QPR earned a long-awaited away win at Birmingham
IAN Holloway insists there are no dopes at Queens Park Rangers after watching Jack Robinson’s brace bump Birmingham down to bottom spot.
Robinson scored his first ever league goals to pile the blues on angry City fans, who booed their team off at the end of each half despite looking likely winners after Sam Gallagher’s equaliser.
But Rangers’ late riposte killed any hopes Steve Cotterill had of taking something from the game as he admitted his players are finding life tough to take, while Holloway was left wondering how a goalhungry Robinson finally managed to break his scoring duck.
“It’s about 115 games and he hasn’t scored before so I’ve just asked the doping team to test him,” Holloway joked.
“This is an immense result for us and I am pleased with how things went. The first goal was vital, but when we let one in I was pleased with how we came through it.
“Birmingham gained the ascendency but we ripped it back. I am absolutely delighted for our away fans because they have probably seen some of the best games we’ve played this season, without getting what we deserved.
“But you have to show character when you come here.”
Robinson climbed highest at Luke Freeman’s 17th-minute free-kick to open the scoring when he headed the ball into the corner of the City goal from seven yards out amid a crowded penalty area.
But the goal sparked Birmingham into life and they narrowly missed out on a 30th-minute equaliser through Jota, who headed the ball just wide of Alex Smithies’ upright after Craig Gardner’s corner floated through everyone else inside the QPR box.
Frustrated Blues fans made their feelings known however when Maxime Colin lost the ball in a dangerous area to give Conor Washington a golden chance to score a second Rangers goal before firing wide.
And boos echoed around St Andrews as the half-time whistle blew, with discontent continuing on the resumption as Rangers’ Josh Scowen saw his 20-yard strike deflected wide before Robinson blazed a free header high over the City bar minutes after the restart.
A mistake by Smithies helped put Birmingham back into the game though. He couldn’t hold Maikel Kieftenbeld’s venomous long-range strike and failed to recover, allowing Gallagher to poke the loose ball home on 57 minutes.
With a rejuvenated City now dominating, Idrissa Sylla almost turned the tables when he came off the QPR bench to flick a header just wide of David Stockdale’s goal.
And the Hoops snatched a winner when good work from Freeman opened up space for Robinson to pick his spot from 25 yards, finding the bottom corner of the City goal as disappointed Blues fans began exiting the stadium seven minutes from time.
Blues boss Cotterill said: “I don’t think we deserved to lose. We were nervous in the first half, but in the second we let our anxiety go and the crowd drove us on.
“We deserved to equalise and I really thought we were going to go on and win the game. But now we have to work even harder to turn things around.
“There is no quick fix for this but I can’t fault the players’ efforts. We were attacking but it’s very tough for the lads at this moment in time.”