I'm not sure you could really say we played well overall, we had little spells here and there where we looked ok but we are what we are, a team with an ultra shaky defence and two of a three man midfield who have little ability on the ball. Couple that with a striker (whichever one) who's gone ages without a goal and there isn't a huge amount to work with. Undoubtedly the game turned on the red card (Perch is a fucking idiot) and QPR looked a very poor team, Holloway's tactics were diabolical, like he'd just thrown 11 players out there and told them to hope for the best. Conor Washington makes Joe Mason look like signing of the century, so bad. But then for all that, Smithies has made three very good saves, a few more routine ones, we should have had a penalty and a confident side would probably have run up a hammering tonight.
Ikeme: Rocky on crosses early on, didn't have much else to do.
Iorfa: Much better. Stuck to the basics defensively and did some great work for the opening goal because that was a rubbish pass back to him. It can't have been doing him any good to be regularly going through games and making some horrible errors, good to get a match free from any of that as we need him performing at his best.
Batth/Stearman: A mix of skied clearances, getting roughed up now and then by Polter and a few decent clearances here and there. In truth after the red card it wasn't that difficult a game for either of them. Won't have too much of a go at Batth for their goal as it was fortunate that it landed right back at Lynch's feet.
Doherty: Should have given a penalty away first half and while he was part of two key moments - the red card and the first goal - the red comes from him taking a shite touch inside and overrunning it and on the goal he ridiculously overhits the ball back to Iorfa. Should have scored near the end to seal the game, fair play for making the run but a poor finish. We all know he isn't anything like good enough, we desperately need to replace him next month.
Saiss: Makes a big difference to the midfield because he offers an actual physical presence and his range of passing (as showcased for Costa's goal) is way beyond anything else we have. Didn't do well towards the very end but overall this was a good performance.
Coady: Ran around a lot, pressed the ball ok in the first half at times I suppose. Doesn't really contribute that much going either way though.
Edwards: Same verdict as Coady for the first half with an added bad miss from a free header. Played well in the second half. Took his goal very well and got closer to Dicko and the wide players.
Costa: As ever, always a threat (though how defenders haven't worked out yet that he always cuts inside - mind you Jack Robinson is absolutely shite) and an excellent finish for the goal. He's been consistently our best player for three months now which kind of belies the belief that you need "Championship experience", the lad's 22 and turning it on at a freezing Loftus Road.
Cavaleiro: Infuriatingly offside a couple of times when he had no need to be and a couple of poor decisions when in good positions. It's his nice bit of skill which starts everything off for the first goal and just having a genuine threat on both sides helps us so much. It pins their fullbacks in position and gives us options. Revolutionary thinking I know.
Dicko: Worked hard, the pace is still there but he's still obviously working his way back in. We should have been giving him more gametime over the last few weeks, he's still noticeably short. I'm hopeful he'll get back but there's a long way to go.
Subs: Not much to note other than Bod produced one lovely bit of skill then missed the chance which would really have helped him (and us) out.
It was way tenser than it needed to be and QPR are not a good team. We nearly got undone near the end which would have been tragic for our prospects. But we've got that win now, let's hope we get some confidence from it and push on through a fairly moderate run of fixtures for the rest of the year.