CHRIS CROSS
Willock, Pukki and Hanley all see efforts hit the post
NORWICH CITY 0 QPR 0
CHRIS WILLOCK was denied a dramatic Rangers return by a post in a pulsating clash of near misses.
The substitute, who has been out for a month with a hamstring injury, saw his shot hit the same upright that had foiled Norwich hit-man Teemu Pukki earlier on.
And Canaries skipper Grant Hanley hit an upright at the other end with the last kick of a game that somehow ended goal-less.
It was a frantic and entertaining end-to-end 90 minutes from the moment Tim Iroegbunam was booked in the first minute for clattering Sam Byram.
That was an early indication that it could be a tasty encounter and Gabriel Sara forced QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng into a save from Sam McCallum’s cut-back before Ilias Chair tested Angus Gunn at the other end.
Dieng was soon needed again however to tip over Pukki’s rising drive after Aaron Ramsey had sprinted clear down the right.
Pukki then smacked a post with an even better hit. Dieng was beaten but the ball bounced back off the far post, across goal and out of play.
Gunn denied Iroegbunam at the other end before referee Andy Davies made a big call from a cleared corner by the visitors. Todd Cantwell flicked it over an opponent to sprint unchallenged over the halfway line. Chair caught him up – and appeared to bring him down – but play was allowed to continue.
Dieng had to tip Cantwell’s audacious chip over early in the second period before Rangers sent on the fit-again Willock just before the hour to up their attacking threat.
The winger did exactly that within three minutes with a sprint into a pocket of space in the middle – and his shot ended up pinging back off the same post that had frustrated Pukki earlier on.
Kenneth Paal retrieved the loose ball to find the head of Lyndon Dykes but Gunn dived to scramble it away.
Dykes was booked for a lunge on the luckless Byram before Dieng made a great save to deny Canaries substitute Onel Hernandez.
Norwich carried on pressing for the winner, but skipper Hanley saw his shot from eight yards following a corner smack the outside of a post. NORWICH CITY (4-2-3-1): Gunn 7; Byram 6, (Aarons 84) Hanley 7, Gibson 6, McCallum 6 (McLean 70); Hayden 6 (Dowell 84), Gibbs 7; Sara 7 (Hernandez 65, 5), Ramsey 7, Cantwell 7 (Nunez 70); Pukki 7.
QPR (4-2-3-1): Dieng 8; Laird 7, Dickie 6, Balogun 6, Paal 7; Field 6, Dozzell 6 (Willock 57, 5); Amos 7 (Shodipo 85), Chair 7 (Adomah 85), Iroegbunam 7; Dykes 6 (Bonne 85).