Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Bristol City: QPR and Robins share spoils in goalless draw
- Published
- comments
New bosses Marti Cifuentes and Liam Manning shared the spoils as QPR and Bristol City played out a low-key stalemate in West London.
Manning took charge of the Robins for the first time after being appointed on Tuesday, while Cifuentes was in charge of his first home game as Rs boss.
The Hoops remain winless in seven games at home this season but did pick up their second point in front of their own fans after last week's draw with Rotherham, to edge within five of safety.
City defender Rob Dickie had the chance to nick it against his former club late-on but couldn't convert his volley.
Cifuentes made three changes from the side which drew at Rotherham with Osman Kakay, Andre Dozzell and Jack Colback starting with Ilias Chair suspended, Reggie Cannon (knee) missing and Elijah Dixon-Bonner dropping to the bench.
Manning made one change to the City side with Anis Mehmeti coming in for Taylor Gardner-Hickman.
Mark Sykes drew an early save from Rangers keeper Asmir Begovic with a cross-shot after good work from Matty James, who was at the heart of things for Bristol City early on.
Hoops fans saw appeals for a penalty against Zak Vyner waved away after Paul Smyth's low cross from out wide deflected into him.
Lyndon Dykes glanced a header well over the bar just before the break and saw a half-volley from a deep free-kick charged-down by Andi Weimann shortly after.
After the break Begovic needed to save James' deflected effort from outside the area while QPR piled on the pressure and Dozzell sent two efforts over the bar in quick succession at the other end, before Smyth fired past the base of Max O'Leary's post.
Jason Knight fired a rare shot wide for the Robins in the closing stages and almost threaded a pass through to Harry Cornick before sub Gardner-Hickman fizzed a shot over from the edge of the box and Dickie couldn't convert Cornick's cross in the dying seconds.
The draw ended a run of seven games in this fixture in which the away side won.
QPR manager Marti Cifuentes told BBC Radio London:
"I was looking forward to experiencing the fantastic atmosphere. It was a very special first game. The supporters were amazing, unfortunately we couldn't give them the victory.
"It's a step in the right direction, despite it not being the result we wanted. We still need to improve a lot of things, especially the impact in the last third.
"In the second half we really pushed, unfortunately we missed that end product that today could definitely have given us the win.
"The last 15 minutes was more up and down, normal in the Championship, especially with teams with new managers chasing the victory but I prefer to see my team chasing the victory not just be happy with the draw."
Bristol City manager Liam Manning told BBC Radio Bristol:
"There were a lot of positives to take from it. We kept a clean sheet, apart from set-pieces we restricted them to very few chances and we finished the stronger side.
"They're a terrific group of lads who are willing to go above and beyond, that desire and willingness to go to places where you dig deep and it hurts is massive. That's one of the most pleasing things.
"It's going to take a bit of time [to get my style across], the international break will help. We saw more of it in the second half."