West Brom vs QPR match report: Bobby Zamora scores stunning lob as Rangers improve to edge towards safety
West Brom 1 QPR 4: Rangers improve to record overdue win thanks to goals from Eduardo Vargas, Charlie Austin, Zamora and Joey Barton
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Your support makes all the difference.There is hope for Queens Park Rangers after all. The west London side had the country’s worst away record when they arrived at the Hawthorns, but they head back south with a precious away victory – the kind that could provide the springboard for a survival push.
It was a result that lifted them up to 18th place, within a point of fourth-bottom Sunderland and just three behind Aston Villa, who they face in a six-pointer in Birmingham on Tuesday.
“It is going to be a big boost,” said a delighted Chris Ramsey, who had previously suffered five straight defeats since his confirmation as Rangers’ interim manager until the summer.
The difference, he added, was his team’s finishing, summed up by Bobby Zamora’s brilliant 43rd-minute lob to make it 3-0 and, however briefly, enabled the 2,500 away fans to forget the 13 defeats witnessed in their team’s 14 previous league away fixtures.
Pursuing Matt Phillips’ pass down the inside-right channel, Zamora, from the angle of the penalty box, applied a first-time left-foot flick to send the ball arcing over Boaz Myhill and in off the crossbar. “Fantastic” was Ramsey’s verdict of a goal by the 34-year-old who “hardly trains” according to his manager owing to a long-standing hip problem.
Another central figure was Joey Barton who was the recipient of an elbow by Youssouf Mulumbu, which earned the substitute a red card with eight minutes remaining. Barton rubbed salt in Albion wounds by drilling in the visitors’ fourth goal.
It meant the Londoners’ first four-goal haul in a top-flight away fixture since 1994, and Ramsey praised Barton, who also earned his seemingly obligatory booking: “He gets involved in the real tough end. He’s ready to put his neck and body on the line to get those points.”
Eduardo Vargas flashed a low shot past Myhill from 20 yards and Rangers added a second through Charlie Austin for the striker’s 16th goal of the season. Albion’s second-half rally was rewarded by substitute Victor Anichebe’s close-range header.
West Bromwich: (4-4-2) Myhill; Baird (Olsson, 65), McAuley, Lescott, Brunt; Gardner (Mulumbu, 72), Morrison, Fletcher, Sessegnon (Anichebe, 46); Berahino, Brown.
QPR: (4-4-2) Green; Isla (Hill, 82), Onuoha, Caulker, Suk-Young; Phillips, Sandro, Barton, Vargas (Kranjcar, 30); Zamora (Henry, 75), Austin.
Referee: Lee Probert.
Man of the match: Barton (QPR).
Match rating: 7/10.
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