t picked up a home maximum since December and the recently relegated hosts got off to the worst possible start when Emmanuel Rivière latched onto a routine long ball to clip beyond Rob Green for the opener.
Typically porous defending from the home side that served to epitomised the current plight. Worse was still to come as Green was forced off with injury – his replacement Alex McCarthy surely in his audition for the number one jersey next season.
Rangers made much needed changes after a sluggish first half display and Chris Ramsey threw on Yun Suk Young and Reece Grego-Cox at the expense of the pitiful pairing of Steven Caulker and Junior Hoilett.
Player of the Season Charlie Austin linked up with Matt Phillips, the latter’s effort placed agonisingly wide but augured well for the minutes that followed. The two combined once more and Phillips nodded ably beyond Tim Krul.
Rangers grew stronger and Grego-Cox was haring around causing all manner of nuisance – getting the crowd on their feet at every opportunity. The turnaround was completed when the relatively anonymous Leroy Fer powered a rasping drive beyond a desperate Krul.
The ground erupted and the vocal away end sank. Their side in the second half was powderpuff, disjointed and failed to threaten a cobbled together home rearguard – the hosts in comparison went out with a bang and kept the relegation rat race alive until the final week.
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