Queens Park Rangers 0-0 Plymouth Argyle: Ten-man Pilgrims frustrate hosts
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Dan Scarr's first-half red card ended Plymouth Argyle's dominance of the game
Ten-man Plymouth Argyle frustrated fellow Championship strugglers Queens Park Rangers as they held out for more than an hour to secure a goalless draw at Loftus Road.
Argyle started superbly and had four good efforts to score in the opening 15 minutes before seeing Dan Scarr sent off for a reckless challenge on Ilias Chair 10 minutes later.
Rangers were dominant from that point as Chris Willock's cross struck the post just before half-time.
It was more of the same after the break but Argyle were brave and well organised in defence as Rangers struggled to create any clear-cut chances.
The point meant QPR's three-match winning run came to an end, while Argyle still await a first away win of the season.
The Devon side stay in 18th place, three points ahead of the Londoners who still occupy the final relegation spot in 22nd.
Argyle had two good chances to score in the opening stages as Morgan Whittaker fired straight at Asmir Begovic inside the first 30 seconds before Ryan Hardie dragged a low effort wide from the edge of the box.
Hardie then put the ball over from close range after Finn Azaz had played him through after a 12th-minute QPR mistake, while Whittaker flashed an effort wide a minute later following some good build-up play.
Lyndon Dykes went close with a header for Rangers before Scarr's red card changed the game. Team-mate Jordan Houghton lost the ball in midfield allowing Chair to run through into the opposing half where the centre-back chopped him down 40 yards out from goal and replays showed his challenge was high on the Moroccan's leg.
QPR were encamped in the Argyle third for the rest of the half as Brendan Galloway did well to stop Dykes at the far post, Conor Hazard saved an Andre Dozzell low shot while Willock's cross from the left struck the far post as Charlie Kelman just missed getting his toe on the pass.
After the break as Argyle's defenders blocked a number of chances while at the other end Kaine Kesler-Hayden narrowly missed getting on the end of a Hardie pass across the face of goal in a rare foray into the box after an hour.
But Rangers were, for the most part, restricted to speculative efforts from outside the area as they struggled to penetrate - the impressive Chair the only player who was able to regularly get in behind Argyle's defence.
Dykes was guilty of missing a couple of decent chances in stoppage time as Rangers opted to launch balls into the area for the big Scotland striker - but he failed to get decent connections and saw Hazard save easily.
The point will be disappointing for Rangers, but a morale boost to an Argyle side crushed 4-0 at leaders Leicester City on Saturday.
Both sides face further big games against sides around them on Saturday as the Pilgrims host Rotherham, while QPR visit 23rd-placed Sheffield Wednesday.
Queens Park Rangers head coach Marti Cifuentes told BBC Radio London:
"I said the first day I came here that I'd never be happy with a draw, not at home, not away.
"We could have taken two approaches, the first one is we can say 'it could be worse' because the first half was poor, the first 15 minutes were almost terrible I would say, so in some ways we survived through the first half.
"In the second half I think positionally we were better, but it was not easy to play through Plymouth because they defended very well, deep in the pitch, and it's a difficult part of the game to score against a team that are organised and very deep.
"On the other side we could say we're disappointed because we played against 10 men for 60 minutes and were not able to score."
Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher told BBC Radio Devon:
"The only frustrating thing is that it's not a win, because for the first 15 or 20 minutes of that game we were outstanding.
"We created two or three really great moments and we should have scored, so we should have been hanging on with a 1-0 win rather than just a 0-0 draw.
"But under the circumstances it's a good point and we're really proud of the lads' efforts.
"I think the way we've played away from home we've been really good, we played some really good stuff but haven't had the results that we've probably deserved. Tonight I'm pleased with a point but I'm gutted we're not going home with three."