A fifth win in six visits to Bristol City, another goal in front of the away end for Paul Smyth, and QPR are now six unbeaten as they move into the play-off places.

Lads, I’ve got an idea, and hear me out on this one, okay? Why don’t we just move to Bristol?

Chris Wright wanted us out near Heathrow Airport. Pete Winkelman wanted to drag us up to MK before he sunk his vampire fangs into Wimbledon instead. Tony Fernandes wanted to entangle us in railway lines, used car dealerships and scrap metal merchants at Old Oak Common. More recently we’ve tried to jam ourselves between a hospital, prison and park run at the Linford Christie Stadium, or the infamous build-out-and-dig-down proposals at Loftus Road that would involve a prolonged groundshare at Fulham while it’s completed (bagsy first dip in the “infinity pool”). When people are seriously talking about Hillingdon Golf Club, or the Buttfuck Nowhere bits of the Central and Picadilly Lines where every stop is a Hounslow or a Ruislip and your pub choice is a Spar Shop, is mine really such a terrible idea?

Bristol is great. It has pubs to drink in, and places to eat where the food frequently threatens to border on the quite good. It has history and culture, maritime cranes scraping the sky, actual genuine steam trains cutting about the place. They’ve painted the buildings pretty colours. They’ve redeveloped their football ground, rather than parking the club in a crisp bowl in the middle of nowhere next to a Death Star Tesco. You get there by walking around the harbour along the quayside, and when you arrive they’ve put a bar amongst the away turnstiles and employed somebody to run it who’s heard of beers other than a £7.50 plastic bottle of 3% Carlsberg.

I feel very at home here even before we get inside Ashton Gate, and the city’s most important and best feature: QPR win here. QPR win here all the time. The R’s ran an experiment last season to see how badly they’d have to play to lose a game away to Bristol City, and after 90 minutes of digging they still didn’t know – 30% possession, went in the City half once, had one shot on target from the halfway line, played like a bunch of tarts… drew 1-1. Either side of that Rangers have won five of six visits from a variety of performances under four different managers. At Loftus Road they’ve won five of their last 14. Last season Rangers only won seven home games in total. Between October 2022 and January 24 they won five of 32.

This latest triumph, like several before it, didn’t look on for long periods of time.

Don’t get me wrong, Julien Stéphan’s men started the game well. The Frenchman made another six changes to his side after Wednesday night’s quintuple flick and switch wrought a night of extreme boredom on the good people of Shepherd’s Bush and won only a disappointing point with a lacklustre display against lowly Oxford. Here the rotation worked a good deal better. Rumarn Burrell’s first touch is at times not Championship standard, but his blinding pace and incessant work rate is a logistical problem for most defenders at this level – to one as slow as Rob Dickie it’s an existential nightmare, like a leper being forced onto a magic teacup ride. His presence pepped the attack up considerably.

In midfield the return of Nicolas Madsen got the visitors moving forward with real purpose, the Dane now demanding the ball from the defenders and moving it forwards with thoughtful creativity. He’s starting to look like the player we thought we’d bought in the first place and was a marked improvement on the midweek Hayden-Field combination who wouldn’t have passed the ball forward if you’d fitted them both with shock collars and stuck 1,000 volts through their brain every time they played it sideways or back.

Burrell headed a cross from Esquerdinha - in for the injured Rhys Norrington Davies - straight at home keeper Vitek after eight minutes. Then Madsen crossed and Kone somehow missed at the back post stooping to head what looked an ideal delivery. Burrell was twisting the blood of City’s cumbersome back three again at the midway point of the half but the ball just wouldn’t drop in the right spot for a finish. And Sykes saw yellow for belting QPR’s Brazilian full back off the ball.

Not bad. Certainly better than Wednesday. But Rangers were behind at the break and couldn’t really complain at that. With dead ball specialist Scott Twine in situ it’s probably just as well Amadou Mbengue was suspended for this one, but as Jake Clarke-Salter doesn’t work weekends it meant a recall for Liam Morrison and a switch left for Steve Cook. City, through Anis Mehmeti and Neto Borges, picked at the space and lack of mobility between Dunne and Morrison frequently and should really have scored when the former Wycombe man feed Riis who seized on Morrison hesitation to cut one back plum for Twine to score from eight yards out only for him to implausibly shoot high over the bar. A sitter. Should have told him it was a free kick.

Recalled Jonathan Varane was soon being called in on a rescue job against Mehmeti after Esquerdinha was weak in the challenge and the opening goal came from that same source as well – City moving the ball from far right to deep left, cutting it back from there into the area, and feasting on the goo within. This time Borges hooked the ball back with QPR appealing it had already gone behind, and Riis headed into the net unmarked.

