Queens Park Rangers 0-2 Bristol City: Robins inflict more home woe on Hoops
- Published
- comments
Sam Bell celebrates scoring Bristol City's second at QPR
Mid-table Bristol City ran out 2-0 winners at Queens Park Rangers - who secured their Championship safety last time out.
Goals in either half from Mark Sykes and Sam Bell condemned Rangers to a seventh defeat in eight in front of their own fans.
The Hoops finished 20th, having been top in October, and their 12 league defeats at home are an unwanted club record.
It was the Robins' first win on the final day since they put eight past Walsall in League One in 2015 and earned them a 14th-placed finish under Nigel Pearson.
Joe Williams fired off target for the visitors before Alex Scott freed Cameron Pring, who fired in a low cross towards the recalled Sykes at the back post - his shot denied by a sliding block from Kenneth Paal.
At the other end Lyndon Dykes and Albert Adomah saw shots blocked in a melee.
City had not scored in seven of their past eight away games but when Adomah slipped as he tried an acrobatic clearance in his own area, Pring pounced, whipping the ball across goal where Sykes was on hand to turn in a far-post volley from inches out for his sixth goal of the season.
Five minutes before the break Tommy Conway missed a gilt-edged chance for a second, dragging a shot wide after being played through by Sykes.
Shortly after the break Chris Martin headed over Adomah's cross and then glanced a header inches wide from Paal's in-swinging corner, with no team-mates able to get a touch.
The visitors made them pay on 55 minutes as Bell ghosted in at the far post to double the advantage, bouncing a volley into the corner from an inviting curling ball into the area from Williams.
Dykes saw a shot deflected past the angle of post and bar and Ilias Chair whipped a shot over the bar as the Hoops sought a consolation.
Rob Dickie saw appeals for a penalty waved away after appearing to be manhandled by Pring in the area, before the full-time whistle was greeted by boos in West London.
City finished 14th with four points more than their last Championship campaign.
QPR manager Gareth Ainsworth told BBC Radio London:
"We haven't been good enough this season, we can't make any excuses. We have let too many goals in, we have let some poor goals in.
"We should have had a penalty at the end, the referee has missed that, but it wouldn't have made a difference, it was too easy for Bristol to beat us.
"I'm disappointed but it's bittersweet because of the elation of last week. The only remit was to keep QPR in the Championship and we have done that. We didn't need the Reading points deduction to do it, we've finished above another team too.
"Next season I aim to hit the ground running with a fit, willing squad - I have got to make some changes in the summer and today has probably made me more certain of what I need to do."
Bristol City goalscorer Sam Bell told BBC Radio Bristol:
"We knew it was going to be tough, they've picked up a couple of results recently.
"We really stuck in there moved the ball well and got the two goals I thought we deserved.
"We've proved we can win on a narrower pitch and win in ugly ways recently, grinded out results rather than just playing pretty football but at the end of the day so long as we win that's all that matters.
"Teams that do that consistently through the season always end up near the top.
"That's something we are definitely looking forward to put right next season and hopefully be up there in the mix."