Ilias Chair scored his seventh goal of the season to put Queens Park Rangers in front at Coventry City
Queens Park Rangers ended their season on a high with a win at fast-fading Coventry City.
The Rs made it five wins from their final eight games to underline a revival which saw them escape relegation after being six points adrift of safety when Marti Cifuentes took the manager’s job on 30 October.
First-half goals from Ilias Chair and Morgan Fox put them in charge and league debutant goalkeeper Joe Walsh performed well to deny the Sky Blues a second-half comeback before Jamie Allen pulled one back late in the game.
That meant Coventry, after pushing Manchester United all the way in an FA Cup semi-final and being strong contenders for the play-offs, finished with five defeats in their last six.
The revival effected by Cifuentes is one of the Championship stories of the season. Going into the final day with no relegation nerves looked unachievable in Autumn, and the prospect of facing Mark Robins play-off contenders was a worrying one for supporters.
Last week’s 4-0 win over Leeds, which virtually ended the Yorkshire side’s promotion hopes, put down a marker for next season, and winning at Coventry set the seal on their resurgence.
The Sky Blues' season has fizzled out badly after that penalty shoot-out defeat by Manchester United was quickly followed by Hull’s win at the CBS Arena that ended their hopes of a top-six finish.
They were quickly on the back-foot in their final game of the season, too, as Chair produced a moment of high quality to give the visitors the lead, curling a shot into the top corner from outside the box.
Before half-time, Rangers were two up as Fox got on the end of Lucas Andersen’s cross following a set-piece to poke the ball home.
Coventry tried to fight their way back into it, but 22-year-old Walsh saved from Ellis Simms and Callum O’Hare, while Chair curled another one against the post at the other end.
Coventry gained some consolation with six minutes left as Haji Wright’s cross was converted at the far post by Allen.
Post-match reaction
QPR boss Marti Cifuentes told BBC Radio London:
"I've very happy because we were playing against a team that did really well this season.
"To finish this way was the best way - we wanted to finish well.
"It took us 15 minutes to get into the game and we score a quality goal and then a set-piece goal and knew the second half would be hard because we knew they'd come back at us.
"All the credit to the players. We need to be aware this season has been really, really tough and we need to learn from the things we can improve."
Coventry City boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR:
“In possession good, out of possession not so good.
“You could see everyone has been fatigued for the last few weeks, but we have to move through it and now they have a chance to get a break.
“Overall the season has been a memorable even though this time last season we were in the play-offs.”
