QPR’s late season revival continues, with Watford the latest Loftus Road victims – a 2-1 win for Julien Stéphan's team far more convincing than the scoreline suggested.

From four defeats to nil in a row and the latest in a long line of existential crises, to three wins on the spin and are the play-offs really that out of reach after all?

A month ago fans were arguing with players at the front of the away end at Southampton, now we’re marvelling at their varying summersault techniques. Life’s like this in the middle of the Championship every year, life’s like this at Queens Park Rangers regardless of the season, but in 2025/26 Rangers really are taking the extremes (and the back flips) to erratic new highs and lows.

QPR have scored more goals than second placed Millwall so far this year, but only Sheff Wed have conceded more. They have won games 6-1 and 4-1, lost them 7-1, 5-0, 4-0 and 4-1, but simultaneously drawn 0-0 on five separate occasions – more than anybody else in the division. When they’re up they’re up, when they’re down they’re down, and when they’re only halfway up they’re neither up nor down. Good luck guessing in advance which it’s going to be.

Julien Stéphan's team went into the international break on the back of a 6-1 victory against struggling Portsmouth. The travelling party from the South Coast raged at their players at full time, but Rangers had scored half a dozen goals from only eight shots on target and six touches in the opposition box. On Good Friday they followed it up with another home win – this after three consecutive losses at Loftus Road – and if the dry humping of Pompey was a bit of a statistical freak that didn’t reflect the overall play then this 2-1 against Watford seriously flattered the visitors.

Rangers had the ball in the net inside the opening minute but had Amadou Mbengue’s strike chalked off for a foul (surely not) in the build up. Soon the ever improving Harvey Vale was played into big space in the Watford half with Paul Smyth up in support but, unusually, he botched the final ball to get his team mate in on goal. A brilliant move out from the back starring Joe Walsh and Jonathan Varane, two of the more maligned members of this team, busted the Hornets wide open once more at the midway point of the half but Vale’s curled effort came back into play off the post and Smyth’s powerful follow up smacked a defender square in the chops.

Watford, three wins from their last 14 games and naturally already onto their third manager of the season with Will Still’s non-union Belgian equivalent in the dugout, have an availability crisis in the full back positions with first and second choices missing on both sides. Jeremy Petris played jabbed up through a dislocated shoulder on the left, Kevin Keben started seemingly doped up on the opposite side. Rangers had done their homework and went after both all afternoon with terrific results. The only surprise when Vale crossed beautifully to the back post for Smyth to climb and nod the ball past keeper Egil Selvik for Rayan Kolli to nod the opening goal into an empty net was it had taken as long as it had.

Kolli spoofed Nestory Irankunda’s hip thrust celebration to mock the Australian international after he’d promised to wheel it out at Loftus Road following a midweek goal for his country. Shithouse Central drinks are free. Irankunda might have been able to retort had his curling, swerving, dipping long range free kick nestled in the far top corner with Walsh waving the thing good bye, but that was a Watford threat so rare it may as well have been labelled extinct. Irankunda rolling round on the floor holding his face demanding the game be stopped with an injury so minor even his own physios didn’t want to bother coming out to see him and then chucking a tantrum when referee Ruebyn Ricardo made him leave the field anyway was much more typical. The Miracle Boy lived through the night, you’ll be astonished to hear.

It’s not a particularly original observation, we make it of Watford after this fixture every year and more often than not we’ve been well beaten in the corresponding game at their place, but it is really difficult to know what this lot are… for. Sure, injury problems at full back, Vale and Smyth able to run riot, I get that, but there was plenty for them to go at here. Kjerrumgaard looks a reasonable target man to me at this level and had scored twice against us Vicarage Road. Imran Louza is about as good as creative midfielders come at this level, and Chekvetadze really isn’t far behind him. Irankunda has a big rep, Bove was playing for Roma until he went all Tom Lockyer on them, Son of God Matty Pollock is a perfectly serviceable Championship centre back and Selvik is a good goalkeeper. And yet… it doesn’t add up to anything. No identity, no visible impact or style from the manager, no collective unit. Just individuals, marking time, presumably waiting for either them or the manager to be moved off somewhere else. All the gear, no idea. Like me taking Tiger Woods’ clubs out, or him driving my car.

Afterwards Still said: “In terms of the content of the game, what feels like an instinctive explanation of the result is that we’ve not defended the box well enough.” When did we turn our sport over to these twats? Chances of Still being in charge when we play them next?

