City shipped three more goals to lose in West London though they remain inside the top six
Scoring twice away from home was not enough for Hull City to avoid a second straight away defeat.
Joe Gelhardt and Enis Destan had twice given City the lead at Loftus Road, only for QPR to fire level twice, before scoring the winner midway through the second period.
While two of Rangers’ three goals may have been rather unfortunate from a Tigers’ perspective, with Charlie Hughes’ blocks falling kindly to Elias Chair and Rumarn Burrell to score, Sergej Jakirovic’s men arguably didn’t help their own cause.
Here, City reporter Barry Cooper reflects on another case of dropped points on the road….
Points thrown away
Just like at Ashton Gate, Vicarage Road and Pride Park before it, this was another game on the road where City had positive positions in the game and failed to capitalise.
Make no mistake about it, City are in a great position sitting sixth in the table. Everybody would have taken that 16 games ago and there’s much to admire about Jakirovic’s team, but they’ve dropped some big points away from home. You can throw in the Charlton Athletic game at home into that mix.
They’re getting in some great positions, and they’re scoring goals. However, conceding so many goals continues to be a real problem for them. It’s nothing to do with the way they play, how expansive they want to be; it’s basic errors, and they must be cut out.
Joff on the money
Another game, another goal for the diminutive Liverpudlian. The way he took Regan Slater’s ball, stood up his man before beating him and firing in the near post was a goal of real quality.
Equally adept off each foot, Gelhardt now has six goals in his last seven games and eight for the season. He’s producing game in and game out for City, especially vital in the absence of Oli McBurnie.
Gelhardt has been one of the real success stories of the campaign so far, and he’s a player for the big occasion. Another one of those is coming on Tuesday night, and you wouldn’t bet against him adding to his tally.
Midfield concern
Not for the first time this season, the Tigers’ engine room has come into focus and it was an issue again on Saturday with City lacking the dynamism needed.
Regan Slater started well, and it was his tackle and brilliant surge forward which fashioned the chance for Gelhardt to score, but Matt Crooks and Amir Hadziahmetovic were poor.
Amir is a cultured performer, but he struggles when the game turns into a basketball-type affair, and Crooks just had a bad game, which is unlike the experienced midfielder. City lost the battle in there, and because of that, never gained any control in the contest, which allowed Rangers to create chances at will.
Selection dilemma
Speaking of the engine room, Jakirovic will be forced into one change on Tuesday night with Matt Crooks suspended. The ex-Boro man had been perched precariously on four bookings for a couple of games, and looked to have got through another until a needless shirt pull in stoppage time at Loftus Road.
He’ll sit the game out, which hands an opportunity to somebody else to come in. That could see Jakirovic change shape and go to a back three, or he could stick with it and just replace Crooks with Darko Gyabi, which seems the most obvious change.
If, as expected, John Lundstram is back available, it’s unlikely he’d come straight back into the starting XI after such a lengthy spell out, so being on the bench would be a safe bet.
Bouncing back
City are going to lose games, and as annoying as this one was like so many on the road before it, but they have the chance to get back to winning ways on Tuesday. They’ve responded to setbacks well before and they can again.
Games in this league won’t come much tougher than Ipswich Town, even with their relatively subdued start. At home, though, City will fancy their chances.
They’ve already shown against the likes of Southampton, Sheffield United and Leicester City that they can beat the most fancied sides in the league, but they’ll probably need to deliver their best yet to claim another big scalp.
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