As QPR dig into an acrimonious departure with popular Spanish manager Marti Cifuentes, LFW looks back at the highs and lows from a reign which for so long promised so much.

Six of the best

QPR 4 Stoke City 2, Tuesday November 28, 2023, Championship

Rangers don’t tend to do new manager bounce. If you keep changing managers and never get better then the manager probably isn’t your issue, and the fact the frequent changes at Loftus Road don’t usually result in either a temporary lift in results only hammers that point home further. Gareth Ainsworth won one of his first ten games, Neil Critchley one of his first 12, Mick Beale one of his first six, Warbs Warburton two of the first seven, Schteve McClaren infamously lost his first four and conceded 13 goals doing it, Ian Holloway won his first game then lost six straight, Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink took eight games to beat anybody, Chris Ramsey one win and six defeats in his first seven, Harry Redknapp one win from first seven, Mark Hughes one win from his first eight… The challenge Marti Cifuentes faced was laid bare by his first three games. The team drew 1-1 at whipping boys Rotherham having led, nil nil at home to Bristol City, and then lost 1-0 at Norwich. No goals in the team, no pace in the team, no depth on the bench, no hope. When they then turned a 1-0 lead at home to woeful Stoke into a 2-1 deficit against ten men things were looking horrifically bleak. But a red hot final ten minutes, sparked by one of those Lyndon Dykes moments of brilliance from nowhere, saw an electric victory sealed in the last minute of the game by a Ben Pearson own goal. If you’d asked me whether it was worth going through two years of torture just for the feeling and the moment we win a game in the last minute with a Loft End goal by Ben Pearson I can’t guarantee I’d have said yes, but I’d have been pretty close.

QPR: Begovic 5; Kakay 5 (Cannon 62, 7), Cook 7, Dunne 4 (Clarke-Salter 73, 7), Paal 5; Field 5 (Kelman 73, 6), Colback 5 (Larkeche 88, -), Dixon-Bonner 6 (Willock 62, 6); Chair 7, Dykes 6, Smyth 6

Subs not used: Archer, Richards, Duke-McKenna, Drewe

Goals: Dykes penalty 11 (won Cook), 79 (assisted Willock), Pearson og 89 (assisted Larkeche), Willock 90 (assisted Kelman)

Bookings: Colback 86 (foul), Begovic 90+6 (time wasting)

Stoke: Bonham 5; Gooch 4, McNally 6, Clark 2, Stevens 3; Burger 7 (Laurent 82, -), Pearson 4; Campbell 6 (Leris 70, 5), Vidigal 6 (Hoever 58, 5), Bae 6 (Johnson 70, 5); Mmaee 6 (Wesley 80, -)

Sub not used: Rose, Gayle, Thompson, Simkin

Goals: Mmaee 45 (assisted Bae), Burger 59 (assisted Mmaee)

Red Cards: Stevens 53 (two yellows)

Leicester City 1 QPR 2, Saturday March 2, 2023, Championship

A very different kind of performance at Leicester, but the most impressive result of the season as QPR went to a side which would eventually win the title with 97 points and rolled them over on their own patch. There was certainly not domination as against Leeds and West Brom – QPR had 26% possession to Leicester’s 74%, three shots on goal to the Foxes’ 18, two on target to their five, zero corners in a game when Rangers faced nine. But the tactical set up, shape and discipline was spot on. Much was made of Cifuentes’ pragmatism over ideals through the final third of the season, and here was an example of a Cruyff acolyte surrendering possession and enacting a perfect low block. Tactical excellence crowned and exemplified by his second half substitute Sinclair Armstrong scoring with his first touch off the bench, charging on from the touchline, meeting a Sam Field knock down in the area, blasting it into the net, and continuing his run in a straight line to the ram packed away end. It would have been a more comfortable win, and celebratory final 20 minutes, had Asmir Begovic not gifted Leicester a way back into the game with a typical howler. The R’s, thankfully, hung on for a third win in a row.

