Football: QPR lose battle but win war
Queen's Park Rangers 1 Bradford City
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Ray Harford, Queen's Park Rangers' new manager, found his luck was in yesterday - despite losing pounds 250,000 signing George Kulcsar, who was only 25 minutes into his debut against his former club Bradford City.
Kulcsar limped off with knee and ankle injuries after a 50-50 challenge by Nigel Pepper - the sort he was bought to win - but Rangers still managed to take the points.
Harford is looking for an aggressive approach from his midfield and Kulcsar, a regular with Bradford until just eight days ago, was signed last week to provide it.
"I want to see a much better reaction when we lose the ball," Harford said. "I want to see a much more aggressive approach to winning it back and I think there was some improvement in that direction today."
If Harford's luck was out with Kulcsar, he was blessed when John Spencer made the most of a reckless challenge inside the penalty area by Bradford full-back Chris Wilder.
Gavin Peacock shot home the 28th minute penalty - his ninth goal of the season - to earn Rangers only their second win in 10 games and leave them nine points adrift of the play-off places.
The Bradford manager, Chris Kamara, said: "We can't really have too many complaints about the penalty. Spencer pushed the ball wide of Wilder and then went down. What upset me was that it followed a corner to us."
Goal: Peacock pen (27) 1-0.
Queen's Park Rangers: Roberts; Yates, Brevett, Kulcsar (Murray, 25), Ready, Maddix, Spencer, Peacock, Quashie, Sheron (Gallen, 76), Sinclair. Substitutes not used: Perry.
Bradford City: Walsh; Wilder, Small, Murray, Youds, O'Brien, Lawrence (Blake, 67), Pepper, Steiner (Edhino, 50), McGinlay (Ramage, 67), Beagrie.
Referee: S W Mathieson (Stockport).
Bookings: QPR: Sheron. Bradford: O'Brien.
Man of the match: Walsh.
Attendance: 8,853.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments