Queens Park http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rangers-c40314 edge past ten men Crystal Palace - Npower Championship update
A brace from Heidar Helguson helped Queens Park Rangers edge past Crystal Palace 2-1 in an Npower Championship encounter at the Loftus Road on Saturday evening. The leaders extended their dominance on top of the league table to ten points after the win.
Neil Warnock made two changes to his QPR side that lost 2-0 to Milwall last Tuesday. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Tommy-Smith-c35389 respectively. Dougie Freedman, the Crystal Palace manager, named the same starting line-up that
beat Cardiff City 1-0 in the midweek. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/James-Vaughan-c17722 started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation for the visitors.
The game took off to a sluggish start, as both teams were sloppy in the early exchanges and gave away cheap free kicks. QPR skipper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Adel-Taarabt-c3610, had a first sight on goal, the midfielder bustled his way into the box but his shot from a distance missed
to the right of the target.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 19th minute when Taarabt’s cross-shot found Helguson unmarked at the far post and the Icelander tapped home from six yards to make it 1-0. The hosts dominated the game, as Taarabt continued to threaten the visitors
with his lovely dribbling and forced a brilliant save from Julian Speroni from a powerful shot outside the box.
Palace managed to equalise in the 40th minute. The visitors were totally marked out of the game and all of a sudden they found themselves level on the score sheet. Darren Ambrose played a nice one-two with on-loan Everton striker, James Vaughan,
whose left footed strike found the back of the net from nine yards, to make it 1-1.
The visitors could have taken the lead immediately after the start of second half when Ambrose created room to take a shot from 20 yards but Patrick Kenny made a remarkable save to keep the ball out.
In the 54th minute of the game, Taarabt was tripped inside the box by Patrick McCarthy, the referee awarded QPR a penalty and McCarthy was shown a straight red card. Helguson stepped up and slotted a sweet low finish into the corner to make it
2-1 for the hosts.
QPR completely dominated the game and took advantage of an extra man. The hosts came extremely close to doubling their advantage, when Taarabt’s cross was met by Helguson’s looping header but the ball brushed against the cross bar and went out. Palace could
not really threaten the opposition’s goal towards the end of the match, as they slipped to their 19th defeat of the season.
QPR will play Doncaster http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rovers-c40385 in their next fixture on 19th March, while Crystal Palace host Derby County the same day.
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