Queens Park Rangers 1-1 Bristol City

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Aden Flint heading into his own net.Image source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Aden Flint headed into his own net to give QPR the lead - but Bobby Reid levelled from the spot.

Bobby Reid's late penalty earned EFL Cup semi-finalists Bristol City a point against Queens Park Rangers.

QPR led when Robins centre-back Aden Flint got the final touch to a free-kick from his former team-mate Luke Freeman to put the ball in his own net.

Josh Brownhill hit the post and Josh Scowen cleared off the line from Matty Taylor as City pressed for a leveller.

They equalised on 80 minutes when Reid netted after Flint, by now playing as a striker, was felled in the box.

The result meant City slipped a place to fourth in the Championship table and are three points off-second-placed Cardiff City at the halfway stage of the season.

QPR remain in 18th place and are seven points above the drop zone.

City were back in Championship action less than 72 hours after beating Manchester United in the EFL Cup quarter-final on Wednesday.

Freeman, who left City to join Rangers in January, created the opener as his left-footed free-kick skimmed off the top of Flint's head and into his own net.

The centre-back almost atoned early in the second half as he headed narrowly over from Joe Bryan's corner, before Brownhill and Taylor both went close.

But when a long throw came into the box, and Flint was adjudged to have been fouled, Reid kept his nerve from the spot.

QPR boss Ian Holloway:

"I will see 20 corners or long throws that will not be interpreted the same way. The thing that's annoying is that I believe there are easy ways to solve this.

"Rather than someone sitting in the stands assessing the referee, if someone was sitting watching it on a five-second delay they might call it a very different way.

"Retire the referees who can't run as fast anymore, sit them with a monitor and let them talk to the referee. We need it implemented yesterday, not next year or the year after. Everything is ready for us to do it now.

"Emperor's new clothes. No one ever fights for the right thing. We're all in Brexit now and none of us knew we had to pay however many billions to get out of it, did we? They didn't give us that information and we're out of it now.

"These referees should have that information - that top man who can't run anymore, talking to the referee, saying, 'That's not a penalty'."

Bristol City boss Lee Johnson: "I'm in love with my boys at the moment. To go from Wednesday and that energy expenditure, to produce that - particularly in the last 25 to 30 minutes - was outstanding.

"We played with such energy that he could have scored three or four in that last half-hour. We had them at home with their backs against the wall. It's amazing what my players are doing at the moment.

"It was obvious we needed a platform. We worked with Flinty up front in training because our two big guys are both out, so it was an option we needed and I thought it was really effective.

"It's a viable option for us. We've worked on it because we've had to. He scores on a regular basis, whether it be set-pieces or in training.

"It's not only the scoring - he's such a handful that people around him will then become free."

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