Chair and Wallace expected to return for Barnsley game

Ilias Chair and Lee Wallace are expected to return to the QPR side against Barnsley on Wednesday after being rested in Saturday’s defeat at Birmingham.

Chair was left on the bench by Mark Warburton, with Chris Willock named in the starting line-up, and Wallace did not travel with the squad after playing a full 90 minutes against Preston on Wednesday.

The recent return of Wallace, 33, to the side at left wing-back coincided with a run of four wins and a draw, and his replacement Niko Hamalainen once again struggled at times in defence and offered little going forward at St Andrews.

Rangers looked to be comfortably heading for victory, a win that would have kept them within in touching distance of the play-off spots given they have two games in hand, only to concede two sloppy goals in the final 10 minutes.

Warburton made three changes to the side that drew at Deepdale, in a match played on dry, rutted and uneven playing surface that saw little in the way of quality from either side.

But the Rangers boss said the pitch could not be blamed for both of Birmingham’s goals, which he felt stemmed from lapses by a QPR defence that’s been much-improved since Christmas.

“As of late we have defended very well and it was unlike us not to defend the second phase,” said Warburton.

“The last 15 minutes they threw on some giants off the bench and we have to deal with it, and up to a point we did.

“But the second goal, we spoke about their player being all left foot and we allowed him to get on it and he scores.

“We didn’t do our job, we said don’t give away cheap set-pieces and we did.

“But on a pitch like this you have to adapt, you have to be better.”