Bristol City 1-2 Queens Park Rangers: Tyler Roberts on target in Hoops victory

Johansen has found the net in successive away gamesImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Stefan Johansen scored QPR's second goal at Ashton Gate

Tyler Roberts scored his first league goal for QPR as they won at Bristol City to go fifth in the Championship.

The Wales international, on a season-long loan from Leeds, doubled Rangers' lead with the second of two quick first-half strikes at Ashton Gate.

Skipper Stefan Johansen opened the scoring with a tap-in before Roberts made it 2-0 from Kenneth Paal's cross.

Former QPR forward Nahki Wells reduced the deficit on the hour, but the visitors held on to secure the points.

City enjoyed the better of a high-tempo start to the game, with Seny Dieng pulling off a smart close-range stop to keep out Zak Vyner's header.

At the other end, Ilias Chair went close for Rangers, who then rocked their hosts with two goals in three minutes.

Chris Willock's drive was tipped on to the post by Dan Bentley, but the ball deflected off the unfortunate Robins goalkeeper and fell kindly for Johansen to slam into the unguarded net.

Willock was also involved in his side's second, releasing Paal before the left-back whipped a ball to the far post, where Roberts tucked it away.

Chair might have made it three, shooting over after Willock and Ethan Laird combined on the right, but it needed a brave block from Jake Clarke-Salter to prevent City's Tommy Conway from halving the deficit just before half-time.

Conway was replaced by Antoine Semenyo at the break and the substitute linked up with Andreas Weimann to good effect as Wells got in front of Leon Balogun to stab home.

Wells almost brought his side level with a shot which was deflected over and then headed wide from the resulting corner, but City's run of three consecutive home victories came to an end as they slipped to 12th place.

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:

"It was a very disappointing performance in the way that we contributed too heavily to the defeat. We've been guilty of making too many mistakes which created an air of nervousness.

"The harder some of our players tried to rectify things, it became a little bit untidy. That's not the level of performance we expect from ourselves.

"Organisation at the back was not what it should be. We made too many unforced errors.

"In a tight game, when you play against good Championship sides - and QPR certainly are one of those - you can ill afford to compound how difficult fixtures like that can be."

QPR head coach Michael Beale:

"We could have scored four goals in the first half.

"Even though we were 2-0 up at half-time, I was worried that we'd been a bit wasteful. You always wonder if missed chances are going to come back to haunt you.

"Bristol City had a right go in the second half and, after they got their goal, it was nervy.

"We had to show grit and put ourselves where it hurts. So I'm delighted - the boys are starting to show me some good things as a group."

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