Rangers rather wilted after that. Sykes running at Esquerdinha caused problems again, he got Twine running in clear along the byline, and Nardi’s parry at the near post sent the ball back into traffic but fortunately no further danger. Dembele, largely ineffective throughout, gave the ball away on the stroke of half time, Varane got caught out with a very lazy clearance, and Vyner shot over the bar. By this stage the visitors really needed the break.

Things didn’t improve immediately after the oranges either. Having praised Stéphan’s forceful subs at Hillsborough he has, of course, stuck with something that isn’t working for the first quarter hour of both second halves since. Me and my big mouth, shut up Clive. Dembele was one of several fortunate to see the light of the second half but did turn his man and get pulled back in the opening stages – an obvious yellow missed by Championship debutant referee Edward Duckworth. Mehmeti then saw yellow to compensate, and Kone swiftly followed him as the game went bitty and struggled for rhythm. That suited Bristol City in the lead, and they absolutely crunched through Kone in the penalty area as he prepared to unload a shot. QPR were in need of a cutting edge.

It came from the bench, where the R's are finding big impact this year. The proactive changes may have been overdue, but when they came they made immediate and positive difference. Smyth and Vale into the winger roles instead of Dembele and Saito – an improvement in both cases. Smyth’s long throw was never properly dealt with or cleared despite City’s numerical and physical advantage at the back, Harvey Vale crossed once, tackled, retrieved, and crossed a second time, refusing to be beaten, and Kone was able to pull the second delivery down at the far post and pump it powerfully into the roof of the net. Ferdinand comparisons are lazy, but I don’t remember Les sidefooting many finishes in his career, and Kone is certainly not one to mess about on the early evidence of his four goals in six starts. You can try and save it if you like, but I wouldn’t.

Buoyed, Kone was soon freeing Burrell for another run at a frightened backline, and the Jamaican bode his time well waiting for Kone to get into position to receive the ball back from the cross – unfortunately the finish this time was mishit. Better though, miles better, with Vale really impressing down the right and the fresh legs in wide areas giving Madsen something to hit and the strikers plenty to feed off. It’s an old-school 4-4-2, by gar it’s been a while.

City wanted a corner when Nardi diverted a goalmouth scramble wide and picked up a yellow card for their protests. Another shot from sub McCrorie (is Rorie a name that can take a McC?) flew into the side net with half the ground thinking they’d bagged a winner (don’t be daft, in this fixture?) but, as Mark Robins said a few weeks ago, QPR are happy to make mistakes and concede chances if it means they can leave players in dangerous positions up field to hurt you on transition. They did exactly that, six from time, when a flowing move through Smyth, Kolli and Vale ended with Dunne crossing deep to the far post and Smyth angled an improbable header back, over Vitek, and beautifully plopped into the far corner right in front of the jubilant 2,700 from West London. City wanted a free kick for a Smyth push on McCrorie but if you’re getting pushed to the ground by Paul Smyth that’s very much a you problem I’m afraid.

There were penalty box and goalmouth scrambles to come. Jimmy Dunne fortunate his needlessly clumsy charge into Borges under a dropping ball didn’t bring the penalty the home crowd rightly bayed for. But Bristol City sportingly added Sinclair Armstrong, four clubs in the bag and it’s all the same club, and he contributed the first touch of a skip hire business to present possession back to the R’s with his first attempt, and a delicate through ball planted firmly into the main stand with his second. Needs a sat nav to find his own nipples that lad - another agent doing a great job for their client there.

By contrast to QPR's game changing bench options, City have only used 14 starters so far this season and had nothing on the sidelines to help them climb back into the game. In fact Rangers could have added a third on the break had Rayan Kolli capped an impressive cameo with a slightly better final ball in injury time. I like Kolli, I’d like to see more of him, particularly in situations like Oxford at home where the game’s dragging like a seal’s ringpiece.

It didn’t affect the result because, hey, it’s QPR in Bristol, of course it didn’t affect the result. Paul Smyth’s scored two away league goals in two years, both into this net. A win away from home in game three of a three game week would usually be labelled witchcraft - but we did that here before as well, the season before last.

Ashton Gate. Way for the future. We like it here, you Bristol City fans are going to have to fuck off.

Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

Bristol City: Vitek 5; Tanner 5 (Mayulu 86, -), Dickie 5, Atkinson 5; Sykes 6 (McCrorie 55, 5), Twine 5 (Hirakawa 67, 5), Randell 6, Vyner 5, Borges 6; Riis 6 (Armstrong 68, 4), Mehmeti 6

Subs not used: Cornick, Lumley, Morrison, Pecover, Roberts

Goals: Riis 32 (assisted Borges)

Yellow Cards: Sykes 29 (off ball incident), Mehmeti 48 (foul), Vyner 73 (dissent), Hirakawa 90+5 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Morrison 6, Cook 7, Esquerdinha 5; Dembele 5 (Smyth 65, 7), Varane 6, Madsen 7, Saito 6 (Vale 65, 7); Burrell 6 (Frey 90+3, -), Kone 7 (Kolli 83, -)

Subs not used: Adamson, Field, Hamer, Hayden, Morgan

Goals: Kone 66 (assisted Vale), Smyth 86 (assisted Dunne)

Yellow Cards: Kone 51 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Nicolas Madsen 7 Finally starting to look like the player we thought we’d bought. Jack Supple tells us he's won the ball back 34 times this year, more than any other QPR player. Narrowly pips Harvey Vale who transformed the game for Rangers down the right after he came on.

Referee – Edward Duckworth (Preston) 6 A first ever Championship game. I said this the other week but it’s really quite difficult to tell how a referee is doing with this modern trend for histrionics, hands on head, oh-my-God, as if everything he gives is the worst decision anybody’s ever seen in their lives – call it ‘doing the Lewis Travis’ if you like because his performance in particular is really something to behold. Twice it looked like Esquerdinha had been killed in this game, Sykes booked in the first incident, only for him to get up and sprint off afterwards. Bristol City’s first goal might have been called a throw in or a goal kick in QPR’s favour – 50/50 decisions about which Jimmy Dunne charged around the pitch arms flailing in mock disbelief. Paul Nardi might have got a finger to a second half shot wide, a goal kick was awarded in Rangers’ favour, Vyner went so over the top in protest he got booked. Paul Smyth’s goal might have been disallowed for a push, but rather than the Bristol City defence all appealing as one how about… defend a bit better/stronger? You've been pushed over by Paul Smyth, I'd be too ashamed to speak to the referee about his performance after that. The one I did think he got wrong was the late Dunne challenge on Borges where it looked to me like he just charged into the guy and was lucky not to concede a penalty. Not exactly blatant, but I’d lean more towards probably was. These are all fairly marginal calls though. Referee was mostly fine.

Attendance – 24,200 (2,794 QPR) Home from home.

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

Hoopstar added 13:34 - Oct 6 Great report. That is two goals for Smyth this season playing off the left where he starred for Orient before coming back. Lovely to see him already bettering his goal return on last year.
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londonscottish added 13:37 - Oct 6 Thanks Clive. I happened to listen to the Brizzle comms and it was interesting to get their take; they saw Rangers as being consistently more dangerous in both halves, just lacking a bit on the final ball before those two fantastic finishes. They also thought the ref had ignored the pen and free kick shouts because the Rovers players had been milking them.
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Stevenpetercox added 13:41 - Oct 6 Great report as usual Clive , look forward to your football scribings more than I did getting my weekly Beano back in the 60's. Rangers are still a work in progress but with a bit of luck going our way for a change we may have a happier season than the last few. You were 100% spot on about that pathetic defensive effort by the Bristol defender whe Paul made contact with him ,cost them the game, as usual the manager blames the referee. It is so bloody predictable, feel sorry for the officials sometimes.

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Northernr added 13:59 - Oct 6 Hoopstar - V good point, will be stealing that. LondonScottish - I think calling them Rovers might be a liberty too far.
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londonscottish added 14:35 - Oct 6 Oh yeah. Doh.
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joellazarus added 14:44 - Oct 6 I live in Bristol. It's great. Definitely move here! :)
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dl_goneR added 14:49 - Oct 6 Great report as ever Clive, we always seem to make hay at Ashton Gate. They seem to have a thing for letting our shortest players score headers as well. Chair in 2021 and now Smyth on Saturday. Not a good look for their CBs…
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Northernr added 14:54 - Oct 6 Good spot. And Dembele scored a header against them at LR last year!!
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dl_goneR added 15:07 - Oct 6 Ah yes, forgot about Dembele last season too!
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Match82 added 17:46 - Oct 6 Right, well lovely report but the two things I'm taking away from it are that if McCrorie ever has a son we should all start a petition to make sure he's called Rory, and that whoever snuck in to edit the Bristol City wiki page deserves a pat on the back
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Toast_R added 20:46 - Oct 6  Like a leper being forced onto a magic teacup ride. 😆
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Loft1979 added 21:05 - Oct 6 Great report! 1. I dont think enough credit has been given to Nardi whose presence been synonymous with QPR's assent. 2. Great recognition of Vale who really showed how much difference he makes as a physical, defensive AND offensive presence in place of Dembele.
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tsbains64 added 08:34 - Oct 7 Back on form Clive !
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