Report: QPR 2-1 Town

By Aston
August 10 2005

Ipswich Town slumped to their first defeat of the season against QPR at Loftus Road tonight following first-half goals from Kevin Gallen and Martin Rowlands.

The home side had the better of Town in the first half but oddly it was Town who created the most clear cut effort on goal, Magilton released striker Nicky Forster but the frontman’s effort was held by R’s ‘keeper Simon Royce.

If Rangers were lucky not to go behind they were unlucky not to go ahead in the 29^th minute when an unmarked Kevin Gallen shoot well wide from 10 yards out, but 8 minutes later he made up for that mistake when he fired QPR into the lead, using tricky to get past Mark Fish before firing past Lewis Price.

Dan Shittu stopped Nicky Forster getting Town level in the 39^th minute, keeping Forster’s header out of the net. Marc Bircham felt he should have been awarded a penalty following a trip by Town midfielder Ian Westlake.

The home side doubled their advantage 45th minute when Gareth Ainsworth crossed to Martin Rowlands who found himself unmarked and able to volley home unchallenged.

Town manager Joe Royle made two changes at the half time break, Matt Richards coming on for Mark Fish and Kevin Horlock replacing Owen Garvan.

QPR started the second half in the same way they started the first, on the attack but thanks to the efforts of Town ‘keeper Lewis Price Town remained just two down and not three when he pulled off a double save to keep Paul Furlong out.

Sam Parkin netted the first goal of his Town career on 54 minutes, the striker robbed former Town player George Santos on the edge of the box before firing the ball into the top left corner of the goal to raise the sprits of Town’s travelling support.

If Town’s support in West London were in a good mode after Parkin’s goal they must of felt Town could come from behind to get a point or even win when Paul Furlong headed straight at Price and moments later Kevin Gallen fired just wide of the post.

With 21 minutes remaining Joe Royle introduced Jaime Peters which sparked a spell of pressure from Town which came so close to giving Town a share of the points with a number of efforts going close, none closer than Sam Parkin’s effort that was cleared off the line by Bignot.

Two minutes later, QPR looked certain to have wrapped up the points only for Paul Furlong to be ruled off and soon after Furlong again just missed out on giving his side the win when his diving header rolled just wide of the post.

QPR Squad: Royce, Bignot, Shittu, Santos, Rose, Ainsworth, Bircham, Doherty, Rowlands, Gallen, Furlong.

Subs: Cole, Brown, Moore, Nygaard, Shimmin.

Ipswich Squad: Price, Castro Rodriguez, Naylor, Fish, Wilnis, Magilton, Garvan, Westlake, Currie, Forster, Parkin.

Subs: Horlock, Peters, Richards, Supple, Bowditch.

	QPR 2	Town 1
Yellow Cards	Rowlands (51) Shittu (63) Doherty (90)	Richards (72) Horlock (90)
Red Cards	None	None
Goals	Gallen (37) Rowlands (45)	Parkin (54)
Subs	Moore on for Ainsworth (75) Nygaard on for Furlong (87)	Richards on for Fish (45) Horlock on for Garvan (45) Peters on for Westlake (69)
Possession	51%	49%
Shots	14	4
Corners	1	1
Fouls	21	9
Attendance: 14,632

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