Southampton 2-1 Queens Park Rangers: Armstrong fires unbeaten Saints to win
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Sam Edozie fired Saints ahead with his first goal for the club on his 28th appearance.
Southampton maintained their unbeaten start to the Championship season as they held off battling QPR at St Mary's.
Sam Edozie's first goal for the club put Saints ahead but Jack Colback thumped the visitors level within two minutes.
It needed Adam Armstrong's fine volley on the spin - his fourth goal in as many league games - to decide the points in the final half-hour as Saints won at home for the first time since March.
Saints, who were without Nathan Tella and Che Adams, both linked with transfers away from the club, have 10 points from four games while Rangers have lost three of their four matches.
With Tella reportedly in Germany ahead of a move to Bayer Leverkusen and Adams not involved amid speculation about a move back to the Premier League, Russell Martin handed a start to 17-year-old Sam Amo-Ameyaw while new signings Flynn Downes and Ryan Fraser made their Southampton debuts off the bench.
Hoops keeper Asmir Begovic held an early header from Carlos Alcaraz before the deadlock was broken after 30 minutes when Edozie latched on to a defence-splitting pass from former QPR man Ryan Manning, cut in from the left and fired past the keeper, who might have done better.
Saints' defensive frailties immediately returned and Paul Smyth spurned the chance to put Sinclair Armstrong in within seconds of the restart.
Less than two minutes later, the visitors were level with their first attempt on goal as Colback, making his first QPR start, collected a loose ball on the edge of the box and fired low past Gavin Bazunu and in off the inside of the post.
Armstrong had a tap-in ruled out for offside after Bazunu had denied Ilias Chair following a mesmerising run and the Saints keeper also needed to thwart Armstrong before the break and Chair twice more after the turnaround.
Smyth rattled the crossbar with an angled drive soon after as QPR grew in confidence, but Saints restored their lead against the run of play after 64 minutes when Armstrong controlled a strong pass from Manning and then smashed the bouncing ball on the swivel across Begovic and into the far corner.
Fraser was denied a debut goal on the break by the outstretched hand of Begovic, and QPR almost snatched a point at the death but 18-year-old Rayan Kolli was unable to capitalise after being played through by Osman Kakay as Saints made it their longest unbeaten league run since February 2022.
Southampton manager Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent:
"We were too slow in the first half and not enough willingness to run. That's the first time we have played against that shape and we tried to guess. We'll learn a lot from that.
"The mentality when we score is nowhere near good enough, we need to address that. It's ridiculous. We were not happy at all at half-time.
"We started the second half not very well but I enjoyed the last half-hour. We are winning while learning and winning while building.
"If you'd have said 10 points from 12 with all the nonsense going on and all the noise then I'm really pleased with that."
QPR manager Gareth Ainsworth:
"A £15million striker was the difference today. Armstrong has scored a lot of goals already this season and he got a chance and took it.
"But we really limited Southampton to hardly any chances and we were the aggressors with shots on target. We didn't throw it away, we just didn't convert our chances.
"These are things I can work on though, I can't work on heart and desire but that is here now. The boys are emptying the tank.
"All teams are going to get dominated at Southampton this season. They are a Premier League outfit without a shadow of a doubt, but I can't deny we didn't deserve something from the game.
"I don't think many teams will come here and out-shoot them here this season. Somehow we have come away with nothing."