QPR show plenty of grit as they stave off play-off hopefuls City in Loftus Road stalemate

Pride of West London meets Pride of the West Country. The scarves and sticker don't lie : Picture by @YTJourno

QPR (1) 1 Dembele 21

Bristol City (1) 1 Earthy 30

The R's gave play-off hopefuls Bristol City a testing afternoon to claim a decent point at sunny Loftus Road.

The sides played out a 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate and once again could not be separated - Kader Dembele's opener being quickly cancelled out with neither team being able to force the issue after that.

Rangers may notionally have had less to play for than fifth-placed City chasing a stop six finish, but that looked far from the case during a fine opening 20 minutes, during which they deservedly took the lead.

Dembele may not be the tallest of strikers, but he got in between Zak Vyner and Yu Hirakawa to nod Nicolas Madsen's cross from the right firmly down past Max O'Leary in the City goal.

Soon after, Jimmy Dunne came mightily close to adding a second after getting on the end of a cross from the left - his shot flashing just wide, while earlier, Harrison Ashby should have put away a superb low cross from the right by Dembele.

The goal was the logical outcome to a fine start, in which Koki Saito an the left and Yang Min-Hyeok on the left showed energy and pace to unsettle the visitors.

City's start had been way too passive and they finally got it together to draw level when Max Bird slipped the ball through for West Ham loanee George Earthy to beat Paul Nardi with a deft touch into the far corner.

Nahki Wells almost grabbed another goal against his former club during a second half that lacked for clearcut openings. The visitors had most of the ball, without coming up with the end product to spoil the R's afternoon.

Marti Cifuentes' men had more of the shots at goal and Lucas Andersen combined with fellow sub Rayan Kolli to almost grab a winner at the Loft End, while Sinclair Armstrong came on for City to a chorus of home boos during the last knockings.

Nothing earth shattering then, but It's a useful point for Rangers, who stopped the rot in midweek with a first win in eight outings. The 3-1 win at Oxford was much-needed to arrest an alarming slump since the 4-0 drubbing of Derby in mid-February and the hope now is that they can get a second wind for the final run-in.

Hoops: (4-2-3-1) Nardi, Dunne, Morrison, Edwards, Ashby - Varane, Colback (Bennie 73) - Min-Hyeok (Andersen 87), Madsen (Fox 73), Saito (Kolli 87)- Dembele (Smyth 59)

Robins:(3-4-2-1) O'Leary - Vyner, Dickie, Pring - Hurakawa (Mehmeti 58), Bird (Twine 74), Knight, McCrorie (Tanner 58) - Williams, Earthy (Bell 74) - Wells (Armstrong 84)

Attendance: 16,867