Mark Warburton savours second-half fightback as QPR beat Luton

Posted Sunday, March 13, 2022 by PA

QPR boss Mark Warburton praised his side’s second-half display as they came back from 1-0 down to beat play-off rivals Luton 2-1 at Kenilworth Road.

The Hatters had led through Cameron Jerome’s 37th-minute goal but a penalty from Andre Gray 10 minutes after the break and then Rob Dickie’s late winner saw Warburton’s men leapfrog their hosts and sit fourth.

He said: “It was three very important points for us.

“An excellent second-half performance – first half I thought we were hurried, didn’t get the ball down, thought the balance second half was much better, matched their physicality, a lot of balls won aerially, we stepped in and looked a good team second half.

“It was an important goal, a really important goal after being on a run of below-par form. We’ve had a massive dip and people have been writing us off, now we’re fourth in the table.

“They’re a very, very hard team to beat home and away, especially here, but you have to match them with their physicality and their pace and power and then you have to apply the gameplan and second half we got it right.

“It’s amazing how fickle some people are, some said we would be lucky to finish mid-table and it was doom and gloom, now everybody’s suddenly jumping around.

“There’s a lot of points to play for, 30 points in our case and teams above us have played more games, so don’t form an opinion on us too early.”

The visitors went close in the first period, Moses Odubajo denied by James Shea, before Elijah Adebayo’s goal for Luton was ruled out for offside.

Town went ahead on 37 minutes though, Jerome’s snapshot from 22 yards going through Rangers keeper David Marshall who should have done much better.

After the break, Allan Campbell’s effort was beaten away by Marshall and QPR levelled with 55 on the clock, Kal Naismith bringing down Gray who confidently tucked home the penalty.

Amari’i Bell blasted into the side netting before Rangers won it with seven minutes remaining, Dickie flicking Chris Willock’s corner in.

Frustrated Luton boss Nathan Jones said: “I feel low, I’ve got to be honest with you, the manner of it, just disappointed.

“The decisions to give them the goals were poor, I felt we were decent all afternoon, we were excellent first half and this is a tough one to take.

“These (QPR) have never got to play well to beat us, I don’t know what it is, because we have chance after chance against them away from home and we gift them the goals and then here exactly the same.

“Just stay on your feet, you don’t have to dive in, so I’m just disappointed with the goals, it’s killed me and I’m finding it hard to speak.

“We’ve been in the top six, should have been fourth today – if you just do the basics well enough you’re fourth in the league today which is the biggest over-achievement in history.

“I thought we were fine, we were excellent first half, came out second half and could have scored again but these have just never got to work hard to beat us and they beat us all the time.”