Luongo stars for Aussies

TIM Cahill enjoyed his longest stint on the park since his return to Millwall as Massimo Luongo rescued a point for QPR in Tuesday’s Championship action.

The 38- year- old came on in the 72nd minute for the Lions, but picked up a yellow card almost immediately before the Londoners held on for a 2- 1 win. Cahill ( p i c t u r e d ) has played just 36 regular minutes and some injury time in his five matches since joining the middle- ofthe- table club in late January.

Socceroos and Millwall teammate James Meredith made a full appearance while fellow Australian Jackson Irvine was taken off after 59 minutes for Hull.

But the best Australian performance belonged to Luongo, whose 87th- minute header extended Derby’s winless run to six matches.

Andreas Weimann’s goal seven minutes before halftime looked like getting the Rams’ faltering promotion challenge back on track, but the Australian midfielder dampened their mood after nodding in Luke Freeman’s free kick. Luongo, who also scored in his last outing 10 days ago, was left unchallenged and made no mistake. It atoned for his earlier role in Weimann’s goal, bril- liantly set up by on- loan Chelsea youngster Kasey Palmer. Palmer turned away from Josh Scowen and went past Luongo before threading the ball through to Weimann, who fired past goalkeeper Alex Smithies.

Meanwhile, Bristol City skipper Bailey Wright avoided the ire of the referee in a fiery clash with his old club Preston North End, in which 10 cards were shown.

Preston’s 2- 1 home win takes them to ninth place and leaves them just three points off Bristol and the final promotion playoff position. Mile Jedinak came on after an hour in Aston Villa’s 3- 0 thumping of cellar dwellers Sunderland.