Queens Park Rangers vs Portsmouth. Sky Bet Championship.
Loftus Road StadiumAttendance17,438.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Portsmouth at Loftus Road on Saturday; Freddie Potts and Callum Lang strike as John Mousinho's Pompey finally claim their first victory of the season.
Saturday 19 October 2024 18:58, UK
Portsmouth came from behind to beat QPR 2-1 at Loftus Road to secure a first Championship win of the season and leave the west London side bottom of the table.
Karamoko Dembele's maiden goal for Rangers gave them an early lead but Pompey hit back with Freddie Potts' first goal since arriving on loan from West Ham.
And Callum Lang's penalty 12 minutes into the second half gave Portsmouth their first victory in any competition since last season's promotion from League One.
Rangers went ahead after a ninth-minute error by Nicolas Schmid, who raced outside his area and headed Jimmy Dunne's long ball straight to Dembele, who lobbed the embarrassed Pompey keeper.
But the visitors hit back nine minutes later, when Lang got the better of Morgan Fox and his low ball into the danger area ricocheted off QPR midfielder Nicolas Madsen to Potts, who fired home from near the penalty spot.
Rangers playmaker Ilias Chair, fit again after a back injury and starting a game for the first time this season, squandered a great chance to restore his team's lead on the half-hour mark.
Again Pompey were undone by a ball over the top, this time from Sam Field, leaving Chair through on goal, only for him to attempt a cheeky chip over Schmid which was gratefully gathered by the Austrian.
QPR keeper Paul Nardi was then called into action at the other end, diving to his left to push away a long-range effort from Christian Saydee.
And just before half-time, Schmid further atoned for his early mistake, doing well to keep out Dunne's deflected header.
Schmid produced another save early in the second half, this time from a Dembele long-range strike, and Rangers seemed to be turning the screw before Fox gave away a penalty.
As Fox attempted to clear his lines on the left-hand side of the box, Lang nipped in and was hacked down by the R's defender before the Pompey midfielder calmly tucked away the resulting spot-kick.
QPR threw plenty of bodies forward in search of an equaliser but never looked like finding one with Schmid comfortably keeping out a header from substitute Koki Saito.
Second-bottom Portsmouth will take great encouragement from this result while QPR, on the other hand, look to be in serious trouble.
Rangers have now lost four matches in a row, have won just one of their 10 league matches this season and are still without a home win.
The much-anticipated return of Chair did not bring the kind of improved performance they badly needed and boss Marti Cifuentes could come under pressure if they lose again on Tuesday at home to Coventry.
QPR's Marti Cifuentes:
"I spoke with the players and we have two ways to face this tough situation. Either we accept where we are, work harder and accept criticism - because that's the nature of football - and accept that we need to get better, or we just start to point fingers and then it gets more difficult.
"I'm very calm about how the guys are working and the commitment. I'm aware though that we need to improve.
"I have full confidence in those guys and I do believe that we can turn the situation. It is very early to just say we will not be good enough.
"I stay calm. I've coached in five different countries, I've been doing this job for almost 20 years and I've been in tougher situations.
"We need to improve very quickly but I believe it will get better."
Portsmouth's John Mousinho:
"The most important thing was to win the game, which we did. It wasn't in terrific style but that was deliberate from us - we wanted to make it a difficult game.
"It wasn't pretty at times, but we've gone away this season and invited far too much pressure by trying to play and probably trying to be a bit too intricate.
"One of the things we wanted to avoid today was inviting pressure on our goal. We wanted to get the ball into their half and play from there.
"So we were much more direct than we probably have been for the last 18 months, but we're trying to be a bit more effective and get the ball forward.
"From that point of view I'm delighted with the performance. In the second half when we were 2-1 up and the pressure was on, I didn't think we were troubled."