His team spent inordinate amounts of time in this game moaning. Just endless fucking moaning. Louza sarcastically applauding in the referee’s face having already been carded was fairly punchy, nearly a second injury time red card of the season against QPR. In the second half they were actually on the attack, in good position, but got the play stopped for a head injury in back play when, wait for it, wait for it, big reveal, you’ll never believe it… there was absolutely fuck all wrong with him. If I was a Watford player I’d be fuming with that. We’re losing, we’re running out of time, we’ve got the ball 30 yards from their goal, and we’re stopping so you can have a roll around on the floor? Bollockings issued numbered zero. They just didn’t look that bothered really. One win in nine away games.

They’ve got all the tools, and Saba Goglichidze was easily the biggest one. On loan from Udinese (stunned), he lost his head good and early when Rayan Kolli booted him in the arse. The QPR man was booked, one of ten yellow cards on the day, but that didn’t stop Goglichidze erupting at the Algerian youngster, the referee, and then his own bench during one of multiple stoppages in play. All arms and attitude, no concentration and composure, he was inconsolable after Paul Smyth also saw yellow in the second half for nothing very much at all and responded by clearing straight through the back of Richard Kone for a yellow card of his own so thick many referees would have gone red. Kone just got up laughing, because it had been just that easy to provoke him. Bait the hook and the fish will bite.

From that free kick Edwards swept a majestic diag out to Vale for another low cross and Paul Smyth seized on a loose ball in the box to bang in a fifth goal of the season and third in two games. While the boys practised their tumbles over in the soft play area, Norrington-Davies was straight into Goglichidze letting him know all about it. I do much prefer it when we’ve got a nasty edge to us.

Between those two goals QPR could, and really should, have scored more. While Kjerrumgaard’s turn and hit needed beating away by Walsh and Irankunda’s turn in the area had to be crowded out there was a huge chance for Kolli to get a second goal from another Smyth knock down that he was perhaps too casual in finishing, a botched finish high and wide of the target by Vale at the end of a flowing move and Kone back flick when he really should have done better, a shot over the bar from Kone himself at ambitious distance, an inadvertent deflection off Varane which beat Selvik all ends up but rolled wide of the post, and this week’s typically weak penalty appeal by Paul Smyth.

Again, the only surprise about the second goal was the length of time it took to arrive. Rangers were meaty value for a 2-0 advantage. (Still only 46% possession mind, because of course).

Amadou Mbengue spent much of the first half crossing promising opportunities high into the away end. It was about the only joy a season-high away following got for the first hour or so. Shame that transfer committee wasn’t sitting this week, can we reconvene with some new evidence and see if we can get the fee down to £175k? Final balls are not Mbengue’s forte, we have not got an African David Bardsley on our hands here, but remember how impressed we were with Chekvetadze last year? Here, on that side of the field, the Georgian had minimal impact and was eventually taken off. Defensively Mbengue’s pretty sound, and his recovery pace came in very useful on a couple of occasions. On his inside left shoulder Jimmy Dunne was in one of his head it and kick it moods, while Ronnie Edwards barely put a foot wrong – a masterclass in making everything look comfortable by positioning yourself in the right place to start with. Norrington-Davis best game for a while as well.

In midfield Jonathan Varane finally had the sort of game that had us all sitting up and taking notice last season after a long lean spell. Alongside him Kieran Morgan was occasionally wasteful in possession, but that often came when he was at least trying to progress the ball. Morgan plays forwards, he played forwards all afternoon here from the ‘six’ position, offering great hope of what might be to come from him next season. I was very taken by his performance, even if not everything he tried was a total success.

So, how, given all that, and Kone leading the line like a proper target man, did we end up clinging to a narrow 2-1 through all of stoppage time?

Firstly, Paul Smyth went off. Easily the man of the match for the second game in succession, I’m sure Keben was delighted to see the back of him. Koki Saito replaced the Northern Irish winger and, sadly, still looks a little bit lightweight and bereft. Watford, meanwhile, brought the criminally underused Kwadwo Baah on from the bench down that side.

A lot of the struggles Saito, and before him Karamoko Dembele, have had this year probably stem from the fact they were bought to play in the 4-3-3 system preferred by Marti Cifuentes. Now being asked to play wide in Stéphan's 4-4-2 the role comes with many more defensive duties, which don’t play to their strengths and expose their lack of physicality – no surprise either to see Paul Smyth, previously described as a ‘defensive winger’, excelling as they go backwards. Throw in a fresh, monstrous attacking presence like Baah in down Saito’s side and that’s a recipe for trouble straight away and Kwame Poku, who I was excited to see against these Watford full backs, ended up having similar difficulties on the opposite side having replaced Harvey Vale.

Young referee Ricardo, who ended up carding half the outfield players on the pitch and felt like he was buying everything anybody was selling all afternoon, then awarded a tremendously soft free kick against a third sub, Daniel Bennie, on the edge of the QPR’s box. We’ll at least do Joe Walsh the courtesy of saying Louza’s shot was deflected, but this still looked a relatively comfortable save and from our angle at the front of F Block the ball appeared to pass straight between the goalkeeper’s arms as it flew into the net.

