Queen’s Park Rangers secured a valuable point against West Bromwich Albion to continue their four-game unbeaten home run – but were the victims of a bizarre handball on the line by Cedric Kipre.
Marti Cifuentes might rue the heavy hand that fate hand on an evening which might have seen Rangers’ claim victory on the heels of their prodigious win against Leicester.
Had Alex Palmer not cleverly anticipated Michael Frey’s second-half penalty kick, had Kipre been caught helping out his goalkeeper with an loose arm to send Sam Field’s header over the crossbar minutes later, had Ilias Chair’s 69th-minute goal been allowed to stand, the hosts might have climbed to 16th in the cluttered scrap at the bottom of the table.
Instead, there was limited consolation for QPR’s dogged energy, on a night which started with a poignant tribute to club legend Stanley Bowles.
Chair, who wears Bowles’ No 10, was first to show teeth, firing sharply angled shot that forced Palmer into a block, followed by a goal mouth-skimming scuffed effort from Isaac Hayden.
But pressure told in 17th minute, in helter-skelter fashion. To his surprise, Palmer failed to secure an optimistic long-range effort from Chair, before being taken out by a running Frey keen for the remains.
The loose ball fell to Andersen on the left, whose whipping cross was barrelled in by West Brom academy graduate Field.
Breaking the deadlock woke up a lethargic West Brom. Suddenly, they were quicker, and suddenly, they had their 24th-minute equaliser, thanks to a dream-like finish from Mikey Johnston from the edge of the box that just kissed the post before flying into the back of the net.
The travellers hadn’t had momentum for long, but made hay with it, taking less than three minutes to double their lead.
Grady Diagnana scored against QPR at the Hawthorns in October, and his nerveless strike in the centre of the box to put away a calmly cut pass from Alex Mowatt reintroduced himself to the Loftus Road faithful.
The second-half saw the hosts come out unbowed, but their luck began to worsen, with Palmer’s heroic penalty save swiftly followed by a missed spot of devilry from Kipre, whose close encounter with Chair in the penalty area saw the latter’s goal ruled out.
But in the 81st minute, fortune finally smiled on the R’s with Field heading in a rebounded ball to net his second against his former club.