Leicester: Hermansen 5; Choudhury 5, Nelson 5, Faes 5, Justin 5; Winks 6, Dewsbury-Hall 5; Fatawu 6, Praet – (Akgun 16, 5 (Cannon 78, 5)), Mavididi 6; Daka 4 (Vardy 61, 5)

Subs not used: Coady, Doyle, Albrighton, Souttar, Madividua, Stolarczyk

Goals: Nelson 60 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Choudhury 84 (DUI), Nelson 90+1 (foul)

QPR: Begovic 5; Dunne 8, Cook 8, Clarke-Salter 8, Paal 8; Hayden 8, Field 7, Andersen 7 (Smyth 56, 6); Chair 7, Willock 7 (Fox 73, 7), Dykes 6 (Armstrong 56, 6)

Subs not used: Frey, Hodge, Dixon-Bonner, Cannon, Larkeche, Walsh

Goals: Chair 38 (assisted Dykes), Armstrong 57 (assisted Field)

Bookings: Andersen 43 (delaying restart), Dykes 54 (delaying restart), Cook 90+4 (time wasting)

QPR 2 West Bromwich Albion 2, Wednesday March 6, 2024, Championship

Arguably QPR’s best performance under Marti Cifuentes came in a game they didn’t even win. At home to West Bromwich Albion, who had the division’s best manager and were at that point heading for the play offs, Rangers poured a nice warm cup of shut the hell up. They started the game on a press so high, and a tempo so intense, it couldn’t possibly be maintained. And then they maintained it. This was an exciting, energetic, relentless, enthralling, encapsulating night of football. The ground was packed, the tribute to Stanley Bowles immaculate, the team understood the brief and the importance of the occasion, and they enacted a harsh beasting. Never mind a point, West Brom were lucky they got out alive. They did so despite conceding two goals, deliberately handling a third off the line, clearing a fourth out from under the crossbar in absurdly unlikely fashion, riding out one certain penalty that wasn’t given, and saving another that was. There were poor performances in the run up to the game, at Stoke in particular, and some missteps to come – Boro won easily at Loftus Road that Saturday. The squad’s ability to back up in three game weeks wasn’t there, and the gap between its best and worst remained vast. But, like the Leeds game to come, this gave a tantalising glimpse of what a Marti Cifuentes QPR could look like. Sometimes it’s not about winning, it’s about aspiration, it’s about ambition and hope for where you’re going, and if this was where QPR were going then everybody was keen to be along for that ride. The crowd stayed to a man and gave the team a standing ovation at full time.

QPR: Begovic 6; Dunne 8, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 7 (Fox 80, -), Paal 6 (Dykes 80, -); Hayden 7 (Hodge 60, 6), Field 8; Smyth 6, Andersen 8 (Willock 71, 7), Chair 6; Frey 6

Subs Not Used: Dixon-Bonner, Cannon, Larkeche, Armstrong, Walsh

Goals: Field 17 (assisted Anderson), 81 (unassisted)

West Brom: Palmer 7; Furlong 6, Kipre 7, Pieters 5, Reach 6 (Gordon 60, 5); Yokuslu 6 (Chalobah 78, 5), Mowatt 6; Fellows 6 (Ajayi 54, 6), Diangana 7 (Swift 79, 5), Johnston 8 (Weimann 78, 5); Wallace 5

Subs Not Used: M’Vila, Marshall, Griffiths, Malcolm

Goals: Johnston 25 (assisted Mowatt), Diangana 27 (assisted Fellows)

Bookings: Palmer 54 (time wasting)

