West Bromwich Albion 1-0 Queens Park Rangers: Ten-man Baggies secure win

Play-off chasing West Bromwich Albion hung on against QPR to secure an important three points despite playing the second half with 10 men.

Defender Darnell Furlong, playing against his former club, was dismissed by referee Adam Herczeg in stoppage time at the end of the first half for elbowing Koki Saito.

The incident occurred shortly after Adam Armstrong converted a penalty for the hosts in an action-packed spell before half-time.

QPR boss Marti Cifuentes had urged his side to learn from last weekend’s defeat by Sheffield United, having accumulated 16 shots against the promotion chasers, with just one goal to show for it.

But, despite spending more than half the match with a man advantage, the R’s clearly had not learnt enough from their struggles in front of goal.

As they did against the Blades, the London club started competitively, with the centre-back pairing of Steve Cook and Ronnie Edwards largely keeping the energetic trio of Tom Fellows, Mikey Johnston and Armstrong at bay.

Tony Mowbray’s side’s dominated the opening 20 minutes, buoyed by a vociferous home crowd, but were unable to create any clear-cut opportunities and QPR grew into the game, with talisman Ilias Chair’s 17th-minute corner met by the head of the unmarked Cook, only for the captain’s effort to be blocked.

The visitors’ threat from set-pieces was shown again in the 31st minute, when both Jimmy Dunne and Kieran Morgan had near-miss attempts.

Fellows, who caused plenty of problems for QPR’s defence, was clearly pulled by veteran midfielder Jack Colback inside the box to bring a penalty.

Keeper Paul Nardi guessed correctly from Armstrong’s spot-kick but the striker put just enough power to sweep the ball into the bottom left corner.

Then Furlong was sent off when he was deemed to have elbowed Japanese winger Saito during a free-kick delivery.

But QPR failed to make the most of their numerical advanatge and wear down their stubborn opponents.

Saito had the best chance for an equaliser in the dying moments of the match, dragging his left-footed shot from close range agonisingly wide.