Tom Cannon gets in a shot for Stoke City at QPR
Queen’s Park Rangers are now without a home win in nine games after Ben Gibson’s own goal earned them a point against Stoke.
The Championship’s bottom club trailed to Tom Cannon's eighth goal of the season but had numerous chances to pick up their first victory at Loftus Road.
Zan Celar’s woeful penalty miss caused further unrest among the home fans but Gibson inadvertently turned the ball past the excellent Viktor Johansson in the Stoke goal to ensure the spoils were shared.
Rangers, who remain rooted at the bottom, survived a scare late in the game as Bae Jun-ho seemed to have scored a superb winner only to be pulled back for a handball offence as he got the ball under control.
Relive Saturday's Championship action
Despite the clash of two Catalan managers, the fans were served a traditional English league game, full of chances, mistakes and goalmouth action.
Paul Smyth fired two early opportunities over the bar for the home side, who have gone 12 games without a win, and Marti Cifuentes's side soon fell behind when Cannon grabbed his seventh league goal, and eight in all competitions, in the 24th minute.
QPR defender Jimmy Dunne lost possession to Eric Bocat, and when he fed Cannon, the striker cut in from the left and found the far corner with a fine strike.
Rangers had a great chance to hit back instantly as Smyth went past Bocat and was clipped from behind as he raced into the area, but Celar’s stuttering run-up and awful side-footed attempt sent the ball well wide.
Johansson steps up again
Stoke keeper Johansson, not for the first time this season, then came to the rescue as QPR stepped up the pressure.
The big Swede had already produced a fine full-length save to deny Koki Saito just before the penalty, and in the second half he produced a point-winning performance for Narcis Pelach’s team.
Stoke carved the Rs open early in the second half as Cannon and Million Manhoef both went close to restoring their lead, but it was the luckless home side that really pushed for the winner.
Johansson brilliantly kept out Sam Field and then saw Harrison Ashby’s effort deflect onto a post before he was finally beaten by his own man.
A Saito corner flashed through a crowd of players and the unsighted Gibson’s hurried attempt to clear saw him miscue into his own net.
Rangers keeper Paul Nardi had to be sharp to turn Cannon's fierce drive onto the post, while Jun-ho was penalised for a handball just before he had crashed in what seemed to be a winner.
Rangers staged a big finish and Alfie Lloyd had one last golden chance to win it, only for Johansson to turn his shot against the post.
'Football is achieving, not deserving' - Reaction
QPR head coach Marti Cifuentes told BBC Radio London:
"Football is about achieving, not deserving but you could say that according to the amount of chances we deserved something else - but football is about quality.
"In the first half we were very dominant and created a lot of situations, but one mistake and an amazing strike from (Tom) Cannon gave them the lead.
"It was not easy mentally for the team to miss a penalty so at half-time it was important to pick up the players again and for us to show commitment, and I'm proud about the way we kept pushing.
"The second half was open because Stoke have quality players and manager and it wasn't easy to contain them but if there was a team looking for the win in the last minutes of the game it was us.”
Stoke head coach Narcis Pelach told BBC Radio Stoke:
"I'm pleased with the point because I know how difficult it is to compete in every single game in the Championship.
“We knew they were a team under the cosh and would put a lot of pressure on us because they have a lot of need, but I think we showed the same need and that is important to me and we could have won the game at the end.
[On disallowed goal] "I don’t want to go into it because if I do it teaches my players a culture I don't like. I don't want to go into the excuses game.”