QPR 4 Leeds United 0, Friday April 26, 2024, Championship

A truly brilliant night under the lights at Loftus Road for so many reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, a 4-0 victory and the team’s biggest victory in more than two years – since just before this horrible rot all began, when we beat Reading 4-0 at Loftus Road under Mark Warburton. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the result that finally staved off the relegation threat and secured the club’s Championship status for another season. Thirdly, the fact it was Leeds United as victims, the result kyboshed their automatic promotion hopes and dumped them into the play-offs which they subsequently lost, was all just so delicious. Throw the result, the manner of the performance and the opposition altogether and you get the sort of night and result that takes supporters back to the club’s glory years of top flight football and makes them believe better times are round the corner. That was the big feeling back in a euphoric Crown & Sceptre after the game, with Joe Hylton up on the table leading the singing. The hard part had been done. We’d dug ourselves out of the mire, with no money to spend, despite a dreadful start and a sub-standard team. With this manager given a full summer, a much-improved budget for players, and a better start to next season we could be off to a place where results and performances like this are the norm again. That was the dream, and we lived it that night.

QPR: Begovic 8; Dunne 8, Cook 8, Clarke-Salter 8 (Fox 81, -), Paal 8; Colback 8 (Hayden 81, -), Field 8; Willock 8 (Adomah 87, -), Andersen 8 (Smyth 57, 7), Chair 9; Dykes 8 (Armstrong 87, -)

Subs Not Used: Dixon-Bonner, Cannon, Larkeche, Walsh

Goals: Chair 8 (assisted Clarke-Salter), Andersen 22 (assisted Willock), Dykes 73 (assisted Chair), Field 86 (assisted Chair)

Yellow Cards: Colback 64 (kicking ball away)

Leeds: Meslier 3; Byram 4 (Joseph 63, 4), Rodon 4, Ampadu 4, Firpo 3; Gray 5, Gruev 2 (Kamara 88, -); Gnonto 3 (Shackleton 88, -), Rutter 4 (Gelhardt 80, -), Summerville 3 (Anthony 80, -); Piroe 4

Subs not used: Cresswell, Cooper, Darlow, Crew

Yellow Cards: Byram 16 (foul), Gnonto 40 (foul)

Luton Town 1 QPR 2, Friday August 30, 2024, Championship

Among the limbs, bumps, bruises and scrapes in Luton’s deathtrap away end, few would ever have believed this would be Marti Cifuentes’ last win for three months. Rangers played 13 games after this without victory and that seemed absolutely unthinkable at the time as they came roaring back from one down at half time to win 2-1 in fine style against a team just relegated from the Premier League, with parachute payments, and with a £10m centre half making one of his first appearances for them. Michy Frey confirmed his turnaround from alarming laughing stock to potential game-changing centre forward with a terrific display and goal. Nicolas Madsen scored, at a time when his stock was still high. The away end was in raptures all night. The team and manager came together in front of us at full time and looked elated, together as one. This was the QPR 2024/25 we’d hoped and dreamed about at the end of the previous season starting to happen, new team starting to come together, new signings starting to perform, everything coming up Milhouse. And then we rarely saw it, or them again.

Luton: Kaminski 6; Bell 5, McGuinness 4 (Walsh 75, 5), Burke 5 (Menghi 46, 5); Walters 6, Baptiste 6 (Nelson 84, -), Clark 5, Doughty 5; Morris 5, Adebayo 6, Chong 5 (Taylor 75, 5)

Subs not used: Holmes, Mpanzu, Nakamba, Shea, Woodrow

Goals: Dunne og 18 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Chong 1 (deliberate handball?), Doughty 48 (foul), Clark 79 (foul)

QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 6, Cook 7, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal 7; Field 7, Colback 6 (Andersen 75, 6); Lloyd 4 (Smyth 57, 7), Madsen 6 (Varane 75, 6), Dembele 7 (Saito 83, -); Frey 8 (Celar 83, -)

Subs not used: Santos, Dixon-Bonner, Morrison, Walsh

Goals: Madsen 59 (assisted Frey), Frey 62 (assisted Paal)

Yellow Cards: Cook 30 (delaying restart), Field 51 (foul)

