Luke-ing back to the future for Hoops
JAMIE MACKIE and Luke Freeman scored as QPR marked the centenary of their first match at Loftus Road with a dominant performance.
Mackie put the home side ahead two minutes before the interval and Freeman doubled Rangers’ lead with a fine strike three minutes into the second half.
And despite their early-season form, Ipswich barely threatened the home goal before sub Bersant Celina’s 89th-minute strike.
The hosts dominated from the start with Conor Washington and Freeman both seeing efforts saved by visiting keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.
The home side eventually went ahead courtesy of Mackie’s second goal of the season. Massimo Luongo laid the ball off to Pawel Wszolek and Mackie found the far corner of the net with a sweet first-time strike from the Pole’s right-wing cross.
And Ipswich never looked like staging a comeback after Freeman scored his first goal of the season with a left-footed shot from 20 yards, having cleverly wriggled his way into space near the edge of the box.
Town, who had won four of their opening five league matches, were second best throughout and would have lost by a greater margin were it not for Bialkowski.
Celina’s consolation goal came as the youngster drifted in from the left and sent an unstoppable 25-yard shot beyond keeper Alex Smithies.
Hoops boss Ian Holloway said: “I can’t praise the lads highly enough to be honest.
“We made it very difficult for Mick’s team, who you know will always give you problems.
“But I thought we gave them more problems over the course of the 90 minutes and that’s really pleasing.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy was unhappy that his side were unable to keep their momentum going from the season’s opening games.
He said: “We didn’t scrap it out every minute as much as we should have done.
“We didn’t defend well enough for the second goal and what few chances we had, we didn’t do enough with them.”