Preston north end 2

Callum Robinson scored twice for Preston as they kept their play-off hopes alive with victory at QPR.

North End came from behind to win at Loftus Road, where Robinson equalised in first-half injury-time after Matt Smith’s 13th-minute goal had put Rangers ahead.

The home side struggled in the second half and Preston had a goal disallowed for offside when Tom Clarke’s header from Paul Gallagher’s free-kick was touched over the line by Robinson.

But there was no let-off for Rangers on in the 74th minute, when another Gallagher freekick similarly led to Robinson converting, this time after a header from Alan Browne.

Target man Smith’s 10th of the campaign had put QPR in the driving seat.

When Ryan Manning’s freekick from the left was cleared straight back to the Irish youngster, he volleyed the ball into the box, where it dropped to Smith, who stabbed the ball past keeper Declan Rudd.

The inclusions of Manning and Smith were among five changes made by Rangers boss Ian Holloway, who recalled Massimo Luongo and Ebere Eze and also included keeper Matt Ingram.

Ingram was shown a yellow card eight minutes before halftime for fouling Browne after the Preston midfielder had charged down his clearance.

From the resulting free-kick from the right-hand side, delivered by Billy Bodin, Paul Huntingdon’s goalbound header was cleared by Bidwell.

However, neither Ingram nor Alex Baptiste were able to prevent Robinson’s tap-in crossing the line after Darnell Fisher’s pull-back.

Manning’s weak shot was comfortably gathered by Rudd as both teams initially struggled to create chances after the interval.

But as Rangers ran out of ideas, Preston were able to impose themselves and secure the victory through Robinson’s second strike of the afternoon.