QPR 4 Derby County 0, Friday February 24, 2025, Championship

After winning just one of the first 16 games of the season, QPR staged a spectacular recovery over the Christmas period losing one of the next 13 matches and eventually winning nine of 16. The final result in that sequence saw John Eustace hammered on his Derby managerial debut by one of his former clubs. Ilias Chair’s spectacular first, on the turn from 25 yards, started the first half fun. The Moroccan was twisting Derby blood again soon after, forcing Zetterström to spill his cross into the path of Koki Saito who finished smartly into the top corner. The R’s cut loose in the second half as Chair confidently strode onto Yang Min-Hyeok’s cut back and scorched a third into the roof of the net before Handsome Ronnie Edwards further boosted his burgeoning reputation with a first goal for the club headed in at the near post. Just four points from the top six at this point, things unfortunately collapsed into another winless run of seven, two wins from the final 13 games, a monumental injury list and all the bitter recriminations and reprisals we’ve seen since. Three months on it remains QPR’s last home win.

QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Cook 6 (Morrison 83, -), Edwards 7, Paal 6; Varane 7, Field 6 (Morgan 63, 6); Min-Hyeok 7 (Smyth 63, 6), Chair 8 (Madsen 73, 5), Saito 8; Frey 6 (Lloyd 73, 5)

Subs not used: Ashby, Colback, Fox, Walsh

Goals: Chair 21 (assisted Frey), 57 (assisted Min-Hyeok), Saito 35 (assisted Chair), Edwards 66 (assisted Paal)

Derby: Zetterström 4; Nyambe 3, Langas 4, Clarke 3, Elder 3; Adams 4 (Armstrong 85, -), Osborn 4 (Goudmijn 67, 4); Mendez-Laing 5 (Jackson 67, 4), Yates 3, Harness 4; Salvesen 4 (Barkhuizen 46, 4)

Subs not used: Allen, Forsyth, Rooney, Thompson, Vickers

Yellow Cards: Mendez-Laing 65 (foul), Jackson 90+4 (foul)

Six of the worst

Millwall 2 QPR 0, Tuesday December 26, 2023, Championship

Three consecutive wins from three thrilling games to start December had so many QPR fans piling on the 50/1 for revitalised Rangers to make the play-offs they temporarily came in to even shorter odds on the BetFair exchange than Sunderland, who were sixth at the time. But after that flurry of new manager bounce came a tough winter of eight matches without a win as Marti Cifuentes wrestled with the mess he’d inherited from Gareth Ainsworth. There was a particularly poor defeat at Sheff Wed which nearly made this list, where QPR led until the 89th minute in a game that could have put ten points between them and the Owls only to concede twice in stoppage time after Cifuentes had evacuated the midfield to introduce another centre back. But the genuine low came on Boxing Day at Millwall, themselves without a win in eons under struggling new manager Joe Edwards. A defensively shambolic first goal with many guilty parties set the tone in first half stoppage time, and the first of many costly Asmir Begovic flaps sealed the game with a second late on. Although Rangers would go another four without a win before beating Millwall in the return fixture, it was really this game which marked the low point from which things built. Several players – notably Osman Kakay and Andre Dozzell – were jettisoned for their part in it, and the switch of Jimmy Dunne to right back and introduction of Isaac Hayden to the midfield was crucial in Rangers’ survival.

Millwall: Sarkic 6; Leonard 6, Harding 7, Cooper 6, Bryan 5 (Wallace 71, 6); Norton-Cuffy 7 (McNamara 85, -), Honeyman 6, Saville 7, Emakhu 6 (Nisbet 83, -); Bradshaw 6 (Flemming 71, 7), Watmore 6 (Esse 83, -)

Subs Not Used: Hutchinson, Longman, Bialkowski, Mitchell

Goals: Bradshaw 45+3 (assisted Saville), Wallace 90 (assisted McNamara)

Yellow Cards: Emakhu 33 (foul), Honeyman 44 (foul), Wallace 90+3 (foul)

QPR: Begovic 5; Kakay 4, Dunne 3 (Cannon 63, 5), Clarke-Salter 6, Larkeche 5 (Dixon-Bonner 63, 5); Dozzell 5, Field 5, Paal 6; Smyth 5 (Adomah 79, 5), Dykes 4, Chair 6