Walsh was soon engaging in that scourge of the modern game – the pretend goalkeeper injury sit down so we can have an impromptu team talk. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Stéphan's chat better have been good because it turned four minutes of stoppage time into six, during which Watford loaded the penalty box and went old school Wimbledon style kinds of long and direct. Jimmy Dunne was magnificent in this period. Good job they weren’t coming back from the moon Friday afternoon, he’d probably have headed that away as well.

If Portsmouth had been a 6-1 win that was worth about half as much, then this was a 2-1 beating that could have been twice as severe. In many, many ways this was a far better performance, and Stéphan thought the same in his post match. I thought it was a real shame Rayan Kolli had to go off at half time, I’d fancied him for a goal anyway (see preview) and by half time he should have at least two. It was all set up for him second half and Daniel Bennie didn’t quite hit the same level.

Still, QPR looked a decent team here to me, at least until they started making substitutions. Full of threat in wide areas, physical presence in attack, and progression from central midfield. Dunne and Edwards anchored things superbly, which covered for Mbengue’s wildness and the ongoing concerns about our goalkeeper. Lot’s of promise and things to be excited about for next season and, hey, up to tenth and only eight points shy of the play-offs, who knows what might happen if we keep this run going.

If things do keep travelling in this direction, through the end of this season and into the start of next, I wonder how often we’ll look back to that moment at Leicester when Ronnie Edwards drew his boot back, played a pass forwards, and sent Harvey Vale screaming through on goal at the other end for an equaliser. At that point Rangers had lost four in a row without scoring a goal and conceding 12 in the process. They were 1-0 down to the Foxes and seemingly heading for a fifth straight defeat. The away end was on the turn as the sideways and backwards passes drove everyone to distraction and even our annual pursuit of sixteenth was starting to look optimistic. At that point it felt inevitable that we’d drift into the summer cobbling together a couple more wins at most, Stéphan would probably leave, and we’d be right back where we started again, right back where we always start from. Sunrise, sunset, QPR in the Championship, what’s really the point of any of this? Three games later we’ve put nine points on the board, scored 12 times doing it, and we’re looking forward to 2026/27 with real genuine optimism.

The most logical explanation is we played some decent teams (Boro, Southampton, Sheff Utd, Birmingham) while missing players, now we’re playing some poor sides (Watford, Leicester, Portsmouth) as players return. Nothing more existential than that, and we should stop treating every good and bad run as something deeper. Still, I feel a lot better about things than I did a month ago, and that is, believe it or not, what this is meant to be about – enjoying yourself.

Watch us lose to Preston now.

Links >>> Photo Gallery >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread

QPR: Walsh 5; Mbengue 6, Dunne 7, Edwards 7, Norrington-Davies 7; Vale 8 (Poku 79, 6), Morgan 7, Varane 7, Smyth 8 (Saito 72, 5); Kone 7, Kolli 7 (Bennie 46, 6)

Subs not used: Adamson, Clarke-Salter, Cook, Hamer, Hayden, Esquerdinha

Goals: Kolli 26 (assisted Smyth), Smyth 63 (assisted Vale)

Yellow Cards: Kolli 29 (foul), Dunne 30 (foul), Smyth 61 (foul), Kone 84 (dissent), Mbengue 87 (time wasting), Poku 90+1 (foul)

Watford: Selvik 7; Keben 3, Pollock 6, Goglichidze 3 (Semedo 85, -), Petris 4; Irankunda 6 (Doumbia 57, 6), Bove 5 (Nabizada 57, 6), Ekwah 5 (N Mendy 57, 6), Chekvetadze 5 (Baah 73, 7); Louza 7, Kjerrumgaard 6

Subs not used: Baxter, Ince, Mullins, F Mendy

Goals: Louza 85 (free kick, won Baah)

Yellow Cards: Bove 23 (foul), Ekwah 49 (foul), Goglichidze 62 (persistent fuckwittery), Louza 90+1 (foul)

QPR Star Man – Paul Smyth 8 Playing some of the best football of his QPR career just lately. Game changed when he went off.

Referee - Ruebyn Ricardo (Leicestershire) 5 Felt like he was buying everything anybody was selling on the ball, typified by the soft award of a free kick for the Watford goal where Bennie clearly takes the ball right in front of him. Meanwhile off the ball all sorts of nonsense being allowed to go on unchecked. Ten yellow cards felt very chunky.

Attendance – 17,532 (1,736 Watford) Biggest home crowd of the season.

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Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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