So easy for QPR as they brush aside a feeble Coventry City

QPR (2) 3 Willock 2, Rose OG 22, Chair 68

Coventry City (0) 0

Rangers made hay in the Good Friday sunshine, as they continue to enjoy themselves the longer the season goes on.

A relegation-threatened Coventry barely laid a glove on the happy Hoops, who hogged the ball and created all the chances.

A Chris Willock header and an own goal put them in the driving seat in the first quarter and they never looked like relinquishing their advantage.

Ilias Chair added a third in the second half and it was surely as serene an afternoon as the hosts have had all season.

It was Rangers’ 10th win in 16 matches since the FA Cup defeat to Fulham at the start of 2021 and there have been only four defeats in that time.

Not earth-shattering, but very far removed from their sorry form in the first half of the campaign when it looked as though relegation might seriously be on the agenda and worried questions were asked about Mark Warburton’s leadership. Mid-table has never felt so good.

Rangers were in front with the clock barely advanced into the second minute. Chair combined with Lee Wallace on the left edge of the penalty area and a cross from the former Glasgow Rangers defender was nodded in off a post by Willock.

It was only his second of the season and first since he bagged the winner at Cardiff City in January.

Charlie Austin was a handful, bullying the visitors’ rearguard throughout, and he almost doubled the lead with a close-range header from an Osman Kakay cross, but keeper Marko Marosi was equal to it.

A clever flick from Chair then eased another ball through to Austin but the angle became too tight and the keeper saved again. However, from the ensuing corner, a near post flick from the head of defender Michael Rose, under pressure from Geoff Cameron, eased the ball into the far corner of the net.

Rose very nearly gifted Rangers another goal before the half was out, his attempted pass out of defence giving the marauding Chair a run on goal which forced Marosi into a sharp save with his legs.

The over-worked Coventry keeper did well again early in the second half to smother another great chance for Chair – the opening created this time by an exquisite first-time ball with the outside of the boot from Fulham loanee Stefan Johansen.

But all the stopper’s fine work was blemished by the softest of goals on 68 minutes, as Chair claimed his eighth of the season.

The mercurial Moroccan, found in space on half-way by Johansen, was allowed to advance unimpeded all the way towards the City penalty area before finding the net when his low shot was palmed weakly into the net by Marosi.

Coventry looked a League One outfit in waiting and even a triple substitution only briefly raised them out of the ordinary.

A first-half free-kick from Gus Hamer straight at Joe Lumley and another blasted just wide by Viktor Gyokeres were rare moments of semi-danger for the Hoops.

Sub Albert Adomah clipped the top of the bar late on as Rangers went close to making the scoreline even more emphatic.

Hoops: Lumley – Dickie, Cameron, Barbet – Kakay, Field, Johansen (Ball 83), Wallace (Kelman 83) – Willock (Thomas 66), Austin (Dykes 66), Chair (Adomah 76). Subs not used: Kane, Bonne, Dieng, Bettache

Sky Blues: Marosi – Rose (Pask 66), Ostigard, Hyam – Da Costa, Hamer (Eccles 77), Allen (O’Hare 58), James, McCallum – Shipley (Gyokeres 58) – Godden (Walker 59). Subs not used: Kelly, Wilson, Bakayoko, Thompson