Subs not used: Duke-McKenna, Archer, Richards, Kelman, Drewe, Armstrong

Yellow Cards: Dunne 9 (foul), Smyth 37 (foul), Chair 75 (foul)

Stoke 1 QPR 0, Tuesday February 14, 2024, Championship

There were, naturally further hiccups along the way. You don’t win two of your first 16 games and skip clear of the relegation zone lightly. QPR, remarkably, only lost four of their last 19 games, but those defeats often came just when the team seemed to be monitoring, just when salvation and relaxation was within our grasp, and just when you least expected them. Sheff Wed and Middlesbrough both won 2-0 at Loftus Road immediately after two big swings the other way – Jimmy Dunne’s last-minute winner against Birmingham and the fantastic performance and 2-2 draw against West Brom. But perhaps the most ball aching was the Valentine’s Day outing to Stoke, and not only because the town’s fully booked Premier Inn inexplicably closed the bar at 22.30. QPR had beaten Millwall and won for the first time in 20 years at Blackburn, drawn with Huddersfield and high-flying Norwich, and now had an opportunity to tip freefalling Stoke into the relegation zone instead. Stephen Schumacher, already the Potters’ second manager of the season, was set to be fired after the game if he lost. Cifuentes erred with the team selection. The recalled Armstrong, Smyth and Hodge were all poor, while Reggie Cannon had a mare at right back. The standard goal from a set piece by Wouter Burger sealed a 1-0 home win in a dire encounter and the away end voiced its fury and frustration, really for the first time in the Spaniard’s reign, at full time.

Stoke: Iversen N/A; Hoever 5, McNally 6, Rose 5, Thompson 6; Cundle 5 (Leris 89, -), Baker 5, Burger 6 (Pearson 75, 5); Tchamadeu 5 (Gooch 81, -), Ennis 5 (Wesley 74, 4), Bae 5 (Laurent 81, -)

Subs not used: Campbell, Bonham, Wilmot, Manhoef

Goals: Burger 45 (assisted McNally)

QPR: Begovic 5; Cannon 4, Cook 5, Clarke-Salter 4 (Dykes 85, -), Paal 4; Hayden 5 (Field 85, -), Colback 4 (Willock 78, 4), Hodge 5; Smyth 4 (Andersen 67, 5), Armstrong 4 (Frey 67, 5), Chair 4

Subs not used: Dunne, Archer, Dixon-Bonner, Fox

Yellow Cards: Hayden 64 (foul)

QPR 1 Portsmouth 2, Saturday October 19, 2024, Championship

There still felt like plenty of scope for Cifuentes and QPR to turn around their poor start to 2024/25 when fellow strugglers Portsmouth arrived at Loftus Road in mid-October. The profile of summer signings made meant it was always going to take the team some time to settle down and work, if indeed it was going to work, and that bedding in period had not been helped by injuries to the most experienced Championship performers right down the spine of the side – the club’s only ball-playing, left-sided defender Jake Clarke-Salter, it's only experienced and violent midfielder Jack Colback, and its best attacker Ilias Chair. Get some of the newbies up to speed, get some of the injured players back in the side, and Homer’s airborne pig may yet come into land safely. A fast start to the game saw Michy Frey hassle a chance for Karamoko Dembele who lobbed home an opening goal with cool aplomb. Now 1-0 up, at home, to a newly promoted side without a win to its name all season, Rangers had a golden opportunity for a nerve-settling victory. What they produced instead was an embarrassing collapse. Cifuentes had used the international break to switch to a rare back three formation which initially seemed to catch Pompey cold, but the rush of Morgan Fox back into the line-up to play on the left side of that three proved cataclysmic as his fundamental, basic errors led to Portsmouth goals either side of half time and a 2-1 defeat. Portsmouth would end up with a double over Rangers – their performance at Fratton Park in the return fixture was every bit as limp.

