On an emotional night at Loftus Road, QPR produced a performance of which the late Ray Wilkins would no doubt have been proud. Here’s how we rated each Rangers player in the 4-2 win against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Rangers goalkeeper produced three top-class saves, two of them at point-blank range, and his accurate distribution started several of his side’s attacking moves as well.
Although Furlong supplied the cross for Idrissa Sylla to make it 3-0, he can have a tendency to be caught out of his defensive position, which was a contributing factor in both Wednesday goals.
With Nedum Onuoha suspended, Baptiste’s cool head was just what Rangers required at the back. He read the game efficiently and timed his tackles to snuff out Wednesday’s forwards.
Made a vital interception to halt Lucas Joao early in the second half, but he often looked uncomfortable against Atdhe Nuhiu and got away with an untidy challenge on the burly frontman.
An assist for Paul Smyth’s opener, followed by a well-taken goal of his own – and a crunching tackle on Nuhiu to rescue Rangers later in the game – represented a good night’s work for Bidwell.
The winger displayed growing confidence on the ball and helped to set up Bidwell’s goal with a neat one-two, as well as winning the penalty that stretched Rangers’ lead to 4-0 after half-time.
After launching himself into some early challenges with real intensity, Cousins seemed to calm down the longer the game progressed and looked more composed as Rangers held on to clinch the win.
Successfully broke up some of the visitors’ attacks. But there were more than a few stray passes from the midfielder, who was also booked for a foul on Fernando Forestieri.
Forced a couple of saves from keeper Joe Wildsmith, but he also wasted a couple of promising counter-attacks and generally failed to establish his authority on the game.
The Northern Ireland international was in and out of the game, but his energy never dipped and his touch and scoring instinct were in evidence again as he fired QPR into an early lead.
Making his first start since December, Sylla held his own in the air and, as well as netting twice, contributed to Bidwell’s goal by putting the Owls keeper under pressure.
Manning gave Rangers fresh impetus after replacing Scowen for the final quarter of the game and created a couple of opportunities. He also curled a free-kick wide.
Putting in a shift up front was Smith’s basic task when he replaced Sylla in the 68th minute and in that sense he delivered, without any scoring chances presenting themselves.
The Polish winger was granted a brief cameo when he came on for Osayi-Samuel in the final 15 minutes, but had few opportunities to shine.
This post was last modified on 11/04/2018
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Poor Bidwell, either seriously unfair grade to get a goal and assist and STILL only end up with a 7 (a frequent score for him without such additions) or the rest of his game was poor.