QPR: Nardi 5; Dunne 4, Cook 5, Fox 2; Ashby 3 (Morgan 64, 6), Field 5 (Celar 64, 5), Madsen 3 Paal 4 (Saito 73, 5); Dembele 5 (Andersen 81, -), Chair 4 (Smyth 64, 4), Frey 6

Subs not used: Santos, Clarke-Salter, Bennie, Walsh

Goals: Dembele 7 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Field 47 (foul)

Pompey: Schmid 5; Williams 6, Poole 7, McIntyre 6, Ogilvie 6; Pack 6, Potts 6; Lang 7 (Devlin 81, -), Saydee 6 (Lane 61, 6), Murphy 6 (Sorensen 80, -); O’Mahony 6 (Yengi 71, 6)

Subs not used: Archer, Dozzell, Kamara, Ritchie, Towler

Yellow Cards: McIntyre 54 (foul), Williams 85 (foul), Yengi 90+7 (foul)

Goals: Potts 18, Lang pen 57

QPR 1 Middlesbrough 4, Tuesday November 5, 2024, Championship

Cifuentes took over at QPR from Gareth Ainsworth after a week in which the team had lost consecutive games to Huddersfield, West Brom and Leicester. Ainsworth felt the first game had been one of the team’s better performances, and they were well in the latter until Andre Dozzell’s red card brain fart. In reality, though, Ainsworth had been dead from the week before when Blackburn ran riot at Loftus Road and won 4-0. Boro, like Blackburn, would easily make the top ten worst home games for many long-term regulars. Excuses about injuries, bad luck and good goalkeeping in home games against Plymouth and Hull, poor recruitment and new signings taking time to settle, all melt away on nights like this. It was actually a surprise Cifuentes survived it. You cannot play as QPR did in this game and the manager keep his job - it’s vanishingly rare. The performance and body language of the senior players in particular – Jimmy Dunne taking time out at full time to tell a few fans to “fuck off” – spoke of a checked-out team heading for relegation. Cifuentes’ decision, however pressured he may have been by unavailability, to stick Hevertton Santos, not a particularly good right back, on the left side of the defence against Ben Doak was a tactical disaster. Having got away with it for half an hour he could have changed shape, personnel, or system, but he left Santos out there for the roasting. Five minutes later it was 2-0 and game over. Only Boro’s paranoid, non-sensical clock running kept the score at 4-1. It felt more like a six, and the ground was almost totally deserted by full time.

QPR: Nardi 5; Dunne 3, Cook 4, Field 4, Santos 1 (Andersen 46, 4); Varane 3 (Dixon-Bonner 90+1, -), Morgan 5 (Kolli 75, 4), Madsen 1 (Lloyd 85, -); Saito 5, Celar 3, Chair 4 (Smyth 46, 4)

Subs not used: Aoraha, Bennie, Morrison, Shepperd

Goals: Dijksteel og 69

Boro: Dieng 7; Ayling 7, Edmundson 6, Clarke 7, Borges 6 (Dijksteel 50, 6); Howson 7 (Barlaser 81, -), Morris 8; Doak 8 (Hamilton 89, -), Azaz 8, McGree 7; Conway 7 (Latte Lath 80, -)

Subs not used: Brynn, Burgzorg, Forss, Fry, Jones

Goals: McGree 31 (assisted Doak), Conway 35 (assisted Azaz), Latte Lath 87 (assisted McGree), Barlaser 90+5 (unassisted)

Yellow Cards: Doak 11 (foul), Conway 36 (dissent, we think), Borges 45+3 (foul)

Middlesbrough 2 QPR 1, Tuesday March 11, 2025, Championship

There have certainly been far worse performances, and results, particularly in recent weeks and months. You could have picked the West Brom game immediately before this, where Rangers tried for a third time this season to score against ten men for an entire second half and failed, or the trip to Stoke straight after, where they were dicked 3-1 by one of the worst sides in the league. But the overriding feeling for those who made the long midweek trip to The Riverside was that Rangers had phoned on in. Boro were on a similar losing run, with just as big an injury crisis – they took to the field here without a recognised centre back. Rangers waved them in for two goals unchallenged. When the R’s did pull their fingers out, with ten minutes left, they scored one and went close to a magical equaliser through Paul Nardi. But that only served to show what was on offer for them in this game with a modicum of effort. A less popular manager would have faced accusations of a lost dressing room for a performance like this.

Boro: Travers 7; Dijksteel 7, Howson 6, Borges 7, Iling-Junior 6; Morris 6, Hackney 7; Burgzorg 6 (Barlaser 89, -), Conway 7 (Forss 77, 6), Azaz 7 (Giles 90+1, -); Iheanacho 5 (Whittaker 77, 6)

Subs not used: Glover, McCabe, McCormick, Palmer, Woolston

Goals: Conway 11 (assisted Azaz), Dijksteel 58 (assisted Morris)

QPR: Nardi 5; Dunne 5, Cook 5, Edwards 5, Paal 4; Morgan 4, Colback 4 (Andersen 66, 6); Min-Hyeok 4 (Smyth 46, 6), Chair 5 (Dembele 55, 5), Saito 5 (Madsen 78, 5); Frey 4 (Fox 66, 6)

Subs not used: Ashby, Dembele, Bennie, Walsh

Goals: Cook 80 (assisted Dunne)

QPR 0 Burney 5, Saturday April 26, 2025, Championship

Plenty of mitigation here. Burnley were absolutely exceptional – big, powerful, physical, skillful, athletic. Needing a win to beat Leeds to the league title, they absolutely laid waste to what little opposition QPR offered. Even attempts for a consolation goal were brilliantly repelled by James Trafford and Maxime Esteve, who celebrated saves like goals and fought for their clean sheet. We probably haven’t played a team as good as this at Loftus Road since Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle, and this was Rangers’ biggest defeat since that side won 6-0 on this ground. For Rangers the season was over, much of the team knew it wouldn’t be here the following season, and substantial amounts of payroll sat in the stands injured. Still, a 5-0 home defeat. The effort and commitment levels. The work rate of QPR versus that of Burnley. The space we afforded them. It was disgusting. Such a stark contrast from the Leeds match 12 months prior, and Marti Cifuentes was left to cut a forlorn figure around a mostly empty ground for a ‘lap of appreciation’ after full time. If the purpose of leaking his unhappiness at the club was designed to rally support for him, this wasn’t the performance he needed to send a message upstairs. For the long suffering fans, scant reward for packing the place out – on and off the pitch the club performing and playing in a manner unfitting of the support they receive.

QPR: Nardi 3; Dunne 4, Morrison 4, Edwards 5 (Fox 90, -), Paal 2; Varane 4, Colback 4; Ashby 3 (Andersen 86, -), Madsen 2 (Chair 46, 5), Dembele 3 (Frey 46, 4); Kolli 3 (Sutton 59, 5)

Subs not used: Bennie, Walsh, Morgan, Min-Hyeok

Yellow Cards: Edwards 50 (foul), Colback 64 (dissent, moronic), Ashby 82 (sticking the nut on somebody while 4-0 down, moronic), Frey 89 (persistently being Michi Frey)

Burnley: Trafford 7; Roberts 8, Egan-Riley 7, Esteve 9, Pires 7; Brownhill 7 (Ramsey 84, -), Cullen 7; Koleosho 8 (Redmond 83, -), Mejbri 7 (Sarmiento 59, 8), Anthony 8 (Laurent 75, 7); Flemming 9 (Barnes 84. -)

Subs not used: Edwards, Hladký, Sonne, Worrall

Goals: Cullen 9 (unassisted), Flemming 20 (assisted Mejbri), 28 (assisted Brownhill), Sarmineto 62 (assisted Flemming), 90+2 (assisted Redmond)

Yellow Cards: Mejbri 8 (foul), Cullen 45+1 (foul)

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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